Saliha Sultan

Saliha Sultan (; "the devoutus one"; 16 June 1811 – 5 February 1843) was an Ottoman princess, the daughter of Sultan Mahmud II and Aşubcan Kadın. She was the half-sister of Sultans Abdulmejid I and Abdulaziz. Early life Saliha Sultan was born 16 June 1811 in the Topkapı Palace. Her father was Sultan Mahmud II, and her mother was Aşubcan Kadın. In addition to various half-brothers and sisters, she had two infants-dead blood sisters, an older, Ayşe Sultan, and a younger, Şah Sultan. She was the granddaughter of Abdul Hamid I and Nakşidil Sultan. Marriage In 1834, when Saliha was twenty three years old, her father arranged her marriage to Damat Gürcü Halil Rifat Pasha. According to Sakaoğlu, she married older than the average for the princesses due to health problems. The marriage took place on a Saturday, 22 May 1834, in the Beşiktaş Waterfront Palace. The bridal procession of Saliha Sultan left this palace on Thursday, conveying the bride to Fındıklı Palace. The ladies of the marriage procession rode in carriages and coaches decorated with stars. Julia Pardoe, who observed the marriage from a caique on the Bosphorus noted the illumination of the waterfront palace of Esma Sultan. She writes that, "there must have been many hundred caiques wedged together in front of her terrace, and less than fifty of them contained musicians." The wedding ceremony was covered in the first official Ottoman newspaper Takvim-i Vekayi.