Gülbahar Hatun (mother of Bayezid II)

Emine Gülbahar Mükrime Hatun (Ottoman Turkish: گل بھار مکرمه خاتون; "benign", "spring rose" and "hospitable"; died c. 1492),[2] was consort of Sultan Mehmed II, and mother of Sultan Bayezid II.[3][4][5][6]

This article is about the concubine of Mehmed II and mother of Bayezid II. For the concubine of Bayezid II and mother of Selim I, see Gülbahar Hatun (mother of Selim I).
For other uses, see Gülbahar.
In this Ottoman Turkish style name, the given name is Gülbahar, the title is Hatun, and there is no family name.

Gülbahar Hatun
Valide-i macide
Meliketü'l-Melikât
Tâcü'l-mükerremât
Fahrü'l-muazzamat
Fatihetü'l-maeyâmin ve'l hayrat[1]
The interior appearance of the tomb in Gülbahar's mausoleum at the Fatih Mosque, Istanbul.
Valide Hatun of the Ottoman Empire
Tenure3 May 1481 – 1492
Diedc. 1492
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (present day Istanbul, Turkey)
Burial
Fatih Mosque, Istanbul
SpouseMehmed II
IssueGevherhan Hatun
Bayezid II

Early life

The Ottoman inscription (vakfiye) describes her as Hātun binti Abdullah (Daughter of Abdullah), which means that she was a Christian slave converted to Islam. She was either of Greek[7][8][9][10] or Albanian[8][11][12][13] origin.

Marriage
Ideal portrait of Gülbahar Hatun, Italian school; 1480

Gülbahar entered in Mehmed's harem in 1446, when he was still a prince and the governor of Amasya. She had two children, a son, Şehzade Bayezid (future Bayezid II) born in 1447 in Demotika, and a daughter, Gevherhan Hatun,[14] born in 1446, who married Ughurlu Muhammad, a son of Aq Qoyunlu Sultan Uzun Hasan in 1474.[15]

Due to their middle name in common, Gülbahar is sometimes confused with Sittişah Mukrime Hatun, another consort of Mehmed.

In 1451, after Mehmed's accession to the throne, she followed him to Edirne. According to Turkish tradition, all princes were expected to work as provincial governors as a part of their training. In 1455 or 1456, Bayezid was appointed the governor of Amasya, and Gülbahar accompanied him, where the two remained until 1481, except for in 1457, when she came to Constantinople, and attended her son's circumcision ceremony.[14]

Gülbahar was apparently quite concerned about the future of her son, and related to that, her own properties. In order to secure her properties, she endowed the incomes of certain villages and fields to the Enderun mosque in 1474. Among the endowed properties was the village of Ağılcık, which was turned back into a Timariot village in 1479 during the land reform.[16]

In 1468, Mehmed gave the village of Bağluca to Gülbahar. After six years, in 1473, she sold the village to Taceddin Bey, son of Hamza Bali (died 1486), the book keeper of Bayezid's court. In 1478, the village's exemption was abolished and granted back to her probably as a result of the land reform. This order was reissued a year later at the request of Mevlana Şemseddin Ahmed according to which the village was not reverted to her, and she had likely become subject to a legal dispute.[17]

Mother of the Sultan

Per custom, Gülbahar got the highest position in the imperial family after the sultan himself when her son, Bayezid ascended the throne in 1481[18] until her death in 1492. During her son's reign, she and the rest of the Imperial Family resided at the Old Palace (saray-ı atik) and were visited by the Sultan who on each visit used to pay his respect to his mother. In one case, Gülbahar complained of her son's rare visits and in a letter to her son wrote:

"My fortune, I miss you. Even if you don't miss me, I miss you ... Come and let me see you. My dear lord, if you are going on campaign soon, come once or twice at least so that I may see your fortune-favored face before you go. It's been forty days since I last saw you. My sultan, please forgive my boldness. Who else do I have beside you ... ?"[19]

Gülbahar had a considerable influence over Bayezid, for she used to make evaluations about the situation of some statesmen. Bayezid also valued his mother's words. In a letter written to him, she advises him against Hersekzade Ahmed Pasha, but favours his tutor Ayas Pasha and Hizirbeyoğlu Mehmed Pasha.[14]

In 1485, Bayezid endowed a mosque, and a school in Tokat in the memory of Gülbahar Hatun.[20]

Death

Gülbahar Hatun died in 1492, and was buried in Fatih Mosque, Istanbul.[14] The tomb was damaged in the 1766 Istanbul earthquake, and was rebuilt in 1767–1768.[14]

