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Mahidevran

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Mahidevran
ماه دوران
The tomb of Mahidevran is located inside the Türbe of Şehzade Mustafa in Muradiye Complex, Bursa
Bornc. 1500
Caucasus
Died3 February 1581 (aged 80–81)
Bursa, Ottoman Empire
Burial
Muradiye Complex, Bursa
SpouseSuleiman the Magnificent
IssueŞehzade Mustafa
Şehzade Abdullah (possibly)
FatherIdar of Kabardia or Abdullah Recai
MotherNazcan Hatun (wife of Idar)
ReligionIslam

Mahidevran (Template:Lang-ota, c. 1500 – 3 February 1581;[1] also known as Gülbahar) was a consort[note 1] of Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire, (also) historically she is referred as "Birinci Kadin"[2][3] of Suleiman (a rank equivalent to main consort before the invention of the royal title Haseki Sultan) and the mother of Şehzade Mustafa and possibly Şehzade Abdullah.[4]

Etymology

Mahidevran’s name (Turkish pronunciation: [ˌmaːhidevˈɾan], Template:Lang-ota) means "one who is always beautiful", "one whose beauty never fades" or "beauty of the times". Another meaning of her name is "Moon of Fortune." Some sources name her Gülbahar (Turkish pronunciation: [ɟylbaˈhaɾ]), with gül meaning 'rose' and bahar meaning 'spring' in Turkish and Persian.

Title and status

She is often referred to as "Mahidevran Sultan" in popular history books, TV series, touristic literature[5] or anachronistically [6][7] however according to Leslie P. Peirce prior to the creation of the title "Haseki" for Hürrem Sultan,[8] all Ottoman consorts carried an alternative royal title "Hatun".[9]

Though Mahidevran wasn't a Haseki, she was mother of Şehzade Mustafa, the firstborn of the reigning Sultan and most potential heir to the throne, hence it can be asserted that she held some influential position in Suleiman's harem. Also according to Ottoman traditions, she was Suleiman's Birinci Kadin [10][11](a wife that bore first male child), according to which she was the second in ranking in the harem after Valide Sultan. However she was replaced as a Chief Consort by Hürrem Sultan, when Suleiman freed and married her in a magnificent formal ceremony, becoming his lawful wife. This had irrevocable consequences and thus the title Haseki Sultan was created and first used by Hürrem.

Although relatively obscure, the consorts of non-Haseki rank were not completely deprived of status and power and enjoyed the prerogatives of a member of the imperial family, as exemplified by the fact that Şemsiruhsar Hatun, a consort of Sultan Murad III, mother of a daughter, is known to have created an endowment for the recitation of the Holy Qur'an in the mosque of the Prophet in Medina.[12]

Origins and early life

Little is known of Mahidevran's early life. Her ethnic background is a matter of controversy. She was either an Albanian or Circassian.[10][13] Theories of her origins are:

  • According to contemporary Venetian sources, she was of Circassian origin.[14][15]
  • By some other (unidentified) accounts, she was of "Montenegrin origin".[14]
  • André Clot says she was "probably of Tartar origin".[16]
  • According to the novel The Siege, she was originally named Rosne Pranvere and the daughter of Abdullah Recai, a wealthy Albanian musician.[17][unreliable source] Turkish drama Muhteşem Yüzyıl, also follows this view.[18]
  • According to an interview with Saide Perizat Temrukoğlu, an alleged descendant of Mahidevran, she was the daughter of Mirza Haydar Temruk Bey, a 16th-century Kabarday prince and his Crimean Tartar wife Princess Nazcan Hatun, the daughter of Meñli I Giray. This interview also claims that she was married to Suleiman and the marriage was a diplomatic affair. This interview supports the Caucasus-origin theory.
  • Other sources, including André Clot also support the Caucasian-origin theory and say that she was married to Suleiman in January or February of 1512 in Crimea. [citation needed]

According to last two theories, she had three sisters Fatma Şahıdevran, Akile Rühşah and Belkıs Hüsnümah Hatun who joined her at Bursa and a brother, Mustafa Pasha. She also had three half brothers, Mirza Temruk Bey, Mirza Kambulat Bey and Mirza Şelegot Bey. She was descendant of Prince Inal, a fifteenth century Kabarday prince. She was the niece of Ayşe Hafsa Sultan and Ayesha Begum, through her mother and the aunt of Maria Temryukovna through her half brother, Temruk Bey. She was also related to Şemsiruhsar Hatun, Handan Sultan, Halime Sultan, Mahfiruz Hatice Sultan, Hatice Muazzez Sultan and Saçbağli Sultan the wives of Sultans Murad III, Mehmet III, Ahmed I and Ibrahim I, through her brother, Mustafa Pasha.[19]

Life with Suleiman

Mahidevran is listed among the seventeen women of the harem of Suleiman while he was governor of Manisa; she did not belong at this time to the first ranked consorts, as she earned 4 aspers a day along with two other concubines, while three others earned 5 aspers. She bore her husband one son, Mustafa in 1515.[13]

