Mihrişah Sultan

Mihrişah Sultan (also spelled Mihr-i Şāh; c. 1745 – 16 October 1805), known as "the Georgian Beauty", was the consort to Ottoman Sultan Mustafa III, and the mother of Sultan Selim III and his de facto co-regent (as the Valide Sultan) for sixteen years from 1789 until 1805.

Of ethnic Georgian origin, she was the daughter of a Georgian Orthodox priest. Her given name is believed to have been Agnès (Georgian: აგნესა/Agnesa). She was beautiful, and was called "the Georgian Beauty" (Turkish: Gürcü güzeli). She received the name Mihr-î-Şah, meaning "Sun of the king".

She is described as a willing protagonist of the reforms of her son's reign. She was especially preoccupied in reforming the military schools and establishing diplomatic corps. She occasionly approached her son to beg a favour or an act of mercy. She founded many schools and mosques in the 1790s. In 1795, she founded the Mihrişah Valide Sultan School and Külliye in the region of Eyüp in Istanbul. In 1805, she ordered the construction of the Mihrişah Valide Sultan Fountain in Yeniköy in İstanbul. The imaret, which was built by the order of Mihrişah, is still in working order. She was the subject of a poem. Mihrişah Valide Sultan and her son Selim III were both members of the Mevlevi Order, which practiced Sufi whirling.