The Life Of Haseki Mahidevran Sultan

• published: 14 Feb 2015
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Mahidevran Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: ماه دوران سلطان, c. 1500 – 3 February 1580, birth name Malhurub Baharay or Rosne Pravane, other names Gülbahar, Gülbehar, Gülfrem, Gülden) was a wife of Suleiman the Magnificent and the mother of Şehzade Mustafa, Şehzade Ahmed and Raziye Sultan. Mahidevran’s name , Ottoman Turkish: ماه دوران) means "one who is always beautiful", "one whose beauty never fades" or "beauty of the times". Another meaning of her name is "Moon of Fortune." It was Suleiman who named her Gülbahar with gül meaning 'rose' and bahar meaning 'spring' in Turkish and Persian. Little is known of Mahidevran’s early life. Her ethnical background is a matter of controversy. She was either an Albanian or Circassian, Theories of her origins are: According to one source, she was originally named Rosne Pranvere and the daughter of Abdullah Recai, a wealthy Albanian musician. Turkish drama Muhteşem Yüzyıl, also supports this view. According to an interview with Saide Perizat Temrukoğlu, a descendant of Mahidevran, Mahidevran was the daughter of Mirza Haydar Temruk Bey, a 16th-century Kabarday prince and his Crimean Tartar wife Princess Nazcan Hatun, the daughter of Meñli I Giray. This interview supports the Caucasus-origin theory. Other sources, including André Clot also support the Caucasian-origin theory and say that she was married to Suleiman in January or February of 1512 in Crimea. According to the following sources she was of Circassian origin, the daughter of Mirza Abdullah Haydar Bey, a 16th-century Kabarday prince from the princely family of "Cherkassy-Temruko" and his Crimean Tartar wife Nazcan Hatun, the daughter of Meñli I Giray. She had three sisters Fatma Şahıdevran, Akile Rühşah and Belkıs Hüsnümah Hatun and a brother, Mustafa Pasha. She also had three half brothers, Mirza Temruk Bey, Mirza Kambulat Bey and Mirza Şelegot Bey. She was descendant of Prince Inal, a fifteenth century Kabarday prince. She was the niece of Ayşe Hafsa Sultan and Ayesha Begum, through her mother and the aunt of Maria Temryukovna through her half brother, Temruk Bey. She was also related to Şemsiruhsar Hatun, Mahfiruz Hatice Sultan and Saçbağli Hatun the wives of Sultans Murad III, Ahmed I and Ibrahim, through her brother, Mustafa Pasha. Life with Suleiman At the age of fourteen, Mahidevran married Suleiman, on 5 January 1512 at Bosphorus, Istanbul. When Selim I died in 1520, Suleiman moved to Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, along with his family to ascend the throne. Between 1512 and 1525 she bore her husband three children, Şehzade Mustafa in 1515 and Şehzade Ahmed in 1517 and Raziye Sultan in 1525. In 1521 Suleiman lost his two other sons, nine year old Mahmud and the toddler Murad, Mustafa became the eldest of his princely generation. In the Istanbul harem, Mahidevran Sultan had a very influential rival, Hürrem Sultan, who soon proved to be Suleiman’s favorite consort (first Haseki Sultan) as well as his legal wife. Hürrem gave birth to her first son Mehmed in 1521 (who died in 1543) and then Selim (future sultan Selim II) in 1524, destroying Mahidevran’s status of being the mother of the sultan’s only son. The rivalry between the two women was partially suppressed by Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, Suleiman’s mother, but after her death in 1534, as a result of the bitter rivalry a fight between the two women broke out, with Mahidevran beating Hürrem. This angered Suleiman, who subsequently sent Mahidevran to live with her son. Foreign observers of the Ottomans, especially the ambassadors of the Venetian Republic followed Ottoman dynastic politics closely. Their comments about Mahidevran glimpses of the vital role played by a prince's mother and of her necessary devotion to this welfare. Pietro Bragadin, ambassador in the early years of Suleiman's reign, reported that while both were still resident in the imperial palace in Istanbul, Mustafa was his mother's "whole joy".