Şehzade Ömer Faruk

Şehzade Ömer Faruk Efendi (شهزادہ عمر فاروق; also Ömer Faruk Osmanoğlu; 27 February 1898 – 28 March 1969) was an Ottoman prince, the son of the last caliph of Muslim world Abdulmejid II and his first consort Şehsuvar Hanım. He was also the son-in-law of Sultan Mehmed VI of the Ottoman Empire because he married his younger daughter Rukiye Sabiha Sultan. Şehzade Ömer Faruk Efendi was born on 27 February 1898 in Ortaköy Palace. His father was Abdulmejid II, son of Sultan Abdulaziz and Hayranidil Kadın, and his mother was his first consort Şehsuvar Hanım. He had a younger half-sister Dürrüşehvar Sultan. Ömer Faruk attended the Galatasaray High School. His father, Abdulmejid spoke French, and had a connection to the school through his close friend and relative Şehzade Ibrahim Tevfik. Ömer Faruk's application was prepared by Salih Keramet Bey, son Ottoman poet Nigar Hanım, who had given private lessons to the prince. Ömer Faruk attended the school for a few years, until it was decided that he should have more serious vocational training, and at the age of eleven he was sent to Europe. He was to have a military education, as was common for princes at the time. He attended the school created by Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna in 1751, known as the Theresian Military Academy. Ömer Faruk spoke English, German, and French with a German accent. His German was as good as his Turkish. After a visit to the Chamber of the Blessed Mantle in the Topkapı Palace, where lengthy prayers were said, he made his way to Vienna. Salih Keramet Bey accompanied him, and settled him into the academy. He spent several years there, undergoing military training that also included extracurricular courses in basket-weaving, carpentry, masonry, construction works, metalworking, and other manual skills. But for more rigorous, iron-fisted, and disciplined training, Ömer Faruk was transferred from Vienna to Potsdam Military Academy in Prussia. The transfer was the idea of Enver Pasha, the most powerful man in the Ottoman Empire.