Safie sultan

Due to the policy pursued by Safiya during the years of her reign as a valid, her origin is often associated with the origin of her mother-in-law, the Venetian Nurbanu Sultan ^[2] ; according to the version of the kinship of these two sultans, Safie was the daughter of Leonardo Baffo, the Venetian governor of Corfu , was captured by Muslim pirates and presented to the Sultan’s harem in 1562. However, most likely the girl was from the Albanian village of Rezi, located in the ^{[3] [4] [5] [6]} .

The girl was bought by Mihrimah-Sultan , daughter of Sultan Suleiman I and Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska , who presented her in 1563 to her nephew, future Sultan Murad III ; at that time she was about thirteen years old ^[7] . In the harem of Murad, the girl received the name Safie and became a concubine of the heir to the Ottoman throne. In 1566, Safie gave birth to her first son - the future Sultan Mehmed III .

Until Murad III ascended the throne and for many years after that, Safiye remained his only concubine. Nurbanu-Sultan advised his son to take other concubines for the benefit of the dynasty, since by 1581 only one shehzade survived - the son of Murad and Safie, Mehmed ^[8] . The remaining sons born to Safiye died in early childhood, during or shortly after birth. In 1583, Nurbanu accused Safie of witchcraft, which made Murad impotent, unable to take a new concubine; several of Safie’s servants were arrested and tortured. ^[9] Soon after, Murad’s sister, Esmehan Sultan , presented her brother with two beautiful slaves, whom he accepted and made his concubines. Over the next few years, Murad became the father of twenty sons and twenty-seven daughters ^[3] .

The Venetian reports state that despite initial bitterness over Murad’s connections with other women, Safie stood with dignity and did not show jealousy of Murad’s concubines. Later, Safie herself bought beautiful slaves for the harem, which earned the gratitude of the Sultan, who continued to appreciate her and consult with her on political issues, especially after the death of Nurban. In the last years of his life and rule, Murad Safie again became his only concubine and companion. According to the reports of the Venetian and English ambassadors, despite the influence exerted by Safie on the Sultan, Murad did not make her his legal wife , although the historian Mustafa Ali argued the opposite ^[3] . There is an opinion that the enemies of his mother dissuaded Murad from marrying Safie, because they believed that in this case the sultan would not live long, as was the case with his father ^[8] .

According to the ambassadors' reports for 1594, Murad was dissatisfied with the popularity of his eldest son, especially among the Janissaries , who did not like the sultan who was clumsy due to the enormous obesity, and was afraid that he would overthrow him from the throne. It is known that Safie warned her son about his possible murder, which, however, did not take place ^[8] .

With the death of Murad III in 1595, Safiye became a valid-sultan under the son of Mehmed III ; later Safie became one of the most powerful mothers of the Sultan in the Ottoman Empire. Before the death of Mehmed III in 1603, the country's policy was determined by the party, which Safie led together with Gazanfer-aga, the , and the head of Enderun ^[10] .

Having become valid, Safiye gained enormous power and a large income: in the second half of the reign of Mehmed III, Safiye received only 3,000 acce per day as a salary; In addition, land brought under the needs of the Valide Sultan brought income. When Mehmed III went on a campaign in Hungary in 1596 , he granted his mother the right to manage the treasury. During her reign, Safie convinced her son to appoint her son-in-law Ibrahim Pasha to the post of great vizier ^[11] . Appointment of the son-in-law to the main post of the empire was not entirely successful: the secretary of the English ambassador wrote that somehow from Safie’s palace “she saw several boats on the [Bosphorus] river sailing together. The Queen Mother sent a servant to find out what was happening [and] she was told that the vizier was administering justice to the harlots [whores]. ” Dissatisfied Safie scolded her son-in-law and informed him that her son left him to rule the city and not to exterminate the women ^[12] .

Safie suffered a major crisis of power because of her dependence on ^[13] . Women of non-Islamic faith (usually Jewish women) who acted as a business agent, secretary and mediator between women of the harem and the outside world usually became kirah. In 1600, the Sipahs rebelled against the mother of the Sultan due to the influence of Esperanza and her son, who had accumulated wealth of more than 50 million acres. Safie allowed her cairo to cash in on the entire harem and even run her hand into the treasury; in the end, Malhi and her son were brutally murdered by the Sipahs. Mehmed ordered the execution of the leaders of the rebels, since the son of the kira was an adviser to Safiye and, thus, the servant of the sultan himself. Since the soldiers could suspect that the valid had an undue influence on the Sultan, Safie advised to sign decrees on the execution of the great vizier ^[14] .

Safie played a significant role in the execution of her grandson Mahmoud in 1603: it was Safie who intercepted the message sent to the mother of Mahmoud, Halime Sultan , a religious seer who predicted that Mehmed III would die within six months and his eldest son would inherit him. According to the records of the English ambassador, Mahmoud was upset that “his father is ruled by the old sultana, his grandmother, and the state is collapsing, because she respects nothing like her own desire to receive money, which his mother often laments [Halim- Sultan] ”, which was“ not to the liking of the Queen Mother ” ^[15] . The sultan began to suspect his son of a conspiracy and was jealous of shekhzadeh's popularity and ordered to strangle Mahmud.

