Editing Murad III (section)

===Consorts===
Murad is believed to have had [[Safiye Sultan (mother of Mehmed III)|Safiye Sultan]] as his only concubine for circa fifteen years. However, Safiye was opposed by Murad's mother, [[Nurbanu Sultan]], and by his sister, [[Ismihan Sultan]], and around 1580, she was exiled to the Old Palace on charges of having rendered the sultan impotent with a spell, after he had not succeeded or had not wanted to have sex with two concubines received by his sister. Furthermore, Nurbanu was concerned about the future of the dynasty, as she believed that Safiye's son alone, Mehmed, (two of three sons that Safiye gave to Murad were dead before 1580) were not enough to ensure the succession. After Safiye's exile, revoked only after Nurbanu's death on December 1583, Murad, to deny the rumor about his impotency, took a huge number of concubines and he had more than fifty known children, although according to sources the total number could exceed hundred.<ref name="peirce=">{{cite book | last=Peirce | first=Leslie P. |author-link=Leslie Peirce | title=The imperial harem : women and sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire | publication-place=New York | date=1993 | pages = 94–95, 259 | isbn=0-19-507673-7 | oclc=27811454}}</ref>

At time of his death in 1595, Murad had at least thirty-five concubines, amongs others:<ref name="altun" />
* [[Safiye Sultan (mother of Mehmed III)|Safiye Sultan]], an ethnic [[Albanians|Albanian]]. [[Haseki sultan|Haseki Sultan]] of Murad and [[Valide sultan]] of [[Mehmed III]];<ref>Mustafa Çağatay Uluçay, Padışahların kadınları ve kızları, Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1980, pp. 42-6</ref>
* Şemsiruhsar Hatun, mother of Rukiye Sultan. She commissioned Koranic readings of prayers in the [[Al-Masjid an-Nabawi|Prophet's mosque]] in [[Medina]]. She died before 1623.<ref name="altun">{{cite book|first=Mustafa|last=Altun|title=Yüzyıl Dönümünde Bir Valide Sultan: Safiye Sultan'ın Hayatı ve Eserleri|year=2019|pages=20–21}}</ref>
* Mihriban Hatun;<ref name="altun" />
* Şahıhuban Hatun; she commissioned a school in Fatih, where she is buried<ref name="altun"/>
* Nazperver Hatun; she commissioned a mosque in Eyüp<ref name="altun" />
* Zerefşan Hatun<ref name="altun" />
*Fakriye Hatun<ref>Alderson, A.D.; ''The structure of the Ottoman Dynasty''</ref>
* A concubine who died in August 1591, along with their stillborn son and were interred together.<ref name="Internet">{{cite web | title=Tarih-i Selaniki 1-2 : Selânik Mustafa Efendi, d. 1600? : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive | website=Internet Archive | date=2023-03-25 | url=https://archive.org/details/selaniki-mustafa-efendi-tarih-i-selaniki-1 | access-date=2024-02-09 | page=251}}</ref>
*Fiveteen pregnant concubines were placed in sacks and tossed into the [[Sea of Marmara]], where they drowned, in 1595, by order of Mehmed III.<ref name="Jenkins">{{cite book | last=Jenkins | first=E. | title=The Muslim Diaspora (Volume 2, 1500-1799): A Comprehensive Chronology of the Spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas | publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers | year=2015 | isbn=978-1-4766-0889-1 | page=124}}</ref> 
*A concubine seduced and made pregnant by Mehmed III when he was a prince. The act was a violation of the rules of the harem, so Mehmed’s grandmother, Nurbanu Sultan, ordered the girl to be drowned in order to protect her grandson.

After the death of Murad III many of his concubines who became childless when at his accession Mehmed had his half-brothers killed, and others who never had children by Murad, were remarried off to palace officials, such as door keepers, cavalry forces (''bölük halkı''), and sergeants (''çavus'').<ref name="Argit"/><ref>{{cite journal |last=Pazan |first=İbrahim |date=2023-06-06 |title=A Comparison of Seyyid Lokman's Records of the Birth, Death and Wedding Dates of Members of Ottoman Dynasty (1566-1595) with the Records in Ottoman Chronicles |journal=Marmara Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi |publisher=Marmara University |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=245–271 |doi=10.16985/mtad.1120498 |issn=2148-6743 |doi-access=free}}</ref>