Saliha Sultan

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Saliha Sultan ( Ottoman صالحه سلطان; * around 1680 in Istanbul ; † September 21, 1739 ibid) was the wife of Sultan Mustafa II and Valide Sultan under Mahmud I.

Life

The Saliha Sultan Fountain in Istanbul

Saliha Sultan was reportedly born to a Greek family in Azapkapı , Istanbul, around 1680 . According to tradition, her future mother-in-law Emetullah (Gülnusch Sultan) is said to have seen the seven-year-old while walking through Istanbul in Azapkapı. She liked the girl so much that she is said to have asked the family, for whom the orphan worked as a maid, if she could take the girl with her. Saliha was taken to the palace and trained there.

Saliha became a concubine of Sultan Mustafa II and gave birth to her only child Şehzade Mahmud (later Mahmud I ) on August 2, 1696 in the Sultan's Palace in Edirne .

After the Janissary uprising and Mustafa's dethronement in 1703, she was taken to the old palace in Istanbul, from where she organized her alliances with members of the Imperial Palace and the urban elite. Her son Şehzade Mahmud was moved to the Topkapı Palace along with the entire court.

Mahmud's most reliable and influential ally was Saliha, who, thanks to her political experience and the networks she had built over the years, was able to secure her son's position as the Sultan's successor. She and her son worked closely with the chief black eunuch Hacı Beşir Ağa, who had headed the harem since 1717.

In 1730, Ahmed III. deposed after the Patrona Halil uprising and his 34-year-old nephew Mahmud enthroned as the new sultan. As the new sultan's mother, Saliha was able to play a conciliatory role and support her son's early reign through her good connections in the palace. She filled the vacuum created since the death of her mother-in-law and predecessor Gülnuş Sultan in 1715 and became very powerful and influential. Shortly after Mahmud's accession to the throne, Saliha moved into the apartments of the Queen Mother in the Topkapı Palace.

Mahmud I ordered his mother to build the Feraḥfezā Palace in Beylerbeyi on the Asian side of Istanbul (later demolished and replaced by the Beylerbeyi Palace ).

In the first years of his reign, Mahmud changed his grand viziers frequently, following the advice of his uncle and predecessor Ahmed. He believed that he had kept Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha in office for too long. The result of this new policy was aimed at not having too strong a personality on the post. During this time there were repeated complaints about the excessive influence of Saliha Sultan. There are reports that Kabakulak had to pay substantial sums of money to Ibrahim Pasha , Grand Vizier in 1731, Saliha and Beşir Ağa to secure his position. The constant changes in the grand viziers, however, opened the door to intrigue, and even the support of his powerful patrons did not help Kabakulak Ibrahim Pasha to keep his post for very long.

In 1739, Saliha became seriously ill and was taken to Tırnakçı Palace in the hope that she would recover there. Nevertheless, she died on September 21, 1739 and was buried in the Türbe of Turhan Hatice Sultan in the New Mosque in Istanbul.

Construction activity

Saliha intensively promoted the construction of water systems as a charitable donation to consolidate her son's reign. She took over the supervision of the Istanbul water systems from her mother-in-law Gülnusch Sultan. This included the repair and implementation of the Taksim water network as well as the equipping of wells opposite the Sitti Hatun mosque in Kocamustafapaşa and near the Defterdar mosque in Eyup (1735/36). At the point where her mother-in-law first met her in Azapkapı, she had the architect Mehmed Ağa build a magnificent marble fountain.

In addition, she had the Arab mosque in Galata renovated in 1734/35 and set up a pious foundation to increase the salaries of the mosque's servants and to enable the Koran to be read.

Its construction activities extended beyond the capital and included the conversion of the Hacı-Ömer Mosque in Çengelköy into a community mosque , which was renovated and equipped with a brick minaret and a pulpit. In addition, she had the Alaca Minare mosque in Üsküdar reconstructed and restored the community mosque in the fortress of Yerevan .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Damla Kayayerli: From a girl's tears to the fountains of Istanbul , Daily Sabah, August 7, 2017, accessed on May 19, 2020
  2. ↑ Alexander Frans Wielemaker: The Taksim water network, 1730-33. Political consolidation, dynastic legitimization, and social networks . Master's thesis at the University of Leiden, Leiden 2015, pp. 220, 222 ( online as PDF )
  3. ↑ Mustafa Çağatay Uluçay: Padişahların kadınları ve kızları . Ötüken, Ankara 2011, p. 116
  4. ↑ Necdet Sakaoğlu: Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler . Oğlak Yayıncılık, 2008, ISBN 978-9-753-29623-6 , p. 394
  5. ↑ Uluçay (2011), p. 116
  6. ↑ Sakaoğlu (2008), p. 394
  7. ↑ Wielemaker (2015), p. 222
  8. ↑ Wielemaker (2015), p. 221
  9. ↑ Wielemaker (2015), p. 81f.
  10. ↑ Sakaoğlu (2008), p. 395
  11. ↑ Wielemaker (2015), p. 50
  12. ^ A b c Fanny Davis: The Ottoman Lady: A Social History from 1718 to 1918 . Greenwood Publishing Group, 1986, ISBN 978-0-313-24811-5 , p. 174
  13. ↑ Wielemaker (2015), p. 30
  14. ↑ Wielemaker (2015), p. 223
  15. ↑ Uluçay (2011), p. 117
  16. ↑ Sakaoğlu (2008), p. 398
  17. ↑ Wielemaker (2015), p. 222
  18. ↑ Wielemaker (2015), pp. 222f.
  19. ↑ Wielemaker (2015), p. 223
personal data
SURNAME Saliha Sultan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of Sultan Mustafa II and Valide Sultan of Mahmud I.
DATE OF BIRTH around 1680
PLACE OF BIRTH Istanbul
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1739
Place of death Istanbul