Ayşe Hafsa Sultan

2014.03.17 19:56

Ayşe Hafsa Sultan 5 December 1479 – 19 March 1534), or in short, Hafsa Sultan, was the first "Valide Sultan" (Queen Mother) of the Ottoman Empire, wife of Selim I and mother of Suleiman the Magnificent. 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 Empire, as her son's de facto co-regent during these fourteen years, coming second only to the sovereign, which is a point remarked also by the ambassadors of European powers at the Ottoman court.

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

She was also the first imperial spouse to be called by the title usually rendered in English language as "Sultana" (full title in Turkish; "Valide Sultan", literally "the Queen Mother" but in only approximate terms in the Ottoman context). Her period signalled the shifting status of the sultan's mother and her increased share in power. After the birth of her son Suleiman, born 6 November 1494 in Trabzon, she had also five daughters: Hatice, Beyhan, Şah, Fatma and Hafsa

Ayşe 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 earth quake 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.