''Muhteşem Yüzyıl'' (, ) is a Turkish
historical drama
A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...
series. Written by
Meral Okay and Yılmaz Şahin, it is based on the life of
Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I (; , ; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the Western world and as Suleiman the Lawgiver () in his own realm, was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sultan between 1520 a ...
, the longest-reigning
Sultan
Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...
of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
, and his wife
Hürrem Sultan, a
slave girl who became the first
Ottoman Haseki Sultan.
It also sheds light on the era known as the
Sultanate of Women. It was originally broadcast on
Show TV and then transferred to
Star TV.
Plot
The series follows the reign of
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I (; , ; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the Western world and as Suleiman the Lawgiver () in his own realm, was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sultan between 1520 a ...
, the most renowned ruler of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
. As his power and influence spread and grew, it impacted him and those within the imperial household: his friend and advisor,
Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha; his mother,
Hafsa Sultan, the first
Valide sultan; his sister,
Hatice Sultan;
Mahidevran Sultan, the mother of Suleiman's eldest son; and
Hürrem Sultan, the
Haseki sultan of Suleiman.
Spinoff
The story begins 37 years after the death of Suleiman the Magnificent. It recounts the life of
Mahpeyker Kösem Sultan, a female ruler of the Ottoman Empire through her sons and grandson.
Safiye Sultan, the favorite
concubine of
Şehzade Murad, reappears in the spinoff, now the grandmother of
Ahmed I and the
Valide Sultan.
Series overview
Characters
The Imperial Family
Statesmen and palace officials
Palace servants and concubines
The information of the servants and concubines are little known. Most of the characters are fictional.
Otherwise associated to the palace
Most of the characters are fictional/fictionalized.
Broadcast
Reception
Controversy
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
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...
condemned the show as "an effort to show our history in a negative light to the younger generations."
An MP for the governing Justice and Development Party, Oktay Saral, went further, threatening to outlaw the "misrepresentation of historical figures" in shows such as ''Muhteşem Yüzyıl''.
Small groups of
Islamists and
Nationalists protested the studio but the show remains successful with consistently high ratings.
Elif Batuman wrote in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'':
''"On the surface, 'Magnificent Century' looks like a quintessential product of the Erdoğan years. Thanks to Erdoğan's economic policies, Turkey has a thriving television industry, capable of staging elaborate period dramas, and a prosperous family-oriented middle class of observant Muslims eager to watch their own values reflected in a historical imperial setting. And, much as Erdoğan's foreign policy has promoted relations with former Ottoman lands, the show has conquered large audiences in Balkan, Caucasian, and Arab countries not known for their fond memory of Ottoman rule. Broadcast to more than two hundred million viewers in fifty-two countries, "Magnificent Century" has accomplished one of Erdoğan's main goals: Making a powerful, non-secularist, globally involved version of Turkey both plausible and appealing.... And yet Erdoğan is not a fan. In late 2012, at the opening of a provincial airport he took a moment to condemn the show's depiction of Suleiman, as well as its directors and broadcasters, hinting at severe judicial repercussions."''
According to the report of USA government funded
Radio Free Asia, some
Uyghur people were arrested for watching the series in 2020, as the Chinese government considered that it might encourage the thought of the Xinjiang Independence.
Anachronisms
Notable writers and critics pointed out multiple chronological mistakes in various scenes related to the timeline in which the plot takes place (1520-1566). Some of these
anachronisms (or chronological inconsistencies) are as follows:
*
Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha is shown, in many scenes, as he is working on a table. The practice of using tables in Ottoman palaces, however, was not adopted until the era of
Abdulmejid I (1823-1861).
*
Louis II, The King of Hungary, is portrayed in the series as an old man who provokes the Ottoman Empire by executing the Ottoman envoy. The problem with this portrayal is that Louis II never executed anyone, and he was only 20 years old when he died during the
Battle of Mohács.
* In one of the episodes of the show, Sultan Suleiman recites the following Turkish phrase: "Nush ile yola gelmeyeni etmeli tekdir, tekdir ile uslanmayanın hakkı kötektir." This phrase comes from the ''Terkîb-i Bend'' of
Ziya Pasha, which was only written in 1870, almost 400 years after Suleiman's reign.
* One of the workers in the kitchen is shown as she is dicing tomatoes. However, tomatoes became a part of the Ottoman cuisine only after 1835, after European contact with and colonization of the Americas.
* In the scene where Suleiman the Magnificent visits his son
Şehzade Mustafa in the
Manisa Palace, it can be seen that the floor is covered with parquet. However, parquet (''parquet de menuiserie'') was first used in 1684 on the floors of
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
.
