Neslişah Sultan


Neslişah Sultan was the paternal granddaughter of the last Ottoman Caliph Abdulmejid II and his first wife, Şehsuvar Hanım and maternal granddaughter of the last Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI and his first wife, Nazikeda Kadın. She was the daughter of Şehzade Omer Faruk and his first wife and cousin Sabiha Sultan.
She grew up in Nice, France, after being exiled since she was 3 years old, when the Imperial House of Osman left Istanbul in accordance with Republican regulations and laws.

Life in Egypt

In 1940, Fatma Neslişah married Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim, son of Egypt's last khedive Abbas Hilmi II. She thus also became Princess of Egypt by marriage. Two years earlier, Abdel Moneim, heir to a US$50,000,000 fortune, had obtained permission from his second cousin King Farouk of Egypt to marry Princess Myzejen, sister of King Zog I of Albania. However, the marriage never took place and Prince Abdel Moneim married Neslişah instead. When the Egyptian Free Officers Movement deposed King Farouk in the July 1952 Revolution, they chose Prince Abdel Moneim to serve as chairman of the three-member Regency Body established to assume the powers of Farouk's newly enthroned infant son Fuad II. The Regency Body was dissolved on 7 September 1952, and Abdel Moneim was appointed as sole Prince regent. In the absence of a Queen consort, Neslişah de facto served as such by virtue of her position as the wife of the Prince regent. Her few official appearances during her husband's regency focused on charity work. Like the royal consorts who preceded her, she attended sporting events such as polo matches and the international tennis tournament final.
Prince Abdel Moneim's regency lasted ten months in all. The Egyptian Revolutionary Command Council formally abolished the monarchy on 18 June 1953. In 1957, Abdel Moneim and Neslişah were arrested and accused of taking part in a plot against President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Again forced into exile, Neslişah was released from prison after the President of the Republic of Turkey intervened and demanded her release. She subsequently lived for a short time in Europe, then returned to her native Turkey. Prince Abdel Moneim died in 1979 in Istanbul, where Princess Neslişah continued to live with her unmarried daughter Iqbal. At the time of her death, Neslişah was the most senior Ottoman princess. After the deaths of Prince Burhaneddin Cem in 2008 and Prince Ertuğrul Osman in 2009, she was also the last surviving member of the Ottoman dynasty to have been born during the Ottoman era.

Children and Family

Neslişah and Abdel Moneim had two children, one son and one daughter:

Ancestry