Safiye Sultan

The identity of Safiye has often been confused with that of her Venetian mother-in-law, Nurbanu, leading some to believe that Safiye was also of Venetian descent.There is dispute about Safiye's origins in contemporary sources. However, according to a contemporary Venetian source, Safiye was of Albanian origin, born in the Dukagjin highlands.

In 1563, at the age of 13, she was presented as a slave to the future Murad III by Hümaşah Sultan, daughter of Şehzade Mehmed, son of Suleiman the Magnificent and Hürrem Sultan. Given the name Safiye ("the pure one"), she became a concubine of Murad (then the eldest son of Sultan Selim II). On 26 May 1566, she gave birth to Murad's son, the future Mehmed III, the same year when Suleiman the Magnificent died.