Abd al-Majid II was born in 1868, and he is the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the son of Sultan Abd al-Aziz. He was elected caliph of the Muslims on November 19, 1922 and was deposed after only 16 months, then expelled from the country. Under his rule, the Turkish Republic was established in 1923, and with his departure to Europe, the Ottoman caliphate, which extended for more than 6 centuries, ended. He died in exile in 1944.
He lived 20 years in exile between Switzerland and France, poor and destitute, living on drawing and selling his paintings. He spent the rest of his life on a salary from the Hyderabad regime in India, who married his daughter to one of its princes.
He was denied the honor of burial in Turkey, like other sultans, and his memoirs kept with his daughter were not published.
Likened to "King Lear" (a character in one of Shakespeare's plays) in his ordeal, he was called the "caliph without power", the "European Ottoman", the "democratic prince", the "ideal Turkish Renaissance man" and the "artist caliph" and distinguished himself from the rest of the sultans of the state As a painter and artist.
Abd al-Majid II suffered from the pain of isolation, and he spent difficult days with his family, in which he lived in poverty and destitution, and years of alienation filled with estrangement and pain, as his daughter put it.
Sultan Abdul Majeed II and his fourth wife, Mehsti Hanim (communication sites)
Birth and upbringing
Abd al-Majid Effendi was born on May 29, 1868, in Beylerbeyi Palace in Istanbul, the middle son of Sultan Abd al-Aziz I from his second wife, Hiran Dil Qadin Effendi.
The boy Abdul Majeed became an orphan at the age of nine, and after the death of his father, 8 years, he lived in the "Ferry Palace" with his older sister, Nazima Sultan.
He had a son named Omar Farouk Effendi, who was a major in the army, and a single daughter known as Princess "Dur al-Shahwar" and she was loved by her father, who was keen to draw many paintings of her and hang them on the walls of the palace.
He usually dressed in royal French fashion, a nod to his Ottoman roots, and his bushy beard is said to be a source of great pride.
Known for his love of books and his garden, he was the first sultan to travel across Europe on a diplomatic mission.
According to the testimony of historians, it was known that he was polite, educated, simple, honest, calm and handsome, and in his youth he lived a simple life in his palace overlooking the Bosphorus.
Sultan Abdul Majeed II was attached to his daughter, Dur al-Shahwar, and refused many marriage proposals to her, even her husband to an Indian prince (Getty Images)
Scientific study and training
Abdülmecid II grew up in Istanbul and, like other princes, was educated at the Şehzade School in Yildiz Palace, with his two brothers, Shawkat and Seif al-Din Effendi.
She was taught by Turkish and French teachers, and was well educated in the field of history, literature, algebra and chemistry.
He joined the artillery branch in the army, and received his military education and training from Khalil, Hussein, and Saeed Pasha. He also learned horseback riding, hunting, fencing, and shooting.
He also studied at Galatasaray High School under Bertrand Barrell, which prompted him to form an art library and follow European publications.
According to the late Ottoman customs, Abd al-Majid was held in the palace during the reign of Sultan Abd al-Hamid II, until he reached the age of forty, so he devoted himself during that period to studying foreign languages and plastic arts, mastered French like its native speakers, studied German for 8 years and understood English, in addition to his knowledge of Arabic and Persian. .
He also learned the art of calligraphy by copying the paintings of famous calligraphers in the palace groups, and the Turkish historian Yilmaz Oztuna described him by saying, "He was a composer in Western music, a pianist, a violinist, a poet, a calligrapher, a sculptor, a painter and an author."
Abdul Majeed II and his daughter, Du Al-Shahwar, in Nice, France (communication sites)
take over the sultanate
On July 4, 1918, Abd al-Majid II was appointed crown prince, during the reign of his cousin, Sultan Mehmed VI, who was removed from his throne on November 1, 1922, by decision of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal al-Din Ataturk.
After that, the position of the sultan was abolished as a symbolic authority, and the sultanate remained only spiritual, and Abd al-Majid was installed as a successor to his cousin, with the approval of 148 deputies out of 162 in the legislative body session (the Grand National Assembly).
