Şadiye Sultan

Şadiye Sultan was born on 30 November 1886 in the Yıldız Palace. Her father was Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and her mother was Emsalinur Kadın,[1][2][3][4] the daughter of Ömer Bey and Selime Hanım.[5] She was the ninth child, and fifth daughter of her father and the only child of her mother.[6]

Şadiye Sultan's education took place in a study room in the Lesser Chancellery of the Yıldız Palace, together with her younger sister Ayşe Sultan. Their instructors were the privy secretary Hasib Efendi and the Private Enciphering Secretary Kâmil Efendi. Hasib Efendi would give lessons in the Quran, Arabic, and Persian, while Kâmil Efendi was to teach Turkish reading and writing, Ottoman grammar, arithmetic, history, and geography.[7]

Şadiye Sultan young

On 31 March 1909, Abdul Hamid betrothed her to Ali Namık Bey, son of Küçük Said Pasha. At the overthrew of her father in 1909, the princess followed her father into exile at Thessaloniki. The next year she returned to Istanbul. However, the engagement was broken off because of Said Pasha's attitude against her father. Enver Pasha also asked her hand in marriage, but she overturned this proposal, because he was involved in the deposition of her father.[8] Her engagement was then set with a son of Zülüflü Ismail Pasha. He was congenial and handsome. However, then the government opposed the match.[9]

Şadiye Sultan's husband Fahir Bey and their daughter Samiye Hanımsultan

Samiye Hanımsultan

Şadiye was betrothed to Fahir Bey, son of Mustafa Fazıl Bey, and the grandson of Galib Pasha, the long-serving minister of pious foundations, rightly renowned for his uprightness and integrity. Fahir was an attractive, good-natured and well cultivated man.[9] The marriage took place on 2 December 1910 in the Nişantaşı Palace. The couple had a daughter, Samiye Hanımsultan born in 1918.[8][10]

In 1912, the "Hilal-i Ahmer Centre for Women" was organised within the "Ottoman Hilal-i Ahmer Association", a foundation established in 1877 to provide medical care in Istanbul and surrounding communities.[11] In May 1915, during the Gallipoli Campaign, as the member of this organisation, Şadiye donated two packages of cigarettes and some money to each of the soldiers at the hospital in Şişli.[12]

Şadiye was widowed at Fahir's death on 27 September 1922.[8][10]

Şadiye Sultan's second husband, Reşad Halis Bey

At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, Şadiye Sultan settled in Paris, where she married Reşad Halis Bey on 28 October 1931. In 1940, during ongoing World War II, the Germans invaded Paris, her husband, Reşad Bey, said to her, that they should leave France and settle somewhere else, but Şadiye Sultan disagreed and said “France is my second home. I have lived in comfort here. The disaster of France is my disaster. I would help the wounded soldiers.[13] She was widowed at his death in November 1944.[10][1]

After the death of her husband, Şadiye moved to Hotel Saint-Honore, and took a room adjacent to her brother Şehzade Abdurrahim Hayri,[14] until her return to Istanbul in 1952 after the revocation of the law for the princesses.[15]

In 1966, she published her memoirs under the title Hayatımın acı ve tatlı günleri (The bitter and sweet days of my life).[16] The same year she gave an interview about the life of her father, to reporter Muzaffer Budak Seyfettinoğlu from the magazine Yeni Istikal, whose 253rd issue was published on 15 June 1966.[17]

She died in Cihangir at the age of ninety on 20 November 1977, having outliving her mother by twenty-five years. She was the last surviving child of Sultan Abdul Hamid. She was buried in the tomb of her great-grandfather Sultan Mahmud II, located in Divanyolu, Istanbul.[2][10][8] Her daughter outlived her by fifteen years dying in 1992.[10]

• Order of the House of Osman[18]
• Order of the Medjidie, Jeweled[18]
• Order of Charity, 1st Class[18]
• Liakat Medal in Gold[18]
• Iftikhar Sanayi Medal in Gold[18]
• Hicaz Demiryolu Medal in Gold[18]

Together with Fahir Pasha, Şadiye had one daughter:

• Samiye Hanımsultan (Nişantaşı Palace, Istanbul c. 1918 - 20 November 1992), married, without issue;[10]

• In the 2017 TV series Payitaht: Abdülhamid, Şadiye Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress Leya Kırşan.

• 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. ISBN 978-9-754-37840-5.