Hafsa Sultan (wife of Selim I)

Hafsa Sultan
حفصه سلطان
Bust in Manisa, Turkey
Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Tenure 30 September 1520 – 19 March 1534
Predecessor Gülbahar Hatun
(as Valide Hatun)
Successor Nurbanu Sultan
Born Unknown
c.1479
Died 19 March 1534[1]
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Burial Yavuz Selim Mosque, Fatih, Istanbul
Spouse Sultan Selim I
Issue Sultan Suleiman I
Hatice Sultan
Fatma Sultan
Beyhan Sultan
Hafsa Sultan
Father Disputed. Meñli I Giray[2] or Abd'ûl-Muin[3][4] or Abdulhay[4]

Hafsa Sultan[5] (Ottoman Turkish: حفصه سلطان‎‎; died 19 March 1534) was the wife of Selim I and the first valide sultan of the Ottoman Empire as the mother of Suleiman the Magnificent. Hence, the marriage between Selim I and Hafsa Sultan was the last marriage between an Ottoman sultan and a member of a neighboring Muslim royal family. During the period between her son's enthronement in 1520 and her death in 1534, she was one of the most influential persons in the Ottoman Empire.[6]

Origins

The traditional view of Hafsa Sultan's origins is that she was the daughter of Meñli I Giray, the khan of the Crimean Tatars. Several notable historians have supported this view, including Brian Glyn Williams,[2] Reşat Kasaba claims that the marriage between Selim I and Hafsa Sultan was the "last marriage between an Ottoman sultan and a member of a neighboring Muslim royal family".[7] Esin Atıl, however, states that whilst some historians state that she was the daughter of Giray, others have mentioned that the Crimean princess named "Ayse" was another one of Selim I's wives and that "Hafsa" may have been of slave origin.[4] Ilya Zaytsev claims that "Ayshe (daughter of Mengli-Giray I)" first married Şehzade Mehmed, the governor of Kefe, and that she later married his brother Selim I; consequently, her marriage into the Ottoman dynasty was one of two noted instances of wedlock between the Girays and Ottomans (the other being the marriage between Selim I's daughter to Saadet-Giray).[8] Alan Fisher, Leslie Peirce, and Feridun Emecen all agree that Hafsa was of slave origin and not the daughter of the Crimean Khan.[9]

Life

The külliye built on the orders of Hafsa Sultan in Manisa

Having resided in the city of Manisa in western Turkey with her son, who administered the surrounding region between 1513 and 1520, the town being one of the traditional residences for Ottoman crown princes (şehzade) in apprenticeship for future power, Hafsa Sultan is the initiator of the Manisa's "Mesir Festival", a local tradition still continued today. She also had a large complex built in the city consisting of a mosque, a primary school, a college and a hospice.

She was also the first Ottoman imperial women who held title "sultan" after her given name, replacing title "hatun". This usage reflected the Ottoman conception of sovereign power as "family prerogative".[10] Consequently, the title valide hatun (title for living mother of the reigning Ottoman sultan before 16th century) also turned into valide sultan, made Hafsa the first valide sultan. Her period signalled the shifting status of the sultan's mother and her increased share in power.[11] After the birth of her son Suleiman, born on 6 November 1494 in Trabzon, she gave birth to four daughters: Hatice, Fatma, Beyhan and Hafsa.

She was the most powerful woman of the Ottoman Empire during her son's reign.

Burial place

The entrance to the türbe of Hafsa Sultan

Hafsa Sultan died in March 1534 and was buried near her husband in a mausoleum behind the qiblah wall of Yavuz Selim Mosque, in Fatih, Istanbul. The mausoleum was largely destroyed in an earthquake in 1884, a reconstruction effort started in the 1900s (decade) having been left discontinued, and her tomb today is much simpler than it was built originally.

