Ertuğrul Osman, Head of the Imperial House of Osman, died at 97
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Ertuğrul Osman Osmanoğlu, the oldest member of the Ottoman dynasty, died in Istanbul at the age of 97. Osmanoğlu had been hospitalized with renal and respiratory failure and died of kidney failure on Wednesday evening. The Prince’s wife, Her Imperial Highness Zeynep Tarzi Hanım Efendi said: “He died at around 8:30 PM. His family was by his bedside all the time”. Although no decision has yet been made concerning the funeral, it is expected to be held on Saturday in Istanbul.
Ertuğrul Osman, who is often called ‘the last Ottoman’ in Turkey, was the Head of the Imperial House of Osman, which ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1281 to 1922, and would have eventually become Sultan had the Ottoman Empire not been replaced by the modern Turkish Republic.
He was born as His Imperial Highness Prince Şehzade Ertuğrul Osman Efendi in 1912 at Yildiz Palace, Istanbul. He was the youngest son of HIH Prince Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin Efendi and his first wife Aliye Melek Nazlıyar Hanım Efendi, and the grandson of Sultan Abdul Hamid II by his fourth wife. At the age of 10, Osmanoğlu went to Vienna for education: it was there the 12-year-old boy learn of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and establishment of the Turkish Republic.
A decade later, Osmanoğlu moved to New York, where he lived in a two-bedroom flat above a restaurant for more than 60 years. He was married twice; his first wife was HIH Gulda Twerskoy Hanım Efendi. After her death, he married HIH Zeynep Tarzi Hanım Efendi in 1991. Princess Zeynep Tarzi is the daughter of Prince Abdulfettah Tarzi and niece of former King of Afghanistan Amanullah Khan.
