Rukiye Sabiha Sultan

Rukiye Sabiha Sultan
Born	1 April 1894 Ortaköy Palace, Ortaköy, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Died	26 August 1971(1971-08-26) (aged 77) Yeniköy, Arnavutköy, Istanbul, Turkey
Burial	Aşiyan Asri Cemetery
Spouse	Șehzade Ömer Faruk
Issue	Fatma Neslişah Sultan Zehra Hanzade Sultan Necla Hibetullah Sultan
Dynasty	Ottoman
Father	Mehmed VI
Mother	Nazikeda Kadın
Religion	Islam

Rukiye Sabiha Sultan (1 April 1894 – 26 August 1971) was an Ottoman princess, the youngest daughter of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI and his first wife Nazikeda Kadın, the daughter of Prince Hassan Marshania and his wife Princess Fatma Horecan Aredba. She was the wife of Şehzade Ömer Faruk, son of Abdülmecid II the last caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate and his wife Şehsuvar Kadın, and the mother of Fatma Neslişah Sultan, Zehra Hanzade Sultan and Necla Hibetullah Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Biography

The youngest daughter of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI and his first wife Nazikeda Kadın, the daughter of Prince Hassan Marshania and his wife Princess Fatma Horecan Aredba. She was the half-sister of Şehzade Mehmed Ertuğrul, whose mother was Şadiye Müveddet Kadın, third wife of her father. Her betrothal to Ahmad Shah Qajar, the last ruling member of the Qajar dynasty and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was forfeited in favor of her cousin Şehzade Ömer Faruk thus missing her chance of becoming the first "First Lady" of the nascent Turkish Republic.

Rukiye Sabiha (third from right) on her wedding day

Şehzade Ömer Faruk married her on 29 April 1920 in the Yıldız Palace. Between 1921 and 1926, she bore him three daughters, Fatma Neslişah Sultan, Zehra Hanzade Sultan and Necla Hibetullah Sultan. In accordance with the Law number 431 of 3 March 1924, Rukiye with her husband and children came to the lists deportation. The family moved to Nice, where her youngest daughter Necla Sultan was born, and her older daughters were also educated here. After some time, Rukiye with her family moved to Switzerland and then to France and Egypt, where in 1940, her daughter Fatma Neslişah was married to Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim, son of Egypt's last khedive Abbas Hilmi II.

Her husband, Ömer Faruk divorced her in January 1948, while they were resident at Cairo and she returned to her homeland, where she received her citizenship and surname Osmanoğlu (literally: son, a descendant of the Ottomans). In 1948, Ömer Faruk married secondly another princess of the dynasty, Mihriban Mihrişah Sultan, a cousin of Rukiye Sabiha Sultan. Rukiye Sabiha Sultan died on 26 August 1971 in the mansion of her daughter Zehra Hanzade Sultan, and was buried in Aşiyan Cemetery.

References