Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem

Season 1

Ahmed is an Ottoman prince, son of Sultan Mehmed III and Handan Sultan. He laments for the loss of his elder brother Mahmud, who was executed on the order of Sultan Mehmed, after a seer predicted his ascension to the throne. His father, fearing a coup d'état to dethrone him, executed Mahmud. The intrigues of Safiye Sultan were also a possible reason for Mahmud's death, as Mahmud's intimacy for his mother Halime Sultan proved a threat to Safiye's status as Valide Sultan. Unforeseen, Sultan Mehmed III also dies, clearing the way for Ahmed to ascend to the Ottoman throne.

Meanwhile, in Tinos (modern day Greece) Anastasia (also referred as Nasya), is a 13-year old Greek girl who lives an idyllic life with her father Enzo, her mother, and her younger sister. Previously, she was painted with a lamb in her hands. This portrait is delivered to Safiye Sultan, who presents it as a gift to her grandson Sultan Ahmed I. Due to the impression made on him, Safiye Sultan orderes the girl to be brought to Topkapi Palace. On the road to Istanbul, Anastasia spots Iskander, a young trainee in the Janissary cadet school, run by Zülfikar Ağa, who vows to Anastasia that he will return her to her family and her homeland. Once they arrive at Topkapi, Cennet Hatun begins lecturing Anastasia on palace etiquette and courtesy. But Anastasia swore she would return to her homeland at all costs. While wandering the palace, she discovers a mysterious passageway leading to a secret garden, and there she first sees Sultan Ahmed. Ahmed introduces himself with a different name, and soon Anastasia starts having feelings for Ahmed. The other harem concubines, envious of Anastasia's beauty, start telling false tales to Anastasia, making her believe the sultan eats young girls' hearts. Anyhow, Anastasia is later taken to the sultan, who is bitten in his fist by Anastasia. But as soon as she looks up and discovers who he is, she is no longer afraid anymore. Meanwhile Halime Sultan runs away with her children, Dilruba and Mustafa, to save the latter from execution and eventually have him ascending to the throne. They are caught though and Mustafa is spared at the very last moment.

Believing Safiye Sultan is behind a conspiracy to replace him with his brother Mustafa as sultan, Ahmed decides to banish Safiye from the palace, and to deprive her off her wealth and authority.

Fahriye Sultan's relationship with Mehmed Giray is exposed to the audience, with Şahin Giray revealing his intentions of ending the Ottoman line and becoming the sole sultan. Safiye suggests a marriage between Dervish Pasha and Fahriye Sultan to Ahmed. After Mehmed Giray and Fahriye's relationship becomes known to the sultan, Mehmed is sentenced to death, but the sultan spares him after he hears Sahin Giray's plead. Not long after, Şahin instructs Fahriye to poison her nephews Ahmed and Mustafa. Fahriye agrees, doing it in order to preserve her affair with Mehmed. Handan blames Anastasia and has her tortured.

Bülbül Ağa finds out that Sultan Ahmed's malady isn't poison, but pox. Riots take place when the locals discover what is happening. Hope emerges at the face of Ahmed's concubine Rasha, who is found to be pregnant but Halime has the girl attacked by bandits while being sent to safety. Safiye, fearing the end of the three century old Ottoman dynasty, encourages the rest of the family to leave the palace with her. Anastasia, willing to stay with Ahmed, is reluctant. She stands in front of the rebels and admonishes them for abandoning their sultan in the times when he most needs them. They reply by calling her a witch then shoot her with a rifle. The bullet does not harm her, but lands on her Ta'wiz. Later, Anastasia visits a sorceress, who gives her a cure to Ahmed's pox. In return, Anastasia is told that she will walk a road filled with blood, she will see all the people she loves die before her eyes. Halime Sultan also applies sorcery to cure Mustafa's malady.

Everything turns normal, and Anastasia's name is changed to Kösem which means pioneer. She then converts to Islam. Safiye asks Kösem to convince Ahmed to let her remain in the palace, but Kösem refuses, saying that she should have stood by Sultan Ahmed when he needed them. This marks the beginning of Kösem and Safiye's animosity.

Handan Sultan orders her guards to execute Sehzade Mustafa. Kösem, who coincidentally happens to be with the Sehzade, prevents them from killing him. She doesn't, however, tell the Sultan about Handan's crime due to Handan's position as Kösem's ally against Safiye. At the same time, Ahmed leads the assault against the bandits and saves Rasha.

Enzo, Kösem's father is kidnapped and taken hostage by Safiye's guards. She uses this to blackmail Kösem into telling the Sultan about Handan's crime, and convincing him to keep her in Topkapi. Sultan Ahmed banishes his mother to the Old Palace (also known as "Eski Saray" or "Palace of Tears"). Safiye and Ahmed's relationship eventually starts recovering. Safiye, however, does not keep her promise and kills Enzo. Kösem is enraged and vows for revenge.

