Extract – Safiye Sultan
It is difficult to decide on the origins of Safiye Sultan – John Freely suggests that she was of Albanian origin. Many sources, including The Encyclopedia Britannica, suggest that she was born in the mountain town of Rezi in Albania. She was Roman Catholic.
Other sources imply that she was possibly born as Sofia Baffo in 1550. Ottoman and Turkish sources imply that she was of Venetian origins, the daughter of the Venetian Governor of Corfu and a relative of Giorgio Baffo, an Italian poet and senator of the Venetian Republic. He was one of the major writers in the Italian language, prolifically producing erotic sonnets. Safiye Sultanmay havealso been related to the mother of her future mother-in-law, Nurbanu Sultan.
She was captured by pirates and sold to a Pasha, sometime in the 1560s. At about 1563, when she was 14 years old, Safiye was given as a gift to Prince Murad on his departure to become the Governor of Manisa by her owner, in whose mansion she had lived previously. In the Harem, she was given the name Safiye: the pure one, (note the proximity of this name to her original Christian name!) when she converted to Islam.
A week after he assumed his father’s throne, in 1574, Murad received the usual hamper of delicacies and wine, which Joseph Nasi sent previously to his father. Those were refused and Joseph was given to understand that the old rules did not apply any more – Murad did not consider his father’s friends his own. Nasi had no other way open towards the new Sultan – except through the help of the aging Kira of Nurbanu Sultan – Esther Handali. Nurbanu Valide Sultan, who was still alive, powerful and not keen on her relative/daughter-in-law Safiye Sultan, managed to help Josef Nasi to return to prominence in the Ottoman court. The French ambassador at the time (1576) remarked on this fact in his correspondence, but noted, that this prominence was short-lived. Joseph Nasi died not long after – on 2 August, 1579.
Contemporaries referred to Murad III as a short, fat man with good skin colour, large pale eyes and a large blond beard. He was described as a proud man. The first thing he did was to move his bedroom from the Government section of the palace to the Harem. This could be taken as evidence of his future priorities as sultan. He was well educated and had poetic inclinations, which allowed him to write lyrics and poetry in Turkish, Persian and Arabic and to compose music.
In 1566, Safiye’s fate changed, when she gave birth to the Sultan’s first son – the future Mehmed III and shortly afterwards, Murad’s first daughter – Ayshe and then a secondone – Ismihan. The Sultan’s affections for Safiye were very strong, and on taking the throne, he brought her to the harem in Istanbul as his first wife. Historians, eye-witnesses at the time, (according to Necdet Sakaoglu) suggest that she was “the officially wedded wife of the Sultan”, which implied that her freedom from slavery had to have preceded their marriage ceremony.
Sources state, that Safiye Sultan, resided at the Eski Saray Palace, close to the Mosque of Beyazid in Istanbul. Was this in order to distance herself from her mother-in-law? The building was protected by very high walls, to hide the women from prying eyes. The Sultan visited it often and sometimes stayed for several days. Sources suggest that Safiye Sultan had a lot of freedom of movement. She would leave the palace in a small horse-drawn cart, covered with a red cloth to visit the wives of various Pashas in her husband’s service. She was chaperoned by one eunuch only. It is not known exactly when she moved to Topkapi Palace.
Murad’s mother Nurbanu felt threatened. For the first thirteen years of his rule (until 1582) Murad had had no sexual relations with any other woman, except Safiye. As a result, he had one son and two daughters. This was considered a dangerous state of affairs as mortality of children in the harem was high. Nurbanu wanted to encourage the birth of other sons, but also, she aimed to reduce Safiye’s influence over Murad. She did this by urging him to take other young and beautiful women into the harem. He was unwilling. The Venetian Bailo Gianfrancesco Morosini wrote, that Nurbanu’s efforts produced little results – despite the profusion of beauties in the harem, he was still faithful to Safiye.
