The 16th Century Ottoman Empire was known as the Sultanate of Women, during which many women in Ottoman court, as Haseki(Sultan’s chief wife) or Valide(mother of Sultan), were able to control the politics. While Hurrem was the first Haseki Sultan to hold immense power, the first powerful Valide Sultan would be Nurbanu Sultan.
According to various Venetian sources, the future Nurbanu Sultan was a scion of Venetian nobility. According to Wikipedia and Treccani.it, she was born as Cecilia Venier-Baffo, the daughter of Niccolò Venier, Lord of Paros, and his Corfiot-Italian mistress Violante Baffo, and thus a kinswoman of Sebastian Venier, Doge of Venice.
As indicated in Venetian sources, she likely grew up in Venice in a villa near the Grand Canal, and as her father died when she was little, she would likely grow up with her aunt, Cecilia Venier, who was engaging in litigation against the Duke of Naxos over Paros inheritance. The court ruled in favour of Cecilia Venier in 1535, but in 1537 Turks invaded Paros, and after a brief resistance, Paros fell, and Cecilia Venier-Baffo was captured and sent into the harem. She was renamed Nurbanu, meaning Lady of light. Nurbanu later entered the harem of Sehzade Selim, and became Selim’s favourite, and they later married formally. With her beauty and intelligence, Nurbanu quickly gained a strong influence over Selim, and effectively served as his main advisor. (I wonder how she felt when Selim was fighting against Venice, her home country)
When her son, Murad, became Sultan, Nurbanu Sultan, as Valide Sultan, virtually ruled the country. She remained attached to her Venetian origin, and steered the Empire on a pro-Venetian path. Through Esther Handali, her intermediary, Nurbanu communicated with the Venetian ambassador and even with Catherine de Medici, the Queen-Dowager of France. She also performed great charity, building mosque and hospital, and won the love of the people. She died in 1583, probably poisoned by Genoan agents.
Sources
Franz Babinger, BAFFO, Cecilia(: , 1963), in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani — Volume 5 (1963) , <https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/cecilia-baffo_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/>; [accessed 18 January 2021].
İLHAN ŞAHİN, “NURBÂNÛ SULTAN”, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/nurbanu-sultan (17.01.2021).
Wikipedia contributors, ‘Nurbanu Sultan’, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 December 2020, 03:38 UTC, <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nurbanu_Sultan&oldid=996695339> [accessed 17 January 2021]
Kadinlar Saltanati, <https://ottomanladies.tumblr.com/post/638825023015190528/sorry-if-this-sounds-like-a-dumb-question-but-why> [accessed 18 January 2021].
