Halime Sultan

Halime Sultan
Sarcophagus of Halime Sultan (right) and her son Mahmud (left)
Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Tenure	22 November 1617 – 26 February 1618
Predecessor	Handan Sultan
Successor	Herself (1622)
Tenure	19 May 1622 – 10 September 1623
Predecessor	Herself (1618)
Successor	Kösem Sultan
Born	c. 1570 Abkhazia, Ottoman Empire
Died	after 1623 Eski Saray, Beyazıt Square, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Burial	Şehzade Mahmud Mausoleum, Şehzade Mosque, Istanbul
Spouse	Mehmed III
Issue	Şehzade Mahmud Hatice Sultan Şah Sultan Mustafa I Halime Sultan (?) Şehzade Cihangir (?) Fülane Sultan
Religion	Sunni Islam, previously Eastern Orthodox

Halime Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: حلیمه سلطان, "the gentle one" or "the patient one", c. 1570 - after 1623) was the consort of Sultan Mehmed III and the mother of Sultan Mustafa I. She was the first woman to became Valide Sultan twice and the only mother of a sultan to become Valide Sultan twice. Mehmed and she had four children: two sons, Şehzade Mahmud and Mustafa I, and two daughters, Hatice Sultan and Şah Sultan. She was the de facto co-ruler of the Ottoman Empire with Valide Sultan from 22 November 1617 to 26 February 1618 and from 19 May 1622 to 10 September 1623, as her son was mentally unstable. Halime was one of the most prominent figures of the era known as the Female Sultana.

Halime witnessed the reigns of six sultans in the Ottoman Empire, and they were: Murad III, Mahmud III, Ahmed I, Mustafa I, Osman II, Murad IV.

She was born around 1570. A slave concubine of Abkhazian origin,^[1][2] Halime Sultan,^[3] whose real name is unknown, was sold by Black Sea slavers into Mehmed's harem when Mehmed was a prince and governor of the Saruhan (Manisa) Sanjak. She bore him at least four children, two sons and two daughters. After the death of Sultan Murad III in 1595, she accompanied Mehmed to Constantinople. In Istanbul, her son Mahmud was very popular with the Janissaries. However, Halime was never a Haseki Sultan and her mother-in-law Safiye Sultan did not like her, preferring Handan Hatun.^[4]

She sent a message to a religious sage because she was very superstitious and wanted to know if her son would be the next sultan and how long her husband would reign. The sage responded, but the message was intercepted by the head of the royal harem, Khoja Abdur Rezzak Aga, who later gave the message to Mehmed and Safiye instead.^[5] The message stated that Mehmed would die in six months and his son would be the next sultan. Safiye angered Mehmed and he had Mahmud executed, who in fact knew nothing of his mother's activities.^[6]

Mahmud's followers were thrown into the sea. Rumor had it that Halime was also executed. However, in late June she was sent to the Eski (Old) Palace in Beyazit Square.^[7] Mehmed died only six months after Mahmud's death. On Friday, January 9, Safiye Sultan and Şehzade Mustafa were sent to the Eski Palace.^[8] During the period between Mehmed's death and Mustafa's accession to the throne, Halime's allowance was 100 aspers per day.^[9]

When Mustafa ascended the throne in 1617, she became Valide Sultan and assumed great power. Although as a consort of Mehmed, she had vague powers similar to Handan Sultan, she was clearly able to achieve a higher status than Handan. She probably exercised power directly in the Ottoman Empire, acting as regent for her mentally disabled son, as his mental state did not improve. No one expected a prince who suffered from serious mental problems to become a sultan, and so Halime did not enjoy a high position in the royal harem. She received 3,000 aspers even though her mother-in-law Safiye Sultan was still alive.^[10] Mahmud's consort Handan Sultan received only 1,000 aspers after becoming Valide Sultan. After the death of Ahmed I, his beloved consort and legitimate wife, Haseki Kösem Sultan, lost her position at the Topkapi Palace and retired to the Old Palace after Mustafa I ascended to the throne.

