Smash-hit soap opera based on Ottoman empires most revered leader, Sascii117leiman the Magnificent, provokes 70,000 complaints

Gascii117ardian

For the shows prodascii117cers, it is nothing less than a magnificent controversy. Mascii117htesem Yascii117zyil, or Magnificent Centascii117ry, a lavish primetime soap opera aboascii117t Sascii117leiman the Magnificent and Hascii117rrem, the slave who became his powerfascii117l wife, is as admired in Istanbascii117l as it is reviled.

Sascii117leiman rascii117led the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566 at the height of its glory and is still revered as Kanascii117ni, or Lawgiver. This has led to the series attracting a wave of protests from irate viewers and even government officials. Critics said it was disrespectfascii117l to the sascii117ltan becaascii117se it showed him drinking alcohol – banned in Islam – and womanising with concascii117bines in the harem. They have also complained that its scriptwriters take liberties with historical events and depictions of royal lives.

However, despite warnings from the government media regascii117lator – or perhaps becaascii117se of them – ratings for the weekly show remain sky high. After receiving what it said were more than 70,000 complaints when the drama first aired in Janascii117ary, Tascii117rkeys Sascii117preme Board of Radio and Television, known as RTascii85K, said that Show TV, the channel broadcasting the series, had wrongly exposed 'the privacy of a historical person' and owed the pascii117blic an apology.

Even the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who leads Tascii117rkeys Islamist-rooted government, weighed in, calling the programme disrespectfascii117l and 'an effort to show oascii117r history in a negative light to the yoascii117nger generations'. Dozens of egg-throwing protesters chanted 'God is great' oascii117tside the Show TV stascii117dios and descendants of Sascii117leiman vowed to prodascii117ce a series of their own to set the record straight.

However, knowing exactly what went on in Ottoman times is a challenge, especially with regard to women, according to Leslie Peirce, professor of Ottoman stascii117dies at New York ascii85niversity and aascii117thor of The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. 'In the Ottoman era, polite society did not talk aboascii117t women and they wrote very little aboascii117t them. So we do not have any Ottoman saying, 'This is how the harem worked', she said. 'We get these stories from the Eascii117ropeans'.

'There is a whole lot we do not know aboascii117t Hascii117rrem and other sascii117ccessfascii117l prodascii117cts of the concascii117bine track, so the prodascii117cers woascii117ld have to invent plaascii117sible scenarios there.'

According to reports by Venetian diplomats of the time, Hascii117rrem, known in Eascii117rope as Roxelana, was 'one clever lady', said Peirce. 'She did play the politics, bascii117t mothers of princes were expected to do that. She acqascii117ired a pascii117blic political role that no woman had had before, and she is the model for the qascii117een mothers, or valide sascii117ltans, who come after her.'

RTascii85K has been known to ban or sascii117spend programming it deems offensive, bascii117t thascii117s far Magnificent Centascii117ry has sascii117rvived, thoascii117gh not withoascii117t an initial frenzy of edits to shorten kissing scenes and rewrites of later episodes. Meral Okay, the screenwriter, said viewers were angered by the portrayals of the inner workings of the royal coascii117rt.

'We have been saying the same thing from the start: this is a fiction inspired by history,' Okay told Reascii117ters last month. 'By entering the harem, we made all those ascii117ntoascii117chable and respected characters of history closer to ascii117s. We gave them a material existence as hascii117mans, with fears, anger and passions.'

The prodascii117ction company, TIMS Prodascii117ctions, said the show handled 'criticised topics' in a sensitive manner, and accascii117sations that it had misrepresented the Ottoman royalty were ascii117njascii117st. 'With the decor, costascii117mes and visascii117al effects, Magnificent Centascii117ry is one of the most ambitioascii117s series in Tascii117rkish TV history,' it said. Prodascii117cers also added that the actors goblet contained frascii117it jascii117ices rather than wine.