Şehsuvar Hanım


Şehsuvar Hanım was the first wife of Abdulmejid II, the last Caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate.

Life

Şehsuvar Hanım was born on 2 May 1881 in Istanbul. She belonged to the Ubykh clan of Circassia. Her personal name is not known. At a young age her father, himself attendant at the court, presented her in the imperial harem. She was renamed Şehsuvar and was given education, and lessons of painting and playing piano in Şehzade Abdülmecid's harem. She had honey color eyes and long golden blonde hair. Şehsuvar grew into a young lady in Şehzade Abdülmecid's harem, when at the age of fifteen, she was selected a bride for him. The marriage took place on 22 December 1896, in the Ortaköy Palace, Istanbul. Şehzade Ömer Faruk, the couples only son was born on 29 February 1898. On 4 March 1924 she followed her husband into exile, with the other members of the entourage. They moved firstly to Switzerland and then to France where they settled in Paris.

In paintings

In an 1898 work by Abdülmecid, Pondering/Goethe in the harem, Şehsuvar is shown reclining on a settee. However, according to an interview with Fatma Neslişah Osmanoğlu on 26 May 2002, she said that the figure does not resemble her paternal grandmother Sehsuvar Hanım. In another work of 1915, Harmony of the Harem/Beethoven in the Harem, by her husband, she is shown playing a violin.

Death

She died in 1945, having outlived her husband by nearly one year, and was buried in the Muslim Bobigny cemetery in Paris.