The Kadin - Bertrice Small [102]
This act created much support for Selim, as the serai girls were beautiful, well-educated, and highly accomplished They would grace any man’s home and most important, give that man a link with the sultanate.
There were about fifty gediklis remaining. These girls were considered promising enough to remain to serve Bajazet and perhaps attract the next sultan. Divided into five groups and assigned to an oda, the young ladies continued their serai education. Each of the three kadins and two ikbals of Sultan Bajazet was each given a new apartment in the now spacious harem. Well-trained, courteous attendants and slaves were assigned to serve them. Though at first frightened by the sudden turn of events, having spent many years under the threat of Besma, they slowly realized that the new regime of Lady Refet was for everyone’s good, and no harm was meant to them.
Selim’s kadins were kept busy decorating and furnishing their own new apartments. They had chosen for themselves a two-story building in the harem which was built around a quadrangle. It was called the Forest Court At either end of the quadrangle were entry arches, the north ones leading to the main grounds of the palace, and the south opening onto a large private park. The park had been designed to resemble a partly formal, partly wooded garden. It rolled gently in some places and had a medium-sized lake which served as a refuge for waterfowl and as a place to boat All this was surrounded by a high wall.
The quadrangle was planted. In its center was a rectangular pool with a fountain. Graveled walks with cream-colored marble benches were placed at strategic locations, and small fruit trees, flowering shrubs, and plants completed the charming retreat
Each of Selim’s kadins had chosen for herself a wing on the second floor of the building. The main floor housed the slaves, the eunuchs, the communal kitchens, and the baths. The building wings opened into one another, so Cyra, Firousi, Zuleika, and Sarina were not separated.
Selim had decided to remove his older sons from their mothers’ care, and each was set up in his own quarters, but Cyra, speaking for herself and the other kadins, begged that the younger princes remain with them for the present She pleaded the well-known lechery of some of the pages that could, and had, ruined many a child. It was agreed that only the boys who had reached their biological manhood would go to their own establishments within the palace walls. They would be given sterile harem damsels to sate their natural appetites.
Suleiman, who would be sixteen in two months, Mohammed, who was now fifteen, Omar, who was fourteen, and Kasim, now thirteen, left with no regrets, much to the annoyance of their mothers. Cyra had to admit to herself that her firstborn son was nearly a man. Twice recently she had caught him fondling her slave girls, and when she had chided him, he had merely grinned and asked her for what other purpose had Allah created pretty girls?
Of the remaining princes, only twelve-year-old Abdullah and eleven-year-old Murad objected to being left with the women. A few well-administered slaps from their annoyed mothers ended the rebellion. Bajazet, Hassan, and Nureddin, ages eight six, and five, were too young to care.
Selim’s sons were not, however, entirely separated from one another. They attended the newly formed Princes’ School, along with their young uncle, Prince Orhan.
Selim’s daughters were to remain with their mothers. Hale and Guzel, who had just celebrated their eleventh birthday, were assigned several learned older women who would broaden their educations. The princesses could speak, read, and write Turkish, English, French, Chinese, and Persian, and had been taught mathematics, history, and geography as well as both Eastern and Western literature. Their sewing and embroidery