[https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/6-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-the-ottoman-empire/](https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/6-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-the-ottoman-empire/)

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found this article and thought it was interesting and thought i’d share. i particularly found the bit i quoted and the napoleon embarrassing defeat the for the ottomans most intriguing.

5 comments

  2. Nope, Anatolians Greeks were not Greek, they were hellenized Anatolians. They were Greek, as much as Greek Cypriots are Greek

  3. The only Turkish sultan was Osman 1. Himself his wife was the daughter of a mongolian Tatar Khan in Crimea. And the rest of the wives of the Ottoman Sultans came from their harems made out of Christian slaves who were converted to Islam after marying the sultan. The harems were full of these women but a very few managed to win the heart of the Sultan. The reason for this is prostitution of muslim women was seen as Haram therefore not common, deffinetly not amongst the concubines of the Ottoman Sultans. Unlike what the other comment claims no they were not Anatolian Greeks, only Two wives are thought to be of Anatolian Greek descent(there can also be a woman of Cappadocian Greek or Turkish descent) and those two were ionian Greeks, who are geneticaly Very Greek. The Rest of them were mostly Serbian and mainlander Greek. There were also many Ukranians and Russians. The wife of the Suleiman the magnificent was Hürrem Sultan, a Ukranian slave(the part of Ukraine she was born in was under polish contol at the time) whose original name was Roxelana(Alexandra Lisovska). Heck there was even an English woman aswell. Altough the list itself is disuted it is safe to assume that many were more Greek than Turkish. Not only geneticaly but they also saw themselfs as the continuation of the Roman Empire.

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