Neslisah Sultan, Last Ottoman Dynasty Member, Dies at 91
Neslişah Sultan, a twice-exiled Ottoman princess and the eldest member of the Ottoman royal family, died monday of a heart attack. She was 91.
The UK’s Daily Mail writes that Sultan’s funeral was held Tuesday, followed by burial in Istanbul, the former Ottoman capital.
Sultan, also known as Fatma Neslişah Osmanoğlu, was born in Istanbul on February 4, 1921, two years before the Turkish Republic replaced the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled Turkey, parts of the Middle East and eastern Europe for 600 years.
Her grandfather, the last Ottoman Sultan Vahdettin, and all other members of the dynasty were sent into exile in 1924, and the princess spent her childhood and adolescence in Nice, France, before moving to Egypt.
“When we were in exile we lived longing for the country,” she told historian Murat Bardakci, in a biography on her life according to the Associated Press. “My mother had friends who would go to Istanbul. I would ask them to bring me back a bit of soil from Istanbul, but none did.”
In 1940, Sultan married Egypt’s Prince Muhammad Abdel Monem and thus became an Egyptian princess by marriage. Prince Monem ruled Egypt for 10 months before the country became a republic under popular reformist Gamal Abdel Nasser.
After being forced to leave Egypt, Sultan and Monem settled in France and had two children, a son and a daughter. In the 1957, the princess and her daughter returned to Istanbul. Prince Monem died in Istanbul in 1979.
After the death in 2009 of Ertugrul Osman Osmanoglu, the last pretender to the Ottoman throne, Neslisah took the title of “oldest member of the Osmanogullari family”, the Ottoman dynasty.
Neslisah Sultan is survived by a son, daughter and a grandson.
via IBTimes
Sultan Vahideddin (Mehmed VI) departing from the backdoor of the  in Istanbul in 1922.
Map of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 16th century. 

 Osmanoğlu, who was the last  royal born during the , died at age 91, reportedly from a heart attack, Monday and was buried in Istanbul, Turkey.

Neslişah was both the granddaughter of , who was the last Ottoman Emperor, and , who was the last Ottoman . Neslişah was also the wife of Egyptian , who was the head of Egypt’s regency for a short while before the revolution in which  and  removed the monarchy from power. This was the second monarchy removed by revolution and sent into exile that Neslişah had personally experienced.

When Neslişah was born on February 4, 1921, cannons were fired to spread the news and she was registered in the family records, the last child of the Ottoman line to be registered. She was born just two years before  founded modern Turkey. The  brought the  of the Ottoman dynasty. The Ottomans had ruled for 600 years. At the peak of the Empire, the family's rule stretched across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as to Eastern Europe. As a young girl, Neslişah left Turkey for exile with her relatives after the royal family was banished. 

In 1940, she married the Prince in Egypt. The Prince was head of the regency for under a year between 1952 and 1953. She was briefly under arrest with her husband, when he was accused of conspiring against Nasser, before they were sent into exile.

As an exile in France, she longed to be repatriated to her homeland and the city of Istanbul where she is now buried. She told a biographer, Murat Bardakçı, "My mother had friends who would go to Istanbul. I would ask them to bring me back a bit of soil from Istanbul, but none did." The Turkish government from 1952 allowed female royals to return and she returned there with her husband in 1957. In 2009, she became the senior member of Turkey’s former royal family after the death of a male relative.

Professor İlber Ortaylı, who manages the museum at the , said, "Many members of the Ottoman dynasty were laid to their final resting places with their memories; their lives went unrecorded. We can comprehend neither Ottoman history nor the Republic too well for this reason."

Neslişah was the last surviving member of her family to be born and registered during the Empire period. She is survived by her two children, one son and one daughter, and a grandson.