Muhteşem Yüzyıl
Encyclopedia
Muhteşem Yüzyıl is a Turkish
prime time
historical
soap opera
television series broadcast on Turkey's Show TV
network. It is based on the life of Süleyman I
(also known as Suleiman the Magnificent), the longest reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
, and Hürrem
(a.k.a. Roxelana), the slave girl who became his queen.
The show generated controversy and complaints from some viewers, for what they referred to as a "disrespectful", "indecent" and "hedonistic" portrayal of the historical sultan. Turkey's Radio and Television Supreme Council, known as RTÜK
, claimed they had received over 70,000 complaints about the show and warned Show TV to publicly apologise for wrongly exposing "the privacy of a historical person". The Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
condemned the show as "an effort to show our history in a negative light to the younger generations." Small groups of Islamists
and Nationalists
protested the studio but the show remains popular with viewers, with consistently high ratings.
At the age of twenty-six, when his rule began, Sultan Süleyman sought to build a empire in this world more powerful and more extensive than Alexander the Great and to render the Ottomans invincible.
Throughout his 46-year reign, Sultan Süleyman became known as the greatest warrior and ruler of the East and West. The young Süleyman ascended to the throne after receiving the news of his crowning at a hunting party in 1520. Unaware that he would be embarking on a reign that would later be considered the pinnacle of Ottoman rule, he left behind his consort Mahidevran and their son, little prince Mustafa, at his palace in Manisa, and, accompanied by his close friend and companion Pargalı İbrahim, took the road to Topkapı Palace in İstanbul.
While they were on route, an Ottoman ship sailed off from Crimea across the Black Sea, bringing female slaves as gifts for the Ottoman palace. On this ship was Alexandra La Rossa, the daughter of a Ukrainian Orthodox minister. This young girl, who had been kidnapped from her family and sold to the Ottoman palace as a slave, would become Hürrem (Roksolana), the consort who so captivated Sultan Süleyman that he took the nearly unprecedented step of making her his wife. She would bear his sons and rule his empire together with him through bloodshed and intrigue.
As Sultan Süleyman ruled his empire, he allowed his great passion for Hürrem a heavy influence in his court.
The television series focuses on the relationships between the members of the imperial household, especially the romantic entanglements and rivalries. The animosity between Hürrem and Mahidevran, and Hürrem's rise as Süleyman's favorite while pregnant with his son, her fall from favor after her son's birth and her eventual return to grace, provide the main subject matter of the series. Significant subplots include the affection between the Grand Vizier and one of the ladies of the royal household and the tension between Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
Season 1
EPISODES 24
ORIGINAL ARING DATE January 5 - June 15 2011
Season 2
EPISODES 5
ORIGINAL ARING DATE September 7 - ...
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
historical
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
television series broadcast on Turkey's Show TV
Show TV
SHOW TV is a nation-wide television channel in Turkey owned by Çukurova Holding. The channel was established by the Turkish businessmen Erol Aksoy and Haldun Simavi on March 1, 1992. During the last years, Show TV extended its range of viewers by adding more channels like Show Plus, Show Max and...
network. It is based on the life of Süleyman I
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" , for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system...
(also known as Suleiman the Magnificent), the longest reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, and Hürrem
Roxelana
Haseki Hürrem Sultan was the wife of Süleyman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire.-Names:Sixteenth-century sources are silent as to her maiden name, but much later traditions, for example Ukrainian folk traditions first recorded in the 19th century, give it as "Anastasia" , and Polish...
(a.k.a. Roxelana), the slave girl who became his queen.
The show generated controversy and complaints from some viewers, for what they referred to as a "disrespectful", "indecent" and "hedonistic" portrayal of the historical sultan. Turkey's Radio and Television Supreme Council, known as RTÜK
RTÜK
RTÜK is the Turkish state agency for monitoring, regulating, and sanctioning radio and television broadcasts. RTÜK was founded in 1994 and is composed of nine members elected by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey...
, claimed they had received over 70,000 complaints about the show and warned Show TV to publicly apologise for wrongly exposing "the privacy of a historical person". The Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Turkey
The Prime Minister of the Turkey is the head of government in Turkish politics. The prime minister is the leader of a political coalition in the Turkish parliament and the leader of the cabinet....
