Şadiye Sultan

Şadiye Sultan was born on 30 November 1886 in the Yıldız Palace. Her father was Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and her mother was Emsalinur Kadın,[1][2][3] the daughter of Ömer Bey and Selime Hanım.[4] She was the ninth child, and fifth daughter of her father and the only child of her mother.[5]

Şadiye Sultan's education took place in a study room in the Lesser Chancellery of the Yıldız Palace, together with her younger sister Ayşe 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.[6]

On 31 March 1909, Abdul Hamid betrothed her to Ali Namık Bey, son of Küçük Said Pasha. At the overthrew of her father in 1909, the princess followed her father into exile at Thessaloniki. The next year she returned to Istanbul. However, the engagement was broken off because of Said Pasha's attitude against her father. Enver Pasha also asked her hand in marriage, but she overturned this proposal, because he was involved in the deposition of her father.[7]

Şadiye married Fahir Bey, son of Galibpaşazade Mustafa Fazil Bey on 2 Demember 1910 in the Nişantaşı Palace. The couple had a daughter, Samiye Sultan born in 1918. Şadiye was widowed at Fahir Bey's death on 27 September 1922.[7][8]

At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, Şadiye Sultan settled in Paris, where she married Reşad Halis Bey on 28 October 1931. She was widowed at his death in November 1944.[8][1] The life of Şadiye Sultan, who is the only child of Emsalinur Kadın, was spent in agony like her mother. After staying at various places in Europe and America she returned to Istanbul in 1952. [9]

In 1966, Şadiye Sultan published her memoirs under the title Hayatımın acı ve tatlı günleri (The bitter and sweet days of my life).[10]

In 1952 Şadiye Sultan returned to Istanbul, and settled in Cihangir the same year her mother died on 20 November 1952,[11]she died in Cihangir on 20 November 1977 twenty-five years after the death of her mother, aged ninety, the last surviving child of Sultan Abdul Hamid II . She was buried in the tomb of her great-grandfather Sultan Mahmud II, located in Divanyolu, Istanbul.[2][8][7]

Together with Fahir Pasha, Şadiye had one daughter:

• Samiye Hanımsultan (Nişantaşı Palace, Istanbul c. 1918 - 20 November 1992), married, without issue; [8]

• In the 2017 TV series Payitaht: Abdülhamid, Şadiye Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress Leya Kırşan.

• Mustafa Çağatay Uluçay (2011). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Ankara, Ötüken.
• Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2008). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler. Oğlak Yayıncılık. ISBN 978-9-753-29623-6.
• The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher: Voices from the Ottoman Harem. University of Texas Press. 2010. ISBN 978-0-292-78335-5.