COURT, CAROLINE FEZLI AZAMJOO

COURT, CAROLINE FEZLI AZAMJOO (1821-1869), born as Fezli Azamjoo in Kashmir on 13 June 1821, married Claude Auguste Court, a general in the Sikh army, by 1836. They had three children by the time they left the Punjab in 1843. On 25 June 1844, Fezli and her children were baptized at Marseilles, and she was on the same day religiously married to General Court by the Bishop in the Cathedrale of Marseilles. A fourth child was born in Marseilles in 1845. Little else is known about Fezli Azamjoo`s life at Marseilles.

Her testament, however, states explicitly that she is grateful to her husband who left her in full possession other dowry during her life. The same document provides a list of some Indian belongings she distributed to their children. A beautiful painting, oil on canvas (private collection), shows her in her residence at Lahore with her two elder children. Fezli `Azamjoo died at Marseilles on 4 February 1869. One of her granddaughters, Valentina, married Theophile Allard, son of General Allard and Bannou Pan Dei.