ota, بھیجہ خانم , house = Maan (by birth)
Ottoman (by marriage) , father = Albus Bey Maan , mother = Nazli Hanım Kucba , birth_date = Behiye Maan
, birth_place =

Adapazarı Adapazarı () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the central district of Sakarya Province. The province itself was originally named Adapazarı as well. Adapazarı is a part of the densely populated region of the country known as the Marmara Regi ...

Sakarya Province Sakarya ( tr, ) is a province in Turkey, located on the coast of Black Sea. The Sakarya River creates a webbing of estuaries in the province, which is in the Marmara Region. The adjacent provinces are Kocaeli to the west, Bilecik to the south, ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

(present day

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

) , death_date = , death_place =

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, ...

, Turkey , burial_place = Yahya Efendi cemetery , religion =

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagre ...

Behice Hanım ( ota, بھیجه خانم; "''Happy''"; born Behiye Maan; 10 October 1882 – 22 October 1969; after the

Surname Law Surname law can refer to any law regulating the use of surnames. Canada From 1941 to 1978, the Government of Canada issued disc numbers to identify Inuit in their records. In the mid-1960s Project Surname began, and, headed by Abe Okpik, Inuit w ...

of 1934: Behice Maan) was a consort of 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 ...

of the

Early life

Behice Hanım was born on 10 October 1882 in Beynevid,

. Born as Behiye Maan, she was a member of Abkhazian noble family, Maan. Her father was Albus Bey Maan, the grandson of Kats Bey Maan. Her mother was Nazli Hanım Kucba, an Abkhazian, daughter of Hacı Kuç Pasha. She had one brother, Rauf Bey, and four sisters, Atiye Hanım, Tasvire Hanım, Ihsan Hanım, and Nimet Hanım. She was the first cousin of

Sazkar Hanım ota, سازکار خانم , house = Maan (by birth) Ottoman (by marriage) , father = Recep Bata Maan , mother = Rukiye Havva Hanım , birth_name = Zekiye Maan , birth_date = , birth_place = Kayalar, Adap ...

, one of other consort of Sultan

. She was also related to the wife of Halil Kut Pasha. She was beautiful, tall and blonde, with blue eyes. She was very proud and arrogant.

Marriage

Behiye's father learned that Abdul Hamid was looking for a bride for his son,

Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin ''Şehzade'' ( fa, شهزاده) is the Ottoman form of the Persian title '' Shahzadeh'', and refers to the male descendants of an Ottoman sovereign in the male line. This title is equivalent to " prince of the blood imperial" in English. Origi ...

, and hence, in 1899 brought her to the court, and presented her to the Sultan. However, Abdul Hamid was so taken by the beauty of the young girl that he asked her hand in marriage for himself. Her father gave permission even though Behiye was against it. The marriage took place on 10 May 1900 in the Hünkar Kiosk 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 ...

. Behice was eighteen, while Abdul Hamid was fifty-eight. She was given the title of "Fifth Ikbal" and the name Behice. A year after the marriage, on 22 June 1901, she gave birth to twins, Şehzade Ahmed Nureddin and Şehzade Mehmed Badreddin. Badreddin died at the age of two on 13 October 1903 because meningitis. On 27 April 1909, Abdul Hamid was deposed, and sent into exile in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

. She didn't follow him, and instead remained in Istanbul. She settled with her son in Maslak Palace. After Thessaloniki fell to Greece in 1912, Abdul Hamid returned to Istanbul, and settled in the

Beylerbeyi Palace The Beylerbeyi Palace ( tr, Beylerbeyi Sarayı, literally meaning ''the palace of the bey of beys'') is located in the Beylerbeyi neighbourhood of Üsküdar district in Istanbul, Turkey, at the Asian side of the Bosphorus. An Imperial Ottoma ...

, where he died in 1918.

Last years and death

In 1924, the imperial family was sent into exile. Behice went to

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

with her son, where they lived in Via Generale Orsini. Her son later moved to Paris, leaving her here, where he died in 1945. After her son's death, life for her became difficult. She fell on hard times in Naples because she had no money and what she was sent from Turkey was being embezzled by her servant. A relative who visited her in Italy in 1969 was appalled by the conditions she lived in: her hair was unkempt, her nails had grown extremely long and she had not washed herself in weeks. In March 1969, she was reported in Istanbul by her family, where she died seven months later, on 22 October 1969 at the age of eighty-seven. She was buried in Yahya Efendi Cemetery,

Issue

Ancestry

References

Sources

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Behice Hanim 20th-century consorts of Ottoman sultans 1882 births 1969 deaths People from Batumi People from the Ottoman Empire of Abkhazian descent Abdul Hamid II