14. The sultan who liked cow-like women
Before he became Ottoman sultan, Ibrahim I was locked up at age 8 by his older brother Murad IV in the palace’s Kafes, or “Cage”. It was a secluded part of the Harem, where potential successors to the throne were kept under house arrest, under surveillance and isolated from the outside world to prevent intrigues and plots. While in the Cage, Ibrahim’s brother, Murad, executed his other brothers, one by one, until only Ibrahim was left, constantly quaking in fear. It messed with his mind, and explains why Ibrahim became known as “Ibrahim the Mad” when he ascended the throne following his brother’s death in 1640.
In addition to nutty behavior such as feeding goldfish gold coins, Ibrahim went wild with the Harem. As a contemporary put it “In the palace gardens he frequently assembled all the virgins, made them strip themselves naked, and neighing like a stallion ran amongst them and as it were ravished one or the other“. Other oddness includes the time he got turned on by a cow’s genitals, had copies made of gold, and sent them around the empire, with orders to find a woman similarly endowed. A 350-pound woman with matching parts was eventually found, and she became one of his favorite concubines. More sinister was the time he was seized by a fit of madness, and had his entire Harem of 280 women tied in weighted sacks and drowned in the sea.