In 1900, Emilio Spagni claimed that she was a Venetian patrician, illegitimate daughter of Nicolò Venier and Violante Baffo, abducted on Paros when it was captured by Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa in the Third Ottoman-Venetian War.

[4] In 1992, historian Benjamin Arbel reassessed an older theory that Nurbanu was a Greek from Corfu named Kale Kartanou, daughter of Nikolaos Kartanos and abducted from the island in 1537, judging it plausible if not absolutely proven.

[5][6][7] According to this theory, Venetian senators arbitrarily chose to create a new identity for her as Cecilia Venier-Baffo,[7] and she adopted it for political and material gains.

[10] According to the latter historian, the fact that she "forge[d] a trans-imperial link in order to ingratiate herself with the Venetians suggests that the Ottomans, too, considered the common background as a diplomatic asset".

[1] Nurbanu who was said to be prominent in the palace with her beauty and extraordinary intelligence, was sent to Manisa as one of the concubines of the harem of Şehzade Selim in 1543, and she gave him a son, Murad, next Sultan of the Ottoman Empire after his father, and four daughters.

The Venetian ambassador Jacopo Soranzor reported: "The Haseki is said to be extremely well-loved and honored by His Majesty both for her great beauty and for being unusually intelligent.

According to some sources (mostly Venetian accounts), her influence was such that Nurbanu Sultan effectively ran the government alongside the Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha.

Nurbanu told no one, hid the dead body of her husband in an icebox, and sent word to Manisa for her son to come to Constantinople immediately.

Nurbanu's real influence began at this time, she enjoyed significant power between 1574 and 1583, although she was apparently not resident in the Palace after Selim II's death.

Although the Valide Sultan rank has existed since the reign of Bayezid II, it was Murad III who, for the sake of his mother, Nurbanu, transformed it into a legal registered position.

Nurbanu did not seek to rule through her son, but merely helped her child to become a just and worthy sultan, who is loved, accepted and respected by the people.

To avoid the danger of dynastic extinction, it would have been logical for Safiye to gave birth to more children, but she had been unable to get pregnant for years at that time.

Safiye, like Nurbanu and her predecessor Hurrem Sultan, was able to build a circle of supporters alongside herself and her son and drive out the opposition.

It is understood that Nurbanu Sultan used the kira Esther Handali, who was of Jewish origin, for her own personal affairs and had a financial relationship with the Duke of Naxos, Joseph Nasi.

According to another report, she prevented the possible Ottoman attack on Crete and warned Captain Ali Pasha about not declaring war on Venice.

Mimar Sinan conceived of his major mosques as finely tuned instruments meant to sound the Qur’an as a text-as-event, in a reenactment of the original revelation.

[22] Nurbanu Sultan has also constructed imaret and bathhouse, which she built in Mercan, Alemdağ and Langa, in Istanbul, she was the first Ottoman woman to build a library in this complex.

[3] She was buried at the mausoleum of her husband Selim II, located inside the Hagia Sophia (then a mosque) at Sultanahmet in Istanbul, Turkey.

[23] She was buried next to Selim II in his türbe (mausoleum) in the courtyard of Hagia Sophia, thus becoming the first wife of a Sultan to receive the honor of being laid to rest next to her spouse.

As against the norm that sultans remained in the palace during the funeral procession, Murad III accompanied his mother's corpse, both walking and crying, up to the Fatih mosque where her burial service was to be read.

This choice not only enabled as many people as possible to give their blessing to the soul of Nurbanu Sultan but also maintained the extensive appreciation of this religious respect paid to her by the residents of the imperial capital.

Preceding Nurbanu's death, the Venetian ambassador in the Ottoman palace, Paolo Contarini had stated "All goods and evils are coming from the mother queen."

[20] When Nurbanu died in December 1583, the successor of Contarini reported the following: "The death of this woman upset some according to their vested interests while contented others.

The great authority she enjoyed with her son had gained many people important profits, while on the contrary had eliminated the hopes of some for realizing their wishes.