Esma Sultan (daughter of Abdul Hamid I)

Esma Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: اسما سلطان‎; 16 July 1778 – 4 June 1848), also called Küçuk Esma Sultan,[1] "Esma Sultan "The Younger" was an Ottoman princess, daughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid I and Sineperver Sultan, sister of Sultan Mustafa IV and half-sister of Sultan Mahmud II, as well as the adoptive mother of Valide Sultans Bezmiâlem Sultan and Perestu Kadın.

Esma Sultan
Born	16 July 1778 Topkapı Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (present day Istanbul, Turkey)
Died	4 June 1848 (aged 69) Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Burial	Mahmud II Mausoleum, Divanyolu, Istanbul
Spouse	Küçük Hüseyin Pasha ​ ​ (m. 1792; died 1803)​
Issue	Adopted children: Perestu Kadın
Dynasty	Ottoman
Father	Abdul Hamid I
Mother	Sineperver Sultan
Religion	Sunni Islam

Early life

Esma Sultan was born on 16 July 1778 in the Topkapı Palace. Her father was Abdul Hamid I and Her mother was Sineperver Sultan. She had an elder brother Şehzade Ahmed two years elder then her, a younger brother named Mustafa IV one year younger then her, and a younger sister named Fatma Sultan four years younger then her.[1][2][3]

When she was 11 years old, her father died. Since Mustafa was only 10 years old at the time of his father’s death. Selim III ascended to the throne as the eldest male member of the Ottoman Empire. She followed her mother to the old palace. When she was 14 her cousin Selim III married her to Küçük Huseyn Pasha.[1][2]

Esma Sultan spend her time in her childhood by reading books, musical instruments and games, her mother, Sineperver, was most likely to manage these entertainments in her apartment. [4]

Marriage

Selim III chose Küçük Hüseyin Pasha as the husband for Esma, who was the foster-brother of Selim.[1] The engagement of Esma Sultan and Hüseyin Pasha took place on 29 May 1792.[5] The wedding processions were held in Istanbul, the deputy of Esma Sultan was Darussade Agha.[6] On 19 December 1792, the wedding of Esma Sultan Hüseyin Pasha took place. Princesses weddings as tradition, started on Wednesdays with the dowry procession being sent to the couple's seat and continued with the henna night held that evening.[7]

Valuable gifts were also sent by Mihrişah Sultan at the wedding of Esma Sultan. The gifts of the Valide Sultan were as follows: one medium-sized and 706 small rose diamonds and a chandelier decorated with red rubies and diamonds; For the palace of the sultan's house in Divanyolu, 18 pieces of Austrian footbed pillows, 3 pieces of Polish-made striped and fringed, solid wire upper mat cushion, 3 pieces of mattress.[8]

Esma Sultan entered the palace in the palace in Divanyolu, which was repaired a year ago, in the place of the current Sultan Mahmud Mausoleum. The marriage of Esma Sultan with Hüseyin Pasha lasted 11 years. Her husband died on 8 December 1803 and was buried in Mihrişah Sultan Mausoleum at Eyüp.[9] She never married again.[10][11] Esma Sultan lived a colourful life after the death of her husband, to believe what the witnesses told of the period, this life even caused various rumours to emerge, although she didn't bothered and continued the lifestyle until her death.[12]

Widowhood

Adopted children

She lived with luxury in her magnificent villa in Istanbul, but still her life passed in sadness because she could not have the one thing she wished for most; a child. At length she decided to adopt a child. After reaching satisfactory terms with the mother and father, she adopted Rahime Perestu, one year of age.[13][14]

Rahime was particularly diminutive, delicate and graceful, so she renamed her Perestu, the Persian word for swallow.[14] All the kalfas in Esma Sultan's villa behaved toward this child as though she were a daughter of an Ottoman imperial princess, and indeed her disposition and manners were so lovely that they became devoted to her.[13] In 1844, her nephew Abdulmejid I asked in hand for the marriage for Perestu, firstly, she refused to give Perestu's hand in marriage but consented on the condition that the Sultan legally marries her and not consider her a concubine , which he did. One week after that, Perestu was sent off to Topkapı Palace to the harem.[15]

She herself educated Bezmiâlem Sultan, the ninth wife of her brother Mahmud II and the mother of Abdulmejid I.[16]

