Şayan Kadın

Şayan Kadın (4 January 1853 – 15 March 1945, birth name Safiye Zan) was the Empress consort of the Ottoman Empire as the third wife of Sultan Murad V.

Empress Şayan Kadın was born in 1853 to a Natukhai notable, Batır Zan. At a very young age her family emigrated from the Caucasus to Istanbul, where she was delivered at the court of the Ottoman Sultan. First, she was given to serve the head of the court. However, soon the Şehzade Murad (future Sultan Murad V) took notice of Şayan, and they married on 5 February 1869 in the Beşiktaş Palace.

After sometime Şayan became pregnant with her first child. Pertevniyal Sultan sent over her palace midwife to abort the child. When the midwife arrived to abort the child, Şehzade Murad obtained permission from Sultan Abdülaziz for this child to be aborted outside the villa. The pregnant Şayan Kadın was taken to the home of Dr. Emin Pasha for the abortion, But at Şehzade Murad's request the doctor prepared a harmless concoction for her and sent her back to the Şehzade's villa, while reporting to the palace that he had administrated treatment to induce abortion. Hatice Sultan was born in Şehzade Murad's villa in Kurbağalıdere in 1870 and indeed the baby was brought up concealed in the villa until Şehzade Murad ascended the throne as Murad V. Only after the overthrew of Abdul Hamid in 1909, Şayan Kadın convey her thanks, and render assistance, to the doctor's family for the risk he had taken thirty years earlier for her sake.

After reigning for three months, her husband, Murad was deposed due to mental instability and they were imprisoned in the Çırağan Palace. In the later years she also lost mental balance. After freedom, she moved to Ortaköy, where she lived until her death in 1945.