Nurbanu Sultan

In 1900, Emilio Spagni claimed that she was a Venetian patrician, daughter of Nicolò Venier and Violante Baffo, abducted on Paros when it was captured by Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa in the Third Ottoman-Venetian War. The Sultana, herself, would often say she was of Venetian patrician descent, but never named her family.[3] The opinion that Nurbanu Sultan was Cecilia Venier-Baffo has been followed by Franz Babinger in his article about Nurbanu Sultan for Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani.[7]

In 1992, historian Benjamin Arbel proposed a new theory, that Nurbanu was a Greek from Corfu named Kale Kartanou, daughter of Nikolas Kartanos, and that she was abducted from the island in 1538.[3][8][9] According to this theory, Venetian senators arbitrarily chose to create a new identity for her as Cecilia Venier-Baffo,[9] and she adopted it for political and material gains.[3][10] This theory has been accepted by Italian historian Maria Pia Pidani,[10] and Turkish historian Emrah Safa Gürkan, among others.[11] According to the latter historian, the fact that she "forge[d] a trans-imperial link in order to ingratiate herself with the Venetians suggests that the Ottomans, too, considered the common background as a diplomatic asset".[11]

Turkish historian Ahmet Refik believed she was of Jewish descent named Rachel,[12] as did other Turkish historians.[1]

Of all the sultans, Murad was the most devoted to his mother. However, Nurbanu's monopoly and superiority was still threatened. Murad didn't keep many consorts, and was committed to a single woman, Safiye. Safiye Sultan was given the rank of Haseki as soon as Murad became Sultan, and thus became an influential sultana, albeit very much less than Nurbanu.

Safiye herself wanted to have a say in state affairs, so she tried to influence Murad, which in turn provoked Nurbanu's dislike. Her attempts were in vain, as Murad never listened to any woman but his mother. The details of the struggle between Safiye and Nurbanu are not known, but they probably had conflicts within the harem, for in 1582 their hostility peaked.

To avoid the danger of dynastic extinction, it would have been logical for Safiye to gave birth to more children, but she had been unable to get pregnant for years at that time. In the cases where she had become pregnant, she had a miscarriage or the child was born premature and subsequently died. Murad, however, refused to accept new concubines due to the fact that he loved Safiya strongly — so much so he was not able to perform sexually with anyone else. Nurbanu then devised a plan and accused Safiye of using black magic to make the sultan impotent. The rumor began to spread throughout the city, and Murad eventually exiled Safiye to the Old Palace due to his self-esteem. Doctors eventually solved Murad's impotence, who then produced dozens of children in the following years.

Nurbanu may have felt that she had finally got rid of Safiye, but she could not win this fight so easily. Her grandson, Mehmed, openly disagreed with both her and the Sultan for the sake of his mother, Safiye. As a matter of fact, the sources clearly suggest that Nurbanu was afraid that Mehmed would anger Murad until Murad executed him. Although Nurbanu did not like Safiye, she loved Mehmed as she did all her grandchildren. This is clearly indicated by a follow-up report from 1582. According to this, after Mehmed's circumcision, he impregnated one of Nurbanu's servants, which was forbidden, since the girl was a member of Murad's harem, not Mehmed's. Since Mehmed was already in a very bad relationship with his father, Nurbanu killed the girl to hide the news from Murad. Murad seemingly never realised what had happened and was able to finally restore his relationship with Mehmed.

Nurbanu died suddenly in 1583, and less than two years later, in early 1585, Safiye regained her husband's trust and love. She and her exiled daughters returned to the royal harem. Thus Safiye regained enough power and influence, or far more than before, to protect her son and prepare for his reign. Safiye, like Nurbanu and her predecessor Hurrem Sultan, was able to build a circle of supporters alongside herself and her son and drive out the opposition. Even after Murad's death in January 1595, Safiye, like her late mother-in-law Nurbanu, hid the death of the Sultan until the arrival of her son to Constantinople.[19]

After Nurbanu became the valide sultan to her son Murad III, she effectively managed the government together with the Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, who acted as co-regent with the sultan during the Sultanate of Women.

Her intermediary to the world outside the harem was her "Kira", Esther Handali. She corresponded with the queen Catherine de' Medici of France.

