Şehsuvar Hanım

Şehsuvar Hanım
An 1898 painting of Şehsuvar Hanım, painted by her husband
Calipha consort of the Ottoman Caliphate
Tenure 19 November 1922 – 3 March 1924
Born 2 May 1881
Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Died c. 1945 (aged 63–64)
Paris, France
Burial Bobigny cemetery
Spouse Abdülmecid II
Issue Şehzade Ömer Faruk
Full name
Turkish: Şehsuvar Hanım
English: Shehsawar Khanum
Ottoman Turkish: شہسوار خانم‎
House House of Osman (by marriage)
Religion Sunni Islam

Şehsuvar Hanım (Ottoman Turkish: شہسوار خانم‎; 2 May 1881 – c. 1945) was the first wife of Abdülmecid II, the last Caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate.

Life

Şehsuvar (far right) at her son's wedding, 29 April 1920

Şehsuvar Hanım was born on 2 May 1881 in Istanbul. She belonged to the Ubykh clan of Circassia. Her personal name is not known. At a young age her father, himself attendant at the court, presented her in the imperial harem. She was renamed Şehsuvar and was given education, and lessons of painting and playing piano in Şehzade Abdülmecid's harem. She had honey color eyes and long golden blonde hair.[1] Şehsuvar grew into a young lady in Şehzade Abdülmecid's harem, when at the age of fifteen, she was selected a bride for him. The marriage took place on 22 December 1896, in the Ortaköy Palace, Istanbul. Şehzade Ömer Faruk, the couples only son was born on 29 February 1898.[2] On 4 March 1924 she followed her husband into exile, with the other members of the entourage. They moved firstly to Switzerland and then to France where they settled in Paris.

In paintings

A painting by Abdülmecid depicting Şehsuvar playing violin, lady Ophelia playing piano, and his son Ömer Faruk plays cello as other two women, listen with rapt attention at his summer palace in Bağlarbaşı.

In an 1898 work by Abdülmecid, Pondering/Goethe in the harem, Şehsuvar is shown reclining on a settee.[3] However, according to an interview with Fatma Neslişah Sultan Osmanoğlu on 26 May 2002, she said that the figure does not resemble her paternal grandmother Sehsuvar Hanım.[4] In another work of 1915, Harmony of the Harem/Beethoven in the Harem, by her husband, she is shown playing a violin.[3]

Death

She died in 1945, having outlived her husband by nearly one year, and was buried in the Muslim Bobigny cemetery in Paris.[1][2][5]

References

  1. 1 2 Harun Açba (2007). Kadın efendiler: 1839-1924. Profil. pp. 205–7. ISBN 978-9-759-96109-1.
  2. 1 2 Genealogy Of The Imperial Ottoman Family (2005)
  3. 1 2 Wendy M. K. Shaw (March 15, 2011). Ottoman Painting: Reflections of Western Art from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic. I.B.Tauris. pp. 85–8. ISBN 978-1-848-85288-4.
  4. ↑ Ömer Faruk Şerifoğlu (2004). Abdülmecid Efendi, Ottoman prince and painter. YKY. p. 103. ISBN 978-9-750-80883-8.
  5. ↑ Yılmaz Öztuna (1989). İslâm devletleri: devletler ve hanedanlar. Kültür Bakanlığı. ISBN 978-9-751-70469-6.
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