ŞEMSIŞAH SULTAN

Şemsişah Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: شمسي شاه سلطان) born Princess Zilihan Dadiani was the haseki and legal wife of Sultan Murad IV of the Ottoman Empire with whom she had four children.

• 1 Names
• 2 Life
• 3 Issue
• 4 In popular culture
• 5 References

Her birth name is Princess Zilihan Dadiani,However it was changed after she and Sultan Murad IV got married in 1634 and so she was known among Ottomans as Şemsişah Haseki Sultan, Şemsişah Sultan or just Şemsişah Haseki.

Her name in Arabic (and in Ottoman Turkish) is split into two parts: "Şemsi" "شمسي" which means "my sun" in Arabic and "şah" "شاه" which means "king" (Also in Persian and in Urdu). The two parts combined (which is what her name does) mean "my sun is a king" (or a queen in this case).

Şemsişah Haseki Sultan, born Princess Zilihan Dadiani  was the daughter of Levan II, Prince of Mingrelia and thus a member of the Georgian Dadiani Dynasty.

It is widely believed that Sultan Murad IV fell in love with her at first sight during a hunting trip with her father. A few people argue their marriage was a political one even though her country didn't have any ties or relations with the Ottoman Empire. They got married in 1634 in a huge, prestigious wedding ceremony. She appeared towards the end of Sultan Murad IV's reign and so became his second Haseki according to Privy Purse. Their marriage was a successful one with both of them loving and respecting each other.

She earned 2,571 aspers a day until it was reduced to 1,000 aspers a day,[citation needed] which is how much the Haseki before her Ayşe Sultan earned.

After Murad IV's death in 1640, it is generally held that she returned to her country only to die two months later apparently killing herself because she couldn't live without her husband. Others say Şemsişah actually retired to the Old Palace where she died in 1698.

Şemsişah Sultan bore Sultan Murad IV four children, two boys and two girls:

boys:

• Şehzade Suleiman (2 February 1632 – 1635, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Blue Mosque, Istanbul).
• Şehzade Selim (1637–1640, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Blue Mosque, Istanbul).

girls:

• Hafsa Sultan(1634–1636).
• Fatma Sultan(1636–1640).

People assume the character "Farya Bethlen" from the TV series "Muhteşem yüzyıl Kösem" is based on Şemsişah since there is no record of a woman called "Farya Bethlen" in Sultan Murad IV's harem.Farya Sultan was portrayed by Farah Zeynep Abdullah.

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5. ↑ Leslie P. Peirce, The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 107.