Gazanfer Ağa
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Gazanfer Ağa
Gazanfer Agha (died on 3 January 1603) was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman courtier and politician of Republic of Venice, Venetian origin. He held the office of ''Kapi Agha, Kapıağası'' for Sultan Murad III part of a network of spies dedicated to manipulating Ottoman politics in favor of Venice. Biography He was born in Venice to Giacomo Michiel, chancellor of Venice in Buda,Reason why Minetti mistakenly considered him to be of Hungarian origins and his wife Franceschina Zorzi. He had a brother and two sisters, one of whom was Beatrice Michiel, Beatrice. In 1559, he was sailing with his family to join his father in Buda, but their ship was attacked by Barbary pirates. While his mother and sisters were later freed, he and his brother were sold into slavery in Constantinople and taken to the Grand Seraglio school at Topkapı Palace, Topkapi Palace. There they were castrated and converted to Islam, taking the names Gazanfer and Cafer Agha, Cafer. They were assigned to the court of ...
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Kapi Agha
The Kapi Agha (, " Agha of the Gate"), formally called the Agha of the Gate of Felicity (''Bâbüssaâde ağası''), was the head of the eunuch servants of the Ottoman Seraglio until the late 16th century, when this post was taken over by the Kizlar Agha. In juxtaposition with the latter office, also known as the Chief Black Eunuch as its holders were drawn from Black African slaves, the Kapi Agha is also known as the Chief White Eunuch. History and functions As his title implies, the Kapi Agha controlled the Gate of Felicity that separated the Outer Court ('' Birûn'', where state affairs were conducted), from the Inner Court (''Enderûn'') and the Sultan's private apartments in the Topkapı Palace. The Agha occupied an office to the right of the gate and had the duty of controlling entrance to the Inner Court and of transmitting the Sultan's orders to his officials, rendering him, in the words of the Ottomanist Halil İnalcık, "the sole mediator between the Sultan and the world ...
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Valide Sultan
Valide Sultan (, lit. "Sultana mother") was the title held by the mother of a ruling sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans first formally used the title in the 16th century as an epithet of Hafsa Sultan (died 1534), mother of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent , Suleyman I (), superseding the previous epithets of Valide Hatun (lady mother), ''Mahd-i Ulya (other), mehd-i ulya'' ("cradle of the great"). or "the nacre of the pearl of the sultanate".Leslie Peirce, Peirce, Leslie P., ''The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire'', Oxford University Press, 1993, (paperback) Normally, the living mother of a reigning sultan held this title. Those mothers who died before their sons' accession to the throne never received the title of . In special cases sisters, grandmothers and stepmothers of a reigning sultan assumed the title and/or the functions . Term The word () literally means 'mother' in Ottoman Turkish, from Arabic . The Turkish phonology, Tu ...
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People From The Ottoman Empire Of Italian Descent
The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. In contrast, a people is any plurality of persons considered as a whole. Used in politics and law, the term "a people" refers to the collective or community of an ethnic group or nation. Concepts Legal Chapter One, Article One of the Charter of the United Nations states that "peoples" have the right to self-determination. Though the mere status as peoples and the right to self-determination, as for example in the case of Indigenous peoples (''peoples'', as in all groups of indigenous people, not merely all indigenous persons as in ''indigenous people''), does not automatically provide for independent sovereignty and therefore secession. Indeed, judge Ivor Jennings identified the inherent problems in the right of "peoples" to self-determination, as i ...
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Eunuchs From The Ottoman Empire
A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium BCE. Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures: courtiers or equivalent Domestic worker, domestics, for espionage or clandestine operations, ''castrato'' singers, Concubinage, concubines or sexual partners, religious specialists, soldiers, royal guards, government officials, and guardians of women or harem servants. Eunuchs would usually be servants or Slavery, slaves who had been castrated to make them less threatening servants of a royal court where physical access to the ruler could wield great influence. Seemingly lowly domestic functions—such as making the ruler's bed, bathing him, cutting his hair, carrying him in his litter (vehicle), litter, or even rel ...
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Courtiers From The Ottoman Empire
A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the official residence of the monarch, and the social and political life were often completely mixed together. Background Monarchs very often expected the more important nobles to spend much of the year in attendance on them at court. Not all courtiers were noble, as they included clergy, soldiers, clerks, secretaries, agents and middlemen with business at court. All those who held a court appointment could be called courtiers but not all courtiers held positions at court. Those personal favourites without business around the monarch, sometimes called the camarilla, were also considered courtiers. As social divisions became more rigid, a divide, barely present in Antiquity or the Middle Ages, opened between menial servants and other classes at court, a ...
