Mihrişah Sultan (mother of Selim III)

Of ethnic Georgian origin,{{cite book|author=H. Mirgül Eren Griffe|title=Galip Ali Paşa Rızvanbegovic-Stocevic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5mIMAQAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Babil|page=55|isbn=9789756360415 |quote=Ortodoks bir Gürcü papazın kızı olan Mihrişah}}{{cite book|author=Y. İzzettin Barış|title=Osmanlı padişahlarının yaşamlarından kesitler, hastalıkları ve ölüm sebepleri|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p4ppAAAAMAAJ|year=2002|publisher=Bilimsel Tıp Yayınevi|isbn=978-975-6986-17-2|page=184|quote=Selim'in annesi olan Mihrişah, Gürcistan'dan kaçırılan bir papazın kızıydı}} Mihrişah was born in 1745 in Georgia, but there were also rumors that she was in part Genoese.{{cite book|author1=Gabor Agoston|author2=Bruce Alan Masters|title=Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QjzYdCxumFcC&pg=PA514|date=1 January 2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-1025-7|page=514}}{{cite book|title=E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wpM3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1117|date=31 December 1987|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-08265-4|page=1117}} She was considered beautiful,{{cite book|author1=Albert Hourani|author2=Philip Shukry Khoury|author3=Mary Christina Wilson|title=The Modern Middle East: A Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=logNO49CIw8C&pg=PA42|date=1 January 1993|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-08240-3|page=42|quote=beautiful Georgian slave-girl named Mihr-i Şāh}} and was called "the Georgian Beauty" ({{langx|tr|Gürcü güzeli}}).{{cite book|title=Osmanlı tarihi: cilt. Nizam-ı cedid ve Tanzimat devirleri, 1789-1856|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K10NAQAAIAAJ|year=1961|publisher=Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi|pages=13, 16|quote=Gürcü güzeli Mihrişah}}{{cite book|author=Osman Horata|title=Esrâr Dede: hayatı, şiir dünyası ve dı̂vânı|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxxkAAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=T.C. Kültür Bakanlığı|isbn=978-975-17-1954-6|quote=Selim'in Gürcü güzeli ... annesi Mihrişah}}

Mihrişah entered in Mustafa III's harem via the Black Sea slave trade circa 1757 and became one of his consorts and then the BaşKadin (first consort).{{cite book|first=Ahmet|last=Kal'a|title=İstanbul külliyâtı: İstanbul tarım tarihi, 1 (1743-1757), 2 (1757-1763)|publisher=İstanbul Araştırmaları Merkezi|year=1998|pages=218}} On 17 March 1759,{{sfn|Uluçay|2011|p=151-2}} she gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Hibetullah Sultan.According to Oztüna, her mother was Aynülhayat Kadın instead, but this information was discredited{{cite book|first=Arzu|last=İyianlar|title=Vâlide Sultanlar'ın İmar Faaliyetleri|publisher=İstanbul Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü|year=1992|pages=167–8, 170–71}}{{cite book|first1=Paulina D.|last1=Dominic|first2=Stanisław|last2=Roszak|title=The Istanbul Memories in Salomea Pilsztynowa's Diary "Echo of the Journey and Adventures of My Life" (1760)|year=2017|pages=52 n. 41}} For the previous thirty years no child had been born in the imperial family, hence, Hibetullah's birth was celebrated in the whole of Istanbul.{{sfn|Uluçay|2011|p=151-2}}

On 24 December 1761, she gave birth to her second child, a son, Şehzade Selim (future Selim III). His birth was accompanied by celebrations that lasted a week.{{cite book|first=Betül|last=Başaran|title=Selim III, Social Control and Policing in Istanbul at the End of the Eighteenth Century: Between Crisis and Order|publisher=BRILL|date=14 July 2014|pages=72|isbn=978-9-004-27455-6}}{{sfn|Kazancıoğlu|2016|p=95-6}} On 9 January 1770, she gave birth to her third child, a daughter, Fatma Sultan, who died at the age of two on 26 May 1772.{{cite book|first=Necdet|last=Sakaoğlu|title=Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler|publisher=Oğlak Yayıncılık|year=2008|isbn=978-9-753-29623-6}} Among her servants was Dilhayat Kalfa, hostess of Ahmed III's harem and tutoress of Selim III, known to be one of the greatest Turkish composeresses of the early modern period.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}

She was widowed in 1774, after which she settled in the Old Palace. An archival document from the Topkapi Palace shows that Mustafa III borrowed money from her and that, due to his death, the debt was not repaid.{{sfn|Uluçay|2011|p=150}}{{sfn|Kazancıoğlu|2016|p=96}}

Mihrişah and her son Selim were both members of the Mevlevi Order, which practiced Sufi whirling.

