Hüma Hatun

Life

Although, some Turkish sources claim that she was of Turkic origin, Hüma Hatun was a slave girl of European origin. Nothing is known of her family background, apart from the fact that an Ottoman inscription (vakfiye) describes her as Hātun binti Abdullah (daughter of Abdullah); at that time, people who converted to Islam were given the name Abdullah meaning Servant of God, which is evidence of her non-Muslim origin. According to the tradition, she was of Italian and/or Jewish origin and her previous name may have been Stella or Esther. According to another view, she was of Greek or Slavic origin. Based on the fact that Mehmed II was fluent in the Serbian language, it was concluded that she may have been of south Slavic origin, most likely Serbian. Finally, it has also been claimed that she may have been Greek. Her name, hüma, means "bird of paradise/phoenix", after the Persian legend.

Hüma Hatun entered in Murad II's harem around 1424. By him she had firstly two daughters, Hatice Hatun in 1425 and Fatma Hatun in 1430, and finally, on 30 March 1432, she gave birth to her only son, the future Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. In 1438, Mehmed was circumcised along with his elder half-brother, Şehzade Alaeddin. When Mehmed was 11 years old, he was sent to Manisa as a prince governor. Hüma followed her son to Manisa. Her children's wet nurses were Hundi Hatun (d. 14 February 1486): usually styled Daye Hatun (lady governess), who became very wealthy and influential enough during the reign of Mehmed II, enough to fund several charitable foundations and commission prayers for her soul, and Gülbahar Hatun, called also Ebe Hatun (lady midwife), buried in her own türbe in the Muradiye Complex, Bursa.

In 1444, after the death of Mehmed's elder half-brother, Şehzade Alaeddin, who died in 1443, Mehmed was the only heir left to the throne. In that same year, Murad II abdicated the throne due to depression over the death of his son, Şehzade Alaeddin Ali Çelebi, and retreated to Manisa.

Her son Şehzade Mehmed succeeded the throne as Mehmed II. She held the Vâlide Hatun position for two years. In 1446, Murad took over the throne again, and Hüma and her son returned to Bursa. However, Mehmed succeeded the throne in 1451, after the death of his father, but she never became a Valide Hatun as she died before the accession. She was not alive to see the conquest of Constantinople, which became the capital of Ottoman Empire for nearly five centuries, before the Empire was abolished in 1922 and Turkey was officially declared as a republic.

Death

She died in September 1449 in Bursa, two years before her son's second accession to the throne. Her tomb is located at the site known as "Hatuniye Kümbedi" (Hatuniye Tomb) to the east of Muradiye Complex, which was built by her son Mehmed. The quarter where her tomb lies has been known thus far as Hüma Hatun Quarter.

Issue

By Murad II, Hüma Hatun had two daughters and a son:

• Hatice Hatun (1425 – after 1470). She married Candaroğlu İsmail Kemaleddin Bey and had three sons: Hasan Bey (who married is cousin Kamerhan Hatun, daughter of Mehmed II, and had a daughter, Hanzade Hatun), Yahya Bey and Mahmud Bey. Her descendants were still alive during the reign of Abdulmejid I, in the 19th century. In August 1470, she remarried with Isa Bey.
• Fatma Hatun (1430 – after 1464). She married Zaganos Pasha and had two sons: Hamza Bey and Ahmed Çelebi, who would become an important adviser to his cousin Bayezid II. Following her divorce in 1462, she married Mahmud Çelebi.
• Mehmed II (1432–1481). Sultan of the Ottoman Empire after his father and conqueror of Constantinople in 1453.

In popular culture

• Hüma Hatun was portrayed by Leyla Feray in the docuseries Rise of Empires: Ottoman (2020).
• Açelya Akkoyun portrayed Hüma Hatun in Mehmed: Fetihler Sultanı (2024).

References

References

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