The Venetian-born Safiye, the Fair One as she is known, is the embodiment of the newly coined term Machiavellian. With her perfumed body and bewitching eyes, she rules themen who own her. She controls the Empire from within the veiled harem walls, her web of intrigue reaching far beyond Constantinople and into Europe. Her touch is felt in wars, act...more

The great Turkish empire of the seventeenth century, the most powerful of its day, was ruled by women who had been brought to Constantinople as slaves for the Sultan's pleasure-but used their slavery to acquire power on a global scale. This is the story of one such woman. . . .The harem slave Safiye, "the Fair One" as she is known, is the embodimen...more