Nimet Hanımefendi

Nimet Hanımefendi, whose date of birth could not be determined, was the wife of Şefik el-Müeyyed Bey, a member of the well-established Azmzâde family of Damascus. The Azmzâdes were one of the well-known families of Bilad al-Sham, producing governors, administrators, men of letters and politicians from the 18th century onward.

Nimet Hanımefendi’s husband, Şefik el-Müeyyed Azmzâde, was born in Damascus in 1861 and was one of the late Ottoman politicians who, after the Second Constitutional Period, sat in the Chamber of Deputies as deputy for Damascus. His presidency of the Ottoman-Arab Brotherhood Society, founded in Istanbul in 1908, made him one of the prominent figures in the political debates between the Arab provinces and Istanbul.

The 1901 wedding photograph of Nimet Hanımefendi and Şefik el-Müeyyed Bey is one of the striking family memories preserved in the Taha Toros Archive. This photograph is known as one of the rare visual traces of the Azmzâde family’s life in Istanbul and their place among the late Ottoman elite.

Their brief marriage ended with her death during childbirth in 1903. The death of the child shortly afterward led to legal and political debates around Şefik el-Müeyyed Bey’s family and Nimet Hanımefendi’s inheritance.

Nimet Hanımefendi died on Monday, 29 Muharram 1321 (27 April 1903), and was buried in the Fatih Mosque Cemetery.