Kösem Sultan Personality Type
Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1651
Kösem Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: كوسم سلطان; c. 1589 – 2 September 1651), also known as Mahpeyker Sultan (Persian: ماه پيكر; lit. 'Visage of the Moon'), was the chief consort and legal wife of the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I, valide sultan as the mother of sultans Murad IV and Ibrahim, and büyük ("elder") valide of Sultan Mehmed IV since 1649. She became one of the most powerful and influential women in Ottoman history, as well as a central figure during the period known as the Sultanate of Women.Born in Tinos, Republic of Venice to a Greek Orthodox priest, she was kidnapped and sold as a slave in Bosnia before being sent to the Imperial Harem in Constantinople, the Ottoman capital. There she rose to prominence, becoming the favorite of Sultan Ahmed I, who later married her and made her his legal wife. Over time, her influence over the sultan grew, and she became his most trusted advisor. Historians credit her with persuading Ahmed to spare the life of his younger half-brother, Mustafa, thus putting an end to the centuries-old practice of fratricide in the Ottoman Empire. After Ahmed died in 1617, she was instrumental in the enthronement of Mustafa I. Upon Osman II's ascension, she was briefly banished to the Old Palace (Eski Sarayı).
