Abdülmecid II

Biography

On the night of 29–30 May 1876, Abdülmecid, not yet eight years old, had to watch conspirators surround Dolmabahçe Palace. A few days later his father, Sultan Abdulaziz, was found dead in Feriye Palace. Suicide was announced officially; later, in 1881, it was recognised that the sultan had been murdered.

The son believed to the end of his life that his father had been killed.

Abdülmecid was born in Dolmabahçe on 29 May 1868; by other accounts, a day later. His mother, the Circassian Hayranidil Kadın, was the sultan’s second wife. He grew up in the palaces under supervision, received a European education and studied Arabic, Persian, French and German. His painting teachers were Osman Hamdi Bey and Salvatore Valeri, and later he grew close to the Italian Fausto Zonaro and followed his manner. In the line of succession he stood far back: eighth in 1876. He lived in his own mansion at İcadiye, where he made a kind of salon for the artists and musicians of Istanbul, and he himself played the piano, cello and violin. After the revolution of 1908 he was no longer a recluse. In 1909 the Ottoman Artists’ Society came into being and he headed it: as honorary chairman according to some accounts, as chairman according to others.

He painted mostly portraits. Known works include the portrait of the poet Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan, portraits of his daughter and son, a portrait of Halil Edhem, and “Court Ladies”. His “Beethoven in the Harem”, “Goethe in the Harem”, “Self-Portrait” and “Sultan Selim I” were shown at an exhibition of Turkish painters in Vienna, though sources differ: some date the exhibition to 1917, others to 1918. Earlier, in 1900, his paintings had been exhibited in Paris. My impression is that the chief interest of these works lies in the fact that a prince shut up in a palace painted scenes of European salon life that were within easy reach of him.

On 4 July 1918 his cousin Mehmed VI came to the throne, and Abdülmecid, the senior male of the dynasty, was named heir. He criticised the government of Damat Ferid Pasha and openly sympathised with the nationalist movement. Mustafa Kemal invited him to Ankara, but he did not go; by some accounts out of caution, by others out of fear that going over to Ankara would split the dynasty. In September 1920 the police blockaded his residence at Dolmabahçe.

On 1 November 1922 the Grand National Assembly in Ankara abolished the sultanate. Mehmed VI left the country on 17 November, and on the following day, 18 or 19 November, the Assembly elected Abdülmecid caliph. He swore the oath of allegiance on 24 November in the Hırka-i Şerif Mosque near Topkapı. For the first time prayers at the ceremony were said in Turkish, and at the Fatih Mosque a sermon was read in Turkish. He was the only caliph without the title of sultan. Relations with Ankara soon soured: he asked for a larger allowance and wanted to bear the same title as his father, while Mustafa Kemal insisted on another form, one that stressed the separation of sultanate and caliphate.

On 3 March 1924 the Assembly passed Law No. 431: the caliphate was abolished and the dynasty was exiled. The decision was communicated to Abdülmecid the same day. He is reported to have said: “I am not a traitor. I will not leave here even if I die.” At dawn, around five in the morning, he left Dolmabahçe with his family by car for Çatalca and boarded the Simplon Express. In Switzerland, at Montreux, he issued a statement disputing Ankara’s decision, but after Turkey pressed the Swiss authorities he made no more public statements.

In October 1924 he moved to Nice. Money was short: part of his income was sent by the emir of Afghanistan and an Indian maharaja. His position improved after his daughter Dürrüşehvar married a son of the Nizam of Hyderabad in December 1931. In those years, according to reports, he lost hope of a revival of the caliphate and turned to prayer, painting, music and writing his recollections, producing memoirs in twelve volumes that his daughter kept. Later he settled in Paris, where he prayed on Fridays at the Grand Mosque.

Abdülmecid died in Paris on 23 August 1944, the day the city was liberated from German occupation. He had asked to be buried in Istanbul beside his ancestors, but the Turkish authorities refused, and his daughter, who appealed in person to President İsmet İnönü, achieved nothing. For about ten years his body was kept at the Grand Mosque of Paris. On 30 March 1954 his remains were taken to Medina and buried in the Jannat al-Baqi cemetery.