List of Muhteşem Yüzyıl episodes

While hunting in the woods, a young 26-year-old Süleyman is informed that his father Sultan Selim has died. He rides to Constantinople alongside his best friend, Pargalı İbrahim, to take the throne. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian girl named Alexandra gets kidnapped in a Tartar slave raid. Her parents and sister are killed. She is finally sold to the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, and accepted into the Sultan's harem. Nigar (one of the main Harem leaders) explains to Alexandra that if she behaves herself and does as she is told, she will be summoned by the Sultan, and if she gives him a son, she will rule the world as a Sultana. After capturing the Sultan's attention, she spends a night with him and eventually falls in love with him. After converting to Islam, Süleyman changes her name to Hürrem ("who brings joy to one's face"). Subsequently, she gives birth to her first son, Şehzade Mehmed, and rises to the top of the court. At the same time, Mahidevran, a senior hatun (lady) and mother of the Sultan's eldest son, Mustafa, gets worried when she notices Süleyman is not spending time with her anymore. A year later, Hürrem gives birth to her first and only daughter, Mihrimah Sultan. Meanwhile, Süleyman departs for his campaign in Belgrade and kills the husband of a woman name Victoria, who will be later sent to kill the Sultan. Also, Leo, Hürrem's fiancé during her early life in the Crimea, arrives in an attempt to find her. Hürrem who discovers his presence tries to hide the truth, but İbrahim decides to use it as against her. Victoria who has been renamed to Sadika following entering the harem, becomes a favourite of everyone, and a trusted servant. After many intrigues, she attempts to assassinate Süleyman, by holding a dagger on his throat. Meanwhile, because of the rivalry and developing hatred between İbrahim and Hürrem, he tries to blackmail and poison her but Leo saves her by eating the poisoned Turkish delight and dies, proving his love and honor.

Sadıka, who had tried to kill Süleyman, gets disarmed by him and is later killed by Matrakçı Nasuh, who had developed feelings for her. Spanish Princess Isabella and her servant are kidnapped by Turkish pirates and sold to Süleyman. Süleyman decides to use them as an advantage when he bargains with European sovereigns. Isabella wants to escape but fails several times. Hürrem, who has heard about her, becomes jealous and later threatens Isabella when the latter is made part of the harem. Eventually, Hürrem, with the help of Gül, Nigar and Nilüfer, succeeds in sending her to Vienna, where she returns to her monastery. Hatice, who has been married to İbrahim for a while, gives birth to their first child, a boy named Mehmed, but she accidentally kills him while breastfeeding him at night. She eventually becomes pregnant with twins. Süleyman frees Hürrem to let her get involved in charity works under the Islamic law. At night when he goes to her room, she tells him that she cannot share a bed with him because she is a free woman and says that it is forbidden in their religion to share a bed with a man whom she is not married to. Breaking the Ottoman traditions, Süleyman finally decides to marry her. The Valide Sultan and some people show displeasure with this marriage as they consider it unacceptable. Furious, Mahidevran also requests to spend her life as a free woman, which Süleyman denies. Hürrem Sultan, who had sent an assassin to kill İbrahim changes her mind and calles off the attack after seeing Hatice's sadness. İbrahim, however, gets shot during the wedding ceremony with a poisoned arrow. The attacker was another archer sent by Behram Pasha. İbrahim becomes seriously ill and Nigar, Matrakçı and Sümbül get him to one of the hot springs in order to heal him. Nigar is later married to Matrakçı Nasuh under the Valide Sultan's order. She is not pleased with her wedding as she is actually in love with İbrahim. On her first night in her new house, upon İbrahim's surprising arrival she is informed that he and Matrakçı had a deal. Matrakçı divorces her, allowing her to have a relationship with İbrahim out of wedlock. While the Sultan goes to war, the Valide Sultan and Mahidevran conspire against Hürrem. The Valide places a spy and pretends to let Hürrem lead the harem for a while. During the rebellion provoked by the Valide's spy, one of the slaves is accused of stealing gold and the innocent girl burns herself. The slaves take torches and march towards Hürrem's chambers and try to burn her, but Daye and the guardians save her. Following his return, the Sultan tells his mother that she is not capable of leading the harem. The Valide, who had discovered the truth about İbrahim and Nigar, suffers a stroke and eventually dies. Following her death, a rivalry rises between Hürrem and Mahidevran for capturing the leadership of the harem. Nigar who had become pregnant by İbrahim tries to leave the palace but Hürrem kidnaps her during the journey and hides her. Hürrem also plots against Mahidevran by making her appear to be the person who had ordered a servant to strangle Valide but the plan fails since Nigar sees everything and tells Ibrahim about the whole plan. Hatice finally realizes that her husband has been unfaithful. Hatice sits down with her husband and brings in Nigar he admits everything about their relationship. Hürrem plots a second time against Mahidevran by making her appear to be the person who had ordered a servant to strangle Gülfem this time which succeeds. Süleyman finally gives Hürrem Sultan the leadership of the harem.

