İsmihan Sultan

Inner courtyard of the Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque, a pious foundation of İsmihan Sultan

Esmahan Sultan Mosque in Mangalia, today's Romania

İsmihan Sultan (born around 1545 in Manisa ; died August 7, 1585 in Istanbul ) was an Ottoman princess .

Life

İsmihan was the daughter of Sultan Selim II (ruled 1566–1574) and the Nurbanu Sultan as well as the sister of Sultan Murad III . In 1562 she married the Ottoman Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pascha , after his death the governor of Buda, Kalaylıkoz Ali Pascha. The custom of marrying the daughters of the ruling sultan with high-ranking state officials had already arisen under the sultans Bayezid II (ruled 1485–1512) and Selim I (ruled 1512–1520). Since Suleyman I (r. 1520–1566) it became customary to marry off the respective grand vizier to a daughter of the sultan. As the sultan's sons-in-law ( damad ), high officials were to be personally bound to the dynasty. İsmihan died on August 7, 1585 and was buried in the mausoleum of her father Selim II at Hagia Sophia .

Foundations

She is known - together with her first husband - as the founder of the Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque in Istanbul and the Esmahan Sultan Mosque of Mangalia , the oldest mosque in today's Romania.

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b Leslie P. Peirce: The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire . Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0-19-508677-5 , pp. 65–69 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

personal data
SURNAME	İsmihan Sultan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Wife of the Ottoman Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1545
PLACE OF BIRTH	Manisa
DATE OF DEATH	August 7, 1585
Place of death	Istanbul

[Peirce-1] A ^b Leslie P. Peirce: The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire . Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0-19-508677-5 , pp. 65–69 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).