The relationship of Suleyman the Magnificent and his consort Roxelana is one of history’s most enthralling love affairs. Known in Ottoman history as Hurrem (‘the Laughing One’), Roxelana was the daughter of a priest from Ruthenia (in present-day Ukraine) who was taken prisoner by Tatar raiders. She is thought to have entered the imperial harem in 1520, the first year of Suleyman’s reign. The sultan’s unusual, and unusually long-lived, passion for his enslaved concubine is attested by the facts that he forwent other sexual partners after beginning his affair with her and took the unprecedented step of making her his legal wife. To Suleyman’s subjects, these were such troublingly unnatural steps that Roxelana was widely believed to have used spells and love charms to bewitch him. 

Not only was this remarkable woman Suleyman’s adored sexual partner. She was also one of his most trusted advisers, acting as a political confidante when he was in Istanbul and a vital source of information when he was away on one of his many military campaigns. It is a common misconception that, because they lived secluded lives, the women of the imperial harem were isolated from the world. In fact, high-ranking women were at the heart of political life through much of Ottoman history. Roxelana, who carried the title of ‘sultan’ after her name, was arguably the first of these. The story of her frantic machinations to ensure that her own son, Selim, would inherit his father’s throne in place of the older (and hugely popular) Mustafa, Suleyman’s son by a previous favourite, is one of the most tragic and gripping in Ottoman history. 

Christopher de Bellaigue’s The Golden Throne focuses on this period of Suleyman’s life. It is a much-anticipated ‘sequel’ to The Lion House, his account of the rise to power of this most feared of monarchs, a book that was lauded for its form (non-­fiction posing as a novel) and