PARIS - France handed over manuscripts of Ayse Sultan, the eldest daughter of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II who ruled the Ottoman Empire between 1876 and 1909, to officials of Istanbul's Topkapi Palace at a ceremony in Paris on Saturday.
Ayse Rabia Nami Osmanoglu, the grand daughter of Ayse Sultan, submitted the original version written in the Ottoman language of her grandmother's final book titled ''From Palace to Exile with My Father Abdul-Hamid II'' to Turkish Ambassador to France Uluc Ozulker.
Meanwhile, some of the private belongings of Ayse Sultan (1887-1960) will be sold at an auction on March 8th.
The collection of more than 150 pieces including books, paintings, handicrafts and miniatures, consists of some private items belonging to the final and exiled years of the Ottoman family that had been kept by Ayse Osmanoglu, who died in 1960.
Diaries kept by Ayse Sultan, who accompanied her father Sultan Abdul-Hamid II when he was sent into exile in 1909 to Thessalonica, contain details about the years in exile in Thessalonica and France following the abolition of the Caliphate, will also be sold at the auction.
A number of Turkish and French antiquers are expected to join the auction.
Meanwhile, the belongings of the Sultan Abdul-Hamid II including photographs of the Ottoman family and Istanbul from the period, as well as books, manuscript notes, portraits of the Ottoman sultans, signatures, palace furniture, and embroidered clothes of the sultans' wives and daughters, have been displaying in Paris.