Handan Sultan

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The Türbe of the Handan is near the Mehmed III. in the courtyard of Hagia Sophia .

Handan Sultan (* 16th century in Eyâlet Bosnia ; † November 9, 1605 in Istanbul ) was a wife of Mehmed III. and Valide Sultan under Sultan Ahmed I.

Life

Handan was born in Bosnia and worked in the household of Cerrah Mehmed Pascha , the Beylerbey of Eyâlet Rumelien and his wife Gevherhan Sultan , a daughter of Sultan Selim II. Mehmed Pasha was the circumciser ( cerrah ) of Mehmed III in 1582 , so there was one close acquaintance with the prince. When Prince Mehmed was appointed to the Sanjakbey of Saruhan (today Manisa ) in 1583 , Mehmed Pascha and Gevherhan Sultan introduced him to Handan on his departure and gave him the Bosnian slave girl. When Mehmed ascended the throne after the death of his father in 1595, Handan came with him to Istanbul. Together with Mehmed III. Handan had five children: Şehzade Sultan Selim (1585–1597), Şehzade Sultan Süleyman (* 1586, died as a child), Şehzade Ahmed and two daughters.

Valide sultan

When Ahmed after the death of his father Mehmed III. on December 22, 1603 ascended the throne, Handan became the Valide Sultan. As the mother of the new sultan she got a daily prerogative of 1000 Asper. Soon after his successor, Ahmed wanted to thank Mehmed Pasha and Gevherhan Sultan for the role they had played in bringing his parents together. But Cerrah Mehmed Pasha was already old and sick at this point and died on January 9, 1604. Ahmed therefore honored the wife of the deceased Pasha and named one of his daughters after her.

As co-regent, Handan was actively involved in government affairs and palace affairs together with Ahmed's teacher Mustafa Efendi († 1607/08). While Ahmed spent a lot of time outside the palace hunting or inspecting the empire, Handan directed the affairs of state as regent.

Handan soon established a close network of supporters and preferred Bosnians at her son's court. She convinced Ahmed to appoint Yavuz Ali Pasha , of Bosnian descent, as Grand Vizier and maintained a close relationship with him, especially during the critical first months of Ahmed's reign. In the spring of 1604 she and Mustafa Efendi ordered Yavuz Ali Pasha to take command in Hungary. In August 1604 Ahmed ordered the execution of the deputy grand vizier Kasim Pasha and in January 1605 his successor Sarıkçı Mustafa Pasha. In both cases, his decision was approved and encouraged by Handan Sultan and Mustafa Efendi. The two tried to rid the court of loyal followers of the former Valide Sultan Safiye , whom Handan had banished from the court just a few weeks after Ahmed's accession to the throne.

Due to the influence of Handan Sultan on her son, the Bosnian dervish replaced Mehmed Pasha Bayram Agha as the bostancıbaşı of the court in the summer of 1604 . Thanks to Handan's continued support, he managed to become a close confidante and “protector” of Ahmed. In 1606 he finally became Grand Vizier.

Handan Sultan also acted as an intermediary between her son and other government officials. Any vizier who wanted to communicate with Ahmed had to petition her first.

Sickness and death

The governor of Eyâlet Egypt Sinanpaşaoğlu Mehmed Pasha, who married the daughter of Piyale Pasha and Gevherhan Sultan in November 1598 and was so closely connected with Handan, should put down the Celali uprisings . However, his measures proved ineffective and he behaved so inappropriately that he arose the suspicion of having become a rebel himself. He was deposed and imprisoned, but with Handan's intervention he was forgiven by the Sultan. He returned to Istanbul and took up his duties as a vizier, but was executed on August 20, 1605. Handan, who was already ill at the time, was so shocked by the turn of events that her condition was reportedly deteriorating.

She died on November 9, 1605 in Topkapı Palace after a long illness and was buried next to her husband in his mausoleum in the Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul. Ahmed did not postpone his departure from Istanbul in the campaign against the Celali revolts, although the viziers insisted on the usual seven-day mourning. After Handan's death, Haci Mustafa Agha, the chief eunuch of the imperial harem during Ahmed's reign, became the highest authority in the harem.

