Prodigal, but Benefactor: Pertevniyal Valide Sultan

Abstract

This article examines the life and activities of Pertevniyal Valide Sultan, mother of Sultan Abdülaziz (1861-1876), using original archival documents, and examining three distinctive characteristics of her personality. The first characteristic is her intervention in state affairs until the end of her son’s reign, following the model of the mothers of reigning sultans in the 16th and 17th centuries. The second characteristic is her fun-loving, extravagant life style, as seen through the funds she acquired through her moneylender (sarraf) without caring for the terrible condition of the imperial treasury that was drowning in international debt to such an extent that the empire could not even pay the salaries of its civil servants. The third characteristic is her philanthropic activities: she established several charitable foundations throughout the vast regions of the empire, as had her predecessors. The basic argument of thisarticle is that the reactions aroused in both public opinion and the bureaucracy by Pertevniyal’s intervention in state affairs were based on the conclusion that she did not have enough knowledge and experience, while also living an extravagant lifestyle. These all played a critical role in the formation of a coup that was staged in Mayof 1876, which dethroned her son, Sultan Abdülaziz. However, Pertevniyal Valide Sultan, as a representation of the tender and maternal aspect of the state, and at the same time as an advocate for the poor and destitute, is remembered as the last of the sultanas and women of the palace who established charitable foundations.