Hafsa Sultan


Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, was a concubine of Selim I and the mother of Suleiman the Magnificent. She was the first Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and, during the period between her son's enthronement in 1520 until her death in 1534, she was one of the most influential women in the Ottoman Empire.

Origins

The traditional and general view holds that Hafsa Sultan was the daughter of Meñli I Giray, the Khan of the Crimean Tatars. This belief, supported by numerous seventeenth-century Western sources, presents Hafsa as a Tatar princess whose noble lineage symbolized the deepening political alliance.
Various Turkish and Western historians including Cemal Kafadar & Halil Inalcik; John Freely; André Clot & Matthew Reisz hold to this idea. According to this perspective, Hafsa Sultan’s position as the mother of Suleiman the Magnificent gains further political and symbolic significance and makes the Ottoman dynasty a Gengishid family.
Reşat Kasaba mentions the marriage between Selim I and Hafsa Sultan as the "last marriage between an Ottoman sultan and a member of a neighboring Muslim royal family".
However, contemporary historians have debunked this traditional view, demonstrating, based on Ottoman documentary evidence, that she was actually a slave of Christian origins, whose background was "ennobled" for propaganda reasons, conflating her figure with that of Meñli's real daughter, Ayşe.
Ilya Zaytsev and Esin Atıl demostrated that Ayşe first married Şehzade Mehmed, the governor of Kefe, and that she later married his half-brother Selim I; consequently, her marriage into the Ottoman dynasty was one of two noted instances of wedlock between the Girays and the Ottomans. The Ottomanist Alan Fisher, Leslie Peirce, and Feridun Emecen all see Hafsa as having been of slave origin and not the daughter of the Crimean Khan.

Early life

Around sixteen, she became one of the many concubines of Selim, when he was a prince and the governor of Trabzon from 1487. With him, she had at least four daughters, Hatice Sultan, Fatma Sultan, Hafize Sultan and Beyhan Sultan and finally, in 1494, her only son, Suleiman.
According to Turkish tradition, all princes were expected to work as provincial governors as a part of their training. Hafsa joined Suleiman during his early princely assignments, initially in Kefe in 1509, and later in Manisa in 1513. She was supervisor and manager of the inner household and of Suleiman's personal life. Within his court in Kefe, she was granted a monthly stipend of 1,000 aspers, compared to Suleiman's 600 aspers. In 1513, as the mother of the heir apparent, Hafsa received a stipend of 150 aspers a day. In Manisa, where she became the eldest member of the household, she received a further raise, being granted a monthly stipend of 200 aspers a day. This stipend totalling 6,000 aspers a month surpassed that of anyone else on the princely payroll and was triple that of the prince himself.
In his provinces, Hafsa was Suleiman's closest companion and kept him constant company. According to Guillaume Postel, she, purportedly saved Suleiman from potential execution by his father. She allegedly instructed him to disavow any interest in succeeding his father as the sultan. Several years before Selim's death, he is said to have tested his sons' loyalty by expressing a desire to retire from the sultanate and asking which of them sought to rule the empire. Postel conveyed that those who responded with boldness met a fatal fate. Suleiman, guided by his mother's understanding of Selim, declined the opportunity, asserting that he was his father's slave, not his son. He expressed that even after Selim's death, assuming such responsibility would cause him great distress.

Valide Sultan

After Suleiman's accession to the throne in 1520, Hafsa came to reside in the Old Palace in Istanbul. Following his ascent, and likely with his approval, Hafsa, began signing her letters as "the sultan's mother". Although not an official title, it became widely recognized. Hafsa, possibly the first sultanic mother to consistently use this appellation, served as a crucial source of support for various individuals during these years, particularly women associated with the dynasty. Examples include aiding the daughters of Prince Âlemşah after their mother's death and assisting a female member of Khayr Beg's harem. In her letters to Suleiman, Hafsa demonstrated both business-like and affectionate tones, addressing him as "the light of my eye, the joy of my heart."
During the early years of Suleiman's reign, Hafsa emerged as a dominant female influence in his life, as evidenced by her son's granting of the title "Valide Sultan" to her, making her the first person in Ottoman history to bear the title of sultana despite not having royal blood. Although her letters carried formal chancery formulas, they revealed an intimate undertone. Expressing a deep yearning for her son's company and showcasing concern for his safety during campaigns, Hafsa's letters unveiled the profound bond between mother and son. In a rare handwritten letter, she shared a light-hearted anecdote about a household servant and lamented a missed opportunity to see Suleiman. Ending the letter with a gift of black-eyed peas, she conveyed her love, stating that even a treasure wouldn't be enough of a gift for him. She also attempted to prevent the execution of Ferhad Pasha, who was married to her daughter Beyhan.
Suleiman had a deep affection for his mother, which is highlighted in Bragadin's 1526 report, describing her as a "a very beautiful woman of 48, for whom bears great reverence and love." Following the Ottoman triumph at the battle of Mohács in 1526, Suleiman took special care to personally inform his mother of the victory through a letter, emphasizing the close bond and reverence he had for her.
Shortly after Suleiman's ascension to the throne, Hafsa initiated the construction of an extensive mosque complex in Manisa, surpassing any built by previous concubines. Its construction probably started during Suleiman's governorship in Manisa, and was completed in 1522–23. This complex included a mosque, a religious college, a dervish hostel, a primary school, and a soup kitchen, employing a staff of 117. Suleiman later expanded it to include a hospital and a bath in his mother's name. Known as "Sultaniye," this imperial mosque featured two minarets, an honor typically reserved for the sultan. Financed through properties acquired with support from Suleiman's father, Selim, and later Suleiman himself, the mosque complex was endowed with income generated from these assets.
Hafsa's groundwork for the project included a significant collective purchase in 1518, involving 56 ordinary shops, 11 shops with roofed fronts, and 111 booths in the Urla market near Izmir. This acquisition, totaling 116 transactions and valued at 66,690 aspers, laid the foundation for the mosque complex's financial support. Beyond construction, Hafsa actively promoted settlement in the mosque's vicinity, offering lots for rent or sale. Those constructing residences on these lots received tax exemptions from the sultan as an encouragement.
She had a kira named Strongilah. She provided assistance to the women in the harem and developed a strong bond with Hafsa.

Death

Hafsa died on 19 March 1534, and was buried in the vicinity of her husband’s tomb in Yavuz Selim Mosque, Istanbul. Construction of a separate mausoleum for her was ordered, and readers were hired to recite the Quran continuously at her grave. Her funeral was marked by significant public demonstrations of mourning. In the depiction of her funeral, royal chancellor and historian Celâlzâde Mustafa Çelebi paid tribute to her with an extensive series of commendations, likening her to revered Muslim women. He compared her to Khadija, the first wife of Muhammad, as well as to Fatima and Aisha, highlighting her asceticism, righteous thoughts, and her active involvement in charitable foundations and virtuous deeds.

Issue

Together with Selim, Hafsa had four daughters before having her only son:
  • Hatice Sultan. Married twice, she had five sons and at least three daughters.
  • Fatma Sultan. Married three times, maybe she had two daughters.
  • Beyhan Sultan. Married to Ferhad Pasha, she had at least two children.
  • Hafize Hafsa Sultan. She married twice and had a son.
  • Suleiman I. 10th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

    In popular culture

  • In the 2003 TV miniseries Hürrem Sultan, Hafsa Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress Deniz Türkali.
  • In the 2011 TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl, Hafsa Sultan is played by Turkish actress Nebahat Çehre.