Handan Sultan established a foundation for the maintenance of the tomb of her husband Mehmed III. and for the salaries of his employees. She also established religious foundations in Kütahya , Menemen and Kilizman .

In popular culture

In the television series Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem , Handan Sultan is played by the Turkish actress Tülin Özen .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Günhan Börekçi: Factions And Favorites At The Courts Of Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603-17) And His Immediate Predexessors . Dissertation, Ohio State University, 2010, p. 93
  2. ↑ Günhan Börekçi: İnkırâzın Eşiğinde Bir Hanedan: III. Mehmed, I. Ahmed, I. Mustafa ve 17. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Siyasî Krizi . Dîvân - Disiplinlerarası Çalışmalar Dergisi . Volume 14, No. 26 (2009/1), pp. 45–96, here p. 80
  3. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 93
  4. ↑ Börekçi (2009), p. 80
  5. ↑ Baki Tezcan: Searching For Osman: A Reassessment Of The Deposition Of Ottoman Sultan Osman II (1618-1622) . Dissertation, Princeton University, 2001, p. 329, footnote no.25
  6. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 69, footnote no.107
  7. ↑ Stanford J. Shaw, Ezel Kural Shaw: Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1280-1808 . (= Volume 1, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey ), Cambridge University Press, 1976, pp. ISBN 978-0-521-29163-7 , p. 186 ( digitized version )
  8. ^ Leslie P. Peirce: The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire . Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0-195-08677-5 , p. 127
  9. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 94
  10. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 130
  11. ^ A b Gábor Ágoston, Bruce Alan Masters: Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire . Infobase Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4381-1025-7 , p. 23
  12. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 207
  13. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 130
  14. ↑ Tobias P. Graf: The Sultan's Renegades: Christian-European Converts to Islam and the Making of the Ottoman Elite, 1575-1610 . Oxford University Press, 2017, ISBN 978-0-19-879143-0 , p. 153
  15. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 131
  16. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 136
  17. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 216, footnote no.35
  18. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 121, footnote 104
  19. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 126
  20. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 137
  21. ↑ Mehmet Ipşırlı: Mustafa Selaniki's history of the Ottomans . Türk Tarihi Kurumu, Ankara 1976, p. 211
  22. ↑ Peirce (1993), p. 243
  23. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 120
  24. ↑ Mehmed Nermi Haskan: Yüzyıllar Boyunca Üsküdar . Volume 1, Üsküdar Belediyesi, Istanbul 2001, ISBN 975-97606-3-0 , p. 337
  25. ↑ Börekçi (2010), pp. 120f.
  26. ↑ Baki Tezcan: The Debut Of Kösem Sultan's Political Career . In: Turcica . No. 40, 2008, p. 351
  27. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 124
  28. ↑ Necdet Sakaoğlu: Bu Mülkün Kadın Sultanları: Vâlide Sultanlar, Hâtunlar, Hasekiler, Kandınefendiler, Sultanefendiler . Oğlak Yayıncılık, 2008, ISBN 978-6-051-71079-2 , p. 301
  29. ↑ Mustafa Çağatay Uluçay: Padişahların kadınları ve kızları . Ankara 2011, p. 77
  30. ↑ Peirce (1993), p. 243
  31. ↑ Börekçi (2010), p. 21
  32. ↑ Ágoston, Masters (2010), p. 153
  33. ↑ Peirce (1993), p. 210
  34. ↑ Uluçay (2011), p. 77
  35. ↑ Peirce (1991), p. 215
  36. ↑ Muhtesem Yüzyil: Kösem (TV Series 2015–). In: IMDb. Retrieved May 24, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Handan Sultan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of Mehmed III. and Valide Sultan under Sultan Ahmed I.
DATE OF BIRTH 16th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH Eyâlet Bosnia , Ottoman Empire
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 1605
Place of death Istanbul