She also took private lessons in French, and later in ancient Greek and theology, while her father was the Ottoman governor of Crete.

[1] She married Giritli Sırrı Pasha, a high-ranking Ottoman administrator of Cretan origin, who later became prime minister, and a poet in his own right.

Her home also acted as a type of literary salon where artists, writers, and musicians would discuss intellectual matters and play music.

She composed roughly 200 vocal and instrumental works including a volume of over fifty songs, the texts of which were written by contemporary romantic poets.

Her songs are strong in technique, emotional and closely faithful to the traditions of Ottoman classical music.

Apart from being a composer in the tradition of Turkish classical music, she is also, through her memoirs written towards the end of her life, one of the primary first-hand sources available to historians on the Ottoman harem, in the late-19th century context of that institution.