Emsalinur Kadın (; "''exemplary light''"; 2 January 1866 – 1952; after the

Surname Law The Surname Law () of the Republic of Turkey is a law adopted on 21 June 1934, requiring all citizens of Turkey to adopt the use of fixed, hereditary surnames. Prior to 1934, Turkish families in the major urban centres had names by which they were ...

of 1934: Emsalinur Kaya) was the seventh consort 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 ...

of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

Early life

Emsalinur Kadın was born in 1866 in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

. Her father was either named Ömer Bey, or Mehmed Bey. She had a younger sister named Tesrid Hanım, who in 1894, married

Şehzade Ibrahim Tevfik Şehzade Ibrahim Tevfik Efendi (; 6November 1874 – 31 December 1931) was an Ottoman prince, the son of Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin, and grandson of Sultan Abdulmejid I. Early life Şehzade Ibrahim Tevfik was born on 6 November 1874 in the Dolm ...

, son of Şehzade Burhaneddin, and grandson of Sultan

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 ...

. Emsalinur was known for her beauty and grace.

Marriage

Emsalinur married Abdul Hamid in 1885 in the Yıldız Palace, and was given the title of "Fifth Kadın". On 30 November 1886, a year after the marriage, she gave birth to her only child, a daughter,

Şadiye Sultan 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 and Emsalinur Kadın. Early life and education Şadiye Sult ...

. In 1895, she was elevated to the title of "Fourth Kadın". In 1901, she was elevated to the title of "Third Kadın". She built a mosque in Kırkpınar in 1907 and was gifted a mansion in Nişantaşı, where she lived after her husband's deposition. On 27 April 1909, Abdul Hamid was deposed, and sent into exile in

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 ...

. Emsalinur didn't followed him, and so remained in Istanbul. After Thessaloniki fell to Greece in 1912, Abdul Hamid returned to Istanbul, and settled in the

Beylerbeyi Palace The Beylerbeyi Palace () is a 19th-century Ottoman palace located in the Beylerbeyi neighborhood of Istanbul’s Üsküdar district, on the Asian shore of the Bosporus. Commissioned by Sultan Abdulaziz and completed between 1861 and 1865, the ...

, where he died in 1918.

Widowhood and death

In 1924, the Imperial family was sent into exile. Emsalinur followed her daughter to Paris. However, after a staying few years there, she returned to Istanbul, and settled in her mansion located in Nişantaşı. In 1934, in accordance to the

, she took the surname "Kaya". After her mansion was sold by the ministry of finance, Emsalinur settled in her granddaughter's mansion located in Erenköy known as "Galip Paşa Mansion". However, after this mansion was also sold to

Sabiha Gökçen Sabiha Gökçen (; 22 March 1913 – 22 March 2001) was a Turkish aviator. During her flight career, she flew around 8,000 hours and participated in 32 different military operations. She became the world's first female fighter pilot, at age 23. ...

, the world's first female fighter-pilot, in 1948, Emaslinur became homeless. The government had allocated her one hundred liras per month. And with this amount of money it became difficult for her to rent a house. Emsalinur Kadin died homeless in 1952, at the age of approximately eighty-six, and was buried in Yahya Efendi Cemetery,

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 twenty-five years, dying in 1977.

Issue

References

Sources