A telegram dated November 18 stated, "Abdul Majeed Effendi bears the title of Khalifa of all Muslims, and no title or any other capacity will be added to him." Sultan Selim.
Abd al-Majid ascended the position of the caliphate without the title of Sultan on November 24, and celebrated the acceptance of the pledge of allegiance by sitting on the golden throne. Pants and jacket.
The painting "Goethe in the Harem" by Sultan Abdul Majeed II is in the State Museum of Art (Turkish Press)
He did not imagine, when the function of the caliphate was entrusted to him, that it was a danger because he had previously supported the national opposition during the war of independence.
And he took the requirements of his position as a higher duty, so he revived the traditions of his ancestors, and he used to ride his white Arab horse "Khiyam" like the Sultan Al-Fateh, and cross the "Golden Horn" to the Hagia Sophia Mosque to pray Friday, and "Khiyam" was the last imperial horse to roam the streets of Istanbul.
The caliph also used to receive visitors, ambassadors and envoys in his palace with the reverence of the religious leader, but he was just a symbol without authority, as all the executive powers of the caliph were terminated, and most of the power was assigned to Ataturk and his government.
Technical experience
It was known about Abd al-Majid II that he did not care much about politics, and he did not have strong military tendencies. Rather, he was famous for his passion for the arts of all kinds, so he was considered the most advanced of Bani Othman in the field of music and drawing, as he was open to the West, despite his association with religion and traditions.
He mastered playing the piano, the cello, the violin and the guitar. He received his music lessons from the great musicians of his time, such as the Hungarian pianist Geza de Hegy and the violinist Karl Berger. A piano on which his name was written in old Turkish letters made in 1911 is still kept in room 48 of the palace. Dolmabahce".
Oil painting of Sultan Hanzade by Sultan Abdülmecid II (Sakip Sabanci Museum)
Abd al-Majid Effendi was fond of drawing, like his Turkish ancestors who were known for his talent for drawing, especially his father, Sultan Abd al-Aziz, who established the first drawing school in Turkey, supported its professionals, and sent students to receive their artistic education in Europe.
He had close relations with the professors of the "Academy of Fine Arts", which was founded in 1882, and he studied there at the hands of the Italian painter Salvatore Valerie, the art teacher, nicknamed "Professor of the Princes" and also the Greek-born painter Osman Hamdi Bey, professor of plastic art and founder of the Turkish Architectural Museum and the Turkish School of Fine Arts. Known as the House of Fine Arts.
Sultan Abdul Majeed was a friend of the Polish painters Stanislaw Chlebowski and the Italian Fausto Zonaro, the court painter of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, and he received drawing lessons from them.
During his tenure, he had a close relationship with the artistic and literary circles, and he used his palace to host his contemporary artists in that era every Wednesday, and he met them periodically.
The caliph was preoccupied with his drawings and his financial and moral support for artistic events, until he became the honorary president of the Ottoman Painters Association, which was established in 1909, and provided financial support for publishing the newspaper of the Ottoman Painters Association between 1911 and 1914, and sent many students to France to learn drawing and playing the piano.
His artworks were shown in the first exhibition opened by Turkish painters in Vienna, Europe, in 1918, as well as in the "Galatasaray" exhibitions that were held under his auspices for the first time in 1916, and he also participated in Paris exhibitions.
Ataturk issued a decree to abolish the caliphate and expel Sultan Abdul Majeed and his dynasty (communication sites)
Between 1886 and 1888, the Ottoman Caliph sent several paintings to be displayed in the sculpture workshop of the Athens School of Fine Arts, including a painting of his father, "Caliph Abdel Aziz." Artistic events between 1886 and 1944.
Therefore, he was counted as one of the late Ottoman art painters and the most important symbols of Turkish art, because he was keen to combine European and Islamic cultures in his drawings and was proficient in drawing scenes and portraits, and left behind 300 paintings known for their royal form and considered of great value.
