Asporça Hatun (; born Holofira, Olivera or Glafira, died after 1362) was a Greek-Byzantine noblewoman, the first legal wife of Sultan

Orhan Orhan Ghazi (; , also spelled Orkhan; died 1362) was the second sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1323/4 to 1362. He was born in Söğüt, as the son of Osman I. In the early stages of his reign, Orhan focused his energies on conquering mos ...

of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

Biography

Origins

Asporça Hatun was born as Holofira (or Olivera or Glafira), a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

noblewoman, but are not known others details about her origins.Uluçay 1980, pp.4-5Sakaoğlu 2008, pp.42-43Peirce 1993, pp.34-35 Contemporary rumors said she was a

Palaiologos The House of Palaiologos ( Palaiologoi; , ; female version Palaiologina; ), also found in English-language literature as Palaeologus or Palaeologue, was a Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek Nobility, noble family that rose to power and produced th ...

princess, a daughter, probably illegitimate, of the emperor Andronikos II or Andronikos III but most modern historians reject this version.Alderson 1956, XXII It's impossible that Asporça was daughter of Andronikos III because he was born in 1296 and Asporça had a son in 1310. Plus, Byzantine princesses married to Muslim rulers usually kept their own name and their Orthodox Christian faith, while Asporça took an Ottoman name and converted to Islam. Another thesis is that Asporça was the daughter of the Byzantine ''

tekfur ''Tekfur'' () was a title used in the late Seljuk and early Ottoman periods to refer to independent or semi-independent minor Christian rulers or local Byzantine governors in Asia Minor and Thrace. Origin and meaning The origin of the title is ...

'' of

Bilecik Bilecik is a city in northwestern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the seat of Bilecik Province and Bilecik District.Orhan Orhan Ghazi (; , also spelled Orkhan; died 1362) was the second sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1323/4 to 1362. He was born in Söğüt, as the son of Osman I. In the early stages of his reign, Orhan focused his energies on conquering mos ...

as a consort, but this wife is usually identified with Bayalun Hatun, and if the kidnapped girl was Asporça, this would mean that her firstborn was born over a decade later.

Wedding

Since one of Asporça's children, the only one whose birth date is known, was born in 1310, Asporça married

in or shortly before that year. She was the first of Orhan's two legal wives (the other was Theodora Kantakouzene, married in 1346) and she bore him two sons and two daughters. She was highly esteemed by her father-in-law,

Osman I Osman I or Osman Ghazi (; or ''Osman Gazi''; died 1323/4) was the eponymous founder of the Ottoman Empire (first known as a bey, beylik or emirate). While initially a small Turkoman (ethnonym), Turkoman principality during Osman's lifetime, h ...

, who gave her the revenues of numerous lands and villages, including Narlı and Kiyaklı. In September 1323, Asporça signed a ''

waqf A (; , plural ), also called a (, plural or ), or ''mortmain'' property, is an Alienation (property law), inalienable charitable financial endowment, endowment under Sharia, Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot ...

'' which assigned the revenues of her lands to his descendants. The document cites the vizier Alaeddin Pasha as a witness and Asporça's eldest son, Ibrahim Bey, as administrator. The ''waqf'' of Asporça is the oldest known Ottoman document, and together with the ''waqf'' of Orhan of the following year constitutes a valuable source of information on the composition of the

Ottoman dynasty The Ottoman dynasty () consisted of the members of the imperial House of Osman (), also known as the Ottomans (). According to Ottoman tradition, the family originated from the Kayı tribe branch of the Oghuz Turks, under the leadership of Os ...

in that period. In the 17th century, a woman named Saliha Hatun presented herself at the court of

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

, declaring herself a descendant of Asporça and asking that the income guaranteed by the ''waqf'' be paid to her.

Death

Asporça survived Orhan, who died in 1362. Shortly thereafter, in the same year, her son Ibrahim was executed by order of the new sultan

Murad I Murad I (; ), nicknamed ''Hüdavendigâr'' (from – meaning "Head of state, sovereign" in this context; 29 June 1326 – 15 June 1389) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1362 to 1389. He was the son of Orhan Gazi and Nilüfer Hatun. Mura ...

, son of Orhan and the concubine

Nilüfer Hatun Nilüfer Hatun (, ''water lily'', called also Lülüfer Hatun or Ülüfer Hatun, died 1363), was a concubine of Orhan, the second Ottoman sultan, and the mother of Murad I, Orhan's successor. She was the first slave of Christian origin to becom ...

. Upon her death, she was buried in

, in the

türbe ''Türbe'' refers to a Muslim mausoleum, tomb or grave often in the Turkish-speaking areas and for the mausolea of Ottoman sultans, nobles and notables. A typical türbe is located in the grounds of a mosque or complex, often endowed by the ...

of Orhan. However, the imperial burials of Bursa were restored in the 19th century due to centuries of earthquakes and fires, and currently the Asporça sarcophagus is located in the türbe of Osman I.

Issue

By Orhan, she had two sons and two daughters:''Encyclopedia of Ahılık'' - Vol. II. Şekerbank. 2017. pp. 190, 199 * Ibrahim Bey (1310-1362, buried in Osman I's türbe). Governor of

Eskişehir Eskişehir ( , ; from 'old' and 'city') is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 821 315 (Odunpazari + Tebebasi), with a metropolitan population of 921 630. The city is l ...

, was executed by the order of his half-brother Sultan

. * Şerefullah Bey. * Selçuk Hatun. She married Süleyman Bey, son of Mehmed Aydin. * Fatma Hatun. Buried in her father's tomb (Bursa).

References

Sources

* * ''Encyclopedia of Ahılık'' - Volume II. Şekerbank. 2017. pp. 190, 199 * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Asporca Hatun 14th-century consorts of Ottoman sultans