17. Cage Your Brothers Instead of Kill Them
Eventually, a reaction set in against the Ottoman tradition of fratricide. So a new tradition was developed to take its place: instead of new sultans outright murdering their siblings upon ascending the throne, they simply locked them up. Thus was born the system of the Ottoman Kafes, or “Cage”, whereby sultans set up a secluded part of their royal Harem as a detention center for their brothers.
There, in the Kafes, potential rivals to the throne were kept under house arrest, under surveillance by palace guards and isolated from the outside world to prevent intrigues and plots. As seen below, life in the Kafes could be rough. However, for those living in it, by dint of the very fact that they were still living at all, meant that it (usually) beat the alternative.