Rukiye Sultan

Rukiye Sultan was born on 11 November 1906 in the Dolmabahçe Palace.[1] Her father was Şehzade Mehmed Ziyaeddin and her mother was Ünsiyar Hanım, the daughter of Firdevs Hanım.[2] She was the third child and daughter of her father and the second child of her mother. She had a sister, Dürriye Sultan, one year elder then her, and a brother Şehzade Mehmed Nazım, four years younger than her. She was the granddaughter of Sultan Mehmed V and Kamures Kadın.[3]

In 1915, she began her education with her sister and brother, her teacher was Safiye Ünüvar, on 24 May 1915, she started learning the Quran with her sister Dürriye,[4] She had to read the fourth part of Chapter Ya-Sin. On 19 August 1915, she and her sister completed the study of the Quran.[5] She was taught a poem called the "The Flag" written by Ibrahim Alaeddin for the ceremony. The ceremony took place in the Lesser Chancellery, and was attended by her father, uncle Şehzade Ömer Hilmi, and Rukiye Sultan and Adile Sultan, granddaughters of Murad V.[6] After reciting three chapters of the Quran, she recited the poem, after the ceremony, they were granted holidays for four days on the request of their mother.[7]

In 1918, after the death of her grandfather Mehmed V, she moved to her father's villa located at Haydarpasha, she occupied the first floor with her mother and sister.[8] In 1922, the empire was abolished and on 29 October 1923, Turkey was officially declared as a republic.[9]

At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, Rukiye and her family settled in Beirut, Lebanon. Here she met Abdülbaki Ihsan Bey, a descendant of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. He had taken part in the Turkish War of Independence, and had been stripped from his nationality, and was forbidden from returning to Turkey. The two married in 1924, and their only daughter, Emel Nuricihan Hanımsultan was born[10][11] on 15 June 1925.[3] Six months later after the birth, Rukiye became ill. They then went to Budapest, Hungary for treatment.[12]

Rukiye Sultan died on 20 February 1927 at the age of twenty, in Budapest, Hungary and was buried in the tomb of sixteenth century, Ottoman Sufi, Gülbaba.[11]

• 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.