Dec 23 2008
Nurbanu - the first valide sultana
Roxelana, the beloved and powerful wife of Suleiman the Magnificent was the first ‘career woman’ who rose from the lowest ranks of a harem slave girl to become the sultan’s first ever legal wife with enormous influence over the ruler and his politics.
The story of Nurbanu is even more fairy tale like, except that it does not have a happy ending. Nurbanu was born as Cecilia Venier Baffo as a Venetian noble woman. When the Turks conquered the Aegean island of Paros, she was captured and because of her great beauty, sent to the harem of Prince Selim in Istanbul. Selim was the son of Roxelana and Suleiman and heir to the throne.
Quickly Cecilia, re-named Nurbanu or ‘Princess of Light’ captured the heart of Selim and advanced to the status of favorite wife. When he followed his father to the throne, Nurbanu took a keen interest in politics. She and Selim had a son, Murat, who was heir to the throne.
When Selim died in 1574, Nurbanu concealed his body and put it on ice for several days, until her son, who was governor of a remote province, could reach Istanbul to become Sultan Murad III. That was the time, when Nurbanu’s power really took off. She assumed the title of Valide Sultana (mother of the sultan) and was co-regent with her son. Whilst Roxelana has ‘ruled’ de facto although with the title of queen, Nurbanu did so de jure as well, being the offical co-regent. She managed the still vast empire together with Grand Vizir Sokullu Mehmet Pascha. Because of her Venetian birth, she pursued a vigorous pro-Venetian politic to the extend of arousing the enmisty of the then equally important rival of Venice, Genoa.
Nurbanu kept close contact with Catherine de Medici and other sovereigns of her time. She was a patron of the arts as well and commissioned architects to erect mosques and palaces.
She had however neglected the fact, that her mother in law, Roxelana was still alive and jealous of Nurban’s position. A power struggle between the two women and their respective followers ensued. Mystery and legend surround the suspicious death of Nurbanu in 1583. Some content that she was poisoned by the Genoese because of her pro-Venetian politics, other say, that she was murdered by followers of Roxelana.
Anyway, she was the first sultana, who was buried together with her husband.