Following the previous events, everyone hears about Ibrahim's adultery. Hatice, who at first wanted to divorce him, tries to save their marriage. Nigar gives birth to a child but is told that her baby was stillborn, while in fact Hatice Sultan has sent the child to a far place to live her life in secret and hides the truth from Ibrahim and Nigar. Following the childbirth, Nigar is later taken to a distant place to be executed but is saved under Hürrem Sultan's order who later brings her back to the harem. A few years later Hürrem finally finds the girl, named Kadar, and subsequently notifies İbrahim. After learning the truth, İbrahim and Hatice arrange a marriage between Rüstem and Nigar. After serving as a regent during the war, Mustafa returns to Manisa and continues to serve as a Sancak Beyi. A girl named Firuze comes to Topkapi. Afife Hatun chooses her as a concubine for the Sultan and unbeknownst to Hürrem sends her to his chambers. Hürrem, who finally discovers Firuze's secret, orders Rüstem to kill her but he sees a tattoo on her neck with the shape of the Safavid dynasty's coat of arms. He notifies Hürrem, who informs Süleyman and the Sultan decides to send her away. Süleyman grows suspicious of İbrahim,he then receives a some reports written by Ibrahim and is informed about his hunger for power and he used the Sultan for his own purpose. He finally executes İbrahim after inviting him for a dinner, and then sends the corpse to İbrahim's palace. Hatice becomes very sad at the death of her beloved and disowns her brother Süleyman. Together Hatice and Mahidevran plan on killing Hürrem by sending Diana, Mahidevran's servant, to murder her as a revenge, but she eventually starts to serve Hürrem loyally. Meanwhile, Şah Sultan, who had arrived in the capital before at Hatice's invitation, starts to plot against Hürrem. Hürrem Sultan tries to convince Mihrimah to marry Rüstem to form an alliance against Şah and Hatice. Lütfi Pasha, who has been the grand vizier since Ayas Pasha's death due to Şah Sultan's trick, continues his crusade against prostitution by punishing a prostitute without waiting for the court's verdict. Learning the truth from her servants, Şah decides to divorce him but is slapped by him before the servants can take him out. Lütfi later gets banished. After a few years, Mihrimah gives birth to a daughter named Ayşe Hümaşah. Since she can't breastfeed the child, they hire a wet nurse who is in fact Şah's spy. Nigar returns to Istanbul and gets united with Şah Sultan and Hatice Sultan to take revenge from Rüstem. They help Nigar enter the palace of Rüstem and Mihrimah and tell her to kill Rüstem and Hürrem at night but when she sees Mihrimah's daughter, she remembers her own daughter and takes the child away. Nigar finally passes the baby back to Rüstem on the edge of a cliff and then commits suicide. Meanwhile, Mustafa meets the Austrian ambassador and this leads to a conflict between him and Süleyman. He punishes Mustafa by not allowing him to join the upcoming campaign and after the war is over, Mustafa will not return to Manisa, but he will be sent to govern Amasya. A fake letter is sent to Hürrem informing her that Selim is seriously ill. Hürrem decides to go to Konya in order to see her son, but in reality he is healthy and Hürrem gets captured on her journey and imprisoned in a secret place. Hatice Sultan who had reconciled with his brother commits suicide fearing from the Sultan's decision as he had realized that she was responsible for Hürrem's disappearance. She died thinking that she took vengeance on her husband's death by taking Hürrem from Süleyman. Malkoçoğlu Balı Bey finds a lead on Ali Ağa (who was Hatice's servant and is responsible for abducting Hürrem) and he goes to follow this clue in order to find Hürrem. Mihrimah also discovers that her aunt Şah had sent a spy to her palace. She confronts her and threatens her that she would inform her father unless she leaves the city and gives away her wealth to Hürrem's charity institute. Meanwhile, Süleyman and Hürrem's son, Mehmed, is murdered by his closest Janissary, Ilyas a servant of Mahidevran who transmits a fatal disease to the Prince after injuring him on purpose during sword practice. The news reaches Süleyman who falls in deep sorrow. Balı Bey succeeds in finding and rescuing Hürrem and brings her back to the palace.

