Mara’s Message From History

Source: The American Conservative

March 18, 2025

    

Tuba Büyüküstün might not be a known name in Hollywood, or America. Although the 42-year-old Turkish beauty is famous in her part of the world, in the West she is known only among obscure Netflix historical documentary–enjoyers as the person who played Mara Brankovic, the Serbian princess and widow of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II and the stepmother of Mehmed II the Conqueror, in the the critically acclaimed and mostly historically accurate (albeit a trifle hagiographic) Rise of Empires: Ottoman.

...There are not many Western sources about Mara Brankovic, one of the most fascinating realists of her age. Mara’s life is a standing rebuke to some of the deeply held beliefs of our own times about religion, loyalty, credibility, realism, political expediency, and gendered competence. Although she was one of the most interesting female diplomats of her age, modern feminists won’t touch her with a bargepole, presumably because she was pious and traditionally moral. The Greek historian Sphrantzes records that Mara categorically refused a remarriage during her widowhood, arguing that it went against her Christian principles and that she wanted to devote her life to the pursuit of knowledge, peace and religion.

...Read the rest at the American Conservative.

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3/18/2025

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