Puduhepa was a Hurrian woman of remarkable matrilineal origin, who was noted for her extreme matrilineal stance, after marrying Prince Hattušili III, who ruled the remaining part of the Hittite state in Central Anatolia as a prince, governor or petty king, following the Battle of Kadeš (1273 BC). She was the queen mother of both her husband and his stepson, King Tudkhaliya IV, during the reigns of approximately 40 years (1273-1233) in Hakmiš and Hattuša, which was then called “Gümüşkent”. Her hometown, Lawazantiya, was within the lands of the Hurrian country. Her father, Pentipšarri, was an ordinary religious official working in the service of the Goddess IŠTAR there. The Hurrians were characterized by their matrilineal stance. Therefore, Puduhepa’s marriage inevitably turned into a “cultural conflict” that sometimes spilled over into the palace. She went to that foreign and
It was certainly not easy for her to have her thoughts and actions, which seemed strange to many people, accepted in the conservative country, but let alone the implementation of the reforms she carried out with great effort and enthusiasm, the innovations she brought in state administration, social structure or religion, her name had not even been heard of until then. Of course, in order to have herself accepted, she had to take refuge in her husband's authority on the one hand and destroy it on the other. Although the Hittites had been somewhat weakened by the influence of the Hurrian and native Hatti cultures, they were stubbornly and uncompromisingly resisting their genetic habits and tendencies of Indo-European origin. In Hatti, she used a method she had discovered herself while destroying her husband's authority. She made Hattusili, who had been a sickly and morbid person since his childhood, a complete hypochondriac (a delusion of illness). In this way, she was able to almost take him under her tutelage. However, after this, she pursued great deeds that would be among the firsts in history. Even when we look at the situation that women have reached today, or rather fallen into, it is instructive to see that such a woman lived in the middle of Anatolia 3250 years ago, and there are many lessons to be learned. However, even if she was not the “first feminist” of the world or Anatolia as the Pan-Anatolians wished, and her actions and products of thought had no impact on later periods, when evaluated within the period and conditions in which she lived, as someone who burned like a star, she is among the extraordinary figures.

The book was written to understand the life of the ancient Anatolian woman and Puduhepa as a prelude with all its known aspects, to explain and narrate the events. Another task is to correct the false and incorrect information that has shown itself in the Turkish society, which has a close interest in Puduhepa for the reasons explained in the book and almost wants to declare her as the “Anatolian Cleopatra”. While writing the work, all the existing documents and information were meticulously collected, researched, evaluated in terms of philology, archaeology and history and most importantly, they were used after being subjected to source criticism, which is one of the most basic principles of historiography. Views on Puduhepa in modern literature have also been subjected to a similar critical filter. Efforts to research and shed light not only on the events that concern her but also on all the events and formations around her, including her geography, have enabled this historical figure who lived so many years ago to be revived, to give her real flesh, blood and soul and to share the results with the reader. Otherwise, Puduhepa cannot be evaluated alone in historical development; she is one of the links in a long chain. In this respect, the development of women and femininity, starting from prehistoric times until her time, was also included in the scope of the detailed analysis, thus placing Puduhepa within a broader and clearer historical framework.

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