Refia Sultan (daughter of Abdul Hamid II)

Refia Sultan was born on 15 June 1891 in the Yıldız Palace. Her father was Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and her mother was Sazkar Hanım.[1][2][3] She was the eleventh child, and sixth daughter born to her father and the only child of her mother.[4]

Towards the end of Abdul Hamid's reign, he bethrothed Refia Sultan to Ali Fuad Bey, the son of Müşir Ahmed Eyüb Pasha. However, at the overthrew of her father in 1909, the princess followed her parents into exile at Salonica. The next year she returned to Istanbul.[3]

The marriage took place on 3 September 1910 in the Kızıltoprak Palace. The couple had two daughters, Rebia Hanımsultan born on 13 July 1911, and Ayşe Hanide Hanımsultan born in 1918.[5]

At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, the couple settled in Beirut, Lebanon.[3]

According to Neslişah Sultan, she was by far the worldliest among the daughters of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. She was a gracious lady, and her husband Fuad Bey was an excellent husband.[6]

Refia Sultan died at the age of forty seven in 1938 in Beirut, Lebanon and was buried in Sultan Selim Mosque, Damascus, Syria.[5][1][3][2] Her mother outlived her by seven years dying in 1945.

Together with Ali Faud, Refia had two daughters:

• Rebia Hanımsultan (Kiziltoprak Palace, 13 July 1911 – 19 June 1988, buried in Mahmud II Mausoleum), unmarried and without issue;
• Ayşe Hamide Hanımsultan (Kiziltoprak Palace, c. 1918 – c. 1934 in Nice, France, buried in Damascus, Sultan Selim Mosque, Syria)

• 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.