Kamures Kadınefendi

Kamures Kadın (Ottoman Turkish: کامورس قادین‎; 5 March 1855 – 30 April 1921), meaning "Bringer of pleasure", was the first wife and chief consort of Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire.

Of Circassian origin, Kamures Kadın was born on 5 March 1855 in Ubykhia, Circassia. She belonged to the Ubykh sub-ethnic group of Circassians.

Kamures married Mehmed on 30 September 1872 in the Ortaköy Palace. A year after the marriage, on 26 August 1873, she gave birth to her only son, Şehzade Mehmed Ziyaeddin. On 27 April 1909, after Mehmed's accession to the throne, she was given the title of "Senior Consort".

In 1912, the "Hilal-i Ahmer Centre for Women" was organized within the "Ottoman Hilal-i Ahmer Association", a foundation established in 1877 to provide medical care in Istanbul and surrounding communities. Kamures served as the president of this organization.

Safiye Ünüvar, a teacher at the Palace School, commented in her memoirs about her beauty, and said that she still some of her looks, when the two met in 1915. Kamures had occupied herself with reading history, and whenever Safiye visited her she would always bring up with the subject of Ottoman history.

In 1918, she met with the Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria, when he visited Istanbul. On 30 May 1918, Kamures met with the Empress Zita of Bourbon-Parma in the harem of Yıldız Palace, when the latter visited Istanbul with her husband Emperor Charles I of Austria.

After Mehmed's death on 3 July 1918, she settled in the palace of Şehzade Mahmud Necmeddin in Kuruçeşme, where she died on 30 April 1921, at the age of sixty six. She was buried in the mausoleum of her husband located in the Eyüp Cemetery, Istanbul.

Kamures Kadın and Mehmed had one son:

• Şehzade Mehmed Ziyaeddin (Ortaköy Palace, Istanbul, 26 August 1873 – Alexandria, Egypt, 30 January 1938, buried in Ömer Tosun Pasha Mausoleum), married five times and had two sons and six daughters.

• Uluçay, M. Çağatay (2011). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Ötüken. ISBN 978-9-754-37840-5.
• Açba, Harun (2007). Kadın efendiler: 1839-1924. Profil. ISBN 978-9-759-96109-1.
• Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2008). Bu Mülkün Kadın Sultanları: Vâlide Sultanlar, Hâtunlar, Hasekiler, Kandınefendiler, Sultanefendiler. Oğlak Yayıncılık. ISBN 978-6-051-71079-2.
• The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher: Voices from the Ottoman Harem. University of Texas Press. 2010. ISBN 978-0-292-78335-5.