Hello! Watching MC and then reading about the actual harem (that it was in the Old Palace, not Topkapi), how did the sultan then choose a concubine? Would he deliberately travel to the Old Palace to select one or did someone else always picked for him? And if concubines even after birthing a child would still stay in the harem, wouldn't that have been quite lonely? How did Sultanate of Women even happen if they weren't close to the political center of Topkapi?
How did the sultan then choose a concubine? Would he deliberately travel to the Old Palace to select one or did someone else always picked for him?
A little of both!
Sometimes women were purchased from the slave markets to be raised within the households of high-ranking statesmen or even Imperial princesses. These women were then "gifted" into the harem where their careers would almost be fast tracked since, unlike others, they'd be considered already educated (fun fact, a theory about Hürrem is that she was, in fact, presented as an "accession gift" by Ibrahim or else trained by a princess and then gifted to the Valide Sultan).
However, the harem wasn't just a place for potential concubines—the female members of a sultan's family were there too. And, on the customary visits to his mother, potential "prospects" could be placed in his path.
“During a sultan’s visit, his mother or a resident sister would organize refreshment and entertainment. These receptions offered him opportunity to survey attractive young women who served fruit-flavored sherbets or offered a music-and-dance interlude. For her part, an aspiring concubine was ready and eager to display grace and accomplishment. The bolder among them perhaps engaged in guarded flirtation. Did Roxelana beguile Suleyman with the laugh or the smile for which she presumably earned her Ottoman name, Hurrem?” – Leslie Peirce. Empress of the East: How a European Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire
So, really, if a concubine were determined to advance and happened to be purchased into the harem directly from the slave markets then the best way to go about it was to attract the attention of a higher up (either a servant who could recommend her to the Valide or even the Valide herself).
And if concubines even after birthing a child would still stay in the harem, wouldn't that have been quite lonely?
Admittedly, if a concubine did become favored by the sultan there was a separate place within Topkapı that she could occupy. Of course, until the Sultanate of Women this would've been a short-term residence since a sultan didn't really keep a regular partner until Hürrem.
Before, under the policy of "one son to one mother" a concubine could only return to the sultan's bed if she birthed a daughter. If she gave birth to a prince, her sexual role would be considered over (which could be either a blessing or a sorrow depending on that woman's feelings).
It's easy to see how being within the harem could be lonely (historians have touched on that a bit too, honestly) but I think that's why these women gathered trusted allies around them. (For example, the real Gülfem was a close friend of Hürrem's and she also had a trusted eunuch within her service.)
The sultan could still visit, but Suleiman was, truth be told, away from the capital on campaign quite often, which, no doubt, is why there are so many letters passed between himself and Hürrem in those times.
How did Sultanate of Women even happen if they weren't close to the political center of Topkapi?
Ah, it happened because that political center got breached!
"Roxelana had apparently gained her freedom at some point before becoming Suleyman's spouse. Then, following her marriage to the sultan, she gradually took up residence in the New Palace [Topkapı Palace], the first royal woman to ever do so. Manumission, marriage, the opening of harem quarters in the previously all-male palace—each development was a radical move, each shattered Ottoman precedent. A whole new position was coming into the Ottoman empire that could only be called the office of queen." – Leslie Peirce. Empress of the East: How a European Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire
After Hürrem would come Nurbanu, who, often along with her son, would occupy Topkapı as well (particularly since, in Selim II's reign, Mihrimah was head of the harem in the Old Palace).
Basically, Hürrem broke the mold enough to allow for the Sultanate of Women to occur.
