Princess Niloufer, the last Ottoman Princess, had a life filled with both glamour and hardship after marrying into the wealthy Hyderabad Nizam family,but her personal life was full of tragedies.
Khanum Niloufer Sultana Farhat (1916 –1989) was one of the last princesses of the Ottoman Empire. She was born in the Goztepe Palace in Istanbul in Turkey. Princess was married with Prince Moazzam Jaah, the second son of the Nizam of Hyderabad, His Exalted Highness Nawab Mir Osman Ali Khan.
When she was born, the royal family of Ottoman Empire of Turkey was breathing its last and the Ottoman Empire was moving downwards. Speaking of her family, at the age of 2, she lost her father.
Her father was Damad Moralizada Salaruddin Bey Effendi, a prominent member of the Ottoman court. Her mother, Adile Sultan, was a daughter of Şehzade Mehmed Selaheddin, the eldest son of Sultan Murad V, and a sister of Sultan Abdülmecid II, the last caliph.
It was in 1924, that she was forced to leave Turkey along with her mother and come to France. This was due to the outcome of the First World War (WW1) as the Ottoman dynasty was dethroned. Living behind the rich and royal life, the beautiful princess lived in France like an ordinary person.
However, the princess faced several ups and downs in her life. The only silver line that brought luck was her marriage Prince Moazzam Jah, and to become the daughter-in-law of the world’s richest royal family, the Hyderabad Nizam.
The Nizam had relations with the Turkish dynasty. He wanted his son to marry into the Ottoman dynasty. After marriage in 1931, Nilofer was welcomed in Hyderabad.
Niloufer, at the age of eight, moved with her parents into exile in Nice in France. At the end of World War I, the ruling dynasty was deposed and Turkey was declared a republic. Later, in1924, the Ottomans were exiled from Turkey. They settled in France.
This resulted Sultan, Abdul Majid II, who also had the title of the Khalifa, to give up his palatial possessions. For the Muslims worldwide, this was a low point in their history when the Khalifa himself became a poor man.
At that time, rescue came from the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Nizam promised Khalifa a pension of 300 British Pounds a month. On this income, the Khalifa maintained his establishment.
The deposition of the Khalifa was a significant political event. During this Khilafat movement, to restore the Khalifat, Maulana Shoukat Ali came to be on very friendly terms with the Khalifa. Seeing that the Khalifa had no son, Shoukat Ali proposed that the Khalifa’s daughter, Durru Shehvar, bemarried to Azam Jaah the elder son of Nizam.
The negotiations for the terms of the marriage started, but soon broke down as the Nizam felt that the requirement for the Mehr was exorbitant. Eventually, the Nizam was able to get two marriages within the specified amount.
On December 20, 1931, at her maternal uncle’s Palace in Nice, Niloufer was married at age 16 to Moazzam Jaah, second son of the last ruling Nizam of Hyderabad. The Nizam’s elder son and heir was married to Niloufer’s first cousin, Dürrü şehvar, daughter of Sultan Abdülmecid II. The Khalifa himself acted as the Qazi.
They were taught how to wear sarees, and the expected etiquette in the presence of the Nizam. With great trepidation, they boarded the train to Hyderabad.
Thus, one of the last princesses of the Ottoman Empire, Princess Niloufer brought grace and rebellion to conservative India upon marrying Moazzam Jaah. Pushing boundaries with her sense of style and challenging traditional norms for women, she encouraged others to follow their hearts too.
Niloufer and Moazzam Jaah moved in to magnificent Hill Fort palace. It was a large palace, purchased from the previous owner, Sir Nizamat Jung. Who served as chief justice in the government of Nizam, India. This building still stands, on the ascent fromPublic Gardens to Noubat Pahad.
Prince Moazzam Jaah was a poet himself and almost every evening, Moazzam Jaah organized a Mushaera. Many well known names were present in the gatherings. Fond of a lavish lifestyle, he doted on his wife and got her painted and photographed. Life seemed to be hunky-dory.
“No hostess can make her guests feel more at home than Princess Niloufer, nor serve tea more charmingly. Her conversation indicated a well-informed mind, ranging from international politics to Paris styles, about which she chattered in perfect French to the Italian wife of the other American reporter, whose knowledge of English was then rudimentary.
Niloufer’s English was also flawless. That evening, at the birthday party of her cousin, the Princess of Berar, Niloufer appeared in a striking black Paris gown, poised and lovely, and the center of attraction for all men present. She seemed able to make each of them feel he was the most important person in the room. This, indeed, is charm,” reported Percy Wood in The Chicago Tribune in 1949.
