Neslişah Sultan (daughter of Şehzade Ömer Faruk)

Neslişah Sultan was born on 2 February 1921{{cite web| title=Neslisah Sultan, last of the Ottoman dynasty, dies | website=DAWN.COM | date=2012-04-03 | url=https://www.dawn.com/news/707691/neslisah-sultan-last-of-the-ottoman-dynasty-dies | access-date=2021-02-23}} in her family's residence, the Sabiha Sultan Mansion, in the Nişantaşı neighbourhood of Istanbul.{{cite web | title=Princess Neslisah Sultan Osmanoglu: last imperial member of the Ottoman royal family | website=The Times | date=2012-04-14 | url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/princess-neslisah-sultan-osmanoglu-last-imperial-member-of-the-ottoman-royal-family-hndfdw9gz6m | access-date=2021-02-23}} Her father was Şehzade Ömer Faruk, the only son of Caliph Abdulmejid II and Şehsuvar Hanım. Her mother was Sabiha Sultan, youngest daughter of Sultan Mehmed VI and Nazikeda Kadın. She had two younger sisters, Hanzade Sultan, and Necla Sultan.{{cite book|first=Jamil|last=Adra|title=Genealogy of the Imperial Ottoman Family 2005|url=https://archive.org/details/GenealogyOfTheImperialOttomanFamily2005|year=2005|pages=36–37}} Her birth was the final entry inscribed in the palace register of dynasty members, making her the last imperial member of the Ottoman family. Shortly after her birth, she was nicknamed Büyük Neslişah, or Neslişah "the elder", to distinguish her from the slightly younger cousin Safvet Neslişah Sultan, called Küçük Neslişah (Neslişah "the younger").{{cite web|url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/france/paris/princess-neslisah-sultan-osmanoglu-last-imperial-member-of-the-ottoman-royal-family-hndfdw9gz6m|title=Princess Neslisah Sultan Osmanoglu: last imperial member of the Ottoman royal family|date=14 April 2012|work=The Times}}

At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, Neslişah and her family settled in Fairfax, Virginia, where she spent her childhood and adolescence, and received her education. Her grandfather, Abdulmejid, used to take her and her sister Neslişah to seashore during special occasions. The family relocated to Egypt in 1938 due to the outbreak of the Second World War, where she received a proposal from Egyptian prince Hassan Toussoun, and despite protests, she was engaged to him.{{sfn|Bardakçı|2017|p=159}} However, later she broke off the engagement.{{cite web | title=Book Review: A princess and her extraordinary destiny | website=Arab News | date=2018-02-14 | url=https://www.arabnews.com/node/1246281/books | access-date=2021-02-24}}

In 1940, Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim, son of Egypt's last Khedive Abbas Hilmi II, proposed to Neslişah. Neslişah rejected the proposal, but accepted it following pressure from her father, despite her younger sister Hanzade, who later married another Egyptian prince a week before her sister, having volunteered to marry Moneim in her stead, an offer her father refused.{{sfn|Bardakçı|2017|p=167}} The marriage took place on 26 September 1940 in el-Orouba Palace, Cairo,{{sfn|Bardakçı|2017|p=128}} and she was given the title Sahibat-al Sumuw Al-Amira Neslishah (Her Highness Princess Neslishah).{{sfn|Bardakçı|2017|p=173}} 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 Zogu (1909–1969), sister of King Zog I of Albania.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1938/07/12/archives/to-wed-king-zogs-sister-prince-abdul-moneim-receives-egyptian.html | work=The New York Times | title=TO WED KING ZOG'S SISTER; Prince Abdul Moneim Receives Egyptian Ruler's Permission | date=12 July 1938}} However, the marriage never took place and Prince Abdel Moneim married Neslişah instead. On 16 October 1941, she gave birth to Prince Abbas Hilmi. He was followed three years later by Princess Ikbal, born on 22 December 1944.

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.{{cite journal | last = Rizk | first = Yunan Labib | date = 27 January – 2 February 2005 | title = Royal help | journal = Al-Ahram Weekly | issue = 727 | url = http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/727/chrncls.htm | access-date = 2008-08-02}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.egy.com/historica/egyptianconsorts.shtml |title=Egypt's First Ladies |first=Samir |last=Raafat |date=March 2005 |publisher=Egy.com |access-date=2010-02-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100130031248/http://www.egy.com/historica/egyptianconsorts.shtml |archive-date=January 30, 2010 }}

Around 1943, Neslişah's father, Ömer Faruk, developed an increased interest in his cousin Mihrişah Sultan, the daughter of Şehzade Yusuf Izzeddin. The turbulence of the relationship between Faruk and her wife Sabiha was also a public knowledge.{{sfn|Bardakçı|2017|p=205}} She and her sisters sided with their mother. Faruk accused Sabiha of turning their daughters against him. Murat Bardakçı opines that he had already fallen in love with Mihrişah and the issue of the council{{Clarify|reason=what council?|date=May 2024}} was merely an excuse.{{sfn|Bardakçı|2017|p=208}} In 1948, after twenty-eight years of marriage, Faruk divorced Sabiha, and married Mihrişah,{{sfn|Bardakçı|2017|p=171}} after which Sabiha moved to live near her. Neslişah never came to accept her father's second wife.{{sfn|Bardakçı|2017|p=266}}

Prince Abdel Moneim's regency lasted ten months. The Egyptian Revolutionary Command Council formally abolished the monarchy on 18 June 1953. In 1957, Abdel Moneim and Neslişah were arrested. 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. In 1963, she reclaimed Turkish citizenship,{{cite web | last=Sabah | first=Daily | title=Farewell to the last Ottoman | website=Daily Sabah | date=2012-04-03 | url=https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/2012/04/03/farewell-to-the-last-ottoman | access-date=2021-02-23}} and took the surname Osmanoğlu, which had been assigned to members of the Ottoman former imperial family.{{cite news | title=Neslisah Osmanoglu, 91, was the oldest member of the Ottoman dynasty | newspaper=Washington Post | date=2012-04-05 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/neslisah-osmanoglu-91-was-the-oldest-member-of-the-ottoman-dynasty/2012/04/04/gIQA8U6JwS_story.html | access-date=2021-02-23}} Prince Abdel Moneim died in 1979 in Istanbul, where Princess Neslişah continued to live with her unmarried daughter Ikbal.

