THE LIFE OF SULTAN ABDUL HAMID

Sir Edwin Pears

THE LIFE OF ABDUL HAMID by Sir Edwin Pears, published by the old English firm of Constable & Co., London, 1917, First Edition, (volume is rare, has been re-issued recently as a classic by Bibliopolis Reprints in an expensive re-reprint edition on CD, this is the original, genuine and collectible edition), begins with an Editor’s Preface describing the reign of famous Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid generally, with a comments on the Turkish Empire of the time, and with additional references to what are described as the ’hideous massacres in Armenia …’, volume then opens and Chapters then include, in part, The Turkish Law of Imperial Succession to the Ottoman Throne, The Condition of Turkey on the Accession of Abdul Hamid, An Empire in Disintegration, The Courts of the Patriarchates, The Revolution that Placed Abdul Hamid on the Throne, The Revolution in Constantinople, the Rise of Midhat Pasha, The Opposition of Sultan Abdul Aziz, Killing of Hussein Avni, The Insanity of Sultan Murad, Sultan Murad Deposed, Abdul Hamid Succeeds to the Throne, Representative Government Suspended, Charges of Murder against Midhat, The Story of the Suicide of Abdul Aziz, Testimony of the Medical Men and Sultana Valida (concerning the questionable suicide), The Pacification of Bulgaria, Condition of the Balkan Provinces, Oppression of the Bulgarians, The Reports of Schuyler and Baring, ’Bulgarian Horrors and the Eastern Question’, Massacre of the Bulgarians, Declaration of War by Russia, the Siege of Plevna, Establishment of the Principality of Bulgaria, Questions Regarding Greece, The Cyprus Convention, Abdul Hamid’s Yielding Regarding Montenegro, Eastern Rumilia, War with Serbia, The Battle of Slivnitza, The Daily Life of Abdul Hamid, the Enlargement of Yildiz, the Kostroma Incident, Members of Roman Catholic Orders Forbidden to enter Turkey, Damages Done to (European Subjects) in the Armenian Massacres, Abdul Hamid’s Relations with Egypt, the Khedive, Disturbances Caused by Arabi, The Riots in Alexandria of 1882, the Battle of Tell-el-Kabir, Firman to Change the Boundaries of Egypt, Notes on the Caliphate, Pan-Islamism, Liberal Moslem Sects, ’protector of Moslems’, The Bagdad Railway, The Hedjaz Railway to the (Moslem) Holy Cities, The Turkish Army-Navy Gendarmerie, Turkish Army Degeneracy under Abdul Hamid, Attacks on Christian Churches, Exacting of Adulation, Hamid’s Treatment of Subject Races, In Crete, Christian Villages Burned in Crete, Moslem Party and Turkish Troops Attack Christians in Crete, Turkish Defeat of the Greeks, Hamid’s Treatment of Armenia, Relations of the Armenians and Kurds, Agents Sent by Hamid to Armenia to Arouse Fanaticism, Outcries in Europe, Holocaust of Refugees in the Cathedral of Urfa, Murder of 2,500 People, Disturbances in Constantinople, Defense of the Armenians by Faud Pasha, Attack on the Ottoman Bank, Armenian Massacres, Macedonia, Dethronement of Abdul Hamid, the ’reaction begins’, the Mahamedan Association, and more. CONDITION : 92 YEAR OLD VOLUME (measures approx. 9 by 5-¾ inches) of 365 rich stock pages including index in its original border-impressed gold-lettered and handsome ’Abdul Hamid …’ publisher’s hard covers, was not a library volume, has no signatures, has previous-owner bookplate, has no writing or notes, remains well and strongly bound with all material, including all front and back end-pages and end-papers, and its frontispiece portrait drawing of Sultan Abdul Hamid, all present and perfectly intact. For the rare library of the historian, researcher, reader and collector of Turkey and the Turkish Empire.

Interview with Sultan Abdul Hamid

by

A. W. Terrill, Lately United States Minister at Constantinople.