Şayan Kadın (wife of Abdülmecid I)

Şayan Kadın (c. 1829 - 1 January 1862; other names Şahcan, Şahcihan) was the wife of Sultan Abdülmecid I of the Ottoman Empire. She was Kadinefendi of the Ottoman Empire from their marriage in 1843 until her husband's death on 25 June 1861.

Biography

Born in 1829 in Sochi, Şayan was of Circassian origin. Her father was an Ubykh notable, Ahmed Bey Vozden and her mother was Nurhan Hanım Kucba, an ethnic Abkhazian. Şayan had two sisters, Sarra Bakmaz Hanım four years elder than her and Nevnihal Hanım three years younger than her, and a brother Arslan Bey Vozden, six years older than her. When Şayan was seven or eight, her family emigrated from Caucasus to Istanbul.

Sayezar Hanım, herself a countrywoman in the palace presented Şayan, Sarra Bakmaz and Nevnihal in the palace. She was given a thoroughly Turkish and Muslim education in the harem department of the Topkapı Palace. Şayan grew into a young lady in Topkapı Palace, and when she entered her fourteenth year she was noticed by Sultan Abdülmecid I.

Abdülmecid proposed her and Şayan consented to the will of their parents in the marriage proposal of the Sultan. In 1843 Şayan married Abdülmecid at the old Çırağan Place, Istanbul. She was given the title of Dördüncü Kadınefendi. Şayan also paid a visit to Kupalı palace to meet her countrywomen, who came from Caucasus to Istanbul, and helped them financially.

Tuberculosis took its victims in the palace as elsewhere in the nineteenth century and Şayan was one of them. Şayan died six months after her husband on 1 January 1862 at Istanbul.

Titles and styles

1843 - 25 June 1861: Devletlu İsmetlu Şayan Dördüncü Kadınefendi Hazretleri (Her Highness The Fourth Imperial Lady Consort Şayan)

References