කොසෙම් සුල්තාන්

කොසෙම් සුල්තාන්(;  1589Baysun, M. Cavid, s.v. "Kösem Walide or Kösem Sultan" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam vol. V (1986), Brill, p. 272 – 1651 සැප්තැම්බර් 2) හෝ මාහ්පෙකෙර් සුල්තාන්Douglas Arthur Howard, The official History of Turkey, Greenwood Press, , p. 195 (; ), ලෙස හඳුන්වනු ලබන ඇය, ඔටෝමාන් සුල්තාන් අහමෙද් Iගේ ප්‍රධාන බිරිඳ සහ නීත්‍යානුකූල භාර්යාව විය. මුරාද් IV සහ ඊබ්‍රහීම් යන සුල්තාන්වරුන්ගේ මව ලෙස වාලිදේ සුල්තාන් තනතුර සහ මෙහෙමෙද් IVගේ මිත්තනිය ලෙස büyük ("වැඩිහිටි") වාලිදේ සුල්තාන් තනතුරත් දැරීය. ඇය ඔටෝමාන් ඉතිහාසයේ බලවත්ම සහ බලගතු කාන්තාවන් අතරින් කෙනෙක් මෙන්ම කාන්තාවන්ගේ සුල්තාන් රාජ්‍යය ලෙස හැඳින්වෙන කාලපරිච්ඡේදය තුළ කේන්ද්‍රීය චරිතයක් බවට පත්විය.: While Hurrem was the woman of the Ottoman dynasty best known in Europe, it is Kösem who is remembered by the Turks as the most powerful. 

Born in Tinos, then part of the Republic of Venice, to a Greek Orthodox priest, she was kidnapped and sold as a slave in Bosnia before being sent to the imperial harem in Constantinople, the Ottoman capital. There she rose to prominence, becoming the favourite of Sultan Ahmed I. Over time her influence over the sultan grew and she became his most trusted advisor. Historians credit her with persuading Ahmed to spare the life of his younger half-brother, Mustafa, thus putting an end to the centuries-old practice of fratricide in the Ottoman Empire. After Ahmed died in 1617, she was instrumental in the enthronement of Mustafa I. Upon Osman II's ascension, she was briefly banished to the Old Palace (Eski Sarayı).

As a courtier to Ahmed I, Mustafa I, Osman II, Murad IV, Ibrahim and Mehmed IV, Kösem gained both notoriety and affection among her subjects, wielding unparalleled political power and influencing the empire's foreign and domestic policy. Her early years as regent were marked by turbulence and instability, which began when the Safavid Empire annexed much of Iraq and captured Baghdad in 1624, dragging the Ottomans into a 16-year conflict with the Safavids that sparked a series of rebellions, incursions, revolts and independence movements across the Ottoman Empire. During escalating tensions between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice in the 1640s, she and her allies were blamed for pressuring Ibrahim to launch a naval assault on the Venetian-controlled island of Crete. She had to contend with a Venetian blockade of the Dardanelles, which culminated in the naval Battle of Focchies in 1649, as well as merchant uprisings sparked by a financial crisis in the years that followed.

Some historians questioned her intents and motivations for espousing the Janissaries' cause during her 28 years of power, and that she had accumulated a great fortune through illegitimate means. She did, however, put the money she acquired from her lands and income to good use, undertaking charitable works and construction projects as tangible manifestations of the dynasty's concern for its subjects. That is why, in the aftermath of her brutal assassination which provoked rioting and the execution of hundreds of men in Constantinople, she was referred to by the names: "Vālide-i Muazzama" (magnificent mother), "Vālide-i Maḳtūle" (murdered mother), and "Vālide-i Şehīde" (martyred mother).

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