Şehzade Murad had been sent to serve as Governor of Manisa on the Aegean coast and was there when Sultan Selim II died in 1574. Nurbanu first learned the news and then ordered everyone to keep their mouths shut. She did not share the sultan's death with anyone other than Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, the Grand Vizir. Her goal was to enable her son Murad to reach Istanbul in secret before anyone could take advantage of the situation. Security and privacy in the harem were the most strict anywhere, and no one else knew when Selim II had actually died. Nurbanu told no one, hid the dead body of her husband in an icebox, and sent word to Manisa for her son to come to Constantinople immediately. It was not made known publicly until twelve days later when Murad arrived and Nurbanu delivered up Selim's body. Her son became sultan and Nurbanu became
valide sultan, the highest position a woman could hold in the Ottoman Empire. Nurbanu's real influence began at this time. She enjoyed significant power from 1574 to 1583, although she apparently did not live in the palace after Selim II's death. Although in the past she also had influence over many things as haseki, she mostly just supported Selim from the background and gradually built up her own circle for the future. However, as valide, she immediately started to work and put her own trusted people in ever higher positions to strengthen herself and her son through them. She was revered as Valide-i Atik Sultan ("the first strong mother of the reigning sultan") during her son's reign until her death. Nurbanu became the first woman to hold both the rank of haseki and valide. Although the Valide Sultan rank had existed since the reign of Bayezid II, it was Murad III who, for the sake of his mother, transformed it into a legally recogniseed position. This means that previously the Valide Sultan was only listed as "Mother of Sultan," in every list. But thanks to Murad, the mother of the sultan acquired a formal title, that of valide sultan. And with this change, not only did valide carry out the usual responsibilities according to tradition, but its tasks and possibilities also increased significantly. Nurbanu did not seek to rule through her son, but merely helped him to become a just and worthy sultan, who was loved, accepted and respected by the people. In this way, valide became a high status and became an important and powerful position of the dynasty. Nurbanu's pocket money, which reached high amounts among both dynastic members and high-level officials, is considered as an indicator of this power. As valide sultan she was allocated 2000 coins daily.
The rivalry with Safiye Of all the sultans, Murad was the most devoted to his mother. However, Nurbanu's monopoly and superiority was still threatened. Murad did not keep many consorts, and was committed to a single woman, Safiye.
Safiye Sultan was given the rank of haseki as soon as Murad became sultan. Safiye herself wanted to have a say in state affairs, so she tried to influence Murad, which in turn provoked Nurbanu's dislike. Her attempts were in vain, as Murad never listened to any woman but his mother. The details of the struggle between Safiye and Nurbanu are not known, but they probably had conflicts within the harem, for in 1582 their hostility peaked. To avoid the danger of dynastic extinction, it would have been logical for Safiye to gave birth to more children, but she had been unable to become pregnant for years at that time. In the cases where she had become pregnant, she had a miscarriage or the child was born premature and subsequently died. Murad, however, refused to accept new concubines due to the fact that he loved Safiye greatly — so much so that he was not able to have sex with anyone else. Nurbanu then devised a plan and accused Safiye of using black magic to make the sultan impotent. The rumor began to spread throughout the city, and Murad eventually exiled Safiye to the Old Palace due to his self-esteem. Doctors eventually solved Murad's impotence, who then had dozens of children in the following years. Nurbanu may have felt that she had finally got rid of Safiye, but she could not win this fight so easily. Her grandson,
Mehmed, openly disagreed with both her and the Sultan for the sake of his mother, Safiye. As a matter of fact, the sources clearly suggest that Nurbanu was afraid that Mehmed would anger Murad until Murad executed him. Although Nurbanu did not like Safiye, she loved Mehmed, as she did all her grandchildren. This is clearly indicated by a follow-up report from 1582. According to this, after Mehmed's circumcision, he impregnated one of Nurbanu's servants, which was forbidden, since the girl was a member of Murad's harem, not Mehmed's. Since Mehmed already had a very bad relationship with his father, Nurbanu killed the girl to hide the news from Murad. Murad seemingly never realised what had happened and was able to finally restore his relationship with Mehmed. Nurbanu died suddenly in 1583, and less than two years later, in early 1585, Safiye regained her husband's trust and love. She and her exiled daughters returned to the royal harem. Thus Safiye regained enough power and influence, or far more than before, to protect her son and prepare for his reign. Safiye, like Nurbanu and her predecessor Hürrem Sultan, was able to build a circle of supporters and drive out the opposition. Even after Murad's death in January 1595, Safiye, like her late mother-in-law Nurbanu, hid the death of the Sultan until the arrival of her son to Constantinople.
Foreign politics Her intermediary to the world outside the harem was her "
Kira",
Esther Handali. She corresponded with the French queen
Catherine de' Medici. It is understood that Nurbanu Sultan used Esther Handali, who was of Jewish origin, for her own personal affairs and had a financial relationship with the
Duke of Naxos,
Joseph Nasi. Perhaps due to this network of relationships, the rumour was spread that she was of Jewish origin. Among her close men were
Bâbüssaâde Ağası Gazenfer Ağa, the priest Şemsi Pasha, and the strong figures of the harem who had been with her since Manisa,
Canfeda Hatun and
Raziye Hatun. Extensive information is available in the envoy reports about Nurbanu Sultan's close political diplomatic contact with the Venetians. In 1583, the
Venetian Senate agreed to send her a gift worth 2,000 Venetian gold pieces for her services. According to another report, she prevented a possible Ottoman attack on Crete by
Kapudan Pasha Uluç Ali and warned him to not declare war on Venice.
Patroness of architecture , constructed on the orders of Nurbanu Sultan This mosque complex was constructed by
Mimar Sinan on a vast area. The component buildings in the complex were established on a number of successive and stepped flat levels. Buildings were constructed as the mosque, medresse, school, and the dervish lodge on two separate plains. To the west of these, on a lower flat level were erected the complex of buildings designed to meet social functions such as charity. The public bath is in the south. The Darüşşifa is an integral part of the mosque complex constructed by Mimar Sinan, between 1570 and 1579. The landed properties that she devoted to the darüşşifa in her mosque complex are scattered over many corners of Istanbul, Rumelia, and Anatolia. Through the revenues remitted from these resources the treatments and needs of patients admitted to the darüşşifa were sponsored. The administration of revenues was also included in the complex. During her nine years of her tenure as Valide Sultan, she ordered the renowned Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan to build the
Atik Valide Mosque and its surrounding
külliye at the district of
Üsküdar in Istanbul, where previously a "Jewish bath" was located. The construction of the külliye was completed and put in commission at the end of 1583, just before her demise. The Atik Valide Complex comprises a mosque, medrese, primary school, convent for mystics, schools for Qur’an recitation and hadith scholars, soup kitchen, hospital, and bathhouse. Mimar Sinan conceived of his major mosques as finely tuned instruments meant to sound the Qur’an as a text-as-event, in a reenactment of the original revelation. He even integrated sounding vessels in the domes to ensure a beautiful performance of the holy text. Based on the endowment deed (
vakfiye), one can reconstruct the soundscape Nurbanu created through her patronage. Nurbanu Sultan has also constructed imaret and bathhouse, which she built in Mercan, Alemdağ and Langa, in Istanbul, she was the first Ottoman woman to build a library in this complex. The stone needed during the construction of this mosque and complex was obtained from places close to Istanbul such as Iznik and Gallipoli, and wood from Sapanca and Iznik. She was buried at the
mausoleum of her husband Selim II, located inside the
Hagia Sophia (then a mosque) at
Sultanahmet in Istanbul,
Turkey. == Death ==