Mary of the Mongols Maria's Passion
Sometimes fortune fails you, even if you're the daughter of an emperor. Like the unfortunate Maria Paleologina.
Although her father was loved by the people for taking back Constantinople from the Latins, the people were also affected by his brutality, and even the emperor's name was enough to be an element of fear. Maria's mother was also killed by the dagger of this cruel emperor. Despite all this cruelty, the emperor, who loved Maria very much and tried to protect her from the world, raised his daughter freely, and this continued until Maria became a maverick young woman. Until one day Maria fell in love with a vagabond from Galata.
Her lover, a dark, handsome poet, is penniless like every adventurer. This young man is the gift of Istanbul during Maria's joyful times when she escapes from the palace and wanders the streets of Istanbul alone. Soon these two lovers start to meet every day and an old wooden house in Galata becomes their sanctuary. The young poet, who lives peacefully in the house he shares with another friend, is unaware of what will happen to him. The cruel emperor has already ordered the death of the young poet. But an ominous fire that starts on the same day changes the whole story. Realising that the three survivors of the fire were Maria, her lover and her roommate, the soldiers took Maria to the palace and the two unfortunate young people to the dark depths of death. When Maria comes to her senses, she is both suffering from love pangs and questioning her youth with a big burn scar on her face, while she is known as the most beautiful girl in Constantinople. Although the emperor brings the best doctors of the period, it is very difficult for Maria to regain her former beauty.
Although Maria carries the world like Atlas at a young age, the dark surprises that life has prepared for her have not yet ended. The emperor, who wants to strengthen the bond with the Mongols, sends his daughter Maria to Hülagü Khan for marriage. Under the conditions of the period, the journey takes a very long time and Hülagü Khan is very old. While Maria was on the road, her future husband, whom she had not yet married, died. Thereupon, Maria, who seems appropriate to marry the ruler's son Abaka Khan, accepts this offer and has no other choice. When Abaka Khan is killed by his brother Ahmet Khan in the struggle for the throne, Maria is considered cursed and sent to Istanbul.
Maria, who could not get anything she wanted from life, wanted to shut herself in a monastery because she took death with her wherever she went. Built in 1281 and one of the only churches not converted into a mosque by the edict of Mehmed the Conqueror during the conquest of Istanbul, Maria finally falls into her eternal sleep and perhaps her ordeal ends.
The Bloody Mary Church, where a photocopy of the edict is still displayed on the wall today, is also known as the Mary of the Mongols. The unfortunate Maria was even painted, but her bad luck did not leave her there either. Maria was portrayed as a Mongolian princess and her slanted eyes remained on the stage of history, not her wounded but beautiful, suffering but innocent face.