In December 1603, Mehmed III died and his son from the Handan Sultan , Ahmed I, became the Sultan . One of his first decisions was to strip Safie from power: she was exiled to the Old Palace in January 1604 ^[16] . After the death of Ahmed I in 1617, his brother Mustafa I , whose mother, Halime Sultan, began to receive 3,000 acce per day, appeared on the throne. In 1618, Mustafa I was removed from the throne; Halime was sent to the Old Palace, where she began to receive only 2,000 acres. In the first months of Halim's stay in the Old Palace, Safie was still alive and was mentioned in documents on the payment of salaries in November 1618; Safie, as the eldest valida, received 3,000 acce per day. Since there is no further information about Safie's life in the Old Palace, it can be assumed that she died in late 1618 - early 1619 ^[17] . Safie was buried in the mosque of Aya Sophia in the turbine Murad III.

Foreign Policy

Safie, like her predecessor Nurbanu , adhered mainly to pro-Venetian politics and regularly interceded on behalf of the Venetian ambassadors, one of whom, Lorenzo Bernardo, described her in the Senate as “a woman of word, reliable ... and I report that there is only one I found the truth in Constantinople. I consider it quite reasonable to keep her disposition to us, presenting to her from time to time some charming little things that could inspire her with a feeling of gratitude ” ^{[18] [19]} .

Safie also maintained good relations with England. She persuaded Mehmed III to take the English ambassador with her on a campaign in Hungary ^[20] . In addition, Safie kept personal correspondence with Queen Elizabeth I and exchanged gifts with her: this is how Safie received a portrait of the Queen of England in exchange for “two robes of silver fabric, one belt of silver fabric and two handkerchiefs with a gold edging” ^[21] . In a letter of 1599, Safie responds to Elizabeth’s proposal about good relations between empires: “I have received your letter ... God willing, I will take measures in accordance with what you wrote. [God willing] will have a good heart in this regard. I constantly instruct my son, Padishah, to act according to the contract. I do not neglect to speak with him in such a manner. God willing, you do not experience grief in this regard. Perhaps you too will always be firm in friendship. God willing, our friendship will never die. You sent me a carriage and it was delivered. I take it with pleasure. And I sent you a bathrobe, sash, two large towels with gold embroidery, three handkerchiefs, and ruby ​​and pearl tiaras. I hope you will forgive [for the insignificance of the gifts] ” ^[22] . In the covered carriage, which Safie speaks of in a letter, she often traveled to the city, which caused discontent among the people: an overly luxurious carriage was considered inappropriate for harem women. The exchange of letters and gifts between Safiye and Elizabeth, unlike the exchange in order to maintain diplomatic, economic or military relations, was carried out from a position that showed the power of the Sultana and Queen, respectively ^[23] .

An unusual phenomenon in relation to Safie to England was her attraction to Paul Pindar, the secretary of the English ambassador, who delivered Safie a carriage from Elizabeth I. According to Thomas Dallam, who delivered Mehmed III an organ as a gift from the Queen of England ^[19] , “the Sultan [ sic ] is very Mr. Pinder liked, and she sent for him for a personal meeting, but their meeting was stopped ” ^[24] .

Construction

Safie is also known for starting the construction of the New Mosque in Eminenu in 1597. The Eminenyu district was the commercial center of Istanbul, where mainly Jews lived. The choice of this particular region for the construction of a large mosque was obvious: Safie-Sultan hoped to expand the sphere of Islamic influence within the city ^{[25] [26]} , speculating on the growing discontent of local and foreign merchants who were harmed by the increase in power and influence of their Jewish colleagues, which gave Safie an excuse for confiscating the merchants ’property. However, the increase in construction costs caused sharp criticism. In particular, the Janissary was outraged by the growing political force of the Valide Sultan and they believed that the mosque was an unnecessary expense. After the death of Mehmed III in 1603, Safie was sent to the Old Palace; construction of the mosque was discontinued. In 1660, the area where the unfinished mosque was located was damaged by fire ^[27] . The fire attracted the attention of Valide Turkhan-Sultan to the mosque itself, the construction of which, by its order, was completed in 1665 ^{[28] [25]} .

In 1598, a madrassah bearing the name Safie was opened in Cairo ; also in 1610, the Al-Malik Safiye mosque, built by the former slave of Safiye, Osman-aga, and named in honor of his mistress, was opened in the same place ^[29] .

Literature

• Safie is the heroine of the Hazal Tash novel “Hareme düşen yıldırım: Safiye Sultan” ^[30] .
• Anne Chamberlain's book, Sofia, the Venetian Concubine, tells about Safie's life before and after getting into the harem.

Cinema and television

• In the movie “Machpeaker”, shot in 2010, the role of Safie was played by actress Selda Ozer ^[31] .
• In the Turkish historical television series "The Magnificent Century ", the role of the young Safie was played by the actress Gozde Turker.
• In the Turkish historical television series “The Magnificent Century. Empire Kösem »the role of Safie Sultan was performed by actress Hülya Avshar ^[32] .

• List of mothers of the Ottoman Sultans
• Female Sultanate

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