Gevherhan Sultan | |
Birth Date: | 1605/1606 or 1608 |
Birth Place: | Topkapi Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (present day Istanbul, Turkey) |
Death Date: | 1660 (age 51–55) |
Death Place: | Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (present day Istanbul, Turkey) |
Burial Place: | Sultan Ahmed Mosque, Istanbul |
Issue: | First marriage Sultanzade Fülan Bey Second marriage Safiye Hanımsultan |
House: | Ottoman |
House-Type: | Dynasty |
Father: | Ahmed I |
Mother: | Kösem Sultan |
Religion: | Sunni Islam |
Gevherhan Sultan (Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928);: کوھرخان سلطان, "Gem of the Khan"; 1605/1606 or 1608[1] –1660) was an Ottoman princess, daughter of Sultan Ahmed I (reign 1603–1617) and Kösem Sultan,[2] half-sister of Sultan Osman II (reign 1618–1622), and sister of Sultans Murad IV (1623–1640) and Ibrahim (reign 1640–1648) of the Ottoman Empire.
Gevherhan was born in Constantinople between 1605 and 1608. Her father, Sultan Ahmed I named her in honor of his great aunt Gevherhan Sultan, who had introduced his mother Handan Sultan to his father Mehmed III.
Her mother was Kösem Sultan, Ahmed’s favorite concubine, Haseki Sultan and probably legal wife.[2]
In the summer of 1612, Gevherhan was married, as arranged by Ahmed, to Öküz Kara Mehmed Pasha, who served as the governor of Egypt from 1607 to 1611, and Grand Admiral of the Ottoman fleet in 1611. The wedding took place at the Old Palace, and the couple were given the Palace of Ibrahim Pasha as their residence. Over a seven-month period, the expenses for providing bread, rice, and lamb to wedding guests and the capital's residents amounted to nearly 2,000,000 aspers. Additionally, during the festivities, an unidentified French observer in Istanbul witnessed Gevherhan's opulent dowry, featuring a solid gold bride-crown, a large chest filled with precious stones and jewels, and numerous rolls of silk. Mehmed served as Grand Vizier from 1614 until 1616 under Ahmed, and then again for a few months in 1619 under Osman II.[3] After being dismissed from the office a second time, he died in Aleppo in around 1621. With him, Gevherhan had a son who name is unknown and who died in infancy, born in 1621/1622.[4]
In 1622,[5] during Osman II's reign, Gevherhan married Topal Recep Pasha, who in 1632 served as Grand Vizier under her brother Murad IV and was executed in same year. With Recep Pasha, she had a daughter named Safiye Hanımsultan (January 1630 – 1682), [6] who in turn married the future Grand Vizier Abaza Siyavuş Pasha.