වාලිදේ සුල්තාන්

Valide sultan (ඕටමන් තුර්කි: والده سلطان, lit. 'mother sultan') was the title held by the "legal mother" of a ruling . The title was first formally used in the 16th century during Hafsa Sultan's, mother of Sultan Suleyman I, reign, superseding the previous title of ("cradle of the great"). or "the nacre of the pearl of the sultanate". Normally, the living mother of a reigning sultan held this title. Those mothers who died before their sons' accession to the throne were never bestowed with the title of valide sultan. In special cases sisters, grandmothers and stepmothers of a reigning sultan assumed the title afifa sultan.

ඕටමන් අධිරාජ්‍යයේ වාලිදේ සුල්තාන්
තුර්කියේ හි පිහිටි, පළමු වාලිදේ සුල්තාන්වූ, ගේ පිළිරුව
	වාලිදේ සුල්තානෙෆෙන්දි, මව් රැජිණ
	ටොප්කප මාලිගාව
තනතුර ඇතිකල දිනය	1520 සැප්තැම්බර් 30
මුලින්ම තනතුර දැරූයේ
අවසන් වරට තනතුර දැරූයේ
තනතුර අහෝසිකල දිනය	1904 දෙසැම්බර් 11

Term

The word valide (والده) literally means 'mother' in Ottoman Turkish, from Arabic wālida. The pronunciation of the word valide is .

(سلطان, sulṭān) is an Arabic word originally meaning 'authority' or 'dominion'. By the beginning of the 16th century, this title, carried by both men and women of the Ottoman dynasty, was replacing other titles by which prominent members of the imperial family had been known (notably for women and for men). Consequently, the title valide hatun (title for living mother of reigning Ottoman sultan before 16th century) also turned into valide sultan. This usage underlines the Ottoman conception of sovereign power as family prerogative.

Western tradition knows the Ottoman ruler as sultan, but the Ottomans themselves used padişah (emperor) or hünkar to refer to their ruler. The emperor's formal title consisted of sultan together with khan (for example, Sultan Suleiman Khan). In formal address, the sultan's children were also entitled sultan, with imperial princes () carrying the title before their given name, with imperial princesses carrying it after. For example, and were the son and daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent. Like imperial princesses, the living mother and main consort of reigning sultans also carried the title after their given names, for example, , Suleiman's mother and first valide sultan, and , Suleiman's chief consort and first . The evolving usage of this title reflected power shifts among imperial women, especially between the , as the position of main consort eroded over the course of 17th century, the main consort lost the title sultan, which replaced by kadïn, a title related to the earlier khatun. Henceforth, the mother of the reigning sultan was the only person of non-imperial blood to carry the title sultan.

Role and position

An eighteenth-century painting of a valide sultan by .

Valide sultan was, in most cases, the most important position in the after the sultan himself. As the mother to the sultan, by Islamic tradition ("A mother's right is God's right"), the valide sultan would have a significant influence on the affairs of the empire. She had great power in the court and her own rooms (always adjacent to her son's) and state staff. The valide sultan had quarters within the New Palace, where the Sultan himself resided, beginning in the 16th century. As the Valide sultan (Sultana mother), who had direct and intimate access to the Sultan's person, often influenced government decisions bypassing the Imperial Council and the Grand Vizier altogether or the grille-covered window from which the Sultan or Valide sultan could observe Council meetings. This left her at the heart of the political ongoings and machinations of the Ottoman Empire. Valide sultan also traditionally had access to considerable economic resources and often funded major architectural projects, such as the Atik Valide Mosque Complex in Istanbul. Many valide sultans undertook massive philanthropic endeavors and buildings, as this was seen as one of the main ways to demonstrate influence and wealth. Valide sultans were also conveniently one of the few people within the empire with the station and means to embark on these expensive projects. Nurbanu Sultan’s daily stipend as valide sultan to her son, Murad III, was 2000 aspers, an extraordinary sum for the time, which revealed the highly influential position valide sultans held at court. The valide sultan also maintained special privileges that other harem members could not participate in. A valide sultan was not subject to sole seclusion within the confines of the palace. She had mobility outside of the harem, sometimes through ceremonial visibility to the public or veiled meetings with government officials and diplomats. Additionally, the valide sultan spearheaded one of the most crucial elements of diplomacy within the Ottoman Empire’s court: marriages of royal princesses. The most powerful and influential valide sultans had multiple daughters, with whom they forged crucial alliances through by marriage. During the 17th century, in a period known as the , a series of incompetent or child sultans raised the role of the valide sultan to new heights. Various Valide sultans acted as regents for their sons, assuming the vast power and influence the position entailed.

