Ayşe Hatun (wife of Murad IV)

Ayşe Hatun
Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Tenure	May 1630 - 8 February 1640
Predecessor	Ayşe Sultan
Successor	Turhan Hatice Sultan
Born	c. 1614
Died	c. 1680 Eski Palace, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Spouse	Murad IV
Issue	Şehzade Hasan Şehzade Osman Şehzade Abdul Hamid Hanzade Sultan
Full name Turkish: Ayşe English: Aisha Ottoman Turkish: عایشه‎
House	House of Osman (by marriage)
Religion	Sunni Islam

Ayşe Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: عایشه سلطان‎; c. 1614 - c. 1680^[1]) was the favourite consort of Ottoman Sultan Murad IV.^[2][3]

Biography

Ayşe Hatun was born in 1614, the daughter of an Albanian Nobleman, Hasan Bey, from the Jonima family. She was the niece of Grand vizier Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha. She also had a brother named Silahdar Musa Ağa. When still young Ayşe along with her cousin Ruhsar Hatun were presented in the Imperial Harem. Murad married her in May 1630 at the Old Palace. Her witness was Eyüp Pasha.

Privy Purse registers record the presence of, Ayşe as Murad's only haseki sultan, until the very end of Murad's seventeen year reign, when a second haseki appears.It is possible that Ayşe was Murad's only haseki until the advent of the second. In 1633 Murad raised the Ayşe's stipend to 2,000 aspers, where it remained throughout his reign. The increase was most likely linked to a general increase in stipends throughout the palace during Murad's reign, described by Koçi Bey, and was accompanied by a marked growth in the size of the harem.These changes were probably an aspect of Murad's dramatic assertion of personal control of government after nine year's of his mother's regency.^[4]

She started her career at a stipend of 2,000 aspers a day while Murad's second haseki received, 2571 aspers a day. Seventh months later, however, the stipend of Murad's second haseki was reduced to 2,000, the level at which both remained Until Murad's death. After Murad's death in 1640, Ayşe along with the other members of Murad's entourage were permanently exiled to the Old Palace, where she lived until her death and was receiving the retirement stipend of 2,000 aspers a day.^[4] She died in 1680.

Issue

Together with Murad, Ayşe had three sons and a daughter:

• Hanzade Sultan (1630 - 1680), married August 1645, Damat Nakkaş Hasan Pasha, Vizier of Egypt 1640-1642;
• Şehzade Hasan (March 1631 - 1632);
• Şehzade Osman (9 February 1634 - February 1634);
• Şehzade Abdul Hamid (15 May 1638 - 1638).

See also

• Ottoman Empire
• Ottoman dynasty

References

1. "Turkey: The Imperial House of Osman". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on May 2, 2006. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
2. "Consorts Of Ottoman Sultans (in Turkish)". Ottoman Web Page.
3. Anthony Dolphin Alerson (1956). The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty. Clarendon Press.
4. Leslie P. Peirce (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press. pp. 106–107. ISBN 978-0-195-08677-5.