This article is about the Ottoman princess Esma Sultana, the daughter of Sultan Abdulhamid I. For other uses, see Esma Sultana (disambiguation).
HIH Princess Esma Sultana (Turkish: Esma Sultan) (1778–1848) was an Ottoman princess, daughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid I, sister of Sultan Mustafa IV and Sultan Mahmud II.
She was born in 1778 to Sultan Abdulhamid I during his reign. Her mother was Kadın Efendi Ayşe Seniyeperver Sultana, the 4th wife of the sultan. Her brother Mustafa was born in 1779 and Mahmud 1785. Since Prince Mustafa was only 10 years old as Abdulhamid I died in 1789, Her first cousin Selim ascended the throne as Selim III.
Esma Sultana was married in 1792 at the age of only 14 to Kapudan Pasha Küçük Hüseyin Pasha, a close friend of Sultan Selim III. Thanks to the high position of her husband, she had important influence over the society. She owned a palace in Divanyolu, kiosks in Çamlıca, Maçka and Eyüp and a waterfront mansion in Kuruçeşme at Bosporus. Her husband died in 1803 as she was 25 years old. She never married again.
In 1807, the Janissaries revolted once more, dethroned and imprisoned Selim III, who was later murdered. They placed his cousin Mustafa, brother of Esma Sultana, on the throne as Mustafa IV (1807–1808). Mustafa IV reigned briefly in an era of Janissary riots. He was deposed in 1808 by the rebels, and his half-brother Mahmud, whose execution he had ordered, came to the throne as Mahmud II. Mahmud II ordered then murder of Mustafa IV and remained so the last male member of the house of Osman I.
Esma Sultana exercised great influence over her brother during his reign of 31 years. Sultan Mahmud II died on June 29, 1839 at her palace in Çamlıca.
Princess Esma is described in sensational stories as the typical horror image of a beautiful maneater; according to legends, she sailed along the Bosphoros in a golden gondola, picking up handsome boys and taking them to her private palace, where she would spend one night with them, and the morning after have them killed and disposed of in the Bosphorus, in the same way as was done with slaves of her father's and brother's harem, to destroy proof of her sexual life.
Princess Esma was interested in the British culture; she was said to have furnished her palace with western furniture, putting all the Ottoman furniture in a storage room; after her death, all her English furniture was put away in the same way and the old oriental ones taken back again.
Source: Philip Mansel, Constantinople: City of the World's Desire (1995).
She died in 1848 and was laid to rest at her brother's burial place in Mahmud II Mausoleum in Divanyolu, Çemberlitaş.
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