page_title: Nazikeda Kadın (wife of Mehmed VI)
section_title: Marriage
hierarchical_section_title: Nazikeda Kadın (wife of Mehmed VI) / Marriage
caption_attribution_description: English: Rukiye Sabiha Sultan’s wedding day in 1920, left to right: Fatma Ulviye Sultan, Ayşe Hatice Hayriye Dürrüşehvar Sultan, Emine Nazikeda Kadınefendi, Rukiye Sabiha Sultan, Mehmed Ertuğrul Efendi, Şehsuvar Hanımefendi. Türkçe: Rukiye Sabiha Sultan’ın düğün günü 1920, soldan sağa: Fatma Ulviye Sultan, Ayşe Hatice Hayriye Dürrüşehvar Sultan, Emine Nazikeda Kadınefendi, Rukiye Sabiha Sultan, Mehmed Ertuğrul Efendi, Şehsuvar Hanımefendi
context_page_description: Nazikeda Kadın, also nicknamed the Last Empress, was the first wife and chief consort of the last sultan, Mehmed VI of the Ottoman Empire.
  Nazikeda was born Emine in Sukhumi to a family of Abkhazian principality. She was the daughter of Prince Hasan Bey Marshan and Fatma Horecan Hanım Aredba. She came to Istanbul in 1876, and married Prince Mehmed Vahdeddin later known as Mehmed VI, in 1885. She was the mother of three daughters, Fenire Sultan, Ulviye Sultan, and Sabiha Sultan.
  After Mehmed's accession to the throne in 1918, she was given the title of 'Senior Consort'. Mehmed was deposed in 1922, and sent into exile in 1924. Nazikeda followed him, and remained with him until his death in 1926. She spent her last years with her two daughters, Ulviye and Sabiha, and died at Cairo in 1941.
context_section_description: One day, when Mehmed was in his twenties, he visited his older sister Cemile Sultan at her palace at Kandilli. Here he saw Nazikeda, then seventeen years old, and fell in love with her. He asked his sister to give him Nazikeda in marriage, but Cemile flatly refused. She didn't want her sick daughter to be deprived of a companion, and at the same time that her brother would eventually take a second wife after Nazikeda, whom she considered as her own daughter.
  However, one year after the prince's pleading Cemile acceded to her brother's demand, but on one condition that he would not take a second wife. He took the oath requested by his sister, and the marriage took place on 8 June 1885 in one of the palaces of Örtakoy. Mehmed was twenty four while Nazikeda was nineteen years old. After the marriage, the couple went to live in one of the palaces of Feriye, where they spent several years in a three-storey wooden mansion. This mansion was destroyed in a fire, and the couple later moved to the mansion in Çengelköy.
  Around the same time, her sister Daryal renamed Iryale was married to Şehzade Mehmed Selim, son of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Her cousin Amine renamed Nazikeda was married to Şehzade Yusuf Izzeddin, son of Sultan Abdulaziz. Her other cousin Kadriye renamed Mezidimestan, was married to Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
  The couple's first daughter Fenire Sultan was born in 1888, and lived only a few weeks. She was followed by Fatma Ulviye Sultan born on 11 September 1892, and two years later, on 19 March 1894, by Rukiye Sabiha Sultan. After this third birth, Nazikeda was told by the doctors that she would not be able to bear other children.
  On 30 May 1918, Nazikeda 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. 
  In the following years, Mehmed married other women, but all of his marriages were made with the consent of Nazikeda. Even though Mehmed's accession to the throne was unlikely, Nazikeda knew well that as a prince he had to have a male heir and, therefore, each time accepted his wish to remarry. By doing so Mehmed broke the vow he had made to his sister Cemile. Nonetheless, after his accession to the throne in 1918, he gave Nazikeda the title of "Senior Consort", and his respect towards her never failed.
  By 1916 Mehmed and Nazikeda's daughters had grown and reached the age of marriage. The elder daughter, Ulviye, was first to marry. The groom was Ismail Hakki Bey, the son of last grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire, Ahmed Tevfik Pasha. The wedding took place in a waterfront palace at Kuruçeşme on 10 August 1916, when Mehmed was a Crown Prince. The couple had a daughter Hümeyra Hanımsultan born on 4 June 1917. Ulviye divorced Ismail, and married Ali Haydar Bey, a member of the Germiyanoğlu family.
  Her younger daughter, Sabiha and Şehzade Ömer Faruk, the son of Abdulmejid II, the last Caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate, were in love with each other. When Abdulmejid asked Sabiha's hand in marriage for his son, Mehmed flatly refused as there was no such thing as a marriage between cousins. Şehsuvar Hanım, the prince's mother called on Nazikeda, and succeeded in convincing her. The marriage took place on 5 December 1919, and the wedding reception took place four months later on 29 April 1920 at the Yıldız Palace. The couple had three daughters, Neslişah Sultan, Hanzade Sultan, and Necla Sultan.
caption: Nazikeda (third from left) at her daughter Sabiha's (third from right) wedding, 29 April 1920
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