Nazikedâ Kadın Efendi

Nazikeda Kadın ([nazik̟ʰeda kʰadɯn]; Ottoman Turkish: نازك ادا قادین‎; c. 1848 – 7 February 1895; meaning 'One of delicate manners') was the first wife and chief consort of Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire.

Nazikeda Kadın was born in 1848 in Abkhazia. She was a member of Abkhazian princely family, Tsanba. Her father was Prince Arzakan Bey Tsanba, and her mother was Princess Esma Hanım Klıç, also an Abkhazian.

She had been brought to Istanbul as a young child, where her father entrusted her to the household of the wife of grand vizier Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha, where her name according to Ottoman custom was changed to Nazikeda. Here she learned the court protocol, and to play the piano.

In 1858, aged ten, when Cemile Sultan, the daughter of Sultan Abdulmejid I, married Mahmud Celaleddin Pasha, the son of Fethi Ahmed Pasha, the groom's mother took Nazikeda, and presented her to Cemile. Pleased by the well-bred manners of Nazikeda, Cemile made her a personal attendant who always accompanied her mistress.

One day, when Abdul Hamid was in his twenties, he visited his younger sister Cemile Sultan at her palace at Kandilli. Here he saw Nazikeda, and fell in love with her. He asked his sister to give him Nazikeda in marriage. In fact, Cemile also noticed that this young girl had pleased her brother, and she immediately presented her to him. The marriage took place in 1867 in the Dolmabahçe Palace. In 1868, a year after the marriage, she gave birth to her only daughter, Ulviye Sultan.

On 5 October 1875, when Ulviye was seven, she was burned to death playing with matches, while Nazikeda, who tried to save her, also suffered severe burns. In his reflections, Abdul Hamid referred three times to the death of his first child. He considered it the first traumatic experience of his life curiously not mentioning the death of his mother when he was eleven or the death of his father when he was fourteen.

After Abdul Hamid's accession to the throne on 31 August 1876, she was installed the principal consort with the title of "Senior Consort". According to Leyla Saz, she was in every way worthy of this position both with respect to her lofty spirit and because of her beauty. In 1877, Nazikeda and other members of the imperial family settled in the Yıldız Palace, after Abdul Hamid moved there on 7 April 1877. She held the second highest position in the imperial harem after Perestu Kadın.

Nazikeda, however, never forgot her first mistress, the wife of Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha. Deeply grateful to her for the training she received, Nazikeda obtained Abdul Hamid's permission to invite her to the palace. When according to the protocol the old lady bowed before her, Nazikeda persuaded her to sit beside her.

After the death of Peyveste Hanım's father, Nazikeda's paternal cousin Meryem Hanım presented her widowed mother Hesna Hanım and her sisters to Nazikeda.She won over Hesna, and adopted her daughters. Peyveste went onto marry Abdul Hamid in 1893, and became mother of the couple's only child, a son, Şehzade Abdurrahim Hayri, born in 1894.

Nazikeda Kadın died on 7 February 1895 in the Yıldız Palace, and was buried in the mausoleum of imperial ladies in Yeni Mosque in Istanbul.

Nazikeda Kadın and Abdul Hamid had one daughter:

• Ulviye Sultan (Constantinople, Dolmabahçe Palace, 1868 – Constantinople, Dolmabahçe Palace, 5 October 1875, buried in Yahya Efendi Cemetery).

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