Ayşe Sultan (daughter of Abdul Hamid II)

Ayşe Sultan in 1899, aged twelve

Ayşe Sultan was born on 31 October 1887 in the Yıldız Palace.[1] Her father was Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and her mother was Müşfika Kadın, the daughter of Gazi Ağır Mahmud Bey and Emine Hanım.[2][3] She was the tenth child and sixth daughter born to his father, but the only child of her mother.[4][5] She was the granddaughter of Sultan Abdulmejid I and Tirimüjgan Kadın.[6]

Ayşe's education took place in a study room in the Lesser Chancellery of the Yıldız Palace, together with her elder sister Şadiye 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]

Ayşe took her piano lessons from the hazinedar Dürrüyekta (who later became the wife of her eldest brother Şehzade Mehmed Selim). She was herself the student of François Lombardi, who had been hired as instructor to the Imperial Corps of Music and from whom Ayşe also took lessons once a week.[8]

Ayşe Sultan was bethrothed to Ahmed Nami Bey, son of Fahri Bey, in 1908 during the last year of her father's reign.[9] However, at the overthrew of her father in 1909, the princess followed her parents into exile at Thessaloniki. The next year she returned to Istanbul.[4][10]

The marriage took place in June 1910 in the Dolmabahçe Palace, together with her sisters, Şadiye Sultan and Refia Sultan. The marriage ceremony was performed by Şeyhülislam Musa Kazım Efendi. The wedding reception took place two months later on 9 August 1910 in the Bebek Palace.[9][5][6]

The couple's first child, a son, Sultanzade Ömer Nami Bey was born on 4 November 1911 in the Bebek Palace. He was followed by Aliye Namiye Hanımsultan born on 7 February 1913, who died at the age of two months on 9 April 1913.[6] Before her father's death, Ayşe went to Switzerland,[11] where the couple's third child, a son, Sultanzade Osman Nami Bey was born on 13 January 1918 in Geneva.[6]

Ayşe Sultan and her husband divorced in 1921.[12] After her divorce, she married Yarbay Mehmed Ali Bey, son of Rauf Pasha on 3 April 1921 in the Nişantaşı Palace. The two together had one son, Sultanzade Abdul Hamid Rauf Bey born in 1921. At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, Ayşe, her husband and children settled in Paris. She was widowed at her husband's death in 1937.[12][6][9] Her mother, on the other hand, chose to remain in Turkey, so that the two did not see one another for some 28 years, until the princess's return from exile in 1952.[4]

Ayşe Sultan wrote her memoir in Istanbul after her return from exile, completing it by 1955. Ayşe, for large portions of the memoir she relied on the memory of her mother, as the two lived together the princess's return to Turkey. The work originally appeared in the serial format in the Turkish popular magazine Hayat in the late 1950s, followed by its publication as a book in Istanbul in 1960, shortly before the princess's death. The fact that the memoir was written as a magazine serial accounts for its format.[4][13][14]

At its publication, the major attraction of the book lay in the princess's recollections of her famous parent. Recognizing this, she titled her memoir Babam Sultan Abdülhamid (Turkish for "My Father, Sultan Abdul Hamid"). In it she crafted a personal view of Abdul Hamid the man the father, a kind of personal vindication to counteract what she saw as the distorted public image of the controversial ruler whose 33-year reign ended in dethronement and vilification.[15]

Ayşe Sultan died on 10 August 1960 at the Serencebey Yokuşu, at the age of 72, and was buried in the imperial mausoleum at the Yahya Efendi dervish convent, adjacent to Yıldız Palace. Her mother survived her by nearly a year, dying in 1961.[4][13]

Together with Ahmed Nami, Ayşe had three children:

• Sultanzade Omer Nami Bey (Istanbul, Bosphorus, Bebek Palace, 4 November 1911 - Lausanne, Switzerland, 17 March 1993) married with issue;[6]
• Aliye Namiye Hanımsultan (7 February 1913 - 9 April 1913, buried in Şehzade Ahmed Kemaleddin Mausoleum, Yahya Efendi Cemetery);[6]
• Sultanzade Osman Nami Bey (Geneva, Switzerland, 13 January 1918 - Istanbul, Turkey, 15 July 2010, buried in Mahmud II Mausoleum),[18] married with issue;[6]

Together with her second husband Mehmed Ali Bey, she had a son

• Sultanzade Abdul Hamid Rauf Bey (October 1921 - 11 March 1981, buried in Yahya Efendi Cemetery);[6]

• In the 2003 film Abdülhamid Düşerken, Ayşe Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress Selin Demiratar.
• In the 2011 TV series Kirli Oyunlar, Ayşe Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress Sıla Çetindağ.[19]

• List of Ottoman princesses

• 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.

• Biography of Hamide Ayşe Sultan (in Turkish)