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Patronage in the form of
pious endowments known as vakif was an Islamic concept
whose development
parallels economic growth in Anatolia under the Seljuks and
Ottomans. Although
information about endowments founded by women during the
Seljuk period is
limited, there is a wealth of surviving documentation from the
Ottoman
era. Not only the valide
sultans (mother of the reigning sultan), daughters and wives
of the reigning sultans,
but women administrators in the imperial harem, and many
women of lower social
standing founded thousands of vakifs.
Ottoman palace women
often acquired power and founded endowments for the public
good. Overt power was
generally restricted to the valide sultans during their sons'
reigns. with the notable
exceptions of Hürrem Sultan (Roxelana) and her daughter
Mihrumah, whose
charismatic personalities brought them to a position of unrivaled
power.
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