At the time, the three most powerful women in the palace, apart from Safiye, were Ismihan Sultan – Murad’s sister, the Valide Sultan Nurbanu and the Chef Stewardess Canfeda. They were united by their aim to distract the young sultan from his wife – Safiye Sultan. This may have coincided with Safiye’s absence from the capital, when she accompanied her son Mehmed, who was appointed to be Governor of Manisa.
Having been devoted to Safiye Sultan for almost 15 years, Murad succumbed to the charms of a slave girl – a present from his sister Ismihan Sultan. Later, other women followed. Safiye felt very unhappy and objected to his behavior, but ultimately she had to accept the facts and guard her position. This led to more women joining the harem.
Then Safiye decided to try another route. By using magic potions, charms and spells, she tried to keep Murad for herself only – hoping to make him impotent with other women. On learning about this, Murad’s reverence for Safiye faded away and he became even more promiscuous. The palace was running out of beautiful virgins to offer him! He then had to lower his standards and sleep with beautiful widows. He also had affairs with women outside the Palace. Again, according to Necdet Sakaoglu, in the period between 1582 and 1595 the sultan was so active in the bedroom front, that he may have broken the record of the number of women, with whom he had carnal relations.
After the death of Nurbanu – her cousin and mother-in-law in 1583, and that of Ismihan Sultan in 1585, Safiye became chief advisor and companion of the Sultan. At the time, the health of the Sultan was described as quite fragile. Safiye left the Sultan to his own devices – she was preoccupied with the internal and external management of the Empire, which she enjoyed immensely.
By then, Gianfranceso Morosini described how the Sultan’s behaviour was affecting his health – as he had sex with several women per night, religion required men to wash after they had been with one woman, before going to another, and he bathed several times per night.
Murad also enjoyed looking secretly at his ladies, splashing in the pool in the hot summers and often joined them, coming up with new games for them to play in the water. Because of the constant stimulation and increased activity on the bedroom front, Murad had sired twenty-four sons and thirty-two daughters – a record for the Ottoman dynasty. This was even more amazing, as fifty-four of those children were born in the last twelve years of Murad’s life.
He also enjoyed horse-riding. He would play with his mutes and midgets, often hitting them. On one occasion he fell off his horse and was almost taken for dead, but recovered.
Through this period, Safiye continued in her position as Birinci Kadin (First Wife), supported by her daughter and her son-in-law Molla Muhyiddin, who was the supreme Judge. It was obvious that the Sultan allowed her to manage state affairs, as he considered her sensible and wise. Safiye followed her mother-in-law Nurbanu’s pro-Venetian policy, but this was done against personal rewards for those efforts. The assumption now is that Safiye liked money and considered it a security. She took bribes at every opportunity. This was confirmed by the reports of the Venetian ambassadors. It was well known that Safiye had protected Venetians and the Christians in the Empire, who were known to have enjoyed at the time the greatest freedom, since Mehmed the Conqueror took over Byzantium.
However – there was an accident, which almost caused a war between Venice and the Ottoman Empire. The widow of Ramadan Pasha, the former Governor of Tripoli was returning home by boat – with her son, servants and household belongings, loaded on three galleys. The ships were blown off course into the Adriatic and were captured by Pietro Emo – a senator of Venice, who killed over 250 men, including the Governor’s son, raped the women and threw most of them into the sea, not even sparing the Christians, present on board. The news enraged the Sultan and the life of the Venetian Bailo was only spared by the quick intervention of Safiye Sultan. She entrusted her Kira Esther to settle the scandal with the Venetian Bailo. Venice apologized, returned the galleys and sentenced Pietro Emo to death.
As I mentioned in the chapter above, Safiye corresponded extensively with several European dignitaries, including Catherine de’ Medici, the Queen of France. When the latter turned to the Ottomans to ask for military help against Spain,theinformation quickly “leaked” to the Venetians through Esther Handali. In fact, Esther was considered such a valuable ally of Venice, that she was rewarded for her help. She was allowed to set up a lottery in Venice –the first foreigner to obtain such rights. This made her even wealthier.
