From Slave To Regent of Her Sons Empire. Who Was She?

Kösem Sultan

She was born into a world of relative peace on the Greek island of Tinos around 1589, originally named Anastasia. Her quiet life was violently shattered when Ottoman slave raiders kidnapped her as a teenager. Shipped across the Aegean Sea, she was sold into the imperial harem of Sultan Ahmed I in Constantinople. In this highly competitive environment, where women used their wits to survive, she quickly stood out. Renamed Mahpeyker, meaning moon-faced, and later Kösem, meaning leader, she completely captivated the young Sultan with her sharp intellect and political intuition. She became his undisputed favourite consort, shifting from an enslaved outsider to a major force behind palace walls.

When Ahmed I died prematurely in 1617, the royal succession dissolved into total chaos. To protect her young sons from the traditional Ottoman practice of royal fratricide, Kösem Sultan masterminded a massive structural reform, altering the laws of succession so the throne passed to the eldest living male relative rather than the sultan's sons. This tactical gamble saved her family, but her true rise to absolute dominance occurred in 1623 when her eleven-year-old son, Murad IV, ascended the throne. Kösem was officially named Naib-i Saltanat, or Queen Regent, making her the first woman in Ottoman history to formally hold absolute executive authority over the entire empire. She ran cabinet meetings from behind a hidden curtain, managed the treasury, and kept the empire stable during massive military revolts.

As Murad IV grew older, he developed a deeply brutal streak and began executing his own brothers to assert dominance. Kösem desperately used her immense influence to navigate her son's unpredictable wrath, successfully hiding her youngest son, Ibrahim, to ensure the family line survived. When Murad IV died of illness, the unstable Ibrahim became sultan, throwing the empire back into political turmoil. Kösem assumed the regency once again, managing the daily operations of a global superpower while her erratic son became increasingly detached from reality. When Ibrahim's behavior threatened the entire dynasty, Kösem made the ultimate, chilling calculation, prioritizing the empire over her own blood by consenting to a palace coup that resulted in Ibrahim's deposition and execution.

Her dominance reached its absolute peak when her six-year-old grandson, Mehmed IV, was placed on the throne. Kösem retained her role as regent, cementing her status as the Grand Valide Sultan. However, her iron grip on power sparked a fierce, venomous rivalry with the young sultan's mother, Turhan Hatice Sultan. Turhan refused to be sidelined by her grandmother-in-law, and the imperial palace split into two warring factions. Recognizing the growing threat, Kösem reportedly plotted to assassinate her grandson and replace him with a more compliant prince, a move that proved to be her fatal mistake.

Turhan's spies discovered the assassination plot, triggering a swift and violent counter-coup inside the palace walls. On the night of 2 September 1651, a mob of palace eunuchs loyal to Turhan stormed Kösem's private apartments. The seventy-two-year-old empress was dragged from a hidden wardrobe where she was hiding, beaten, and brutally strangled to death with a curtain cord. Her sudden assassination marked the dramatic climax of the Sultanate of Women, leaving behind the dark legacy of a brilliant, ruthless matriarch who ruled an empire with an iron fist but ultimately fell victim to the very power struggles she helped create.