de Rivery, Aimee Dubucq (c. 1762–1817)

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de Rivery, Aimee Dubucq (c. 1762–1817)

Legendary French woman who became Nakshedil Sultana in the Turkish harem of Abdul Hamid I. Name variations: de Riverie; Nakshedil Sultana. Born around 1762 on the French Caribbean island of Martinique; died in Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey, in 1817; daughter of a noble family; cousin of Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie (Empress Josephine ), who married Napoleon Bonaparte; attended a convent school in Nantes, France; children: (with Abdul Hamid I) Mahmud II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire (r. 1808–1839).

It is difficult to separate fact from fiction in the life of Aimee Dubucq de Rivery, who disappeared during a sea voyage in 1788 and is said to have reappeared as Nakshedil Sultana in a Turkish Harem during the period of the Ottoman Empire. Although no one can be certain that Nakshedil and the fair, blue-eyed Aimee are one and the same, the story of a beautiful young girl's triumphant rise from slave to powerful sultana has become legendary.

Aimee was raised on the family sugar plantation on the French Caribbean island of Martinique. After her preliminary schooling on the island, she was sent to a convent school in Nantes, France, where she spent several years. After her schooling was completed, she and her governess were sailing home to Martinique when they were shipwrecked and picked up by a Spanish ship bound for Majorca. The Spanish ship was then captured by pirates and taken to Algiers, where Aimee Dubucq de Rivery was sold to the dey (the governor of the province). Sensing an opportunity to win political favor, the dey then gave de Rivery as a gift to Sultan Abdul Hamid I.

Locked within the imperial harem at Constantinople, de Rivery was taught the rules and hierarchy of the harem and given the name Nakshedil ("image of the heart"). She soon became the favorite of Abdul Hamid and gave birth to their son, Mahmud (II), who was in line to ascend the throne.

When Abdul Hamid died in April 1789, his 27-year-old nephew became Selim III. For the next 18 years, de Rivery shared Selim's life and exercised great influence. She taught him French, and he in turn started a French newspaper and allowed her to decorate the palace in the rococo style. He also authorized a permanent ambassador to be sent from Istanbul to Paris. Selim's liberalism, however, cost him his life. In 1807, he was assassinated by religious fanatics, who would have also killed de Rivery's son Mahmud had she not hidden him. Thus, Mahmud became the next sultan and accomplished many reforms that were attributed to the influence of his mother.

By one account, de Rivery then left the confines of the harem and, given the title sultana valide (queen mother), occupied a palace on the shores of the Bosporus, where she continued to advise her son. In another version of the story, she spent her final days within the harem. Although de Rivery had dutifully practiced Islam, as the laws of her confinement dictated, she had retained her Christian faith. Her final request was that a priest perform the last rites. Her son, in an unprecedented act, purportedly gave permission for a Catholic priest to enter the harem, in order to fulfill his mother's dying wish.