The question of whether Cleopatra's sister, Arsinoë IV, was buried in Ephesus has long fascinated historians and archaeologists alike. The story begins in 1904, when archaeologists uncovered an enigmatic monument known as the Octagon. At first, it was thought to be a trophy monument commemorating some forgotten victory. But in 1929, further excavations revealed something unexpected: a burial chamber built atop its base. Inside lay a sarcophagus containing the skeleton of a young individual, in their teens at the time of death. Tragically, the skull — so crucial for identification — was later lost during the Second World War.

For many readers, the story of women in the Ottoman Empire begins and ends with a single name: Hürrem Sultan, known in Europe as Roxelana. She is remembered as clever, dangerous, romantic, or ruthless — depending on who tells the story. Her rise from concubine to legal wife of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent has become legend. Yet Hürrem, extraordinary as she was, represents only one voice in a far larger and richer chorus.

"Women of the Ottoman Court" invites the reader beyond the familiar myths and into the lives of forty-one women who lived, married, and died at the heart of one of the world's longest-lasting empires. Over more than five centuries, these women — concubines, consorts, mothers, sisters, and daughters of sultans — helped shape Ottoman politics, culture, and daily life.

When Halicarnassus entered the Ottoman world, it did not yet resemble a town in the modern sense. It was, above all else, a castle with a harbour — a maritime outpost clinging to the edge of the Aegean. The earliest Ottoman voice to describe it belongs to Piri Reis, the celebrated corsair, navigator, and cartographer whose Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of the Sea) mapped the Mediterranean with an accuracy astonishing for its age.