At about this time, Elizabeth I of England began her involvement with the Ottoman empire. After the Pope excommunicated her and she lost the trade of all Catholic countries in Europe, she was desperately in need of new trading partners. She also needed protection against the Spanish and was beginning to stand up to her well-known adversary Philip II of Spain. So, in need of allies, she contacted Safiye Sultan. In writing to Safiye Sultan, Elizabeth aimed to initially increase the trading contacts and England’s standing in the empire.
The first trading charter had been given to the English at the time of Suleiman the Magnificent, but up to this point, it had not been used much.
In 1578, three English merchants were dispatched to the land of the Ottomans – William Harborne, Edward Ellis and Richard Staple. Their task was to acquaint themselves with the terrain, the people, the rulers and the trading opportunities, to increase the privileges, awarded to the English in Istanbul, which until now were lagging behind the other western powers.
The English made great efforts to achieve equality with the French and the Italians – Venetian and Genoese, as trading partners to the Ottomans. On arrival in Istanbul, British ships had to fly French flags, which was highly undesirable. Elizabeth I was determined to change this state of affairs and appointed William Harborne (from Norfolk)as her new English ambassador in Istanbul. His task was to set up commercial dealings with the Sultan on a far greater scale.
So in February 1580, an English ship, flying the Royal Standard anchored off the coast of the island of Chios. The news of the arrival of Harebone soon reached the Venetian and Genoese Chargés D’Affaires, who were prepared to do anything to stop Harebone in his mission. The Spanish ambassador Bernardino de Mendoza complained bitterly about this “Lutheran”, exporting much needed tin to the Ottomans. This much valued product had been retrieved during the dissolution of the monasteries. The ambassador of Venice sent through Nurbanu’s Kira,a present to the Valide Sultan in order to purchase a negative attitude towards the English. She however, was ill and the attempt failed.
William Harborne arrived in Istanbul on The Great Susan, loaded with gold cloth, rich presents, tin and luxury goods. Not long afterwards, he greatly impressed the sultan with his behavior and beautiful gifts and he was confirmed as the English ambassador to the empire, remaining in this post for over 10 years. Eventually, he established English factories in Istanbul. He signed trading contracts with the Ottomans and set English trading stations on Ottoman held lands in the Mediterranean. Under the influence of Safiye Sultan, he was greatly helped by Sokollu Mehmed Pasha – the Grand Vizier and the Sultan’s tutor – the historian Seddadin Hoca.
And in1580, possibly under the influence of Safiye Sultan, the company was given a seven years charter by Murad III, granting Harebone and other subsequent merchants special privileges and allowing them to form the joint-stock Turkey Company to trade in Istanbul and Izmir. This was later (1592) amalgamated with the Venice Company to form the Levant Company,which existed for 244 years. Soon afterwards, a small English colony settled in Galata.
The main trade with the Ottomans included English exports of tin (let’s not forget the vast number of deconsecrated churches by Henry VIII) and good quality wool. What they were importing, however, in the 1590s, completely changed the perception of luxury for the English people. Amongst the imports one could find unheard of exotic fruit, Turkish delight, halva and sweet currants and a number of new spices like turmeric, mace, aniseed, nutmeg. The imported precious stones – diamonds, sapphires, pearls and ivory, beautiful materials like silk, brocade, damask, scarfs, exquisite embroidery; household furnishings, carpets, rugs and curtains, became very fashionable amongst the rich. Good quality cotton revitalized the British textile industry.
In 1582, in preparation for the celebration of the circumcision of his sons, Murad III ordered the building of a summer complex in the palace gardens, which included not only beautiful kiosks – summer pavilions, by the Sea of Marmora, but also two large and beautiful banqueting buildings, decorated with gold, with marble pillars and lavish engravings, murals and stencils, without consideration for the expense. Safiye Sultan would have been a keen participant in the planning and building of these palace improvements.
