Safiye Sultan (mother of Mehmed III)

Safiye Sultan
Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Sultan's mother)
Tenure	16 January 1595 – 22 December 1603
Predecessor	Nurbanu Sultan
Successor	Handan Sultan
Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Imperial Consort)
Tenure	27 December 1574 – 16 January 1595
Predecessor	Nurbanu Sultan
Successor	Kösem Sultan
Born	c. 1550 Dukagjin Highlands, Ottoman Empire (now Albania)
Died	after 1619 Old Palace Bayezit Square, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Burial	Mausoleum of Murad III, Hagia Sophia Mosque, Istanbul
Spouse	Murad III ​ ​ (m. 1585; died 1595)​ [a]
Issue	Hümaşah Sultan Ayşe Sultan Mehmed III Şehzade Selim Şehzade Mahmud Fatma Sultan Mihrimah Sultan (disputed) Fahriye Sultan (disputed)
Names Turkish: Safiye Sultan Ottoman Turkish: سلطان صفیه
House	House of Osman (by marriage)
Religion	Islam, previously Roman Catholicism

Safiye Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: صفیه سلطان; "the pure one" c. 1550 – after 1619^[b]) was the Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Sultan Murad III and Valide Sultan as the mother of Mehmed III. Safiye was one of the eminent figures during the era known as the Sultanate of Women. She lived in the Ottoman Empire as a courtier during the reigns of seven sultans: Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II, Murad III, Mehmed III, Ahmed I, Mustafa I and Osman II.

After the death of Selim II in 1574, Murad took the throne as the new sultan in Constantinople. Safiye was by his side and moved with him to Topkapi Palace; less than a year into his reign she received the title of Haseki Sultan and was given a higher rank than the sultan's own sisters, Şah Sultan, Gevherhan Sultan, Ismihan Sultan and Fatma Sultan. Nurbanu Sultan, Murad's mother, was upset with Safiye's influence on Murad, and wanted to replace her with another concubines of the harem. She even led a faction in the court from 1577 to 1580 in opposition to her mother-in-law and her faction. The struggle of these two women to influence the Sultan's life, his decisions and the government groups increased in 1579, as the death of the powerful Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha along with the Sultan self-isolating himself opened the door to the exercise of power for anyone who was close to the Sultan. The conflict between Safiye and Nurbanu reached a crisis point in 1580, and Murad sent Safiye to Eski Saray. She lived there for some years before Nurbanu's death, but Murad brought her back to him sometime after his mother's death in December 1583.

Without Nurbanu, she became the most powerful woman in the harem. Moreover, she was not contented with her position, and began to intervene in state affairs, ultimately to become one of the most powerful figures of Murad's reign, and she directed her union network on a larger scale to once again influence state affairs. She strengthened her position in the court when she became the Valide Sultan upon the ascension of her son Mehmed III in 1595, after Murad's death. As Valide Sultan, her personal purse was three times that of the Sultan, the highest level of salary for a person in the empire. During her son's reign, Mehmed consulted her on important matters and did not make a decision if it was not with her consent. People and civil servants directly appealed to her when they needed help, since they knew how influential she was within the Ottoman court; sometimes they would even throw themselves in front of her carriage for help. She was the most influential in directing everything related to the empire and the terms of appointments and dismissals of everyone in the Empire, even the Grand Vizier and Shaykh al-Islam. When Mehmed III went on the campaign of Eger in 1596, he left a treasure of one billion akçe to her service, and he gave her the power to audit important matters in his absence. She distributed alms to the poor, orphans, and widows upon the fall of Eger Castle.

Safiye Sultan did not only interfere in interior affairs but also in foreign affairs of the empire. It is known that she corresponded by letters with foreign kings and queens (the most known of them being Elizabeth I of England) and which she established diplomatic relations with them. Like her mother-in-law Nurbanu, she supported a pro-Venetian policy in foreign politics. But in the last years of her son's reign, her meddling in state affairs caused three destructive rebellions and made her immensely disliked by the soldiers and the people: However, until the end of her son's reign, no one could break her dominance and influence over his government. But even for a short period of several weeks in 1600, even the Sultan saw his mother's influence on him and her presence in the palace as disturbing and insisted that she leave the palace and no longer control his affairs. However, she had built extensive support network, and continued to exert a tacit influence over the state through one of the chief eunuchs, appointing her allies to powerful positions. After five weeks, the Sultan canceled his mother's exile and brought her back to his palace and placed her in the inner circle of advisors, who actually ran the government. Upon the death of Mehmed III in 1603, she was sent to Eski Saray on 9 January 1604 by her grandson and new sultan Ahmed I, and lived there in retirement without political influence or returning to the court until her death. She died after 1619 and was laid to rest in the tomb of Murad III.

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