Book of Hafsa – Chapter Two

Liana

Hafsa reflects on the life she once lived before the Ottoman palace- when she was still Liana of the noble Zvanba clan in the mountains of Abkhazia. As hardship, debt, and political obligation slowly consume her family, Liana is taken from her homeland as payment to the ruling Chachba house. Against the backdrop of the cold Bzyb Valley, this chapter explores loss, survival, clan politics, and the painful reality of the Circassian slave trade that carried countless young women toward the courts of empires.

The Book of Hafsa is a historical fiction novel (by me) following the life of Hafsa Sultan, the consort of Selim I and the mother of Suleiman the Magnificent. Set during the rise of the Ottoman Empire, the story explores palace politics, dynastic paranoia, love, survival, and the hidden world of the imperial harem through Hafsa’s own eyes.