Hüma Hatun

Hüma Hatun (Ottoman Turkish: هما خاتون, c. 1410 ‒ September 1449) was the fourth wife of Ottoman Sultan Murad II and mother of Mehmed II.

In this Ottoman Turkish style name, the given name is Hüma, the title is Hatun, and there is no family name.

Hüma Hatun
The sarcophagus of Hüma Hatun is located inside Muradiye Complex, in Bursa, Turkey
Valide Hatun of the Ottoman Sultanate
TenureAugust 1444 ‒ September 1446
BornStella
c. 1410
Serbia , Italy or Greece
DiedSeptember 1449(1449-09-00) (aged 38–39)
Bursa, Ottoman Sultanate
Burial
Muradiye Complex, Bursa
SpouseMurad II
IssueMehmed II

Life

She was a slave girl.[1] Nothing is known of her family background, apart from the fact that an Ottoman inscription (vakfiye) describes her as Hātun binti Abdullah (daughter of Abdullah); at that time, people who converted to Islam were given the name Abdullah meaning Servant of God,[2] which is evidence of her non-Muslim origin.[3] Her name, hüma, means "bird of paradise", after the Persian legend. There are two traditions or theories on her origin: the first one argues that she was of Jewish origin;[4] while the other suggests that she was of Serbian Christian origin.[5] Her son, Mehmed II, was fluent in Serbian language which his mother could possibly have taught him. Lowry supports that she was of either Greek or Slavic descent,[6] while the Turkish historian and professor, Ilber Ortayli, supports that she was of Slavic descent.

Hüma Hatun married Murad II. On 30 March 1432, she gave birth to her only son Mehmed the Conqueror. In 1438, Mehmed was circumcised along with his elder half-brother Şehzade Alaeddin. When Mehmed was 11 years old, he was sent to Manisa as a prince governor. Hüma followed her son to Manisa.

In 1444, after the death of Mehmed's elder half-brother, Şehzade Alaeddin, who died in 1443, Mehmed was the only heir left to the throne. In that same year, Murad II abdicated the throne due to depression over the death of his son, Şehzade Alaeddin Ali Çelebi, and retreated to Manisa.[7]

Her son Şehzade Mehmed succeeded the throne as Mehmed II. She held the Vâlide Hatun position for two years. In 1446, Murad took over the throne again, and Hüma and her son returned to Bursa. However, Mehmed succeeded the throne in 1451, after the death of his father, but she never became a Valide Hatun as she died before the accession. She was not alive to see the conquest of Constantinople, which became the capital of Ottoman Empire for nearly five centuries, before the Empire was abolished in 1922 and Turkey was officially declared as a republic.[7]

Death

She died in September 1449 in Bursa, two years before her son's second accession to the throne. Her tomb is located at the site known as "Hatuniye Kümbedi" (Hatuniye Tomb) to the east of Muradiye Complex, which was built by her son Mehmed. The quarter where her tomb lies has been known thus far as Hüma Hatun Quarter.[8]

See also

References
  1. Doukas (1 January 1975). Decline and Fall of Byzantium to the Ottoman Turks. Wayne State University Press. p. 304. ISBN 978-0-8143-1540-8.
  2. John Freely (2009). The Grand Turk: Sultan Mehmet II - Conqueror of Constantinople, Master of an Empire and Lord of Two Seas. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-0-857-73022-0.
  3. Franz Babinger (1992). Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Princeton University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-691-01078-6.
  4. Franz Babinger (1992). Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time. Princeton University Press. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-0-691-01078-6.
  5. Li Tang; Dietmar W. Winkler (2013). From the Oxus River to the Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 308. ISBN 978-3-643-90329-7.
  6. Lowry, Heath W. (1 February 2012). The Nature of the Early Ottoman State. SUNY Press. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-7914-8726-6.
  7. "Hüma Hatun Biografi". somuncubaba.net. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  8. Ahmed Akgündüz; Said Öztürk (2011). Ottoman History: Misperceptions and Truths. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-9-090-26108-9.

Further reading
  • Leslie Peirce. (1993). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508677-5 (paperback).
  • Yavuz Bahadıroğlu. (2009). Resimli Osmanlı Tarihi, Nesil Yayınları (Illustrated Ottoman History, Nesil Publications), 15th ed., ISBN 978-975-269-299-2 (Hardcover).
  • Osmanlı Padişahlarının yabancı anneleri ve padişahların yabancılarla evlenme gerekçeleri. Cafrande Kültür Sanat ve Hayat. 13 March 2008. General Culture
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