The most powerful and well-known of all valide sultans in the history of the Ottoman Empire were , Nurbanu Sultan,, , and .

Sultan Nurbanu Sultan became the first of the great valide sultans during the sixteenth century, as haseki and legal wife to Sultan Selim II. Nurbanu’s influential career as valide sultan established the precedent of valide sultan maintaining more power than her nearest harem rival, the haseki, or favorite concubine of the reigning sultan. The following influential valide sultans, Safiye Sultan, Kösem Sultan and Turhan Sultan, maintained this precedent and occupied positions of extreme power within the Ottoman imperial court. These positions helped them solidify their own power within the imperial court and ease diplomatic tensions on a broader, international scale.

Since died before her son, , became Sultan she never became a valide sultan. In an extremely rare case in Ottoman history, Selim II bestowed the title of valide sultan upon his older sister, . It became the only incident in Ottoman history that a valide sultan was a member of the Ottoman royal family, thus reflecting Mihrimah's power.

Most harem women who were slaves were never formally married to the sultans. Nevertheless, their children were under if recognized by the father.

List of valide sultans

The list does not include the complete . Most who held the title of valide sultan were the biological mothers of the reigning sultans. The mothers who died before their sons' accession to throne, never assumed the title of valide sultan, like , , , , , , , and . In special cases, there were grandmothers, stepmothers, and sisters of the reigning sultans who assumed the role, if not the title, of valide sultan, like , and .

Appearance	Name	Maiden name	Origin	Became valide	Ceased to be valide	Death	Sultan(s)
	حفصه سلطان	unknown	Daughter of or more likely a Christian slave	30 September 1520 son's ascension	19 March 1534		(son)
	has died before Selim became sultan						(son)
	Nurbanu Sultan نور بانو سلطان	Cecilia Venier-Baffo or Rachel	Venetian or Jew or Greek	15 December 1574 son's ascension	7 December 1583		(son)
	صفیه سلطان	Sofia	Albanian	15 January 1595 son's ascension	22 December 1603 son's death	10 November 1618	(son)
	خندان سلطان	unknown or probably Helena	unknown or probably Bosnian	22 December 1603 son's ascension	9 November 1605		(son)
	حلیمه سلطان	unknown	Abkhaz	22 November 1617 son's ascension (first tenure)	26 February 1618 son's deposition (first tenure)	1623	(son)
				19 May 1622 son's reinstatement (second tenure)	10 September 1623 son's deposition (second tenure)
	has died before osman became sultan						(son)
	ماه پیکر كوسم سلطان	Anastasia	Greek. Born on Tinos,	10 September 1623 son's ascension	12 August 1648 son's death	2 September 1651	(son) (son)
	ترخان خدیجه سلطان	Nadya	Ukraine	2 September 1651 son's ascension	4 August 1683		(son)
	صالحه دل آشوب سلطان	Katarina	unknown or probably Serbian	8 November 1687 son's ascension	4 December 1689		(son)
	رابعه گلنوش سلطان	Evmania Voria	Greek	6 February 1695 son's ascension	6 November 1715		(son) (son)
	صالحه سلطان	Elizaveta	unknown Serbian or Greek	20 September 1730 son's ascension	21 September 1739		(son)
	شهسوار سلطان	Maria	Russian or Serbian	13 December 1754 son's ascension	April 1756		(son)
	مهر شاه سلطان	Agnes	Daughter of Georgian Orthodox priest	7 April 1789 son's ascension	16 October 1805		(son)
	سینه پرور سلطان	unknown	Bulgarian, Georgian, or Circassian	29 May 1807 son's ascension	28 July 1808 son's deposition	11 December 1828	(son)
	نقش دل سلطان	unknown	Georgian	28 July 1808 son's ascension	22 August 1817		(son)
	بزم عالم سلطان	unknown	Georgian or Jewish	2 July 1839 son's ascension	2 May 1853		(son)
	پرتو نهال سلطان	probably Hasna	Kurd or Romanian or Circassian	25 June 1861 son's ascension	30 May 1876 son's deposition	5 February 1883	(son)
	شوق افزا سلطان	probably Vilma	Georgian or Circassian	30 May 1876 son's ascension	31 August 1876 son's deposition	17 September 1889	(son)
	رحيمه پرستو سلطان	probably Rahime Gogen	princess	31 August 1876 step-son's ascension	11 December 1904		(step-son)

