Seniha Sultan ( ota, سنیحه سلطان; "''Pearl''"; 5 December 1851 – 15 September 1931) was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Sultan
Abdulmejid I
Abdulmejid I ( ota, عبد المجيد اول, ʿAbdü'l-Mecîd-i evvel, tr, I. Abdülmecid; 25 April 182325 June 1861) was the 31st Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and succeeded his father Mahmud II on 2 July 1839. His reign was notable for the ...
and
Nalandil Hanım. She was the half-sister of Sultans
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 ...
,
Abdul Hamid II
Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid II ( ota, عبد الحميد ثانی, Abd ül-Hamid-i Sani; tr, II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 10 February 1918) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 31 August 1876 to 27 April 1909, and the last sultan to ...
,
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 ...
, and
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 ...
.
Early life
Seniha Sultan was born on 5 December 1851 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 Sultan
Abdulmejid I
Abdulmejid I ( ota, عبد المجيد اول, ʿAbdü'l-Mecîd-i evvel, tr, I. Abdülmecid; 25 April 182325 June 1861) was the 31st Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and succeeded his father Mahmud II on 2 July 1839. His reign was notable for the ...
and her mother was
Nalandil Hanım. She was the eldest child of her mother. She had a younger brother Şehzade Mehmed Abdüssamed, one year younger than her and a younger sister Şehime Sultan three years younger than her. Both of her parents died when she was a young.
Marriage
In 1876, her brother Sultan
Abdul Hamid II
Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid II ( ota, عبد الحميد ثانی, Abd ül-Hamid-i Sani; tr, II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 10 February 1918) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 31 August 1876 to 27 April 1909, and the last sultan to ...
betrothed her to
Asaf Mahmud Celaleddin Pasha, a man who was two years her junior and who had a promising future, and the son of Grand Admiral
Damat Gürcü Halil Rifat Pasha
Damat Gürcü Halil Rifat Pasha, ( ota, داماد کرجی خلیل رفعت پاشا; 1795 – 3 March 1856) was an Ottoman admiral and statesman of Georgian origin. He served in the periods of Mahmud II and Abdulmejid I.
Career
Halil Rifat ...
. Her dowry was prepared with her half-sisters
Behice Sultan
Behice Sultan ( ota, بهيجه سلطان; "''Happy''"; 6 August 1848 – 30 November 1876) was an Ottoman princess, daughter of Sultan Abdulmejid I and Nesrin Hanım. She was the half-sister of Sultans Murad V, Abdul Hamid II, Mehmed V, and Me ...
,
Mediha Sultan
Mediha Sultan ( ota, مدیحه سطان; "''the praised one''"; 30 July 1856 – 9 November 1928) was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Sultan Abdulmejid I and Gülistü Kadin. She was the full sister of Sultan Mehmed VI and the half-si ...
and
Naile Sultan. The marriage contract was concluded on 5 December 1876 at the
Yıldız Palace
Yıldız Palace ( tr, Yıldız Sarayı, ) is a vast complex of former imperial Ottoman pavilions and villas in Istanbul, Turkey, built in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was used as a residence by the sultan and his court in the late 19th ...
. However, the wedding was delayed because of the death of her elder sister Behice Sultan, sick with tuberculosis since childhood and to which Seniha had been very close, constantly writing her affectionate letters. The wedding finally took place on 10 February 1877. In 1879, she gave birth to her first son
Sultanzade Sabahaddin Bey, and a year later to her second son Sultanzade Ahmed Lütfullâh Bey.
Among Seniha's ladies-in-waiting was
Resan Hanım
Resan Hanım ( ota, رسان خانم, "''softness''" or "''bright''"; 28 March 1860 – 31 March 1910) was a consort of Sultan Murad V of the Ottoman Empire.
Biography
Resan Hanım was born on 28 March 1860 in Artvin in the Caucasus. She was Ge ...
, who would later become one of the consorts of her half-brother
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 ...