International popularity
''Muhteşem Yüzyıl'' is reported to have an international audience of 200 million viewers in over 50 countries.
The show is part of an ongoing revival of Turkish culture in the Balkans through imported TV shows from Turkey, such as ''
Öyle Bir Geçer Zaman Ki'' ("As time goes by", number one TV show in North Macedonia), or ''
Fatmagül'ün Suçu Ne?'' ("What is Fatmagül's fault"), which was top ranked TV show in
Kosovo
Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...
2012. Serbian sociologist Ratko Bozovic explains the popularity by pointing at the traditional, patriarchal values of the Turkish shows, and the many cultural and linguistic similarities between Turkey and the Balkan countries: "The mentality depicted in those shows has to do with a traditional understanding of morality that people in Serbia remember at some level." According to Bozovic, all Balkan countries have seen dramatic changes in terms of family life, and the Turkish shows help them recall value systems that now seem lost.
In
Bangladesh
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...
, the show was known as ''সুলতান সুলেমান (Sultan Suleiman)'' and it was broadcast on
Deepto TV, dubbed in Bangla. Within the first two months of its release in Bangladesh back in 2015, Sultan Suleiman received the highest TV program ratings in Bangladesh. The channel gained the most TRP ratings. Some people demanded a ban on this serial as viewers lacked interests in watching local dramas, however, keeping all these controversies aside the show still went on. After finishing the series, Deepto TV re-broadcast this massively popular show from June 2, 2019.
In
Morocco
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
, the series is called ''Harim al-Sultan ("The Sultan's Harem")''. Many people find it visually and aesthetically enjoyable to watch, but viewers have contrasting opinions of the show's depictions of gender and Ottoman rulers. Many Moroccans stopped watching the show because they did not like the morals it presented.
In
Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
, the series has become quite popular for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and ages. Many Greek viewers enjoyed the visuals and oriental decorations present in the show, as well as the cultural proximity and historical ties between the two countries.
It has become so popular that Bishop Anthimos of
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...
and the
Golden Dawn party condemned the show and urged
Greeks
Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...
not to watch it.
[''Soap Opera Diplomacy: Turkish TV in Greece''](_blank)
, The International, 12.02.2013 "No one should watch ''Muhteşem Yüzyıl'', ''The Magnificent Century''," Anthimos said. He added, "By watching the Turkish series we are telling them we have surrendered."
[''Greeks tune in to Turkish soap opera, despite critics views''](_blank)
Southeast European Times (SETimes.com), Andy Dabilis and Erisa Dautaj, 10/10/2012
In
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...
, the high popularity of Turkish TV series caused concerns about Turkish impact on Macedonian society, prompting the
parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
to pass legislation in 2012 to require an increase in airtime for domestic productions.
In
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
where the series is called ''El Sultán'' (The Sultan) it is aired since December 14 in
Canal 13 on
prime time
Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
with great success. The Spanish voice of Suleiman is the same as the one of Onur in the Turkish soap opera ''
Las mil y una noches''. The series is part of a wave of Turkish soap operas that have become popular in Chilean TV. The series debuted right after the penultimate chapter of ''
Los 80'', a popular historical family drama produced by Canal 13.
In
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
, the show was named ''میرا سلطان: داستان جلال و جمال'' (''Mera Sultan: Dastan-e-Jalal-o-Jamal''; lit. ''My Emperor: Story of Bravery and Love'') and it aired on channel
Geo Kahani. Geo Kahani claims that it was the channel's most popular show and received the highest
TRPs. The
Pakistani drama industry was adversely affected by the popularity of Turkish dramas, and lead actor Halit Ergenç to win first ever
International Icon Award in Pakistan's biggest awards show
Lux Style Awards in 2017.
See also
*
List of Muhteşem Yüzyıl episodes
* ''
Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem''
* ''
Payitaht: Abdülhamid''
* ''
Diriliş: Ertuğrul''
*
List of Islam-related films
References
External links
*
Muhteşem Yüzyıl – Official WebsiteMuhteşem Yüzyıl Official YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muhtesem Yuzyil
2011 Turkish television series debuts
Turkish drama television series
Cultural depictions of Suleiman the Magnificent
Television series about the Ottoman Empire
Serial drama television series
2014 Turkish television series endings
Television series set in the 16th century
Show TV television dramas
Star TV (Turkish TV channel) television dramas
Television series about Islam
Turkish historical television series
Television shows set in Istanbul
Television shows set in Belgrade
Television series produced in Istanbul
Television series set in the 2010s
Turkish television soap operas
Turkish-language television shows