Mihrimah Sultan ( ota, مھرماہ سلطان; "''sun and moon''" or "''light of the moon''"; after marriage princess Mihrimah Sultan Nayef; 14 April 1923 – 30 March 2000) was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of

Şehzade Mehmed Ziyaeddin Şehzade Mehmed Ziyaeddin ( ota, شهزادہ محمد ضیاالدین; 26 August 1873 – 30 January 1938) was an Ottoman prince, eldest son of Sultan Mehmed V and his senior consort Kamures Kadın. Early life Şehzade Mehmed Ziyaeddin was bor ...

, son of

Mehmed V Mehmed V Reşâd ( ota, محمد خامس, Meḥmed-i ḫâmis; tr, V. Mehmed or ; 2 November 1844 – 3 July 1918) reigned as the 35th and penultimate Ottoman Sultan (). He was the son of Sultan Abdulmejid I. He succeeded his half-brother ...

. She was a Jordanian princess as wife of

Prince Nayef bin Abdullah Prince Nayef bin Abdullah (14 November 1914 – 12 October 1983) was the younger son of King Abdullah I of Jordan, by his second wife, Suzdil Khanum. Nayef attended Victoria College in Cairo. He underwent Military training in Turkey, being assi ...

, the son of

Abdullah I of Jordan AbdullahI bin Al-Hussein ( ar, عبد الله الأول بن الحسين, translit=Abd Allāh al-Awwal bin al-Husayn, 2 February 1882 – 20 July 1951) was the ruler of Jordan from 11 April 1921 until his assassination in 1951. He was the Emir ...

, emir of

Emirate of Transjordan The Emirate of Transjordan ( ar, إمارة شرق الأردن, Imārat Sharq al-Urdun, Emirate of East Jordan), officially known as the Amirate of Trans-Jordan, was a British protectorate established on 11 April 1921,

Early life

Mihrimah Sultan was born on 14 April 1923, in her father's villa located at Haydarpasha. Her father was

, son of Sultan

Mehmed VI Mehmed VI Vahideddin ( ota, محمد سادس ''Meḥmed-i sâdis'' or ''Vaḥîdü'd-Dîn''; tr, VI. Mehmed or /; 14 January 1861 – 16 May 1926), also known as Şahbaba () among the Osmanoğlu family, was the 36th and last Sultan of the O ...

and

Kamures Kadın ota, کامرس قادین , spouse = , issue = Şehzade Mehmed Ziyaeddin , house = , father = , mother = , birth_date = 5 March 1855 , birth_place = Ganja , death_date = , death_place = Şehzad ...

and her mother was Neşemend Hanım. She was the eight child and youngest daughter of her father and the only child of her mother. She was the first princess to be born after the abolition of the empire. She had green eyes. She lived on the second floor with her mother at her father's villa, which was occupied by her mother after her father divorced his wife Melekseyran Hanım. On 29 October 1923, Turkey was officially declared republic and on 3 March 1924, the Caliphate was abolished and the imperial family was sent to exile. The princess settled at

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

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 ...

with her family. She lost her mother when was only twelve in 1934, and her father in 1938, when she was fifteen. She was educated in Paris and in Cairo, and was adorned with charm, nobility, and a mind of her own.

Marriage

In 1940, during the ongoing

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Mihrimah married

of Jordan, youngest son of King

. The marriage contract was signed on 30 September 1940 and the wedding was held on 7 October 1940 in the villa of Mihrimah's elder half-sister Lütfiye Sultan, which was a wartime scene during the wedding. The wedding was a major national event in Jordan, lasting seven days and seven nights. The couple moved to

Amman Amman (; ar, عَمَّان, ' ; Ammonite language, Ammonite: 𐤓𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''Rabat ʻAmān'') is the capital and largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of 4,061,150 a ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

after the wedding. Her title in Jordan was "Princess Mihrimah Naif" ( ar, أميرة مهرماه نايف). On 10 August 1941, she gave birth to the couple's first child Prince Ali bin Nayef, he was followed by another son Prince Abubakr Asem bin Nayef, born on 27 April 1948. She was a great deal more independent and free-thinking than most other women of her standing, and unlike other women of the court, who hid their faces behind black veils, she used only a light transparent veil to cover half her face. After King Abdullah was killed in Jerusalem, his eldest son