Her violet eyes and blue-black Circassian hair were enough to ruin a man’s appetite.
As per some historians that Nilofer’s marriage with Moazzam Jah was a mismatch. The conclusion was made on seeing the difference in their height. Nilofer’s height was 5 foot 10 inches while her husband was 5 feet and 3 inches respectively. Her husband was shorter than her and had 50 concubines, which likely strained their relationship.
Princesses Durru Shehvar and Niloufer were distant cousins. So when they moved to Nice, France, Princess Niloufer noticed a drastic change in her lifestyle. Princess Durru Shehvar’s father was Abdülmecid II, the last Caliph of the Muslim world; a position held with respect and utmost dignity in the community.
Princess Niloufer’s mother Adile Sultan was a widow and that lowered her social strata. In her letters, Princess Niloufer writes how she had to go to public schoolswhile Princess Durru Shehvar had private tutors coming home.
The first daughter in-law Durru Shehvar gave birth to a son, Mukarram Jaah.When several years passed, and still Niloufer had not conceived, she consulted various doctors in Europe and was planning to go to America for a medical visit.
This ravishing princess also had a heart that beat for others. When she saw her maid servant, Rafat-un-nisa, die during childbirth she got devastated. She did not remain content with just sympathizing with the bereaved family but decided to do something for women in general.
“Hereafter, no more Rafats shall die for want of good medical facilities,” she resolved.This tragic incident led to the establishment of a hospital for women and children which the Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, named after his daughter-in-law, the present “NILOFAR HOSPITAL” in Red Hills.
She decided to set up a maternity hospital, which stands today as Niloufer Hospital in Nampally.
Princess Nilofer’s personal life, however, was less glamorous. She did not return to Hyderabad after a 1948 trip to France.
While her private life seemed empty due to lack of children, her public life became very glittering. She was invited to several functions, inaugurated several events and became a torch-bearer for women’s advancement.Meanwhile; the specialist doctors in Europe were unable to realise a solution to her childlessness.
In 1948, 17 years after his marriage to Niloufer, her husband Moazzam took a second wife, Razia Begum, daughter of local aristocracy in Hyderabad.The second marriage was quickly blessed with children and three daughters were born within four years.
Eventually, in 1952, after 21 years of marriage, Niloufer and her husband were divorced.
Princesses Niloufer was judged one of the 10 most beautiful women in the world, and was offered several roles in films. Niloufer had a style of dressing that attracted the public and caught the attention of the fashion media. Her sarees were especially crafted by Madhavdas, a designer from Bombay.
When India became independent, Niloufer was in a peculiar position. Hyderabad had yet to decide on joining the Indian Union. As this situation dragged on, eventually Hyderabad was amalgamated into the Indian Union by a “Police Action”.
Although the Nizam was retained as the Head of the State, he was just a shadow of his former self. Niloufer decided never to return to India again. Her marriage with Moazzam Jaah came to an end in 1952. She continued to live in Paris, with her mother, in a flat.
After her divorce, Niloufer moved to France where the Ottoman family had settled after their exile from Turkey. A number of other royal exiles from several countries were also settled in Nice and the Côte d’Azur and Niloufer maintained an active social life.
The world was so enamoured by Niloufer’s beauty that upon her return to France, following her divorce in 1952, she was featured in Vogue magazine wearing some of her own saris.
Soon thereafter, her style gained immense popularity and even remains on display at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology Museum.
Niloufer’s liberal attitude, progressive thinking and undying enthusiasm inspired generations of women and fashion connoisseurs so much so that fashion designers and jewellers across the world launched collections and jewellery patterns in her memory.
However, irrespective of where she was based, Niloufer never detached her Indian ties. Her friendship with Jawharlal Nehru was one such connection.
One of her letters following the assassination of Gandhi read: “Dear Pandit, You have heard and read the cry of so many millions of hearts — you have felt perhaps more than anyone else that great silence that set the void and the loneliness after he (Gandhi) was no more”.
The duo continued to stay in touch, Niloufer wrote to Nehru even during the elections and Nehru who was on the road canvasing for the polls, replied, “But I want to tell you that you will always be welcome here whenever you care to come.”
After a good 11 years of being single, Niloufer met Edward Pope and found love once again.
In February 1964, she married Pope in the presence of Nawab Ali Yawar Jung who was the Best Man.
Niloufer died in 1989 and was buried in a grave in Bobigny near Paris.
The Muslims-only cemetery that is a two-hour drive from Paris not only has her mother resting there, but also all the members of her Seljuk dynasty. Surely, a life as romantic, as magnanimous, and as dramatic as Niloufer’s deserves to be immortalised.
The End
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