Career
There is a legend that she was the same person as Aimée du Buc de Rivéry, cousin of Empress Josephine, who went missing at sea at a young age: according to this legend, Aimée du Buc de Rivéry was captured by Barbary pirates and sold as a harem concubine, though there is no evidence of this. The Aimée-Nakşidil tale shows several distinct parallels to these older tales. According to the Ottoman Chronicles, the mother of Mahmud II was known by the Turkish name Nakşidil (Nakshidil) and died in 1817.
All the women of the sultan were given Turkish names when they entered the harem.
The woman who was valide sultan during the period from 1808 to 1817 was supposedly very western and French-influenced. She was said to have given the Sultan French lessons, sent an embassy to Paris, and reformed the harem by giving the women permission to go on picnics and boat travels along the coasts outside the palace.
According to a Turkish historian, though "Sultan Mahmud II"s mother Nakşidil Sultan, whose life has been the subject of 174 historical novels in the world as well as the film The Favorite.. was believed to be Aimée du Buc de Rivéry, the cousin of Napoleon"s wife Josephine.. she came from a family that had its origins in the Caucasus region. Doctor Fikret Saraçoğlu has found in the archives of the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul documents pertaining to her death and funeral."
Ibrahim Pazan writes that she was actually a Georgian and was born in Caucasus.
She was raised in the Ottoman palace and was given thoroughly Turkish Islamic education.
Mahmud"s own biological mother: Nakş-î Dil Sultan.
