Şehzade Mehmed Abid

Şehzade Mehmed Abid ( ota, شهزادہ محمد عابد; 17 September 1905 – 8 December 1973) was an Ottoman prince, the son of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and Saliha Naciye Hanım.

Early years

Şehzade Mehmed Abid was born on 17 September 1905 in the Yıldız Palace. His father was  Abdul Hamid II, son of Abdulmejid I and Tirimüjgan Kadın. His mother was  Saliha Naciye Hanım, daughter of Arslan Bey Ankuap. He was the eighth son, and sixteenth child born to his father, and the eldest child of his mother. He had a sister, Samiye Sultan three years younger than him, who died in infancy. He was named after Abdul Hamid's decreased brother.

On 27 April 1909, Abdul Hamid was deposed, and sent into exile in Thessaloniki. Abid and his mother followed Abdul Hamid. There they lived in Alatini Mansion. After Thessaloniki fell to Greece in 1912, Abdul Hamid returned to Istanbul, and settled in the Beylerbeyi Palace. His circumcision took place on 9 October 1913. Abdul Hamid died in 1918, when Abid was thirteen years of age.

Abid's early education took place in Galatasaray High School. He was thought painting by Halil Pasha, and his history tutor was Tevfik Bey. After graduating from here, he was enrolled in the Ottoman Military College, and went on to become senior lieutenant in the imperial Ottoman Army. He also served aide-de-camp to Sultan Mehmed VI. His mother died in 1923, when he was nineteen years of age.

Between 1918 and 1922, Abid lived in the Yıldız Palace, and between 1922 and 1924, he lived in the Erenköy Palace.

Exile

At the exile if the imperial family in March 1924, Abid settled in Beirut, Lebanon. He used to spend most of the time in Jounieh with his eldest brother Şehzade Mehmed Selim, and the summers in Aley. He then went to Paris, where he stayed with his older sister, Ayşe Sultan. Here he earned his living as a soap seller. On 14 January 1925, he gave the power of attorney to Sami Günzberg, a well-known Turkish Jewish lawyer, authorising him to regain from usurpers buildings, lands, mines, concessions left by Abdul Hamid situated in Turkish territory and elsewhere.

In Paris, he went to the  Sorbonne Law School, and the Faculty of Political Sciences from where he graduated in 1936 and 1937 respectively. He received his doctorate in law from Sorbonne. He also went to Ecole Nationale des Langues Orientales Vivantes, where he graduated in Persian Language and Literature. Between 1940 and 1948, he lived for short periods in Toulouse, Nice, Madrid, Lisbon, Cairo, Alexandria and Tirana.

Betweent 1936 and 1939, King Zog I of Albania, appointed him the Albanian Ambassador to France.

Personal life

In 1930, Abid asked
Abdulmejid II and Mehisti Hanım's daughter, Dürrüşehvar Sultan's hand in marriage. However, her father refused, on the grounds of Dürrüşehvar being under age. In 1934, his marriage was arranged to Mihrişah Sultan, daughter of Şehzade Yusuf Izzeddin and Leman Hanım, and then to the daughter of Nizam of Hyderabad State. However, none of them materialised.

Abid's first wife was Pınardil Fahriye Hanım. She died in 1934 in Nice, France, and was buried in Muslim Bobigny Cemetery. His second wife was Princess Senije Zogu, daughter of Xhemal Pasha Zogu and Sadije Toptani, and sister of King Zog I. They were betrothed on 9 January 1936 in Tirana, and were married on 13 January 1936. They divorced in 1949.

Death

In 1966, Mehmed Abid settled in Beirut, where he died of heart attack on 8 December 1973 and was buried at Tekkiye Mosque, Damascus, Syria.

Personality

Abid was very smart, cultured and interested in history. In his last days he used to spend his time in libraries and bookstores. He could speak Turkish and French, and knew Arabic and Persian  He received many offers to write down his memories about his father. However, he turned down those offers. He would generally refuse the journalists requests to meet him. He was handsome, and would dress comely and cleanly. He spoke very little and was too modest.

Honours

;Foreign honours
* : Grand Cross of the Order of Fidelity of the Kingdom of Albania, ''1936''

Military ranks and army appointments

*Senior Lieutenant, Ottoman Army

Honorary appointments

*Aide-de-Camp to the Sultan

In literature

*Şehzade Mehmed Abid is a character in Tim Symonds' historical novel ''Sherlock Holmes and The Sword of Osman'' (2015).

Ancestry

References

External links

*
*

Family Tree
descendants of Sultan Mahmud II. Retrieved 2011-02-28.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sehzade Mehmed Abid
1905 births
1973 deaths
Abdul Hamid II
Ottoman princes
People of the Ottoman Empire of Abkhazian descent