Ayşe Hanım Sultan

Ayşe Hanım Haseki Sultan or Ayşe Hanım Sultan ( 1682 - 1747) née Iona was a concubine of Greek origin of Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III and mother of Şehzade Abdullah, Fatma Sultan and Şehzade Mehmed of Ottoman Empire.

Biography

Early life is unknown. It is said that she was the daughter of a priest originally named Iona Theodora Loverdos. While she was very young Iona had been captured by Turkish pirates, was enslaved and then sent to Istanbul and around the age of thirteen years in 1695 the young girl entered the imperial harem. After she converted to Islam she was renamed Ayşe. She had three children and after the death of Saliha Sultan in 1739 Ayşe Sultan achieved the title of Valide Sultan for her stepson and sultan Mahmud I. She died in 1747 at Topkapı Palace and was buried inside the tomb of Turhan Hatice Valide Sultan, in Yeni Mosque, Fatih.