KOPSES HANUM
1859 - 1888

For more about the Circassian Kopses Hanem read "Recollections of an Egyptian Princess" by her English governess Miss Ellen Chennells (2 Volumes, London 1893)

Excerpts... "she was small in stature, but slim and agile as a young fawn. She excelled in everything that she attempted, and learned all that she was taught with ease and exactness; but it would have been a false kindness to cultivate her powers according to their capapbilty, at the risk of exciting ill-feeling on the part of Princess (Zeynep), on whom she was wholly dependent. She was very lively, but wonderfully reticent in all concerning the inner life of the harem. She had the greatest influence overh her little mistress, but it was always excercised for good."

"Kopses had great vivacity, and wonderful tact for so young a person : she never obtruded her opinions, but when required she expressed them with a free and independent bearing, which to our preconceived ideas was totally inconsistent with slavery. Her manner to us was quite different from her behaviour in the harem. With us she was the free outspoken member of a free community -- outspoken, that is to say, in what concerned exclusively European manners and ideas; in the harem, as I afterwards had full occasion to observe, she was the quiet dignified Oriental, receiving notice from her superiors with profound respect, but without a tinge of servility."

"The valuable services which Kopses could render, made her much in request. There was a constant arrival of boxes from Paris, containing dresses, and an influx of French modistes, to take orders from, or to throw temptation in the way of, the Princesses and chief ladies. Kopses understood four languages, Turkish, Arabic, French, and English. Most persons who settle in Egypt acquire a little Arabic, but it is a foreign language to the Princesses, and they much prefer the translations into Turkish, of the various bills of the modistes. So Kopses was constantly called away to serve as interpreter, and the Princess being left alone with me, would seek 'rather to engage me in conversation than in study. "

"Göpsa (Göpseler), the name of the medieval Kopsis, the river Stryama in its upper course in Bulgaria. From mid-15th century, also an administrative unit (nahiye) in the vast kaza of Filibe. Its administrative centre was probably the modern town of Karlovo (Karli-ova).

   
 1   Kopses Hanem - 1888
.  +Ali Zaki 
.... 2   Mohammed-Ali Zaki - 1947
........  +Nemat Ghaleb - 1996
........... 3   Kopses Zaki 
...............  +Abdelmoneim Khalifa 
.................. 4   Mohammed Khalifa 
.....................  +Karima Abdelsalaam 
........................ 5   Baheya Khalifa 1994 -
........................ 5   Hedayat Khalifa 1998 -
.................. 4   Hassan Khalifa 
.....................  +Enayat el Gazzar 
........................ 5   Hager Khalifa 1987 -
........................ 5   Ali Khalifa 1992 - 2008
........................ 5   Hussein Khalifa 1997 -
.................. 4   Nanou Khalifa 
.....................  +Hisham Gheeta 
........................ 5   Nurhan Gheeta 
........................ 5   Lela Gheeta 
.................. 4   Heba Khalifa 
.....................  +Gaafar Massoud 
.... 2   Hussein Zaki 
........  +Latifa 
.... 2   Zinat Zaki - 1938
........  +Mohammed 'pasha' Sidki-Shafei 
........... 3   Doreya Sidki - 2001
...............  +Mustafa "pasha" Fahmi 1886 - 1971
.................. 4   Zebeda Fahmi - 2008
.....................  +Mohammed Sami El-Attar 
........................ 5   Mustafa El-Attar 
........................ 5   Magda El-Attar 
............................  +Saiid Rifaat 
............................... 6   Mohab Rifaat 
.................. 4   Zinat Fahmi 
.....................  +Mohammed Sherif 
........................ 5   Wahid Sherif 
............................  +Nagwa Abdelnabi 
........................ 5   Ezzedine Sherif 
............................  +Martine Suzini 
.................. 4   Safeya Fahmi - 2003
.....................  +Ismail Sirry 
........................ 5   Doreya Sirry 
............................  +Khalil Hafez 
............................... 6   Malak Hafez 
...................................  +Karim Ayoub 
............................... 6   Yasmin Hafez 
...................................  +Hassan Aroussy 
.................. 4   Samiha Fahmi 
.....................  +Osman Tewfik 
........................ 5   Tewfikia "Tita" Tewfik 
............................  +Haitham Shalah - 2003
............................... 6   Ayman Shalah 
............................... 6   Osman Shalah 
.................. 4   Mahmoud Fahmi 
.....................  +Ursula 
.................. 4   Ahmed Fahmi 
.....................  +Fatma Lotfi 
........................ 5   Milda Fahmi 
........................ 5   Jehane Fahmi 
.................. 4   Ali Fahmi 
.....................  +Amina Hamdi 
........................ 5   Malak Fahmi 
........................ 5   Nadia Fahmi 
........................ 5   Nawal Fahmi 
.................. 4   Mohammed Fahmi 
........... 3   Ali Sidki-Shafei 
........... 3   Mustafa Sidki-Shafei 
........... 3   Hussein Sidki-Shafei - 1915
........... 3   Omar Sidki-Shafei 
........... 3   Hassan Sidki-Shafei 

description of Gulsun Hanem's funeral
mother-in-law of Kopses Hanem, Gulsun Hanem is the sister of Minister of Finance Mohammed Zaki Pasha and mother of Interior Minister Mustafa Fahmi Pasha (which makes her the grandmother of Safeya Zaghloul Hanem).

Kopses Laforet (b. 1991 in France), daughter of Frank Laforet and Annie Omar Sidki-Shafei (Kopses is on facebbok)