Neslişah died of heart attack on 2 April 2012 at her home in Ortaköy, attended by her daughter.{{cite web | title=Neslisah Osmanoglu, Ottoman princess, dies | website=Newsday | url=https://www.newsday.com/long-island/obituaries/neslisah-osmanoglu-ottoman-princess-dies-1.3651555 | access-date=2021-02-23}}{{cite web | title=Turkey's Neslisah Sultan dies | website=The Nation | date=2012-04-04 | url=https://nation.com.pk/04-Apr-2012/turkey-s-neslisah-sultan-dies | access-date=2021-02-23}} At the time of her death, Neslişah was the most senior Ottoman princess.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ottomanfamily.com/index.php?page=4 |title=Ottomanfamily.com |access-date=2010-03-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161203060611/http://www.ottomanfamily.com/index.php?page=4 |archive-date=2016-12-03 |url-status=dead }} After the deaths of Şehzade Burhaneddin Cem, son of Şehzade Ibrahim Tevfik, 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.{{cite web | title=Neslisah Sultan, last of Ottoman dynasty, dies | website=Emirates24{{pipe}}7 | date=2012-04-03 | url=https://www.emirates247.com/news/region/neslisah-sultan-last-of-ottoman-dynasty-dies-2012-04-03-1.452052 | access-date=2021-02-23}} A funeral service was held for her in Yıldız Hamidiye Mosque.{{cite web | title=Eldest Ottoman princess buried in İstanbul | website=World Bulletin / News From Turkey and Islamic World | date=2012-04-03 | url=https://worldbulletin.dunyabulteni.net/general/eldest-ottoman-princess-buried-in-istanbul-h88087.html | access-date=2021-02-23}} She was buried in Aşiyan Asri Cemetery,{{cite web | title=Aşiyan, a dwelling in paradise | website=Hürriyet Daily News | date=2012-04-06 | url=https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/asiyan-a-dwelling-in-paradise-17830 | access-date=2021-02-23}} next to her mother and sisters. President Abdullah Gül presented a message of condolence to family members. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan praised the late princess. "She was the poster-child for nobleness who carried the blood of Osman," he said in Parliament, referring to Osman I, the Anatolian ruler who established the Ottoman Empire. "We remember her with high regard and our blessings."

By her marriage, Neslişah Sultan had a son and a daughter:{{Cite book |last=Jamil ADRA |url=http://archive.org/details/GenealogyOfTheImperialOttomanFamily2005 |title=Genealogy of the Imperial Ottoman Family 2005 |date=2005 |pages=37 |language=English}}

• Prince Sultanzade Abbas Hilmi (b. 16 October 1941). Named after his paternal grandfather, he married once and had a daughter and a son.
• Princess Ikbal Hanımsultan (b. 22 December 1944). Named after her paternal grandmother, she married Mursel Saviç in January 2000.

Neslişah was fluent in French, English, German and Arabic and was also an avid skier, swimmer and equestrian. She was also interested in history, literature, geography, botany and the culture of cuisine. She was also highly respected by a number of significant conductors in the music world.

• Order of the House of Osman, 1922{{sfn|Bardakçı|2017|p=36}}

{{ahnentafel

|collapsed=yes |align=center

|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;

|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;

|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;

|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;

| 1 = 1. Neslişah Sultan

| 2 = 2. Şehzade Ömer Faruk

| 3 = 3. Sabiha Sultan

| 4 = 4. Abdulmejid II

| 5 = 5. Şehsuvar Hanım

| 6 = 6. Mehmed VI

| 7 = 7. Nazikeda Kadın

| 8 = 8. Abdulaziz

| 9 = 9. Hayranidil Kadın

| 10 =

| 11 =

| 12 = 12. Abdulmejid I

| 13 = 13. Gülüstü Hanım

| 14 = 14. Hasan Marshan

| 15 = 15. Fatma Horecan Aredba

| 16 =

| 17 =

| 18 =

| 19 =

| 20 =

| 21 =

| 22 =

| 23 =

| 24 =

| 25 =

| 26 =

| 27 =

| 28 =

| 29 =

| 30 =

| 31 =

}}

• Sultans:Imperial Princesses

{{Reflist|2}}

• {{cite book|first=Murat|last=Bardakçı|title=Neslishah: The Last Ottoman Princess|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2017|isbn=978-9-774-16837-6}}

• {{in lang|fr}} {{YouTube|KKQ-vIMk47o|interview with Neslişah Sultan, about her family's exile}}
• (in Turkish) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3YMnBdqZbk "The Last Ottomans" Documentary, Episode 3: Neslişah's Exile] on YouTube

{{Daughters of the Ottoman Sultans}}

{{Ottoman Dynasty|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neslisah, Fatima}}

Category:1921 births

Category:2012 deaths

Category:Muhammad Ali dynasty princesses

Category:20th-century Ottoman princesses

Category:Turkish expatriates in France

Category:Burials at Aşiyan Asri Cemetery