Mihrimah Sultan (daughter of Suleiman I)
Mihrimah Sultan | |
---|---|
Born | 1522 Old Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire |
Died | 25 January 1578 Old Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire | (aged 55–56)
Burial | |
Spouse | |
Ottoman Turkish: مهرماہ سلطان |
Mihrimah Sultan (
Name
Mihrimah or Mihrümah[1][2] means "Sun and Moon",[3] or "Light of the Moon"[4] in Persian.[5] To Westerners, she was known as Sultana Cameria,[6] which is a variant of Qamariyyah, an Arabic version of her name meaning "of the moon". Her portrait by Cristofano dell'Altissimo was entitled Cameria Solimani.[7] She was also known as Hanım Sultan, which means "Madam Princess".[8]
Early life
Mihrimah was born in Constantinople (Istanbul) on 1522[9][10] during the reign of her father, Suleiman the Magnificent. Her mother was Hürrem Sultan,[9][11][10] an Orthodox priest's daughter,[12] who was the Sultan's concubine but was freed in 1533 or 1534 and became Suleyman's legal wife.[13] Mihrimah had five full brothers: Şehzade Mehmed, Şehzade Selim (the future Selim II), Şehzade Abdullah, who died at the age of three, Şehzade Bayezid, and Şehzade Cihangir.[9][11] Well-educated and disciplined, she was also sophisticated, eloquent and well-read.[5]
Marriage
In 1539 Suleiman decided that Mihrimah should be married to
The marriage took place on 26 November 1539
Shortly after her wedding, she developed a rheumatoid-like condition and spent most of her life dealing with the illness.[5] In 1544, she traveled to Bursa with her mother and husband and a large military escort.[29] Although Mihrimah and her mother made efforts to promote Rüstem as an intimate of the sultan, he was actually kept at a distance from the royal presence.[16] Mihrimah and Rüstem had one daughter,[30] Ayşe Hümaşah Sultan,[31] born in 1541, and at least a son, Sultanzade Osman Bey, who was born in 1546 and who died in 1576.[30]
In 1554, Mihrimah suffered a miscarriage which almost cost her her life. An anonymous author suggested that the couple lived in Pera, although it is more likely that they settled in Mihrimah's palace in Üsküdar.[32] In March 1558, Shaykh Qutb al-Din al-Nahrawali, a religious figure from Mecca, visited Istanbul.[33] In April, he met Mihrimah, and gave her gifts.[34] He met her again in June just before he left Istanbul for Cairo.[35]
After Rüstem's death in 1561,[36] she offered to marry Semiz Ali Pasha, who had succeeded him as grand vizier. When he declined, she chose not to marry again,[37] returning instead to the royal palace.[38]
Political affairs
Although there is no proof of Hürrem or Mihrimah's direct involvement in her half-brother Şehzade Mustafa's downfall, Ottoman and foreign accounts suggest that it was widely believed that Mihrimah worked with Hürrem and Rüstem to eliminate Mustafa to ensure the throne for Hürrem's son and Mihrimah's full brother, Bayezid.[39][40][41] The rivalry ended when Mustafa was executed at his own father's command in 1553 during the campaign against Safavid Persia. Although these accounts were not based on first-hand sources,[42] a fear of Mustafa was not unreasonable: had he ascended to the throne, all Mihrimah's full brothers (Selim, Bayezid, and Cihangir) would probably have been executed, according to the fratricidal custom of the Ottoman dynasty, which required the brothers of a new sultan to be executed to avoid feuding.[26][39] Mihrimah, Rüstem and Hürrem were also blamed for the execution in 1555 of the Grand Vizier Kara Ahmed Pasha, whose elimination cleared the way for Rüstem's return as Grand Vizier.[43]
Hürrem sent letters to
