Princess Nazli Fazil

Princess Zainab Nazlı Khanum Effendi (1853 – 12 December 1913) was an Egyptian princess from the dynasty of Muhammad Ali of Egypt and one of the first women to revive the tradition of the literary salon in the Arab world, at her palace in Cairo from the 1880s until her death.

Princess Nazli Fazil by Gabriel Lekegian

Early life

Of Turkish origin,[1] Princess Nazlı Fazıl was born in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire, in 1853, the eldest child of Mustafa Fazıl Pasha, son of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt and brother of the future Khedive Isma'il Pasha,[2] and Dilazad Hanim. Her mother was Dazad Hanim. At the age of 13, she left Egypt for Constantinople upon her father's falling out with his brother, the Khedive, in 1866. In Constantinople, she was highly educated, against prevailing tradition, and entertained foreign visitors. She was a well educated and cultured lady who spoke Turkish, Arabic, French and English, and also Italian and German.

Influence

In December 1872, she married Turkish ambassador Halil Şerif Paşa (Khalil Bey), and moved briefly to Paris with him on his last post there.[3] It was not a happy marriage, and her one daughter, Hayya Khanum, died in infancy. Upon his death, she moved back to Cairo, Khedivate of Egypt, and settled in a palace located nearby to the royal Abdeen Palace, named "Villa Henry".[2]

In this palace, she began hosting soirees, and was friendly with the intellectual elites of her day, including the Egyptians, Muhammad Abduh, Saad Zaghloul, and Qasim Amin, and the British, Lord Cromer and Herbert Kitchener.[2] It is rumored that she was the individual who encouraged Saad Zaghlul to learn French in order to disseminate his writings more widely and also arranged his marriage to Safiyya Zaghlul. Additionally, it was at her insistence that Lord Cromer coordinated 'Abduh's return from exile in 1888.

Personal life

She married Khelil Bouhageb, son of Salem Bouhageb and eventual Prime Minister of Tunisia.[2]

In memoirs of her acquaintances, it is said that she had a quick wit and loved photographs, champagne, cigarettes and her pianola.[2]

She died from cardiac failure and was buried at the Fazil Mausoleum, Imam al-Shafi’i.

Patronages
  • Honorary President of the Musulmane Sporting Society of Tunis (1906-1913).

See also

Further reading
  • Roberts, Mary (2007). Intimate outsiders: the harem in Ottoman and Orientalist art and travel literature. Duke University Press.
  • Storrs, Ronald (1972). The memoirs of Sir Ronald Storrs. Ayer Publishing.
  • De Guerville, A. B. (1906). "New Egypt." E.P. Dutton & Company, New York.

References
  1. Labidi, Lilia (2017), "Tunisian Women's Literature of Denunciation", in Badri, Balghis; Tripp, Aili Mari (eds.), Women's Activism in Africa: Struggles for Rights and Representation, Zed Books, ISBN 978-1783609116, The Egyptian Princess Nazli Fadhel (1853–1913), of Turkish origin, started literary salons in Egypt.
  2. Mostyn, Trevor. (2006). Egypt's belle epoque : Cairo and the Age of the Hedonists. New York: Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1845112407. OCLC 73175079.
  3. Local/global : women artists in the nineteenth century. Cherry, Deborah., Helland, Janice. Aldershot [England]: Ashgate. 2006. ISBN 0754631974. OCLC 60776816.CS1 maint: others (link)
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