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Valide Sultan was the title held by the mother of a ruling sultan in the Ottoman Empire.

The position was arguably the most important position in the Ottoman Empire, after the sultan himself. As the mother to the sultan, by the Islamic tradition ("A mother's right is God's right"), the Valide Sultan would have a significant influence on the affairs of the Empire. In particular, during the seventeenth century, a series of incompetent or child sultans raised the role of the valide sultan to new heights.^[1]

• Nilüfer (wife of Orhan I, mother of Murad I, tr:Nilüfer Hatun)
• Hüma (wife of Murad II, mother of Mehmed II, tr:Hüma Hatun)
• Amina Gul-Bahar (wife of Mehmed II, mother of Bayezid II, tr:I. Gülbahar Hatun) (1481-1492)
• Aishe Hafsa (wife of Selim I, mother of Suleiman I, tr:Ayşe Hafsa Sultan)(1520-1534)
• Hürrem (wife of Suleiman I, mother of Selim II, tr:Hürrem Sultan)
• Nur Banu (wife of Selim II, mother of Murad III, tr:Nurbanu Sultan)
• Safiye Sultan(wife of Murad III, mother of Mehmed III], tr:Safiye Sultan)
• Handan (wife of Mehmed III, mother of Ahmed I, tr:Handan Sultan)
• Mahfiruz Hadice (wife of Ahmed I, mother of Osman II, tr:Mahfiruz Hadice Sultan)
• Kösem (Mahpeyker, another wife of Ahmed I, mother of Murad IV and Ibrahim I, tr:Kösem Sultan)
• Turhan Hadice (wife of Ibrahim I, mother of Mehmed IV, tr:Turhan Hatice Sultan)
• Saliha Dilashub (Saliha Dilaşub, another wife of Ibrahim I, mother of Suleiman II, tr:Saliha Dilaşub Sultan)
• Mah-Para Ummatullah Rabia Gül-Nush (wife of Mehmed IV, mother of Mustafa II and Ahmed III, tr:Emetullah Rabia Gülnuş Sultan)
• Saliha Sabkati (wife of Mustafa II, mother of Mahmud I, tr:Saliha Sultan)
• Shehsuvar (another wife of Mustafa II, mother of Osman III, tr:Şehsuvar Sultan )
• Mihr-i shah (wife of Mustafa III, mother of Selim III tr:Mihrişah Valide Sultan)
• Ayse Seniyeperver (Aisha Sina Parvar, Ayse Sine-perver, wife of Abdu’l-Hamid I, mother of Mustafa IV, tr:Ayşe Seniyeperver Sultan)
• Naksh-i-Dil (another wife of ‘Abdu’l-Hamid I, mother of Mahmud II,tr:Nakşidil Sultan) [There have been speculations that she was a cousin of Napoleon's wife Josephine^[2]. See Aimée du Buc de Rivéry]
• Pertevniyal (wife of Mahmud II, mother of Abd-ul-Aziz, tr:Pertevniyal Valide Sultan)
• Bezmiâlem (Bazim-i Alam, another wife of Mahmud II, mother of Abd-ul-Mejid I, tr:Bezmialem Sultan)
• Rahime Perestu (wife Abd-ul-Mejid I, adoptive mother of Abdülhamid II, tr:Perestü Kadın Efendi)

1. ^ Peirce, Leslie P., The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire, Oxford University Press, 1993, ISBN 0-19-508677-5 (paperback)
2. ^ Christine Isom-Verhaaren, "Royal French Women in the Ottoman Sultans' Harem: The Political Uses of Fabricated Accounts from the Sixteenth to the Twenty-first Century", Journal of World History, vol. 17, No. 2, 2006