They say history is learnt from books and dusty archives. But what if I told you, it also seeps from every stone and whispers through every silk thread?
Welcome to The Sultan’s Salon, where, at the kind invitation of Türkiye Today, I will lift the veil on an Ottoman treasure—and the very personal story it holds. Because behind the throne and all the political intrigue, the House of Osman was, first and foremost, a family. Like every family, they laughed and cried, loved and feared, dreamt and despaired, suffered and survived. And like every family, we had our secrets.
In this column, I will uncover the past through the lens of a particular place or a tangible object—somewhere you can visit, something you can almost touch: a palace hammam, the silk hem of a Sultan’s kaftan, a piano played by an enlightened prince. Through these witnesses to history, the past comes alive, and we catch a fleeting glimpse of a lost world.
Think of this column as your invitation to a private salon—where we meet after wandering Istanbul’s palaces and museums together, peeking into forgotten rooms and glass display cases, and discovering that Ottoman history, at its heart, is not just about conquest and empire. It’s about people. It’s about family. It’s about my family.
Until we meet again in the Sultan’s Salon.
Leave a Reply