Salastina (1600s - ?) is reputed to have been an "arch-patroness" of the Arts, an adventurous woman who went to extraordinary lengths to cultivate and promote a flowering in the creative fields, especially of Music. Accounts of almost supernatural powers of inspiration, surprising geographic and chronologic references, and the general haze of legend and fantastical tales surrounding Salastina make it difficult to separate myth from reality in our research. Real or fictional, we find such an exemplar, whose love for Music was embodied by the strict adherence to the loftiest ideals of Art, to be a worthy Muse for our Society.

This page will be updated as research reveals more information about Salastina.

...owe the sum of my being to my Muse Absolute, Salastina. And yet she shrouds herself in layers of mystery and anonymity, provoking me to paroxysms of uncertainty and doubt. Does she exist? Do I dedicate the fruits of my soul, such as they are, to an idea, a fantasy? Then I gird my loins and cry, "So be it!" There are worse fates.

* H. Hume, 17th century English composer

L. has confided to me that he is confounded by the secretive Salastina. She avoids fame and honor like the plague....She says to him, "The artist should feel like Existence itself is beneficently showering upon them...therefore, let them be unaware of the source of treasure. What is treasure but a handful of metal, when they hold in their hands the very secrets of Life?" Cut her, and she bleeds masterpieces and melodies. Her talent to inspire is a god-given gift, but Art is her god, so let it be called Art-given. He says that at one moment she fully embodies all the ideals of the Eternal Feminine, inspiring him to unimaginable feats of artistic prowess; the next moment she is earthy and bawdy enough to make a salty sailor blush! And yet she also inspires humor, that wellspring of clarity, and perhaps the greatest gift one can give in this sad world.

Check references: L, ever prone to exaggeration and invention, may be seeking to enhance his own reputation with this account of a legendary association.

- found in the fragment of notes for an unknown biography, circa 17th century, translated from Italian

You, who have exiled yourself from the Source
Run swiftly from this place, for your shell will crumble
One like Salastina approaches
Whose very glance is like an enchanted rain
That falling on earth, turns mud into men,
And men into lovers and poets

-attr. to an anonymous Urdu poet, 18th century India,translated

Many of you have asked who or what Salastina is. Historically, she is reputed to have been an "arch-patroness" of the arts, an adventurous woman who went to extraordinary lengths to cultivate and promote a flowering in the creative fields -- especially of music. Accounts of almost supernatural powers of inspiration, surprising geographic and chronologic references, and the general haze of legend surrounding Salastina make it difficult to separate myth from reality in our research. Intriguingly, recent scholarship has suggested that Salastina may not have been one individual, but in fact a title that was secretly awarded to those of appropriate disposition and means over time.

On separate occasions in recent months, Kevin and I traveled to Turkey on what one might call a pilgrimage to our muse and namesake: Istanbul was home to a woman who may have been Salastina. We are delighted to share with you a bit of the research we unearthed during our Turkish travels.

The history of classical Ottoman palace music, the secular art music that took shape in the courts of the Sultans in the 17th century, has been documented extensively -- not only by the Turks themselves, but also by visitors from the West, who could not help but be fascinated by the otherworldly sounds they encountered. As neither Kevin nor I can read Ottoman Turkish, we found French and Italian accounts of Ottoman art music and patronage particularly illuminating.

But first, a bit of background.

Although what is now regarded as classical Ottoman palace music truly took shape in the 17th century, much of the stylistic groundwork was laid in the mid-16th century, during the cultural "Golden Age" of the Ottoman Empire. The conquest of Baghdad in 1530 brought a flood of Persian musicians -- and with them, the compositional forms, modes, and instruments of Persia -- to the court of Suleiman the Magnificent, then reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Although it took several more decades for the distinct Ottoman-ness of the music to fully assert itself, it got there with the patronage of Suleiman's court, and quite possibly with the support of Salastina herself.

Women of the Harem playing the Ottoman çeng, a harp derived from the Persian "chang;" Salastina ?, third from left

According to documents in the Topkap? Palace archives, the Cemaat-i Mutriban (palace musician's ensemble) included women playing the çeng. Such çengi were often concubines from the sultan's harem. Fittingly, the çeng was a common metaphor in Ottoman poetry, representing one doubled over in agony from a lover's cruelty.

In 1531, a French merchant by the name of Jean du Menton Barbu accompanied the French ambassador on an extended visit to Istanbul. In one particularly poetic diary entry, he describes a woman who we can only infer must be Salastina:

Play, Mahidevran, your heavenly harp.
Celestina, pluck your notes from the exquisite canopy of the heavens
with that same divine beauty that draws blood from my heart.
Play me, Rose of Spring, as you play your çeng.
For like it, I am but wood between your knees.

Barbu's ode tells us that the woman he calls "Celestina" was Mahidevran, also known as Gül-Bah?r ("Rose of Spring"). Mahidevran was, for many years, Suleiman the Magnificent's favorite concubine. She was also the mother of Mustafa, Suleiman's first-born son. Famously, Suleiman became infatuated with the scheming Roxelana, who convinced him to send Mahidevran and Mustafa to a remote province. Worse still, Roxelana persuaded Suleiman to have Mustafa killed, ensuring that one of her own sons would rise to the throne. Distraught over her son's death, Mahidevran fortunately did not die in poverty. In her later years, Sultan Selim II mercifully put her on a lavish salary.

Little is known of Mahidevran's early life. She was, most likely, a noblewoman of Adyge/Circassian origin. According to the Human Genome Diversity Panel, Adyges are "not European, Asian, or Russian (Slavic, Cossack) but a different race from the Indo European speaking races altogether." To this day, one of the most important customs of the Adyge culture is the principle of xabze, which could loosely be interpreted as philanthropy: "the Code requires that all Circassians are taught generosity. Greed, desire for possessions, wealth and ostentation are considered disgraceful by the Xabze code."

This begs the question: what would a musically-inclined Adyge woman have done with the exorbitant funds bestowed upon her by Sultan Selim II as reparations for his mother Roxelana's mistreatment? This very question and the following account add further credence to our suspicion that Mahidevran may have been Salastina -- serving not only as muse, but also as philanthropist.

In 1573, a Venetian dignitary named Fortunato Baffo-Buffonesco visited the court of Sultan Selim II. (Buffonesco was a distant relative of the Venetian noblewoman Cecilia Venier-Baffo, who was the favored consort of Sultan Selim until his death.) Buffonesco describes a musical scene in the palace:

After dining on a most heavenly stew of beef and marrow bones, we were treated to an exquisite array of aural pleasures.
First, the women played on all manner of instruments, plucked, struck, and bowed. Next came the men, just as skilled
as their feminine counterparts. As the last note faded into the heavens, a strange Ottoman playing the çeng at my left whispered imperceptibly:
"Great is Celestina, for she makes all this possible. Great is the Rose of Spring, whose generosity brings the bud to bloom."

Maia outside Topkap? Palace, where much of our research was conducted; Kevin on the palace grounds

Does the evidence support that Mahidevran was Salastina? Did Kevin and I stand in the very same room in which our muse enthralled a captive audience, later inspiring and financially supporting generations of musicians to come?

The Harem of Topkap? Palace, as seen from Maia's iPhone