Amina Hanim

Amina Hanim (Arabic: أمينة خانم; Turkish: Emine Hanım; 1770 – 1824) was the first princess consort of Muhammad Ali, a former Ottoman Wāli (governor) of Egypt and later the first monarch of the Muhammad Ali dynasty.

Amina Hanim
Born	1770 Nikiforos, Rumelia, Ottoman Empire
Died	1824 (aged 53–54) Cairo, Egypt, Ottoman Empire
Burial	Cairo, Cairo Governorate, Egypt
Spouse	Ali Bey Muhammad Ali ​ (m. 1787)​
Issue	Ibrahim Pasha Ahmad Tusun Pasha Isma'il Kamil Pasha Abd al-Halim Bey Tawhida Hanim Khadija Nazli Hanim
Names Arabic: أمينة خانم Turkish: Emine Hanım
House	Muhammad Ali (by marriage)
Father	Nusretli Agha
Religion	Sunni

Early life

Amina Hanim was born in 1770 at Nikiforos, Rumeli. She was the daughter of Nusretli Ali Agha,^[1] the governor of Kavala,^[2] and relative of the Chorbashi.^[3] She had two brothers, Mustafa Pasha, and Ali Pasha, and three sisters, Meryem Hanim, Pakiza Hanim, and Ifet Hanim.^[1]

First marriage

Amina Hanim had been earlier married to Ali Bey.^[4] However, they never had sex because her husband had died before the pair had cohabited.^[3]

Second marriage

Amina Hanim married Muhammad Ali in 1787,^[5][6] long before he became the Viceroy of Egypt, and rising to the rank of Pasha. She gave birth to four sons who survived to adulthood, Ibrahim Pasha, Ahmad Tusun Pasha, Isma'il Kamil Pasha, Abd al-Halim Bey, and two daughters, Tawhida Hanim, and Khadija Nazli Hanim.^[2] Muhammad Ali had a fondness for her, and treated her with respect.^[7]

Amina Hanim did not accompany Muhammd Ali to Egypt, and after his appointment as viceroy in 1805, she and her daughters resided for a period of some two years in Istanbul, where they became thoroughly acquainted with imperial palace culture. Upon her arrival and installation in the Harem of the Muhammad Ali dynasty of the Citadel Palace in Cairo in 1808, Amina Hanim became estranged from Muhammad Ali due to the many slave concubines he had acquired.^[2]

In 1814, Amina Hanim made a pilgrimage, moving from Jeddah to Mecca with a train of 500 camels carrying her servants, entourage and goods. She was met by Muhammad Ali at Mina, a stage in the pilgrimage, in a public acknowledgment of her status as first consort. Due to the grandeur of her train and guard, and the sumptuous of her tent, the local inhabitants are said to have called her "the Queen of the Nile."^[8]

When her son Tusun Pasha died of plague at the age of 23 in 1816, Amina Hanim took his wife, Bamba Qadin, and her son Abbas, to live with her, and refused to be parted from him.^[9]

Death

Amina Hanim died in 1824,^[2][10] and was buried at Hosh al-Basha, the mausoleum of Imam-i Shafi'i in Cairo.^[1]

See also

• Muhammad Ali Dynasty family tree

References

1. "His Highness Mehmet Ali Paşa, Vali of Misir (Egypt), Sudan, Filistin, Suriye, Hicaz, Mora, Taşoz and Girit". Retrieved 25 May 2019.
2. Cuno 2015, p. 31.
3. Sayyid-Marsot 1984, p. 27.
4. Rosten, David B. (December 3, 2015). The Last Cheetah of Egypt: A Narrative History of Egyptian Royalty from 1805 to 1953. iUniverse. ISBN 978-1-491-77939-2.
5. Folia Orientalia, Volume 37. Państwowe Wydawn. Naukowe. 2001. p. 61.
6. Fahmy, Khaled (December 1, 2012). Mehmed Ali: From Ottoman Governor to Ruler of Egypt. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1-780-74211-3.
7. Sayyid-Marsot 1984, p. 28.
8. Cuno 2015, p. 32.
9. Tugay, Emine Foat (1963). Three Centuries: Family Chronicles of Turkey and Egypt. Oxford University Press. pp. 115–16.
10. Doumani, Beshara (February 1, 2012). Family History in the Middle East: Household, Property, and Gender. SUNY Press. p. 257. ISBN 978-0-791-48707-5.

Sources

• Cuno, Kenneth M. (April 1, 2015). Modernizing Marriage: Family, Ideology, and Law in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Egypt. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-815-65316-5.
• Sayyid-Marsot, Afaf Lutfi (January 12, 1984). Egypt in the Reign of Muhammad Ali. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-28968-9.