Refia Sultan (daughter of Abdul Hamid II)


Refia Sultan was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and Sazkar Hanım.

Early life

Refia Sultan was born on 15 June 1891 in the Yıldız Palace. Her father was Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and her mother was Sazkar Hanım. She was the eleventh child, and sixth daughter born to her father and the only child of her mother.

Marriage

Towards the end of Abdul Hamid's reign, he bethrothed Refia Sultan to Ali Fuad Bey, the son of Müşir Ahmed Eyüp Pasha. However, at the overthrew of her father in 1909, the princess followed her parents into exile at Thessaloniki. The next year she returned to Istanbul.
The marriage took place on 3 September 1910 in the Kızıltoprak Palace. The couple had two daughters, Rebia Hanımsultan born on 13 July 1911, and Ayşe Hamide Hanımsultan born in 1918.
At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, the couple and their daughters settled firstly in Nice, France where Hamide died at the age of eighteen in 1934, later the couple settled in Beirut, Lebanon.
According to Neslişah Sultan, she was by far the worldliest among the daughters of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. She was a gracious lady, and her husband Fuad Bey was an excellent husband.

Death

Refia Sultan died at the age of forty seven in 1938 in Beirut, Lebanon and was buried in Sultan Selim Mosque, Damascus, Syria. Her mother outlived her by seven years dying in 1945.

Issue

Together with Ali Faud, Refia had two daughters: