Marija Olivera Lazarević (Serbian Cyrillic: Марија Оливера Лазаревић; 1372 – after 1444), or Olivera Despina Hatun, was a Serbian princess and consort of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I, whom she married just after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 as a pledge of peace between the Lazarević and Ottoman dynasties. She was the youngest daughter of Lazar of Serbia and Princess Milica.
The story of Olivera's and Bayezid's captivity by Timur after the Battle of Ankara (1402) has been popularly narrated, most often in plays and operas. The most significant of these stories is Tamburlaine (1587–1588) by Christopher Marlowe, in which she is named “Zabina”.
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Biography
Olivera was born around 1372, the youngest daughter of Prince Lazar and Princess Milica of Serbia. Her mother was a descendant of Grand Prince (Veliki Župan) Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanjić dynasty and the fourth cousin once removed of Emperor Dušan of Serbia. Olivera had four older sisters—Mara (mother of Serbian despot Đurađ Branković), Dragana, Teodora, and Jelena (mother of Balša III, the last ruler of Zeta)—and two younger brothers—Serbian despot Stefan Lazarević and Vuk.
After the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, Olivera was sent to the harem of Sultan Bayezid I where she remained for the next 12 years. They had three daughters: Öruz Hatun, Paşa Melek Hatun and an unnamed daughter. Despite her marriage, she apparently never converted to Islam. She had a considerable influence over the sultan, which helped her people, country, and family survive in turbulent times.