Kösem Sultan (; 1589 – 2 September 1651), also known as Mahpeyker Kösem Sultan (;), was the Haseki Sultan as a favorite consort and legal wife of Ottoman sultan Ahmed I and Valide Sultan as mother of Murad IV and Ibrahim, and grandmother of Mehmed IV. She effectively ruled as regent of the Ottoman Empire during the minority of Murad IV from 1623 to 1632, from 1640 to 1648 during the unstable rule of Ibrahim,Börekçi, Günhan (2020). "A Queen-Mother at Work: On Handan Sultan and Her Regency During the Early Reign of Ahmed I". p.52 and again from 1648 until her assassination in 1651 during the minority of Mehmed IV. She was one of the most powerful and influential women in Ottoman history, as well as a central and controversial figure during the period known as the Sultanate of Women.: While Hurrem was the woman of the Ottoman dynasty best known in Europe, it is Kösem who is remembered by the Turks as the most powerful.
Kösem's status and influence were facilitated by her astute grasp of Ottoman politics and the large number of children she bore. Her sons and grandson required her regency, and her daughters' marriages to prominent statesmen provided her with allies in the government. She exerted considerable influence over Sultan Ahmed, and it's probable that her efforts on keeping his half-brother Mustafa—who later became Mustafa I—alive contributed to the transition from a system of succession based on primogeniture to one based on agnatic seniority.
Kösem was popular with the common citizens and esteemed by the ruling elite, holding significant political power and shaping the empire's domestic and foreign policies. Her early years as regent were marked by unrest and instability, but she nonetheless succeeded in maintaining the state institutions. In 1645, she pressured Sultan Ibrahim to launch a largely unsuccessful naval assault on the Venetian-controlled island of Crete. Afterwards, she had to contend with a Venetian blockade of the Dardanelles, which led to the naval Battle of Focchies in 1649, and in the years that followed, merchant upheavals brought on by a financial crisis.
Some historians openly attribute to Kösem a role in the demise of the Ottoman Empire. However, others argue that her policies can be interpreted as desperate attempts to avert a succession crisis and preserve the Ottoman dynasty. She was posthumously referred to by the names: Vālide-i Muazzama ("magnificent mother"), Vālide-i Maḳtūle ("murdered mother"), Umm al Mu'minīn ("mothers of believers"), and Vālide-i Şehīde ("martyred mother").
Background
She was born around 1589.Baysun, M. Cavid, s.v. "Kösem Walide or Kösem Sultan" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam vol. V (1986), Brill, p. 272 It is believed that she was Greek (possibly from Tinos) or Bosnian. Apparently, the first report of Kösem's Greek origin was in a letter by the Italian traveler Pietro della Valle. On 25 October 1615, from Istanbul he wrote about Kösem Sultan: "She was the daughter, if I understood correctly, of a Greek priest, from a distant country or city about two hundred miles from Constantinople". Her Christian name is unknown, but a popular version (as stated in unauthorized sources) is that her name was Anastasia.
In 1604, at the age of 14 or 15, she was kidnapped by Ottoman raiders and bought as a slave in Bosnia by the beylerbey (governor-general) of the Bosnia Eyalet. She was a tall, slender, and appealing girl due to her fresh complexion and the deep brown of her eyes.Kadınlar Saltanatı III. 14; Samur Devri: 27-28. Her beauty and intelligence were noticed by the kızlar ağa of Sultan Ahmed I's court, who sent her to Constantinople to join a group of other slave girls marked by their striking appearance or intelligence to be trained in the harem of Sultan Ahmed I as an imperial court lady (slave concubine).: "Kosem was said to have been the daughter of a Greek priest of one of the Aegean islands, probably captured during one of the Ottoman-Venetian maritime campaigns. Her name was Anastasia but was changed after her conversion, no doubt on her admission to the palace, to Mâh-Peyker (Moon-Shaped), and later by Sultan Ahmet to Kosem"
In the harem, she was taught Islam, theology, mathematics, embroidery, singing, music and literature. Ahmed was captivated by her beauty and intelligence, and in 1605, she became his haseki.
The pair apparently married at some point, as the letter to the Venetians written during Murad IV's reign states that Ahmed had wed Kösem; nevertheless surviving contemporary evidence surrounding the exact circumstances of their marriage is scarce.
According to the Italian traveler Pietro Della Valle, upon her conversion to Islam, her name was changed to Mahpeyker. After her marriage to Ahmed, he renamed her Kösem, meaning "leader of the herd,” implying her political intelligence and leadership, but it might also mean "hairless," in allusion to her smooth and hairless skin.
Kösem rose to prominence early in Ahmed's reign as part of a series of changes to the hierarchy of the Imperial Harem. Safiye Sultan, Ahmed's once-powerful grandmother and manager of the harem, was deprived of her power and banished to the Old Palace (Eski Sarayı) in January 1604, and Handan Sultan, Ahmed's mother and valide sultan, died in November of the following year. These two vacancies allowed her to rise to the top of the Imperial Harem hierarchy.
Haseki Sultan Ahmed favoured Kösem above all his consorts, lavishing on her the finest jewels and a stipend of 1,000 aspers a day. In the early years of their relationship, she bore Ahmed three daughters: Ayşe Sultan, Fatma Sultan, and Hanzade Sultan. As the mother of several princesses, she had the right to arrange suitable dynastic marriages for them. In 1612, Ayşe Sultan, the eldest child of Kösem, was consequently married to the Grand Vizier Nasuh Pasha at the age of seven, while Gevherhan Sultan was married to Öküz Kara Mehmed Pasha at the age of five.
