Mahidevran place of burial Bursa
Life with Suleiman
She was listed among the seventeen women of the harem of Suleiman while he was governor of Manisa; she was not a highly ranked consort, as she earned 4 aspers a day along with two other concubines, while three others earned 5 aspers. Mahidevran gave birth to her only child, Mustafa who was born in 1515 while they were in Manisa where Suleiman was the sanjak ruler.
When Selim I died in 1520, Suleiman moved to Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, along with his family to ascend the throne. In the same year, Suleiman lost his two other sons, nine-year-old Mahmud and the new born Murad (the only daughter born to date, Raziye Sultan, also died), Mustafa became the eldest of his princely generation. This gave Mahidevran an elevated position, but early in Suleiman's reign, Mahidevran encountered a new rival, Hürrem, who soon became Suleiman's favourite and later his Haseki and legal wife. It was recorded by Bernardo Navagero that Suleiman highly cherished Mahidevran in the Topkapi Harem along with Hürrem. But by 1526, he had stopped paying attention to Mahidevran and devoted his full affection to Hürrem.Hürrem gave birth to her first son Mehmed in 1521 and then Selim (future Sultan Selim II) in 1524, destroying Mahidevran's status of being the mother of the Sultan's only son. The rivalry between the two women was partially suppressed by Hafsa Sultan, Suleiman's mother. According to Navagero's report, as a result of the bitter rivalry a fight between the two women broke out, with Mahidevran beating Hürrem, which angered Suleiman. According to Necdet Sakaoğlu, a Turkish historian, these accusations were not truthful. Mahidevran left Istanbul with her son Mustafa due to his appointment as sanjak bey (governor) of Manisa province and upon his death in 1553 she went into refuge in Bursa, where she eventually died. Conversely, Hürrem stayed in the palace while her sons were sent for to govern provinces as Sanjak-bey.Foreign observers of the Ottomans, especially the ambassadors of the Venetian Republic followed Ottoman dynastic politics closely; their comments about Mahidevran glimpses of the vital role played by a prince's mother and of her necessary devotion to this welfare. Pietro Bragadin, ambassador in the early years of Suleiman's reign, reported that while both were still resident in the imperial palace in Istanbul, Mustafa was his mother's "whole joy".
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