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been Prime Minister of Turkey since 2003 and is chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party , which holds a majority of the seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Erdoğan served as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He graduated in 1981 from Marmara...
condemned the show as "an effort to show our history in a negative light to the younger generations." Small groups of Islamists
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
and Nationalists
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
protested the studio but the show remains popular with viewers, with consistently high ratings.
Plot
The "Magnificent Century" of the Ottomans refers to the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent , and the series dramatizes the intrigues of his harem and court.At the age of twenty-six, when his rule began, Sultan Süleyman sought to build a empire in this world more powerful and more extensive than Alexander the Great and to render the Ottomans invincible.
Throughout his 46-year reign, Sultan Süleyman became known as the greatest warrior and ruler of the East and West. The young Süleyman ascended to the throne after receiving the news of his crowning at a hunting party in 1520. Unaware that he would be embarking on a reign that would later be considered the pinnacle of Ottoman rule, he left behind his consort Mahidevran and their son, little prince Mustafa, at his palace in Manisa, and, accompanied by his close friend and companion Pargalı İbrahim, took the road to Topkapı Palace in İstanbul.
While they were on route, an Ottoman ship sailed off from Crimea across the Black Sea, bringing female slaves as gifts for the Ottoman palace. On this ship was Alexandra La Rossa, the daughter of a Ukrainian Orthodox minister. This young girl, who had been kidnapped from her family and sold to the Ottoman palace as a slave, would become Hürrem (Roksolana), the consort who so captivated Sultan Süleyman that he took the nearly unprecedented step of making her his wife. She would bear his sons and rule his empire together with him through bloodshed and intrigue.
As Sultan Süleyman ruled his empire, he allowed his great passion for Hürrem a heavy influence in his court.
The television series focuses on the relationships between the members of the imperial household, especially the romantic entanglements and rivalries. The animosity between Hürrem and Mahidevran, and Hürrem's rise as Süleyman's favorite while pregnant with his son, her fall from favor after her son's birth and her eventual return to grace, provide the main subject matter of the series. Significant subplots include the affection between the Grand Vizier and one of the ladies of the royal household and the tension between Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
Main characters
| Actor name | role name | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| Halit Ergenç Halit Ergenç Halit Ergenç is a Turkish actor.-Biography:Halit Ergenç was born as the son of actor Sait Ergenç on 30 April 1970 in İstanbul. He completed his secondary education at Beşiktaş Atatürk High School in 1989 and entered İstanbul Technical University to study Marine Engineering... |
Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" , for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system... |
The 10th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire |
| Nur Fettahoğlu Nur Fettahoğlu Nur Fettahoğlu is a Turkish German actress.-Early life and family:Nur Fettahoğlu was born in 1980 to Fatma and Sinan Fettahoğlu from 1 of the 5 children.She was born in Duisburg, Germany.-Television:-External links:... |
Mahidevran Sultan | The Sultan's concubine, mother of the Sultan's first child |
| Meryem Uzerli Meryem Uzerli Meryem Sarah Uzerli is a Turkish German actress.-Early life and family:Meryem Uzerli was born in 1983 to a Turkish father and a German mother. She has two elder brothers and an elder sister.-Films:-Television:-External links:... |
Hürrem | The Sultan's wife, mother of four of the Sultan's children |
| Nebahat Çehre Nebahat Çehre -Early life and family:Nebahat Çehre was born as Hilal Nebahat Çehre on 15 March, 1945, in Samsun, a city off the Black Sea in northern Turkey. Çehre is of Georgian origin from her father's side, Izzet Çehre, who was a lawyer, and her mother, Müzeyyen, was a housewife... |
