Düzdidil Hanımefendi

Düzdidil Hanımefendi
Baş Ikbal of the Ottoman Empire
Tenure	2 October 1842 - 18 August 1845
Predecessor	Nükhetsezâ Hanımefendi
Successor	Mehtab Kadınefendi
Born	Ayşe Dişan c. 1825 North Caucasus
Died	18 August 1845 Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Burial	Yeni Mosque, Istanbul
Spouse	Abdülmecid I
Issue	Cemile Sultan
Father	Şıhım Dişan
Mother	Fülane Çaçba
Religion	Sunni Islam

Düzdidil Hanımefendi (c. 1825 – 18 August 1845; fully: Devletlu Başikbal Düzdidil Hanımefendi Hazretleri; birth name, Ayşe Dişan, other names, Rüzidil, Rüsdil) was the wife of Sultan Abdülmecid I of the Ottoman Empire. She was Hanimefendi of the Ottoman Empire from their marriage on 2 October 1842 until her death on 18 August 1845.

Biography

Düzdidil Hanımefendi was born in 1825 as Ayşe Dişan to Şıhım Bey Dişan, an Ubykh noble, and his Abkhazian wife Fülane Çaçba. At the age of six, Ayşe was sent to Istanbul along with her wet nurse Emine Hanım. Yahya Bey presented Ayşe and Emine Hanım in the royal harem. She was renamed Düzdidil and was given private education and lessons of piano in the harem department of the Topkapı Palace. Düzdidil grew into a young lady, and when she entered her seventeenth year she was noticed by Abdülmecid and they married on 2 October 1842 in the Topkapı Palace. On 18 August 1843 she gave birth to her only daughter, Cemile Sultan.^[1]

Tuberculosis took its victims in the palace as elsewhere in the nineteenth century and Düzdidil was one of them. She died on 18 August 1845 and was buried in the Mausoleum of the imperial ladies at the Yeni Mosque Istanbul. Cemile Sultan was only two years old when Düzdidil died. Cemile was adopted by another of Sultan Abdülmecid's wives, Rahime Perestu Sultan, who was also the adoptive mother one of her half brothers, the last Ottoman Sultan, Abdul Hamid II.^[2][3]

A luxuriously decorated prayer book was commissioned around 1844 for Düzdidil, after she had fallen victim to the epidemic of tuberculosis then raging in Istanbul. As was fitting for her position, the prayer book is lavishly ornate. It contains 33 surahs of the Qur'an, 80 prayers of request and praise, and 61 miniatures. The rococo style of the manuscript corresponds to contemporary Ottoman taste. An artist named Hüseyin created the emotive illustrations in the appendix, which feature views of the holy places in Mecca and Medina as well as the relics of the Prophet kept in the Topkapı Palace.^[4]

Titles and styles

Styles of Düzdidil Hanımefendi
Reference style	Her Highness
Spoken style	Your Highness
Alternative style	Hanım

• 2 October 1842 - 18 August 1845: Devletlu Baş Ikbal Düzdidil Hanımefendi Hazretleri (Her Highness The First Honoured Lady Consort Düzdidil)

References

1. Harun Açba (2007). Kadın efendiler: 1839-1924. Profil. ISBN 978-9-759-96109-1.
2. The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher: Voices from the Ottoman Harem. University of Texas Press. 2010. ISBN 978-0-292-78335-5.
3. M. Çağatay Uluçay (2011). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Ötüken. pp. 248–49. ISBN 978-9-754-37840-5.
4. Prayer Book of Düzdidil

Succession