ABSTRACT
Hurrem Sultan and Lady Zheng illustrate how powerful women could impact policy in dynastic regimes. Suleiman's love for Hurrem and the political influence and power it provided her aroused much suspicion within the court. One could see the history of Suleiman and Hurrem as a simple romance or a tale of political intrigue, but perhaps it also contains a deeper spiritual meaning. Ottoman historians call the century and a half after Hurrem the "Sultanate of women," as powerful concubines and mothers directed policy for the dynasty. The biography of Lady Zheng offers an illustration of a traditional figure in Chinese history: the beautiful concubine who brings down a powerful dynasty. In imperial China, the young Lady Zheng endured a series of competitions to enter the inner palace of the Ming dynasty as a concubine, where she won the love of a lonely and misunderstood emperor.
