Name Ikbal Hanimefendi | Role Abbas II of Egypt's wife | |
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Tenure 19 February 1895 – 1900 Born 22 October 1876
Crimea, Peninsula ( 1876-10-22 ) Issue Princess Emine Hilmi Hanimefendi
Princess Atiye Hilmi Hanimefendi
Princess Fethiye Hilmi Hanimefendi
Prince Muhammad Abdel Moneim Bey Efendi
Prince Muhammed Abdel Kader House House of Muhammad Ali (by marriage) Religion Orthodox Christian at birth, converted to Islam after her capture and enslavement Died February 10, 1941, Jerusalem, Israel Spouse Abbas II of Egypt (m. 1895) Children Prince Muhammed Abdel Kader Similar People Abbas II of Egypt, Tewfik Pasha, Muhammad Abdel Moneim, Abbas I of Egypt, Hussein Kamel of Egypt | ||
Ikbal Hanimefendi (Arabic: اقبال هانم افندی; Turkish: İkbal Hanımefendi; 22 October 1876 – 10 February 1941), originally a Circassian slave brought to Egypt, became the Khediva consort of Egypt from 1895 to 1900 as the first wife of Abbas Hilmi II Pasha, the last Khedive of Egypt and Sudan.
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Early life
Ikbal Hanimefendi was born on 22 October 1876 on the Crimean Peninsula, Russian Empire. She was of Circassian ethnicity. Her personal name is unknown. She became a personal slave to the Valida Pasha Emina Ilhamy, wife of Khedive Tewfik, after being sent to the Khedive's father in Egypt as a gift. It was at his mother, the Valida Pasha's house that the young Abbas II of Egypt first saw her. As beauty offered social capital in the Middle East of the time, the young handmaid's low status did not interfere with her advancement.
Marriage
19-year-old Ikbal was courted and won by the young prince, who finally married her after the birth of her first daughter on 19 February 1895. He then raised her to the rank of Khediva Consort, as she could not by court convention be considered "Khediva".
The Khediva Consort admired European fashion in dress and household practices and had European servants and governesses for her three daughters. She studied with her children and had an open, inquiring mind. As dowager Khediva, Ikbal Hanimefendi was considered one of Egypt's most beautiful women and was reputed to be a devoted wife, gaining her favor among those around the palace. However, aside from attending ladies-only state functions such as royal weddings/receptions and opera premiers, Ikbal Hanim had no official public role.
Divorce
While the marriage appears originally to have been a love-match, Khedive Abbas II later divorced her in 1900, after which he entered into a passionate romance with a beautiful Hungarian aristocrat from Philadelphia, Marianna Török, whom he had first met while at the Theresianum in Vienna as a student. They eventually married on 1 March 1910.
Death
The former Khediva Consort, Ikbal, however, never remarried and died on 10 February 1941 in Jerusalem, during the British Mandate in Palestine.
Children
Together with Abbas Ikbal had six children: