Ayşe Sultan

Ayşe Sultan (; 1606 or 1608 – 1656) was an Ottoman princess, daughter of Sultan Ahmed I (reign 1603–17) and Kösem Sultan, half-sister of Sultan Osman II (reign 1618–22) and sister of Sultan Murad IV (reign 1623–40) and Sultan Ibrahim (reign 1640–48) of the Ottoman Empire. She is known for her many politically motivated marriages.

Life

Early life Born in Istanbul, Ayşe Sultan was one of Ahmed's daughters by his favorite consort Kösem Sultan. Her birth date is variously estimated as 1606 or 1608. When mentioning her and Nasuh Pasha's 1612 wedding, 17th-century historian Mustafa Naima refers to Ayşe as "the youngest of the princesses married in these day".

Ottoman princesses were normally married away to influential Ottoman officials by their mothers or paternal grandmothers, who had the right to arrange their marriages and arranged matches which could be of political use. They had privileges in marriage which separated them from other Muslim females, such as the right to be the only wife of their spouse; to refuse to consummate their marriage until they were ready; and to contract a divorce when they pleased. Due to many of them marrying as children and being widowed and divorced several times, often for political reasons, remarriages were very common. Ayşe and her sister, Fatma Sultan, are extreme examples of this: they were married at least seven times, and entered into their last engagement at the ages of about 50 and 61, respectively.

Two of Ayşe's husbands were executed, one was assassinated, and two fell in battle.

1st marriage Ayşe Sultan was married firstly in 1612 to Gümülcineli Nasuh Pasha, Grand Vizier 1611–14. The celebrations of their engagement and wedding ceremonies - as well as those of Gevherhan Sultan (her sister) and Öküz Kara Mehmed Pasha, which took place in succession over a number of months of 1611 and 1612 - were sponsored by Ahmed, and were so elaborate and extravagant that they were observed by the public as if they were festivals marking the end of wars the Sultan had promised. In July of the latter year, the little princess was taken in great pomp to her husband's palace, where he would eventually be executed in 1614 in her presence, much to her distress. This palace, located opposite the quay known as Salacak in Üsküdar, she retained as her own property. In 1618, she had a water dispenser (sebil) built in Okçubaşı avenue in Istanbul.

2nd marriage While still a child, Ayşe was married secondly to Karakaş Mehmed Pasha (d. 1621), Beylerbey (governor-general) of Buda. However, he died the following year, while fighting in Osman II's military campaign against Poland, the marriage thus lasting less than a year.

3rd marriage In 1622, her mother, Kösem Sultan, offered her hand in marriage to Hafız Ahmed Pasha (1564–10 February 1632), Grand Vizier (1625–26, 1631–32). In a letter to Hafız Pasha, Kösem had proposed the marriage alliance, expressing readiness to act promptly and extending the same care she provided in the past when arranging the marriage of her daughter Fatma Sultan. Ayşe wed the sixty-year-old man either in the same year or on 13 March 1626. Hafız Pasha died in 1632 during a Janissary revolt against her brother Murad IV.

5th and 6th marriage She was next married in 1639 to Ahmed Pasha, beylerbey of Aleppo and Damascus, who died in 1644.

7th marriage Some five or six years after Voynuk Ahmed Pasha died in battle by rifle fire during the Cretan War (1645–1669) in 1654 or 1655, Ayşe was betrothed to rebel Ibşir Mustafa Pasha (d. 11 May 1655). Thanks to her appeal, Mustafa Pasha was given the post of Grand Vizier.

She apparently anxiously awaited her intended husband's arrival – which he delayed for months – for she dispatched several emissaries to bring him to the capital. Her head servant, Mercan Ağa, finally succeeded in the task, and when Ibşir and his troops reached her palace in Üsküdar, she treated him and the statesmen that had come to receive him to a great banquet, "like a feast of Hatem Tay", according to Evliya Çelebi.

8th marriage In 1656 she married for the eighth and last time, with Ermeni Süleyman Pasha. She died the following year.

Death Ayşe Sultan probably died in 1656. She was entombed in her father Sultan Ahmed I's mausoleum in Sultan Ahmed Mosque. In 2015 Turkish historical fiction TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem, an adolescent Ayşe Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress Sude Zulal Güler.