Hatice Sultan (; 5 April 1870 â 13 March 1938) was an Ottoman princess, the eldest daughter of Sultan Murad V, born by his third consort à Âayan Kadñn.
Hatice Sultan was born on 5 April 1870 in her father's villa in KurbaÃÂalñdere to à Âehzade Mehmed Murad (the future Sultan Murad V) and his third consort, à Âayan Kadñn (born Safiye Zan). She was her fatherâÂÂs eldest daughter and third child and her motherâÂÂs only child.
During à Âayan's pregnancy with Hatice, the valide sultan, Pertevniyal ordered her to have an abortion. Ottoman princes were only allowed to have one child during the reign of Pertevniyal's son Abdulaziz. Murad had already had two sons with the support of the Sultan, but this time Pertevniyal Sultan insisted on her rules being followed. Murad, possibly again with Abdulaziz's help, bribed Dr Emin Pasha to lie to Pertevniyal that the abortion had been performed. à Âayan gave birth in secret and Hatice's existence was kept hidden until 1876.
Following Murad's accession to the throne on 30 May 1876 following the deposition of his uncle Abdulaziz, the family settled in Dolmabahçe Palace. After three months, Murad was himself deposed on 30 August 1876 due to his mental instability and imprisoned in ÃÂñraÃÂan Palace by his half-brother Abdul Hamid II. Hatice and her mother followed him into confinement. She was Murad V's favorite daughter.
At the time of her family's confinement, Hatice Sultan was six years old. She moved into ÃÂñraÃÂan Palace with a large family consisting of her father, her paternal grandmother à Âevkefza Sultan, her mother, her father's three other consorts (the kadñns Elaru Mevhibe, Reftarñdil, and Meyliservet), her fifteen-year-old half-brother à Âehzade Mehmed Selaheddin and her baby half-sister Fehime Sultan (both the children of Meyliservet), as well as five lower-ranking concubines (the gözdes Resan Hanñm, Gevherriz, Nevdür, Remzà Âinas, and Filizten). Two more sisters were born during the early years of the family's imprisonment, Fatma Sultan and Aliye Sultan, daughters of Resan Hanñm. Murad V loved his children and spent time with them often.
Hatice loved stories and would even make up her own endings to them while listening to them. According to Filizten Hanñm, her father's consort, this showed she had a 'vivid imagination' and was 'advanced for her age'. She started reading novels as soon as she could read, picking them from her father's library and staying up with them all night. Most of her readings were the works of French authors in their original language. Hatice had been taught French by her father and his sixth consort, Gevherriz Hanñm. Gevherriz also taught her to play the piano.
Filizten Hanñm considered Hatice's nature to be too romantic, describing her as sensitive, fiery, exuberant, beautiful, lively, and intelligent. Growing up, Hatice suffered from the isolation of palace life and often complained about it.
As she became a young adult, Hatice openly expressed her desire to marry. When her father learnt of this through her mother and the other older women of the household, he was dismayed at being unable to arrange a marriage from her prison, but he eventually notified his reigning brother, Abdul Hamid II. Abdul Hamid offered to find husbands for his nieces on the condition that once they leave the palace, they may not visit. Both princesses were asked whether they preferred to stay with their family or to get married, and both chose leaving. Abdul Hamid sent them to Yñldñz Palace. He fully renovated a yalñ in Ortaköy, ordered a second one to be built, furnished both, and sent photographs to Murad. In October 1898, she and her sister Fehime met the German empress Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein who visited Istanbul with her husband, Emperor Wilhelm II. Abdul Hamid worried that if he presented only his daughters but not his nieces to the Empress, Hatice and Fehime would feel hurt.
Abdul Hamid planned to marry Hatice to Kabasakal ÃÂerkes Mehmed Pasha, widower of his sister, Naile Sultan. However, the marriage did not happen. In 1901, Abdul Hamid arranged her marriage to one of her father's table servants, Ali Vasñf Pasha, Code Scribe. The wedding took place on 3 September 1901 in Yñldñz Palace.
The couple were given one of the yalñs in Ortaköy as their residence. The marriage was unhappy from the start. Hatice locked the door to her apartments on their wedding night and did so every time her husband was home. However, the marriage was presumably consummated, as Hatice had a daughter, Ayà Âe Hanñmsultan, whom her husband acknowledged as his own.
