Princess Nazli Fazil

Princess Zainab Nazli Hanim (1853 – 28 December 1913) was an Egyptian princess from the dynasty of Muhammad Ali Pasha and one of the first women to revive the tradition of the literary salon in the Arab world, at her palace in Cairo from the 1880s until her death.

Nazli Fazil
Princess of Egypt
Princess Nazli Fazil by Gabriel Lekegian
Born1853
Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Died28 December 1913(1913-12-28) (aged 59–60)
Cairo, Khedivate of Egypt, Ottoman Empire
Burial
Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i
Spouse
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(m. 1872; died 1879)​
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1900⁠–⁠1913)​
    HouseMuhammad Ali Dynasty
    FatherMustafa Fazıl Pasha
    MotherDilazad Hanim

    Early life

    Of Turkish origin,[1] Princess Nazlı Fazıl was born in Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, in 1853, the eldest child of Mustafa Fazıl Pasha, son of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt and brother of the future Khedive Isma'il Pasha,[2] and his wife Dilazad Hanim.[3] At the age of 13, she left Egypt for Constantinople upon her father's falling out with his brother, the Khedive, in 1866. In Constantinople, she was highly educated, against prevailing tradition, and entertained foreign visitors. She was a well educated and cultured lady who spoke Turkish, Arabic, French and English.[4][5]

    Personal life

    In December 1872, she married Turkish ambassador Halil Şerif Paşa (Khalil Bey), and moved briefly to Paris with him on his last post there.[6][7][3][8] It was not a happy marriage, and her one daughter, Hayya Khanum, died in infancy. Upon his death, she moved back to Cairo, Khedivate of Egypt, and settled in a palace located nearby to the royal Abdeen Palace, named "Villa Henry".[2]

    Her second husband was Khelil Bouhageb, son of Salem Bouhageb and eventual Prime Minister of Tunisia.[2] They married in 1900.[8]

    In memoirs of her acquaintances, it is said that she had a quick wit and loved photographs, champagne, cigarettes and her pianola.[2]

    Influence

    In this palace, she began hosting soirees, and was friendly with the intellectual elites of her day, including the Egyptians, Muhammad Abduh, Saad Zaghloul, and Qasim Amin, and the British, Lord Cromer and Herbert Kitchener.[2] She was the individual who encouraged Saad Zaghlul to learn French. He had attended law school in Cairo and became legal advisor to her.[9] She also arranged his marriage to Safiyya Zaghlul.[10][11] Additionally, it was at her insistence that Lord Cromer coordinated 'Abduh's return from exile in 1888.[12]

    Death

    She died on 28 December 1913, and was buried in the Fazil Mausoleum, Imam al-Shafi'i, Cairo.[13]

    Patronages
    • Honorary President of the Musulmane Sporting Society of Tunis (1906-1913).

    Ancestry

    See also

    Further reading
    • Roberts, Mary (2007). Intimate outsiders: the harem in Ottoman and Orientalist art and travel literature. Duke University Press.
    • Storrs, Ronald (1972). The memoirs of Sir Ronald Storrs. Ayer Publishing.
    • De Guerville, A. B. (1906). "New Egypt." E.P. Dutton & Company, New York.

    References
    1. Labidi, Lilia (2017), "Tunisian Women's Literature of Denunciation", in Badri, Balghis; Tripp, Aili Mari (eds.), Women's Activism in Africa: Struggles for Rights and Representation, Zed Books, ISBN 978-1783609116, The Egyptian Princess Nazli Fadhel (1853–1913), of Turkish origin, started literary salons in Egypt.
    2. Mostyn, Trevor. (2006). Egypt's belle epoque : Cairo and the Age of the Hedonists. New York: Tauris Parke Paperbacks. ISBN 1845112407. OCLC 73175079.
    3. Malortie, Karl Von (1882). Egypt: Native Rulers and Foreign Interference. W. Ridgway. p. 300.
    4. Margot Badran (1 April 1996). Feminists, Islam, and Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt. Princeton University Press. p. 7. ISBN 1-4008-2143-6.
    5. Leila Ahmed (29 April 2011). A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America. Yale University Press. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-0-300-17505-9.
    6. Local/global : women artists in the nineteenth century. Cherry, Deborah., Helland, Janice. Aldershot [England]: Ashgate. 2006. ISBN 0754631974. OCLC 60776816.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
    7. Mithat Cemal Kuntay (1944). Namık Kemal devrinin insanları ve olayları arasında. Maarif Matbaası. p. 312.
    8. Tanman, M (2011). Nil kıyısından Boğaziçi'ne : Kavalalı Mehmed Ali Paşa Hanedanı'nın İstanbul'daki izleri = From the shores of the Nile to the Bosphorus : traces of Kavalalı Mehmed Ali Pasha Dynasty in İstanbul (in Turkish). İstanbul: İstanbul Araştırmaları Enstitüsü. pp. 76, 289–308. ISBN 978-975-9123-95-6. OCLC 811064965.
    9. Roger Owen (2005). Lord Cromer: Victorian Imperialist, Edwardian Proconsul. Oxford University Press. p. 342. ISBN 978-0-19-927966-1.
    10. 100 Great Muslim Leaders of the 20th Century. Institute of Objective Studies. 2005. p. 106. ISBN 978-81-85220-06-2.
    11. Desmond Stewart (1971). The Middle East: Temple of Janus. Doubleday. p. 262.
    12. Afaf Lutfi al- Sayyid; Afaf Lutfi Sayyid-Marsot; Afāf Lutfī as- Saiyid (1969). Egypt and Cromer: A Study in Anglo-Egyptian Relations. Praeger. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-7195-1810-2.
    13. "THE FORGOTTEN CAIRO MAUSOLEUMS". Retrieved 13 December 2020.
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