Peyveste Emukhvari

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Princess Peyveste Emukhvari (* 10 May 1873 in Pitsunda/Abkhazia; † 1944 in Paris) was born as a daughter of Prince Osman-Bey Emukhvari and Princess Hesna Chaabalurchava.

In 1877 during the War of Caucasia her family emigrated to Istanbul, where she was delivered at the court of the sultan. First she was given to serve the head of the court. However, soon the Sultan Abdulhamid II fell in love with the beautiful Princess with the green eyes and long brunette hair. The sultan married her on January 24, 1893 in the Yildiz palace. One year later, upon the birth of their son, Abdulhamid II ordered to built a little palace for his young wife.

Anyway, Peyveste did not succeed in binding the sultan to her. Already in 1896 Sultan moved to another young Princess. Soon he made his new favorite Fatma Pesend his eleventh wife.

Peyveste, disappointed in her husband, retreated from the court life and got herself busy with upbringing of her son.

During the revolution of the Young Turks Peyveste, who already was raised to a rank of a great duchess, followed her husband in exile. One year later she returned to Istanbul with her son. In 1924 she went into a second exile and lived with her son first in Naples and Rome, and later in Paris, where she died in 1944.

The great duchess Peyveste was buried in the muslim Bobigny cemetery in Paris.