Talal of Jordan Talal bin Abdullah ( ar, طلال بن عبد الله, ; 26 February 1909 – 7 July 1972) was King of Jordan from the assassination of his father, King Abdullah I, on 20 July 1951 until his forced abdication on 11 August 1952. As a member of t ...

became the king in 1951, and her husband Nayef became heir to the throne. However, King Talal lost his mental balance, was deposed and sent to

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

in 1952, where he spent his life in Healing Dormitory in

Ortaköy Ortaköy ( ''Middle Village)'' is a neighbourhood within the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul, Turkey, on the European shore of the Bosphorus. it was originally a small fishing village, known in Greek as Agios Fokas (Άγιος Φωκάς) in t ...

. Prince Nayef was the one who would succeed the throne, however, he rejected and said "I am not interested in politics". After which Talal's elder son Hussein I of Jordan succeeded to the throne. Mihrimah and Prince Nayef resided in Amman, as the senior members of the dynasty.

Later life and death

After her husband's death in 1983, she went on to live in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

for some time and returned to Jordan. She died in Amman on 30 March 2000 at the age of seventy-seven. Her cause of death was blood cancer. Her funeral was attended by the family members living in Turkey. She was buried on 2 April 2000 in the mausoleum of her grandfather in

Eyüp Eyüp () or Eyüpsultan is a district of the city of Istanbul, Turkey. The district extends from the Golden Horn all the way to the shore of the Black Sea. Eyüp is also the name of a prominent neighborhood and former village in the district, lo ...

, Istanbul.

Issue

By her marriage, Mihrimah Sultan had two sons: *Prince ''Sultanzade'' Ali bin Nâyef (b. 10 August 1941). He married Wijdan Muhana (b. 1939,

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

) on 11 April 1966. They have three daughters and a son: **Princess Naafa bin Ali (b. 27 December 1966) **Princess Rajwa bin Ali (b. 29 June 1968) **Princess Basma Fatima bin Ali (b. 24 March 1970) **Prince Mohammed Abbas bin Ali (b. 17 February 1973) * Prince ''Sultanzade'' Abubakr Asem bin Nâyef (b. 27 April 1948). He married twice: **

Firouzeh Vokhshouri Firouzeh Vokhshouri is a Jordanian diplomat and former member of the Jordanian royal family. She was married to Prince Asem bin Nayef from 1974 through 1985. Career Vokhshouri has been an attaché at the Jordanian Embassy in Madrid Madri ...

. They have three daughters: ***Princess Yasmin bin Asem (born 30 June 1975), married on 2 September 2005 Basel Yaghnam. *** Princess Sara bin Asem (born 12 August 1978), married on 26 June 2008 Alejandro Garrido. They have a son and a daughter. *** Princess Noor bin Asem (born 6 October 1982), married from 29 August 2003 until 9 September 2009

Prince Hamzah bin Hussein Hamzah bin Hussein, ( ar, حمزة بن الحسين; born 29 March 1980) is the fourth son of King Hussein bin Talal of Jordan overall and the first by his American-born fourth wife, Queen Noor. He was named Crown Prince of Jordan in 1999, a ...

. They have a daughter. Married from 22 June 2018

Amr Zedan Amr F. Zedan (born 17 September 1974) is a Saudi Arabian businessmana serial venture capital investor thoroughbred horse breeder, and the Chairman of thSaudi Polo Federation Education Zedan obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial e ...

. They have two sons. ** Sanaa Kalimat. They have two daughters and a son: *** Princess Salha bin Asem (born 14 June 1987), married on 4 April 2011 Mohammad Hashim Haj-Hassan. They have a daughter and two sons. *** Princess Nejla bin Asem (born 9 May 1988), married On 23 October 2014 Nasser Osama Talhouni. They have two children. ***Prince Nâyef bin Asem (born 22 January 1998), married on 13 April 2021 Sharifa Farah Alluhaymaq.

Ancestry

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mihrimah Sultan 1922 births 2000 deaths Royalty from Istanbul 20th-century Ottoman princesses Turkish expatriates in Egypt Expatriates in Jordan