Kösem Sultan – also known as Mahpeyker Sultan – was one of the most powerful women
in Ottoman history.
Favourite consort and later wife of Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I, she achieved power and influenced
the politics of the Ottoman Empire through her husband Sultan Ahmed I, then through her
sons Murad IV and Ibrahim "the Mad", and finally through her minor grandson Mehmed IV.
She was Valide Sultan from 1623 to 1648, when her sons Murad IV and Ibrahim I reigned as
Ottoman sultans.
She was a prominent figure during the Sultanate of Women.
She was official regent twice and was thereby one of two women to have been formal regents
of the Ottoman Empire.
Biography
Early life Kösem was of Greek origin, the daughter of
a priest on the island of Tinos.
Her maiden name was Anastasia.
She was bought in Ottoman Bosnia by the Bosnian beylerbey, and sent to Istanbul, the Ottoman
capital, at the age of fifteen, to the harem of Sultan Ahmed I after canceling her education
in Istanbul.
Upon her conversion to Islam, her name was changed to Mahpeyker, and later by Sultan
Ahmed I to Kösem.
She was transferred to the old palace on the death of Sultan Ahmed in 1617, but returned
as Valide Sultan, when her son Murad IV was enthroned in 1623.
First reign She was appointed not only Valide Sultan but
also, as her son was a minor, as official regent during his minority; between 1623 and
1632 she became the first of two women in history who ruled the Ottoman Empire officially
and alone.
While women had been de facto regents in the empire before her, no woman had ever formally
been regents, and her position was thereby new.
During most of the reign of Murad IV she effectively ran the empire, attending meetings of the
Divan from behind a curtain, even after 1632, when she was no longer official regent.
Second reign When her son Ibrahim succeeded his brother
in 1640, he proved too mentally unstable to rule.
This enabled Kösem to continue in power.
Eventually Ibrahim was deposed and Kösem presented her seven-year-old grandson Mehmed
IV to the divan with the words "Here he is!, see what you can do with him!"
Thus, she declared herself official regent for the second time, and ruled openly again
between 1648 and 1651.
Death It was Mehmed's mother Turhan Hatice who proved
to be Kösem's nemesis.
It is rumored that Turhan ordered Kösem's assassination when she heard that Kösem was
said to be plotting Mehmed's removal and replacement by another grandson with a more pliant mother.
Furthermore, some have speculated that Kösem was strangled with a curtain by the chief
black eunuch of the harem, Tall Süleyman.
The Ottoman renegade Bobovi, relying on an informant in the harem, states that Kösem
was strangled with her own hair.
After her death her body was taken from Topkapi to the Old Palace and then buried in the mausoleum
of her husband Ahmad I. Kösem was renowned for her charity work and for freeing her slaves
after 3 years of service.
When she died the people of Istanbul observed three days of mourning.
Film Mahpeyker: Kösem Sultan, directed by Tarkan
Özel, written by Avni Özgürel.
Tims Production will make a show similar to Muhteşem Yüzyıl.
The show will be about Kösem Sultan.
References Mansel, Philip, Constantinople: City of the
World's Desire, 1453–1924; New York: St. Martin's Press.
Freely, John, Inside the Seraglio: Private Lives of the Sultans in Istanbul
Imber, Colin, "The Ottoman Empire"; New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Notes