Kösem Sultan

About Kösem Sultan

Kösem Sultan (c. 1590–1651) was one of the most powerful women in Ottoman history, achieving true political dominance as Valide Sultan (Queen Mother) and later Naib-i Saltanat (Regent) for her sons and grandsons. Ruling effectively behind the scenes for decades during a period of transition, her influence over the Sultanate and its military and political apparatus was immense, solidifying her position as the most powerful woman ever to hold authority in the Ottoman Empire. This considerable influence earns her a high historical rank of #682 in MIT’s Pantheon index.

Despite this significant historical weight, Kösem Sultan’s modern digital footprint is relatively modest. She garnered approximately 405K Wikipedia views in 2025. This places her attention roughly on par with her historical importance, as indicated by her ~1x Attention Gap. To put this in perspective, this is substantially less attention than other 20th-century politicians like Gamal Abdel Nasser (#813 importance) who achieved 968K views, suggesting a gap exists between the high-stakes power plays of the Ottoman court and contemporary internet curiosity.

Her digital interest appears to be waning slightly, evidenced by a year-over-year decline of -10.7% in pageviews, and a negative momentum of -18% comparing Q1 to Q3 of 2025, suggesting that historical interest in this formidable ruler is trending downward in the current digital landscape.