or ASEKAI, the name which the Turks give to the favourite sultaneles who have brought forth sons. These are greatly distinguished above others in their apartments, attendants, pensions, and honours. They have sometimes shared the government. The sultana who first presents the emperor with a male child, is reckoned the chief favourite, is called buyuk aseki, and ranks as a legitimate wife: though, from the time of Bajazet I., the sultans are forbidden to marry by a public law, which Solyma II. violated in favour of Roxalana.