Quick Facts
CancerBiography
Mehmed Orhan (Ottoman Turkish محمد اورخان; 11 July 1909 – 5/12 March 1994) was the 42nd head of the Ottoman dynasty from 1983 to 1994. He succeeded as head of the Ottoman dynasty on 9 December 1983, following the death of Ali Vâsib. If reigning, he would have been styled as Grand Sultan Orhan II.
Life
He was born at Serencebey Palace or at Kızıltoprak, Asia Minor or according to Hamide Ayşe Sultan in Naime Sultan Palace. He was the son of Prince Şehzade Mehmed Abdülkadir, Captain of the Ottoman Army, by his third wife Mihriban Hanım and grandson of Abdul Hamid II by his fourth wife Empress Bidar Kadın.
Mehmed Orhan worked as a shipbuilder in Brazil, a taxi driver in Beirut and Damascus, a cemetery attendant in USA and an aide to King Zog of Albania. He died in Nice and was buried there.
In a 1990 feature in Life magazine, he said his legacy is "both sacred and laughable," and said, "To be Ottoman is to know how to breathe with time."
Marriages and issue
Mehmed Orhan first married Nafiye Yeghen (Cairo, 1913 – ?) in January 1933, annulled in 1947. In 1944, he married a young pregnant French American Actress Marguerite Irma Fournier in Paris. He had a daughter by his first wife and a stepson by his second wife:
- Fatma Necla Sultan (born 14 September 1933, Cairo – 2010, Zurich) married twice and had two sons.
- Mehmed Selim Orhan (born 3 October 1943, Paris) stepson of a morganatic marriage