Nakşidil Sultan

**Nakşidil Sultan** (; "_embroidered on the heart_"; also **Nakşi Sultan**; 1761 – 22 August 1817), was the consort of Sultan Abdul Hamid I and the mother of their son Sultan Mahmud II. She was the _Valide Sultan_ of the Ottoman Empire.

### Origins

According to various scholars, she was born into a family in the Caucasus region and was sold as a slave through the Black Sea slave trade to the Ottoman Empire. Fikret Saracoglu found some documents regarding her death and funeral in the archives of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Other historians such as Necdet Sakaoglu and Ibrahim Pazan also found some similar sources and claimed that she was actually a Georgian. According to tradition, the concubines of the Ottoman sultans were sold through the Ottoman slave trade and came to the harem of the Ottoman Empire. She was raised in the Ottoman palace and was given a full Turkish Islamic education.

### Identity controversy

A fictional story claims that Nakşidil was Aimé du Bouc de Rivière and that she disappeared at sea in 1788 and was a distant cousin of Napoleon Bonaparte's wife, the former Empress Josephine. According to this story, Aimé du Bouc de Rivière was captured by Barbary pirates and sold as a concubine to the harem, but modern historians consider this to be a rumor.

Several early 16th-century tales suggest connections between the French and Ottoman monarchies. It was later said that these were politically fabricated information. Several passages in the story written by Aimé-Nakidil hint at connections between the Ottoman and French monarchies. During the monarchy, French officials did not object to erasing the history of French princesses who were abducted by the Ottoman Empire in order to maintain good relations with Ottoman explorers. Later, when the story of the abducted girls being erased from history was published in France, the story of the Ottoman harem spread throughout Turkey, the Middle East, and Islam in general was established as a mysterious and authoritarian religion, yet accurate accounts of the harem are still available.

However, fifty years later, in 1867, when Mahmud's son Sultan Abdulaziz visited Paris as a guest of Napoleon III, Napoleon welcomed him with great pomp, Napoleon stated in the press that France had a kinship with Sultan Abdul Aziz because Abdul Aziz's grandmother was French and because France had a strong relationship with Abdul Aziz's grandmother. The Ottoman harem was initially dominated by a French woman who was a concubine and who strengthened the political support of the Ottoman rulers and the French rulers. This woman initially strengthened the relationship between the French ruler and the Ottoman ruler, just as previous Ottoman women had done.

## As imperial consort

Nakşidil was initially a concubine (slave) of Esma Sultan, daughter of Sultan Ahmed III. In 1782, she became the wife (concubine) of Abdul Hamid. She was given the title "Seventh Consort". On 22 October 1783, she gave birth to her first child, a son, Şehzade Murad Saifullah, but he died of smallpox on 21 January 1785 at the age of two.

A year later, on 20 July 1785, she gave birth to her second child, a son, Şehzade Mahmud (the future Sultan Mahmud II). A year later, on 27 November 1786, she gave birth to her third child, a daughter, Saliha Sultan, who died on 10 April 1788 at the age of one.

In 1788, Nakşidil built a fountain known as the "Nakşidil Fountain" which was built next to the Sultanahmet area. She became a widow after Abdul Hamid's death in 1789.

## Widowhood and Valide Sultan

In 1807, after her stepson, Sultan Mustafa IV, ascended the throne, her daily and weekly allowances were increased. During these years, Nakişdil's monthly and annual income came from three farms located in Taşçı Han near the Fatih Mosque.

In 1808, assassins sent by her stepson Mustafa, with the help of the ulema, attempted to assassinate Mahmud. Naqsidil hid her son and saved him so that he would live to become the next sultan. Mahmud deposed his half-brother Mustafa and his cousin Selim III as sultans and ordered their assassinations, and Mahmud then became sultan, while Nakşidil became the Valide Sultan.

In 1809, she built another fountain, known as the "Nakşidil Sultan Fountain", near the village of Sarıkadi in Üsküdar. In 1817, she built another fountain, a kitchen, and her own tomb in the Fatih area.

## Death and aftermath

In 1816, Nakşidil fell seriously ill. Two Greek doctors treated him but could not cure him. The chief physician advised Naksidil to rest for a few days at the Gümrükü Osman Ağa Palace in Çamlıca, but the climate there had a detrimental effect on his health. So she returned to the Beşiktaş Palace, and finally died of tuberculosis on 22 August 1817. She was buried in her own tomb in Fatih, Istanbul.

The wife of a French ambassador was present in Istanbul at the time of Nakşidil's death. She wrote:
> The Valide Sultan is dead. . . . It is said that the deceased Sultana was of French or American descent and was born in Nantes; it is also said that when she was only two years old, her parents wanted to take her to America but were captured by a corsair who took them to Algiers, where Nakşhidil's parents died. Little Nakşhidil was bought by a slave trader, who, seeing her beauty, said that he would take charge of all Nakşhidil's maintenance and compensate her for her distress. The man kept his word. At the age of fourteen she was a dazzling beauty and was later sold to the mercy of Algiers. Nakşhidil was then sent to Abdul Hamid through the Grand-Seigneur of Algiers, and Sultan Abdul Hamid called her "the beautiful one" and Nakşhidil became a kadin, that is, he married her.  She gave birth to Sultan Mahmud. Mahmud was always very respectful to his mother. It is said that in terms of friendly behavior she was far ahead of the royal women of Circassian or Georgian origin. But she was not Circassian or Georgian, she was French.In 1818, her son Sultan Mahmud built a fountain (sebil) in her memory, known as "Naksidil Sultan Sebil". Her son and her grandson Abdulmecid I also died of tuberculosis in 1839 and 1861 respectively.

## Issue

Abdul Hamid and Nakşidil had three children, two sons and a daughter:

- Şehzade Murad Seyfullah (Topkapı Palace, 22 October 1783 – Topkapı Palace, 21 January 1785).

- Mahmud II (Topkapı Palace, 20 July 1785 – Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, 1 July 1839, buried in the Mahmud II Mausoleum), was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

- Saliha Sultan (Topkapı Palace, 27 November 1786 – Topkapı Palace, 10 April 1788).

## Related pages

- Ottoman dynasty
- Ottoman Empire
- Mahmud II
- 1761 Year
- 1817 Year

## Other websites

- The Veiled Empress' tomb

## Infobox (royalty)

- **consort**: yes
- **image**: Nakşidil.JPG
- **succession**: Sultan, Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
- **reign**: 28 July 1808 – 22 August 1817
- **predecessor**: Sineperver Sultan
- **successor**: Bezmiâlem Sultan
- **full name**:

- **birth place**: Georgia (country), Georgia
- **death place**: Beşiktaş Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
 (present day Istanbul, Turkey)
- **burial place**: Türbe of Nakşidil Sultan, Fatih Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey
- **religion**: Sunni Islam, previously Georgian Orthodox
- **spouse-type**: Consort
- **spouse**: Abdul Hamid I