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Revision as of 22:54, 22 May 2014 by Aciram (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Fatma Sultan (1605 or 1606 - fl. 1667), was an Ottoman princess. She was the daughter of sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603-1617) and Kösem Sultan, sister of Murad IV (r. 1623-1640) and Ibrahim I (r. 1640-1648), and the paternal aunt of Mehmed IV (r. 1648-1687)
The year of her birth has been suggested as 1605 or 1606. Fatma is known for her many political marriages. The Ottoman princesses were normally married away, to influential Ottoman officials, by their mothers or paternal grandmothers, who had the right to arrange their marriages and arranged matches which could be of political use. They had privileges in marriage which separated them from other Muslim females: such as the right to be the only wife of their spouse, to refuse to consummate their marriage until they were ready and to contract a divorce when they pleased. Due to many of them marrying as children and being widowed and divorced several times, often for political reasons, remarriages were very common. Fatma Sultan and her sister, Ayşe Sultan, are extreme examples of this: they were married seven and six times respectively, and entered in to their last engagement at the age of 61 and 50.
Fatma Sultan was reportedly married in 1624 to Catalcalı Hasan Pasha (d. 1631). She was divorced from her first spouse in 1626. She married secondly in 1628 to Kara Mustafa Pasha (governor of Egypt)(d. 1628). She was however widowed the year of her second marriage.
One of the most noted of the seven marriages of Fatma was her marriage to Melek Ahmed Pasha, previously married to her niece, Kaya Sultan, in 1662. By that time, she was in her late fifties. The marriage was forcibly arranged against the wishes of both parties and unhappy, and Melek Ahmed Pasha accused the Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha of having arranged it to punish him. The Grand Vizier himself replied that he had given Melek Ahmed Pasha an elephant to feed. On the wedding night, Fatma presented Melek Ahmed Pasha her demand of what allowance she wished for herself and her court. He replied that the amount was impossible, upon which she replied that divorce was the only alternative, and demanded he return her dowry to her, which amounted to one year of taxes of Egypt. When she was widowed in 1662 shortly thereafter, she sealed his residence and claimed the right to his property, which caused a conflict with the Grand Vizier, who was forced to solve her demands.
In 1665 she married Kanbur Mustafa Pasha. Fatma Sultan is last confirmed alive when she married Kozbekçi Yusuf Pasha in 1667.
References
- Gendered Domains: Rethinking Public and Private in Women's History : Essays ...Dorothy O. Helly, Susan Reverby
- The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. Leslie P. Peirce
- Evliya Çelebi: The Intimate Life of an Ottoman Statesman, Melek Ahmed Pasha (1588-1662)
- http://www.uskudar.bel.tr/tr-tr/hizmet/rehber/sayfalar/Rehber-Detay-Icerik.aspx?GuideID=10&SubID=80&ContentID=19280
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