As mentioned in the previous chapter, Valide Sultan Nurbanu died in suspicious circumstances at the age of 58, at her Palace in the Yenikapı Quarter in Istanbul on 7 December 1583. She was found strangled in her own bed. The word of mouth on the streets of Istanbul suggested that this may have been the deed of the Genoese, who were jealous of the support she was constantly giving to the Venetians. Murad was devastated by her death.
After his mother’s death, Murad became much more introvert – according to the Venetian diplomatic reports, he had not left the palace to attend Friday prayers for two years. His days were spent in entertainment in the Imperial Hall. He enjoyed walking in the large gardens, which stretched down the shores of the Golden Horn, alongside the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara, accompanied by the women from the harem. Witnesses at the time suggest that there the large number of women meant that they were divided into several rival factions, fighting for control. Safiye Sultan apparently was quite happy to have him busy with other women, so that she could have a free hand in the running of the country.
In 1587, Elizabeth of England sent a petition to Sultan Murad, imploring his assistance against her Spanish adversaries, who relied on the help of the Pope and all Catholic princes in Europe. Since his appointment, William Harborne had been negotiating the release of a large number of English people, captured by pirates. He was also constantly encouraging the sultan to attack the Spanish at every opportunity. The sultan promised to do so, but never actually acted on his promise.
In 1588, Murad signed a ten year peace treaty with Persia. His armies had waged war for a very long time. According to his own words, he dedicated this peace-treaty to the victory, which the English won over the Spanish Armada. He even sent a letter to Queen Elizabeth, praising her for the victory in glorious terms. She responded in equally flattering language.
In 1593, Elizabeth I of England sent Safiye a portrait of herself, surrounded by a bejeweled frame. This was received with great delight.
In the autumn of 1594, Murad’s state of health worsened further – he continued to suffer from kidney complaints, as well as the epilepsy, he grew progressively weaker and on 16 January 1595, he died at the age of forty nine, having ruled for about twenty years. Sources say that during his life, he listened much more to the advice of his wife and mother, that to that of his ministers and Viziers.
Safiye Sultan kept his death a secret, to ensure sufficient time for her son Mehmed to return from Manisa, where he was Provincial Governor. The truth was revealed only to the Grand Vizier Ferhad Pasha, who was supposed to travel to Manisa to inform Mehmed. However, Safiye thought that his disappearance might provoke suspicion, so after some deliberation, it was decided that the chief Gardener would be sent, as the palace inhabitants were used to seeing him leave the palace to provide fresh water for the Sultan’s use. By the time Mehmed returned, the news of the Sultan’s death had seeped out anyway and the palace guards had some trouble in keeping the population calm.
On 28 of January 1595, Mehmed arrived at Istanbul and went directly to his mother’s quarters. The two had not been together since Mehmed had left for Manisa some 12 years before. He was taken to view his father’s remains, which were most likely kept in the same ice-container, which had held the corpse of Sultan Selim II one hundred years before. After this, Mehmed was proclaimed a Sultan by Ferhad Pasha and sat on the Ottoman throne.
After his father’s burial on the next day, Mehmed invited his nineteen surviving brothers, the youngest of whom was seven years old, to come in front of him. Under the pretext that they would be circumcised, they were taken away and strangled. They were all buried according to their age around the grave of their father in the garden of Hagias Sophia. He left nothing to chance – two sons, who were born later to two of Murad’s concubines, were drowned. About ten other concubines, who were thought to be pregnant, were also drowned.
Safiye Sultan became the Valide Sultan, and acted as co-regent of the Ottoman Empire. All remaining wives and concubines of Murad III were sent to Eski Saray (the Old Palace). Accompanying them were Murad’s twenty-seven daughters, their nurses, servants, eunuchs, as well as the former entertainers of the old sultan – dwarfs, musicians, dancers and mutes. The whole group consisted of about 200 people.
When Mehmed III ascended the Ottoman throne at the age of twenty-nine, he was the last Sultan, who had been a provincial Governor – every sultan after him would spend his youth in Topkapi Saray. While he was Governor of Manisa, his concubines had given birth to four boys – Mahmud, Selim, Ahmed and Mustafa. After he became a sultan, he sired two more sons, who died young and seven girls.
