Saliha Naciye Hanım


Saliha Naciye Hanım was the thirteenth, and last wife of Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire.

Early life

Saliha Naciye Hanım was born on 10 March 1887 in Yukarı Ihsaniye, Bartın. Born as Zeliha Ankuap, she was the daughter of Aslan Bey Ankuap, and Canhiz Hanım. She had one sister Asiye Hanım.
In 1901, Kabasakal Mehmed Pasha, presented her for service in the Yıldız Palace, where her name according to the custom of the Ottoman court was changed to Saliha Naciye.

Marriage

Three years into service, Abdul Hamid took notice of Saliha Naciye, and they married on 4 November 1904 in the Yıldız Palace, and was given the title of "Sixth Fortunate".
A year after the marriage, on 17 September 1905, she gave birth to her first child, a son, Şehzade Mehmed Abid, and three years later on 16 January 1909 to her second child, a daughter, Samiye Sultan, who died on 24 January 1909.
In the 1909 mutiny, Kabasakal was shaved and publicly hanged, and on 27 April 1909, Abdul Hamid was deposed, and sent into exile in Thessaloniki. Naciye was close to him. She and her son Abid accompanied him. But after Thessaloniki fell to Greece in 1912, she returned to Istanbul with Abdul Hamid, and settled in the Beylerbeyi Palace, where he died in 1918.

Death

After Abdul Hamid's death, Saliha Naciye settled in a mansion at Erenköy, where she died on 4 December 1924. She was buried in the mausoleum of Sultan Mahmud II, located at Divan Yolu street.

Issue

Saliha Naciye Hanım and Abdul Hamid had two children:
Saliha Naciye Hanım is a character in Tim Symonds' historical novel Sherlock Holmes and The Sword of Osman .

Annotations