Predecessor none, new title Name Ayse Sultan Spouse Selim I (m. 1494–1520) | Successor Mihrimah Sultan Role Selim I\'s wife Parents Menli I Giray | |
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Tenure 30 September 1520 – 19 March 1534 Burial Yavuz Selim Mosque, Fatih, Constantinople (present day Istanbul) Issue Sultan Suleiman I
Hatice Sultan
Fatma Sultan
Hafsa Sultan House House of Giray (by birth)
House of Osman (by marriage) Died March 19, 1534, Constantinople Children Suleiman the Magnificent, Hafize Sultan, Fatma Sultan, Beyhan Sultan, Hafsa Sultan, Sehzade Korkut Grandchildren Mihrimah Sultan, Sehzade Mustafa, Selim II Similar People Suleiman the Magnificent, Hafize Sultan, Selim I, Mahidevran Hatun, Fatma Sultan | ||
Hafsa Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: عائشہ حفصہ سلطان ; 1479 – 19 March 1534) was wife of Selim I and the first valide sultan of the Ottoman Empire as mother of Suleiman the Magnificent from 1520 to 1534. 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.
Contents
Origins
Hafsa Sultan was once incorrectly regarded as having been the daughter of Meñli I Giray, but is now understood to have been a convert to Islam of unknown origins.
Life
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 consisting of a mosque, a primary school, a college and a hospice built in the city.
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". 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. After the birth of her son Suleiman, born on 6 November 1494 in Trabzon, she gave birth to three daughters: Hatice, Fatma and Hafsa.
She was the most powerful woman of the Ottoman Empire during her son's reign.
Burial place
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.