Gevherhan Sultan (daughter of Selim II)

Gevherhan Sultan was born in Manisa in 1544.^[1][2] Her father was Şehzade Selim (future Selim II), son of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and Hurrem Sultan.^[1][2][3] She spent her early life in Manisa and Konya, where her father served as a sanjak-bey.^[2]

She had an older sister, Şah Sultan and a younger sister, Ismihan Sultan^[4], a younger brother, Murad III, a younger half-sister Fatma Sultan and seven younger half-brothers who were killed as infants when Murad ascended the throne.

Manisa palace records list her mother and those of Ismihan and Şah as three different women.^[4]

In 1562, strong alliances were made for the daughters of Şehzade Selim, the prince who would succeed Suleiman as Selim II. On 17 August 1562 Ismihan married Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, Gevherhan the admiral Piali Pasha, and Şah the chief falconer Hasan Agha.^[5] The State Treasury covered the expenses for the imperial wedding and granted 15,000 florins as a wedding gift to the imperial son-in-law.^[6][7]

After the triple wedding, Mihrimah Sultan, Gevherhan's aunt, pushed assiduously for a naval campaign against Malta, enlisting the help of the grand vizier Semiz Ali Pasha, and promising to outfit four hundred ships at her own expanse. However, Suleiman and his son Selim prevented the campaign from going forward so that the admiral, Piali Pasha, might remain in Istanbul with his new wife, Gevherhan Sultan.^[8]

The two together had two sons^{[citation needed]}, Sultanzade Mustafa Bey (who died in 1593)^[9] and Sultanzade Mehmed Bey^{[citation needed]} and three daughters, Ayşe Atike Hanımsultan, Fatma Hanımsultan,^[10][7] and Hatice Hanımsultan.^{[11][12][full citation needed][13]}

In 1575, just after her brother Sultan Murad ascended to the throne her daily stipend consisted of 250 aspers.^[14] Gevherhan was widowed at Piali Pasha's death in 1578.^[7][10]

In 1579,^[15] Gevherhan Sultan married Cerrah Mehmed Pasha, and they had a son, Sultanzade Salih Bey.^[16] When he was promoted from the generalship of the janissaries to the governorship of Rumelia in March 1580, people opined that it was due to the political power of Gevherhan Sultan.^[15] In 1583, he presented Handan Hatun to then Prince Mehmed (later Mehmed III) on his departure for Manisa.^[17] In 1598, when her husband was appointed the grand vizier during Mehmed III's reign, Gevherhan became an influential political figure in court circles. This position seems to have enabled her to keep in touch with Mehmed III's sons and their mothers as well. Gevherhan was known to be extremely jealous of this husband. On one occasion, she was reported to have stabbed one of her Kalfa because she believed she was provoking her husband.^[18]

Gevherhan wrote many letters to her youngest son, Sultanzade Salih Bey, who was the governor of Klis. These letters were considered so important from a political point of view that their translations were sent in Venice by the baylo. She also protected her daughter's husband Sinanpaşaoğlu Mehmed Pasha.^[19] She was on friendly terms with Süleyman Agha, the mute of Safiye Sultan.^[20]

Soon after his succession, Ahmed I, Mehmed's son by Handan, wanted to express his gratitude to Mehmed Pasha and Gevherhan Sultan for the role they had played in bringing his parents together. By then, however, Cerrah Mehmed Pasha was old and ailing, and died on 9 January 1604. Ahmed, therefore, honored the late pasha's wife. Venetian bailo Contarini records that "having remembered this [i.e., his mother’s background], he sent the sultana [Gevherhan] a thousand gold coins and a sable robe with many other gifts as a sign of welcome, since she had been the origin of his good fortune and of the greatness in which at present he found himself."^[21]

Ahmed also named one of his daughters after Gevherhan to further mark his great-aunt's role in his life.^[21] Her daily stipend consisted of 350 aspers.^[12]

From her properties she constituted a religious and charitable foundation with whose revenues built and maintained a high theological college in the İstanbul neighbourhood of Cağaloğlu.^[10]

She died after 1622^[15] and was buried in the mausoleum of her father Sultan Selim II's, next to Hagia Sophia Mosque.^[10][22]