Kara Dawud Pasha was a potential ally of Halime, but during Mustafa's first reign, which lasted only three months, he was unable to use Dawud Pasha as vizier. Halime Sultan was able to form several political alliances with her son's sword-bearer and a high-ranking palace official, Mustafa Aga, one of whom was brought to the palace and married to the Sultan's maidservant,^[11] who gained the prestigious and strategically important position of Governor of Egypt. Within a few months, the pasha was returned to Istanbul as Grand Vizier.^[12][13][14]

Later, Mustafa was deposed due to his mental state and his nephew Osman II ascended the throne. Mustafa was sent back to Kafe. Halime Sultan and her daughter Shah were sent to the Eski Palace.^[15] However, during her retirement in the Old Palace between her son's two reigns, she received only 2,000 aspers. Safiye was still alive during the first months of retirement, probably as a member of the royal family of the Old Palace who received 3,000 aspers per day.^[15] In addition, Kösem Sultan received 1,000 aspers per day during her retirement in the Old Palace. Even after Kösem's stay in the Old Palace, she was an important figure for controlling Osman II and showed that she was not unfamiliar with the art of damat politics.^[16] The reason why Osman II suffered from weakness was the clear absence of a female power base in the harem. Until Osman's death in 1620, a governess (daye hatun, literally wet-nurse) was appointed as a stand-in for the valide, and she could not cope with Halime Sultan's intrigues in the old palace.

To combat the Janissaries, Osman II closed down their coffee shops and began planning to create a new and more loyal army composed of Anatolian sekbans. This angered the Janissaries and led to a palace revolt, led by Halime Sultan, who wanted to free his son from his captivity and become Valide Sultan again. Later, on 18 May 1622, Osman was deposed again and the rebels entered the palace and freed Mustafa from his captivity and recognized him as their sultan. Halime returned from the old palace and became Valide Sultan again. Some of the Janissaries consulted with him about what appointments to make, and in fact his son-in-law, Kara Dawud Pasha, became Grand Vizier. This group of Janissaries was loyal to Mustafa, and Mustafa was not safe while Osman II was alive.  Their unease was well-founded, as some of the rebels wanted to save Osman. Kara Dawud Pasha was finally forced to take the final step, so Osman II was strangled to death in the Yedikule prison in Istanbul on 20 May 1622.^[17][18][19]

After Osman's death, the Governor General of Erzurum, Abaza Mehmed Pasha, decided to march on Istanbul to settle the score with the murderers of Osman II. Kara Dağüt Pasha was chosen as the scapegoat and was sentenced to death for suppressing the rebellions that had developed in the empire. But to no avail: despite the proposals of envoys from the capital, Mehmed Pasha continued his advance. Faced with a growing crisis, the clergy and the new Grand Vizier Kemankes Kara Ali Pasha urged Kösem to agree to spare the life of her son's eldest son, Ahmed I's surviving eleven-year-old Şehzade Murad. Kösem agreed, requesting only that her son's life be spared. Accordingly, Mustafa was dethroned and imprisoned again.^[1]

She died in the Eski Saray (Old Palace) post 1623. She is buried in the mausoleum of her son Şehzade Mahmud in the Şehzade Mosque, Istanbul.^[20]

Mehmed and Halime had at least two sons and two daughters:

• Şehzade Mahmud (1587, Manisa Palace, Manisa – 7 June 1603, Topkapi Palace, Constantinople) was executed by order of Sultan Mehmed III. He is buried in the Şehzade Mahmud Mausoleum, Şehzade Mosque.^[3]

• Hatice Sultan (1590, Manisa Palace, Manisa – 1613, Constantinople). She Married first in 1604 to Mirahur Mustafa Pasha. She Married second on 10 February 1612 to Kağalöğlu Mahmud Pasha, son of Sigalazade Sinan Pasha and Saliha Hanımsultan (great-granddaughter of Sultan Suleiman I). She died shortly after her second marriage and was buried in his own tomb in the Şehzade Mosque.^[21][22][23]
• Sah Sultan (1592?, Manisa Palace, Manisa - post 1623). She married Kara Dawud Pasha in 1604. They had a son, Sultanzade Suleiman Bey, and a daughter. During the second reign of Mustafa I, they wanted to place their son on the throne.^[21][22][23]
• Mustafa I (1600/1602,^[24][25][26] Topkapi Palace, Constantinople – 20 January 1639, Kafes, Eski Palace, Constantinople) was a sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He is buried in the Mausoleum of Mustafa I in the Hagia Sophia.