. Her other two ladies,
Dilaviz Hanim and Zeliha Vasfıcihan Hanım, married Murad's son
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 ...
instead.
Seniha hadn't been on good terms with Abdul Hamid for unknown reasons, and so in 1878, she and her husband, and her siblings including her brothers
Prince Ahmed Kemaleddin, and
Prince Selim Suleiman, and sister
Princess Fatma, were all involved in the Ali Suavi incident with the objective of restoring Murad to the throne. In October 1898, she met with the German Empress
Augusta Victoria
, house = Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg
, father = Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein
, mother = Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Dolzig Palace ...
in the harem of the
Yıldız Palace
Yıldız Palace ( tr, Yıldız Sarayı, ) is a vast complex of former imperial Ottoman pavilions and villas in Istanbul, Turkey, built in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was used as a residence by the sultan and his court in the late 19th ...
, when the latter visited Istanbul for a second time with her husband Emperor
Wilhelm
Wilhelm may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm"
* Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
Other uses
* Mount ...
In her memoir,
Ayşe Sultan, daughter of
Abdülhamid II
Abdülhamid or Abdul Hamid II ( ota, عبد الحميد ثانی, Abd ül-Hamid-i Sani; tr, II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 10 February 1918) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 31 August 1876 to 27 April 1909, and the last sultan to ...
, remembered: "Familiar as he was with his sisters' (Seniha Sultan and
Mediha Sultan
Mediha Sultan ( ota, مدیحه سطان; "''the praised one''"; 30 July 1856 – 9 November 1928) was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Sultan Abdulmejid I and Gülistü Kadin. She was the full sister of Sultan Mehmed VI and the half-si ...
) habit of chattering away rapidly and guffawing, Abdülhamid II had counseled and beseeched them to behave in a dignified fashion, but nonetheless the sisters fell back on their old habits. Baba ("dad", the Sultan Abdülhamid II) felt compelled to tell the Empress, "Please forgive my sisters, they're a bit nervous."".
Seniha Sultan's husband was very critical of her brother Abdul Hamid's governance, never missing an occasion to speak out. Eventually he had had enough of being followed and spied on, so in 1899, he took both of his sons fled to Europe, where four years later he died in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
and was buried in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. Her sons were able to return to Istanbul only in 1908, after the declaration of the second constitution. For this reason she was not particularly welcome at the palace.
Exile and death
At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, Seniha was the oldest living Ottoman princess, age seventy-three. She had no money of her own, and her sons were too busy with their affairs to care of her, so she went to exile alone. Her half-brother, the deposed Sultan Mehmed, who went to live in
San Remo gave her refuge in his home, the Villa Magnolia, where she lived until his death in 1926. After Mehmed's death, she didn't have enough money on her own to rent a house, and so slept in the public gardens of
Cimiez
Cimiez (; Italian: ''Cimella'') is an upper class neighborhood in Nice, Southern France. The area contains the Musée Matisse and the ruins of ''Cemenelum'', capital of the Ancient Roman province Alpes Maritimae on the Ligurian coast. ''Cemenel ...
,
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
. Somehow her younger son Lütfullah figured out about his mothers way of living, he came to Nice, and took his mother to
Abdulmejid II
Abdulmejid II ( ota, عبد المجید ثانی, ʿAbdü'l-Mecîd-i sânî, tr, II. Abdülmecid, 29 May 1868 – 23 August 1944) was the last Caliph of the Ottoman Dynasty, the only Caliph of the Republic of Turkey, and nominally the 3 ...
's Villa, who gave her a room in the attic. Where she lived in a miserable way.
Seniha Sultan died at the Villa Carabacel on 15 September 1931 at age seventy-nine in
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
the last surviving child of Abdulmejid, and was buried in the cemetery of the
Sulaymaniyya Takiyya
The Sulaymaniyya Takiyya ( ar, التَّكِيَّة السُّلَيْمَانِيَّة, at-Takiyya as-Sulaymāniyya), known in Turkish as , is a ''takiyya'' ( Ottoman-era Arabic name for a mosque complex which served as a Sufi convent) in Dam ...
in
Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
.
Her burial was very difficult. In Nice at the time there were no Muslim cemeteries, so she must be buried in a Muslim country, but that was an expensive undertaking and her family had no money, not even to pay the rent of a place in the morgue for a long time, where his body, embalmed at the cheapest rate, had been placed in waiting for a solution.
However, her family, especially Abdülmecid II, absolutely did not want to bury her in a mass grave. So he instructed his son, Ömer Faruk Efendi, and Şehzade Osman Fuad Efendi, a descendant of Murad V, to request the money for the burial from Jefferson Cohn & Ranz, the company that had been officially appointed to reclaim the properties of the Ottoman family on their behalf. The negotiation was long and difficult, but when the princes threatened to dissolve the contract they managed to get the money.
The body of Seniha Sultan followed the same route as that of her brother Sultan Mehmed VI Vahideddin: to Beirut by boat, then from there to Syria, where she was buried.
Personality
Seniha was described as a strong and free woman who was political minded, and in many ways a woman ahead of her time. She was judged to be beautiful and regal in appearance, but she was not particularly welcome at court because of her cheeky and undignified attitudes. She wore her hair short and refused to let it grow and had a deep voice. She always spoke quickly and directly.
She used to wear dresses of the most superb cloth, with her tiara on her head on formal occasions, and she also wore gowns with long trains in the European fashion spreading out behind her. In manner, she was entirely unconstrained. Often, as did her half-sister
Mediha Sultan
Mediha Sultan ( ota, مدیحه سطان; "''the praised one''"; 30 July 1856 – 9 November 1928) was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Sultan Abdulmejid I and Gülistü Kadin. She was the full sister of Sultan Mehmed VI and the half-si ...
, she would burst into laughter, and she spoke rapidly and in a deep voice. When these two sisters were together chatting with their brother Abdul Hamid, they would both laugh and try to amuse him and get him to smile as though they were in competition with one another.
Seniha Sultan is known to have had performers of religious music at her palace.
According to
Neslişah Sultan and Sabiha Sultan, during the exile she always dressed in black, she was thin, in fact really skinny, and had a dry skin, her niece
Sabiha Sultan
ota, رقیه صبیحه سلطان
, house = Ottoman
, house-type = Dynasty
, father = Mehmed VI
, mother = Nazikeda Kadın
, birth_date = 2 April 1894
, birth_place = Ortaköy Palace, Ortaköy, Istanbul, Ottoman ...
was really upset and sad that her aunt lives in a miserable way, whenever she visited her she kissed her hand and showed her huge respect.
Honours
*
Order of the House of Osman
The Order of the House of Osman ( ota, نشانِ خاندانِ آلِ عثمان) was an order of the Ottoman Empire founded on 31 August 1893 by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. It was awarded to senior male and female members of the Imperial family an ...
*
Order of the Medjidie, Jeweled
*
Order of Charity, 1st Class
*
Liakat Medal
The Liakat Medal ( tr, Liyakat Madalyasi) translated as "Medal of Merit," was a decoration of the Ottoman Empire established in 1890. It could be awarded in two classes, gold or silver. The medal was a common military decoration of the late Ottoma ...
in Gold
Issue
In popular culture
*In the 2017 TV series ''
Payitaht: Abdülhamid'', Seniha Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress
Selen Öztürk.
See also
*
List of Ottoman princesses ''Sultan'' (Ottoman Turkish:سلطان) and ''Hatun'' ( Mongolian: ᠬᠠᠲᠤᠨ хатан; Old Turkic: 𐰴𐰍𐰣, romanized: ''katun''; Ottoman Turkish: خاتون, romanized: ''hatun'' or قادین romanized: ''kadın''; Persian: خاتو ...
Ancestry
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sultan, Seniha
1852 births
1931 deaths
19th-century Ottoman princesses
20th-century Ottoman princesses