The charitable
wife of the Ottoman Sultan (B. 1550?, Venice – D. January 1619, Istanbul). She
was the wife of Sultan Murat III and mother of Mehmed III. Her birth date was
just based on predictions. There are speculations about her origin but it is
stated in Venetian sources that she was of Albanian origin born in the village
of Rezi, Dukagjin. Stephan Gerlach, who had been in Istanbul
between 1573 and 1578, identified her as of a Bosnian origin and stated that
she had been presented to Murat when he was still a prince, by Ferhad Pasha in
Manisa.
After 1585, she
became the most powerful one in harem. Moreover, she was not contented with
harem, she began to intervene in state affairs.
She strengthened her position in the court when she became the Valide
Sultana (Sultan’s mother) upon the ascension of her son Mehmet III on the
throne in 1595, after the death of Murat III. People and civil servants
appealed to her when they needed some help, since they knew how influential she
was on the Ottoman court, sometimes they would even throw themselves in front
of her carriage for her helps. She was the most influential in terms of appointments
and dismissals of everyone in the Empire, even the Grand Vizier and Shaykh
al-Islam. When Mehmed III went on the campaign of Eğri in 1596, he left a
treasure of one billion akçe (T.N. coin) to her service and she distributed
alms to the poor, orphan and widows upon the fall of Eğri Castle.
Safiye Sultan did
not only interfere in interior affairs but also in foreign affairs of the
empire. It is known that she corresponded by letters with foreign kings-queens
and established diplomatic relations with them. Just as her mother-in-law Nurbanu,
she supported a pro-Venetian policy in foreign politics. Upon the death of Mehmed
III in 1603, she was sent to Eski Saray and had lived there until her death in
January 1619. She was laid to rest in the tomb of Murat III.
The foreign
sources describe Safiye Sultan as a smart, intelligent, whip-smart, very high-flown,
politic, argus-eyed and patient woman. Safiye Sultan started the construction
of Yenicami in Eminönü with an inauguration on April 9th, 1598.
However when she was sent to Eski Saray upon his son’s dead, the construction
of külliye (T.N. Islamic-ottoman social complex) was left half finished. Along
with that mosque completed in 1665 during the era of Turhan Sultan, Safiye
Sultan had a mosque and a fountain built in the village of Karamanlı, Üsküdar.
She established a foundation in order to read the Koran in the tomb of her
husband. She had a mausoleum built for the tomb of a person descended from
Gazzalî in Aşıkpaşa town of Fatih and had a summer palace built in Dâvud Paşa
town. She resided in that palace with Mehmed III from time to time and gave
feasts there. Besides, she had a madrasah named after her constructed in 1598
and ordered the construction of a mosque named Melike Safiye Mosque under the
control of her servant Osman Aga in Cairo in 1610. She also donated money to
the army of Ottoman Empire for the expenses during the wars. She discharged the
debts of those who couldn’t pay it themselves and distributed alms to the poor
during her journeys.
REFERENCE:
Ord. Prof. İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı /
Osmanlı Tarihi (1972), M. Çağatay Uluçay / Padişahların Kadınlan ve Kızları (1980),
L. P. Peirce / Harem-i Hümayun:
Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'hda Hükümranlık ve Kadınlar (Çev: Ayşe Berktay,
1996), S. Gerlach / Türkiye Günlüğü (Ed.
Kemal Beydilli - Çev: T. Noyan, 2007), Alî Akyıldız / “ Safiye Sultan” (Türkiye
Diyanet Vakfı İslam Ansiklopedisi, c. 35, 2008), İhsan Işık / Ünlü
Kadınlar (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 6, 2013) - Encyclopedia of
Turkey’s Famous People (2013).
