Haseki sultan

Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Contemporary painting of Hürrem Sultan, Ruthenian-born legal wife of Suleiman the Magnificent.
Style	Haseki Sultan
Residence	Topkapı Palace
Formation	1534
First holder	Mahidevran Gülbahar
Final holder	Gülnuş Sultan
Abolished	1687

Haseki Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: خاصکي سلطان‎,^[1] Turkish pronunciation: [haseˈci suɫˈtaːn]) was the title given to the chief consort of the Ottoman Sultan. This title was created in 16th century and was used for chief consort of the Ottoman Sultan until it was replaced by "Kadınefendi" in 17th century. Famously, Hürrem Sultan, principal consort of Suleiman the Magnificent, was the first holder of this title. However, in Turkish archives, Mahidevran, first wife of Suleiman, is mentioned as first Haseki. ^[2]

Term

The word haseki (خاصکي) comes from the Arabic and means "to attribute something exclusively to". Haseki is, therefore, one who belongs exclusively to the sultan.^[3]

Sultan (سلطان) is a word of Arabic origin, originally meaning "authority" or "dominion". By the beginning of the 16th century, this title, carried by both men and women of the Ottoman dynasty, was replacing other titles by which prominent members of the imperial family had been known (notably khatun for women and bey for men). This usage underlines the Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative.

According to John Middleton Murry, a haseki was a concubine who attracted Sultan's attention, and when Haseki bore a son, she became a Kadin.^[4]

Living mothers and main consorts of the reigning sultan carried the title "sultan" after their given names, for example, Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, Suleiman’s mother and first valide sultan, and Hürrem Sultan, Suleiman’s chief consort and haseki sultan. The evolving usage of this title reflected power shifts among imperial women, especially during the Sultanate of Women. As the position of the chief consort eroded over the course of 17th century, the main consort lost the title "sultan", which was replaced by "kadin", a title related to the earlier "khatun". Henceforth, the mother of the reigning sultan was the only person of non-imperial blood to carry the title "sultan".^[5]

Role and position

A haseki sultan had an important place in the palace, being the most powerful woman and enjoyed the greatest status in the imperial harem after valide sultan and usually had chambers close to the sultan's chamber. The haseki had no blood relation with the reigning sultan but ranked higher than the sultan's own sisters and aunts, the princesses of the dynasty. Her elevated imperial status derived from the fact that she was the mother of a potential future sultan. Hürrem Sultan, the first haseki sultan, acted as Suleiman's advisor on matters of state, and seems to have had an influence upon foreign policy and on international politics. Aside from her political concerns, haseki sultan engaged in several major works of public constructions.

When her son ascended to the throne, a haseki could become valide sultan. Most of the haseki sultans were still alive when their spouses died and became valide sultan after their son's accessions, like Nurbanu Sultan, Safiye Sultan, Kösem Sultan, Turhan Hatice Sultan, and Emetullah Rabia Gülnuş Sultan. Hürrem Sultan was the only haseki sultan who died when her husband was still alive.

List of the principal Haseki Sultans

The title was first used in the 16th century for Mahidevran Gülbahar, ^[2] later on it was given to Hürrem Sultan, also known as Roxelana, when she was given favor by Suleiman the Magnificent. She was his chief consort and the mother of Selim II. Hürrem Sultan was married to Sultan Suleiman, becoming both his legal wife and one of the most powerful women in the Ottoman Empire. The title was next held by Nurbanu Sultan, favourite wife of Selim II, and the mother of the next Sultan Murad III. In 1575, just after Murad's accession, Safiye Sultan became the haseki and was given a higher rank than the sultan's own sisters, Ismihan Sultan, Gevherhan Sultan and Şah Sultan, and his aunt Mihrimah Sultan.

During Mehmed III's reign, the title haseki did not came in use.^[6] Mehmed's son Ahmed I gave the title haseki to Kösem Sultan, his favourite wife and the mother of Sultans Murad IV and Ibrahim. Osman II gave the title to his wife Ayşe Sultan. Privy Purse registers record the presence of Ayşe as Murad IV's only haseki, until the very end of Murad's seventeen-year reign, when a second haseki appears. But still the hasekis continued to rank higher than princesses. Ibrahim had eight hasekis; Turhan Hatice, Saliha Dilaşub, Hatice Muazzez, Ayşe, Mahenver, Șivekar, Saçbağli and Hümaşah Sultan. Ibrahim's son and successor is known to have one haseki, Emetullah Rabia Gülnuş Sultan.^[7] After that, title haseki sultan was replaced by kadınefendi.

Name	Maiden Name	Origin	Ceased to be Haseki	Death	Spouse
Mahidevran Gülbahar ماه دوران سلطان	Gülbahar	Circassian. Daughter of Idar of Kabardia and his Crimean Tatar wife Nazcan Hatun	2 February 1580-82		Suleiman the Magnificent
Hürrem Sultan خُرَّم سلطان	Aleksandra or Anastazja Lisowska	Ruthenian. Daughter of Orthodox priest	15 April 1558		Suleiman the Magnificent
Afife Nurbanu Sultan نور بانو سلطان	Cecilia Vernier-Baffo or Rachel Olivia de Nasi	Venetian of noble birth or Spanish Jew	15 December 1574 husband's death	7 December 1583	Selim II
Melike Safiye Sultan صفیه سلطان	Sofia	Albanian or Venetian descent	15 Januari 1595 husband's death	10 November 1618	Murad III
Mahfiruz Sultan ماه فيروز سلطان	Hatice Alkassovna	Circassian. Daughter of Mirza Alkas Bey, a Circassian prince	22 November 1617 husband's death	20 October 1620	Ahmed I
Mahpeyker Kösem Sultan قسّم سلطان	Anastasia	Greek. Daughter of a priest on the island of Tinos	22 November 1617 husband's death	3 September 1651	Ahmed I
Ayşe Sultan عایشه سلطان		Descendant of Hatice Sultan	10 May 1622 husband's deposition	after 1640	Osman II
Ayşe Sultan عایشه سلطان		Daughter of an Albanian Nobleman, Hasan Bey, from the Jonima family	8 February 1640 husband's death	1680	Murad IV
Turhan Hatice Sultan	Nadia	Ruthenian	12 August 1648 husband's death	5 July 1683	Ibrahim I
Hatice Muazzez Sultan	Hatice	Caucasus	12 August 1648 husband's death	1687
Saliha Dilaşub Sultan	Katarina	Serbian	12 August 1648 husband's death	4 December 1689
Hümaşah Sultan ھما شاہ سلطان		Circassian	12 August 1648 husband's death	1672
Emetullah Rabia Gülnuş Sultan	Evmania Voria	Greek	8 November 1687 husband's deposition	6 November 1715	Mehmed IV

See also

• List of mothers of the Ottoman sultans
• List of consorts of the Ottoman sultans
• Harem
• Valide Sultan
• Kadınefendi
• Hanımefendi
• Sultana (title)

References

1. Bianchi, Thomas Xavier (1831). Vocabulaire français-turc à l'usage des interprètes: des commerçans, des navigateurs, et autres voyageurs dans le Levant. Paris: Éverat. p. 830. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
2. Türk dili: dil ve edebiyat dergisi (in Turkish). Türk Dil Kurumu. 1989-01-01.
3. Fanny Davis (1986). The Ottoman Lady: A Social History from 1718 to 1918. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-24811-5.
4. Middleton, John (2015-06-01). World Monarchies and Dynasties. Routledge. p. 746. ISBN 9781317451587.
5. Peirce, Leslie P. (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. ISBN 0-19-507673-7.
6. Peirce (1993) p.104
7. 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.