Cennet Hatun's love affair with one of the palace guards becomes known to the sultan, who orders her execution. While Cennet is in her prison cell, Kösem asks her about Safiye's secret, vowing to release her if she tells her what it is. Cennet is silent in the hope that Safiye will come and rescue her. All Cennet utters is that the secret is about Fahriye Sultan before Bülbül arrives, demanding her release by Safiye Sultan. As Kösem probes into Safiye's secret, she is aided by Halime Sultan who informs Kösem that the people who burnt Cennet's face were loyal to Safiye. Kösem takes advantage of this point to make Cennet tell her Safiye's secret and to change her allegiance. Rasha, renamed Mahfiruze, gives birth to a son named Osman. Fahriye Sultan and Dervish wed.

Kösem warns Safiye that she has only one day to pack all her belongings and leave for the Eski Saray, otherwise Kösem will inform the sultan about everything. Safiye agrees, asking only that she get the letter proving Fahriye's treason. The next morning, all the harem is alarmed at Safiye Sultan's departure. As she is on her carriage accompanied by Bülbül and Cennet, Cennet hands her the manuscript. Safiye is shocked that the manuscript is plain and contains no writing, meaning Kösem had tricked her and kept the real manuscript for herself. Cennet announces her allegiance to Kösem, and leaves the carriage feeling satisfied at taking her vengeance.

Kösem finds out that she is pregnant. Sultan Ahmed hands Kösem the crown of Hürrem Sultan, showing his love and respect for her. After this, Kösem blurts out Safiye's secret to Ahmed, which infuriates him. Dervish Pasha is blackmailed by his wife into helping her hide in a dargah, called Darul Aman (House of Protection), whose owner, Aziz Mahmud Hudayi, prohibits any forms of violence within its walls, including that commanded by the Sultan. Fahriye takes asylum in that house.

Sultan Ahmed asks his mother Handan Sultan to return to the palace, which pleases her very much. Months pass and Kösem bears a son named Mehmed. When Mehmed Giray visits Fahriye, she admits to him that she hates him. As a result, Mehmed begins working with Kösem Sultan to lure Fahriye out of the religious house, so the guards may take her to the Sultan's justice. They succeed in hatching this plan, and Fahriye is taken to the Sultan, who spares her for the sake of the royal family's reputation. He later exposes his true intentions when he assigns Dervish the task of punishing her. Whilst he and Fahriye are enjoying a meal and red wine, blood begins pouring down Fahriye's nose, indicating that the wine must have been poisoned. Fahriye dies in Dervish's arms. Safiye is left heartbroken, and vows to take down Sultan Ahmed from the throne.

Sultan Ahmed leaves for his military campaign against Safavid Persia. During this time, Safiye orders Ahmed's assassination and buys the loyalties of the pashas and the janissaries, who storm the palace at night, and kill many, including Mahfiruze Sultan; however Kösem escapes execution with the help of Zülfikar and Bülbül Ağa. Safiye meanwhile orders that Mustafa be brought to her and he is clothed and tidied in the morning, ready for the sword girding ceremony. But just before Mustafa is declared sultan, Ahmed arrives from campaign, having survived the murder attempt thanks to Dervish. He incarcerates Safiye in the Maiden's Tower, and strips her off all her power. Then, he decides as a ruler to execute his brother in order to secure his crown, but later spares Mustafa and instead has him put in confinement. Kösem, apart from being allowed to raise Osman herself, also takes Meleki, a poor, left-motherless-by-the-coup-events girl she has befriended, under her wing.

Hümaşah Sultan, Safiye Sultan's eldest daughter, arrives from Egypt. Not long after, Kösem is told by Mehmed Giray about the truth of Dervish and his role in the assassination of Sultan Mehmed III. Meanwhile, because of Halime Sultan the truth of Handan Sultan and Dervish Pasha's feelings for one another is exposed, making Handan vulnerable. The secret of Dervish Pasha's involvement in Sultan Mehmed III's death is revealed to Ahmed, who kills Dervish himself. Handan Sultan soon commits suicide, fearing that her secret has been told to her son. After Handan's death, Hümaşah Sultan is given the leadership of the harem. During this time, Sultan Ahmed prepares to build a mosque opposite Hagia Sophia.

