Pertevniyal Sultan

[3][4][5] She became a consort of Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II when he casually noticed her working in a hamam in Istanbul, and was given the title of "Second Ikbal".

[7][8] The final illness of Sultan Abdulmejid I in 1861 initiated a spate of rumors that there was a group in the palace who wanted Murad to succeed to the throne instead of Abdulaziz.

On his way home he stopped at Ruse, Bulgaria, where Midhat was governor, with the intention of a month and acquainting himself with the Balkan country.

Especially unwise was her alliance with Mahmud Nedim Pasha, the sycophantic grand vizier whose recklessness and incompetence led to further financial chaos.

There was such an outcry against Mahmud Nedim that he finally fell from power in 1876 and was succeeded by Midhat Pasha, who did his best to get the Empire on a sounder financial footing.

Finally, when talk of Abdulaziz's deposition was in the air, Pertevniyal sent a harem agha to Midhat requesting him to prepare a document giving his advice on how her son could save his throne.

Midhat carefully composed such a document which was approved by the valide, but neither she nor anyone else had the courage at this point, with the sultan in a highly nervous state, to submit to him.

She arrived with proposed new heir in question, her grandson Tewfik Pasha, lots of money, and female diplomacy.

She was taken by the sultan to his mother in the Dolmabahçe Palace, but reportedly, Pertevniyal became outraged by the presence of a foreign woman in her harem, and greeted the Empress with a slap in the face, almost provoking an international incident.

[14][15] The visit of the Empress, however, did leave a lasting effect by making Western fashion popular among the harem women.

[20] When Murad V ascended the throne after the deposition of Abdulaziz, he appointed his mother Şevkefza Kadın's reported chief ally, Damat Nuri Pasha, as Lord Pasha, after which Şevkefza and Damat were to have confiscated all the gold coins and jewelry hidden away by Pertevniyal in the harem of Dolmabahçe Palace.

He was more devoted to her than to Perestu Kadın, who had raised him, and so as soon as he became Sultan his mind turned to the days of torment that Pertevniyal had passed in Topkapı Palace.

Her only pleasure and distraction lay in passing time by training young and lovely children (including Müşfika Kadın, later the eighth wife of Abdul Hamid II), gathering them about her and finding consolation in the things they did and their sweet behaviour.