Nevzad Hanım

Nevzad Hanım (Ottoman Turkish: نوزاد خانم‎; 2 March 1902 - 23 June 1992) was the Empress consort of Sultan Mehmed VI of the Ottoman Empire.

Life

Empress Nevzad Hanım was in the mansion of Hüseyin Bey, Vişnezade district of Beşiktaş, Istanbul on 2 March 1902. Born as Nimet Bargu, she was the eldest daughter of Bargu Şaban Efendi,^[1] a palace gardener, and his wife Hatice Hanım. She had two sisters, Emine Hayriye Nesrin Hanım and Fatma Tüzehra Nevzer Hanım, as well as a brother, Salih Bey Bargu. Hüseyin Bey's wife Eda Hanım was the aunt of her father. In 1913, upon the request of Eda Hanım to Demsan Hanım (sister-in-law of Empress Mihrengiz Kadın, wife of Sultan Mehmed V), Nimet along with her sister Emine Hayriye were presented in the harem of Sultan Mehmed V. Nimet and Emine Hayriye were renamed Nevzad and Nesrin, according to the palace tradition, by Ceylanyar Hanım, one of the Kalfas of the palace. After Mehmed V's death in 1918, Nevzad and Nesrin moved along with his son Şehzade Mehmed Ziyaeddin, to his palace. She served in the entourage of Safiye Ünüvar's student princesses and had taken the same classes and training as they. Later she became one of the kalfas and went over to Sultan Vahideddin's palace.

However soon, the Sultan Mehmed VI took notice of Nevzad and they married on 1 September 1921 in the Yıldız Palace, Istanbul. No children came of this marriage. When the Sultan Mehmed VI was deposed, she joined the deposed Sultan in exile in San Remo, Italy. After the death of Mehmed VI, she returned to Istanbul with her sister, publishing her memoir in 1937 under the title Yıldız'dan San Remo'ya.^[2] In 1928 she married secondly captain Ziya Bey Seferoğlu, and took the name Nimet Seferoğlu. The same year she gave birth to a girl Sıdıka Selçuk, followed by a son Şaban Mustafa in 1931. Nevzad Hanımefendi died in her husband's mansion, near Göksu, Istanbul on 23 June 1992, and was buried in Karacaahmet Cemetery.

References