Fehime Sultan

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Fehime Sultan
Fehime Sultan.jpg
Fehime Sultan circa 1912
Born2 August 1875
Dolmabahçe Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
(now Istanbul, Turkey)
Died15 September 1929(1929-09-15) (aged 54)
Nice, France
Burial
Sultan Selim Mosque, Damascus, Syria
Spouse
Ali Galib Pasha
​
​
(m. 1901; div. 1911)​

Mahmud Behçet Bey
​
​
(m. 1911; her d. 1929)​
DynastyOttoman
FatherMurad V
MotherMeyliservet Kadın
ReligionSunni Islam

Fehime Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: فہیمه سلطان; 2 August 1875 – 15 September 1929) was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Sultan Murad V and his fourth wife Meyliservet Kadın.

Early life[]

Fehime Sultan was born on 2 August 1875 in the Dolmabahçe Palace. Her father was Murad V, son of Abdulmejid I and Şevkefza Kadın, and her mother was Meyliservet Kadın.[1][2] She was the third child, and second daughter born to her father and the only child of her mother.[3]

After Murad's accession the throne on 30 May 1876, after the deposition of his uncle Sultan Abdulaziz,[4] her family settled in the Dolmabahçe Palace. After reigning for three months, he was deposed on 30 August 1876,[5] due to mental instability and was imprisoned in the Çırağan Palace. Fehime and her mother followed him into confinement.[1][2][6]

Life in confinement[]

At the time of her family's confinement, Fehime Sultan was two years old.[7] Receiving her education in the palace, like her father, Fehime was interested in the arts and music, and learned piano and composed songs.[8] Amongst circles her nickname was Kelebek Sultan (Butterfly Princess), because of her outlandish art and expensive clothing styles.[9]

According to Filizten Hanım, Fehime had too simple personality and she thought herself terribly important. She was not particularly pretty but she fancied herself so and wanted everyone else to think so too. Above all she loved to be praised. She showed little inclination to read books despite the fact that she could read and write both Turkish and French. Instead she spent most of her time gazing into the mirror.[10]

First marriage[]

As years passed, her elder sister Hatice Sultan matured into a fully grown woman, she quite openly longed for a husband. At length, her complaints came to her father's attention, thanks to her mother and the older kalfas. Murad had her complaints sent to Abdul Hamid. The latter consider it his duty to find husbands for Fehime and her sister, but on one condition, that once they leave the palace they may not return.[11]

With that, the princesses were asked what they wished to do. Both preferred to leave Çırağan Palace and get married. Abdul Hamid had the two princesses brought up to Yıldız Palace. He ordered one of the villas at Ortaköy to be completely renovated and another new villa to be built. He had them completely furnished, then ordered photographs taken of them and sent the photographs to Murad.[12]

In October 1898,[13] Fehime and her sister Hatice Sultan met with the German empress Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, when the latter visited Istanbul with her husband the German emperor Wilhelm II.[14] At that time the two were living at Yıldız Palace. Abdul Hamid realized that if he introduced his own daughters to the Empress but didn't include them they would feel quite hurt, so he had them participate in the ceremony as well.[15]

In 1901, Abdul Hamid arranged her marriage together with her sister Hatice Sultan, and Sultan Abdülaziz's daughter Emine Sultan,[16] to another man of the same station and character as Hatice's husband, who was granted a rank as "Ali Galib Pasha".[17] The marriage took place on 12 September 1901 in the Yıldız Palace.[18] The couple were given one of the palaces of Ortaköy as their residence.[19]

Second marriage[]

Fehime had fallen in love with the office Mahmud Behçet Bey, who was five years younger than her. And so she divorced her husband in 1911, and married him the same year.[20]

Starting late in 1920, the then Ankara government organized two intelligence organizations based in Istanbul, the Müdafaa-i Milliye Grubu (Mim Mim group, National Defense Group), which brought together the remnants of the Karakol or Teşkilatı group which had been effectively suppressed by the second British occupation of the Ottoman capital, and the Felah group which was an entirely new and separate oranganization, established to keep and eye on the former Unionists as to smuggle arms, people, and to gather information.[21] Fehime and her cousin, Naime Sultan, daughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid II were active members of the organization.[22] Fehime was particularly a valuable source of information to the underground. She had no love for her uncle, Sultan Mehmed VI, who had kept the children of Sultan Murad under close surveillance. She was a passionate constitutionalist and a patriot. In 1911, she had composed a piano sonata, entitled "Pour La Constitution".[23][24]

At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, Fehime and her husband first settled in Vienna, Austria, and later Nice, France. In Nice Mahmud Behçet Bey, borrowed money from Fehime on the pretext of opening a shop. He started selling Turkish style ice cream in front of a grocery store in Rue de Congrés. However, things didn't went on well, and Mahmud left Fehime.[20][24]

