Zübeyde Hanım was the mother of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey....

, the founder of the Republic of Turkey. She was the only daughter of the Hacısofular family which included her two brothers. Zübeyde was born in Langaza village in Thessaloniki Prefecture

Thessaloniki Prefecture

Thessaloniki is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the Region of Central Macedonia. Its capital is the city of Thessaloniki. It is the second most populous regional unit in Greece, behind Central Athens.-Geography:...

, Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 in 1857 as the daughter of a Turkish peasant.

Name conventions

Hanım is the respectful form of Mrs. and was always added after her name. Hacı, in Turkish, refers to those Muslims who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca

Hajj

The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...

. Sofular is the plural of Sofu, which means a religious devotee. It is assumed that some important person or persons in Zübeyde Hanım's ancestry had made the pilgrimage to Mecca and that her family had deep religious roots.

Early life

Zübeyde Hanım's education was basic and only consisted of learning to read and write. This was considered a high educational level when compared with that of the majority of women throughout the empire. The idea that, "Girls don't need to read," was widespread, and therefore families were reluctant to have their daughters be educated.

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 wanted her son Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey....

 to go to Mahalle Mektebi, a Islamic school

Madrasah

Madrasah is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious...

 that teaches the Qur'an

Qur'an

The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

.

Zübeyde Hanım's first marriage was to Ali Rıza Efendi

Ali Riza Efendi

Ali Rıza Efendi was the father of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the husband of Zübeyde Hanım.He was born in Thessaloniki, Ottoman Empire and worked as a customs official. He died in 1888, when his son was 7 years old...

. With her dark blonde hair, deep blue eyes and fair skin, she won the admiration of Ali Rıza, a border guard who insisted he would only marry a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman.

Ali Riza'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, then Ömer and Ahmet were born, but they all died in childhood.

Mustafa, later to become Atatürk, was born in 1881, followed by his sister Makbule in 1885. They had a sister Naciye, born in 1889, whom they lost because of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 in childhood.

Zübeyde and Kemal

Kemal's father, Ali Rıza

Ali Riza Efendi

Ali Rıza Efendi was the father of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the husband of Zübeyde Hanım.He was born in Thessaloniki, Ottoman Empire and worked as a customs official. He died in 1888, when his son was 7 years old...

, died when Mustafa Kemal was six years old, making her parental influence dominant. She was 27, Zübeyde Hanım and her two children lived for a period with her brother, Hüseyin, who was the manager of a farm outside Salonica.

Her second marriage to Ragıp Bey, who had four children from his previous marriage.
She could not see Mustafa Kemal during the Turkish War of Independence

Turkish War of Independence

The Turkish War of Independence was a war of independence waged by Turkish nationalists against the Allies, after the country was partitioned by the Allies following the Ottoman Empire's defeat in World War I...

 in 1919.

Later life

After the Balkan Wars

Balkan Wars

The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...

, when the Ottomans lost Salonica to Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, she moved to a house in Beşiktaş

Besiktas

Beşiktaş is a municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, and on the east by the Bosphorus...

-Akaretler, Istanbul with her daughter Makbule. She moved to Ankara

Ankara

Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....

 in 1922, but the climate was not suitable for her, so she was sent to İzmir

Izmir

Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...

. She died there in 1923, and a memorial was built for her in 1940, where she rests now.