Asporça Hatun

Marriage

Since one of Asporça's children, the only one whose birth date is known, was born in 1310, Asporça married Orhan in or shortly before that year. She was the first of Orhan's two legal wives (the other was Theodora Kantakouzene, married in 1346). She gave birth to two sons and two daughters. She was highly esteemed by her father-in-law, Osman I, who gave her the revenues of numerous lands and villages, including Narlı, Kiyaklı, Çepni, Yörüklü and Frenkli.

In September 1323, Asporça signed a waqf which assigned the revenues of her lands to his descendants. The document cites the vizier Alaeddin Pasha as a witness and Asporça's eldest son, Ibrahim Bey, as administrator. The waqf of Asporça is the oldest known Ottoman document, and together with the waqf of Orhan of the following year constitutes a valuable source of information on the composition of the Ottoman dynasty in that period. In the 17th century, a woman named Saliha Hatun presented herself at the court of Bursa, declaring herself a descendant of Asporça and asking that the income guaranteed by the waqf be paid to her.

Death

Asporça survived Orhan, who died in 1362. Shortly thereafter, in the same year, her son Ibrahim was executed by order of the new sultan Murad I, son of Orhan and the concubine Nilüfer Hatun.

Upon her death, she was buried in Bursa, in the türbe of Orhan. However, the imperial burials of Bursa were restored in the 19th century due to centuries of earthquakes and fires, and currently the Asporça sarcophagus is located in the türbe of Osman I.

A poetic inscription attributed to Asporça Hatun, which hangs on her tomb, was published by İbrahim Hoci and Ahmed Tevhid in Tarih-i Osmanî Encümeni Mecmuası:

"She is the pearl of the sea of virtue, the wife of Sultan Orhan.

She sat in the honorable harem of the Sultan and held a high rank.

She showed full compassion and care for the prince.

Her child İbrahim passed away, leaving her in grief.

She followed her child to the eternal rose garden (paradise).

And it was Asporça Sultan who joined that journey to the hereafter."

Issue

By Orhan, she had two sons and two daughters:

İbrahim Bey (1310-1362, buried in Osman I's türbe). Governor of Eskişehir, was executed by the order of his half-brother Sultan Murad I;

Şerefullah Bey;

Selçuk Hatun. She married Süleyman Bey, son of Mehmed Aydin;

Fatma Hatun.Buried in her father's tomb in Bursa.

In popular culture

In the 2025 Turkish historical fiction TV series Kuruluş: Orhan, Asporça Hatun was portrayed by Russian-Turkish actress Alina Boz.