Death[]

Fehime died of tuberculosis[20] on 15 September 1929, at the age of fifty-four and was buried in Sultan Selim Mosque, Damascus, Syria.[2][24][25][26]

Honours[]

Styles of
Fehime Sultan
Coat of arms of the Ottoman Empire (1882–1922).svg
Reference styleHer Imperial Highness
Spoken styleYour Imperial Highness

Legacy[]

Dresses attributed to her are preserved in the Topkapı Palace.[28]

In popular culture and literature[]

  • In the 2017 TV series Payitaht: Abdülhamid, Fehime Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress Elif Özkul.[29]
  • Fehime Sultan is a character in Ayşe Osmanoğlu's historical novel The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus (2020).[30]

Ancestry[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Uluçay 2011, p. 242.
  2. ^ a b c Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 663.
  3. ^ Adra, Jamil (2005). Genealogy of the Imperial Ottoman Family 2005. p. 21.
  4. ^ Roudometof, Victor (2001). Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy: The Social Origins of Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-0-313-31949-5.
  5. ^ Williams, Augustus Warner; Gabriel, Mgrditch Simbad (1896). Bleeding Armedia: Its History and Horrors Under the Curse of Islam. Publishers union. p. 214.
  6. ^ Brookes 2010, p. 64.
  7. ^ Brookes 2010, p. 99.
  8. ^ Beşiroğlu, Şehvar. "Türk Müzik Geleneğinde Kadınlardan Kadınca Müzik..." Türk Müzik Geleneğinde Kadınlardan Kadınca Müzik... Musiki Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  9. ^ Mourad, Kenizé (1991). Saraydan sürgüne. İsis. p. 6. ISBN 978-9-754-28021-0.
  10. ^ Brookes 2010, p. 109.
  11. ^ Brookes 2010, pp. 109–110.
  12. ^ Brookes 2010, p. 110.
  13. ^ Hidden, Alexander W. (1912). The Ottoman Dynasty: A History of the Sultans of Turkey from the Earliest Authentic Record to the Present Time, with Notes on the Manners and Customs of the People. N. W. Hidden. p. 417.
  14. ^ Brookes 2010, p. 165 n. 29.
  15. ^ Brookes 2010, p. 166.
  16. ^ Brookes 2010, p. 159.
  17. ^ Brookes 2010, p. 117 n. 88.
  18. ^ Brookes 2010, p. 115 n. 87.
  19. ^ Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 664.
  20. ^ a b c Ekinci, Ekrem. "BİR TAS ÇORBA UĞRUNA: FEHİME SULTAN'IN ACIKLI SONU". Ekrem Buğra Ekinci (in Turkish). Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  21. ^ Stanford Jay Shaw (2000). From Empire to Republic: The Turkish War of National Liberation, 1918-1923 : a Documentary Study. Turkish Historical Society. p. 1046. ISBN 978-975-16-1228-1.
  22. ^ Suna Kili'ye armağan: cumhuriyete adanan bir yaşam. Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınları. 1998. p. 333. ISBN 978-9-755-18124-0.
  23. ^ Criss, N B (January 1, 1999). Istanbul Under Allied Occupation, 1918-1923. BRILL. p. 120. ISBN 978-9-004-11259-9.
  24. ^ a b c Kalkan, Ersin (27 July 2002). "Ortaköy tarihten temizlendi sultanların kemikleri sızlıyor". Hürriyet. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  25. ^ "Sultan V. Murad Han". www.enfal.de. Enfal.de sitesi, Hasırcızade tarihi. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  26. ^ Brookes 2010, p. 281.
  27. ^ a b Yılmaz Öztuna (1978). Başlangıcından zamanımıza kadar büyük Türkiye tarihi: Türkiye'nin siyasî, medenî, kültür, teşkilât ve san'at tarihi. Ötüken Yayınevi. p. 165.
  28. ^ Scarce, Jennifer M. (2003). Women's Costume of the Near and Middle East. Psychology Press. pp. 83–6. ISBN 978-0-700-71560-2.
  29. ^ Payitaht: Abdülhamid (TV Series 2017– ), retrieved 2019-02-02
  30. ^ Her Imperial Highness Princess Fehime Sultan, 2020-01-10, retrieved 2020-11-05

Sources[]

  • Brookes, Douglas Scott (2010). The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher: Voices from the Ottoman Harem. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-78335-5.
  • Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2008). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler. Oğlak Yayıncılık. ISBN 978-9-753-29623-6.
  • Uluçay, Mustafa Çağatay (2011). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Ankara, Ötüken.
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