Zübeyde Hanım
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Zübeyde Hanım (1857 – 15 January 1923) was the mother of
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...
, the founder of the
Republic of Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. She was the only daughter of the Hacısofular family which included her two brothers. Zübeyde was born in Langaza village (now in Thessaloniki regional unit),
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
in 1857 as the daughter of a Turkish peasant. The Hacısofular family migrated to
Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...
after the collapse of the
Karamanids The Karamanids ( or ), also known as the Emirate of Karaman and Beylik of Karaman (), was a Turkish people, Turkish Anatolian beyliks, Anatolian beylik (principality) of Salur tribe origin, descended from Oghuz Turks, centered in South-Centra ...
.


Early life

Zübeyde Hanım was born in 1857 in Lagkadas to a Turkish family, and according to historian Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, she was of Turkic Yörük origin. Some alleged that she was of Slavic origin ( Pomak/ Torbeš) ancestry. It has been also claimed by some historians that she was of Albanian descent. Zübeyde spent her early life on a farm in what is today
southern Albania Southern Albania () is one of the three NUTS-2 Regions of Albania. It consists of five counties: Berat, Fier, Gjirokastër, Korçë and Vlorë. Combined, they have a population of 700,000 as of the 2023 census. The southwestern part of the c ...
, the daughter of a small tenant. She was described as blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and of robust stature. This ethnic background is believed to have influenced her son, Mustafa Kemal, later known as Atatürk. Zübeyde Hanım's education was basic and only consisted of learning to read and write. 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 Hanım was a devout Muslim and as a result of her pious upbringing she enrolled her son Mustafa in a local school (''mahalle mektebi''), an
Islamic school Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...
that teaches the
Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...
. Zübeyde Hanım's first marriage in 1871 was to
Ali Rıza Efendi Ali Rıza Efendi (1839–1888) was an official, and the father of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the husband of Zübeyde Hanım. He was born in Selanik (modern Thessaloniki in present-day Macedonia, Greece), back then the most important city ...
. She was 14 or 15 years old and he was 32. With her dark blonde hair, deep blue eyes and fair skin, she won the admiration of Ali Rıza, a border guard. Ali Rıza's older sister arranged this marriage - as was the tradition at that time. Zübeyde Hanım was in her early teens and 20 years younger than her husband. Their first child was Fatma, followed by Ömer and Ahmet, but they all died in childhood. In 1881, she gave birth to a son Mustafa, and a daughter, Makbule in 1885. Zübeyde Hanım, also gave birth to a daughter Naciye in 1889, but she died of
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
in childhood.


Zübeyde and Kemal

She was widowed at a young age, as her husband died when their son Mustafa was six years old. Following his death, Zübeyde Hanım moved with her two children, Mustafa and Makbule to live with her brother, Husein, who was the manager of a farm outside
Salonica Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...
. In her second marriage she was married to Ragıp Bey, who had four children from his previous marriage. She could not see Mustafa Kemal during the
Turkish War of Independence , strength1 = May 1919: 35,000November 1920: 86,000Turkish General Staff, ''Türk İstiklal Harbinde Batı Cephesi'', Edition II, Part 2, Ankara 1999, p. 225August 1922: 271,000Celâl Erikan, Rıdvan Akın: ''Kurtuluş Savaşı tarih ...
in 1919.


Later life

After the
Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...
, when the Ottomans lost Salonica to
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
, she moved to a house in
Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...
- Akaretler, Istanbul with her daughter Makbule. She moved to
Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...
in 1922, but the climate was not suitable for her, so she was sent to
İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...
. She died on 15 January 1923, and a memorial was built for her in 1940, where she rests now.


Notes


References

* The initial version of this article has been copied (with permission to copy and redistribute with proper attribution) from http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/archives.php?id=4000 : The permission is given by Yusuf Kanlı, the editor in chief of ''
Turkish Daily News Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...
''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Zubeyde Hanim 1857 births 1923 deaths People from Thessaloniki (regional unit) Mustafa Kemal Atatürk 19th-century people from the Ottoman Empire Macedonian Turks Turks from the Ottoman Empire