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.

## Early life 
### 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.

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. while Nakşidil became the Valide Sultan.

* 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).

## Gallery 

File:Naksidil Valide Sultan Mausoleum 9303.jpg|Naksidil Valide Sultan Mausoleum Interior
File:Naksidil Valide Sultan Mausoleum 9288.jpg|Naksidil Valide Sultan Mausoleum South side
File:Naksidil Valide Sultan Mausoleum 9290.jpg|Naksidil Valide Sultan Mausoleum Sebil
File:Naksidil Valide Sultan Mausoleum 9293.jpg|Naksidil Valide Sultan Mausoleum Dome

## Related pages 
* Ottoman dynasty
* Ottoman Empire
* Mahmud II
* 1761 Year
* 1817 Year

## References 
## Sources 
* 
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## Other websites 
*The Veiled Empress' tomb