‘Eyes full of mischief’

With just two days to go until Valentine’s Day, we continue our homage to the humble handwritten love letter with another notable example of penned passion.

Letters remain important to us. As part of our Valentine’s campaign, we’re supporting the value of sending cards in the post. Look out for some of our PR this week, including a special postbox in the UK’s most romantic village - Lover.

Today’s love letter tells the story of the partnership of a slave girl and the most powerful monarch in the world at the time, Suleiman ‘The Magnificent,’ who ruled for 46 years from 1520.

His lover, Hurrem, was probably a Russian priest’s daughter, a Christian, who was captured and sold into the harem of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman.

Although he had access to thousands of ‘odalisques’ in the harem and already had a consort, who had given him a son and heir, Prince Mustafa, Suleiman fell in love with Roxelana, giving her the new name, Hurrem, ‘Delight,’ for her exuberance and ‘eyes full of mischief.’

Ottoman ‘padishahs’ wrote love poetry using noms de plume, and Suleiman, often away fighting the Hungarians or Persians, wrote Hurrem poems under the name Muhibbi. Below is one of his more well-known verses.

‘Throne of my lonely niche, my wealth, my love, my moonlight. My most sincere friend, my confidante, my very existence, my Sultan. The most beautiful among the beautiful…

‘My springtime, my merry faced love, my daytime, my sweetheart, laughing leaf…

‘My plants, my sweet, my rose, the only one who does not distress me in this world…

‘My Istanbul, my Caraman, the earth of my Anatolia. My Badakhshan, my Baghdad, my Khorosan. My woman of the beautiful hair, my love of the slanted brow, my love of eyes full of mischief…

‘I’ll sing your praises always. I, lover of the tormented heart, Muhibbi of the eyes full of tears. I am happy.’