Fatma Sultan (daughter of Ahmed III)

Fatma Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: فاطمہ سلطان‎; 22 September 1704 – 4 January 1733), was an Ottoman princess, daughter of Sultan Ahmed III and his wife Emetullah Kadın. She was the wife of Grand Viziers Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha, and Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha. She is considered to have been politically active and influential on the affairs of state during the late Tulip era (1703–1730).

Fatma Sultan
Born22 September 1704
Topkapı Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (present day Istanbul, Turkey)
Died4 January 1733(1733-01-04) (aged 28)
Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Burial
Turhan Sultan Mausoleum, New Mosque, Istanbul
Spouse
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​
(m. 1709; died 1716)​

​
​
(m. 1717; died 1730)​
IssueMehmed Bey
DynastyOttoman
FatherAhmed III
MotherEmetullah Kadın
ReligionSunni Islam

Early life

Fatma Sultan was born on 22 September 1704 in the Topkapı Palace.[1] Her father was Sultan Ahmed III, and her mother was Emetullah Kadın.[2][3] She was the eldest child and daughter born to her father.[4]

First marriage

In 1709, at the age of four, Ahmed betrothed her to Silahdar (Şehid) Ali Pasha.[5] The wedding took place on 11 May 1709, until 16 May in the Topkapı Palace. In the meantime, Silahdar Ali Pasha was given the rank of vizier and kaymakam.[6] On 16 May, Fatma was taken from the Topkapı Palace to the Valide Sultan's palace in Eyüp, which was allocated for the wedding.[7] The wedding lasted until 20 May.[6]

Silahdar Ali Pasha became Grand Vizier in 1713.[3] However, he died in 1716,[8] when Fatma was twelve years old.[3][9]

Second marriage

In 1717, when Fatma was thirteen, Ahmed arranged her marriage to Nevşehirli Ibrahim Pasha. The wedding took place on 22 February 1717 in Edirne. Ibrahim Pasha was fifty years old at that time, and had divorced his first wife in order to marry the princess.[10] Just over a year later, Ibrahim Pasha took over as grand vezir on 9 May 1718.[11]

By 1724 Ibrahim Pasha and Fatma had several palaces at different locations. Following their marriage in 1717, the one across from the Kiosk of Processions on the landwalls of the Topkapı Palace, which had long housed many grand vezirs, grew into a monumental complex as Ibrahim Pasha and Fatma continued to annex nearby palaces, and busied themselves with restoring and rebuilding them.[7]

Ibrahim Pasha stated his longing for Fatma Sultan with a poem. Pasha explains this love and sorrow in one place:

"The crown of my life! The light of my eye! I am drowning in painful tears.[3]

She was described as having had a large political influence on both her father, who left the ruling to her husband, and on her husband, the Grand Vizier. Some sources regard her as the real ruler of the later part of the Tulip era. She was said to have assisted the Marquis de Villeneuve, French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1728–1741, in favour of an Ottoman policy benefitting to French interests during the Russo-Austrian-Turkish War (1735–1739). She has been referred to as the last de facto female ruler of the Ottoman Empire.

The couple spent several happy and affluent years during the notorious for its splendidness and lavishness Tulip Age (Lâle Devri) which became the symbol of the reign of Sultan Ahmed III.[12] The two together had a son named Mehmed Bey who died in 1737.[12][13]

Fatma Sultan was widowed in 1730, when her husband Ibrahim Pasha, who was sixty-four years old, was killed during the Patrona Halil revolt, which led to the deposition of her father Sultan Ahmed. She was twenty-six years old.[14][15]

Charities

In 1727, Fatma Sultan commissioned a fountain near the Ibrahim Pasha Palace, which bears her name. In 1728, she also commissioned a fountain near the Cedid Valide Sultan Mosque in Üsküdar. During her lifetime she founded waqfs in the capital bequeathing mülk properties she had received from her father.[13][16]

She also commissioned a mosque known as "Fatma Sultan Mosque", located in Eminönü district in Istanbul. Nevşehirli Ibrahim Pashacommissioned a palace near this mescid, Fatma Sultan repaired the mosque and added from the land of her palace and built a large mosque.[17]

Death

Fatma Sultan died at the age of twenty eight on 4 January 1733,[13] and was buried in the mausoleum of Turhan Sultan[12] in New Mosque, Istanbul.[13]

Ancestry

See also

References
  1. Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 422.
  2. Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 416, 422.
  3. Uluçay 2011, p. 131.
  4. Topal, Mehmet (2001). Silahdar Findiklili Mehmed Agha Nusretnâme: Tahlil ve Metin (1106-1133/1695-1721). p. 668.
  5. Sancar, Asli (128). Ottoman Women: Myth and Reality. Light, Incorporated. p. 2007. ISBN 978-1-597-84115-3.
  6. Uluçay 2011, p. 130-31.
  7. Duindam, Artan & Kunt 2011, p. 368.
  8. Akçetin, Elif; Faroqhi, Suraiya (October 20, 2017). Living the Good Life: Consumption in the Qing and Ottoman Empires of the Eighteenth Century. BRILL. pp. 414–15. ISBN 978-9-004-35345-9.
  9. Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 425.
  10. Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 426.
  11. Duindam, Artan & Kunt 2011, p. 360.
  12. Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 427.
  13. Uluçay 2011, p. 132.
  14. Keskiner 2012, p. 58.
  15. Uluçay 2011, p. 131-32.
  16. Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 429.
  17. "FATMA SULTAN CAMİİ İstanbul Bâbıâli'de XVIII. yüzyılda yaptırılan cami". İslam Ansiklopedisi. Retrieved 13 April 2020.

Sources
  • Duindam, Jeroen; Artan, Tülay; Kunt, Metin (August 11, 2011). Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires: A Global Perspective. BRILL. ISBN 978-9-004-20622-9.
  • Keskiner, Philippe Bora (2012). Sultan Ahmed III (r.1703-1730) as a Calligrapher and Patron of Calligraphy.
  • Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2008). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler. Oğlak Yayıncılık. ISBN 978-9-753-29623-6.
  • Uluçay, Mustafa Çağatay (2011). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Ankara, Ötüken.
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