The rise of "modern Turkey"
3 days after Abd al-Majid II assumed the caliphate, the Lausanne Conference opened in Switzerland and was attended by the “Ankara” delegation only. The head of the English delegation, Curzon, set 4 conditions for recognizing Turkey’s independence, which are the abolition of the Islamic caliphate, the expulsion of the Ottoman caliph outside the borders, the declaration of secularism of the state, and the confiscation of the property and funds of Bani Uthman. .
But the Turkish delegation rejected the conditions and returned to his country, and after that, political crises arose in the country to show the inability of the caliph to manage the state and the failure of the succession system to rule, so the Turkish Grand National Assembly met, and called Atatürk to form the ministry, so he agreed on the condition that he not discuss his actions, so he declared the republic and was elected president.
Caliph Abd al-Majid walking with an entourage of soldiers (communication sites)
Ankara became the center (capital) of the Republic, and Istanbul the center of the Islamic caliphate, and the Sultan at that time lived in the "Dolmabahçe" palace, and the old palaces such as "Tub Qapu" and "Builds" were under his command.
4 months after the founding of the republic, a secret session of the National Assembly was held in March 1924 at the suggestion of Ataturk, who presented Decree "No. 431" to abolish the caliphate and expel Caliph Abd al-Majid II and the Ottoman family outside the country.
Ataturk addressed the rejecting deputies at the time, that the price of preserving the republic was the departure of the “caliph and the remnants of the Uthman family.” But the decision sparked a sharp split among the members of the assembly, after it received a majority of only two votes, which favored it (62 members agreed out of 120).
Hussein Orbay, the first prime minister of the republic, along with Kazem Qara Bakr, an influential member of the National Assembly, visited Caliph Abd al-Majid and gave him a message of reassurance, but Ataturk put pressure on the members of the assembly, which ended with the approval of that decision by a narrow majority on March 2.
Ahmad al-Sharqawi, a specialist in Ottoman history, considers that the scenario of expelling the Ottomans was agreed upon during the Lausanne talks, after he convinced Ataturk that the Turkish state would be secular with no trace of the caliphate, in return for providing him with political and material support.
Sultan Abdul Majeed II did not last in his rule for more than a year, 3 months and 15 days (communication sites)
The abolition of the caliphate and the fall of the Ottomans
After a year, 3 months and 15 days had passed since Sultan Abd al-Majid assumed power, the Ottoman caliph and the governor of Istanbul at the time received "Haydar Bey" on the evening of March 3, who informed him of the decision to officially abolish the caliphate and that he must leave Turkish territory within 1.5 hours of receiving the decision, but the decision Abd al-Majid got angry, so he ordered the governor to leave, but the police chief told the Sultan of orders to remove him by force when necessary, and the palace was besieged and the phone lines were cut off, and he had nothing but compliance.
History books mention that they found the caliph at that time in his office next to his easel, browsing his favorite French cultural magazine, La Revue des Deux Mondes.
Law No. 431 was issued, which ordered the revocation of Turkish citizenship from 144 Ottoman individuals, the confiscation of all their property, and the prohibition of burying their bodies in Turkish soil, and they were required to leave the country within a maximum of 10 days, accompanied by their companions and servants, so the number of the exiled delegation reached 234 people, according to Turkish records. official.
Durr al-Shahwar, Amira Berar and her father, Abd al-Majid II, and their third, Nawab Azim Jah Amir Berar (Library of Congress)
The bitter road to exile
At five o'clock on the morning of March 4, 1924, the caliph was transported from his palace secretly to the "Catalca" station, to prevent public protest, accompanied by two of his four wives, with his son and daughter, who was then 10 years old, with the butler, his personal physician, and his clerk.
At midnight, he left Turkey in a special carriage attached to the "Simplon-Orient Express" train, and the governor of Istanbul handed him an envelope containing two thousand pounds sterling, and a temporary entry visa from the Swiss consulate in the name of "Mr. Abdel Majeed Abdel Aziz."
When he crossed the border, Abdul Majeed II issued a statement announcing that the decision to remove him was "null and void", but he did not receive a response, and he remained at the Swiss border while the authorities delayed arrangements for his exemption from the law preventing polygamous immigrants.
And when the ousted sultan discovered that Switzerland was very expensive, he moved to the French city of Nice in October 1924, and lived on selling his paintings, as painting was his most prominent creative activity in his exile.
