Her Imperial Highness Princess Fehime Sultan

The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus

The Ottomans : The Story of a Family

Happy New Year to you all. I wish you and your families a healthy, happy and fulfilled new year. In fact, a healthy, happy and fulfilled new decade! I apologise for not keeping up my fortnightly posts. However, my five children have been on holiday from university and from their schools for the last three and a half weeks. As any parent knows, it is hard to find any time to yourself when your children are home! When you have five, it is nearly impossible!

To keep my mind off missing them, now that they have returned to university and school, I thought I would continue with my introductions to the main characters of my book. So, today I would like to introduce Princess Fehime – Sultan Murad V‘s second daughter. I know one should never have favourites, but the more I learn about my great-aunt the more fond I become of her…

Childhood

Princess Fehime was the daughter of Sultan Murad V and his Fourth Consort, the Lady Meyliservet. She was born in the Crown Prince’s Residence at Dolmabahçe Palace on 2nd August 1875. Fehime was therefore only a baby when her father ascended the throne. She had just celebrated her first birthday a few weeks before Murad was deposed, yet was destined to spend the remainder of her childhood and her early adult life in enforced confinement at the Çırağan Palace. Of course she could not have had any memories of her first few years, but nevertheless I am certain that the anxiety and fear felt by her parents during these harrowing times affected her nature.

Sadly, there are no photographs of Fehime as a child, neither are there any childhood pictures of the other members of Murad’s family who were born in confinement. This is because Sultan Abdülhamid ordered that no one was permitted to enter the Çırağan Palace or communicate with anyone living inside. No photographers, no tutors, no visitors were allowed. The only exception to this were the Sultan’s own trusted doctors.

As I have mentioned in my previous post on Princess Hadice, Murad believed sincerely in the importance of education for his daughters. As a result, Fehime and her sisters received a comprehensive education directly from him. Fehime was an intelligent, curious student. She was also fun-loving and mischievous, while at the same time being sensitive and anxious – prone in her adolescence to fainting and bouts of melancholy.

The Butterfly Princess

Within the family Fehime was affectionately nicknamed ‘Kelebek Sultan’, meaning ‘Butterfly Princess’. This was because of her artistic nature and as she so often gaily fluttered about, seemingly concerning herself only with trivial matters. She dressed in the latest fashions from Paris, wore her hair in the most modern styles and had her own unique way of wearing her collection of jewellery. (Note the diamond brooch being worn as a hair piece in the photograph.) Fehime was not considered to be as beautiful as Hadice, but she was fashionable and extremely elegant. However, from the photographs that I have seen, I think that she was more beautiful than her sister.

Sometimes Fehime found the superficial estimate of her character a little frustrating. In reality, behind her frivolous exterior she was a passionately progressive and intensely patriotic woman. She was very interested in the politics of the day, and embraced the changes in society that were bringing women greater freedoms.

Love of Music

Fehime shared her father’s passion for music. They would spend hours together in the music room and in the salons at Çırağan working on perfecting different musical scores or practising duets. Fehime was a highly accomplished pianist as a result of her father’s patient tuition, and she composed many beautiful pieces of music herself. As for her father, music also became a means of escape for her from the monotony and boredom of her life.

Marriage

Fehime married Ali Galib Bey on 12th September 1901 – the same day Hadice married her first husband. Sultan Abdülhamid presented Fehime with a beautiful yalı, a mansion on the Bosphorus, as a wedding gift. It stood next to Hadice’s mansion and in accordance with Fehime’s exquisite taste, it was furnished in the most beautiful and modern style. White lacquer furniture was mixed with gilded pieces, luxurious carpets covered the inlaid wooden floors and soft, muted colours were used for the fabrics and in the decoration of the ceilings.

As already explained in my earlier post, it had not been easy finding suitable bridegrooms for Murad V’s daughters. Ali Galib was the son of clerk who worked in the Post and Telegraph Office at the Palace. He had ingratiated himself with Sultan Abdülhamid, and rose to the position of Pasha soon after his marriage. By 1906 he sat on the State Advisory Board – similar to the Privy Council in England. Ali Galib was intelligent, hard-working and respectful. He cared deeply for his wife, and treated her tenderly and with kindness and understanding. However, although Fehime did not dislike him as intensely as Hadice disliked her husband, she did not reciprocate his feelings and remained distant towards him throughout their marriage.

Fehime: As Portrayed in ‘The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus’

Perhaps my favourite scenes in the book that involve Fehime are the ones in the final chapter. The acclaimed photographer, Jean Pascal Sébah, comes to Fehime’s mansion to take photographic portraits of her and Hadice. I imagine him taking the two photographs of Fehime that I have included in this post. However, just before the sisters go into the salon to sit for their portraits, Hadice has a change of heart. Fehime then has to convince her sister of the reasons why they should proceed with such a daring escapade.

She says, “I have a voice Hadice, and I need to use it. I see these portraits as being a way to express myself, to make a strong statement and to speak to those who İnşallah will come after us …. How wonderful would it be for them to see that we were not bound by the conventions and circumstances of our times and of our position, and that we were independent, free-thinking women who were brave enough to rebel against our restrictive and seemingly meaningless lives, even if only in small ways. We will be remembered Hadice. Remembered not simply as a name on our family tree, but remembered as we really were. Don’t you see, when they look into our eyes in these portraits our souls will be laid bare for our descendants to see. This is why we must do this.”

I just hope that I have given my great-aunt a voice. And I hope that through my narrative I have portrayed her, and the other members of my family, in a sensitive, yet realistic way that they would approve of… I certainly remember them all, and hope to encourage my children and others to do the same…