Temporary closures of the western and/or eastern grain markets, food shortages and poor harvests led to several crises in the sixteenth century. The citizens of the Dalmatian Republic of Ragusa managed to survive thanks to supplies of Ottoman grain which Mihrimah helped to facilitate.[48] The Ragusans' decision to approach Mihrimah for help may have been the result of tensions between the Republic and the kapudan pasha, Piyale Pasha. During the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, several Ragusan ships sailed in the Christian fleet, as Piyale Pasha reported to the Porte. To Ragusan horror, his ships sailed into their waters and raided the island of Mljet. However, true problems emerged in 1566, leading Ragusan ambassadors to petition Mihrimah to act as their protector.[46]
In later years Mihrimah retired to the Eski Saray.[49] As soon as he came to power, Selim turned to her for help as he needed money, after which she lent him fifty thousand gold coins.[37] She then continued to act as his advisor.[5] In 1571, the Ragusans asked her to speak to the sultan on their behalf, and to "spare a couple of kind words for their love's sake".[50]
In 1575, during the reign of her nephew Sultan
Mosques and charities
Mihrimah also sponsored a number of major architectural projects. Her most famous foundations are the two Istanbul mosque complexes that bear her name, both designed by her father's chief architect, Mimar Sinan.[5]
The first
The second
She also commissioned the repair of the 'Ayn Zubaydah spring in Mecca and established a foundation to supply wrought iron to the navy.[5]
Mimar Sinan
Mimar Sinan, a sixteenth-century architect, was allegedly in love with Mihrimah[5] after supposedly seeing her for the first time while she was accompanying her father on his Moldova Campaign.[5] To impress her, Sinan built a bridge spanning the Prut River in just thirteen days. He asked for her hand in marriage only to have his proposal rejected by her father. He is then said to have poured his heart into his architecture. Some claim that he built the Mihrimah Sultan Mosque in Üsküdar to resemble the silhouette of a woman with her skirt sweeping the ground.[5]
Death
Mihrimah Sultan died in Istanbul on 25 January 1578[58][59][60] having outlived all her siblings. She is Suleiman's only child[61] to have been buried in his tomb in the Süleymaniye Mosque complex.[5][62][36][60]
Issue
By her husband, Mihrimah Sultan had a daughter and at least a son:[25][30][30]
- Ayşe Humaşah Sultan (1541–1598). She married three times and had five sons and five daughters.
- Sultanzade Osman Bey (1546–1576).
In literature and popular culture
- In the 2003 Turkish TV miniseries, Hürrem Sultan, Mihrimah was played by Turkish actress Özlem Çınar.[63]
- In the 2011–2014 TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl (The Magnificent Century) she was portrayed by Pelin Karahan.[64]
- She appears as a central character in The Architect's Apprentice, a 2014 novel by Elif Shafak.[65][66]
- She is one of the central characters in the book Hürrem ve Mihrimah Sultan: Haremin Gülü ve Goncası (Turkish: Hürrem and Mihrimah Sultan: The Rose and the Rosebud of Harem) by Muhterem Yüceyılmaz.[67]
References
- ISBN 978-975-7104-77-3.
- ^ Fen Fakültesi İstanbul Üniversitesi (1967). Lectures Delivered on the 511th Anniversary of the Conquest of İstanbul. Fen Fakültesi Döner Sermaye Basımevi. p. 13.
- ^ Isom-Verhaaren 2016, p. 158.
- ISBN 978-0-684-12582-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Notable life of Mihrimah Sultan". DailySabah. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-60606-587-7.
- ISBN 978-975-8362-37-0.
- ^ Nahrawālī & Blackburn 2005, p. 201 n. 547.
- ^ a b c Peirce 1993, p. 60.
- ^ a b Uluçay 1992, p. 65.
- ^ a b Yermolenko 2005, p. 233.
- ^ Yermolenko 2005, p. 234.
- ^ Yermolenko 2005, p. 235.
- ^ a b Isom-Verhaaren 2016, p. 154.
- ISBN 978-0-19-061291-7.
- ^ a b Peirce 1993, p. 76.
- ISBN 978-9944-321-50-1.
- ^ Pars Tuğlacı (1985). Türkiyeʼde kadın. Cem Yayınevi. p. 316.
- ISBN 978-975-08-1832-5.
- ^ a b Uluçay 1992, p. 66.
- ^ Miović 2018, p. 98.
- ISBN 978-975-7306-05-4.
- ^ Peirce 1993, pp. 68, 76, 123.
- ^ Miović 2018, p. 97.
- ^ a b Peirce 1993, p. 68.
- ^ a b Isom-Verhaaren 2016, p. 155.
- ^ Peirce 1993, p. 72.
- ^ Nahrawālī & Blackburn 2005, p. 82 n. 208.
- ^ Peirce 1993, p. 61.
- ^ a b c d Atçıl 2020, p. 14.
- ISBN 978-975-7172-64-2.
Ayşe Sultan duhter-i hazret-i Mihrümāh Sulțān el-mezbūre zevce-i Ahmed Paşa
- ^ Miović 2018, pp. 100–101.
- ^ Nahrawālī & Blackburn 2005, p. 158.
- ^ Nahrawālī & Blackburn 2005, p. 176.
- ^ Nahrawālī & Blackburn 2005, p. 207.
- ^ a b c Uluçay 1992, p. 67.
- ^ a b Atçıl 2020, p. 21.
- ^ Peirce 1993, p. 67.
- ^ a b Peirce 1993, p. 79.
- ^ Isom-Verhaaren 2016, p. 156.
- ^ Uluçay 1992, pp. 66–67.
- ^ Yermolenko 2005, p. 236.
- ^ Peirce 1993, p. 84.
- ^ Peirce 1993, p. 221.
- ^ a b Peirce 1993, p. 65.
- ^ a b c Miović 2018, p. 106.
- ^ Peirce 1993, pp. 68–69.
- ^ Miović 2018, p. 102.
- ^ Peirce 1993, p. 128.
- ^ Miović 2018, p. 107.
- ^ Peirce 1993, pp. 127–128.
- ^ Peirce 1993, p. 227.
- ^ Biçer, Merve (2014). Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha: A 16th Century Ottoman Comvert in the Mediterranean World (Master Thesis). Department of History İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, Ankara. p. 48.
- ^ Isom-Verhaaren 2016, p. 157.
- ^ Peirce 1993, p. 201.
- ^ Peirce 1993, pp. 23, 201.
- ^ "MİHRİMAH SULTAN KÜLLİYESİ Üsküdar'da İskele Meydanı'nın kuzeyinde Paşalimanı caddesi başında inşa edilmiş XVI. yüzyıla ait külliye". İslam Ansiklopedisi. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
- ISBN 978-975-389-402-9.
- ISBN 978-9944-905-39-8.
- ^ a b Miović 2018, p. 108.
- ^ Isom-Verhaaren 2016, p. 164.
- ^ Peirce 1993, p. 190.
- ^ "Hürrem Sultan (TV Series 2003)". IMDb. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
- ^ "Muhteşem Yüzyıl'ın Mihrimah Sultan'ı Pelin Karahan 10 dakikada boşandı – Son Dakika Magazin Haberleri | STAR". Star.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 13 October 2017.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ "The Architect's Apprentice by Elif Shafak, book review: The domes of". The Independent. London. 30 October 2014. Archived from the original on 14 May 2022. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
- ^ Hürrem ve Mihrimah Sultan: Haremin Gülü ve Goncası Amazon
Bibliography
- ISBN 0-19-508677-5.
- Yermolenko, Galina (2005). "Roxolana: The Greatest Empress of the East". The Muslim World. 95 (2): 231–248. .
- Isom-Verhaaren, Christine (11 April 2016). "Mihrimah Sultan: A Princess Constructs Ottoman Dynastic Identity". In Christine Isom-Verhaaren; Kent F. Schull (eds.). Living in the Ottoman Realm: Empire and Identity, 13th to 20th Centuries. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253019486.
- Uluçay, Mustafa Çağatay (1992). Padışahların kadınları ve kızları. Türk Tarihi Kurumu Yayınları.
- Miović, Vesna (2 May 2018). "Per favore della Soltana: moćne osmanske žene i dubrovački diplomati". Anali Zavoda Za Povijesne Znanosti Hrvatske Akademije Znanosti i Umjetnosti U Dubrovniku (in Croatian). 56 (56/1): 147–197. ISSN 1330-0598.
- Atçıl, Zahit (2020). "Osmanlı Hanedanının Evlilik Politikaları ve Mihrimah Sultan'ın Evliliği". Güneydoğu Avrupa Araştırmaları Dergis (34): 1–26.
- Nahrawālī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad; Blackburn, Richard (2005). Journey to the Sublime Porte: the Arabic memoir of a Sharifian agent's diplomatic mission to the Ottoman Imperial Court in the era of Suleyman the Magnificent; the relevant text from Quṭb al-Dīn al-Nahrawālī's al-Fawāʼid al-sanīyah fī al-riḥlah al-Madanīyah wa al-Rūmīyah. Orient-Institut. ISBN 978-3-899-13441-4.