Father Bekhan Bey Religion Sunni Islam Children Abdul Hamid II | Mother Almaş Hanım Spouse Abdulmejid I (m. 1841) | |
Tenure 2 July 1839 – 3 October 1852 Born 16 August 1819
Circassia (modern-day Russia) ( 1819-08-16 ) Issue Naime Sultan
Abdul Hamid II
Şehzade Mehmed Abid Died 3 October 1852, Feriye Palace, Istanbul, Turkey House Ottoman dynasty (by marriage) Place of burial New Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey Similar Şevkefza Kadın, Abdul Hamid II, Perestu Kadın, Gülüstü Hanım, Abdulmejid I | ||
Tirimüjgan Kadın (16 August 1819 – 3 October 1852; Ottoman Turkish: تیرمژکان قادین) was the consort of Sultan Abdülmecid I of the Ottoman Empire. and the mother of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
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Early life
According to some sources, Tirimüjgan Kadınefendi was Armenian. According to others Tirimüjgan Kadınefendi was born in historical Circassia in Eastern Europe (present-day western Russia), and belonged to the Shapsug tribe of the Circassians. Her father was Bekhan Bey and her mother was Almaş Hanım.
She was given the name "Tirimüjgan" in the Ottoman Empire. She was among the longest serving kalfas at the palace for her refinement, her politeness, and her beauty. In her memoirs, Ayşe Sultan, the daughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, depicts Tirimüjgan Kadınefendi as having "green eyes and long, dark blond hair, pale skin of translucent white colour, thin waist, slender body structure, and very good-looking hands and feet." Ayşe Sultan adds that "Old Circassian women at the palace used to tell that she [Tirimüjgan] was from the Shapsug tribe, and I also remember my father [Abdul Hamid II] referring to every Shapsug Adyghe [Circassian] girl as "Our Valide's (mother) kind". Despite her well-documented origins, Abdülhamid II's personal enemies falsely claimed that she was the daughter of an Armenian musician, originally named Çandır.
Marriage
Tirimüjgan married Abdülmecid in 1839 at the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. She gave birth to two princes and one princess. Her first child was Princess Naime Sultan, who died of smallpox at the age of two and a half in March 1843. Sultan Abdul Hamid II was her second child, while her third child was Şehzade Mehmed Abid Efendi, who died in May 1848 around the age of one month.
Whenever Sultan Abdülhamid II would speak of his mother, he would say: "My poor mother left this world at such a young age, but I can still picture her. I can never forget her. She loved me very much. When she became ill, she used to have me sit opposite her and content herself with gazing into my face, for she could not bring herself to kiss me. May God bless her soul."
Death
Tirimüjgan Kadınefendi died of tuberculosis on 3 October 1852 at the Feriye Palace in Istanbul. She died nearly 23 years before Sultan Abdul Hamid II's accession to the Ottoman throne on 31 August 1876. In place of his biological mother Tirimüjgan Kadınefendi, the title of Valide Sultan was acquired by Perestu Kadın who was the adoptive mother of Abdul Hamid II. Her tomb is located inside the royal mausoleum of imperial ladies at the Yeni Mosque in Istanbul. In 1887, her son Abdul Hamid II built a mosque in her memory.