Halime Sultan


Halime Sultan was a consort of Sultan Mehmed III, and the mother of Sultan Mustafa I and the Valide Sultan as well as a regent of the Ottoman empire. She had four children with Mehmed: Şehzade Mahmud, Mustafa I, and two daughters. She was de facto co-ruler as Valide Sultan from 22 November 1617 to 26 February 1618 and from 19 May 1622 to 10 September 1623. Halime was also one of the prominent figures during the era known as the Sultanate of Women.
Halime lived in the Ottoman empire as a courtier during the reign of five Sultans: Murad III, Mehmed III, Ahmed I, Mustafa I, and Osman II.

Early life

Of Abkhazian origin, Halime Sultan married Mehmed, when he was still a prince and the governor of Saruhan Sanjak. After Sultan Murad III's death in 1595, she came to Istanbul along with Mehmed. In Istanbul, her son Mahmud was very popular with the janissaries. However, Halime was not favored by her mother-in-law Safiye Sultan.
She sent a message to a religious seer for she was superstitious, and anxious to know if her son would become the next Sultan, and how much longer her husband would reign. The seer responded, but the message was intercepted by Abdürrezzak Agha, the chief black enuch of the imperial harem, and who later gave it to Mehmed and Safiye, instead of her. The message said that Mehmed would die within six months without showing whether by death or deposition, and her son will become the next Sultan. Safiye incensed Mehmed, and he had Mahmud examined, who indeed knew nothing of his mother's action.
Mahmud's followers who were supposed to be involved in the matter were thrown into the sea. It was also rumored that she was also executed. However, she was sent to the Eski Palace located at the Beyazıt Square by the end of June. Mehmed died just six months after Mahmud's death. On Friday January 9, Safiye Sultan, along with Şehzade Mustafa were also send to the Eski Palace. Between Mehmed's death and Mustafa's enthronement her stipend consisted of 100 aspers a day.

As Valide Sultan

First tenure

When Mustafa ascended the throne in 1617 she became the Valide Sultan as well as a regent and wielded a great power. While she, as a consort of Mehmed, had suffered the same obscurity as Handan Sultan, she was clearly able to command greater status as Valide Sultan than her fellow consort had. This was probably in large measure because she exercised power more directly, acting as regent for her mentally incompetent son as his mental condition unimproved. No one had expected that Mustafa, who suffered from severe emotional problems, would become sultan, and so she had not enjoyed a position of much status within the imperial harem. She received 3,000 aspers although her mother-in-law Safiye Sultan was still alive. Her fellow consort Handan Sultan received only 1,000 aspers as Valide Sultan. Kösem Sultan the Haseki Sultan to Ahmed I his favorite consort and legal wife lost here position in Topkapi Palace and she retired in the Old palace after Mustafa I ascended.
She had a potential ally in Kara Davud Pasha, but during Mustafa's first reign which lasted for only three months, she was unable to exploit her relationship by appointing Davud Pasha vizier. One of the few political alliances the valide was able to forge with her son's sword-bearer, Mustafa Agha, a high ranking inner palace officer, who was brought out of the palace and awarded the prestigious and strategically vital post of governor of Egypt on condition that he would marry the Sultan's wet nurse. Within a few months the pasha was brought back to Istanbul as grand vizier.

Osman's reign

Later, Mustafa was dethroned and his nephew Osman II ascended the throne due to Mustafa's mental condition. Mustafa was sent back to the kafes and she to the Old Palace. However, she received only 2,000 aspers during her retirement to the Old Palace between her son's two reigns; during the first months of her retirement Safiye was still alive, perhaps a neighbour in the Old Palace, receiving 3,000 aspers a day. Also Kösem Sultan the Haseki Sultan to Ahmed I his favorite consort and his legal wife received 1,000 aspers a day during her retirement in the Old Palace. From her location in the Old Palace, she was a key figure in the deposition and assassination of Osman II and showed that she was no stranger to the art of damat politic. The basic and exceptional weakness from which Osman II suffered was the conspicuous absence of a female power basis in the harem. From 1620 until Osman's death, a governess was appointed as a stand-in valide, and she could not counterbalance the contriving of Halime Sultan in the Old Palace.

Second tenure

Seeking a counterweight to Janissary influence, Osman II closed their coffee shops and started planning to create a new and more loyal army consisting of Anatolian sekbans. The result was a palace uprising by the Janissaries which was supported by Halime Sultan as she wanted to free here son from his confinement and become the Valide Sultan once again. Later on 18 May 1622 Osman was again dethroned and the rebels, meanwhile, broke into the imperial palace and freed Mustafa from his confinement and acclaimed him as their master. She once again returned from the Old Palace and became the Valide Sultan. Some of the janissaries consulted with her about the appointments to be made and it was in fact her son-in-law, Kara Davud Pasha, who became the grand vizier. The faction committed to the cause of Mustafa and she could not feel secure while Osman II was alive. Their uneasiness was well grounded, since some of the rebels wished to spare Osman, hoping no doubt to make no use of him for their own ends at some future date. Kara Davud Pasha had recourse, therefore to the last extreme measure on 20 May 1622, Osman II was strangled in the prison of Yedikule in Istanbul.

Murad's enthronement

After Osman's death, the governor general of Erzurum, Abaza Mehmed Pasha, decided to advance to Istanbul to settle the score with the murderers of Osman II. Kara Davud Pasha was chosen as a scapegoat and was executed in an attempt to modify the discontent and preempt the rebellions that were building up in the empire, but to no avail: Mehmed Pasha, despite the offers made by the emissaries from the capital, continued his advance. Faced with an ever-deepening crises, clerics and the new Grand Vizier Kemankeş Kara Ali Pasha petitioned her to agree to the deposition of her son in favour of eleven year old Şehzade Murad, the oldest surviving son of Ahmed I. She concurred, only pleading that her son's life be spared. Accordingly, Mustafa was dethroned and incarcerated again.

Death

When she died, she was buried in the mausoleum of her son in Hagia Sophia Mosque, Istanbul.

Issue

Together with Mehmed, Halime had four children:
In the 2015 TV series , Halime Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress Aslıhan Gürbüz.