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The Sultanate of Women ((トルコ語:Kadınlar Saltanatı)) was the nearly 130-year period during the 16th and 17th centuries when the women of the Imperial Harem of the Ottoman Empire exerted extraordinary political influence over state matters and over the (male) Ottoman sultan, starting from the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. Many of the Sultans during this time were minors and it was their mothers, the Valide Sultans, or their wives, the Haseki Sultans, who effectively ruled the Empire. Most of these women were of slave origin, which was often the case in general for consorts of Ottoman sultans. == Early years == The period commonly known as the Sultanate of Women was novel for the Ottoman Empire, but not without precedent. The Seljuks, predecessors to the Ottoman Empire, often had women of nobility playing an active role in public policy and affairs, despite the concern of other male officials. Indeed, even the early Ottoman Empire, some women held visible positions of power, as evidenced by the North African traveler Ibn Battuta when he saw the conquered city of Iznik being commanded by one of the consorts of the sultan. However, during the fourteenth century, the agency of women in government began to shrink considerably. This was the age of Ottoman expansion, and as such, most Sultans elected to "lead from the horse", moving with a court of advisors, viziers, and religious leaders as the army conquered new lands. In addition, Ottoman policy of the time was to divide the land into several large Beylerbeyliks, or states, each ruled by one of the Sultan's sons, and accompanied by their mothers. In effect, this kept all of the women with connection to the higher levels of government far away from any place where they could hold meaningful power. What's more, the practice of fratricide—in which an ascendant sultan would execute all his brothers to secure his throne—made the mothers and wives of princes even more dependent on their men.〔 Fortunes began to change, however, with the beginning of the 16th century, and the concurrence of two significant events: the end of Ottoman expansion, and the merging of the imperial harem into the palace proper. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, it became clear that the empire had reached its outer limits, with borders stretching thousands of miles in nearly every direction, the sultan simply could no longer afford to go on extended military campaigns, especially after the failure of the Siege of Vienna.〔 The vastness of the empire also made the Beylerbeylik system increasingly impractical, and as such the princes began to move back to the capital. However, with their primary military and economic strength neutralized, there was no longer a need for the practice of fratricide. In addition, Suleiman's reign famously marked the merging of the imperial harem into the palace and political sphere, as he became the first sultan to be officially married, to the woman later known as Hürrem Sultan. Though controversial even at the time, this act, combined with the centralization of the royal dynasty, brought the women of the harem closer to real power than they had ever been. As the royal princes lost power from the loss of their governance, their wives and mothers gained significantly, using their prince's status and connections to influence court and royal decisions. In the late 16th century, Murat III even moved his personal residence from the palace, where he had previously been surrounded by exclusively-male servants and courtiers, to the harem itself. Thus, by the turn of the 1600s, the wife and mother of the sultan became two of the most prominent and influential positions in government, in practice if not in law. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sultanate of Women」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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