Aimée du Buc de Rivéry

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Nakş-î-Dil Haseki Valide Sultan
Born	Aimée du Buc de Rivéry[citation needed] 19 December 1768 Martinique
Died	1817 Constantinople
Resting place	Constantinople
Ethnicity	French
Known for	Valide Sultan
Religion	Catholicism
Spouse	Abdul Hamid I
Children	Mahmud II

Aimée du Buc de Rivéry (19 December 1776 – 1817)^[1] was a French heiress, a cousin of Empress Josephine,^{[dubious – discuss]} who went missing at sea at the age of eleven. There is a legend that she was captured by Barbary pirates, sold as a harem concubine, and was the same person as Naksh-i-Dil Haseki, a Valide Sultan (Queen Mother) of the Ottoman Empire, though there is no evidence of this.

Life

She was born the daughter of wealthy French plantation owners in Pointe Royale, south-west of Robert on the Caribbean island of Martinique. After being sent to a convent school in France, she was returning home in July or August 1788 when the ship she was on vanished at sea. It is thought that the ship was attacked and taken by Barbary pirates. It has been suggested that she was enslaved and eventually sent to Constantinople as a gift to the Ottoman Sultan by the Bey of Algiers.

As Nakshedil Sultan

(This story is the legend of Aimee in the Ottoman palace harem and is not rooted in historical fact)

Naksh-î-Dil Haseki Valide Sultan

Aimee became the wife of the sultan, taking the name of Nakshedil. She introduced French ideas to the Ottoman people, especially the sultan, and her French-style reforms may have led to his death at the hands of the Janissaries and the Ulema, which were against the liberalization of the empire. During the rule of Abdul Hamid I, Aimee taught him French; and for the first time, a permanent ambassador was sent from Constantinople to Paris. Selim started a French newspaper and let Nakshedil decorate the palace in rococo style, which was popular in France at that time. Aimee bore a posthumously son named Mahmud II, who became sultan after his father's death.

The son of Aimée du Buc de Rivéry, Ghazi Caliph Sultan Mahmud II, (Mahmud-ı sānī), محمود ثانى Khan

The assassins, aided by the Ulema, also sought to kill Mahmud, but Nakshedil saved her son by concealing him inside a furnace. Thus Mahmud became the next Sultan, accomplishing significant reforms in the empire that were, for the most part, attributed to the influence of his mother.

Although Aimee accepted Islam as part of the harem etiquette, as well as the religion of her husband, she always remained a Roman Catholic in her heart. Her last wish was for a priest to perform the last rites. Her son did not deny her this: as Aimee lay dying, a priest passed for the first time through the Seraglio, to perform the Holy Sacrament before her death.

Controversy over identity

The son of Nakş-î-Dil Valide Sultan, Ghazi Caliph Sultan Mahmud II, (Mahmud-ı sānī), محمود ثانى Khan

The history of Aimée du Buc de Rivéry is difficult to trace, particularly after she reportedly became part of the royal harem. Numerous novels state she was the mother of Mahmud II in the royal harem. According to the Ottoman Chronicles, the mother of Mahmud II was known by the Turkish name Nakşidil (Nakshidil) and died in 1817; all the women of the sultan were given Turkish names when they entered the harem.

Whatever the case, the woman who was valide sultan during this period was very western and French-influenced; she was said to have given the sultan French lessons, sending an embassy to Paris, and reforming the harem by giving the women permission to go on picnics and boat travels along the coasts outside the palace.

Movie about

Aimée's story, somewhat fictionalized, was told in the 1989 movie Intimate Power (a.k.a. The Favorite), in which she was portrayed by Amber O'Shea, and which also starred F. Murray Abraham. It was based on the novel "Sultana" by Prince Michael of Greece.

Biography about

"The Veiled Empress: An Unacademic Biography" by Benjamin A. Morton (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1923)

• Maurizio Costanza, La Mezzaluna sul filo - La riforma ottomana di Mahmûd II, Marcianum Press, Venezia, 2010 (appendix.1)

Novels about

• "The Veiled Sultan" by March Cost (pen name of Margaret Mackie Morrison) (NY: Vanguard Press, 1969)
• "Sultana" by Prince Michael of Greece (NY: Harper & Row, 1983), ISBN 0-06-015166-8
• "Seraglio" by Janet Wallach (NY: Nan A. Talese, 2003), ISBN 978-0-385-49046-7 (0-385-49046-1)
• "Valide" by Barbara Chase-Riboud
• "The Janissary Tree" by Jason Goodwin (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux div. of Macmillan, 2006), ISBN 0-374-17860-7/978-0374178604; not just about her, but she is a major character
• "The French Odalisque" by Sean Graham (London: Orbach and Chambers, 2009) ISBN 0-85514-502-1 ISBN 978-0-85514-502-6
• "Si la Martinique m'était contée à travers l'histoire des chevaliers du Buc de la Normandie à la Martinique... en passant par la Turquie" by Y.B. du Buc de Mannetot, member of the family Du Buc (NY: du Buc, histoire coloniale et patrimoine antillais, 2008)

See also

• Ottoman Dynasty
• Line of succession to the Ottoman throne
• Ottoman Emperors family tree
• Ottoman family tree

References

External links

• Two Empresses from Martinique- Part I
• Two Empresses from Martinique - Part II
• The Veiled Empress' tomb
• An excerpt from Seraglio, a novel about the Empress
• Historic Sites of Martinique
• La légende de la sultane Validé