Princess Nazli Zeinab Fazil (1853 - 28 December 1913) was an Egyptian princess from the dynasty of Muhammad Ali of Egypt and is famous for being hostess to the first modern intellectual salon in the Arab world at her palace in Cairo from the 1880s through her death.
Princess Nazli Fazil was born in Egypt, most likely in Alexandria, in 1853, the eldest child of Mustafa Fazl Pasha, son of Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt and brother of the future Khedive Isma'il Pasha, and Dilazad Hanim. At the age of 13, she left Egypt for Istanbul upon her father's falling out with his brother, the Khedive, in 1866. In Istanbul, she was highly educated, against prevailing tradition, and entertained foreign visitors.
In December of 1872, she married Turkish ambassador Halil Şerif Paşa (Khalil Bey), and moved briefly to Paris with him on his last post there. It was not a happy marriage, and her one daughter died in infancy. Upon his death, she moved back to Cairo, Egypt and settled in a palace located nearby the royal Abdeen Palace.
In this palace, she began hosting soirees, and was friendly with the intellectual elites of her day, including the Egyptians, Muhammad Abduh, Saad Zaghlul, and Qasim Amin, and the British, Lord Cromer and Herbert Kitchener. It is rumored that she was the individual who encouraged Saad Zaghlul to learn French in order to disseminate his writings more widely and also arranged his marriage to Safiyya Zaghlul. Additionally, it was at her insistence that Lord Cromer coordinated 'Abduh's return from exile in 1888.
In memoirs of her acquaintances, it is said that she had a quick wit and loved photographs, champagne, cigarettes and her pianola.
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Lady Layard Journals http://www.browningguide.org/browningscircle.php