‘An Oriental Gentlewoman’: Princess Nazlı Fazıl’s interview in The Gentlewoman in 1899

Abstract

This article analyses an interview given by Princess Nazlı Fazıl (1856–1913) on 3 June 1899 to the British journal The Gentlewoman . Examining this rare instance of the representation of an elite Ottoman woman in the British media, this article demonstrates how Princess Nazlı used the foreign press to advance her own interests both abroad and at home. To her elite British readership, she presented herself as an ardent Anglophile and supporter of colonial interests in Egypt. To her Ottoman readership, in particular the Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II with whom Princess Nazlı maintained a strained but dependent relationship, she flaunted these powerful connections to assure herself protection from Ottoman authorities. This case study contributes to the reconsideration of how elite Ottoman women operated within the political sphere, using the press to manage their social image within and beyond Ottoman society to advance their own political agendas.