Inji Hanimefendi

Inji Hanimefendi
Died	5 September 1890 Alexandria, Egypt
Burial	Al-Rifa'i Mosque, Cairo, Egypt
Spouse	Said Pasha
Full name Inji
House	House of Muhammad Ali
Religion	Orthodox Christian at birth, converted to Islam after her capture

A 19th century photograph of
Inji Hanimefendi

Inji Hanimefendi (Arabic: انجى هانم افندی‎‎)(Turkish: İncı Hanımefendi)(died 5 September 1890) was the first wife of Said Pasha, Wāli of Egypt and Sudan from 1854 until 1863. She was known among the Europeans as Princess Said.^[1]

Biography

Inji Hanimefendi was captured during one of the raids and was sold into slavery, at the age of five or six. She was purchased by Princess Khadija Nazli Hanimefendi, daughter of Muhammad Ali Pasha. She was named Inji and the princess raised her as her own daughter. She married viceroy Said Pasha, brother of Princess Khadija, before his accession to the throne. Some otherwise perceptive foreign residents were convinced that she was his sole consort, a measure of the obscurity Melekber Hanimefendi, who bore all of Said's children.^[2] Said always remained loyal to her. She was red haired, charming and accomplished.^[3]

Like Muhammad Ali and his grandson Isma'il Pasha, Said was attuned to international opinion and "courted publicity." Inji Hanimefendi may be an early example of the "diplomatic wife", the wife that Ottoman statesman in the later nineteenth century designated as the one to receive the wives of foreign diplomats and other lady visitors. Indeed, she acquired her fame among Europeans mainly due to her willingness to receive visits by foreign women, who admired her beauty and intelligence.^[4] She was known for her kind and courteous manners towards Europeans. She had always been particularly accessible to strangers, was an admirably mistress in her own house, and was universally popular among all classes. She has been mentioned in the books of several European European travelers who have had the privilege of visiting her.^[5]

Miss Matinaeu speaks of her in 1845 as "the lovely wife of Said Pasha", who sawed her first in 1872. Inji Hanim was a beauty on the wane. She had a considerable attraction, a commanding height and dignified deportment made her conspicuous in any assembly. She had adopted in her palace many European improvements which conduced to sanitary reform, and her table was served à la franque; but she, in her own person, kept to the native fashion of dressing.^[6]

After Said's death in 1863 she never remarried, and took center stage at the splendid parties and receptions to which the khedive invited dazzling European society.^[7] She died at Alexandria on 5 September 1890. She was buried in the Nabi Daniel Mosque, Alexandria, and was later reburied in the Al-Rifa'i Mosque, Cairo, Egypt.^[8]

References

1. Chennells
2. Doumani, pg. 258
3. Mostyn, pg. 39
4. Doumani, pg. 258
5. Chennells
6. Chennells
7. Mostyn, pg. 39
8. http://www.geocities.ws/hazemsakr/royal/sait.html Mehmet Sait Paşa Vali of Misir (Egypt), Sudan, Hicaz and Taşoz

Bibliography

• Ellen Chennells (November 20, 2014). Recollections of an Egyptian Princess by Her English Governess: (1871–1876, New Intro, Annotated). BIG BYTE BOOKS.
• Beshara Doumani (February 1, 2012). Family History in the Middle East: Household, Property, and Gender. SUNY Press. p. 258. ISBN 978-0-7914-8707-5.
• Trevor Mostyn (September 5, 2006). Egypt's Belle Epoque: Cairo and the Age of the Hedonists. Tauris Parke Paperbacks. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-84511-240-0.

External links

• Buyers, Christopher. "The Muhammad 'Ali Dynasty: Genealogy". The Royal Ark. Retrieved 2014-12-16.
• Soszynski, Henry. "Indji Hanim". Ancestry.com, Inc. Retrieved 2010-02-27.