Şehzade Ahmed Kemaleddin was born on 16 July 1848 in the Old Çırağan Palace. His father was Sultan Abdulmejid I, and his mother was Verdicenan Kadın, the daughter of Prince Kaytuk Giorgi Achba and Princess Yelizaveta Hanım. He had a full sister, Münire Sultan, three years elder than him. Kemaleddin and his brothers, Princes Mehmed Reşad, Mehmed Burhaneddin, and Ahmed Nureddin were circumcised in 1856. After Abdulmejid's death in 1861, Kemaleddin and his mother settled in the Feriye Palace. Kemaleddin like his brothers, Sultan Murad V and Şehzade Ahmed Nureddin joined Proodos Masonic lodge in 1875. This lodge was founded in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul in 1867, as an associate of the French lodge “Grand Orient.” The lodge’s rituals were conducted in both Turkish and Greek. After his half-brother Sultan Abdul Hamid II accended the throne in 1876, Kemaleddin became second in line to the throne.
The relations between Sultan Abdul Hamid II and Prince Kemaleddin were sour. And so, he believed that Murad should be restored to the throne. It is said that in the days when Abdul Hamid was a prince, Prince Ahmed Kemaleddin once ran into pressing financial difficulties. He applied to the wealthy Abdul Hamid for funds and even sent over valuable objects as security for a loan. But Abdul Hamid replied, "I'm no petty money changer! Since he wants to pawn something for money, let him try the money changes in the Caviar Building!" Prince Ahmed Kemaleddin took offence at this, and ever afterwards relations between the two were frosty. In 1878, Kemaleddin, and his siblings including his brother Prince Selim Suleiman, and sisters Princess Fatma, and Princess Seniha, and Seniha's husband Mahmud Celaleddin Pasha, were all involved in the Ali Suavi incident with the objective of restoring Murad to the throne.
Personal life
Kemaleddin's only wife was Fatma Sezadil Hanım. She was an Abkhazian, and was born in 1856, or 1860 in Caucasus. The two married on 23 April 1876 in the Dolmabahçe Palace. She was the mother of princesses Atiyetullah Sultan, and Münire Sultan. She died on 9 February 1943 in Istanbul. Kemaleddin owned an eighteenth-century mansion in Çengelköy in the silent hills of Bosphorus. Abdul Hamid then bought this estate for Prince Mehmed Vahideddin, and registered the deed of the property in his name.
Death
Ahmed Kemaleddin was killed by the order of his brother, Abdulhamid II, 26 April 1905 in the Beşiktaş Palace. He was buried in the royal mausoleum of Yahya Efendi, Istanbul. He was honoured posthumously, after the 1908 resolution, for his liberal leanings.
