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 vanished at sea. It is thought that the ship was attacked and taken by Barbary pirates. It is possible that she was enslaved and eventually sent to Istanbul as a gift to the Ottoman Sultan by the Bey of Algiers.
[edit] As Nakshedil Sultan
(This story is the legend of Aimee in the Ottoman palace harem and is not rooted in historical fact)
Aimee became the wife of the sultan, taking the name of Nakshedil. She introduced French ideas to the Ottoman people, especially the sultan, and her French-style reforms may have led to his death at the hands of the Janissaries and the Ulema, which were against the liberalization of the empire. During the rule of Abdul Hamid I, Aimee taught him French; and for the first time, a permanent ambassador was sent from Istanbul to Paris. Selim started a French newspaper and let Nakshedil decorate the palace in rococo style, which was popular in France at that time. Aimee bore a son named Mahmud II, who became sultan after his father's death.
The assassins, aided by the Ulema, also sought to kill Mahmud, but Nakshedil saved her son by concealing him inside a fumace. Thus Mahmud became the next Sultan, accomplishing significant reforms in the empire that were, for the most part, attributed to the influence of his mother.
Although Aimee accepted Islam as part of the harem etiquette, as well as the religion of her husband, she always remained a Roman Catholic in her heart. Her last wish was for a priest to perform the last rites. Her son did not deny her this: as Aimee lay dying, a priest passed for the first time through the Seraglio, to perform the Holy Sacrament before her death.
[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; all the women of the sultan were given Turkish names when they entered the harem.
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 of his birth in 1785, not to mention being her being barely nine years of age at the time,[1] although there have been terrible examples of girls in history having given birth at this age; she could, however, have been the woman who raised him, perhaps after his real mother's death, and thereby been considered his mother.
Whatever the case, the woman who was Valide sultan during this period was very western and French-influenced; she was said to have given the sultan French lessons, sending an embassy to Paris, and reforming the harem by giving the women permission to go on picnics and boat travels along the coasts outside the palace.
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 that 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.
[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
