Kösem Sultan

About Kösem Sultan

Kösem Sultan was a towering figure in the early 17th-century Ottoman Empire, holding immense power as a Haseki Sultan, Valide Sultan, and Regent for two different sultans. Born around 1590, her political acumen was critical during a period of weakness for the empire. She masterminded the ascent and deposition of multiple heirs, effectively ruling the vast Ottoman domains for decades and shaping foreign policy through her regencies for her sons, Murad IV and Ibrahim, and later for her young grandson, Mehmed IV. This extensive period of direct political control firmly establishes her HPI Rank at #682 among global historical figures.

Despite this profound historical importance, Kösem Sultan currently experiences a notable attention gap in the modern digital sphere. In 2025, her Wikipedia page drew 408K annualized views, placing her Attention Gap at approximately 1x, meaning her online attention roughly matches her historical rank. This relatively modest visibility stands in contrast to contemporaries like Emperor Meiji (#822 importance), who secured 830K views, suggesting that figures from the Ottoman world, particularly powerful women who operated outside the European political narrative, may be underrepresented in current internet search traffic relative to their documented global influence.

Furthermore, the data indicates a recent cooling of interest, with a Year-over-Year Change of -9.9% and a -10% decline in momentum between Q1 and Q3 of 2025, suggesting her digital footprint is slightly shrinking.