Adile Sultan (daughter of Mahmud II)

Adile Sultan
Born	23 May 1826 Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire
Died	12 February 1899 Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire
Burial	Eyüp, Istanbul
Spouse	Damat Mehmet Ali Pasha
Names Adile Sultan
House	House of Osman
Father	Mahmud II
Mother	Zernigar Kadın Efendi
Religion	Islam

Adile Sultan (Turkish: Adile Sultan; 23 May 1826 – 12 February 1899) was an Ottoman princess, a female Diwan poet, and a philanthropist. She was the daughter of Sultan Mahmud II and sister of the Sultans Abdülmecid I and Abdülaziz.

Biography

She was born as daughter of Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II (1785–1839) and his wife Zernigar Kadın Efendi in 1825 in Constantinople (modern Istanbul). Adile Sultan lost her mother at a very young age, and was raised by Haciye Pertev Piyale Nevfidan Kadın Efendi, the chief lady in the palace. She received a high standard of education in the palace. Just as her father, she was much interested in the arts.

Adile Sultan married in 1845 the commander of the fleet Kapudan Pasha Mehmet Ali Pasha, who afterwards served a short while as Grand Vizier to her brother Sultan Abdülmecid I (1823–1861). The couple faced the death of their three children. Mehmet Ali Pasha also died in 1868 and their daughter Hayriye Hanim Sultan died young as well. In deep mourning, Adile Sultan entered the order of Naqshbandi and devoted herself to charitable activities.

Adile Sultan had a summerhouse in Validebağ and a famed palace in Kandilli, the Adile Sultan Palace, both on the Asian part of Istanbul. She left her palace in Kandilli following the death of her husband and moved to the Coastal Palace in Fındıklı. She donated the Adile Sultan Palace to the state on the condition that it be converted into the first secondary high school for girls in the Ottoman Empire. Her wish was fulfilled only in 1916 (due to wars), when the Young Turk activist, statesman, and educator Ahmed Rıza opened the Adile Sultan İnas Mekteb-i Sultanisi ("Adile Sultan Imperial Girls School"), today known as Kandilli Anatolian High School for Girls, although it became not the first, but the second secondary school for girls in the empire. The high school moved to a new building in 1969, and the Adile Sultan Palace burned down in 1986 due to an electrical short-circuit. It was reopened in 2006 as the Sakıp Sabancı Kandilli Education and Culture Center.

Adile Sultan died in 1899 at the Coastal Palace. She was interned in the mausoleum of her husband in Eyüp, Istanbul.

Even though she was not much more successful than Leyla Hanım and Fıtnat Hanım, two renowned female poets of her era, Adile Sultan's literary works shed light on the incidents in the palace and the administration of the Ottoman Empire. Adile Sultan also composed a poem about the alleged murder of her younger brother Sultan Abdülaziz (1830–1876), which was officially known a suicide. She also helped the Diwan of Suleiman the Magnificent (1494–1566) to be printed. Her poetry, Adile Sultan's Divan, was published in 1996.

See also

• Adile Sultan Palace
• Kandilli Anatolian High School for Girls

References

• Her biography Template:Tr icon