The most famous section of the Ottoman harem sultans is the Harem Palace of “Topkapi palace“. The Ottoman Sultans made it their residence and the seat of government; from the reign of Sultan Suleiman 1520 AD – 1566 AD; until the time of Sultan Abdul Majid 1839 AD – 1861 AD. The number of women who carried out social and religious work in the country increased; such as building hospitals, allocating endowments for orphans and spinsters; and contributing to building mosques, and constructing schools, charitable institutions, and libraries.
The ottoman harem sultans appeared on the campus in matters related to politics and social service for the people. As she is the wife of the Sultan, his mother, or his daughter; for they are the ones with money and power. Among these women are the mothers of the sultans; their daughters, and their wives, and we mention an example but not limited to Hafsa Sultan; the mother of Sultan Suleiman, Khurram, the wife of the jurist, his daughter’s daughter; the women of the Ottoman Palace played an effective role in some social aspects, especially charitable ones.
The endowment in Turkish society has a social and economic status that many writers have dealt with. Endowments expanded in the Ottoman Empire by expanding their area. An endowment is a witness to the Ottoman civilization; and from endowments mosques, schools, hospitals, mosques, and libraries were built, bridges, castles, widows ‘and orphans’ homes, and other institutions with cultural, social, and civil services were built.
It also allocated endowments for spending on intangible works; such as reading the Noble Qur’an as a mercy for the souls of the dead. Agha Al-Banat was responsible for following up on these endowments for ottoman harem sultans. The palace harem, “the women of the royal harem”; contributed to the Turkish endowments, so they established many institutions that were for charitable work, including:
Hafsa Sultan
Her name is Hafsa Bint Abdul-Moamen, and she is the daughter of “Mankoli Kray” Khan al-Qurum. She was a slave girl in the Royal Harem then she married Sultan Selim the First. She is the mother of Sultan Suleiman and she is a good woman. Throughout the period of her son Suleiman, she carried out many charitable works throughout the period of her son Suleiman in the state of Magnesia, where she built a large college there
It included a mosque, a school, a building, a gorge, a hospital, a bathhouse, and a school for two boys, and all its properties were suspended in Bursa and Magnesia, and it was extended to charitable works. It had a complex called the Sultanah Complex, and construction work began between 1513 AD to 1520 AD. While she was in Manet with her husband, Sultan Selim Yawz, “The cutter or the brave one”, her son Suleiman was in the state of Sarukhan, and this complex consisted of a mosque, a stewardess, a small school, a large school, a hospice, a bath and a hospital.
In 1538, after the death of Hafsa Sultan in 1534 AD; Sultan Suleiman added some attachments to this complex. As he understood from the endowment records, this complex was built in a square; including it expands towards the valley, and this place is called Demerdash Ogli Ali Bey Park.
- Food was continuously in the mosque’s restaurant.
- As for the mosque, it is in the form of a parasol and has three balconies, such as the Khatuniya.
- Mosque and the Iowaz Pasha in the city.
- As for the madrasa, it was established on the northern side of the mosque; which became on three sides in the courtyard of this mosque.
- As for the primary school; it is a classic-style two-domed foundry built between the bathhouse and the large school, the walls of which are covered with Tughli and Mulhouse.
Khurram Sultan
The wife of Sultan Suleiman , who is also of Slavic origin, her father is a Ukrainian monk, and she fell captive in the hands of the Crimean Tatars in one of their raids. A mosque, a school, a bathhouse, a palace for caravans, and a number of siblings.
Architect Sinan also built a college for her known as “Khasaki”. It includes a hospital, an architecture, a school for boys, and a Sabil; and also built two baths bearing her name that is a model for the architecture of the Ottoman baths.
She died in 1558 AD; then was buried in the courtyard of the Sulaymaniyah Mosque in a cemetery bearing her name.
Mariam Sultan
Daughter of Sultan Suleiman and Sultana Khurram Sultan of Mihramah Mosque.
The architect Sinan built two of the most famous masterpieces. The first is located on a high hill overlooking the port of the Escudar region between 1547 and 1548 in the name of Mahramah Sultan, which is a huge mosque that draws attention with its architectural features, while the other is on a high hill in “Edirne Qapu”. It became clear to the architects recently, another evidence of the genius of the architectural artist “Sinan”; namely the Mihramah Sultan Mosque has a view of the moon, while the other mosque has a view of the sun sets on the mosque. This is a clear representation of the name “Mihramah Sultan” which means moon and sun
With regard to her interest in charitable works, historians note that the endowment that they found and published its details does not cover everything that Mihramah Sultan has done in this field. He mentions here, for example, that she constructed a canal to deliver drinking water to Mecca and to Mount Arafat, which the contemporary historian Al-Nahrawali mentioned in his book << Media with Flags of the Sacred House of God >>
She was a wise woman and spent much of her wealth on philanthropy. Regarding her wealth she spent more than the Sultan himself (her brother Selim II), as the daily income of her property was up to 2,500 bags.
Khatun Sultan
The last of the ottoman harem sultans is one of the wives of Sultan Suleiman. She joined the harem as a slave-girl; then she became the wife of the Sultan. She built a mosque in Uskudar, and arranged an endowment for them in 1560 AD; to provide the salaries of the imam, the mosque preacher, the interpreter, and seven of the readers.
These endowments consist of twenty-four rooms in one Istanbul neighborhoods; ten other rooms; a house; four shops; six houses next to the “Aajah” bath; five houses in the Chalabioglu neighborhood; a bakery; three houses; and a Kasab shop next to the palace of the caravans of the Mullah al-Kurani; a garden in Uskudar and a house in Galata; and these endowments’ mission is to provide the food needed for daily work.