When his first son Mahmud became of age, instead of sending him to become a Provincial Governor, he sent his guardian Ferhad Pasha to become the Provincial Governor and teach the boy how to rule. From then on, no prince ever became a Provincial Governor in the Ottoman Empire.
After she became Valide Sultan, Safiye increased her political power and her influence over the Empire. She appointed people, according to her own whim – this was often affected by bribes. Her son was entirely under her control – he appeared to be a weak sultan, who always followed her advice.
In time, the successful English ambassador William Harborne was replaced by Sir Edward Barton, who was again instructed to continue to encourage the work of the English trading company in the Ottoman Empire. It was Edward Barton – the young English Ambassador to the Sublime Porte at the time, who suggested to Queen Elizabeth that she should send a gift to Mehmed in honor of his accession to the throne. The Queen realised that the Ottomans would be useful as allies against the Spanish and encouraged further approaches to the sultan. Barton’s suggestion was a clock in the shape of a cockerel.
A year after his coronation, Mehmed made up his mind to attack the Habsburg Empire. Initially, the army was going to be led by others. But then, a massive earthquake shook Constantinople and Anatolia – the population considered this as God’s punishment for losing to the Europeans and called for another war against the unbelievers. The Janissaries refused to march without the young Sultan’s leadership and his tutor and former Grand Vizier Seddadin Hoca finally convinced him to lead the army personally.
Initially, Safiye Sultan employed the services of one of his most beloved concubines, who had the task to convince the young sultan not to lead the army personally. However, Mehmed was so enraged by this intervention, that he slew her on the spot. Safiye was furious – she much preferred him to spend his time in the security of the harem. She was so furious, that she gave an order to have all Christian men in Constantinople killed in the hope, that the resulting chaos might change Mehmed’s decision. However, wiser council prevailed and her order was amended to the expulsion of all unmarried Greeks from the capital.
Realising that she could not convince the young Sultan to give up the enterprise, Safiye Sultan insisted that he should be accompanied by Edward Barton. By then, the two men had established a good relationship and the Sultan thought Barton useful in possible negotiations with the Habsburgs. The army was led Ibrahim Pasha– later to be a Grand Vizier, Hassan Sokollu Pasha and Cicala Pasha – the half Turkish-half Genoese Janissary leader, son of a Vicomte, married to the grand-daughter of Suleiman the Magnificent and a former Kapudan Pasha – all proven leaders. Safiye Sultan came to see off her rather unhappy son, departing with the army for war.
On 26 October 1596, the two armies met on Hungarian territory. Seddadin Hoca wrapped the sacred mantle of Mohamed around the Sultan’s shoulders and convinced him to lead the battle, which resulted in an Ottoman success. This was Mehmed’s last participation in direct Ottoman military actions. In fact, the victory was achieved mainly through the efforts of Seddadin Hoca and Cicala Pasha, who as a result was promoted to the post of Grand Vizier. However, he did not fare well in this post – his excessive severity and cruelty towards the deserters from the battle, who counted some 30,000 soldiers, meant that many of them were beheaded. Eventually, Valide Safiye Sultan had to interfere and remove him from his post.
By 1597, the Sultan, who habitually indulged in too much food and wine, had grown so fat, that the palace considered it impossible for him to produce any more children.
In October 1597, the Sultan moved to the Eski Saray Palace. By then, the present from England still had not arrived, despite Barton’s constant reminders to the Queen’s councilors and the Levant Company, who had agreed to commission the present from the Queen. Their suggestion was to send to Istanbul an organ with a clock mechanism. Unfortunately, towards the end of 1597, Barton died from dysentery or inflammation of the lungs at the age of thirty-seven, and was buried on one of the Princes’ Islands, in a cemetery of the monastery of St Mary.
