Constructing Dynastic Belonging through Death

This chapter examines how death, funerary rituals, and estate liquidation functioned as instruments for reaffirming dynastic belonging among Ottoman imperial women. Drawing on the funerals of Gülnuş Sultan, Mihrişah Sultan, and Esma Sultan, it demonstrates that posthumous ceremonies operated as public performances of hierarchy, loyalty, and legitimacy. Funeral processions, routes, and interment sites symbolized the continuity of imperial authority, transforming death into a spatial and ritual reaffirmation of dynastic identity. Even lower-ranking consorts such as kadınefendis, including Ruhşah, Nevres, and Binnaz Kadın, were interred in dynastic mausoleums, reflecting enduring inclusion within the imperial household. The analysis further explores the fiscal dimension of death through the confiscation (müsadere) and liquidation (muhallefat) of estates, revealing the dual role of such practices as mechanisms of both revenue extraction and institutional loyalty. Probate records from the estates of Ruhşah and Nevres Kadın illustrate how posthumous wealth management reproduced palace hierarchies and extended bonds of servitude beyond death. Ultimately, death emerges not as an end to dynastic affiliation but as its rearticulation in ritual, spatial, and fiscal terms, linking personal commemoration to the broader political and economic order of the Ottoman imperial household.