Refia Sultan (daughter of Abdul Hamid II)

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Refia Sultan
Born(1891-06-15)15 June 1891
Yıldız Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
(now Istanbul, Turkey)
Diedc. 1938 (aged 46–47)
Beirut, Lebanon
Burial
Spouse
Ali Fuad Bey
(m. 1910⁠–⁠1938)
Issue
  • Rabia Hanımsultan
  • Ayşe Hamide Hanımsultan
DynastyOttoman
FatherAbdul Hamid II
MotherSazkar Hanım
ReligionSunni Islam

Refia Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: رفیعه سلطان, "exaltated"; 15 June 1891 – c. 1938) was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and Sazkar Hanım.

Early life[edit]

Refia Sultan was born on 15 June 1891 in the Yıldız Palace. Her father was Abdul Hamid II, son of Abdulmejid I and Tirimüjgan Kadın. Her mother was Sazkar Hanım,[1][2][3][4] daughter of Recep Bata Maan and Rukiye Havva Mikanba. She was the only child of her mother and her father's youngest daughter to reach adulthood. In her childhood, she learned how to play the piano from Lombardi Bey, a French music teacher who also taught other children of the sultan.[5]

Marriage[edit]

Towards the end of Abdul Hamid's reign, he bethrothed Refia Sultan to Ali Fuad Bey, the son of Müşir Ahmed Eyüp Pasha. However, at the overthrew of her father in 1909, the princess followed her parents into exile at Thessaloniki. The next year she returned to Istanbul.[3]

The marriage took place on 3 June 1910 on Dolmabahçe Palace, the same day of wedding of her half-sister Hamide Ayşe Sultan. The couple had two daughters, Rabia Hanımsultan born on 13 July 1911, and Ayşe Hamide Hanımsultan born in 1918.[6]

At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, the couple and their daughters settled firstly in Nice, France where Hamide died at the age of eighteen because an incident in 1936, later the couple settled in Beirut, Lebanon.[3][4]

According to Neslişah Sultan, she was by far the worldliest among the daughters of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. She was a gracious lady, and her husband Fuad Bey was an excellent husband.[7]

Death[edit]

The grave of Refia Sultan

Refia Sultan died at the age of forty seven in 1938 in Beirut, Lebanon and was buried in the cemetery of the Sulaymaniyya Takiyya, Damascus, Syria.[6][1][3][2] Her mother outlived her by seven years dying in 1945.[8]

Honours[edit]

Issue[edit]

Name Birth Death Notes
By Ali Faud Bey (married 3 September 1910; 1887 – 1953)[10]
Rabia Hanımsultan 13 July 1911 19 June 1998 Born in Kiziltoprak Palace, Istanbul; Died unmarried, and buried in tomb of Mahmud II
Ayşe Hamide Hanımsultan c. 1918 c. 1936 Born in Kiziltoprak Palace, Istanbul; Died unmarried in exile in Nice, France, because an incident, and buried in the cemetery of the Sulaymaniyya Takiyya, Damascus, Syria

Ancestry[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Uluçay 2011, p. 258.
  2. ^ a b Brookes 2010, p. 288.
  3. ^ a b c d Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 697.
  4. ^ a b Ekinci, Ekrem Buğra (June 2017). Sultan Abdülhamid'in Son Zevcesi. ISBN 9786050825039. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  5. ^ Uluçay 2011, p. 250, 258.
  6. ^ a b Adra, Jamil (2005). Genealogy of the Imperial Ottoman Family 2005. pp. 28.
  7. ^ Bardakçı, Murat (2017). Neslishah: The Last Ottoman Princess. Oxford University Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-9-774-16837-6.
  8. ^ Sakaoğlu 2008, p. 683-4.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Yılmaz Öztuna (1978). Başlangıcından zamanımıza kadar büyük Türkiye tarihi: Türkiye'nin siyasî, medenî, kültür, teşkilât ve san'at tarihi. Ötüken Yayınevi. p. 165.
  10. ^ Ekinci, Ekrem Buğra (March 31, 2017). Sultan Abdülhamid'in Son Zevcesi. Timaş Tarih. p. 185. ISBN 978-6-050-82503-9.

Sources[edit]

  • Brookes, Douglas Scott (2010). The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher: Voices from the Ottoman Harem. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-78335-5.
  • Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2008). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler. Oğlak Yayıncılık. ISBN 978-9-753-29623-6.
  • Uluçay, Mustafa Çağatay (2011). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Ankara: Ötüken. ISBN 978-9-754-37840-5.