[2][3][4] She had been educated by Esma Sultan, a half-sister of Mahmud II and her favorite advisor,[5] and was said to have been buxom and a bath attendant before entering the imperial harem.

[4][9][8] One source says that Mahmud died of alcoholism, rather than tuberculosis, and she is reported to have convinced Abdulmecid to destroy his father's wine cellars.

She advised her son to allow Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha to incur the odium of seeking terms from Muhammad Ali of Egypt but urged him to resist the Grand Vizier's attempts to advance his nominees to important offices of the state.

Abdulmecid duly played for time, awaiting Mustafa Reşid Pasha's return from England before taking any major decisions on policy.

So shrewd was her judgement of men and their motives that she continued to influence the choice of ministers until shortly before her death fourteen years later.

A great supporter of her son's reforms and admirer of Europe, her shrewd and objective judgment was held in high esteem by the sultan, who consulted her regularly until her death.

Bezmiâlem earned a reputation as an intelligent, amiable and charitable woman, and she was among the most loved and respected Valid Sultans in history.

She wrote of the birth of twin sons to one of his ikbals, and finally letters of joy telling of the preparations for his return.

Two in Medina; one on the road to the grave of Hamza ibn Abdul-Muttalib, and another in 1851 near to the above-mentioned one, outside the Damascus Gate, in the vicinity of the so-called Sebil Bahçesi.

She also established a lithography printer in this school and donated 546 volumes of valuable writing books to its library by French authors, including Hugo, Lamartine, Baudelaire and Flaubert.

The mosque consists of a small though lofty dome prayer hall that is preceded by an extensive, truly palatial looking pavilion.

Her son Abdülmecid honored her with a magnificent funeral, costing 79,000 kuruş, a fortune, and well described by Sir Adolphus Slade in his Turkey and the Crimean War: A Narrative of Historical Events (1867): Female screams at dawn in the palace of Beshik-tash, one morning in early May, announced her mourning [of Abdülmecid I] to the passing guards and caiks, and greeted the body which at that early hour was being transported to the caik empire, followed by other caiks with the retinue of the late lady [Bezmialem], to the old menagerie.

Preceded by censers and choristers, he was then brought out from inside the palace and placed in the shade of the trees in the central courtyard for a few minutes, while the court imam recited a prayer for the souls of the dead.

Military pashas on horseback, in single file, flanked by their grooms and tchiaushe on foot, led the way, followed by a compact body of Arab dervishes singing vigorously.

Then the ministers of state rode in single file; the last three are the Captain Pasha, the Scheick ul Islam and the Grand Vizier.

As the procession passed through the streets, flanked at intervals by troops, numerous spectators in the open spaces sobbed loudly; and although oriental women always have tears and smiles on command, those shed on this occasion were sincere, since sex had lost a lawyer that day, the poor friend.

When its portals opened, the women of the valeh gathered inside the building to pay the final tribute of respect to their gracious mistress uttered, sad and plaintive; mingle, strangely harmonious, with the songs of the dervishes and the neighing of the driven horses.