Aynışah Hatun


Aynışah Hatun was an Ottoman princess, daughter of Sultan Bayezid II and sister of Sultan Selim I of the Ottoman Empire.

Life

Aynışah Hatun, was born in Amasya, during her father's princedom. Her mother was his consort Şirin Hatun; thus she had one full-sibling, Şehzade Abdullah, who died in 1483.
In 1489 or 1490, Aynışah was married firstly to Göde Ahmed Bey, son of Muhammad Mirza Ugurlu of the Aq Qoyunlu and her aunt Gevherhan Hatun and thus her own cousin. There is a possibility that, since Ahmed had already been living in the Sultan's court for a long time, the marriage took place at an even earlier date. Göde Ahmed later took part in the fight for the Aq Qoyunlu throne and was eventually murdered, during an uprising in Azerbaijan on 14 December 1497, after a brief rule over the Aq Qoyunlu lands.
At the turn of the 1500s or a little later, as evidenced by a list of gifts, Aynışah was married secondly to Yahya Pasha, a prominent statesman and military man under her father and grandfather Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, and head of what became an influential clan of frontier officials. Of Albanian origin, he was appointed twice sancakbey of Bosnia and Nicopolis, twice Beylerbey of Anatolia, thrice Beylerbey of Rumeli, Second Vizier in July 1505, and supposedly, briefly Grand Vizier in 1505. He died at Edirne in mid-1511.
Aynışah kept correspondence with both her father, Bayezid, and brother Selim, as has been proven by surviving letters of hers.
She was still alive and on good terms with the latter when he deposed the former in 1512, as evident in a letter she, like several of her sisters, wrote him to congratulate him on his ascension.
In around 1506, she built a mekteb in Alemdar vicinity of Fatih, Istanbul, close to where Hacı Beşir Ağa Külliye was later erected. In this school she bequeathed her property. Her grave was also situated there, while a certain Aynışah Sultan that lies buried in the same tomb as her mother Şirin and brother Abdullah, in Bursa, is her niece of the same name, Abdullah's daughter.

Issue

With Göde Ahmed, Aynışah had the following children: