Fatma Sultan (daughter of Murad V)

Fatma Sultan was born on 19 June 1879, during the third year of her family's confinement in Çırağan Palace. Her father was Sultan Murad V, and her mother was Resan Hanım,[1][2][3] the daughter of Ömer Bey and Fatma Hanım.[4] She was the fourth child, and third daughter of her father and the eldest child of her mother. She had a sister, Aliye Sultan, one year younger than her.[5][3] She was the granddaughter of Abdulmejid I and Şevkefza Kadın.[6]

According to Filizten Hanım, she was calm, dignified, serious-minded, polite, and gentle. She spent an important part of her time in playing the piano and reading books in French.[3][7] After her father, Sultan Murad's death in 1904, her ordeal in the Çırağan Palace came to an end.[8]

In 1907, Abdul Hamid arranged Fatma's marriage[9] to Karacehennemzade Refik Bey who was eight years her junior,[6][5] son of Faik Bey, and grandson of Ibrahim Ağa. The marriage took place on 29 July 1907 in the Yıldız Palace. The couple was given Esma Sultan Mansion located in Ortaköy as their residence.[2][3][10]

The two together had four children, twins Ayşe Hatice Hanımsultan and Sultanzade Mehmed Ali Bey born on 20 January 1909, Sultanzade Mehmed Murad Bey born in August 1910 and died on January 1911, and Sultanzade Celaleddin Bey born on 23 April 1916.[6][10]

At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, every person had to leave Turkey in ten days. Fatma Sultan who had measles that time was allowed to reside in Istanbul, until she recovered. She and her family left Turkey in September 1925 making them the last imperial family members to leave Istanbul. They settled in Sofia, Bulgaria.[10][3][2][5]

Fatma Sultan died at the age of fifty one on 23 November 1930[11] in Sofia, Bulgaria, and was buried there.[3][5] Her husband outlived her by twenty-two years and died in 1952.[6]

Fatma And Refik Iris Bey had four children:

• Ayşe Hatice Hanımsultan (Istanbul, 20 January 1909 – 14 October 1968), unmarried, without issue;
• Sultanzade Mehmed Ali Bey (Istanbul 20 January 1909 – 1981), unmarried without issue;
• Sultanzade Mehmed Murad Bey (August 1910 - January 1911, buried in Yahya Efendi Cemetery);
• Sultanzade Celaleddin Bey (Istanbul, 23 April 1916 – 18 November 1997, buried in New Mosque), married with issue;

• In the 2017 TV series Payitaht: Abdülhamid, Fatma Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress Alara Turan.[14]
• Fatma Sultan is a character in Ayşe Osmanoğlu's historical novel The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus (2020).[15]

• 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.
• Yolcu, Cengiz (2018). Sofya'da Medfun Bir Osmanlı Sultanı: V. Murad'ın Kızı Fatma Sultan.