Hafise Kadınefendi
| Hafise (Hâfize) Kadınefendi حفيصہ کادین افندی | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1685 |
| Died |
12 June 1723 Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire |
| Residence | Istanbul, Edirne |
| Known for | İkinci Kadınefendi |
| Religion | Islam |
| Spouse(s) | Ottoman Ghazi Sultan Caliph of Islam Mustafa II Khan |
| Children |
Şehzade Mehmed Șehzade Selim Șehzade Ahmed Șehzade Murad |
Hafise (Hâfize) Kadınefendi (fully Devletlu İsmetlu Hafise (Hâfize) İkinci Kadınefendi Hazretleri, Ottoman Turkish: حفصہ کادین افندی, c. 1685 - 12 June 1723[1]) was a consort to Ottoman Sultan Mustafa II and the mother of Şehzade Mehmed, Șehzade Ahmed, Șehzade Murad, Șehzade Selim of the Ottoman Empire.[2][3]
Names
The earlier editions and translations give her name as "Hafiten". Turkish authors interpreted it as "Hafise" or "Hafsa". Alderson put her in his list both as "Hafiten" and as "Hafise. In the latest edition of Lady Mary's letters, based on the manuscript, her name now appears as Hafise not as Hafiten.
Biography
Very little is known of Hafise's early life. She was captured during one of the raids by Tatars and sold into slavery. Ebu Bekir Efendi, a minister of state affairs presented her, at the age of ten, as a gift in the harem of Sultan Mustafa. It was probably Mustafa'a mother who gave Hafise to Mustafa as a concubine. She was a woman who was proud of having been elected to accompany the sultan on all his three campaigns. She had given birth to four sons and a daughter of the sultan. She was also visited by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in early March 1718. Lady Mary called her the favourite of Sultan Mustafa.
After Mustafa's death in 1703, she was immediately saluted with an absolute order to leave the seraglio and choose herself a husband from the great men at the Porte. She looked upon this liberty as the greatest disgrace and affront that could happen to her. She threw herself at the Sultan Ahmed III's feet and begged him to poniard her rather than use her brother's widow with that contempt. She represented to him, in agonies of sorrow, that she was privileged from this misfortune by having brought five princes to the Ottoman family. But all the boys being dead and only one girl surviving, this excuse was not received, and she was compelled to make her choice.
She chose Bekir Efendi, then secretary of state, and above, fourscore year old, to convince the world that she firmly intended to keep the vow she had made of never suffering a second husband to approach her bed, and since she must honour some subject so far as to be called his wife, she would choose him as a mark of her gratitude, since it was he that had presented her at the age of ten year to her lost lord. But she never permitted him to pay her one visit. She died in 1723.
See also
Further reading
- Peirce, Leslie P., The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire, Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-19-508677-5 (paperback).
- Yavuz Bahadıroğlu, Resimli Osmanlı Tarihi, Nesil Yayınları (Ottoman History with Illustrations, Nesil Publications), 15th Ed., 2009, ISBN 978-975-269-299-2 (Hardcover).
References
- ↑ "Turkey: The Imperial House of Osman". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on May 2, 2006. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
- ↑ "Consorts Of Ottoman Sultans (in Turkish)". Ottoman Web Page.
- ↑ Anthony Dolphin Alerson (1956). The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty. Clarendon Press.