Sophia Wilhelmina Kayserin

Sophia Wilhelmina Kayser, née Rabi (* 1677 in Koroni ; † February 7, 1735 in Elsnig ) was a so-called "booty Turk" who spent her life at the Electoral Saxon court and then as a Protestant pastor's wife.

Life

Born on Morea from allegedly Turkish parents (however, according to the maiden name "Rabi" to judge it was ethnic Arabs ) she was apparently rescued by a German officer after her hometown Koroni was conquered by Venetian-German troops in August 1685 and brought by him to the Saxon residence of Dresden . Here the child was given to Electress Anna Sophia , wife of Elector Johann Georg III. , at whose court she was raised and trained in the Christian faith. At the baptism , the girl was given the first name Sophia Wilhelmina, while her last name was now Rabi. Apparently she was named after Anna Sophia and her widowed sister living with her, the widow elector Wilhelmine Ernestine von der Pfalz , who both apparently took on the sponsorship of Rabi. At first she lived in the Residenzschloss in Dresden and from 1692, after Anna Sophia had moved her main residence to her widow's residence, Schloss Lichtenberg near Prettin , with her. In the beginning, the girl will certainly have been used for small auxiliary services at the court, but after her baptism she was given a position as a maid or something similar.

In 1712, relatively late, Sophia Wilhelmina married the pastor Carl Friedrich Kayser, who worked in nearby Bethau . It can be assumed that the dowager elector Anna Sophia organized the wedding and also contributed the dowry . In the marriage a son was born who was named Friedrich Wilhelm. In 1724 the family moved to Elsnig, where Kayser took over the pastor's office. Sophia Wilhelmina died here in 1735 at the age of 58. Her husband, who subsequently married again, followed her in 1738. A well-crafted tombstone / epitaph was erected for both of them in the Elsnig church, the inscription of which reminds of the unusual origins of Sophia Wilhelmina Rabi.

literature

• Hans-Joachim Böttcher : Historical grave monuments and their inscriptions in the Dübener Heide. AMF No. 165, Kleve 2005, pp. 55-56.
• Hans-Joachim Böttcher : The Turkish Wars in the Mirror of Saxon Biographies. Gabriele Schäfer Verlag Herne 2019, ISBN 978-3-944487-63-2 , pp. 237-238.