Turhan Sultan

Engraving by Pieter de Jode from the 17th century.

Turhan Hatice Sultan ( Ottoman تورخان خدیجه سلطان; * around 1627 in Ruthenia ; † August 4, 1683 in Istanbul ) was the main wife ( Haseki Sultan ) of the Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim and, as the mother of Sultan Mehmed IV, also Valide Sultan . Alongside her mother-in-law Kösem Sultan , she is the only woman in the history of the Ottoman Empire who, as the official regent, held control of the empire and officially shared power with the Ottoman Sultan. Turhan thus became one of the most important women of the period of female rule .

Life

Turhan, whose original name is not known, was born in the Ruthenia region, which now belongs to Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. She was caught during the Crimean Tatars' slave hunt in Kievan Rus and sold to the Ottoman Empire. When she was about twelve years old, Turhan was sent as a gift to the Sultan's harem in Topkapı Palace by the Crimean Khan . It was probably Ibrahim's mother, Kösem Sultan, who Turhan gave the Sultan as a concubine. She gave birth to Ibrahim a son, the future Sultan Mehmed IV, and the daughter Atike Sultan.

Power struggle

Because of his mental and psychological state, Sultan Ibrahim was dethroned on August 8, 1648 and executed a few days later. The new sultan was the six-year-old Mehmed IV, a child of Ibrahim and Turhan Sultan. With Mehmed's accession to the throne, the position of Valide Sultan ("mother of the ruling Sultan") should have gone to Turhan. Due to her young age and inexperience, Turhan was denied this position and her mother-in-law remained Valide Sultan. Kösem Sultan had already served under two sons.

But Turhan proved to be ambitious and took up the fight for the influential position. In her struggle to become Valide Sultan, Turhan was supported by the chief black eunuch and the grand vizier, while Kösem was supported by the janissaries . Although Kösem was seen as a better solution based on their experience, the people resented the influence of the Janissaries on the government.

In this power struggle, Kösem planned to dethrone Mehmed and replace him with another grandson. However, according to one historian, this change had less to do with Mehmed's abilities as a sultan than with replacing an ambitious daughter-in-law with another who was easier to control. But the plan failed because one of Kösem's slaves betrayed her mistress' plans. Supported by Turhan or not, Kösem Sultan was murdered by rebellious sipahis and the harem's black eunuch three years after she became regent for her young grandson .

Regent

With the death of her rival, Turhan became the Valide Sultan. As regent, she gained great power. She accompanied her son to important meetings and spoke several times behind her curtained seat - an unusual occurrence in a courtyard where women were barely visible in public. Mehmed loved and adored his mother. He regarded her as his co-ruler of the empire and gave her great power by considering her the official empress of the empire. She was the only Valide Sultan in the history of the Ottoman Empire who shared the power to lead the entire empire equally with her son and thus even surpassed Kösem in the fullness of her power. Turhan repeatedly represented the Sultan in government affairs during his absence. Due to her inexperience, however, Turhan relied on other members of the government to advise her on political matters. This is evident from her correspondence with the grand viziers.

Turhan's reign was marked by two events: the war for Crete (1645–1669) against the Republic of Venice and the financial crisis that resulted from the high costs of warfare. Weak grand viziers did not improve the situation. In 1656, Köprülü Mehmed Pascha was finally appointed Grand Vizier. His condition in accepting the post was that he should be given more authority than his predecessors. So Turhan largely transferred her political power to the Grand Vizier.

death

Turhan Sultan died in 1683. She was buried in a separate Türbe in the New Mosque , where her son and descendants were also buried. She is considered one of the last great Valide Sultans and her death marks the end of female rule.

Construction activity

With the transfer of power to the grand viziers, Turhan focused primarily on large construction projects. Her first building was a fountain in Beşiktaş in 1653. She had her first building built in 1658 and commissioned two fortresses at the entrance to the Dardanelles . These fortifications, one on the European and one on the Asian side, still exist today.

Turhan also had the New Mosque built in Istanbul. Her predecessor Safiye already commissioned it . She had chosen the Eminonü commercial district as the location of the new mosque, a district where hardly any Muslims lived. With the construction, Safiye wanted to accelerate the settlement of Muslims. In order to build on this site, land had to be expropriated from the non-Muslim locals, which sparked protests among the population. The foundation stone was laid in 1597. After the death of Safiye's son Mehmed III. , construction was stopped because Safiye was no longer the Valide Sultan. Construction rested for more than 57 years, but resumed after the area was destroyed by the great fire of 1660. Turhan decided to complete what Safiye Sultan had started. When it was completed in 1665, the complex contained not only the mosque, but also a school, public fountains, a market and a Türbe. The New Mosque was the first sultan's mosque to be built by a woman. Turhan Sultan, Mehmed IV., Mustafa II. , Ahmed III. , Mahmud I and 39 other people, including many family members of the Ottoman dynasty, are buried in the mosque.

In popular culture

In 2015, the actress Hande Doğandemir played in the Turkish television series Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem Turhan .

Web links

Commons : Turhan Sultan  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Erhan Afyoncu, Uğur Demir: Turhan Sultan . Yeditepe Yayınevi, Istanbul 2015, ISBN 978-605-9787-24-6 , p. 27
2. ^ ^{A b} Marc David Baer: Honored by the Glory of Islam: Conversion and Conquest in Ottoman Europe . Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-979783-7 , p. 35
3. ↑ Lucienne Thys-Şenocak: Ottoman Women Builders. The Architectural Patronage of Hadice Turhan Sultan. Ashgate, Aldershot 2006, p. 17
4. ↑ Thys-Şenocak (2006), p. 25
5. ↑ Necdet Sakaoğlu: Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler . Oğlak Yayıncılık, Istanbul 2008, pp. 260–262
6. ↑ Thys-Şenocak (2006), p. 26
7. ^ Leslie P. Peirce: The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1993, p. 250
8. ↑ Peirce (1993), p. 252
9. ↑ Peirce (1993), p. 252
10. ↑ Suraiya Faroqhi, Bruce McGowan, Donald Quataert, Şevket Pamuk: An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1997, ISBN 0-521-57455-2 , pp. 414 f.
11. ↑ Turhan Sultan , İslam Ansiklopedisi, Türk Diyanet Vakfı, accessed on May 26, 2020
12. ↑ Peirce (1993), p. 253
13. ↑ Peirce (1993), pp. 255f.
14. ↑ Peirce (1993), p. 207
15. ↑ Peirce (1993), pp. 206f.
16. ↑ Thys-Şenocak (2006), p. 109
17. ↑ Thys-Şenocak (2006), p. 186
18. ↑ Thys-Şenocak (2006), pp. 189-192
19. ↑ Thys-Şenocak (2006), pp. 195f.
20. ↑ Peirce (1993), p. 206
21. ↑ Peirce (1993), p. 206
22. ↑ Hande Doğandemir, Tugay Mercan ve Müge Boz, Muhteşem Yüzyıl Kösem kadrosunda! In: ranini.tv. May 9, 2017, accessed May 26, 2020 .