The Family of Hayriye Melek Hunx
researched by Samir Raafat
Egypt's social icon of the 1940s and 50s
|
|
|
|
|
|
EGY.COM - COMMUNITY
|
|
researched by Samir Raafat
Egypt's social icon of the 1940s and 50s
From her parents Soad is pure Circassian and hers is a long connection between the Russia Caucasus and Egypt. The more recent arrival from Istanbul was her mother Neciye Hunx a.k.a. Negiye Mohammed Sait.
It was during a pre-WW1 Istanbul-Alexandria crossing when Negiye Hanim met Rashed Fahmy Bey, a well to do Egypto-Circassian landowner and former superintendent of Prince Jameel Toussoun's Teftish, or estates. During this fated three-day sea voyage the smitten couple impulsively decided to get married. But Fahmy, a Circassian-born escapee, raised in the Cairo home of Talaat Pasha, was already married to Zeinab Hanim, herself a Circassian from the Shevki family. p> Rashed Fahmy and his first wife had three daughters, Aleya, Effat and Fatma-Neamat. The latter, Fatma-Neamat, would become internationally famous in 1942 as the first female founder of an Egyptian Party dealing with women’s lib. She was also a founding member of the Egyptian Journalist Syndicate having published several magazines dealing with social and family issues.
Fatma-Neamat Rashed Fahmy leading a women's demonstration in Cairo's Abdeen Square in 1936
Note no one is wearing the hedjab in those days except in old photos
certificate of good conduct issued by ministry of interior enabling Fatma-Neamat Rashed Fahmy to issue her first magazine
The fact that Rashed Fahmy was already married did not seem to deter him or his adventurous new bride. Invigorated by his new conquest, the fifty-something Rashed Fahmy sired Adel (his only son) and Soad. He died in the early 1930s while inspecting his 200-feddan property in Samanoud, somewhere near Mansoura in the Nile Delta. Negiye Hanim would survive him by another thirty years and was buried in Cairo.
Negiye Hanim had four sisters and two brothers, all of them beneficiaries of a generous wakf or trust, left behind by an uncle, Hasan Yakub Pasha, the third husband and heir of Khedive Ismail's daughter Princess Jamile-Fadile (Cemile-Fazile in Turkish). The lucrative trust consisted mainly of agricultural properties in Egypt, hence the eager attraction to that country by Yacub's heirs. But not for long. With the dissolution of the monarchy in Egypt in 1952, the wakf and all its assets were confiscated by the state.
By far the most beautiful of the Hunx siblings was Faika Hanim. In her mid-teens she spent time in Istanbul's Sultanic harem courted by one of the Shehzades, Imperial Ottoman Prince. The courtship over, she traveled to Syria where she wed Nafie El Jabri Pasha of Aleppo. Prematuraly widowed, she traveled with her infant daughter to Egypt. It was soon after that she wed her mother's wealthy Circassian cousin Ishak Hussein Bey elevated to pasha on 10 October 1919. Ishak pasha was a prominent member of the Egyptian Olympic Committee. A tall well groomed man, he lived in a saray in Mattaria outside Cairo where he owned several Arabian thoroughbreds some of them winning races held in sporting clubs across Egypt.
One assumes Faika Hanim lived happily with her wealthy new husband with whom she raised her infant Syrian daughter Galila. Living with them was Hasan-Tahseen, Faika's handicapped brother who died in February 1944. Ishak Pasha died the following May.
It was in his Cairo and Alexandria sarays that the Ishak Pasha helped raise Faika Hanim's only child, Galila Al-Jabri. And as Tcherkess tradition demanded, a suitable Circassian husband was found for the young girl. Sadly, the arranged marriage between Galila and Mamdouh Sabry Bey crumbled following the death-by-typhoid in Alexandria of their infant son Mohaab. A few years later Galila remarried, this time to the wealthy Safouh al-Mo'ayed from the Al-Azm clan of Damascus with whom she had a son, Nafei Safouh al-Mo'ayed al-Azm.
Undoubtedly, the more famous of the Hunx sisters was author Hayriye-Melek Hunx (d. 24 October 1963 Istanbul) who, in 18 May 1919, co-founded The Circassian Women's Support Organization Hers is a long story best told elsewhere.
Negiye Hanim's military brother was Ali Sait Akbaytugan Pasha (1872 Manasa - 1950 Ankara). He war regarded as the hero of the 1918-19 Yemen campaign and the Ottoman Empire's last Circassian-born commander. Conversely, with the declaration of the Turkish republic, General Ali Sait became one of its first Circassian generals and a companion of Mustafa Kamal. Years later, in the 1980, Ali Sait's landmark Akbay-Tugan building on Istanbul's Siraselviler Street (Cihangir district) was bequeathed by his childless widow to the Daruashafaka Benevolent Association.
As already mentioned, Negiye and her husband Rashed Fahmy had a son, Adel, and a daughter, Soad. Adel Rashed was raised on his father's farm in Samanoud after an unsuccessful parcours in several Viennese (Austria) schools all of which refused to keep him for apparent misbehavior. His only claim to fame is the number of wives he let down. Among them we find a German teenager, a stunningly beautiful member of the Egyptian royal family el Nabila Emine Amr Ibrahim, followed by a wealthy fellow gambler by the name of Aida Reda who complained bitterly to one and all that Adel was a compulsive womanizer and an irresponsible spendrift.
As for Soad Rashed Fahmy, she passed away in Cairo on the 4th of December 1992 after a long fight with cancer. Having won many battles during her adventuresome life, she ultimately lost the most important one. She was survived by a son, Amr M. Khalil.
Soad Rashed's uncle General Ali Sait Akbaytugan with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1926
Soad Rashed's aunt Circassian activist-author Hayriye-Melek (above)
translated obituary below. Her remains lie in section 3 (ada 3.) in the historic Karacaahmet Cemetery in Uskudar
Fayka Hunx's Syrian husband father of their only daughter Galila
Maadi villa where Faika Hunx's daughter Galila El-Jabri lived with her first husband Mamdouh M. Sabry bey and their only son Mohab who died in infancy
Galila's second husband the Syrian Safouh al-Azm
Front page al-Ahram 26 February 1940 announces arrival in Cairo of Ali Sait Akbay-Tugan "senior Turkish military commander" and his wife on a visit to his sisters Madame Ishaak Hussein Pasha and Madame Rashed Fahmy. According to al-Ahram the name 'Akbay-Tugan' was conferred on General Ali Sait by the late Mustafa Kemal Atatuk for his important role in the creation of the Turkish republic.
below - Al-Ahram 2 March 1940: Reception held in honor of senior Turkish military commander seated next to his brother in law Ishaak Hussein Pasha (dark glasses)
General Ali Sait Pasha's Akbaytugan building on Siraselviler Street, Istanbul
wife of Hasan Yakub Pasha
the mystic and at times eccentric poet-princess died estranged from her family and was buried on the hills of Sultan Eyup, Istanbul
great-great-grandson of Fatma-Vildan (sister of Hasan Yakub Pasha and aunt of Hayriye-Melek Hunx)
family tree
Faika Hunx great grandchildren Diyala and Yehya Al-Azem with their mom Noura Dandashi
egy.com extends its thanks to Samiha and Nawal M. Ramadan for loaning photos, Muge Vildan-Shirin for supplying genealogical data, Inal O. Sabry and Amr Khalil for corrections, Hussein A. Omar for sharing clippings and Meral Care for attemtpting to locate Hayriye Melek's tomb in Istanbul which apparently has disappeared!
|
|
|
|