valide sultan

Valide Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: والده سلطان, lit. "Sultana Mother") was the title held by the mother of a ruling sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The title was suposedly created by Murad III in the 16th century for his mother Nurbanu, superseding the previous epithets of mehd-i ulya ("cradle of the great"). Normally, the living mother of a ruling sultan held this title; mothers who died before their sons' accession to the throne never received it. In special cases, there were grandmothers, stepmothers, adoptive mothers and sisters of the ruling sultans who, although not officially holding the title, assumed the role of valide sultan, like Mihrimah Sultan the most powerful and influential Ottoman princess, and Rahime Perestu Sultan.