Background
Düzdidil Hanımefendi was born in 1825 as Ayşe Dişan to Şıhım Bey Dişan, an Ubykh noble, and his wife an Abkhazian princess, from the House of Shervashidze.
Düzdidil Hanımefendi was born in 1825 as Ayşe Dişan to Şıhım Bey Dişan, an Ubykh noble, and his wife an Abkhazian princess, from the House of Shervashidze.
At the age of about six, Ayşe was sent to Istanbul along with her wet nurse Emine Hanım. Yahya Bey presented Ayşe and Emine Hanım in the royal harem. She was renamed Düzdidil and was given private education and lessons of piano in the harem department of the Topkapı Palace.
Tuberculosis took its victims in the palace as elsewhere in the nineteenth century and Düzdidil was one of them.
She died on 18 August 1845 and was buried in the Mausoleum of the imperial ladies at the Yeni Mosque Istanbul. Cemile Sultan was only two years old when Düzdidil died.
A luxuriously decorated prayer book was commissioned around 1844 for Düzdidil, after she had fallen victim to the epidemic of tuberculosis then raging in Istanbul. As was fitting for her position, the prayer book is lavishly ornate.
lieutenant contains 33 surahs of the Qur"an, 80 prayers of request and praise, and 61 miniatures.
The rococo style of the manuscript corresponds to contemporary Ottoman taste. An artist named Hüseyin created the emotive illustrations in the appendix, which feature views of the holy places in Mecca and Medina as well as the relics of the Prophet kept in the Topkapı Palace. 2 October 1842 - 18 August 1845: Devletlu Baş Ikbal Düzdidil Hanımefendi Hazretleri (Her Highness The First Honoured Lady Consort Düzdidil).