File:Konstantin Kapidagli 002.jpg]]

During the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid I, which lasted for fifteen years, Şehzade Selim remained closed in the Topkapı Palace, and the Mihrişah was sent to live in the Old Palace.{{Clarification needed|date=March 2023}} Upon Abdul Hamid's death in 1789, Selim ascended the throne after which Mihrişah became the Valide Sultan.

She occasionally approached her son to beg a favour or an act of mercy.{{sfn|Uluçay|2011|p=150}} When he launched his Nizam-I Cedid (New Order), both Mihrişah and her Kethüda, by then Yusuf Agha, were his strong supporters. To encourage the reforms so dear to her son's heart, Mihrişah built a mosque for the Humbaracıhane (barracks of the bombardiers) at Hasköy on the Asiatic shore, and founded a school of medicine at Üsküdar.{{sfn|Davis|1986|p=10-11}}

Yusuf Agha was her second kethüda, who had replaced her first kethüda Mahmud Agha, when he died during tenure of his office.{{sfn|Davis|1986|p=27 n. 77}} He was capable, and an intimate of Selim. He was persuaded and finally killed by the machinations of Kabakçı Mustafa in the uprising against Selim in 1808, after which his tax farm was given to Sultan Mustafa IV's mother, Sineperver Sultan.{{sfn|Davis|1986|p=9}}

File:MihrişahSultanFountain01.JPG

Mihrişah was very active in the 1790s as a patron of architecture, especially schools and mosques.

She founded the Humbarahane Barracks, in 1792, which were considered the first modern example of large-scale military buildings.{{cite web|title= HUMBARAHANE KIŞLASI ve CAMİİ İstanbul'da Haliç kıyısında XVIII. yüzyılın sonlarına ait kışla ve cami.|url= https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/humbarahane-kislasi-ve-camii|website=İslam Ansiklopedisi|access-date=11 May 2020}}

The Mihrişah Sultan Complex, which Mihrisah founded in 1792 and which was completed in 1796, is in the neighbourhood of Eyüp in Istanbul. It includes her mausoleum and an imaret (soup kitchen),{{Sfn|Rüstem|2019|p=254}}{{Sfn|Goodwin|1971|p=410-411}} today the last still-functioning Ottoman imaret.{{Cite web |last=AA |first=Daily Sabah with |date=2016-02-01 |title=Istanbul's historic public kitchen makes life easier for refugees and the homeless |url=https://www.dailysabah.com/life/2016/02/01/istanbuls-historic-public-kitchen-makes-life-easier-for-refugees-and-the-homeless |access-date=2022-04-22 |website=Daily Sabah |language=en-US}}

In 1793, Mihrişah founded Halıcıoğlu Mosque.{{sfn|Uluçay|2011|p=150}}

Mihrişah was responsible for the building of the Vâlide Dam on the eastern branch of Arabacı Mandrai in Istanbul, to provide additional water supply to the Büyük Bent.{{sfn|Kazancıoğlu|2016|p=98}}

Mihrişah also built a number of fountains:

• a fountain in Üsküdar İhsaniye in memory of her daughter Hibetullah Sultan, in 1791{{sfn|Kazancıoğlu|2016|p=98}}
• a fountain in memory of her daughter Fatma Sultan, in 1792{{sfn|Uluçay|2011|p=169}}
• repairs on the Silahtar Yusuf Pasha Fountain in Kağıthane, in 1794{{sfn|Uluçay|2011|p=150}}
• a fountain between Eminönü and Balıkpazarı in honor of Çaşnigir Zeynep (later called Mihrişah Vâlide Fountain), in 1796{{sfn|Kazancıoğlu|2016|p=98}}
• two fountains on either side of the sebil built for her complex Eyüp, in 1796{{sfn|Kazancıoğlu|2016|p=98}}
• a fountain in Fındıklı Mollabayırı, in 1797{{sfn|Kazancıoğlu|2016|p=98}}
• a fountain in Kılıçali District in Beşiktaş, in 1797{{sfn|Kazancıoğlu|2016|p=98}}
• a fountain in memory of her daughter Fatma Sultan (later called Mihrişah Valide Sultan Fountain) in Yeniköy, Istanbul, in 1805{{sfn|Kazancıoğlu|2016|p=98}}

