Fehime Sultan
Fehime Sultan (; 2 August 1875 – 15 September 1929) was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Sultan Murad V and his fourth wife Meyliservet Kadın. Early life. Fehime Sultan was born on 2 August 1875 in the Dolmabahçe Palace. Her father was Murad V, son of Abdulmejid I and Şevkefza Kadın, and her mother was Meyliservet Kadın. She was the third child, and second daughter born to her father and the only child of her mother. After Murad's accession the throne on 30 May 1876, after the deposition of his uncle Sultan Abdulaziz, her family settled in the  Dolmabahçe Palace. After reigning for three months, he was deposed on 30 August 1876, due to mental instability and was imprisoned in the Çırağan Palace. Fehime and her mother followed him into confinement. Life in confinement. At the time of her family's confinement, Fehime Sultan was two years old. Receiving her education in the palace, like her father, Fehime was interested in the arts and music, and learned piano and composed songs. Amongst circles her nickname was Kelebek Sultan (Butterfly Princess), because of her outlandish art and expensive clothing styles. According to Filizten Hanım, Fehime had too simple personality  and she thought herself terribly important. She was not particularly pretty but she fancied herself so and wanted everyone else to think so too. Above all she loved to be praised. She showed little inclination to read books despite the fact that she could read and write both Turkish and French. Instead she spent most of her time gazing into the mirror. First marriage. As years passed, her elder sister Hatice Sultan matured into a fully grown woman, she quite openly longed for a husband. At length, her complaints came to her father's attention, thanks to her mother and  the older kalfas. Murad had her complaints sent to Abdul Hamid. The latter consider it his duty to find husbands for Fehime and her sister, but on one condition, that once they leave the palace they may not return. With that, the princesses were asked what they wished to do. Both preferred to leave Çırağan Palace and get married. Abdul Hamid had the two princesses brought up to Yıldız Palace. He ordered one of the villas at Ortaköy to be completely renovated and another new villa to be built. He had them completely furnished, then ordered photographs taken of them  and sent the photographs to Murad. In October 1898, Fehime and her sister Hatice Sultan met with the German empress Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, when the latter visited Istanbul with her husband the German emperor Wilhelm II. At that time the two were living at Yıldız Palace. Abdul Hamid realized that if he introduced his own daughters to the Empress but didn't include them they would feel quite hurt, so he had them participate in the ceremony as well. In 1901, Abdul Hamid arranged her marriage together with her sister Hatice Sultan, and Sultan Abdülaziz's daughter Emine  Sultan, to another man of the same station and character as Hatice's husband, who was granted a rank as "Ali Galib Pasha". The marriage took place on 12 September 1901 in the Yıldız Palace. The couple were given one of the palaces of Ortaköy as their residence. Second marriage. Fehime had fallen in love with the office Mahmud Behçet Bey, who was five years younger than her. And so she divorced her husband in 1911, and married him the same year. Starting late in 1920, the then Ankara government organized two intelligence organizations based in Istanbul, the Müdafaa-i  Milliye Grubu (Mim Mim group, National Defense Group), which brought together the remnants of the Karakol or Teşkilatı group which had been effectively suppressed by the second British occupation of the Ottoman capital, and the Felah group which was an entirely new and separate oranganization, established to keep and eye on the former Unionists as to smuggle arms, people, and to gather information. Fehime and her cousin, Naime Sultan, daughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid II were active members of the organization. Fehime was particularly a valuable source of information to the underground. She had no love for her uncle, Sultan  Mehmed VI, who had kept the children of Sultan Murad under close surveillance. She was a passionate constitutionalist and a patriot. In 1911, she had composed a piano sonata, entitled "Pour La Constitution". At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, Fehime and her husband first settled in Vienna, Austria, and later Nice, France. In Nice Mahmud Behçet Bey, borrowed money from Fehime on the pretext of opening a shop. He started selling Turkish style ice cream in front of a grocery store in Rue de Congrés. However, things didn't went on well, and Mahmud left Fehime . Death. Fehime died of tuberculosis on 15 September 1929, at the age of fifty-four and was buried in Sultan Selim Mosque, Damascus, Syria. Legacy. Dresses attributed to her are preserved in the Topkapı Palace.