Ikbal Hanimefendi

Ikbal Hanimefendi (Arabic: اقبال هانم افندی‎‎)(Turkish: İkbal Hanımefendi) (22 October 1876 - 10 February 1941), originally a Circassian slave brought to Egypt, became the Khediva consort of Egypt from 1895 to 1900 as the first wife of Abbas Hilmi II Pasha, the last Khedive of Egypt and Sudan.

Early life

Ikbal Hanimefendi was born on 22 October 1876 on the Crimean Peninsula, Russian Empire. She was of Circassian ethnicity. Her personal name is unknown. She became a personal slave to the Valida Pasha Emina Ilhamy, wife of Khedive Tewfik, after being sent to the Khedive's father in Egypt as a gift. It was at his mother, the Valida Pasha's house that the young Abbas II of Egypt first saw her. As beauty offered social capital in the Middle East of the time, the young handmaid's low status did not interfere with her advancement.

Marriage

19-year-old Ikbal was courted and won by the young prince, who finally married her after the birth of her first daughter on 19 February 1895. He then raised her to the rank of Khediva Consort, as she could not by court convention be considered "Khediva".

The Khediva Consort admired European fashion in dress and household practices and had European servants and governesses for her three daughters. She studied with her children and had an open, inquiring mind. As dowager Khediva, Ikbal Hanimefendi was considered one of Egypt's most beautiful women and was reputed to be a devoted wife, gaining her favor among those around the palace. However, aside from attending ladies-only state functions such as royal weddings/receptions and opera premiers, Ikbal Hanim had no official public role.

Divorce

While the marriage appears originally to have been a love-match, Khedive Abbas II later divorced her in 1900, after which he entered into a passionate romance with a beautiful Hungarian aristocrat from Philadelphia, Marianna Török, whom he had first met while at the Theresianum in Vienna as a student. They eventually married on 1 March 1910.

Death

The former Khediva Consort, Ikbal, however, never remarried and died on 10 February 1941 in Jerusalem, during the British Mandate in Palestine.

Children

Together with Abbas Ikbal had six children:

• Princess Emina Hanimefendi (Montaza Palace, Alexandria, 12 February 1895 - 1954), unmarried and without issue
• Princess Atiyaullah Hanimefendi (Cairo, 9 June 1896 - 1971), married and had issue, two sons.
• Princess Fathiya Hanimefendi (27 November 1897 - 30 November 1923), married without issue
• HRH Prince Prince (Damat) Muhammad Abdul Muneim Bey Efendi, Heir Apparent and Regent of Egypt and Sudan, (20 February 1899 - 1 December 1979), married and had issue
• Princess Lutfiya Shavkat Hanimefendi (Cairo, 29 September 1900 - ?), married and had issue
• Prince Muhammad Abdul Kadir (4 February 1902 - Montreux, 21 April 1919)

Honours

• Order of Charity (Nishan-i-Shafakat) 1st class of Turkey.