Perestu Kadın

Perestu Kadın
Interior view of the mausoleum of Mihrişah Sultan, where the tomb of Perestu Kadın is located
Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Tenure	31 August 1876 - 11 December 1904
Predecessor	Şevkefza Kadın
Successor	Vacant until sultanate abolished in 1922
Born	Rahime Gogen c. 1826 Sochi, Russian Empire
Died	11 December 1904(1904-12-11) (aged 77–78) Maçka, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, now Turkey
Burial	The tomb of Mihrişah Valide Sultan, Eyüp, Istanbul, Turkey
Spouse	Abdülmecid I
Issue	Adoptive children: Abdul Hamid II Cemile Sultan
Father	Gök Bey Gogen
Religion	Islam (previously Christianity)

Perestu Kadın (c. 1826 – 11 December 1904) was the consort of Sultan Abdülmecid I of the Ottoman Empire. In 1876, she was given the title and position of Empress mother when Abdul Hamid II ascended the throne in 1876 making her the last Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Esma Sultan, the daughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid I and aunt of Sultan Abdülmecid I, lived in luxury in her magnificent villa in Istanbul, but still her life passed in sadness because she could not have the one thing she wished for most; a child. At length she decided to adopt a child, the daughter of Gök Bey Gogen who belonged to one of the noble families of the Ubykh tribe of Circassia in the Ottoman Empire, after reaching satisfactory terms with the mother and father, when Rahime was a toddler one year of age. the child was particularly diminutive, delicate and graceful, so she renamed her Perestu, the Persian word for swallow. All the kalfas in Esma Sultan's villa behaved toward this child as though she were a daughter of an Ottoman imperial princess, and indeed her disposition and manners were so lovely that they became devoted to her. In the mean time Princess Esma Sultan carefully arranged the training and education of Perestu. She had three brothers, Mustafa, Hüseyn and Hasan Bey, and two sisters, Fatma Gülcemal Hanım and Mihrifidan Hanım.

In the days of Sultan Abdülmecid's youth before he ascended the throne, he used to pay calls on his aunt every so often, engaging in conversion. He continued there calls after he became Sultan, and one spring day he come to visit his aunt and was passing through the harem gardens when he saw Perestu, then twenty three years old. Suddenly here was this young girl in front of him, her long blonde hair falling about her shoulders, her eyes a turquoise blue. He asked his aunt to give her hand in marriage to him. Firstly she refused to give Peresu's hand in marriage to Abdülmecid but finally Esma Sultan was consented, and the marriage of Perestu to Abdülmecid took place within a week.