SAZ, Leyla

Leyla Saz, also called Leyla Hanımefendi (1850–1936), was an Ottoman and later a Turkish composer, poet and writer.

From 1895 onward, she dedicated herself to poetry and music, in both the Turkish and European schools. She took piano lessons and hosted people of art and science in her mansion.

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.

She adopted the surname "Saz" (a family of Turkish musical instruments) in the frame of the 1934 Law on Family Names in Turkey. 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.

She died on 6 December 1936 and was interred at the Edirnekapı Martyr's Cemetery in Istanbul.