The
beneficent
Valide Sultan (B. 1807 – D. 2 May 1853,
Istanbul). She is the second wife of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmut II and mother of
Sultan Abdülmecit. She is one of the most famous sultanas of Ottoman history.
She passed to history as a sultana who was loved and respected because of her
beneficence. She was an intelligent, prudent, compassionate, generous, fine,
sentimental and devoted woman. Because of all these characteristics she was
granted the title Bezmiâlem (World Gathering or World Feast). According to the
generally accepted knowledge she originally comes from one of the
Muslim-Caucasian nations. Some sources claim that she was a Jew of Georgian
origin. Bezmiâlem Valide Sultan
became a sultana when her son Abdülmecit became a Sultan (1839) and obtained
the title “Mehd-i ulya”. As Abdülmecit came up to the throne, he was 16 and
Valide Sultan 32 years old. She deeply cared for her son. She interfered in his
decisions and tried to instruct him. During the rule of her son she was a
Valide Sultan for fourteen years (1839-53). It is stated that she told her son
to trust Mustafa Reşit Pasha about the declaration of Tanzimat. Besides
it is known that Abdülmecit deeply loved his mother and consulted her when
selecting ministers for the government. About Bezmiâlem Valide
Sultan the following story is told: Valide Sultan was going to the palace in a
rainy day by her phaeton. She saw a kitten in a puddle which was about to
get drowned. She stopped the phaeton immediately and took the kitten trembling.
She cleaned the water on it by her hands, put it under her feet and tried to
warm it with a great motherly compassion. Later, when they arrived at the
palace, she fed it well and took care of it. Thus she helped to its survival. One of the people who
loved her dreamed of her and asked her: “My Sultana, you did great beneficence
during your earthly life. Who knows what great gifts and rewards Allah bestowed
upon you!”Valide Sultan answered as
following: “Yes as a result of the beneficence I did Allah bestowed upon me
great rewards. But the major reward I received was because of my compassionate
service to the kitten which was about to get drowned.” Bezmialem Sultan who helped
poor people and educated them thus giving them opportunities at life gained the
love and respect of people of Istanbul.
She built Gureba Hospital with
hundred beds so that poor people could be treated there. Besides she built Bezmiâlem Valide Sultan School (Istanbul Girls School), a large fountain in
Beşiktaş, dervish lodge and mosque in Yahya Efendi and numerous beneficent
works in Mecca and Medina.
Rich foundations donated in order to meet the costs of these works. Bezmiâlem Valide Sultan
passed away on the 2nd of May 1853 in Dolmabahçe Palace and
inhumed to Mahmut II’s Tomb in Divanyolu. When she died the construction of
Dolmabahçe Mosque was not finished whose architect was Garabet Balyan. Sultan
Abdülmecit completed the construction in memory of his mother and opened it to
worship under the name “Bezmiâlem Valide Sultan Mosque”. The mosque started to
be known as Dolmabahçe Mosque in time because of its nearness to Dolmabahçe Palace. Some of the architectural
works realized with efforts of Bezmiâlem Valide Sultan can be listed as
following: Dilküşa Mansion in Yıldız Palace (1842); three different Bezmiâlem
Valide Sultan fountains in Maçka (1839), Topkapı (1843) and Yıldız
(1843); Valide Sultan Guraba
Hospital in Yenibahçe and Haseki Women Hospital (1843),
Mekteb-i Maarif and Valide School which are today used as Cağaloğlu High School
(former Istanbul Girls School) (1850), the first wooden Galata bridge on the
Golden Horn (1845). ABOUT:
E. J. / Brill’s Encyclopedia of Islam, 1913- 1936 (Martijn Theodoor Houtsma,
1987), İbrahim Alâeddin
Gövsa / Türk Meşhurları (1946), Grand Dictionnaire
Encyclopedique Larousse (1986), İhsan Işık / Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür
Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006, 2007) – Ünlü Kadınlar (Türkiye Ünlüleri
Ansiklopedisi, C. 6, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013).
