L’insurgée et le Calife. Une voix féminine au service du panislamisme

Abstract Nazli Hanem, a member of Egypt’s ruling family (1853-1913), was an unlikely woman. Affected by her father’s ouster from the throne and forced into exile with her family in Istanbul, she never ceased to harbor an aversion to the despotism of the Caliphate Sultans. She spent many years in Paris as a diplomat’s wife, before returning to Cairo and opening a cultural salon where she entertained the local intelligentsia as well as representatives of the colonial authorities. A freedom-loving, westernized woman, she was approached by Sultan-Caliph Abdülhamid II , and from 1898 became the spokeswoman for his pan-Islamist ideology. Unofficially, she became the first female diplomat, helping the Sultan-Caliph to heal his battered image.