Nigar Khanum

Nigar Khanum was of Hungarian origin, her father Makar Osman Pasha fled to the Ottoman Empire from Hungary in 1848 after the start of the Hungarian Revolution (1848-1849) . Nigar was born in 1856 in Istanbul. She was educated at the French school in Kadikoy , learned to play the piano at a very young age, in addition, she studied Turkish , Arabic and Farsi with a tutor. Subsequently, she knew perfectly French , Greek , German ; in Italian , Armenian , Arabic, Farsi and Hungarian I read and wrote quite well, in total I knew eight languages ^[3] . She was well versed in the culture of East and West, knew French literature and soon began to write poetry in French. Her early poetry was written in a traditional sofa style, but later, under the influence of the works of and other authors, she took a more modernist position. Nigar Khanum introduced Western styles into Turkish literature and became the leading poetess of the Ottoman Empire in the period after Tanzimat . Her style and choice of themes have a pronounced female character. Her poems were often published in Turkish newspapers of the time ^[4] .

For her humanitarian activities, she received from the Sultan Abdul Hamid II the ^[5] .

In the last years of her life due to illnesses, she began to rarely appear in society and led a reclusive lifestyle. Nigyar Khanum died in Istanbul on April 1, 1918. ^[6]

Her father married her at fourteen, but after a few years the marriage broke up and she divorced. It is known that Nigar had a son, Salih Keramet, who taught the children of the last caliph of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul-Majid II . After the law No. 431 was passed on March 3, 1924, according to which all direct members of the Osman dynasty were expelled from the country, Salih Keramet left Turkey with Abdul-Majid ^[7] .

She was an important and famous figure in the society of her time. In addition to her career as a poet, her lifestyle had a great influence on society and prospects for women in the Ottoman Empire in the late XIX - early XX centuries ^[8] . Although she was not a feminist , her understanding of women's rights was far ahead of her time.

In addition to poetry, she wrote prose and made several translations.

An incomplete list of her main works:

Poetry:

• Efsus I (1877)
• Efsus II (1891)
• Nîrân (1896)
• Aks-i Sada (1900)
• Safahat-ı Kalb (1901)
• Elhan-ı Vatan (1916)

Play:

• Tesir-i Aşk

Memoirs:

• Hayatımın Hikâyesi (published 1959)

• Adyvar, Halide Edib
• Bashar, Shukuf Nihal
• Zorlutuna, Halide Nusret

• Şair Nigar Hanım (İnceleme; İletişim Yayınları, 1998)
• Cosman, Carol, and Joan Keefe, and Kathleen Weaver, The Penguin Book of Women Poets, Allen Lane London 1978

• Article in the Literary Encyclopedia
• Nigar Khanum
• Şair Nigar Hanım
• Arslanbenzer H. Nigar Hanım: Cry on my own - Daily Sabah (08/26/2016)