Behiye Sultan ( ota, بهیه سلطان, "''beautiful''"; 29 September 1881 – 5 March 1948) was the eldest survived daughter of

Şehzade Mehmed Selaheddin Şehzade Mehmed Selaheddin ( ota, شہزادہ محمد صلاح الدین; 12 August 1861 – 29 April 1915) was an Ottoman prince, the only son of Sultan Murad V, and his second wife Reftarıdil Kadın. Early life Şehzade Mehmed Selahedd ...

(1861–1915), who was the son of

Ottoman Sultan The sultans of the Ottoman Empire ( tr, Osmanlı padişahları), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to its dissolution in 1922. At its hei ...

Murad V Murad V ( ota, مراد خامس, translit=Murâd-ı ḫâmis; tr, V. Murad; 21 September 1840 – 29 August 1904) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire who reigned from 30 May to 31 August 1876. The son of Abdulmejid I, he supported the ...

(reigned 1876). Her mother was Naziknaz Hanım.

Early years

Behiye Sultan was born on was born on 29 September 1881 in the

Çırağan Palace Çırağan Palace ( tr, Çırağan Sarayı), a former Ottoman palace, is now a five-star hotel in the Kempinski Hotels chain. It is located on the European shore of the Bosporus, between Beşiktaş and Ortaköy in Istanbul, Turkey. The Sultan's ...

. Her father was

, son of

and Reftarıdil Kadın and her mother was Naziknaz Hanım. She had a brother, Şehzade

Ahmed Nihad Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

, two years younger than her, and a younger sister, Behice Sultan, stillbirth. Behiye married Hafız Hakkı Pasha (1878-1915), a general in the imperial Ottoman army, in a double wedding with her sister Rukiye Sultan. The marriage contract was concluded at the Ortaköy Palace on 17 February 1910. The wedding took place on 12 January 1911 at the Vasıf Pasha Palace, and the couple was given one of the palaces of Ortaköy as their residence. She remained childless. She did not remarry after her husband's death in 1915.

Exile

At the exile of imperial family in March 1924, she settled in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

. She lived in a tiny villa on Road 13. Her neighbors, the Wahid Raafat family, never saw anyone visit her. No one noticed when she moved out. All of a sudden she was replaced in the small house by astronomer Professor Khayri, director of the Helwan observatory. Sharing the same boisterous gardener 'Am Ibrahim,' the Raafats would send the princess home-baked

kahk Kahk in Jordan Kahk or Kahk el-Eid ( arz, كحك or ), is a small circular biscuit that originated in Egypt and is eaten across the Arab world to celebrate Eid al-Fitr and Easter. It is covered with powdered sugar and can be stuffed with ( , ...

during

Eid al-Fitr , nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast , observedby = Muslims , type = Islamic , longtype = Islamic , significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan , dat ...

. A few years later, by mere coincidence Dr. Wahid Raafat found himself wrongly implicated in an alleged royalist plot concocted by members of the princess's extended family. He was subsequently imprisoned, without trial, for several weeks.

Death

She died on 5 March 1948 in her home in Maadi, Cairo,

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, and was buried in the mausoleum of Abdul Halim Pasha.

Honours

* Order of the Medjidie, Jeweled * Order of Charity, 1st Class * Navy Medal in Gold

In literature

* Behiye Sultan is a character in Ayşe Osmanoğlu's historical novel The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus (2020).

Ancestry

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Behiye Sultan 1881 births Royalty from Istanbul 19th-century Ottoman princesses 20th-century Ottoman princesses Exiles from the Ottoman Empire Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Egypt 1948 deaths