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1603 Deaths
Events January–March * January 24 – Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), Anglo-Spanish War: English Admiral Christopher Newport leads an unsuccessful attempt to take the Spanish-controlled Caribbean island of Jamaica, where he was attempting to pillage the area to obtain supplies. The Spanish defenders repel the fleet, and Newport leads the attackers to the coast of Central America. * February 17 – Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), Anglo-Spanish War: The Battle of Puerto Caballos (1603), Battle of Puerto Caballos is fought off of the coast of Guatemala by two Spanish Navy galleons, and eight English Navy and French pirate ships. The English-French soldiers and pirates, commanded by Christopher Newport and Michael Geare, plunder Puerto Caballos over the next two weeks, and the Spanish defenders suffer 230 casualties. * February 25 – Dutch–Portuguese War: the Portuguese Empire, Portuguese ship ''Santa Catarina (ship), Santa Catarina'' is seized by Dutch East Indi ...
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Kizlar Agha
The Kizlar Agha (, , ), formally the Agha of the House of Felicity (, ), was the head of the eunuchs who guarded the Ottoman Imperial Harem in Constantinople. Established in 1574, the post ranked among the most important in the Ottoman Empire until the early 19th century, especially after the stewardship of the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the supervision of all waqfs (charitable foundations) in the Empire came under his purview. The wealth thus amassed, the proximity to the sultan, and the role the harem ladies played in court intrigues (" Sultanate of Women") meant that its occupant had considerable political influence; several kızlar aghas were responsible for the downfall of grand viziers and the accession of sultans. Soon after its creation and until its abolition, close to the abolition of the Ottoman sultanate, the post came to be occupied by Black African eunuch slaves, and hence is also referred to as the Chief Black Eunuch. History The post of the kız ...
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Murad IV
Murad IV (, ''Murād-ı Rābiʿ''; , 27 July 1612 – 8  February 1640) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, known both for restoring the authority of the state and for the brutality of his methods. Murad IV was born in Constantinople, the son of Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603–17) and Kösem Sultan. He was brought to power by a palace conspiracy when he was just 11 years old, and he succeeded his uncle Mustafa I (r. 1617–18, 1622–23). Until he assumed absolute power on 18 May 1632, the empire was ruled by his mother, Kösem Sultan, as ''nāʾib-i salṭanat'' (regent). His reign is most notable for the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–1639), Ottoman–Safavid War, of which the Treaty of Zuhab, outcome would partition the Caucasus between the two Imperial powers for around two centuries, while it also roughly laid the foundation for the current Turkey–Iran–Iraq borders. Early life Murad IV was born on 27 July 1612 t ...
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Sipahi
The ''sipahi'' ( , ) were professional cavalrymen deployed by the Seljuk Turks and later by the Ottoman Empire. ''Sipahi'' units included the land grant–holding ('' timar'') provincial ''timarli sipahi'', which constituted most of the army, and the salaried regular ''kapikulu sipahi'', or palace troops. However, the irregular light cavalry ("raiders") were not considered to be . The ''sipahi'' formed their own distinctive social classes and were rivals to the janissaries, the elite infantry corps of the sultans. A variant of the term "''sipahi''" was also applied by colonial authorities to several cavalry units serving in the French and Italian colonial armies during the 19th and 20th centuries (see ). Name The word is derived from Persian and means "soldier" and is also transliterated as and ; rendered in other languages as: in Albanian and Romanian, ''sepuh'' (սեպուհ) in Armenian, () in Greek, or in Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian (Cyril ...
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Ulama
In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama" may refer broadly to the educated class of such religious scholars, including Theology, theologians, Religious law, canon lawyers (muftis), judges (qadis), professors, and high state religious officials. Alternatively, "ulama" may refer specifically to those holding governmental positions in an Islamic state. By longstanding tradition, ulama are educated in religious institutions (''madrasas''). The Quran and sunnah (authentic hadith) are the scriptural sources of Sharia, traditional Islamic law. Traditional way of education Students of Islamic doctrine do not seek out a specific educational institution, but rather seek to join renowned teachers. By tradition, a scholar who has completed their studies is approved by their teacher. At ...
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Janissary
A janissary (, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms, adopted during the reign of Murad II (r. 1421–1444, 1446–1451). The corps was established under either Orhan or Murad I, and dismantled by Mahmud II in 1826. Janissaries began as elite corps made up through the ''devşirme'' system of Ghilman, child levy enslavement, by which Ethnic groups in Europe, indigenous European Christians, Christian boys, chiefly from the Balkans, were taken, levied, subjected to forced circumcision and Forced conversion#Islam, forced conversion to Islam, and incorporated into the Ottoman army in the 15th–19th centuries, Ottoman army. They became famed for internal cohesion cemented by strict discipline and order. Unlike typical History of slavery in the Muslim world, slaves, they were paid regular salaries. Forbidden ...
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