But his idea of a present survived – the proposed organ was commissioned by Thomas Dallam from the Blacksmith’s Company in London and when completed, on the 14 November 1598, it was demonstrated to Queen Elizabeth in the Palace of Whitehall. Although the present appeared to be from Elizabeth I, it was actually paid for by the Levant Company, but this was kept a secret.
Dallam and the organ were carried on board the armed merchant vessel Hector, which arrived in Istanbul in August 1599. Dallam tells us in his diaries, that on the second day of the arrival of the ship, Sultan Mehmed, who wanted to have a better look at their vessel sailed in his gold-decorated boat to go around and look at it. Unfortunately, the crew did not realise he was there, until several hours later. An hour later, the Valide Sultan Safiye sailed in her majestically decorated boat – she also wanted to view the English ship.
The organ was a great success and was played several times for the Sultan and his court. Dallam was prevented from leaving the Ottoman court several times, the last time with a request to move the organ to a different venue. Dallam later retold the story of his travels, his visits to the Sultan’s Palace and the chance he had to view the Sultan’s favorites, frolicking in their garden.
In 1599, Safiye hinted to the new British ambassador in Istanbul Henry Lello that she would like another portrait of Elizabeth I. With the request, she also asked the Queen what she would like to receive as a gift from her. Elizabeth responded that she wanted to have a set of clothes in the style, worn by Safiye. The gifts received included two garments and a girdle, made of silver cloth and other objects, decorated with gold.
By this time, Safiye herself had amassed a vast treasure and some of this was used to build Yeni Camii – The New Mosque in Eminönünu, Istanbul, in 1598.
Queen Elizabeth did not forget the Valide Sultan. In 1599 Safiye received another present from Elizabeth I – delivered by Mr. Paul Pinder to her garden –- a beautiful carriage. This was much more expensive than the organ – it was valued at 600 pounds – an enormous sum for the time. Safiye was delighted with the present and also with Mr. Pinder, who was showered with gifts and riches! The carriage was covered on Safiye’s orders and she used it often for travelling round the city and on excursions away from the palace – this was viewed as scandalous at the time. Paul Pinder was later made English Ambassador in the Ottoman court.
Sources confirm that Safiye was very popular and much loved by the ordinary people. However, the British ambassador Henry Lello confirmed in his report that the Ulema (the collective body of the Muslim religious leaders) and the army were strongly against Safiye, because of her complete control over her son and her policy of bribery, which was prevalent in the government.
Very much like her mother-in-law Nurbanu, Safiye used the skills of a Kira. The reader may remember that Kiras were usually Jewish women, who as non-Muslims, could act as mediators between the women of the harem and the outside world. The extremely rich Marreno Banking House of Mendez supplied most of the Kiras with money. They also sometimes acted as economic agents and secretaries.
Safiye Sultan’s Kira was Esperanza Malchi. Safiye was believed to have been intensely influenced by Malchi. Paul Rycaut – an English Embassy Secretary in the 1660’s attributes the power Esperanza Malchi had to the fact that the two were lovers. Her privileged position allowed Esperanza Malchi to collect a vast fortune. She was not only paid for her services, but was also awarded certain tax-farms. Mehmed III gave her the sheep tax and the tax on the Christian population – these tax farms produced vast amounts of money.
In 1600, Safiye Sultan, possibly encouraged by Esperanza Malchi, ordered the minting of coins with a debased value and paid the salaries of the army with it. But it did not escape the soldiers’ notice – they realised that they had been duped and rebelled.
Esperanza Malchi was of course blamed for the inflation and the debasement of the currency and she took a boat with the intention of escaping to the north of the Black Sea, possibly to one of her estates. But she was caught, brought back and handed to a lynch mob. They put her on the ground and stabbed and kicked her to death, along with her eldest son, who under Safiye’s influence had been appointed as a Head of the Customs Office in Istanbul. They cut off her head and her private parts, put them on spears and displayed them in town, while other parts of her body were nailed to the doors of her nearest collaborators in the Government.
It was no surprise that after her death, it was discovered that she had a stash of 400,000 ducats, besides the enormous amounts, invested in goods in transit. She also possessed 42 estates all over the empire.