Exceptional cases

Normally, the living mother of the reigning sultan held the title of valide sultan. But in exceptional cases, there were women did not exercise valide sultan's duties when their sons became sultan.

	Name	Maiden name and origin	Son	Note
	ماہ فروز خاتون	unknown name, probably Serbian		Privy Purse registers no valide sultan during Osman's reign. Apparently, Mahfiruz fell into disfavour, was banished from the palace at some point before Osman's accession, and never recovered her status. Banishment in disgrace would explain both Mahfiruz's absence from the palace and her burial in the popular shrine of Eyüb rather than in her husband's tomb. The Venetian ambassador Contarini reported in 1612 that the sultan, , had a beating administered to a woman who had irritated Kösem. Perhaps this woman was Mahfiruz.

Reconstructed scene of a valide sultan and her attendants in her apartments at .

බූයුක් වාලිදේ සුල්තාන්

The title of Büyük Valide Sultan (Senior Valide Sultan) or Büyükanne Sultan (Grandmother Sultan) was created by and officially used only by her during the reign of his nephew , thus limiting the power of who was deemed too young to fulfill the title of Valide Sultan.

The official and unofficials Büyük Valide Sultan that lived in the reign of their grandsons are:

Appearance	Name	Maiden name	Note	Became Büyük valide	Ceased to be Büyük valide	Death	Sultan(s)
	صفیه سلطان	Sofia	She never was Büyük Valide Sultan as official title, but she lived during the reign of her two grandosons (Ahmed and Mustafa) and the reign of her great grandson (Osman)	(unofficial)22 December 1603 - her death	10 November 1618		(grandson) (grandson) (great grandosn)
	ماه پیکر كوسم سلطان	Anastasia	During the Mehmed IV's accession, she proclaimed herself as Büyük Valide Sultan	12 August 1648 – her death	2 September 1651		(grandson)

