Beyhan Sultan was born on 15 December 1765 in the Topkapı Palace. Her father was Sultan Mustafa III, and her mother was Adilşah Kadın. She had a full sister named Hatice Sultan, two years younger than her. After her father's death in 1774, when she was nine years old, she followed her mother and sister to the Old Palace.
Marriage
In 1784, her uncle Sultan Abdul Hamid I arranged her marriage to Silahdar Mustafa Pasha, the governor of Aleppo. The marriage took place on 29 April 1784, after the pasha's return to Istanbul. On 5 May, her trousseau, and the next day, Beyhan Sultan herself were transported from the Topkapı Palace to her palace at Cağaloğlu. She was nineteen years old. The two together had a daughter named Hatice Hanımsultan, born in 1785, she was married in 1799. She was widowed at her husband's death in 1798, and like most of the princesses of her generation she didn't remarried. Beyhan had adopted as her own daughter the future imperial consortHoşyar Kadın, who was to become the wife of her cousin Sultan Mahmud II and the mother of Mihrimah Sultan.
Lands and endowments
Beyhan received many mukata'as from her brother Selim III and her uncle Abdul Hamid. She was a wealthy princess, owned two palaces on the Bosphorus. She was also given the Old Çırağan Palace, one of the sites of the Lale Devri entertainments, and Beyhan restored it. She received malikanes in the district of Andrusa, Kalamata, Fanar, Karitena and Londar on 1802. In 1796, she appointed Numan ağa, the voyvoda of these districts, to act as her agent to collect the caizye and 'avariz dues from her çiftliks. In 1802, she appointed Al-Hac Hasan ağa as her kethüda when Hüseyn ağa, a former voyvoda, was too oppressive. She also appears to have received the malikane of the island of Andros and Syros in 1789. In 1801, she had a fountain built in her name in the Kuruçeşme neighbourhood of Istanbul. In 1804, she built another fountain in her name on the banks of Akıntıburnu. In 1817, she repaired the Mesih Pasha Fountain located in the Hırka-i Şerif. She also built two fountains near her palaces during the reign of brother Selim. Beyhan Sultan built a school in the vicinity of Yeşilioğlu Palace, opposite of Hatice Sultan Palace in the memory of her mother. The Beyhan Sultan Fountain, which is one of the most beautiful works of the Ottoman art of its kind in the Turkish era, was completely dismantled, but it has not been revived until today, in case of street expansion. The fountain, which was completely covered with marble, was seen to be dominant in the baroque style. The main façade was on the sea side and was processed in three sections with baroque arches, including milkstones. Although the Beyhan Sultan Fountain was created entirely under the influence of Western art, it was a monument that marked the location of a beach adorned this coast, apart from being a work that added beauty to the Bosphorus.
Patroness of arts
Beyhan, her brother Selim, and her sister Hatice Sultan had a considerable enthusiasm for arts. Both Beyhan, and Selim admired Mevlevi Sheikh Galib, probably a major poet of the age, and were his patrons. Born and educated in Istanbul, the son of a Mevlevi dervish, he became the sheyh of the Galata lodge. She also had copies made of his poems.
Death
Beyhan Sultan died on 7 November 1824, at the age of fifty eight, and was buried in the mausoleum of Mihrişah Sultan located in Eyüp.
