Ottoman Dynasty Members Who Likely Died of the Plague
Şah Sultan Daughter of Selim I – certainly died of the plague.
Mihrimah Sultan – confirmed to have died during a major plague outbreak in Istanbul.
Seventeen daughters of Sultan Murad III – reported by Selânikî to have died in the Old Palace during the 1598 plague outbreak.
A daughter of Mehmed III – died in 1612, prompting Sultan Ahmed I to leave the palace and reside in Davud Paşa Palace.
Hanzade Sultan (daughter of Ahmed I and Kösem Sultan) – died of plague during Ramadan, confirmed by historian Naîmâ.
Rukiye Sultan (daughter of Murad IV) – died of the plague in 1696; her death was lamented in a poem by her nephew Mehmed Rızmî.
Likely (but not fully confirmed) cases:
Mahfiruz Hatun (mother of Osman II) – In my personal opinion, she may have died between 1610–1611 during the first major plague wave. This is not confirmed, but after extensive discussion with @rhaenahanzades, we considered it plausible since several foreign accounts mention plague outbreaks inside the palace during these years.
Fatma Sultan (daughter of Murad III) – possibly a plague victim; research on this point is ongoing.
Gevherhan Sultan (daughter of Ahmed I) – possibly died during the consecutive plague waves of 1630–1631.
Atike Sultan (daughter of Ahmed I) – may have died during the severe plague that struck the capital around late 1660 (probable).
Fatma Sultan (daughter of Sultan İbrahim) – likely died in mid-1662, possibly during a plague wave.
Fatma Sultan (daughter of Mehmed IV) – rumored to have died young from plague, but no primary source has been found to confirm this
" The English traveler Alexander William Kinglake, in his work Eothen, notes that the plague was first observed in Istanbul in 1615, and that further outbreaks occurred in 1617, 1620, 1637, 1650, and 1655.
Beyond the epidemics recorded in the Ottoman lands during the 17th and 18th centuries, Europe also experienced major plague outbreaks: Verona and Milan in 1630, Florence in 1630–1631, Venice in 1631, Genoa in 1656, London in 1664–1665, and Marseille in 1721. While plague outbreaks began to decline in the second half of the 19th century, the disease was gradually replaced in the Ottoman Empire by cholera. Ultimately, a new wave of plague emerged in the late 19th century, originating in Southeast Asia and spreading across the world. The plague continued to exist from the late 19th century until the mid-20th century."
" according to the French traveler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who visited Izmir in 1632, the annual outbreaks of plague in the city were caused by the stagnant water that accumulated around the city during winter and was never drained. After the plague waves that appeared in June and July, malaria would break out in September and October, causing even more deaths than the plague.In 1660, a massive fire destroyed a large part of Istanbul, killing around 40,000 people. The plague that erupted in the aftermath of the fire led to thousands more deaths, and the presence of unburied corpses eaten by rats accelerated the spread of the disease throughout the city. Epidemics that followed major disasters made already difficult conditions even worse.During the plague outbreaks that struck Europe in 1664, travelers were required to carry special transit permits called bollette/bollettini to prevent the spread of infection, enforce controls, and collect information on people’s movements. "