Portrait of Sultan Abdul Aziz drawn by his son, Sultan Abdul Majeed II (Galatasaray University)
At that time, he rented the palace of the Crown Prince of England, and stayed there until 1939, then settled in the capital, Paris, while most of his dynasty chose to leave for Cairo and Alexandria after the death of King Fuad I of Egypt, who refused to receive them in his country.
After Abd al-Majid refused at that time successive offers to marry his children and grandchildren to the kings of the Islamic world for a period of time, he married his daughter, "Dur al-Shahwar" in 1931, to one of the princes of "Hyderabad", and at that time the Indian kingdom allocated a monthly salary to him of 300 pounds per month for life, which saved him. From poverty, destitution and hardship.
Abd al-Majid continued to apply the traditional protocol of the Ottoman dynasty in his exile, performing Friday prayers at the Great Mosque of Paris, arranging marriage ceremonies for sultans and princes, distributing documents bearing his signature, and preparing documents stating that he had expelled princes who had behaved inappropriately.
But the pain of the harsh and humiliating expulsion from his country made him refrain from engaging in any political activity later, and wrote memoirs of 12 volumes, which his daughter kept and did not publish.
A drawing of the removal of the caliph, "Abdul Majid II, surrounded by some of his men," as published in the French newspaper "Le Petit Journal" (Shutterstock)
The death of Sultan Abdul Majeed II
On August 23, 1944, Caliph Abd al-Majid II died at the age of 76 years and two months, of a heart attack at his home on Boulevard Suchet in Paris, after 20 years and 5 months in exile.
He had recommended that he be buried in the "Turabah" cemetery alongside his ancestors in Istanbul, but the Turkish government refused to receive his body, and it remained preserved in a private room in the Paris mosque for 10 years.
In 1953, the Ankara government agreed to transfer the body to Turkey, but it refused again after the objection of the retired admiral Rifaat Ozdash of the Democratic Party, so he was transferred to Medina and buried in Al-Baqi Cemetery on March 30, 1954.
Memoirs of Sultan Abdul Majeed II remained with his daughter after his death and were not published (Imperial War Museum)
Historical witness
The Caliph Abdul Majid Effendi Library in the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul is a witness to historical stations during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Majid II.
It was the place where the latter was notified of Parliament's decision to exile him with his family members outside Turkish territory.
During the short period imposed on him to collect his personal belongings, he had forgotten his bank book, which remained among the library's exhibits.
The library, which has become a public shrine, includes more than 14,134 antiquities in various fields collected by the caliph from different places inside and outside Turkey, and their dates range from 1840 to 1920, and they are in Turkish, French, Arabic and Persian.
Among these antiquities are newspapers, magazines, books, notebooks, photo albums, encyclopedias, dictionaries and other personal belongings of the caliph, including the toys of his daughter, the Ottoman princess "Dur al-Shahwar".
The exhibition "The Extraordinary World of the Emir: Abdülmecid Effendi" in Istanbul included 60 paintings and more than 300 historical documents related to the life of Abdülmecid II, which were shown for the first time since his death, including 14 documents obtained by the museum from government agencies, and 17 from family collections. and private museums and galleries.
An oil painting in which Sultan Abdul Majeed II painted himself (Galatasaray University)
Among his most famous paintings
Self-portrait of himself in 1926 in Nice, France.
3 oil paintings depicting the Bosphorus, inspired by Tewfik Fikret's poem "The Fog" in 1902.
Chaplin's canvas, which is still in the collection of Turkish National Palace Paintings, was acquired in 1875.
"Goethe in the Harem" is in the State Museum of Art and Sculpture, and was shown in 1918 at an exhibition in Vienna.
The painting of Sultan Hanzad, daughter of the Ottoman Caliph Ahmed I, painted in 1936, is in the Sakip Sabanci Museum.
Portrait of "Abdul Haq Hamid Tarhan," the famous poet of his time, with text in Ottoman Turkish saying "Made from the heart."
Portraits of his daughter, the sultan "Dur al-Shahwar" and his son, Omar Farouk Effendi.