Ayesha Begum Giray, Khatun

Sultana-Princess Ayesha Begum (عایشه بيگم, before 1490- after 1512[1]) was a Giray princess, the daughter of Meñli I Giray of the Crimean Khanate. She was the wife of Ottoman prince Şehzade Mehmed, the son of Sultan Bayezid II and his wife Ferahşad Hatun.

Ayesha Begum was the sister of Ayşe Hafsa Sultan and the aunt of Sultan Selim's only heir and future successor, Süleyman the Magnificent. She was also the aunt of Suleiman's first wife Mahidevran Hatun and hence the sister of Mahidevran's mother Princess Nazjan Begum/Hatun. Before Mahidevran's marriage she also went back to Crimea and mediated her marriage with Suleiman.

Although the wedlocks of the Girays and members other reigning Muslim dynasties unknown. In 1504 at Kefe the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II (1481-1512) solicited the hand of Ayesha, for his son Şehzade Mehmed, Sancak Bey of Kefe, son of Ferahşad Hatun, Sultan Selim I's brother, and became widow by his death in 1507. Soon after her first husband's death, in 1511, the Crimean princess entered the harem of her husband's brother, the future Sultan Selim I (1513-20), when he was the governor of Amasya, thus securing for him, in the person of her powerful father, a valuable ally in the prince's struggle for the throne.[3][4] Soon Sultan Selim succeeded the throne as Selim I in 1512, moved to Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, along with his family to ascend the throne leaving Ayesha in Amasya. After Selim's accession she went back to Crimea. The burial place of Ayesha Begum is located at Crimea.