The wife of Mahmud, Besma, taken as a little girl from the life of a peasant, rose to a position of supreme dignity and great influence. Her beauty easily won the passion of Mahmud. She never lost sight of her humble origin and was much beloved by the masses of the people, even those of the most lowly classes. She was the mother of Abd-ul-Aziz, and it was she who unsuspectingly gave to the sultan, her son, the scissors with which he killed himself. At any rate, the unfortunate monarch was found dead in his apartments. The mother pined away in seclusion, and was seen only in her deeds of charity. It was Besma who built the mosque Yeni Kalideh at Ak Serai, and it is here she rests in the midst of a beautiful garden of flowers, of which, during her lifetime, she was so fond. On her death, about fifteen years ago, she was accorded a funeral of great magnificence, and she was generally mourned throughout the empire. It is said that when Besma was building the mosque, her money fell short of her purpose, so that she could build but one minaret instead of two, as custom entitled. Her son, however, came forward, offering the necessary funds, which she declined with the remark: "No, one minaret is sufficient to call the people to prayers; another would only glorify me; the poor need a fountain." So she built a fountain for the people, and it is one of the most beautiful in Constantinople. One of the most celebrated--even if she be not one of the best--women of Turkey history was Khurrem, the "Joyous," whom Europeans generally knew as Roxelana. She was wife of the greatest figure in Turkish annals, Suleyman the Magnificent, who reigned about the middle of the sixteenth century. Roxelana, though her origin has not been clearly traced, was probably of Russian descent. From the first this strong-minded woman exerted great influence over Suleyman. In the first place, she forced him to marry her publicly and with much ceremony, a proceeding which was then without precedent. Usually to have it announced that a woman had become mother of a male heir to the throne was regarded as sufficient announcement of marriage with the sultan. But this woman, who had now risen from the position of a slave woman to that of the highest dignity possible for a woman in the empire, determined that her marriage with the great monarch should be full of publicity and pomp. There was feasting and, apparently, great rejoicing, though the people were surprised and hardly understood what it all might mean. Roxelana was, however, equal to the emergency, and with the sagacity and determination which were native to her sent many slaves among the people as they feasted, distributing presents of money and pieces of silk to the masses. From this time, she not only held absolute sway over the sultan, but evinced great skill in buying the friendship of the people by gifts and acts of charity. Diplomacy was characteristic of her, and from