Ayşe Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: عائشه سلطان; c. 1565 – 15 May 1605) was an Ottoman princess, daughter of Sultan Murad III (reign 1574–1595) and Safiye Sultan, and sister of Sultan Mehmed III (reign 1595–1603) of the Ottoman Empire.
Contents
Early life
Ayşe Sultan was born in 1565. She was the daughter of Sultan Murad III, and his consort Safiye Sultan. She had at least five full siblings: three brothers, Sultan Mehmed III, Şehzade Selim and Şehzade Mahmud, and two sisters, Hümaşah Sultan and Fatma Sultan.
Marriages
In 1582, Murad betrothed Ayşe to Bosnian Ibrahim Pasha. However, her grandmother, Nurbanu Sultan was against this marriage, because she wanted her to marry her adoptive son, Kapıcıbaşı Mahmud Bey, who had been given to her by her husband Sultan Selim II as a child. After Nurbanu's death in December 1583, Mahmud married Hatice Hanımsultan, daughter of Ayşe Hümaşah Sultan (Suleiman I's granddaughter), in December 1584. He thus gave up every hope to eventually marry Ayşe, since in order to marry a princess a man had to repudiate his other wives.