Strongilah (died 1548) was a Jewish Ottoman businesswoman. She was the influential favorite and ''

Kira Kira may refer to: People * Kira clan, a Japanese clan, descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) * Kira (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Kira Chikazane (1563–1588), Japanese retainer * Kira (German singer) (Janine ...

'' of

Hafsa Sultan Hafsa Sultan ( ota, حفصه سلطان, "''Young lioness''"; or before – 19 March 1534), also called Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, was a concubine of Selim I and the first Valide Sultan of the Ottoman Empire as the mother of Suleiman the Magnificent. Dur ...

, and possibly of

Hürrem Sultan Hurrem Sultan (, ota, خُرّم سلطان, translit=Ḫurrem Sulṭān, tr, Hürrem Sultan, label=Modern Turkish; 1500 – 15 April 1558), also known as Roxelana ( uk, Роксолана}; ), was the chief consort and legal wife of the Ottoma ...

.Minna Rozen: A History of the Jewish Community in Istanbul, The Formative Years, 1453 – 1566 (2002).

Biography

Strongilah was the daughter of the Karaite Jew Eliyah Gibor from

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

. She is the first kira in the

Imperial Harem The Imperial Harem ( ota, حرم همايون, ) of the Ottoman Empire was the Ottoman sultan's harem – composed of the wives, servants (both female slaves and eunuchs), female relatives and the sultan's concubines – occupying a secluded po ...

of which there is any information. She would have become a kira by presenting the

goods In economics, goods are items that satisfy human wants and provide utility, for example, to a consumer making a purchase of a satisfying product. A common distinction is made between goods which are transferable, and services, which are not tran ...

of her

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...

husband to the harem women. She acted as a go-between and provided

luxury Luxury may refer to: *Luxury goods, an economic good or service for which demand increases more than proportionally as income rises *Luxury tax, tax on products not considered essential, such as expensive cars **Luxury tax (sports), surcharge put ...

items, medicine and letters. Because of her services, Strongilah became the favoured kira of

. She was possibly the same kira who cured an eye illness of an unidentified sultan's mother and was greatly awarded for this. Abraham Danon, “The Karaites in European Turkey,”The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series 15, no. 3(1925): 323-324 When Hafsa Sultan became mother of the sultan in 1520, she successfully asked her son to grant the descendants of Strongilah the right to freedom from any

tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

es and the right to own

slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

s, a permit that was renewed five times until 1867. Strongilah is known to have had a room in the harem, because it is noted that the fire of the harem in 1541 caused her personal material losses. Due to the fact that they were several kiras working in the Imperial Harem in parallel, and that they are seldom documented by name (the different kiras are normally referred to only as kira, kyra, or Kyra Jewess), it is difficult to identify individual kiras and separate them from each other. In 1532, Hafsa Sultan sent a kira to act as a messenger to the Venetian ambassador Pietro Zen, and while the personal name of the kira isn't mentioned, it was likely Strongilah. As she is mentioned to have a room in the harem in 1541 and Hafsa died in 1534, Strongilah appears to have continued her career in the harem after Hafsa's death. She may have been the same unidentified ''kira'' who is noted to have performed secretarial tasks for

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * Ch ...

programs and has been mentioned in connection to Mihrimah Sultan, although

Esther Handali Esther Handali (died 18 or 19 December 1588Pedani, Maria Pia. “Safiye's Household and Venetian Diplomacy”. Turcica 32 (2000). ) was a Jewish Ottoman businesswoman. She was the influential favorite and ''Kira'' (business agent) of Nurbanu Su ...

could also have been this kira. Her later career may overlap somewhat with the early career of Esther Handali. Strongilah

converted to Islam Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...

under the name Fatma (

Fatima Fāṭima bint Muḥammad ( ar, فَاطِمَة ٱبْنَت مُحَمَّد}, 605/15–632 CE), commonly known as Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (), was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his wife Khadija. Fatima's husband was Ali, th ...

) shortly before her death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strongilah 15th-century births 1548 deaths Jews from the Ottoman Empire 16th-century businesspeople from the Ottoman Empire Jewish philanthropists 16th-century women from the Ottoman Empire 16th-century businesswomen 16th-century Sephardi Jews Converts to Islam from Judaism Turkish Jews Ottoman imperial harem Karaite Jews Jewish women in business Courtiers of the Ottoman Empire