Political influence

Unlike other princesses, Esma was politically active. In the Kabakçı revolt, who wanted Selim to be removed from the throne, he was influential with her mother Sineperver Sultan.[17] She planned a rebellious rebellion in the reign of Mahmud. She personally send letters to Janissaries for restoring Mustafa back to the throne and met them personally. After Mahmud succeeded the throne, she wanted her brother Mustafa to succeed the throne again but didn't succeeded. Mahmud who knew about Esma's political activities, didn't intervene in the affairs as he loved Esma Sultan like his own sister,[18] but Esma and her sister Hibetullah Sultan were kept under close surveillance by Mahmud, and they both were forbade to have communications with the outsiders.[19] Mustafa was executed on 16 November 1808.[10][2]

Esma Sultan exercised great influence over her brother Mahmud during his reign of 31 years. Mahmud II loved his sister very much and Esma Sultan also esteemed him. They always visited each other and sometimes. Esma Sultan was respected by both Mustafa IV and Mahmud II.[10][11] Esma Sultan became the empire's richest woman at that time. She had three revenues Eyüp Palace, Maçka Palace and Tirnakçı Palace.[20][21] She lived their with her large staff, there were some land assigned to Esma Sultan in Crete, Kemer, Edremit and Biga.[20][22]

Palaces and revenues

Esma Sultan, bought many farms around Istanbul, built palaces in Eyüp, Maçka, and Tirnakçı and Kuruçeşme mansions in Boğaziçi.[23] Thanks to the high position of her husband, she had important influence over Ottoman society. She owned a palace in Divanyolu, kiosks in Çamlıca, Maçka and Eyüp and a waterfront mansion in Kuruçeşme at Bosporus.

As the guest of Esma Sultan, Miss Julia Pardoe, who went to Tirnakçı, gave detailed information about the mansion. Miss Pardoe described the mansion as follows: After the waiting hall leading up the stairs, after passing several rooms and a hall with twelve windows on one side overlooking the Bosphorus and on the mansion gardens, the harem apartment was coming. [24]

Esma Sultan was interested in British culture; she was said to have furnished her palace with Western furniture, putting all of the traditional Ottoman furniture in a storage room. After her death, all of her English furniture was put away in the same storage room and the old oriental ones taken out once again.[25]

Death

Esma Sultan died on 4 June 1848 in Istanbul, nine years after the death of Mahmud, she was buried the Mausoleum of Mahmud at Divanyolu Street, Istanbul, Turkey.[20][22][26]

In popular culture

• In 2018 Turkish historical fiction TV series Kalbimin Sultanı, Esma is portrayed by Turkish actress Emel Çölgeçen. [27]

See also

• List of Ottoman princesses

Ancestry

Ancestors of Esma Sultan (daughter of Abdul Hamid I)
16. Ibrahim 8. Mehmed IV 17. Turhan Sultan 4. Ahmed III 9. Gülnuş Sultan 2. Abdul Hamid I 5. Şermi Kadın 1. Esma Sultan 3. Sineperver Sultan

References

1. Uluçay 2011, p. 166.
2. Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 502.
3. Duran 2007, p. 4.
4. Duran 2007, p. 12.
5. Duran 2007, p. 13-4.
6. Duran 2007, p. 14.
7. Duran 2007, p. 15.
8. Duran 2007, p. 17.
9. Duran 2007, p. 23.
10. Uluçay 2011, p. 167.
11. Uluçay 1992, p. 167.
12. Duran 2007, p. 79.
13. Brookes 2010, p. 130.
14. Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 586.
15. Brookes 2010, p. 130-1.
16. Schiffer, Reinhold (1999). Oriental Panorama: British Travellers in 19th Century Turkey. Taylor & Francis. p. 191.
17. Duran 2007, p. 80.
18. Duran 2007, p. 95.
19. Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 507.
20. Uluçay 2011, p. 168.
21. Uluçay 1992, p. 168.
22. Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 503.
23. Sakaoğlu 2015, p. 356-57.
24. Duran 2007, p. 60.
25. Philip Mansel, Constantinople: City of the World's Desire (London, 1995), pp. 257–258.
26. Duran 2007, p. 89.
27. Kalbimin Sultanı (TV Series 2018), retrieved 2020-04-26

Sources

• Brookes, Douglas Scott (2010). The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher: Voices from the Ottoman Harem. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-78335-5.
• Duran, Türkan (2007). I. Abdülhamid'in Kızı Esma Sultan'ın Hayatı (1778–1848).
• Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2008). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler. Oğlak Yayıncılık. ISBN 978-9-753-29623-6.
• Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2015). Bu Mülkün Sultanları. Alfa Yayıncılık. ISBN 978-6-051-71080-8.
• Uluçay, M. Çağatay (1992). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Ötüken.
• Uluçay, Mustafa Çağatay (2011). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Ankara: Ötüken. ISBN 978-9-754-37840-5.