Şehsuvar Kadın

Şehsuvar Kadın
An 1898 painting of Şehsuvar Kadınefendi, painted by her husband
Caliphal consort of the Ottoman Caliphate
Tenure	19 November 1922 - 3 March 1924
Born	2 May 1881 Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Died	c. 1945 Paris, France
Burial	Bobigny Cemetery
Spouse	Abdülmecid II
Issue	Şehzade Ömer Faruk
Full name Şehsuvar Kadın
House	House of Osman (by marriage)
Father	Ubykh Bey
Religion	Sunni Islam

Şehsuvar Kadın (2 May 1881 - c. 1945) was the first wife of Abdülmecid II, the last Caliph of the Muslim world.

Şehsuvar Kadın was born on 2 May 1881 in Istanbul. She belonged to the Ubykh clan of Circassia. Her personal name is not known. At a young age her father, himself attendant at the court, presented her in the imperial harem. She was renamed Şehsuvar and was given education, and lessons of painting and playing piano in the harem department of Şehzade Abdülmecid's harem. She had honey color eyes and long golden blonde hair. Şehsuvar grew into a young lady in Şehzade Abdülmecid's harem, when at the age of fifteen, she was selected a bride for him, and married him on 22 December 1896, in the Ortaköy Palace, Istanbul. On 29 February 1898 she gave birth to her and Abdülmecid's only son, Şehzade Ömer Faruk. On 4 March 1924 she followed her husband into exile, with the other members of the entourage. They moved firstly to Switzerland and then to France where they settled in Paris.

In an 1898 work by Abdülmecid, Pondering/Goethe in the harem, Şehsuvar is shown reclining on a settee. However, according to an interview with Fatma Neslișah Sultan Osmanoğlu on 26 May 2002, she said that the figure does not resemble her paternal grandmother Sehsuvar Kadın. In another work of 1915, Harmony of the Harem/Beethoven in the Harem, by her husband, she is shown playing a violin.

She died in 1945, having outlived her husband by nearly one year, and was buried in the Muslim Bobigny cemetery in Paris.