Abdülmecid II.
Abdülmecid II (born May 29, 1868 in Istanbul , † August 23, 1944 in Paris ) was the last Ottoman caliph from November 19, 1922 to March 3, 1924 .
Life
Abdülmecid was the son of Sultan Abdülaziz (1830–1876); he was born in the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul and raised by private tutors. On December 23, 1896, he married his first wife, Şehsüvar. The couple had a son, Ömer Faruk. His second wife Hayrunnisa married Abdülmecid on June 18, 1902, his third wife Atiye Mehisti on April 16, 1912. The daughter Dürrüşehvar Sultan emerged from this marriage . Bihruz became his fourth wife on March 21, 1921.
He was considered completely disinterested in politics. His hobby was painting, one of his pictures was exhibited in Paris in 1900. Portraits of Ludwig van Beethoven , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Sultan Selim I were exhibited in Vienna in 1918 . In addition to chairing the Ottoman Artists Society, he held the rank of general in the Ottoman Army .
With the accession to the throne of his cousin Mehmed VI. on July 4, 1918, he became Crown Prince of the Ottoman Empire. Attempts on the part of Talaat Pasha and later Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to drag him into the politics of the declining empire, he knew how to evade.
caliph
When the Sultan fled the country aboard the British battleship Malaya in November 1922 , the Minister for Religious Affairs announced a fatwa to remove him. The sultanate was abolished, which, however, still had to occupy the religious function of caliph, which the sultan had exercised in personal union for centuries. On November 19, 1922, the Grand National Assembly in Ankara elected Abdülmecid II as the new caliph. The usual inauguration ceremonies were dispensed with.
The British representative at the inauguration in Topkapı Palace, diplomat George Young, described the scene in his memoirs (London 1926) as follows:
"A delegation of MPs from Angora told an elderly amateur that he had been elected by majority vote like any union leader."
"The caliph was refused Osman's saber and he was given the sword of Damocles in return ."
He was the 101st caliph and the 37th head of the Ottoman dynasty. The power of the new caliph was small. The Ottoman Empire was under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in transition to the republic . Ataturk reminded the caliph several times of his limited role. A letter from two prominent Muslims from India , Amir Ali and Aga Khan III. , to the new Prime Minister İsmet İnönü , in which they made suggestions about the future role of the caliphate, got into the press.
The Turkish National Assembly decided to abolish the caliphate . On March 3, 1924, Abdülmecid was deposed, he and all members of the Ottoman dynasty had to leave the country.
exile
The authorities took him from his palace to the Orient Express ; After stopping off in Switzerland and Italy, he finally settled with his family in Paris. There he died on August 23, 1944 in his house on Boulevard Suchet in the 16th arrondissement . His body was transferred to Medina in Saudi Arabia .
His only daughter was married in a double wedding on November 12, 1931 in Nice to a son of the last Nizam of Hyderabad Asaf Jah VII . Dürrüşehvar, Walashan Nawab married Sir Mir Himayat Ali Khan Azam Jah, Prince of Berar. The couple had two sons; the elder, Nizam ul-Mulk Fath Jang Barkat Ali Khan Mukarram Jah Asaf Jah VIII (* 1933 in Nice), is the current pretender to the throne of the princely state of Hyderabad, which was dissolved in 1956 . Nilüfer, a great-granddaughter of Murat V, married Sahibzada Nawab Muazam Jah (1907–1970).
literature
- Hans-Jürgen Kornrumpf: Abdülmecid II. , In: Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe . Vol. 1. Munich 1974, p. 9
- Alan Palmer: Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire . Heyne Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-453-11768-9 .
Web links
- Newspaper article about Abdülmecid II in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
- Tobias Mayer: August 23, 1944 - Anniversary of the death of the last Ottoman caliph WDR ZeitZeichen from August 23, 2014 (Podcast)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b George Young: Constantinople . Barnes & Noble, 1997, ISBN 1-56619-084-3 (English).
- ^ The saga of the Nizam of Hyderabad (Times, April 14, 2008; accessed August 14, 2010)
Sultan: Osman I. | Orhan I. | Murad I. | Bayezid I. | Mehmed I. | Murad II | Mehmed II. | Bayezid II
Sultan and Caliph: Selim I. | Suleyman I. | Selim II | Murad III | Mehmed III. | Ahmed I. | Mustafa I. | Osman II. | Mustafa I. | Murad IV. | İbrahim | Mehmed IV. | Suleyman II. | Ahmed II. | Mustafa II. | Ahmed III. | Mahmud I. | Osman III | Mustafa III. | Abdülhamid I. | Selim III. | Mustafa IV. | Mahmud II. | Abdülmecid I. | Abdülaziz | Murad V. | Abdülhamid II. | Mehmed V. | Mehmed VI.
Caliph: Abdülmecid II.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Abdülmecid II. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Ottoman caliph |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 29, 1868 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Istanbul |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 23, 1944 |
| Place of death | Paris |