Timurtaş’s Greatest Challenge

One of the ladies leaned in, her eyes sparkling with mischief as she interrupted Ilkay Hatun's story, unable to contain herself. "Oh, that day? Let me tell you something!" she said, her voice dripping with excitement. "You know, ladies, that whole display of strength during Timurtaş's birthday celebration? The arm wrestling with Uluç and Kara, the show of absolute dominance over all the warriors in the realm? He wasn't just doing that for his pride. No, no! That was all for Martha."

The room buzzed with curiosity. Some of the women exchanged knowing looks. Martha, the legendary Danish noblewoman, had always been a topic of intrigue. She was beautiful, elegant, and notoriously hard to impress. It was well-known that she had caught Timurtash's eye long before the festival.

"Can you imagine?" the lady continued. "Timurtaş, the Kutlu Warrior, the man who had lived over a century and could crush anyone in his path—he was showing off for a woman! And not just any woman, but Martha, the prettiest woman in all of Western Europe. Oh, and he wasn't subtle about it either. Imagine this: Timurtaş turns to Martha after defeating Uluç and Kara, these two legends in their own right, and with a smirk, he practically says to her, 'You know Uluç, the famous commander of your Christian realms? The one your people speak of with awe? I just beat him like it was nothing. And Kara, the Dajjal, my shadow hand, my axe in the darkness? I crushed him too.'"

The women giggled, leaning in closer to listen. The idea of someone like Timurtaş putting on such a display for the attention of a single woman was both amusing and fascinating.

"But Martha," the lady went on, "she was unfazed. She didn't care about any of it. Can you imagine? The most powerful man in the world, showing off everything he's got, and she just walks away! Oh, you should have seen Timurtaş's face. He was furious. He looked like a child who didn't get his favorite toy. He was so grumpy, storming off to find her."

Ilkay Hatun chuckled, nodding as if she knew exactly what the woman was talking about. "Yes, yes, I've heard this one too," she said. "He went after Martha, didn't he? Followed her like a puppy, trying to impress her even more."

"Exactly!" the other lady exclaimed. "And he did everything he could think of. He threw knives with perfect precision, axes too. He even did a backflip—can you imagine? A hundred-year-old man doing a backflip just to show off! And all the while, Martha just stood there, completely unimpressed. She didn't care about any of it. What she wanted wasn't a show of strength. She wanted stories."

"Ah, yes," Ilkay Hatun said with a smile, leaning back in her chair. "Martha wanted more than just the usual display of might. She wanted to know the man behind the legend."

"And that's the thing," the other woman continued. "Martha wasn't interested in his power. She was interested in him, the person. But here's the problem, ladies—no one ever asked Timurtaş personal questions before. Can you believe that? All these years, all these people around him, and no one ever asked him, 'What's your favorite food? What's your favorite color? Do you like the seaside or the mountains?' All they ever asked him about was politics, strategies, and alliances. It was always power with Timurtaş, always about his next move, his next conquest."

Ilkay Hatun nodded, her expression softening as she added, "You know, I've read some of Timurtaş's diaries. And it's true. He wrote about how he was always treated like a war machine, a tool of the empire. No one cared about the small things in his life. The things that would make him seem… I don't know, more human." 

"Exactly!" the lady said, snapping her fingers. "And that's what made Martha different. She wanted to know him—the real Timurtaş, not just the Kutlu Warrior. She wanted to know who he was as a man. And that's why she was so hard for him to win over."

Ilkay Hatun smiled, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "But in the end, he did win her over, didn't he?"

"Oh, he certainly did," the woman replied, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "But not by throwing axes or beating Uluç in arm wrestling. No, no. He won her over by showing his intellect, his stories. Martha wasn't impressed by brute strength. She wanted someone who could match her mind, someone who had lived and learned from his experiences."

The room was silent for a moment, the women lost in thought as they imagined the great Timurtaş—so often seen as a warrior first and a man second—opening up to Martha in a way he never had with anyone else.

"But ladies," Ilkay Hatun said with a wink, breaking the silence, "let's not forget that Timurtaş was still a warrior at heart. And sometimes, winning a woman's heart means throwing a few axes and doing a backflip, even if you're a hundred years old."

Laughter rippled through the room as the women marveled at the story, their imaginations running wild with thoughts of the legendary Timurtaş trying—and eventually succeeding—to win the heart of the Danish beauty.