Nurbanu

Nurbanu (born as Cecilia Venier -Baffo ; * 1525 in Paros , † 1583 in Istanbul ) was a Venetian by birth , the favorite of the Ottoman prince and sultan Selim II and mother of the later sultan Murad III. As a Valide Sultan , she had great influence in the Ottoman Empire .

Life

Cecilia Venier-Baffo was born in 1525 on the Greek island of Paros , a colony of the Republic of Venice . She was the daughter of the governor of Paros, Nicolo Venier , who married a woman named Santana in 1507. From this marriage came a son named Andrea. Cecilia, however, came from an affair between the father and Violanta Baffo. There are also hypotheses according to which she was Jewish or Greek.

As a child, she received a good education and upbringing that she might need for her later life. Through her father, Nurbanu was related to Sebastiano Venier , who was Doge of Venice in 1577/1578 , and she is said to have been related to the later born poet Giorgio Baffo (1694–1768).

Pirates kidnapped Cecilia Venier-Baffo from Paros when she was eight. Soon she came to the Sultan's court. Like many captured girls, she was raised to be a harem lady and became a companion of Prince Selim, who later became Sultan Selim II.

Like her mother-in-law Roxelane , she became the Sultan's favorite in the years that followed. Her main competitor was Selim's second wife, Selimiye Haseki, and her son Prince Abdullah. Selim also had other princes from other wives, but all of them were executed when Nurbanu's son ascended the throne in 1574. She consolidated the power of her son already at the time as Crown Prince, so that he was named Murat III. finally also the successor of Selim became. This made Nurbanu the first woman at the Ottoman court to go from a slave to the mother of a sultan.

Tomb of Sultan Selim II in Hagia Sophia , in the coffin next to him lies Nurbanu, Cecilia Venier

Nurbanu's time at the Turkish court was marked by so-called women's rule . Like Roxelane , she was one of the first Ottoman women to care about politics. Nurbanu's politics were pro-Venetian, she had a good relationship with her homeland. As the de facto ruler, she ensured the end of the Venice War that began in 1570 with a peace treaty . In addition, she was in correspondence with the French Queen Catherine de Medici , who was an important ally against Spain . Ester Handali, the kira (secretary) of Nurbanus, played a very important role here.

After the great fire of 1569, Nurbanu helped needy people who had become homeless. In 1583 a mosque she donated was completed. She passed away that same year.

children

Nurbanu and Selim had five known children:

• İsmihan Sultan (1544–1585)
• Murad III (1546-1595)
• Gevherhan Sultan (1548-1580)
• Saw Sultan (1548-1602)
• Fatma Sultan (1548-1580)

literature

• Leslie P. Peirce : The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire Oxford University Press, 1993 ISBN 0-19-507673-7

Individual evidence

1. ^ Stanford J. Shaw: History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Volume 1: Empire of the Gazis. The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1280-1808 Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1976, p. 178.
2. ↑ Benjamin Arbel:, Nur Banu (c. 1530-1583): A Venetian Sultana? In: Oriens 24 (1992), pp. 241-259.

See also

• Feminine rule