'Alī Ḥaydar, the son of Sharif 'Alī Jābir Pāshā, was born in April 1866 in a yalı belonging to his grandfather, Sharif 'Abd al-Muttalib, formerly Emir of Mecca, in the Kanlıca neighborhood of Istanbul (Constantinople).
'Alī Ḥaydar's second wife was an Irishwoman, Isobel Duncan, who converted to Islam and took the name Fatima.