Sultan Ahmed orders the release of Safiye from the Maiden's Tower, due to her aid in rescuing Kösem from the bandits. Hümaşah resignates from her role, due to Kösem Sultan's intrigues. Later, the former is informed by Bülbül that her long lost brother, the lost prince of the Ottoman dynasty, is Iskander. Safiye and Hümaşah conceal this truth for over eleven years, during which time Kösem consolidates her power and bears seven more children, Zülfikar and Hümaşah marry and Iskender assumes the post of Hasodabaşı (chamberlain of the Sultan). Ahmed, has also sired a son, Bayezid, on a third woman, Gülbahar. On the aspicious occasion of Eid ul Fitr, Ahmed decides to release Mustafa, who unbeknownst to everyone has become mentally unstable over time. Sultan Ahmed Mosque has been completed, and Sultan Ahmed, along with his sons and brother Mustafa, says the Friday prayer at the mosque. That same time, Safiye plans to poison Sultan Ahmed in order to clear the path for her own prince, through a young women, Yasemin. As part of Safiye's plan, Yasemin becomes Sultan Ahmed's consort, and slowly poison's him. Kösem thinking Yasemin as a threat, orders her execution. However, after her execution, Safiye later tells Kösem that Yasemin was her real sister. Kösem mourns her sister's death. Meanwhile, Safiye succeeds in poisoning Sultan Ahmed, who, already suffering from stomach problems, is eventually told he has less than a fortnight to live. Kösem is heartbroken, and prays to Allah and recites the Holy Qur'an, for Ahmed's health and her children's safety.

In a moment of haste, Hümaşah informs Zülfikar about Iskander's secret, and he in return informs Kösem Sultan. Kösem, fearing for her children's fate after her spouse's death, informs Sultan Ahmed, who orders Iskander's execution. Meanwhile, Halime Sultan and Menekse arrange the marriage of Dilruba Sultan to the grand vizier Halil Pasha, but she defies them and marries Davud Pasha in a secret Nikah ceremony.

Sultan Ahmed learns that his disease is progressing, and asks that he be legally married to Kösem before his death. A few days after Dilruba's official wedding, Sultan Ahmed dies due to abdominal pain. Kösem Sultan then aids Şehzade Mustafa in gaining the crown, however Halime and Dilruba turn against her, banishing her to the Old Palace. In the meantime, Iskender, having been spared by Zülfikar reunites with his mother and they plot to seize power and exact revenge.

After realising her mistake, Kösem plans a coup d'état to dethrone Sultan Mustafa and replace him with her stepson Şehzade Osman. Kösem uses Mustafa's weak mental state in order to justify her actions. Halime Sultan, seeing Kösem's children as a threat to her authority, orders them to be executed. Kösem arrives just in time to save her children, and then orders the janissaries to throw Mustafa in prison, and send Halime to the Old Palace. Then, Osman ascends to the throne as Osman II, but he refuses to end Kösem's exile at the Old Palace, due to her role in Mustafa's ascension and orders Mehmed's execution, Kösem. Kösem gets to know that Osman has ordered Mehmed's execution, who he believed, because of Safiye and his tutor's intrigues, the janissaries saw as a likely heir to the throne. Kosem gets to kow about the execution. She tries to get in the palace through a secret place and recites one of the Surah's of the Qur'an to save him, but in vain.

Distraught, Kösem Sultan visits her son, Mehmed, and husband Ahmed's mousoleum, while praying Dua, Osman comes their and tries to patch-up with her, but Kösem refuses and plans to dethrone Osman, while at the same time she repays Safiye by collaborating with Zülfikar to apparently kill Iskender. This event causes Safiye to commit suicide; dying, she admits her defeat to Kösem and gifts her with Hürrem Sultan's emerald ring. Eventually Osman's plans to replace the janissaries with a more loyal army proved to be the primary motive to his abashment, masterminded by Davud and during which Cennet and Zülfikar are killed, and subsequent incarceration and strangulation, thus enabling Mustafa's second reign to begin.

Hümaşah leaves the capital forever. Kösem, having reconciled with her stepson but failed to save him, is immensely anguished by his loss, and decides to annihilate all her rivals. Thus, she orders her allegiants to dispatch Davud, Dilruba and Halime, then imprison Mustafa again, viewing his psychologically disturbed condition not a threat to her rule. She then prepares to enthrone her eldest living son Murad to the Ottoman throne, thus inheriting the position of Valide Sultan, declaring herself the official regent to the crown, and gaining her prestige as the most formidable, influential, and powerful sultana in the Ottoman history.

Season 2

Kösem has been the all-powerful Valide Sultan and regent to her son Sultan Murad IV for nearly a decade, when the military unrest causes the latter to deprive her of her authority and the two clash.The control of the state fully in his hands, Murad sets his plans of restoring the empire to the times of prosperity and conquest and checking corruption in motion. At the same time, Hungarian princess Farya Bethlen seeks refuge at the Ottoman court and the instant attraction between her and the Sultan causes reactions. A strain is also put on Murad's relationship with his sister Gevherhan after the execution of her husband, as well as in hers with their mother, when she eventually opts for love instead of power games. Their half-brother and Crown Prince, Bayezid, though loyal himself to the sultan, is drawn in conflict too, due to the ambitions of his mother, Gülbahar, who has been long obscured by Kösem; all the while the other princes' and infidels' agendas remain unknown and anti-Ottoman sentiments and plans resurface in the West.