Farewell Princess - Kenize Mourad

This true account of the life of Selma, the grand-daughter of a Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, has been written by her journalist daughter, who is now a special correspondent in the Middle East and India.;Born in 1911, Selma was seven years old when, after years of war, the Ottoman Empire was on its knees before occupying forces. She saw the power of the Imperial family eroded further in the next few years until her family was forced into exile in the Lebanon. Abandoned by her father, branded a stranger wherever she tried to settle, Selma travelled from Beirut to India to marry a Rajah she had never seen. There she lived throughout the struggles for independence and the humiliation of British Rule. As the political climate worsened, Selma's efforts to help the peasant women were seen as the interference of a foreigner and she suddenly found herself rejected by the country she had hoped to call home. Pregnant, she fled to Paris in one last quest for happiness and despite subsequent hardships rejoiced in the freedom she was to give to her baby daughter - the author of this biography.