Gülbahar Hatun (wife of Mehmed II)

A Turkish by birth, she was the daughter of either Hamza Bey or Halil Bey, and the sister of Mustafa Pasha. It may have been that she came from an old Tokat family, for Bayezid erected there in 1485 a mosque and school in her memory.[7][8]

Gülbahar married Mehmed in 1446, when he was still a prince and the governor of Amasya. She had two children, a son, Şehzade Bayezid (future Bayezid II) born in 1447 in Demotika, and a daughter, Gevherhan Hatun,[9] who married Ughurlu Muhammad, a son of Aq Qoyunlu Sultan Uzun Hasan in 1474.[10]

In 1451, after Mehmed's accession to the throne, she followed him to Edirne. According to Turkish tradition, all princes were expected to work as provincial governors as a part of their training. In 1455 or 1456, Bayezid was appointed the governor of Amasya, and Gülbahar accompanied him, where the two remained until 1481, except for in 1457, when she came to Edirne, and attended her son's circumcision cememony.[9]

Gülbahar was apparently quite concerned about the future of her son, and related to that, her own properties. In order to secure her properties, she endowed the incomes of certain villages and fields to the Enderun mosque in 1474. Among the endowed properties was the village of Ağılcık, which was turned back into a Timariot village in 1479 during the land reform.[11]

In 1468, Mehmed gave the village of Bağluca to Gülbahar. After six years, in 1473, she sold the village to Taceddin Bey, son of Hamza Bali (died 1486), the book keeper of Bayezid's court. In 1478, the village's exemption was abolished and granted back to her probably as a result of the land reform. This order was reissued a year later at the request of a certain Mevlana Şemseddin Ahmed, according to which the village wasn't reverted back to her, and she had likely become subject to a legal dispute.[12]

Per custom, Gülbahar got the highest position as Valide Sultan in the imperial family after the sultan himself when her son, Bayezid ascended the throne in 1481[13] until her death in 1492. During her son's reign, she and the rest of the Imperial Family resided at the Old Palace (saray-ı atik) and were visited by the Sultan who on each visit used to pay his respect to his mother. In one case, Gülbahar complained of her son's rare visits and in a letter to her son wrote:

"My fortune, I miss you. Even if you don't miss me, I miss you ... Come and let me see you. My dear lord, if you are going on campaign soon, come once or twice at least so that I may see your fortune-favored face before you go. It's been forty days since I last saw you. My sultan, please forgive my boldness. Who else do I have beside you ... ?"[14]

Gülbahar had a considerable influence over Bayezid, for she used to make evaluations about the situation of some statesmen. Bayezid also valued his mother's words. In a letter written to him, she advises him against Hersekzade Ahmed Pasha, but favour's his tutor Ayas Pasha and Hizirbeyoğlu Mehmed Pasha.[9]

In 1485, Bayezid endowed a mosque, and a school in Tokat in the memory of Gülbahar Hatun.[15]

Gülbahar Hatun died in 1492, and was buried in Fatih Mosque, Istanbul.[9] The tomb was damaged in the 1766 Istanbul earthquake, and was rebuilt in 1767-1768.[9]

• In the 2012 film, Fetih 1453, Gülbahar Hatun is portrayed by Turkish actress Şahika Koldemir.[16]
• In the 2013 Turkish series Fatih, Gülbahar Hatun is played by Turkish actress Seda Akman.[17]

• Ottoman Empire
• Ottoman dynasty
• List of consorts of the Ottoman Sultans

• Leslie P. Peirce (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-195-08677-5.
• Karatas, Hasan (2011). The City as a Historical Actor: The Urbanization and Ottomanization of the Halvetiye Sufi Order by the City of Amasya in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.

Media related to Gülbahar Hatun at Wikimedia Commons