Hello friends,
Well, as being a great fan of the Turkish history, especially the Ottoman era, I'd like to make some things clear about titles of the imperial dynasty. You know everyone being a descendant of a grandsultan doesn't bear an imperial title&style all the time
Here I'm writing you the imperial titles and the people who have the right of bearing one.
The head of the states was Padişah [the grandsultan, meaning the shah of the shahs (king of the kings)], of course he had a lot of titles beside this one.
Padişah would simply be called Sultan XYZ.
Sultan: The title of sultan was used in many cases by the grandsultan, the imperial princesses, the wives of the grandsultans and the imperial princesses.
If 'Sultan' is before the name, then that person is the grandsultan/padişah.
e.g: Sultan Mehmed II.
If 'Sultan' is after the name, then that person is an imperial princess (daughter of the padişah or an imperial prince's daughter) or the padişah's wife. An Imperial princess' (Sultan's) children bear the titles of hanımsultan and sultanzade/beyzade but grandchildren of the Imperial Princess don't bear any titles.
Fatma Neslişah Sultan : An imperial princess. She's the last official member of the dynasty who was born during the Empire. Just google her and she's got a reportage in French on youtube. She's a real princess!!! For example; Neslişah Sultan's son is Beyzade XYZ and daughter is ABC Hanımsultan but Neslişah Sultan's grandchildren don't have any Ottoman titles.
Hürrem Sultan : As being Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent's wife and big love. She had such an interesting life story.
The Imperial Princesses' imperial style :
Devletlû İsmetlû [Name] Sultan Aliyyetuş'şan Hazretleri’ ( meaning 'Her Imperial Highness, The Imperial Princess [Name] of the Empire', for the imperial princesses by birth.)
Şehzade : The imperial princes in male line used to bear it.
Shortly Şehzade [Name] Efendi,
with his title and style:
Devletlû Necabetlû Şehzade Sultan [Name] Efendi Hazretleri’ (meaning ' His Imperial Highness, The Imperial Prince [Name] of the Empire')
Hanımsultan: Princess but not an imperial princess. Daughter of the imperial princess.
A Hanımsultan's children are commoners.
Title&style: [Name] Hanımsultan.
The famous author Kénize Mourad isn't an Ottoman princess. Her great-grandfather was Sultan Murad V. Kénize's maternal grandmother was an imperial princess with the title of Sultan and then Kénize's mother was Selma Hanımsultan. Kénize's father is a Muslim Indian Raja, so she's an Indian princess and she doesn't bear any Ottoman title.
Sultanzade or Beyzade : Prince but not an imperial prince. Son of an imperial princess.
He doesn't have the right of being in the succession line to the throne. His children don't bear any Ottoman title.
Title&style: Sultanzade or (but lately) Beyzade [Name] Beyefendi.
Husband of an imperial princess :
He wouldn't have an imperial title but his style would be: "Damad-ı şehriyari [Name] Beyefendi"
And although the grandsultans had a few wives, the system of 'empress consort' never existed.
We had the term of Valide Sultan (Empress Mother or sth like that)
If the padişah's mother is alive, she's the Valide Sultan and the ruler of the Imperial Harem, which was making her one of the most powerful women of the old times.
I hope I made it clear enough. I wanted to write this message because there are some people claiming to be a descendant of the Ottoman dynasty, so people shouldn't get it wrong.
If you have any questions, you can ask me.
