Draft:Saçbağli Sultan

Saçbağli Sultan
Burial and resting place of Saçbağli Sultan, in the Mausoleum of Ibrahim I and Mustafa I in Hagia Sophia
Haseki Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Tenure	March 19, 1644 – August 8, 1648 (5 years and 165 days)
Predecessor	Hatice Muazzez Sultan Ayşe Sultan Mahienver Sultan
Successor	Sivekar Sultan
Born	c. 1629 Northern Caucasus
Died	c. 1694(age 65–66) Istanbul,Ottoman Empire(present-dayTurkey)
Burial	Hagia Sophia , Istanbul
Issue	Sehzade Selim Bican Sultan?
Dynasty	Ottoman
Religion	Islam

Leyla Saçbağli Sultan ( Ottoman Turkish : سلطان ساچباگلی‎; "beautiful as the night") ( Northern Caucasus , c . 1629 – Istanbul , c . 1694) was one of the eight Haseki of Ibrahim I.

Life

Historians generally accept that she came from the North Caucasus . The commonly accepted theory is that she was a descendant of Mahidevran Hatun , a consort of Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566). The rumour spread far and wide until it reached the ears of the Crimean Khan , who had her kidnapped by paying thousands of bags of gold to the Tatars . She was taken to the Khan and trained by him until he brought her to Istanbul and presented her to Kösem Sultan , who gave her to her son Ibrahim as a special gift.​

Another theory says that she was simply an ordinary woman kidnapped in an Ottoman raid and was a lady-in-waiting to Fatma Sultan , one of Ibrahim's sisters. He took notice of her and took her as his concubine .

In 1644 she gave birth to her first son Şehzade Selim, becoming his fifth Haseki . She later gave birth to Bican Sultan, and is thought to have had two more sons, but due to the loss of records this is not known. Leyla appears not to have been an important consort, and despite giving birth to two sons, one of whom was a potential heir to the throne, contemporary ambassadors report that she was a politically insignificant consort, concerned only with raising her children.

Following Ibrahim's deposition and execution, Saçbağli was banished to the Old Palace along with her daughter. While her son was locked up along with his half-siblings in the famous Altin Kafes , located in the harem . According to a Venetian ambassador writing a letter in 1656, Leyla secretly planned to put her son on the throne but did not receive much support due to her low status, she was subsequently discovered by a eunuch of Turhan Sultan , and was nearly expelled from Istanbul , but this lacks validity and may simply have been a joke in bad taste.​

When Selim was 25 years old, he fell seriously ill in mid-September 1669. He eventually died the following month in October. The privy purse recorded that he contracted smallpox from a servant who delivered his food to him. Selim's funeral was held on 30 October under strict measures. The funeral was well attended by various ambassadors who indicated that Mehmed IV was deeply affected by the death of his brother. In their letters, the ambassadors remarked on Selim's intelligence and kindness and that they regretted the loss of such a genuine person.​

Death

After Selim's death she received a pension and support from the Sultan. Leyla Saçbağli continued to stay at the Old Palace until her death in 1694 from natural causes. She was the last of Ibrahim's consorts to die, and was buried in her husband's mausoleum in Hagia Sophia .

Children

• Şehzade Selim (19 March 1644 – October 1669);
• Bican Sultan ( c . 1649 — ?), was proposed to by Kuloğlu Musahıp Mustafa Paşa, but he rejected her (he would later marry Mehmed IV 's daughter , Hatice Sultan, in 1675). Bican married Cerrah Kasım Paşa, in January 1666. They are known to have had issue, and Bican was still alive after her mother's death. Many sources indicate that she was born months after her father's death.