See also

References

1. Davis, Fanny (1986). "The Valide". The Ottoman Lady: A Social History from 1718 to 1918. ISBN .
2. , The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire, Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN (paperback)
3. Peirce, Leslie P. (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. ISBN .
4. "Muslims can celebrate Mothers Day because honoring your mother comes right after worshipping God". Beliefnet.com. 17 February 2011. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 15 May 2015.
5. Peirce, Leslie P. (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (ඉංග්‍රීසි බසින්). Oxford University Press. ISBN .
6. , ed. (1980). "The Imperial Family of Turkey". Burke's Royal Families of the World. Vol. II: Africa & the Middle East. London: Burke's Peerage. p. 238. ISBN .
7. Kasaba, Reşat (July 2011). A moveable empire: Ottoman nomads, migrants, and refugees. University of Washington Press. p. 44. ISBN . Hafsa Sultan, the daughter of the Crimean ruler Mengli Giray Khan.
8. Peter G. Bietenholz; Thomas Brian Deutscher (2003). Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation, Volumes 1-3. University of Toronto Press. pp. 298. ISBN . Suleiman i (Solymannus), known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent, was the son of *Selim i and Hafsa Sultan, the daughter of Mengli Giray
9. Alan Fisher (1993). "The Life and Family of Suleyman I". In İnalcık, Halil; Kafadar, Cemal (eds.). Süleymân The Second [i.e. the First] and his time. Isis Press. That she was a Tatar, a daughter of the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray, was a story apparently begun by , repeated by other western sources, and taken up by Merriman in his biography of Suleyman
10. Godfrey Goodwin, The Private World of Ottoman Women, Saqi Book, ISBN , ISBN , 2001. page 128
11. Valeria Heuberger, Geneviève Humbert, Geneviève Humbert-Knitel, Elisabeth Vyslonzil (ed.), Cultures in Colors, page 68. ISBN , 2001
12. A. D. Alderson, The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty, Oxford: Clarendon, 1956, p.83
13. Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2008). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları : vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler (1. baskı ed.). Beyoğlu, İstanbul: Oğlak Yayıncılık. ISBN .  316234394.
14. According to Yavuz Bahadıroğlu, Resimli Osmanlı Tarihi, Nesil Yayınları (Ottoman History with Illustrations, Nesil Publications), 15th Ed., 2009, page 245, ISBN , 's mother is .
15. Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2007). Famous Ottoman women. Istanbul: Avea. ISBN .  472256214.
16. Akyıldız, Ali (1 April 2016). "Müsrif, Fakat Hayırsever: Pertevniyal Valide sultan". Osmanlı Araştırmaları. 47 (47): 307–352. doi:10.18589/oa.583206.  0255-0636.
17. Günseli., İnal (2005). Semiramis : Sultan'ın gözünden şenlik = festival through a Sultan's eyes. Yapı Kredi Yayınları.  654813573.
18. Kemal., Meram, Ali (1977). Padişah anaları : resimli, belgesel tarih romanı. Öz Yayınları.  23697956.{{}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ()
19. Osman., Horata (1998). Esrâr Dede : hayatı, şiir dünyası ve dı̂vânı. T.C. Kültür Bakanlığı. ISBN .  42858154.
20. Y. İzzettin Barış (2002). Osmanlı padişahlarının yaşamlarından kesitler, hastalıkları ve ölüm sebepleri. Bilimsel Tıp Yayınevi. p. 184. ISBN . Selim'in annesi olan Mihrişah, Gürcistan'dan kaçırılan bir papazın kızıydı
21. Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2015). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları : valide sultanlar, hatunlar, hasekiler, kadinefendiler, sultanefendiler. ISBN .  961810963.
22. Yavuz Bahadıroğlu, Resimli Osmanlı Tarihi, Nesil Yayınları (Ottoman History with Illustrations, Nesil Publications), 15th Ed., 2009, page 387 & 395, ISBN
23. Dolphin., Alderson, Anthony (1982). The structure of the Ottoman dynasty. Greenwood Press. ISBN .  643105131.{{}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ()
24. Brookes, Douglass Scott, The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher, p.287. University of Texas Press, 2008. ISBN
25. . . 2 April 2012 දින මුල් පිටපත වෙතින් සංරක්ෂණය කරන ලදී. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 6 February 2009.
26. İnal, Günseli (2005). Semiramis : Sultan'ın gözünden şenlik = festival through a Sultan's eyes. Filiz Özdem, Mary Işın, Semiramis Arşivi. İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları. ISBN .  60520625.
27. Iyigun, Murat (2015). War, peace, and prosperity in the name of God : the Ottoman Role in Europe's socioeconomic evolution. Chicago. ISBN .  906576835.{{}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ()

Further reading

• (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press. ISBN .

External links

• Guide2womenleaders.com

වාලිදේ සුල්තාන් හා සබැඳි මාධ්‍ය විකිමාධ්‍ය කොමන්ස් හි ඇත.