Behije Khanim-efendi

Behide was born in 1882 in the suburb of Adapazari in the Abkhazian noble family of Albuz Bey Katsievich Maan and Nazly Khanym Kudzhba ^[5] . Behide was the granddaughter of the famous comrade-in-arms of the last ruler of Abkhazia, Mikhail Shervashidze , Lieutenant General Katz Maan . In addition, she was a relative of the wife of Khalil Kut . She was the eldest of six children in the family. Father Behide got a job thanks to his kinship with the ninth wife of Abdul-Hamid II Sazkar Khanim Efendi . When he heard that Abdul-Hamid was looking for a bride for his son Burhanettin, Albuz brought Beheegee to the court and presented it to the sultan. Abdul-Hamid was so fascinated by the beauty of the girl that he decided to marry her himself.

On May 10, 1900, in the palace of Yildiz Behiji, she married Sultan Abdul-Hamid II. A year later, on June 22, 1901 , Behiji gave birth to twins - Mehmed Bedreddin Efendi and Ahmed Nureddin Efendi ^{[4] [6]} . After the birth of children, Behije’s expenses increased dramatically. She began bringing relatives to the court and asking for additional pensions for them. In 1902, Behijid's father retired, began to receive 300 thousand lire annually and purchased a mansion not far from Yildiz Palace. The wedding of Behija’s sister, Tasvira Hanim, was held in Yildiz. She received a dowry of 90 thousand lire, and her husband - work. Unmarried sisters Behige also received payments of 50 thousand a year each and the same amount after the wedding as a dowry. Her mother had her maidservants and ladies at the sultan's court, in the amount of 20 people. But Behije's wardrobe exceeded everything. Expensive dresses were brought from abroad in large quantities. None of the wives of the Sultan led such a wasteful lifestyle.

In the end, the costs reached such heights that they began to cause complaints from the Minister of Finance and public censure by the Sultan. However, neither the complaint nor the censure had any success: Behijid continued to spend, taking loans from Armenian bankers. Between 1901 and 1903, Behija Maan cost the Ottoman court 2 million lire. On October 13, 1903, one of the twins suddenly died - Mehmed Bedreddin. The death of his son temporarily ceased financial activity Behijde, but after a year the costs began to grow again. Behide bought simultaneously three mansions on the shore of the Bosphorus , painted by the personal artist of the Sultan, and ordered jewelry from jewelers for herself and her relatives for the sum of 150 thousand lire.

But neither dress nor decoration could not keep the Sultan near the Behij. On November 4, 1904, Abdul-Hamid married 13 times. The chosen one was Salih Nadzhie , who later became one of the two most beloved wives of the Sultan (the other was Mushfika Kadyn Efendi ). After the overthrow of her husband, Behige did not accompany him in exile in Thessaloniki . She stayed in Istanbul and lived with her son at the “Macka Palace” hotel until the expulsion of the Dynasty . In 1924, Behide went with her son to Naples , where she lived until March 1969 . In 1969, she returned to Turkey and died seven months later in Suadiye. Buried in the graveyard of Yahya Efendi ^{[7] [1]} .

• Fanny Davis. The Ottoman Lady: A Social History from 1718 to 1918 . - Greenwood Publishing Group, 1986. - ISBN 978-0-313-24811-5 .
• Yavuz Bahadıroğlu. Resimli Osmanlı Tarihi. - Nesil Yayınları, 2009. - ISBN 978-975-269-299-2 .

• Turkey: The Imperial House of Osman . web.archive.org. The appeal date is February 6, 2014. Archived May 2, 2006.