ottomanladies:KÖSEM SULTAN WEEK | day 2: Kösem and Ahmed IAlthough she was not the mother of Ahmed I
ottomanladies:KÖSEM SULTAN WEEK | day 2: Kösem and Ahmed IAlthough she was not the mother of Ahmed I’s eldest child, Kösem quickly became his absolute favourite, outranking everyone else in the harem. She also received the title of Haseki Sultan at some point during his reign: a document dated between Handan Sultan’s death in 1605 and the Grand Vizier’s death in 1606 reveals that Ahmed I had ordered a daily stipend of 500 aspers for the “Hasseki Sultan”. She may have become Haseki Sultan after she gave birth to her eldest son Mehmed.In 1612, Kösem was described as a woman of “beauty and shrewdness, and futherniore … of many talents, she sings excellently, whence she continues to be extremely well loved by the king…. Not that she is respected by all, but she is listened to in some matters and is the favorite of the king, who wants her beside him continually”. In 1616, “she can do what she wishes with the King and possesses his heart absolutely, nor is anything ever denied to her.” Nevertheless, she “restrains herself with great wisdom from speaking [to the sultan] too frequently of serious matters and affairs of state.”According to Kumrular, Kösem was Ahmed I’s legal wife; her claim rests on a letter sent to Venice on the eve of Murad IV’s succession in which it was stated that she had been very important for “the late sultan Ahmed” and that “he loved her and honoured her by marrying her”. Sources: Barozzi/Berchet - Relazioni degli stati europei…, Özlem Kumrular - Kösem Sultan: İktidar Hırs ve Entrika, Leslie P. Peirce - The Imperial Harem, Baki Tezcan - Searching for Osman: A Reassessment of the Deposition of the Ottoman Sultan Osman II (1618-1622) -- source link
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