It is understood that Nurbanu Sultan used Kira Ester Handali of Jewish origin for her own personal affairs and had a financial relationship with Duke of Naxos Joseph Nasi. Perhaps, due to this network of relationships, the rumor has spread that she was of Jewish origin. Among her close men are Bâbüssaâde Ağası Gazanfer Ağa, the priest Şemsi Pasha, the strong figures of the harem that have been with her since Manisa, Canfeda Hatun and Raziye Hatun.[6] Extensive information is available in the envoy reports about Nurbanu Sultan's close political diplomatic contact with the Venetians. In 1583, the Venice senate agreed to send her a gift worth 2000 Venetian gold for her useful services. According to another report, she prevented the possible Ottoman attack on Crete and warned Captain Ali Pasha about not opening a war on Venice.[6]

Venetian accounts are the most prolific in describing Nurbanu Sultan as a woman who never forgot her Venetian origins. Reportedly, she kept in contact with Venice through her lady-in-waiting Chirana, who kept in regular contact with the Council of Ten in Venice, from whom she (Chirana) received an allowance as a Venetian Agent.[20]

During her nine years of co-regency (1574–1583), her politics were so pro-Venetian that she was hated by the Republic of Genoa. Some have even suggested that she was poisoned by a Genoese agent. In any case, she died at the palace in the Yenikapı Quarter, Istanbul on 7 December 1583.

Atik Valide Mosque constructed by Nurbanu Sultan

Entrance to Çemberlitaş Hamamı, constructed on the orders of Nurbanu Sultan

This mosque complex was constructed by Mimar Sinan on a vast area. The component buildings in the complex were established on a number of successive and stepped flat levels. Buildings were constructed as the mosque, medresse, school, and the dervish lodge on two separate plains. To the west of these, on a lower flat level were erected the complex of buildings designed to meet social functions such as charity. The public bath is in the south.[21]

The Darüşşifa (hospital), is an integral part of the mosque complex constructed by Mimar Sinan, the great Ottoman architect, under the auspices of Nurbanu Sultan between 1570 and 1579. The landed properties that Nurbanu Sultan devoted to the darüşşifa in her mosque complex are scattered over many corners of Istanbul, Rumelia, and Anatolia. Through the revenues remitted from these resources the treatments and needs of patients admitted to the darüşşifa were sponsored. A section specialized in the administration of revenues was also included in the darüşşifa premises.[22]

During her nine years of regency, Nurbanu ordered the renowned Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan to build the Atik Valide Mosque and its surrounding külliye at the district of Üsküdar in Istanbul, where previously a "Jewish bath" was located. The construction of the külliye was completed and put in commission at the end of 1583, just before the demise of Nurbanu on 7 December 1583.

The Atik Valide Complex comprises a mosque, medrese, primary school, convent for mystics, schools for Qur’an recitation and hadith scholars, soup kitchen, hospital, and bathhouse. Mimar Sinan conceived of his major mosques as finely tuned instruments meant to sound the Qur’an as a text-as-event, in a reenactment of the original revelation. He even integrated sounding vessels in the domes to ensure a beautiful performance of the holy text. Based on the endowment deed (vakfiye), one can reconstruct the soundscape Nurbanu created through her patronage.[23]

Nurbanu Sultan has also constructed imaret and bathhouse, which she built in Mercan, Alemdağ and Langa, in Istanbul, she was the first Ottoman woman to build a library in this complex. The stone needed during the construction of this mosque and complex was obtained from places close to Istanbul such as Iznik and Gallipoli, wooden Sapanca and Iznik.[6]

She was buried at the mausoleum of her husband Selim II located inside the Hagia Sophia (then a mosque) at Sultanahmet in Istanbul, Turkey.

• Arbel, Benjamin, Nur Banu (c. 1530-1583): A Venetian Sultana?, Turcica, 24 (1992), pp. 241–259.
• Peirce, Leslie Penn (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Studies in Middle Eastern History. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507673-8.
• A.D. Alderson, The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1956.
• Almanach de Gotha: annuaire généalogique, diplomatique et statistique, Justes Perthes, Gotha, 1880–1944.
• Düzbakar, Ömer (2006). Charitable Women And Their Pious Foundations In The Ottoman Empire: The Hospital of The Senior Mother, Nurbanu Valide Sultan.
• Burke's Royal Families of the World, Volume II: Africa & The Middle East, Burke's Peerage Ltd., London, 1980.
• A.H. de Groot, s.v. in Encyclopaedia of Islam vol.8 p. 124
• Yılmaz Öztuna, Devletler ve Hanedanlar, Turkiye 1074-1990, Ankara, 1989.
• Osman Selâheddin Osmanoğlu, Osmanli Devleti'nin Kuruluşunun 700. Yılında Osmanlı Hanedanı, Islâm Tarih, Sanat ve Kültür Araştırma Vakfı (ISAR), Istanbul, 1999.
• Emine Fuat Tugay, Three Centuries: Family Chronicles of Turkey and Egypt, Oxford, 1963.
• Ergin, Nina (2014). Ottoman Royal Women's Spaces: The Acoustic Dimension. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Uluçay, Mustafa Çağatay (1985). Padışahların kadınları ve kızları. Türk Tarihi Kurumu Yayınları.
• Freely, John (1999). Inside the Seraglio: Private Lives of the Sultans in Istanbul. Viking. ISBN 978-0140270563.