Melek Tourhan

Melek Hassan Tourhan (Arabic: ملك حسن طوران)[1] (27 October 1869 – 4 February 1956) was the second wife of Sultan Hussein Kamel of Egypt.

[3] Emine Foat Tugay, whose mother Princess Nimet Mouhtar was a friend of Melek, described her as "a pocket Venus, tiny but perfectly proportioned, a pretty, lively brunette, with great charm.

"[4] Tugay states in her family memoirs that "as a child [Melek] was delicate and was often sent to spend a fortnight with Neshedil Qadin [wife of Khedive Isma'il and mother of Princess Nimet] in the salubrious air of Zaaferan.

[11] Hussein Kamel invented for himself and his wife the style of Hautesse (Arabic: عظمة, romanized: Azama), which can be translated into English as Gloriness.

In keeping with the other royal consorts who preceded her, she attended performances at the Khedivial Opera House, although she was seated in a box separated from the rest of the audience by a Mashrabiya.

Historian Samir Raafat describes the widowed Melek as an "aging Sultana [who] held an outdated a-la-Turca court in her zany Heliopolis palace.