Nurbanu Sultan or Sultana Nur-Banu, née Raquel Nasi (ca. 1525 – 7 December 1583) was a Sephardic Jewish-born woman of noble birth, the first cousin of Joseph Nasi. Her aunt was Dona Gracia Mendez. She was the mother of Sultan Murad III of the Ottoman Empire and the de facto co-regent as the Valide Sultan from 1574-1583.
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Biography
Raquel was the natural daughter of Nicolò Nasi, by Violanta Baffo.
She was captured when the Turks conquered the Aegean (Egean) island of Paros, where she was born, during the 1537 war, abducted from there and taken to the royal harem of Prince Selim in Istanbul, where she was renamed Sultana Nur-Banu, "Princess of Light". She became the most favored wife of Sultan Selim II, who was put on the throne in 1566, and the mother of Sultan Murad III.
When Selim II died in 1574, she concealed his death and hid his corpse in an icebox until her son Murad arrived from Manisa, where he was governor, twelve days later and became the sultan.
Nur-Banu managed the government together with the Grand Vizir Sokollu Mehmet Pasha and became the first Valide Sultan (Sultaness Mother) who acted as co-regent with the sultan in the Sultanate of Women. She corresponded with queen Catherine de' Medici of France, and during her nine years of regency (1574-1583), her politics were so pro-Venetian that she became hated by the Republic of Genoa. Some have even suggested that she was poisoned by a Genoese agent. Whatever the case, she died a suspicious death in her Palace in the Yenikapı Quarter, Istanbul (Constantinople), "21st of the month of dhu l-qa'da 991" (7 December 1583).
Famed architect Mimar Sinan built a mosque (Atik Valide Mosque) for Nur Banu, in the district of Üsküdar, Istanbul,
Nur Banu was related to Giorgio Baffo, as well as to Safiye Sultan, who was born Sofia Baffo, was married to Murad III, and who became Valide Sultan to her son Mehmed III.
References
- Ancestry of Sultana Nur-Banu (Cecilia Venier-Baffo)
- Goodwin, Jason, Lords of the Horizons, (1998) - page 160
External links
Succession
| Preceded by Ayşe Hafsa Sultan |
Valide Sultan 1574 - 1583 |
Succeeded by Safiye Sultan |
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