Şerife Hafsa Hanım

Şerife Hafsa Hanım, whose date of birth has not been identified, was the daughter of Zülâlî Hasan Efendi, one of the notable figures of the eighteenth-century learned establishment. The title “Şerife” on her gravestone suggests that she was remembered within the family memory of a sayyid/sharif lineage; however, the existing record provides no further information to detail this connection.

Her father Zülâlî Hasan Efendi was a member of the Ottoman learned establishment who rose from mudarris to judge. In sources he is introduced as “the judge of Istanbul who was among the leaders of the Patrona Rebellion.” The Patrona Halil Rebellion of 1730 was a major political rupture that resulted in the deposition of Sultan Ahmed III; Zülâlî Hasan Efendi’s name appears among the influential figures of the scholarly and judicial circles involved in this uprising.

Zülâlî Hasan Efendi was of Albanian origin. He was educated and trained in the palace at a young age, later left the palace as a mudarris, and served as judge of Aleppo and Bursa. “Zülâlî” was the pen name he used in his poems.

Şerife Hafsa Hanım died on 6 November 1741. This date is earlier than the period after 1780, when the Fatih Mosque Cemetery is generally accepted to have begun taking shape in its present sense. The present enclosed area of the cemetery was formed through burials after 1780; early burials began around the Tomb of Nakşidil Sultan with members of the palace circle, and burial in the cemetery required palace permission.