Word: sultanate
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Abdul Hamid became more & more a prey to his fears." related Philadelphia's harem Princess. "The Sultan kept a revolver in his hand by night and by day. . . . He shot his own child when the little one lifted a revolver that lay on the table. The playful hand might be the instrument of a woman's revenge and the Sultan knew better than anyone else that no tool is too weak to inflict a death wound. . . . This fear, this perpetual watchfulness, required that the concubines must be changed from night to night, so that his very pleasures were...
...entrance of the harem he was welcomed by the Sultan's mother. Then he passed slowly between bejeweled rows of women, a man who cared little for the revelation of women's beauty. . . . His impenetrable majesty forbade any redeeming contact...
...Sultan passed on to visit his princesses and favorites in their private apartments. If one of their slave girls chanced to please him, tradition required that he should seem to notice nothing-indeed it would have been highly improper to show any sign of a new attachment in the presence of a reigning favorite. Every mood had to be controlled in the harem. The chief slave girl was the go-between and she informed the lucky girl of the honor that awaited her. ... A new career was opened to her. ... In other ways, too, it was a momentous time. Only...
...when a Briton discovered oil in Mosul (whence the word muslin), not far from the legendary site of the Garden of Eden, in the shadow of Mesopotamia's Kurdish Hills. Then the slippery Sultans of Turkey ruled, as Arab provinces, what is now Irak. The European oil companies were so greedy to get the Sultan's oil that they checkmated one another's efforts until June 1914. The line-up then was Britain, The Netherlands and Germany. Months later the War started, eventually eliminating Buyer Germany and Seller Turkey. After the War the double-crossing was resumed...
...poor but exceptionally gifted Persian youth, Omar Khayyam was with the Turkish army that routed the Emperor of Constantinople at Malasgird, saw his best friend killed there. Later as a student of mathematics he made such a reputation that the Sultan made him his astronomer. In his crude observatory Omar revamped the calendar, indulged in heretical speculations about the nature of the universe, tossed off unconsidered little rubai (quatrains) when he felt off his feed. A tragic love affair turned him from an ambitious scientist into a world-weary philosopher. Riches and power were heaped on him by the Sultan...