Ayşe Hafsa Sultan Ayse Hafsa Sultan Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, or in short, Hafsa Sultan , sometimes also transcribed as "A'ishā Hâfize Sultana" in strict transliteration, was the first Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, wife of Selim I and mother of Suleiman the Magnificent... |
Queen Mother (The Sultan's mother) And Yavuz Sultan Selim's wife |
| Okan Yalabık Okan Yalabık Okan Yalabık is a Turkish actor.-Biography:Okan Yalabık started at acting in theatre at the age of 16. In 1997, he graduated from Istanbul University's State Conservatory as an actor... |
Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha Pargali Ibrahim Pasha Pargali Ibrahim Pasha , also known as Frenk Ibrahim Pasha , Makbul Ibrahim Pasha , and referred to him as Maktul Ibrahim Pasha after his murder in the Topkapı Palace, was the first Grand Vizier in the Ottoman Empire appointed by Suleiman the Magnificent... |
Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire |
| Selma Ergeç Selma Ergeç Selma Ergeç is a Turkish-German actress, beauty pageant titleholder, model, designer, philologist, psychologist and doctor.... |
"Hatice" Sultan | Suleiman's sister. |
| Filiz Ahmet | "Nigar" Kalfa | Servant of Sultan |
| Alp Öyken | Pope Clement VII Pope Clement VII Clement VII , born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, was a cardinal from 1513 to 1523 and was Pope from 1523 to 1534.-Early life:... |
Pope of the Roman Catholic Church during that time |
| Selma Keçik | "Daye" Hatun | The Queen Mother's Maid |
| Nihal Büyükağaç | "Gülşah" | Mahidevran's Maid |
| Selim Bayraktar | Sümbül Ağa | Agha of the Harem |
| Seçkin Özdemir | Leo | old flame of Alexandra/Hürrem, Court painter |
| Kadir Çermik | Louis II of Hungary | King of Hungary and Bohemia |
| Burcu Tuna Uruk | Gülnihal/Maria | Hürrem's Maid |
| Saadet Işıl Aksoy | Countess Victoria | Countess of Hungary and the bridesmaid of Hatice |
| Fatih Al | Matrakçı Nasuh Matrakçi Nasuh Nasuh bin Karagöz bin Abdullah el-Bosnavî , commonly known as Matrakçı Nasuh for his competence in the game called Matrak was a 16th century Ottoman mathematician, teacher, historian, geographer, cartographer, swordmaster, and miniaturist of... |
Miniaturist, painter |
| Mehmet Günsür Mehmet Günsur Mehmet Günsür is a Turkish actor.-Biography:Günsür worked first as a barman and then as a model before becoming an actor. He graduated from Italian High School. Since his debut, he has acted in Turkish, Italian, and some American films... |
Şehzade Mustafa Sehzade Mustafa Şehzade Mustafa Muhlisi , the prince of Manisa from 1533 to 1541 and the prince of Amasya from 1541 to 1553, was Suleiman the Magnificent's first born son by Mahidevran . He was the apparent heir to the Turkish throne.- Life :Mustafa experienced problems in his relations with his father... |
Prince |
| Burak Özçivit | Malkoçoğlu Bali Bey | Commander/Hero |
Seasons
Muhteşem Yüzyıl is currently airing it's second season.Season 1
EPISODES 24
ORIGINAL ARING DATE January 5 - June 15 2011
Season 2
EPISODES 5
ORIGINAL ARING DATE September 7 - ...
International Broadcast
| Country | TV Network | Alternate Title/Translation | Season | Series Premiere | Series Finale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slovakia Slovakia The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south... |
Markíza Markíza Markíza is a television station in Slovakia. The station launched on 31 August 1996. The station was owned by the politician Pavol Rusko, and is now part of CME network... |
Sultan | 1 | December 20, 2011 | March, 2012 |
| Czech Republic Czech Republic The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest.... |
TV Barrandov TV Barrandov TV Barrandov is a Czech television channel, launched in 2009. It was founded and started to broadcast on 2009. TV Barrandov currently broadcasts in Czech.-External links:*... |
Magnificent Century | 1 | December 22, 2011 | May, 2012 |
External links
- Muhteşem Yüzyıl – Official Website
- Muhteşem Yüzyıl at Show TVShow TVSHOW TV is a nation-wide television channel in Turkey owned by Çukurova Holding. The channel was established by the Turkish businessmen Erol Aksoy and Haldun Simavi on March 1, 1992. During the last years, Show TV extended its range of viewers by adding more channels like Show Plus, Show Max and...
- Muhteşem Yüzyıl Official Facebook Page
- IMDB datasheet
- Muhteşem Yüzyıl e-comic