to support the number of women in the imperial harem, it was downsized with wives, unmarried sisters, and servants being moved elsewhere. In 2014 a project began to restore and refurbish the harem of the Yıldız Palace in order to open the space up for tourism. Following this project scholars and others began to research and learn more about the harem architecture, ornate decor, furnishings, and everyday lives of its inhabitants. Much of this work has yet to be published. Roles and Positions of the harem Role of the The mother of a new sultan came to the harem with pomp and circumstance and assumed the title of valide sultan or sultana mother upon her son's ascension. She would become a prominent leader, whose power extended over the harem as well as the members of the dynasty. The who influenced the political life of the Ottoman Empire during various periods of history (such as the Sultanate of Women in the 16th and 17th centuries) had the authority to regulate the relations between the sultan and his wives and children. When a prince left the capital for his provincial governorate, he was accompanied by his mother. In this way, she was able to fulfill her duty of directing the prince’s domestic household through training and supervision. At times the acted as regent for her son, particularly in the seventeenth century, when a series of accidents necessitated regencies that endowed the position of valide sultan with great political power. The influenced the way that the Ottoman sultans waged wars of conquest. Ottoman conquests were mostly in the West until the mid-1500s. Given that the succession of the Ottoman throne was a deliberately non-institutionalized and highly random event, there was a great deal of variation in the ethnic and religious backgrounds of the Ottoman valide sultans, and the ethnic background of the valide sultan was a major determinant of whether military conquests would be for North Africa, the Middle East, or Europe. The sultans were more likely to be mindful of their matrilineal descent as the princes’ mothers were primarily responsible for their upbringing and highly socialized them into their customs and ethnic backgrounds. Matrilineal background was so important that a European maternally descended sultan was more than 70 percent less likely to orient the empire’s imperial conquests towards the West. That said, Ottomans' military ventures in Europe were generally reinforced by a