Issue

By Mehmed II, Gülbahar Hatun had at least a daughter and a son:

  • Gevherhan Hatun (c. 1446 - c. 1514). Married at least one time, she had a son.
  • Bayezid II (3 December 1447 - 26 May 1512). 8th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
  • In the 2012 film Fetih 1453, Gülbahar Hatun is portrayed by Turkish actress Şahika Koldemir.[21]
  • In the 2013 Turkish series Fatih, Gülbahar Hatun is portrayed by Turkish actress Seda Akman.[22]
  • In the second season of Netflix's Rise of Empires: Ottoman (2020-2022), Gülbahar Hatun is portrayed by actress Yasemin Eti.[23]

See also

References
  1. Necdet Sakaoğlu [in Turkish] (2008). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler. Oğlak publications. pp. 110–112. ISBN 978-9-753-29623-6.
  2. Edhem, Halil; Hacıfettahoğlu, İsmail (2001). Trabzon'da Osmanlı kitâbeleri. Trabzon Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları. p. 81. ISBN 978-9-759-51583-6.
  3. Bryer, Anthony (1988). Peoples and settlement in Anatolia and the Caucasus: 800-1900. ISBN 9780860782223.
  4. Th Dijkema, F. (1977). The Ottoman Historical Monumental Inscriptions in Edirne. ISBN 9004050620.
  5. Edmonds, Anna (1997). Turkey's religious sites. Damko. p. 1997. ISBN 975-8227-00-9.
  6. Babinger, Franz (1992). Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Princeton University Press. p. 51. ISBN 0-691-01078-1.
  7. Ostovich, Helen; Silcox, Mary V.; Roebuck, Graham (2008). The Mysterious and the Foreign in Early Modern England. Associated University Presse. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-87413-954-9. Mehmed's eldest son was Bayezid or Beyazid II, whose mother, Gülbahar, was probably a Greek concubine.
  8. Lawler, Jennifer (16 January 2018). Encyclopedia of Women in the Middle Ages. McFarland. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-4766-0111-3. Gülbehar (15th century) Mother of Bayezid II, the famous Ottoman ruler. A slave girl of either Albanian or Greek heritage, she was a Christian and became the mistress of Mehmed II the Conqueror around 1450.
  9. Lowry, Heath W. (2003). The Nature of the Early Ottoman State. SUNY Press. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-7914-8726-6. Mother of Bayezid II was Gülbahar Hatun (a Pontic Greek from the village of Douvera in Trabzon)
  10. Freely, John (1999). Inside the Seraglio: Private Lives of the Sultans in Istanbul. Viking Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-670-87839-0. Mehmet had become a father for the first time in January 1448, when his concubine Gülbahar gave birth to a son, the future Beyazit II. Little is known of Gülbahar's origins, but she was probably Greek, since the concubines in the imperial harem were almost always Christians...
  11. Lyigun, Murat (2015). War, Peace, and Prosperity in the Name of God: The Ottoman Role in Europe's Socioeconomic Evolution. London: University of Chicago Press. p. 119. ISBN 9780226388434. Beyazit II... Gülbahar Hatun... Albanian...
  12. Edmonds, Anna (1997). Turkey's religious sites. Damko. p. 211. ISBN 975-8227-00-9. An Albanian by birth, legend also has it that Gulbahar Hatun was a French princess kidnapped for the sultan's harem.
  13. Babinger, Franz (1992). Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Princeton University Press. p. 51. ISBN 0-691-01078-1. Gülbahar bint Abdullah, whom Turkish legend subsequently transformed into a "daughter of the king of France," was a Christian slave of Albanian origin.
  14. "GÜLBAHAR HATUN (ö. 898/1492): II. Bayezid'in annesi". İslam Ansiklopedisi. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  15. Tarih arastirmalari dergisi, Volumes 21-23. Ankara Üniversitesi Basımevi. 2003. p. 206.
  16. Karatas 2011, p. 52.
  17. Karatas 2011, p. 56.
  18. Peirce 1993, p. 50.
  19. Peirce 1993, p. 120.
  20. Baltacı, Câhid (1976). XV-XVI asırlar Osmanlı medreseleri: teşkilât : tarih, Volume 1. İrfan Matbaası. p. 134.
  21. Full Cast & Crew: Conquest 1453 (2012), retrieved 7 May 2020
  22. Fatih (TV Mini-Series 2013), retrieved 7 May 2020
  23. "Yasemin Eti | Actress". IMDb.

Sources

Media related to Gülbahar Hatun at Wikimedia Commons

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