Ayşe Sultan (Haseki of Murad IV)

Ayşe Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: عایشه سلطان; "the living one" or "womanly"; died c. 1680) was a Haseki sultan of Sultan Murad IV of the Ottoman Empire.^[1]

Ayşe’s real name is unknown, although Venetians ambassadors wrote she was Greek. As per custom she was brought to the harem via the Ottoman slave trade, where she most likely appeared at around 1627 and soon became the sultan’s favorite concubine. At some point, she became Murad's Haseki Sultan. She certainly bore children to the sultan, but it is not known how many and which of Murad IV's children were born by her, although there is a note from a European ambassador that Murad IV had twelve children by his favorite and that he may refer to her, but the veracity of this information is not verified. She was described as "beautiful on the outside but not on the inside" and was on bad terms with Murad's mother, Kösem Sultan.

Privy Purse registers the presence of Ayşe as Murad's only Haseki until the very end of Murad's seventeen-year reign, when a second concubine, with the very high salary of 2,751 coin a day (but reduced to 2,000 after seven months), appeared. According to historian Leslie Peirce, this woman would have been Murad's second Haseki. However, other historians disagree that this second concubine officially held the title of Haseki.^[2][3][4][5]

In 1633 Murad raised Ayşe's stipend to 2,000 aspers a day, where it remained throughout his reign. The increase was most likely linked to a general increase in stipends throughout the palace during Murad's reign, described by Koçi Bey, and was accompanied by a marked growth in the size of the harem. These changes were probably an aspect of Murad's dramatic assertion of personal control of government after nine years of his mother's regency.^[1]

After Murad IV’s death, Ayşe, like his other concubines, was sent out of the Topkapı Palace. The last mentioning of her receiving the stipend was in 1679/1680 and it is very probable that she died around that time.

In the TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem, Ayşe is portrayed by Turkish actress Leyla Feray. In the series, she is the mother of Şehzade Ahmed, Hanzade Sultan and Kaya Sultan. Her death is different from reality: she commits suicide with her children except Kaya years before Murad's death.