In the 2015 TV series Muhtesem Yuzyil: Kösem, Halime Sultan is played by Turkish actress Aslihan Gürbüz.^[27]

• Safiye Sultan
• Ottoman dynasty
• Ottoman Empire
• 16th century

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Ga ́bor A ́goston, Bruce Alan Masters. New York: Facts on File (January 1, 2009). Günhan Börekçi. "Mustafa I." Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing. p. 409. ISBN 978-1-438-11025-7.
2. ↑ M. Sadık Bilge (2005). Osmanlı devleti ve Kafkasya: Osmanlı varlığı döneminde Kafkasya'nın siyasî-askerî tarihi ve idarî taksimâtı, 1454-1829. Eren Yayıncılık.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Börekçi, Günhan. Factions And Favorites At The Courts Of Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603-17) And His Immediate Predecessors. pp. 65 and n. 96.
4. ↑ Peirce 1993, p. 231.
5. ↑ Börekçi, Günhan. İnkırâzın Eşiğinde Bir Hanedan: III. Mehmed, I. Ahmed, I. Mustafa ve 17. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Siyasî Krizi - A Dynasty at the Threshold of Extinction: Mehmed III, Ahmed I, Mustafa I and the 17th-Century Ottoman Political Crisis. p. 78.
6. ↑ Peirce 1993, p. 231-2.
7. ↑ Börekçi, Günhan. İnkırâzın Eşiğinde Bir Hanedan: III. Mehmed, I. Ahmed, I. Mustafa ve 17. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Siyasî Krizi - A Dynasty at the Threshold of Extinction: Mehmed III, Ahmed I, Mustafa I and the 17th-Century Ottoman Political Crisis. p. 78.
8. ↑ Shaw, Stanford J.; Shaw, Ezel Kural (October 29, 1976). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume 1, Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1280-1808. Cambridge University Press. pp. 186. ISBN 978-0-521-29163-7.
9. ↑ Peirce 1993, p. 129.
10. ↑ Peirce 1993, p. 127.
11. ↑ Peirce 1993, p. 145.
12. ↑ Dorothy O. Helly, Susan Reverby (1992). Gendered Domains: Rethinking Public and Private in Women's History : Essays from the Seventh Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. Cornell University Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-801-49702-5.
13. ↑ Stern (August 21, 2013). Scented Garden. Routledge. p. 397. ISBN 978-1-136-20632-0.
14. ↑ Anne Walthall (2008). Servants of the Dynasty: Palace Women in World History. University of California Press. pp. 91. ISBN 978-0-520-25444-2.
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1} Leslie P. Peirce (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press. pp. 126–127. ISBN 978-0-195-08677-5.
16. ↑ Gabriel Piterberg (2003). An Ottoman Tragedy: History and Historiography at Play. University of California Press. pp. 14. ISBN 978-0-520-93005-6.
17. ↑ Elli Kohen (2007). History of the Turkish Jews and Sephardim: Memories of a Past Golden Age. University Press of America. pp. 211. ISBN 978-0-761-83600-1.
18. ↑ Gabriel Piterberg (2003). An Ottoman Tragedy: History and Historiography at Play. University of California Press. pp. 78. ISBN 978-0-520-93005-6.
19. ↑ A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730. CUP Archive. p. 137.
20. ↑ Börekçi, Günhan. Factions And Favorites At The Courts Of Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603-17) And His Immediate Predecessors. pp. 65 and n. 96
21. ↑ ^{21.0 21.1} Tezcan, Baki. The Debut Of Kösem Sultan's Political Career. p. 357.
22. ↑ ^{22.0 22.1} Günhan Börekçi - Factions and Favorites at the Courts of Sultan Ahmed I and His Immediate Predecessors (2010)
23. ↑ ^{23.0 23.1} Tezcan, Baki (2001). Searching For Osman: A Reassessment Of The Deposition Of Ottoman Sultan Osman II (1618-1622)
24. ↑ Tezcan, Baki (2008). "The Debut of Kösem Sultan's Political Career". Turcica. 40: 347–359. doi:10.2143/TURC.40.0.2037143.
25. ↑ Günhan Börekçi - Factions and Favorites at the Courts of Sultan Ahmed I and His Immediate Predecessors (2010), p.64
26. ↑ Studies, Dîvân: Di̇si̇pli̇nlerarasi Çalişmalar Dergi̇si̇ / Dîvân: Journal of Interdisciplinary (2009). "İnkırâzın Eşiğinde Bir Hanedan: III. Mehmed, I. Ahmed, I. Mustafa ve 17. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Siyasî Krizi - A Dynasty at the Threshold of Extinction: Mehmed III, Ahmed I, Mustafa I and the 17th-Century Ottoman Political Crisis - Günhan BÖREKÇİ". Disiplinlerarasi Çalışmalar Dergis: 72–74.
27. ↑ In the series she is depicted as the mother of three children, Sehzade Mahmud, Mustafa I and Dilruba Sultan (invented name because, when the series was filmed, the names of Mehmed III's daughters were not known. The name of the corresponding historical princess is now known as Sah Sultan).

• Peirce, Leslie (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508677-5.