Haseki sultan

[1] Hurrem Sultan, principal consort and legal wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, was the first holder of this title.

Thus, replacing other titles by which prominent members of the imperial family had been known (notably hatun for women and bey for men).

Although the title of Haseki Sultan was abolished then, Perestu again was given the official title of legal wife and "Queen consort", though Perestu was not active in politics like her predecessors neither in the reign of her husband nor the reign of her step-son Abdulhamid II, who, out of gratitude that Perestu raised him as her own child after his own mother died while he was still young, gave her the title of Valide Sultan meaning "Queen mother".

After Perestu's death in 1906, No woman held the title of Valide Sultan until the Ottoman monarchy was abolished in 1922.

Haseki Sultan's position, used for a century, reflected the great power of imperial consorts, who were former slaves, in the Ottoman court, elevating their status higher than the Ottoman princesses, and making them the equals of the empress consorts in Europe.

When the position of valide sultan was vacant, a haseki could take valide's role, have access to considerable economic resources, become chief of the Imperial Harem, sultan's advisor in political matters, and even have an influence on foreign policy and on international politics.

Hürrem was allowed to give birth to more than one son, which was a stark violation of the old Imperial Harem principle of "one concubine mother — one son" that was designed to prevent both the mother's influence over the sultan and the feuds of the blood brothers for the throne.

In 1525 or 1526 (the exact date is unknown), Suleiman married Hürrem in a magnificent formal ceremony, making him the first Ottoman Sultan to wed since Mehmed II (reign 1451–1481), and violating a 200-year-old custom of the Ottoman imperial house according to which sultans were not to marry their concubines (Mehmed's legal wife was a free noble woman, Sittişah Hatun).

In the Ottoman imperial family tradition, a sultan's consort was to remain in the harem only until her son came of age (around 16 or 17), after which he would be sent away from the capital, accompanied by his mother, to govern a faraway province.

Thanks to her intelligence, she acted as Suleiman's chief adviser, and she seems to have had an influence upon foreign policy and international politics.

Hürrem's great power signaled the rise of the chief imperial consort under the title of haseki.

As noted above, this kind of functional division appears to have occurred with Nurbanu Sultan, in spite of the fact that she never left the sultan's household like her predecessor Hürrem, the shift in her role, that is, their assumption of candidly political role as haseki may well have coincided with their sons’ assumption of their political posts.

It is certainly worth noting that the two women of the dynasty to suffer the harshest judgment by history had two things in common: the absence of a valide sultan during most of their career as haseki and an unusually large number of sons.

What appears to have earned them their unsavory reputation was their power to influence the fate of the empire by favoring one of their sons over another.

[9] The greatest contribution of Kösem during her tenure as haseki possibly was the significant modifications in the pattern of succession to the throne from a system of primogeniture to one based on agnatic seniority.

She must have realized the personal gain that might stem from the transition to seniority, coupled with the fact that she was no longer haseki but had a son "in waiting".

"[10] This new system meant that potential rulers had to wait a long time in the kafes before ascending the throne, hence the old age of certain sultans upon their enthronement, which made all of the şehzades lose their chance to become ruler of one of the Ottoman province as part of their training to become a worthy heir to the throne.

With Kösem's strong personality and influence as valide sultan, the title haseki sultan which was held by eight women simultaneously, and all şehzades lost their provincial post during Ibrahim's era and it made title haseki lose its special status.

[1] Ibrahim had eight hasekis;[1] Turhan, Saliha Dilaşub, Muazzez, Ayşe, Mahienver, Saçbağli, Şivekar and Hümaşah Sultan.