Zübeyde Hanım

(Redirected from Zubeyde Hanim)

Categories: 1857 births | 1923 deaths | Turkish people

Zübeyde Hanim (1857 – January 14 1923; Turkish spelling: Zübeyde Hanım) was the mother of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey. Her name is Zübeyde but Hanim which is a respectful way of saying Mrs. is almost always added after her name. Kemal's father, Ali Rıza, died when Mustafa Kemal was six years old, making her parental influence dominant. Zübeyde Hanim was born in Salonika, then part of the Ottoman Empire, in 1857.

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Zübeyde Hanim and her first husband, Ali Rıza

She was born as the only daughter of the Hacısofular family with two brothers. Hacı, in Turkish, refers to those Muslims who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Sofular is the plural of Sofu, which means a religious devotee. Thus, it is to be assumed that some important person or people in Zübeyde Hanim's background had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and that her family had deep religious roots.

Her education was basic and only consisted of learning to read and write. But this was considered a high educational level when compared with that of the majority of women throughout the empire. The idea that, "Girls don't need to read," was widespread, and therefore families were reluctant to have their daughters be educated. Because she could read and write, she was nicknamed Zübeyde Molla (someone knowledgeable and teaches other people, in particular, a teacher of theology) by some people. Zübeyde Hanim was a religious woman and was so tied to her faith as a result of her upbringing that she wanted her son Mustafa to go to Mahalle Mektebi, a school that teaches the Qur'an, to be educated.

Zübeyde Hanim's first marriage was to Ali Riza Efendi. With her dark blonde hair, deep blue eyes and fair skin, she won the admiration of Ali Riza, a border guard who insisted he would only marry a blue-eyed blonde woman. His older sister arranged this marriage - as was the tradition at that time. Zübeyde Hanim was in her early teens and 20 years younger than her husband. Their first child was Fatma, then Ömer and Ahmet were born, but they all died in early childhood. After her husband's death when she was 27, she went to live with her brother, Hüseyin, who was the manager of a farm outside Salonika.

Her second marriage to Ragıp Bey, who had four children from his ex-wife, angered Atatürk. He thought his mother did not respect the memory of his dead father, and he offended his mother and Ragıp Bey in his behavior towards them.

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Reference

The permission is given by Yusuf Kanlı, the editor in chief of Turkish Daily News.