Mihrimah Sultan

Mihrimah Sultan was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife, Hurrem Sultan. She was the most powerful imperial princess in Ottoman history and one of the prominent figures during the Sultanate of Women.

Mihrimah was born in Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1522 during the reign of her father, Suleiman the Magnificent. Her mother was Hurrem Sultan, an Orthodox priest's daughter, who was the current Sultan's concubine at the time. In 1533 or 1534, her mother, Hurrem, was freed and became Suleiman's legal wife. She was well-educated and disciplined. She was also sophisticated, eloquent and well read.

Although there is no proof of Hurrem or Mihrimah's direct involvement in her half-brother Şehzade Mustafa's downfall, Ottoman sources and foreign accounts indicate that it was widely believed that Hurrem, Rüstem and Mihrimah worked first to eliminate Mustafa so as ensure the throne to Hurrem's son and Mihrimah's full-brother, Bayezid. Had Mustafa ascended to the throne, all Mihrimah's full-brothers (Selim, Bayezid, and Cihangir) would have likely been executed, according to the fratricide custom of the Ottoman dynasty, which required all brothers of the new sultan be executed to avoid feuds among imperial siblings.

Mihrimah became Suleiman's advisor, his confidant and his closest relative. After Hurrem's death, Mihrimah took her mother's place as her father's counselor, urging him to undertake the conquest of Malta in 1565, and sending him news and forwarding letters for him when he was absent from capital. In later years Mihrimah retired to the Old Palace. When Selim accended the throne in 1566, he made his way to the harem at the earliest opportunity after arriving in the capital, and sought Mihrimah, as their mother had died eight years earlier, and she acted as an advisor to him.