SULTAN ABDULHAMID

(1842 - 1918 )

Sultan AbdulHamid was tall. light-brown faced and black-and-thick bearded. His lower forehead ‘vas slightly juitin2 out abovehis eyebrows and his eves were black.

He was educated by the most eminent erudites of his time. He had a strong memory and prudence. He spokevery accurately and fluently. He was a real genius in politics. He was very brave at the same time. He liked doing sporis. He was extremel pious and had a vast knowledge on Muslim mysticism. He achieved what was necessary to revive the Great Ottoman Empire which was about to be annihilated without hesitation, and so deferred the collapse of the Ottoman Empire thirty-three years.

What he did for his country were appreciated by everybody save the so-called intellectual. Every kind of slandering and importation was against him and the so-called learned living under the protection of the European countries wrote about these calumnies and imputations ceaselessly in their newspapers. He reigned over the Great Ottoman Empire unwearily and dauntlessly. He believed that there would be a world war and the only way to survive for the Ottoman Empire would be to.take part in it in the alliance with a mighty state in the seas when the war broke out.
Soon after the time he was deposed just the opposite was done, and finally the Great Ottoman Empire was ruined.

To Bismarck the ninety percent of mind of one hundred grams was of Abd-ul-Hamid, five percent of him and the other five of the other politicians.
His greatest misfortune was to take over the administration of the Empire under the worst circumstances. After his dethronement, almost all of his antagonists felt remorse of their past manners against Abd-ul-Hamid. He was very religious and honest. He was never fond of joy and comfort. It is publicly known that he had never had signed any Imperial decision without having ritual ablushion. In 1908, when he was deposed by finding a pretext, in an invented reactionary event, the Great Khan having a degree of an eminent Veli (Saint) said "This is the appreciation of Allah" and he abandoned his throne even without showing any reaction to the mutineers though he had great forces under his command and ready for his any order.
The Jewish played an important role in the dethronement of the Sultan Abd-ul-Hamtd. Because, first in that era, the Israelites had wanted land from Palestine, and Abd-ul-Hamid had refused that.

Without any doubts, it is the era of the Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid in which political and diplomatical events were numerous. Though all the historical truths were revealed, still there were some defamers slandering that esteemable Padishah.

At his accession, he had a court formed to determine whether his unde Abdulaziz had committed suicide, and in that court of justice, it was made clear that he was assassinated by Hiis.sein Ayni, Mithat Pasha and their companions and then, in spite of the approval of thegreat geniuses such as Ghazi osman and Akhmed Djevdet Pasha, he changed the capital penalty to confinement for life. The wick of the bomb which had been thrown as AbdulHamid the Second, the Padishah of the last independent Islamic Empire of the world. was getting out of the mosque after his public procession at noon on Friday was fired by not a person but a great front cif Crusaders. That day some of our heedless intellectuals as well as the poet. Tevfik Fikret, were writing encomiums to the front of the Crusaders on the name of the assailants. This clear voucher of the treachery of that poet whose son became a pope is very modant.

The things accomplished by the Sultan AbdulHamid were as follows:
He improved the police organization: he established the ranks of commissariat and chief commissariat; he established the institution of general attonerneyship; he introduced commercial and penal laws; he had work-shops for sewing clothes, fez manufactories and dockyards founded: he had the harbours of Islambol and Izmir constructed; our debt of two hundred and fifty-two million golden coins to foreign countries was reduced to thirty million by his efforts: he established the following factories:
Carpet and Textile of Hereke; Leather of Beikoz; Chinaware of Yildiz; Tobacco of Djibali: Thread and Gas of Yedikoule; Brick of Kirechbournou; Glass of Choubouklou and Ice of Kirechbournou
He founded model ranches and farms in agri­cultural field; besides the schools of every degree in various branches started in his era are the following:
Agriculture, Veterinarian, Agriculture of Halkah. Forestry and Mineralogy, Marine Trade. Political Economy, Law, Fine Arts, Medicine, Commerce. Geometry of Civil Administration; in addition to these, the Teacher Training Institute and the University were opened to public service. All the mentioned schools are still used today. Apart from the Primary Schools at villages, three hundred Middle-High Schools were opened at which many a new subjects including foreign languages were taught.
The Museums of Archaelogy, Military and Yikhz; the Libraries of Yildiz and Bajezed were also opened during his reign. The Hospital for the Poor, the Institute of Hydrophobia and today's the Alm's House were opened by him. The
management of Waterworks of Terkos and the Hamidiye Fountains were founded by the Sultan Abdul-Hamid. Still, the improvement of the Waterworks of Halkali and Kirk-cheshme was realized by him.

Being deposed, he was exiled to Salonica and tortured there cruelly, and when the possibility of being invaded of Salonica by the enemy forces arose, he had to live at the Palace of Beylerbey in Istanbul. That great Padishah departed on the 10th of February, 1918 at that palace, and his holy corpse was buried next to his uncle, Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz, and his grandfather. Mahmoud the Second in the Mausoleum of the Sultan Mahmoud at Divanyolou. He was 74 years and four months old at the time of his death. Even his most active adversaries wept at his funeral procession (May Allah have mercy upon his soul!)