Hamide Nermin Nezahet Sultan (; 27 January 1923 – 7 November 1998) was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of

Şehzade Mahmud Şevket Şehzade Mahmud Şevket Efendi (; also Mahmud Şevket Osmanoğlu; 30 July 1903 – 31 January 1973) was an Ottoman prince, the son of Şehzade Mehmed Seyfeddin, and the grandson of Sultan Abdulaziz. Early life Şehzade Mahmud Şevket was born on ...

, son of

Şehzade Mehmed Seyfeddin Şehzade Mehmed Seyfeddin Efendi (; 22 September 1874 – 19 October 1927) was an Ottoman prince, the son of Sultan Abdulaziz and Gevheri Kadın. Early life Şehzade Mehmed Seyfeddin was born on 22 September 1874 in the Çırağan Palace. His ...

and Nervaliter Hanım and

Adile Hanımsultan Adile Hanımsultan (; "''Justice, fairness''"; 12 November 1900 – February 1979) was an Ottoman princess, daughter of Naime Sultan and Kemaleddin Pasha and granddaughter of Sultan Abdülhamid II. Early life Adile Hanımsultan was born on 12 N ...

, daughter of Mehmed Kemaleddin Pasha and

Naime Sultan Fatma Naime Sultan ( and 'tranquil'; 5 September 1876 – 1945) was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and Bidar Kadın. Early life Fatma Naime Sultan was born on 5 September 1876 in the Dolmabahçe Palace, four days af ...

Biography

Hamide Nermin Nezahat Sultan was born on 27 January 1923 in the Üsküdar Palace. Her father was

, son of

and Nervaliter Hanım. Her mother was

, daughter of Mehmed Kemaleddin Pasha and

. She developed bone tuberculosis from a young age which remained throughout her life. At the exile of the imperial family in March 1924, Nermin settled in

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Her parents settled in Egypt, where they divorced in 1928. Nermin and her grandmother lived in

Cimiez Cimiez (; Italian: ''Cimella'') is an upper-class neighborhood in Nice, Southern France. The area contains the Musée Matisse and the ruins of ''Cemenelum'', capital of the Ancient Roman province Alpes Maritimae on the Ligurian coast. ''Ceme ...

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

, one of the most prominent French painters lived in her neighbouring house, and one day he met Nermin, whom he found really beautiful. Matisse requested Nermin to become model for his painting, therefore in 1942 the painting ''Odalisque Au Fauteuil Noir'' was published after Nermin's consent. The painting later rose to prominence, and in 2015 it was put on sale for €15 million at

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

auction in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. During the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Nermin and her grandmother settled in

Tirana Tirana ( , ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in Albania, largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills, with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest ov ...

, Albania. She was engaged in Albania, however her fiancé was executed by Albanian communist leader

Enver Hoxha Enver Halil Hoxha ( , ; ; 16 October 190811 April 1985) was an Albanian communist revolutionary and politician who was the leader of People's Socialist Republic of Albania, Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985. He was the Secretary (titl ...

. Nermin and her grandmother were then held in

Nazi concentration camp From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...

, where Naime died. After her grandmother's death, a British intelligence officer in Egypt, historian Lord Patrick Kinross, later brought her to Cairo by a military transport aircraft. She begin to live with her father in the

Zamalek Zamalek ( , ''al zamalek'') is a ''qism'' (ward) within the West District (''hayy gharb'') in the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It is an affluent district on a man-made island which is geologically a part of the west bank of the Nile River, wit ...

district.

Farouk of Egypt Farouk I (; ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936 and reigning until his ...

gave them a salary from Ottoman foundations. However following the

Egyptian Revolution of 1952 The Egyptian revolution of 1952, also known as the 1952 coup d'état () and the 23 July Revolution (), was a period of profound political, economic, and societal change in Egypt. On 23 July 1952, the revolution began with the toppling of King ...

, she again had to leave Egypt, after which she settled in Algeria. Nermin got a job in

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

and provided social counselling to the refugees. She was active during

Algerian War of Independence The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...

. Following the independence of Algeria from France, Nermin moved to

Bagnols-sur-Cèze Bagnols-sur-Cèze (, "Bagnols-on-Cèze"; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Gard Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania Regions of France, region in Southern France. History A small regiona ...

to live with her father Mahmud. After her father's death in 1973, she started to receive his pension. Nermin became penniless after her father's death, and remained bedridden until her death. Nermin died on 7 November 1998 at a local hospital's ward at the age of seventy five and was buried there.

Ancestry

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nermin Sultan 1923 births 1998 deaths Royalty from Istanbul 20th-century Ottoman princesses