Şadiye Sultan (, "''successful, blessed, destinated to happy''"; 30 November 1886 – 20 November 1977) was an Ottoman princess and memoir writer, the daughter of Sultan

Abdul Hamid II Abdulhamid II or Abdul Hamid II (; ; 21 September 184210 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a Decline and modernizati ...

and Emsalinur Kadın.

Early life and education

Şadiye Sultan was born on 30 November 1886 in the

Yıldız Palace Yıldız Palace (, ) is a vast complex of former imperial Ottoman Empire, Ottoman pavilions and villas in Beşiktaş, Istanbul, Turkey, built in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was used as a residence by the List of sultans of the Ottoman ...

. Her father was Sultan

, son of

Abdulmejid I ʻAbd al-Majīd (ALA-LC romanization of , ), also spelled as Abd ul Majid, Abd ul-Majid, Abd ol Majid, Abd ol-Majid, and Abdolmajid, is a Muslim male given name and, in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words '' ʻabd'' and ''al-Maj ...

and

Tirimüjgan Kadın Gülnihal Tirimüjgan Kadın (16 October 1819 – 3 October 1852; , ''young rose'' and ''darting eyelashes'') was a consort of Sultan Abdulmejid I, and the mother of Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire. Early life Tirimüjgan was of Sha ...

. Her mother was Emsalinur Kadın. She was the only child of her mother. Şadiye Sultan's education took place in a study room in the Lesser Chancellery of the Yıldız Palace, together with her younger sister Ayşe Sultan. Their instructors were the privy secretary Hasib Efendi and the Private Enciphering Secretary Kâmil Efendi. Hasib Efendi would give lessons in the Quran, Arabic, and Persian, while Kâmil Efendi was to teach Turkish reading and writing, Ottoman grammar, arithmetic, history, and geography.

Engagements

On 31 March 1909, Abdul Hamid betrothed her to Ali Namık Bey, son of Küçük Said Pasha. After the overthrow of her father in 1909, the princess followed her father into exile at

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

. The next year she returned to Istanbul. However, the engagement was broken off because of Said Pasha's attitude against her father.

Enver Pasha İsmâil Enver (; ; 23 November 1881 – 4 August 1922), better known as Enver Pasha, was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish people, Turkish military officer, revolutionary, and Istanbul trials of 1919–1920, convicted war criminal who was a p ...

also asked her hand in marriage, but she turned down this proposal, because he was involved in the deposition of her father. Her engagement was then set with a son of Zülüflü Ismail Pasha. He was congenial and handsome. However, the Turkish Republic government opposed the match.

First marriage

Şadiye was betrothed to Fahir Bey, son of Mustafa Fazıl Bey, and the grandson of Galib Pasha, the long-serving minister of pious foundations, rightly renowned for his uprightness and integrity. Fahir was an attractive, good-natured and well cultivated man. The marriage took place on 2 December 1910 in the Nişantaşı Palace. The couple had a daughter, Samiye Hanımsultan born in 1918. Şadiye was widowed at Fahir's death on 27 September 1922.

Philanthropy

In 1912, the "Hilal-i Ahmer Centre for Women" was organised within the "Ottoman Hilal-i Ahmer Association", a foundation established in 1877 to provide medical care in Istanbul and surrounding communities. In May 1915, during the Gallipoli Campaign, as the member of this organisation, Şadiye donated two packages of cigarettes and some money to each of the soldiers at the hospital in Şişli.

Second marriage

At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, Şadiye Sultan settled in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where she married Reşad Halis Bey on 28 October 1931. They had no children. She was widowed at his death in November 1944. She moved to the United States where lived her daughter and, after the end of the Second World War, traveled extensively around Europe. Finally, in 1953, he returned to Istanbul, where the exile for the princesses had been lifted the year before.

Later life and death

After the death of her husband, Şadiye moved to Hotel Saint-Honore, and took a room adjacent to her brother

Şehzade Abdurrahim Hayri Şehzade Abdurrahim Hayri Efendi ( ;15 August 1894 – 1 January 1952) was an Ottoman prince, son of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and Peyveste Hanım. Early life Şehzade Abdurrahim Hayri was born on 15 August 1894 in the Yıldız Palace. His father w ...

, until her return to Istanbul in 1952 after the revocation of the law for the princesses. In 1966, she published her memoirs under the title ''Hayatımın acı ve tatlı günleri'' (The bitter and sweet days of my life). The same year she gave an interview about the life of her father, to reporter Muzaffer Budak Seyfettinoğlu from the magazine Yeni Istikal, whose 253rd issue was published on 15 June 1966. She died in Cihangir at the age of ninety on 20 November 1977, having outliving her mother by twenty-five years. She was the last surviving child of Sultan Abdul Hamid. She was buried in the tomb of her great-grandfather Sultan

Mahmud II Mahmud II (, ; 20 July 1785 – 1 July 1839) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. Often described as the "Peter the Great of Turkey", Mahmud instituted extensive administrative, military, and fiscal reforms ...

, located in Divanyolu,

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. Her daughter outlived her by fifteen years dying in 1992.

Honours

* Order of the House of Osman * Order of the Medjidie, Jeweled * Order of Charity, 1st Class *

Liakat Medal The Liakat Medal () 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 Ottoman Empire, through the ...

in Gold * Iftikhar Sanayi Medal in Gold * Hicaz Demiryolu Medal in Gold

Issue

In popular culture

*In the 2017 TV series '' Payitaht: Abdülhamid'', Şadiye Sultan is portrayed by Turkish actress Leya Kırşan.

Ancestry

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Şadiye Sultan 1886 births 1977 deaths Royalty from Istanbul 19th-century Ottoman princesses 20th-century Ottoman princesses People from the Ottoman Empire of Abkhazian descent 20th-century memoirists Daughters of Abdul Hamid II