A Legacy Spanning Palestine, Lebanon and Turkey
The Waqf of Hürrem Sultan
Haseki Hürrem Sultan, a beloved wife of the Kanuni Sultan Süleyman I, represents one of the most prominent figures of Ottoman history. Today, there are different opinions about her exact origin (Ukrainian or Russian), but it is known that she was purchased as a slave and brought to the sultan's palace where she embraced Islam and received quality education.
Historical sources describe her as a very intelligent, pious and cheerful person, a caring mother, a woman of exceptional manners and a great patron of the arts.
She gave birth to nine children, seven sons and two daughters, all fathered by Sultan Süleyman 1. Of all her children, we must single out her son Selim who succeeded his father and became Sultan Selim Il and her daughter Mihrimah who is remembered as the most influential female figure of Ottoman history.
Sultan Charitable Complex
26 Villages Served
Shops & Bazaar Funded Waqf Projects
Soap Plants & Flour Mills for Revenue
Maintained a Mosque & Pilgrim Inns
In the sixteenth-century, the Haseki Sultan charitable complex was founded and built by Hürrem Sultan. It serviced 26 villages and included shops, a covered bazaar, two soap plants, eleven flour mills, and two bathhouses (in Palestine and Lebanon). For hundreds of years, income generated by these businesses provided for the maintenance of a mosque, a soup kitchen, and two traveler and pilgrim inns near the Dome of The rock In Jerusalem.
Here’s the Waqf Deed currently in the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum:
Endowment Charter (‘Waqfiyya’) of Haskei Hürrem Sultan. Istanbul, 1556-57 (AH 964). Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum 2192
For centuries, this waqf provided resources for travelers, pilgrims, and the local communities.
Here’s an Arabic sign in Old Jerusalem pointing the way to Takiyah Khaski Sultan, the charitable soup kitchen founded in 1552.