Hürrem Sultan, who has returned to the palace, is planning to make sure the throne will pass to one of her own sons. Meanwhile, Rüstem Pasha has been chosen as the new Grand Vizier. Upon the death of Mehmed, the princes are called from their assigned provinces to the capital so that Süleyman can choose the next governor of Manisa. He finally chooses Selim to take the post. A new group of slaves are brought to the palace, bringing along the rebellious Cecilia Bafo, the daughter of a Venetian prestigious nobleman, who tries to enter Selim's harem but fails. She is eventually chosen by Hürrem, who makes Cecilia vow loyalty to her and changes her name to Nurbanu. Fatma Sultan, one of Süleyman's sisters, arrives in the capital with Ibrahim and Hatice's daughter Huricihan. Mustafa gets secretly married to Barbaros's daughter Mihrünnisa, and Bayezid and Huricihan also become close to each other. Atmaca, a soldier loyal to Mustafa who has received orders to kill Mihrünnisa as she's considered an obstacle to Mustafa's success, decides to let her live after learning that she's pregnant with Mustafa's child. At the capital, Hürrem Sultan continues to listen to the court's decisions and meetings through a secret salon. Fatma learns Hürrem's secret and informs Süleyman of her actions, who banishes her from the capital for a while. Süleyman decides to send Mustafa a gift, a caftan, as a sign of respect for his son. Hürrem, however, orders her servants to secretly poison it. After receiving the gift, Mustafa, who thinks his father intended to kill him, prepares a campaign and marches on the capital. Janissaries prevent Mustafa's army from entering the capital, so he and his father meet at the court and he explains to Süleyman the events that had happened before. Süleyman, who has now reconciled with his son, gets seriously ill due to a disease. While on a campaign for war, Süleyman is attacked by assassins but is saved by Mustafa, who had found out about their plans. At the same time, Mustafa meets his brothers Bayezid and Cihangir and promises that he would never kill them for taking the throne. Bayezid and Cihangir also confess that they believe it's his right to ascend the throne after their father's death. When Hürrem gets informed of his two younger sons's intentions, she decides to support her elder son Selim while Rüstem and Mihrimah continue to support Bayezid. Hürrem, with the help of Rüstem and Mihrimah, sends a fake letter to the Persian Shah Tahmasp I. In the letter, which has been sent without Mustafa's knowledge, they write about ruling the empire and disposing of Süleyman. The Sultan believes that Mustafa has betrayed him when he sees his son's seal on the letter and decides to execute Mustafa, ordering him to join him on his campaign against Safavid Persia. Although warned, Mustafa, who doesn't believe that his father intends to kill him, enters his father's tent and is murdered by executioners. Janissaries who supported Mustafa as the potential heir rebel against the Sultan and ask for Rüstem's head. Süleyman forgives his life, but removes him of all his positions and authorities. Cihangir, who deeply loved his elder brother, dies of heartbreak. With most of his sons deceased, a war for capturing the throne begins between Süleyman's two remaining sons, Selim and Bayezid. Hürrem Sultan, who believes in Bayezid's abilities to rule and control the government, decides to support him while Sultan Süleyman favors their elder son, Selim. With scars appearing on her body, it's revealed that Hürrem has an illness with no cure and that her death is near. Bayezid, with many janissary soldiers, sets out for Manisa to take Selim into account for plotting against him, but they're stopped by their mother Hürrem. As she feels her death is near, Hürrem decides to ask forgiveness from Mahidevran. She asks her husband to bury her in the newly built Süleymaniye Mosque and dies a few days later. A year after her death, Beyazid, who hasn't been pleased with his father's decision, gathers a huge army and goes to war against Selim. Süleyman, angered by Bayezid's actions, gives consent to his death. After getting injured during the battle, Bayezid and his sons flee to Persia and take shelter at the Safavid Shah's palace. As he later realizes that his father has offered the Shah money in exchange for his head, he decides to run away, but gets captured and imprisoned. The Shah hands Bayezid and his sons over to Selim, who orders their execution. Before the deaths of Bayezid and his family, with the support of Mihrimah, Rüstem, who betrayed them, is killed by Atmaca. Gülfem Hatun, who blamed the Sultan for destroying his family, tries to kill him but she gets killed by his guardian. Through the following years, Süleyman's health deteriorates. Süleyman decides to go to war for the last time to encourage his soldiers to attack the enemy. He dies during the battle of Szigetvár, as the Ottomans win the battle. Meanwhile, Mihrimah leaves the palace. Selim becomes the next sultan.