An anonymous miniature album circa 1650 contains a portrait of Kösem Sultan, the valide sultan. She is depicted sitting on a golden throne, her hands palm down on her thighs, wearing a gold head covering and fur-lined, gold-pinstriped light blue cloak over a pink garment and gold sash. All the symbols of royal power—gold, fur, and throne—illustrate her might. Yet knowing the reign of her son Ibrahim was effectively over, she attempted to control the process of transition to ensure her continued relevance. The valide sultan refused to send Ibrahim’s oldest son, Mehmed, to Ahmed I’s mosque (popularly known as the Blue Mosque) on the Hippodrome to receive the Janissaries’ and sipahis’ oath of allegiance, demanding that they come to the palace for the enthronement.

• Contemporary Ottoman portrait of the the Queen (La Regine Kösem Sultan), circa 1650. Album of Claes Rålamb.
• "An anonymous miniature album circa 1650 contains a portrait of Kösem Sultan, the valide sultan (figure 1.1). She is depicted sitting on a golden throne, her hands palm down on her thighs, wearing a gold head covering and fur-lined, gold-pinstriped light blue cloak over a pink garment and gold sash. All the symbols of royal power—gold, fur, and throne—illustrate her might. (...) FIGURE 1.1. Mehmed IV’s fi rst regent, Kösem Sultan. Anonymous, “Valide Sultan/la Maore Regina,” Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek, Lipperheide OZ 52, 68" in (2011) Honored by the glory of Islam: conversion and conquest in Ottoman Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 25−26 ISBN: 978-0199797837.