Fountains built by Mihrişah met the water needs of people in the Beyoğlu, Galata and Boğaziçi neighbourhoods.{{sfn|Kazancıoğlu|2016|p=101}}

File:Grave of Mihrişah Sultan.jpg in Eyüpsultan, Istanbul ]]

Mihrişah Sultan died on 16 October 1805 of unknown causes. She was buried in her charitable complex located at Eyüp, Istanbul.{{sfn|Uluçay|2011|p=151}}{{sfn|Kazancıoğlu|2016|p=96}}{{sfn|Akkurt|2018|p=8}}

Together with Mustafa III, Mihrişah had a son and two daughters:

• Hibetullah Sultan (17 March 1759 – 7 June 1762, buried in Mustafa III Mausoleum, Laleli Mosque, Istanbul),According to Oztüna, her mother was Aynülhayat Kadın instead, but this information was discredited  called also Heybetullah or Heyyibetullah, betrothed on 2 June 1759 to Mahir Hamza Pasha but died before the marriage;
• Selim III (Topkapı Palace, 24 December 1761 – 28 July 1808, buried in Mustafa III Mausoleum), 28th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
• Fatma Sultan (9 January 1770 – 26 May 1772, buried in Mustafa III Mausoleum, Laleli Mosque, Istanbul).

• In 1989 Swiss-American drama film The Favorite, Mihrişah is portrayed by French actress Andréa Parisy.{{Citation|title=Full Cast & Crew: The Favorite (1989)|url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0097341/fullcredits/cast?ref_=m_ttfc_3|access-date=2020-04-07}}
• In 2012 Turkish miniseries Esir Sultan, Mihrişah is portrayed by Turkish actress Ipek Tenolcay.{{Citation|title=Full Cast & Crew: Esir Sultan (2012– )|url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2442702/fullcredits/cast?ref_=m_tt_cl_sc|access-date=2020-04-07}}

• Ottoman dynasty
• Ottoman Imperial Harem
• List of Valide Sultans
• List of consorts of the Ottoman Sultans
• List of mothers of the Ottoman sultans

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|first=Ibrahim|last=Akkurt|title=Mihrişah Vâlide Sultan ve Külliyesi |year=2018}}
• {{cite book|first=Fanny |last=Davis|title=The Ottoman Lady: A Social History from 1718 to 1918|year=1986|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-24811-5}}
• {{Cite book |last=Goodwin |first=Godfrey |title=A History of Ottoman Architecture |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=1971 |isbn=0-500-27429-0}}
• {{cite book|last=Kazancıoğlu|first=Habibe|title= Mihrişah Valide Sultan Su Bendi|year=2016}}
• {{Cite book |last=Rüstem |first=Ünver |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O_p0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PR1 |title=Ottoman Baroque: The Architectural Refashioning of Eighteenth-Century Istanbul |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2019 |isbn=9780691181875}}
• {{cite book|last=Uluçay|first=M. Çağatay|title=Padişahların kadınları ve kızları|publisher=Ankara, Ötüken|year=2011}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Mihrişah Valide Sultan|Mihrişah Sultan}}

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{{succession box|title=Valide Sultan|before=Şehsuvar Sultan|after=Sineperver Sultan|years=7 April 1789 – 16 October 1805}}

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{{Ottoman Dynasty|state=expanded}}

{{Mothers of the Ottoman Sultans}}

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Category:1740s births

Category:1805 deaths

Category:18th-century consorts of Ottoman sultans

Category:19th-century consorts of Ottoman sultans

Category:Valide sultan

Category:Georgians from the Ottoman Empire

Category:18th-century slaves in the Ottoman Empire

Category:Concubines of Ottoman sultans

Category:Burials at the Mihrişah Sultan Complex