Aimée du Buc de Rivéry
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Aimée du Buc de Rivéry (born 19 December 1776) was a French heiress who was a cousin of Empress Josephine. She was allegedly a member of the harem of the Turkish Ottoman sultans in the late 18th century, though there is no evidence of this.
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[edit] Life
She was born the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner on the French 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 was never seen again. It is thought that the ship was attacked and taken by Barbary pirates. And perhaps, she was enslaved and eventually sent to Istanbul as a gift to the Ottoman Sultan by the Bey of Algiers.
[edit] Controversy over identity
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.
Some biographers and novelists believe that she was the mother of Mahmud II, but this is not possible, given documentary evidence that puts her as still living in France at the time fo his birth in 1785, not to mention being her being barely nine years of age at the time.[1]
She also was not, as is often stated, the 13th wife of Abdülhamid and recorded mother of Mahmud II.[2] According to a Turkish historian, though "Sultan Mahmud II's mother Nakşidil Sultan, whose life has been the subject of 174 historical novels in the world as well as the film 'The Favorite' ... was believed to be Aimée du Buc de Rivéry, the cousin of Napoleon's wife Josephine ... she [actually] came from a family who had its origins in the Caucasus region. Dr. Fikret Saraçoğlu has found in the archives of the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul documents pertaining to her death and funeral."[3]
[edit] 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. [4]
[edit] Biography about
"The Veiled Empress: An Unacademic Biography" by Benjamin A. Morton (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1923)
[edit] 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 0060151668
- "Seraglio" by Janet Wallach (NY: Nan A. Talese, 2003), ISBN 978-0-385-49046-7 (0-385-49046-1)
- "Valide" by Barbara Chase-Riboud
[edit] Opera about
"La Favorite" by Donizetti
[edit] References
- ^ "Royal French Women in the Ottoman Sultans' Harem: The Political Uses of Fabricated Accounts from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-first Century"
- ^ Turkish Sultanic Family Genealogy
- ^ Turkish Daily News
- ^ http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/media-movie-favorite.htm