This event was followed by another rebellion in Anatolia. There, the situation in which ordinary people found themselves had deteriorated greatly. This rebellion was called the Celali rebellion. Mehmed III sent one army after the other, to try to stifle the protests.
In 1602, the plague ravished the capital and other parts of the country. At the same time, a Janissary revolt erupted. The Janissaries were offended by the intrigues of some of the Pashas, closely connected to the sultan and demanded that their Aga should go and ask the Sultan to have the Pashas beheaded.
Sultan Mehmed, offended by the request, asked the Sipahis to kill the Aga, which led to the revolt. The battles between Janissaries and Sipahis continued for some time, until the arrival of Cicala Pasha, who was called to the scene by Safiye Sultan. His diplomacy was bolstered by a large sum of money, supplied by Safiye Sultan. This managed to resolve the crises.
On March 24, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died. She was succeeded by James I – Mary Steward’s son. Very soon, in 1604, he signed a peace treaty with Spain and the English political alliance with the Ottomans was no longer needed.
During the summer of 1603, Mehmed executed his son Mahmud, 21 years old by then – an able and courageous Prince. A number of explanations have been offered for this execution.
Some sources suggest that he had asked his father to allow him to lead a battalion to try and stifle the Janissaries’ rebellion. Mehmed was afraid that his sons’ real motive was to dethrone his father and seize the throne, taking advantage of his popularity with the army and the citizens.
Mehmed’s worries may have been strengthened, when Safiye Sultan intercepted a letter from a religious seer to Mahmud’s mother, suggesting that Mehmed would die in six weeks’ time and would be succeeded by her son. This was the final blow – Mehmed ordered Mahmud to be strangled on the 7 June 1603. He also imprisoned and later killed Mahmud’s mother and other women in his harem.
In the meantime, the Sultan’s health was deteriorating – he had a number of fits and spells of madness, which led to an uprising of the Janissaries. They suggested that Mehmed be deposed in favour of his eldest surviving son Ahmed. They were concerned about his poor health and the negative influence of his mother in a welter of accusations of corruption and mismanagement. Mehmed gave in to some of their demands, which resulted in beheadings of officials and the Chief White Eunuch. He even banished his mother Safiye to the Eski Saray and she had to postpone the building of the Yeni Cami, due to a reduction of her funds. But English diplomats noticed that this was all done for appearances and she was back quite soon in the palace in her previous role.
The seer’s prediction was actually correct – Mehmed III did die within six weeks – on the 12 December 1603, at the age of thirty-eight. Some sources say it was from a heart attack, others – that he was poisoned, or that it was from the plague.
His successor was his second son – Ahmed I. He was almost 14 years old at the time and still not circumcised. His confidence impressed witnesses – he girdled himself with Osman’s sward and without any hesitation sat on the Ottoman throne. Ahmed’s only remaining brother – Mustafa, who was 12, was mentally ill and so Ahmed spared his life, under the influence of his mother Handan Sultan. It is probably worth mentioning, that for the first time in a number of generations, there were no princes killed at the time of the new sultan’s accession to the throne.
After the burial of his father, Ahmed sent his grandmother back to the Eski Saray. She moved there on in January 1604 and possibly lived there for the remaining years of her life. She continued to receive a stipend of 3,000 aspers per day. Handan Sultan moved to the palace and settled in the Valide apartments. At the beginning of his rule, Ahmed suffered from small pox, which almost caused his death.
Safiye died on the 1 of November, 1605, possibly in Edirne and was buried next to her husband in the garden of the Hagia Sophia. Safiye Sultan was one of the most influential Valide Sultans in Ottoman history, a position which she inherited from Nurbanu and held between 1595 and 1605.
The construction of the Yeni Cami took more than half a century and it was completed later, after Safiye’s death, by another Valide Sultan – Hadice Turhan Sultan, the mother of Sultan Mehmed IV.
The Malika Safiye Mosque in Cairo was named in Safiye’s honor.