Naime Sultan, daughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid II was Hatice's neighbour in Ortaköy. Hatice Sultan started an affair with Naime's husband, Mehmed Kemaleddin Pasha, which lasted for three years. According to Filizten Hanñm, they decided to murder Naime so they could get married. This relationship was discovered in early 1904. According to Filizten Hanim, the relationship was consummated. According to Semih Mümtaz, whose father held Kemaleddin under house arrest, the couple only exchanged letters over the walls that separated their respective gardens or had fleeting encounters. The scandal was discussed not only throughout the Ottoman Empire but also in Europe and America. Western press reported that the Sultan's son-in-law had been arrested and sent into exile as a result of secret correspondence between him and Hatice Sultan. Hatice's feelings and motives in the affair are uncertain. Kemaleddin was in love with her, his letters lamenting her absence, asking when they could meet or if they could meet earlier than agreed, and recounted that he slowed down in front of his villa to see her exit hers and get in her carriage. Filizten and Hatice's granddaughter both believed that seducing the husband of Abdul Hamid II's favourite daughter was just a way for Hatice to take revenge for her family's imprisonment and her late, unhappy marriage. Others thought that Hatice loved Kemaleddin sincerely, even if only as an escape from her unhappy marriage.
The couple were accused of planning to poison their respective spouses in order to get married. According to Filizten Hanñm, the pain and shame caused by his favourite daughter's disgrace led to Murad V's death. A diabetic, he was already weakened by grief over the recent death of his youngest daughter, Atiye Sultan. When he heard of the affair, the shock seemingly hastened his death.
Abdul Hamid was angered and ordered Naime Sultan to divorce her husband, then stripped Kemaleddin Pasha of all his military honours and exiled him to Bursa. He later forgave Hatice, and she was invited back to Yñldñz Palace. He did not, however, give her permission to divorce her husband. Hatice could only divorce Ali Vasñf around 1908, when Abdul Hamid II was deposed and replaced by Mehmed V, his younger half-brother. With the declaration of the Second Constitutional Era in 1908, Kemaleddin Pasha was forgiven. He returned to Istanbul to propose marriage to Hatice, which the princess refused, either out of pride or because she was already infatuated with her future second husband.
Hatice Sultan married Rauf Hayreddin Bey (1871âÂÂ1936), son of Hayri Bey, on 11 May 1909. They had three children together. Although this was a love match, the relationship soon soured and the two divorced in 1918. Eventually, Hatice settled in a mansion with Arife Kadriye Sultan, the granddaughter of one of her father's half-brothers. She worked to help her father's consorts who, as widows, had been freed from ÃÂñraÃÂa Palace but became impoverished as their allowances were reduced or suspended. She hosted Nevdürr Hanñm personally and wrote several letters to ensure that the others were given enough income for a comfortable life.
In 1912, the Hilal-i Ahmer Centre for Women was organised within the Ottoman Hilal-i Ahmer Association, a foundation established in 1877 to provide medical care in Istanbul and surrounding communities. In May 1915, during the Gallipoli campaign Hatice visited Kadñrga hospital as a member of the centre, distributing handkerchiefs and cigarettes amongst soldiers. She also donated tea and sugar to the hospital.
Following the imperial family's the exile in March 1924, Hatice Sultan and her two living children, Hayri and Selma, settled in Beirut. They lived on alimony paid by her ex-husband, Rauf Bey. However, when he was implicated in a smuggling plot, he was dismissed from his job and imprisoned, leaving his family with no income.
Under these circumstances, Hatice felt pressure to quickly marry her daughter, but it was difficult to find a suitable husband for impoverished Turkish royalty. Eventually, Selma moved to India to marry Syed Sajid Husain Ali, Raja of Kotdwar, in 1937. Afterwards, her son-in-law provided Hatice with an income. The philosopher Rñza Tevfik visited her in the 1930s. Although Hatice was no longer young and living in a small house, he found her beautiful and dignified. She suffered a stroke, and died in poverty on 13 March 1938, at the age of sixty-seven. She was buried in the cemetery of the Sulaymaniyya Takiyya in Damascus.