The Venetian ambassador Simon Contarini, bailo between 1609 and 1612, mentions Kösem in his report in 1612 and portrays her as:
George Sandys, an English traveller who visited Constantinople in the early 1610s, believed that she was "a witch beyond beauty". He claimed that the sultan had a "passionate" love for Kösem, emphasizing that this was the result of witchcraft. Sandys went on to characterise her as a woman with "a delicate and at the same time shy nature."Relazioni di ambascitori veneti al Senato..., op. cit., s. 22, 649.
Succession Transition Kösem Sultan became increasingly involved in matters of succession following the birth of her second son, Murad, in 1612. It has been suggested that she played a role in the shift from a system of primogeniture, where the eldest son inherits the throne, to agnatic seniority, which favored the oldest male of the Ottoman dynasty. Given the Ottoman practice of fratricide, Kösem feared that if Sultan Ahmed's eldest son, Osman—whose mother was Mahfiruz Hatun—ascended the throne, her own sons, Murad, Kasım, and Ibrahim, would be at risk of execution. As a result, she sought to ensure the survival of the sultan's half-brother, Mustafa, to secure her sons' future.
In 1612, the Venetian ambassador Simon Contarini reported that Kösem lobbied to spare Mustafa from execution, ostensibly to protect her own children from the same fate. Although Contarini did not specifically name Kösem, he referred to a "queen" who intervened on Mustafa's behalf.[L]a Bas Cadin, principalissima favorita del Gran Signore, e madre del secondogenito di Sua Maesta the chiaman ora regina; "BAROZZI and BERCHET, eds., Le relazioni degli stati europei: Turchia", op. cit., vol. 1, p. 132 [FIRPo, ed., Relazioni : Constantinopoli,op. cit., p. 480] Kösem's strategy aimed to preserve Mustafa's life in the hope that, should he ascend the throne, he would spare her sons. She also leveraged alliances with key figures such as Mustafa Agha, the Agha of the Janissaries, and Grand Vizier Nasuh Pasha to extend her influence over the sultan.
It was also reported that Sultan Ahmed ordered a woman to be beaten for offending Kösem, and this woman may have been Mahfiruz Hatun, who was subsequently exiled to the Old Palace (Eski Sarayı) in the mid-1610s. Following Mahfiruz's exile, Kösem and Osman reportedly became closer, and Kösem allowed him to join her on public outings. During these excursions, Osman enjoyed throwing handful of coins to the passers-by who flocked to see the young prince, while Kösem remained concealed. However, by 1616, Venetian ambassador Cristoforo Valier noted that the sultan restricted Osman's interactions with Kösem, possibly due to concerns about her ambitions for her sons.
In 1614, Grand Vizier Nasuh Pasha, who was married to Kösem's daughter Ayşe Sultan, was executed on the sultan's orders, despite Kösem's efforts to prevent the execution. With the loss of this key ally, Kösem focused her attention on protecting Mustafa.DELLA VALLE, Reiss-Beschreibung, op. cit., p. 33; and TEZCAN, "Searching for Osman", op. cit., p. 334, n. 58.
Kösem's influence over the sultan continued to grow, and by 1616, she was regarded as one of the most powerful figures in the empire. Valier noted her pro-Venetian stance and suggested that the Venetian Republic reward her for her contributions to its interests. Despite her significant influence, Kösem took care not to overshadow the sultan, as he sought to avoid the perception of being under his wife's control, unlike his father. Simon Contarini, the successor of Valier, noted that Kösem deliberately limited her involvement in state affairs in order to retain the sultan's favor.
Death of Ahmed I On Ahmed's early death from typhus and gastric bleeding on 22 November 1617, Kösem became the head of a faction that successfully supported his half-brother Mustafa's accession to the throne, probably out of concern for her sons' life, should their older half-brother, Osman, become sultan. She probably preferred to see Mustafa become sultan as he was less likely to see her sons as a threat.
Reign of Mustafa I As only the second sultan (after Ahmed I) to ascend the throne with no prior experience of government, Sultan Mustafa I proved feeble and incompetent. He had spent his entire early life in the harem, learning only what the eunuchs and women could teach him, and constantly fearing execution at the hands of the ruling sultans, with several palace officials, particularly the Chief Black Eunuch Mustafa Ağa, nourishing these fears to control him. Eventually, Mustafa Ağa spread stories that he was insane and secured his deposition on 26 February 1618, just 96 days after he ascended the throne. He was replaced by Osman, the eldest son of Sultan Ahmed I and his deceased mother Mahfiruz Hatun.Living in the Ottoman Realm: Empire and Identity, 13th to 20th Centuries, pp. 199-201
Reign of Osman II Sultan Osman's first act as sultan was to take power away from Mustafa's supporters, as well as those who had secured his accession and planned to rule over him. As a result, Kösem and her eight children and entourage were banished to the Old Palace (Eski Sarayı). Nevertheless, Kösem was able to maintain her haseki status and daily stipend of 1,000 aspers during her retirement. While at the Old Palace, she had the opportunity to meet Safiye Sultan.