Esperanza Malchi also spelled Malk or Malkhi (died 1 April 1600) was a Jewish Ottoman businesswoman. She was the influential favorite and Kira (business agent) of Valide Sultan Safiye. Life Early life Esperanza Malchi reportedly originated from Italy. She was married to a Jewish businessman, and had at least three sons. Due to the seclusion from the opposite sex and the outside world imposed upon the women of the Imperial Harem, male merchants were not allowed in to the harem, and a custom developed with merchant wives entering the harem to act as intermediary agents, displaying the goods to the prospective clients of the harem. These women were often Jews, who as non-Muslims were not subjected to the same gender segregation as Muslim women, and thus could act as the intermediaries of the harem women in several other areas, and many became successful businesswomen as agents to the harem women, particularly as widows. This would have been the background of Esperanza Malchi as well. Due to the fact that there were several kiras working in the Imperial Harem in parallel, and that they are seldom documented by name, it is difficult to identify individual kiras and separate them from each other. Esperanza Malchi, in particular, has often been confused with Esther Handali, who had a similar position to her and was active at the same time. When she first entered the harem is unknown, but her career does overlap with Esther Handali, who was employed by Nurbanu Sultan, the mother of sultan Murad III. Esperanza Malchi, however, was employed by Nurbanu Sultan's daughter-in-law Safiye, consort of Murad III and mother of sultan Mehmed III. Kira of Safiye Sultan Esperanza Malchi had the same favored position to Safiye Sultan, as Esther Handali had previously had to Nurbanu Sultan. As was common for a kira, she became the trusted confidant of her client, and her tasks soon expanded from acting as intermediary for merchant goods to acting as intermediary for other money transactions, and from there to further tasks between her client and the outside world. When Safiye became the valide sultan, mother and adviser of the reigning sultan (1595-1603), Handali's own influence reached its peak, and she was entrusted with political and diplomatic correspondence between Safiye and foreign powers. In the case of Esperanza Malchi, her position of favorite to Safiye Sultan was rumoured to be the result of a love