References

  1. ↑ Peirce, Leslie P. (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press. p. 121. ISBN 0-19-508677-5.
  2. 1 2 Glyn Williams, Brian (2001), The Crimean Tatars: The Diaspora Experience and the Forging of a Nation, BRILL, p. 56, ISBN 0295801492, Ottoman princes, such as the future Ottoman Sultans Selim I (who married Mengli Giray Khan's daughter, Hafsa Hatun...
  3. ↑ Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2008). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler. Oğlak Yayıncılık. p. 148. ISBN 978-9-753-29623-6. (Her name is given as "Hafsa bint-i Abdü'l-Muin" in Kitâbeler by İ. H. Uzunçarşılı. This shows that she was of non-Turkish origin, and later converted to Islam.)
  4. 1 2 3 Atıl, Esin (1987), The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, National Gallery of Art, p. 27, ISBN 0810918552, Some historians state that she was the daughter of Mengili Giray Han, the ruler of the Crimean Tatars. Others mention that Ayse, another wife of Selim I, was the Crimean princess and give as Hafsa's father a man named Abdulmumin or Abdulhay, and unknon person - suggesting that she was of slave origin.
  5. ↑ Though generally known as "Hafsa Sultan", she is sometimes incidentally referred to as "Ayşe Hafsa Sultan" by some authors, without indication of the origin of this name. Name "Hafsa" referred to Muhammad's wive Hafsa (حفصة) daughter of Umar ibn Al Kattab.
  6. ↑ Pietro Bragadin, Venetian Republic's ambassador in the early years of Suleiman the Magnificent's reign notes "a very beautiful woman of 48, for whom the sultan bears great reverence and love..." Leslie Peirce (1993). The Imperial Harem : Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire p. 62 ISBN 0-19-508677-5. Oxford University Press. templatestyles stripmarker in |title= at position 73 (help)
  7. ↑ Kasaba, Resat (2011), A Moveable Empire: Ottoman Nomads, Migrants, and Refugees, University of Washington Press, p. 44, ISBN 0295801492, The last marriage between an Ottoman sultan and a member of a neighboring Muslim royal family was the one between Selim I and Hafsa Sultan, the daughter of the Crimean ruler Mengli Giray Khan.
  8. ↑ Zaytsev, Ilya (2006), "The Structure of the Giray Dynasty (15th-16th centuries): Matrimonial and Kinship Relations of the Crimean Khans", Kinship in the Altaic World: Proceedings of the 48th Permanent International Altaistic Conference, Moscow 10-15 July, 2005, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, p. 341, ISBN 3447054166, Only two instances concerning the Ottomans are noted. Ayshe (daughter of Mengli-Giray I) was married to shahzade and governor of Kefe Mehmed, and to his brother Selim I later on (917/1511). Sultana Selim's daughter was married to Saadet-Giray.
  9. ↑ Alan Fisher (1993). "The Life and Family of Süleymân I". In İnalcık, Halil; Cemal Kafadar. Süleymân The Second [i.e. the First] and His Time. Istanbul: Isis Press. p. 9. ISBN 975-428-052-5.
    • Emecen, Feridun (2010). "Süleyman I". İslâm Ansiklopedisi. 38. İslâm Araştırmaları Merkezi. pp. 62–74. Information indicating that she was the daughter of the Crimean Khan or was related to the family of Dulkadıroğlu is incorrect.
    • Peirce, Leslie (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press. p. 40. ISBN 0-19-508677-5.
  10. ↑ Peirce, Leslie P. (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508677-5.
  11. ↑ Amy Singer (2002). Constructing Ottoman beneficence: An imperial soup kitchen in Jerusalem p. 90 ISBN 0-7914-5351-0. State University of New York Press. templatestyles stripmarker in |title= at position 83 (help)

Further reading

  • Peirce, Leslie P., The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire, Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-19-508677-5 (paperback).

  • "Hafsa Sultan Complex". Archnet. 2005.
Ottoman royalty
Preceded by
Gülbahar Hatun
as Valide Hatun		 Valide Sultan
30 September 1520 – 19 March 1534		 Succeeded by
Nurbanu Sultan
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