When Selim I died in 1520, Suleiman moved to Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, along with his family to ascend the throne. In 1521 Suleiman lost his two other sons, nine-year-old Mahmud and the toddler Murad, Mustafa became the eldest of his princely generation.[12] In the Istanbul harem, Mahidevran had a very influential rival, Hürrem (also known as Roxelana in Europe), who soon proved to be Suleiman’s favorite consort (first Haseki Sultan) as well as his legal wife.[12] In 1531 or 1534 (the exact date is unknown), Suleiman married Hürrem in a magnificent formal ceremony, making him the first Ottoman Sultan to wed since Orhan Ghazi (reign 1326–1362), and violating a 200-year-old custom of the Ottoman imperial house according to which sultans were not to marry their concubines.[20] Mahidevran's relationship with Suleiman is not known after that affair, however it was recorded from Bernardo Navagero that Suleiman highly cherished her in Topkapi Harem along with Hürrem.[21]

Hürrem gave birth to her first son Mehmed in 1521 and then Selim (future Sultan Selim II) in 1524, destroying Mahidevran’s status of being the mother of the Sultan’s only son.[22] The rivalry between the two women was partially suppressed by Ayşe Hafsa, Suleiman’s mother,[23] but after her death in 1534, as a result of the bitter rivalry a fight between the two women broke out, with Mahidevran beating Hürrem, which angered Suleiman.[24]

Foreign observers of the Ottomans, especially the ambassadors of the Venetian Republic followed Ottoman dynastic politics closely.[12] Their comments about Mahidevran glimpses of the vital role played by a prince's mother and of her necessary devotion to this welfare.[12] Pietro Bragadin, ambassador in the early years of Suleiman's reign, reported that while both were still resident in the imperial palace in Istanbul, Mustafa was his mother's "whole joy".[12]

Mustafa's provincial posts

According to Turkish tradition, all princes were expected to work as provincial governors (Sanjak-bey) as a part of their training. Mustafa was sent to Manisa in 1533, in the formal ceremony and Mahidevran accompanied him.[25] Describing his court at Kara Amid (Diyarbakır) near the Safavid border, Bassano wrote around 1540 that the prince had "a most wonderful and glorious court, no less than that of his father" and that "his mother, who was with him, instructs him in how to make himself loved by the people."[12] At some point Mustafa returned to Manisa, and in 1542 he moved to Amasya.[12] By 1546 three more of Suleiman's sons were in the field, and the competition for the succession began among the four princes, although the sultan would live for another twenty years.[12] The ambassador Bernado Navagero, in a 1553 report, described Mahidevran's efforts to protect her son: "Mustafa has with him his mother, who exercises great diligence to guard him from poisoning and reminds him everyday that he has nothing else but this to avoid, and it is said that he has boundless respect and reverence for her."[12]

Mustafa was an immensely popular prince. When he was only nine, that Venetian ambassador had reported that "he has extraordinary talent, he will be warrior, is much loved by the Janissaries, and performs great feats."[26] In 1553, when Mustafa was thirty eight years old, Navagero wrote, "It is impossible to describe how much he is loved and desired by all as successor to the throne."[26] Towards the end of Suleiman’s long reign, the rivalry between his sons became evident. Furthermore, both Hürrem and the grand vizier Rüstem Pasha turned him against Mustafa and Mustafa was accused of causing unrest. During the campaign against Safavid Persia in 1553, Suleiman ordered the execution of Mustafa[27] on charges of planning to dethrone his father; his guilt for the treason of which he was accused has since been neither proven nor disproven.[26]

Up until the very end of her son's life, Mahidevran endeavored to protect Mustafa from his political rivals, and most probably maintained a network of informants in order to do so.[12] The ambassador Trevisano related in 1554 that on the day Mustafa was executed, Mahidevran had sent a messenger warning him of his father's plans to kill him. Mustafa unfortunately ignored the message; according to Trevisano, he had consistently refused to heed the warnings of his friends and even his mother.[26]

Mahidevran was at the head of Mustafa's princely harem and enjoyed a high position in the Ottoman Empire, which made her to help the poors and the orphans in all the Empire, she renovated the mosque founded by Ayşe Hafsa at Manisa. She also established waqfs and multiple charitable foundations at both Konya and Amasya.

Later years and death

For several years after her son’s execution, Mahidevran Sultan lived a troubled life. Mahidevran went to Bursa, where her son was buried and became the last woman to retire to Bursa. Less fortunate than her predecessors and presumably disgraced by her son's execution, she was unable to pay the rent on the house in which she lived, and her servants were taunted and cheated in the local markets because all her fortune was seized by Suleiman I. Mahidevran's situation improved towards the end of Suleiman's reign when her debts were paid and a palace was purchased for her, possibly by Suleiman's sole surviving son, Mustafa's half brother Selim who put her on a prestigious salary.[26]

Her rehabilitation have been possible only after the death in 1558 of her rival, Hürrem. Financially secure at last, Mahidevran recovered her prestigious status and rank and had enough income to create an endowment for the upkeep of her son's tomb.

