Asporça Hatun

Asporça Hatun
Legal wife of the Ottoman Sultan
The burial place of Asporça Hatun is located within the tomb of Osman in Bursa.
Predecessor	Rabia Bala Hatun Malhun Hatun
Successor	Kera Tamara Hatun
Born	Holofira, Olivera or Glafira Byzantine Empire
Died	after 1362 Bursa
Burial	Tomb of Osman I, Bursa
Spouse	Orhan I ​ ​ (m. 1310; died 1362)​
Issue	Ibrahim Bey Şerefullah Bey Fatma Hatun Selçuk Hatun

Asporça Hatun (Ottoman Turkish: اسپورجہ خاتون; born Holofira, Olivera or Glafira, died after 1362) was a Greek-Byzantine noblewoman, the first legal wife of Sultan Orhan of the Ottoman Empire.

Biography

Origins

Asporça Hatun was born as Holofira (or Olivera or Glafira), a Greek-Byzantine noblewoman, but are not known others details about her origins.^[1][2][3]

Contemporary rumors said she was a Palaiologos princess, a daughter, probably illegitimate, of the emperor Andronikos II or Andronikos III^{[1][2][4][5][6][7]} but most modern historians reject this version.^[1][2][3][8] It's impossible that Asporça was daughter of Andronikos III because he was born in 1296 and Asporça had a son in 1310. Plus, Byzantine princesses married to Muslim rulers usually kept their own name and their Ortodox Christian faith, while Asporça took an Ottoman name and converted to Islam.^[1][2][3][8]

Another thesis is that Asporça was the daughter of the Byzantine tekfur of Bilecik, who in 1298/1299 was kidnapped by the Ottomans and given to Orhan as a consort, but this wife is usually identified with Bayalun Hatun, and if the kidnapped girl was Asporça, this would mean that her firstborn was born over a decade later.^[3]

Wedding

Since one of Asporça's children, the only one whose birth date is known, was born in 1310, Asporça married Orhan in or shortly before that year.^[8] She was the first of Orhan's two legal wives (the other was Theodora Kantakouzene, married in 1346) and she bore him two sons and two daughters. She was highly esteemed by her father-in-law, Osman I, who gave her the revenues of numerous lands and villages, including Narlı and Kiyaklı.^[1][2][3]

In September 1323, Asporça signed a waqf which assigned the revenues of her lands to his descendants. The document cites the vizier Alaeddin Pasha as a witness and Asporça's eldest son, Ibrahim Bey, as administrator. The waqf of Asporça is the oldest known Ottoman document, and together with the waqf of Orhan of the following year constitutes a valuable source of information on the composition of the Ottoman dynasty in that period.^[1][2][3] In the 17th century, a woman named Saliha Hatun presented herself at the court of Bursa, declaring herself a descendant of Asporça and asking that the income guaranteed by the waqf be paid to her.^[9]

Death

Asporça survived Orhan, who died in 1362.^[2][3][8] Shortly thereafter, in the same year, her son Ibrahim was executed by order of the new sultan Murad I, son of Orhan and the concubine Nilüfer Hatun.^[8]

Upon her death, she was buried in Bursa, in the türbe of Orhan.^[10][11][12] However, the imperial burials of Bursa were restored in the 19th century due to centuries of earthquakes and fires, and currently the Asporça sarcophagus is located in the türbe of Osman I.^[13]

Issue

By Orhan, she had two sons and two daughters:^{[1][2][3][8][14]}

• Ibrahim Bey (1310-1362, buried in Osman I's türbe). Governor of Eskişehir, was executed by the order of his half-brother Sultan Murad I.
• Şerefullah Bey.
• Selçuk Hatun. She married Süleyman Bey, son of Mehmed Aydin.
• Fatma Hatun. Buried in her father's tomb (Bursa).

See also

• Ottoman Empire
• Ottoman dynasty

References

1. Uluçay 1980, pp.4-5
2. Sakaoğlu 2008, pp.42-43
3. Peirce 1993, pp.34-35
4. Ödekan 1987, p.39
5. Tektaş 2004, p.18
6. Atalar 1981, p.429
7. Uzunçarşılı 1988, p.145
8. Alderson 1956, XXII
9. Peirce 1993, pp.295-296
10. Peirce 1993, p.51
11. Finkel 2012, pp.39-40
12. Önkal 1992, p.297
13. Peirce 1993, p.300
14. Encyclopedia of Ahılık - Vol. II. Şekerbank. 2017. pp. 190, 199

Sources

• Peirce, Leslie P. (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (paperback ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508677-5.
• Encyclopedia of Ahılık - Volume II. Şekerbank. 2017. pp. 190, 199
• Finkel, Caroline (2012-07-19). Osman's Dream. John Murray Press. ISBN 978-1-84854-785-8.
• Alderson, Anthony Dolphin (1956). The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty. Clarendon Press.
• Hayrani, Altintaş (1981). "TASAVVUF" (PDF). Ankara Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi (in Turkish). 24 (1): 1. doi:10.1501/Ilhfak_0000000622. ISSN 1301-0522.
• Önkal, Hakkı (1992). Osmanlı hanedan türbeleri. Kültür Bakanlığı yayınları. Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı. ISBN 978-975-17-1009-3.
• Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2008). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler (in Turkish). Oğlak Yayıncılık. ISBN 978-975-329-623-6.
• Tektaş, Nazım (2004). Harem'den taşanlar (in Turkish). Çatı Kitapları. ISBN 978-975-8845-02-6.
• Uluçay, M.C. (1980). Publications de la Société d'histoire turque: VII. sér (in Turkish). Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevı.
• Kunt, Ibrahim Metin; Hassan, Ümit; Ödekan, Ayla, eds. (2009). Osmanlı Devleti: 1300 - 1600. Türkiye tarihi / Halil Berktay, [ve başkl.] (10. basım ed.). İstanbul: Cem Yayınevi. ISBN 978-975-406-564-0.
• "Osmanlı Tarihi" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-05-07. Retrieved 2024-05-07.