The Kadin - Bertrice Small [141]
By that evening, everyone in the serai and throughout the capital knew that Suleiman had publicly declared his mother the sultan valideh Hafise. The older women of the palace were relieved. In the few weeks that Cyra had lain ill and powerless with grief, Gulbehar’s ignorance had slowly begun to erode the carefully set up system of harem government.
Without firm adult authority, the young girls had grown lax in their behavior, and petty quarrels had been the order of the day. Now uncertainty was the mood among these lovely creatures. They were well aware that Cyra Hafise had a sharp eye and brooked no nonsense.
The following morning, the valideh woke to eat an enormous breakfast Her head was clear and her mind whirling with plans. She had carefully thought before sleeping the previous night of her position now. She was the first wife of a dead sultan and the mother of the current sultan. Never again would she live and love as a normal woman might There was nothing left but power—but such power! She was inviolate. Not only throughout the harem, but throughout the empire, her word was law. There would be times when even her son would defer to her. In a woman of lesser character this might have given rise to fearful abuses, but Cyra Hafise had been well schooled by both Hadji Bey and Selim. Her common sense prevailed.
Conferring with the agha, she decided that all maidens over the age of twenty would be honorably dismissed from the harem. They would be given as wives to those Suleiman wished to honor or reward in commemoration of his accession as head of the House of Osman. Each girl would be given a good dowry, not only of clothes and jewels but also of money. Maidens raised and schooled in the harem were highly prized as wives, and the gesture was met with general approval.
Of the remaining women, many were past the age of childbearing and other usefulness. They were retired to the Pavilion of Older Women, where they might live out their days gossiping happily in security and comfort
Firousi and Sarina were delighted to see Cyra her old self again. The combination of Selim’s death and their friend’s prostrate condition had badly frightened them. They, too, had loved Selim, though never so deeply as Cyra.
For Firousi there had always been the memory of the childhood bridegroom from whom she had been snatched on her wedding day. Sarina, on the other hand, had realized that Cyra was Selim’s great love. Afraid to love a man too deeply who loved another, her passion had been reserved for her children. Nevertheless, both women had wept genuine tears at Selim’s death, and they missed him greatly, for he had been the pivotal force in their lives. No longer wives of a living sultan, they wondered what the future held for them They dreaded the thought of inactivity, but here Cyra was ahead of them.
Of the women left after the valideh’s housecleaning, the older ladies were given positions of varying importance within the harem administration that Cyra now set up. Two new and very important positions were created for Selim’s second and fourth kadins. Firousi became the kahya kadin, or head stewardess. Next to the valideh, she was held most in respect and carried an imperial seal, making her a powerful ally. Sarina was honored with the new post of haznedar us ta, or mistress of the treasury. She would control all the expenditures and monies for the harem, making her another strong ally for Cyra.
Of the young girls, only the cream had been kept and more female slaves arrived at the Eski Serai every day. The most promising of the new captives joined the other gediklis, and all the maidens were reassigned to new odas, each presided over by its competent and older oda mistress.
There was to be no more idleness. Each gediklis was assigned a household task which she was expected to perform daily. Personal interests and talents were sought out and encouraged. If a girl showed a talent for music, she studied music. If her aptitude was languages, she was taught as many as she could absorb. If her forte was embroidery, she was set