Mahidevran died in 1581 outliving Suleiman I and all of his children and was buried in Mustafa's tomb.[26]

In the 2003 TV miniseries, Hürrem Sultan, Mahidevran was played by Turkish actress Hatice Aslan. In the 2011-2014 TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl, Mahidevran is portrayed by Turkish actress Nur Fettahoğlu.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Mahidevran is described in academic history books (incl. Osman's Dream by Caroline Finkel, pp. 133, 139, 651, e.g., Padişahın kadınları ve kızları by Mustafa Çağatay Uluçay p.36) as Suleiman's concubine. But in a recent interview with her alleged descendant and according to Andre Clot as well, she was a wife. (Esra Açıkgöz, Ailesinin ağzından Mahidevran’ın hikâyesi and Historical Dictionary of Women in the Middle East amd North Africa. Rowman and Littlefield p.279)

References

  1. ^ Sakaoğlu, Necdet (April 2012). Süleyman, Hurrem ve Diğerleri: Bir Dönemin Gerçek Hikayesi. pp. 26–27.
  2. ^ John Freely (2001). Inside the Seraglio: private lives of the sultans in Istanbul. Penguin. The bailo also noted that Mustafa was the 'whole joy' of his mother Mahidevran, who was still Siileyman's birinci kadin.
  3. ^ http://www.theottomans.org/english/family/suleyman1.asp
  4. ^ İnalcık, Halil; Kafadar, Cemal (1 January 1993). Süleymân The Second [i.e. the First] and his time. Isis Press.
  5. ^ Murphy, Leeann (23 December 2014). Moon Istanbul & the Turkish Coast: Including Cappadocia. Avalon Travel. ISBN 9781612386140.
  6. ^ Forsey, Alicia McNary (1 January 2009). Queen Isabella Sforza Szapolyai of Transylvania and Sultan Süleyman of the Ottoman Empire: A Case of Sixteenth-century Muslim-Christian Collaboration. Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 9780773446533.
  7. ^ İnalcık, Halil; Kafadar, Cemal (1 January 1993). Süleymân The Second [i.e. the First] and his time. Isis Press.
  8. ^ Peirce 1993, p. 91.
  9. ^ Peirce 1993, p. 108.
  10. ^ a b John Freely (2001). Inside the Seraglio: private lives of the sultans in Istanbul. Penguin. The bailo also noted that Mustafa was the 'whole joy' of his mother Mahidevran, who was still Siileyman's birinci kadin, though she had been replaced as main consort by Roxelana.
  11. ^ "Ottoman". www.theottomans.org. Retrieved 27 February 2016.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Leslie P., Peirce (1993). "Wives and Concubines: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries". The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016-4314: Oxford University Press. pp. 55–56. ISBN 978-0-19-508677-5. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)CS1 maint: location (link)
  13. ^ a b Peirce 1993, p. 55.
  14. ^ a b Dr Galina I Yermolenko, Roxolana in European Literature, History and Culture, pg.2, citing Navagero ("la circassa"), Trevisano ("una donna circassa") in Eugenio Alberi, ed. Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneti al Senato, ser. 3: Relazioni degli stati ottomani, 3 vols (Firenze [Florence: Società editrice fiorentina], 1840–1855), 1: 74–5, 77; 3: 115.
  15. ^ Marie Broxup (1996). The North Caucasus Barrier: The Russian Advance Towards the Muslim World. Hurst. ISBN 978-1-850-65305-9. p.29
  16. ^ André Clot, Matthew Reisz (2005). Suleiman the Magnificent. Saqi. ISBN 978-0-863-56510-6.
  17. ^ http://books.google.al/books?id=PLRInQEACAAJ, pp 204-205. (Rosne Pranvere was the daughter of Abdullah Recai, a wealthy Albanian musician)
  18. ^ http://www.aksam.com.tr/magazin/muhtesem-yuzyilda-buyuk-sok/galerihaber-311226/15
  19. ^ Esra Açıkgöz, Ailesinin ağzından Mahidevran’ın hikâyesi (an interview with Saide Perizat) Template:Tr icon
  20. ^ Kinross, Patrick (1979). The Ottoman centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. New York: Morrow. ISBN 978-0-688-08093-8. p, 236.
  21. ^ Hughes, Sarah Shaver; Hughes, Brady (29 April 2015). Women in World History: V. 2: Readings from 1500 to the Present. Routledge. ISBN 9781317451822.
  22. ^ Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire
  23. ^ Selçuk Aksin Somel: Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire, Oxford, 2003, ISBN 0-8108-4332-3, p. 123
  24. ^ Peirce 1993, p. 59-60.
  25. ^ Peirce 1993, p. 61.
  26. ^ a b c d e f Peirce 1993, p. 56.
  27. ^ Lord Kinross: The Ottoman Centuries, (Trans. by Nilifer Epçeli) Altın Kitaplar, İstanbul, 2008, ISBN 978-975-21-0955-1 p. 233.

Bibliography

Template:Persondata

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