Career
The theories about the origin of Bezmiâlem are:
Majority of sources however note that she is either a Georgian Jew or Christian Georgian. Alan Palmer writes that she was Georgian (perhaps Georgian Jew) but gives no original name. Captain Charles White, a Briton who spent three years in Istanbul and knew Ottoman society well, in the 1840s mentioned that Besma Allem, mother to the reigning monarch Abdülmecid I, was a Georgian slave and was purchased and educated by Esma Sultan, a sister of Mahmud World War II She was most probably an adoptive daughter of Esma Sultan like Rahime Perestu Sultan.
She is said to have been buxom and a bath attendant before entering the imperial harem.
She had a beautiful face and extraordinary white and beautiful hands. As mother of Sultan Abdülmecid I, she was Valide Sultan from 1839 to 1853.
One source says Mahmud II died of alcoholism, rather than tuberculosis, and she is reported to have convinced Abdülmecid I to destroy his father"s wine cellars. She was thirty one and was still young enough to despise and mistrust the elder non statesman who had made himeself minister.
Abdülmecid duly played for time, awaiting Reșid"s return from England before taking any major decisions on policy.
His mother had given sound counsel So shrewd was her judgement of men and their motives that the Valide Sultan continued to influence the choice of ministers until shortly before her death fourteen years later. Like other influential Ottoman women, she was a patron of arts and architecture.
Among notable structures she commissioned are Kasr-i Dilkusa (Dilkusa Summer Palace) in the Yıldız Palace complex, Bezm-î-Âlem Valide Sultan Fountain, and Dolmabahçe Mosque in Istanbul.
Her burial place is located at Divanyolu Street inside The tomb of Mahmud II in Istanbul.
