Kafes of Future Ottoman Sultans

During the nearly half a millenia that the Ottoman Sultans governed their Empire, leaders’ talents of course varied, and predicting what sort of ruler the next Sultan might be could be guesswork. Two phenomena that developed at the top levels of state governance, however, tended to throw the odds in the negative direction. The first was the habituated practice of fratricide that grew out of competition for the succession. In the fifteenth century there were not clear guidelines for this, and so uncles and male children from various concubines and wives could all be in the queue. Thus, in 1595 Mehmed III came to power and had his nineteen brothers strangled (with a silken cord). Eventually this practice grew out of favor, but a habit of putting all the Sultan’s competitors (mostly male child heirs) into years of seclusion replaced it. The “kafes” are usually translated in English as “cages” and recently historians have pointed out that this word is unfair – the room pictured here is from the Topkapi palace and indicative of the splendor that these guarded chambers could possess. Nevertheless, having spent decades of their lives surrounded by guards, monitored, and prevented from interaction among the courtiers and public, Sultans who made their way into power after their enclosed upbringings frequently suffered. Suleiman II took the throne in 1687 after forty-six years of confinement, and reported to his guards upon release: “If my death had been commanded, say so . . . Since my childhood, I have suffered forty years of imprisonment. It is better to die once than to die every day. What terror we endure for a single breath!”