Safiye Sultan

His son Murad III reigned for 21 years and produced 49 children, which was remarkable by any standard of productivity, and somewhat less remarkable as an administrative achievement.

Murad was increasingly influenced by the women of the imperial harem, his mother Nurbanu Sultan, and later, his favourite consort Safiye Sultan, who used their proximity to the Sultan to shape appointments.

Foreign policy and the flow of information reaching the imperial ear, they were not acting irrationally.

In a court where physical access to the sultan was the primary currency of power, the women who had that access were doing precisely what any rational political actor in their position would do.