Taşdelen Memba Suyu | Second Story

An exile's last wish. A sultan enjoys Taşdelen water one more time. As for confessions I must admit that while I type this posting tears trickle down my cheeks and my longing for Istanbul grows day by day. Naturally this must be a Balkan boy's eternal dream and an eternal heart ache. My Norh American exile continues.

Post-card by Matarasso, Saragoussi & Rousso, Salonique (Salonika, Thessaloniki) mailed on June 22nd. 1912, from Salonika, to New-York City. "It is now 8 P.M. and I am pretty well toasted. If the Sun had been visible an hour longer, I should have been done to a turn. The ex-Sultan is closely guarded here and no one is allowed near the house.The guard is changed every month to avoid bribery. Monte."

Mavi Boncuk |

Notes from the Fezleke [1] of Ali Cevat Bey, Baskatib/head scribe [2] to Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamîd [3] on the day of his exile to Selânik:

" Abdülhamîd had three medium luggages with him. At the Sirkeci train station he asked for Taşdelen water and tipped the bearer for 30 kurus. The train left an hour and fifty minutes late and arrived to Selânik[4] last night"

NOTES
[1] Fezleke: summary, summary report
[2] Baskatib/First Secretary. A ministerial post at the place.
[3] His Imperial Majesty, The Sultan Abdülhamid II, Emperor of the Ottomans, Caliph of the Faithful, (Ottoman Turkish: عبد الحميد الثانی `Abdü’l-Ḥamīd-i sânî, Turkish: İkinci Abdülhamit) (21/22 September 1842 – 10 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He oversaw a period of decline in the power and extent of the Empire, ruling from 31 August 1876 until he was deposed on 27 April 1909. Abdülhamid II was the last Ottoman Sultan to rule with absolute power, and was succeeded by Mehmed V.
[4] In 1912, when Salonica fell to Greece, he was returned to captivity in Constantinople. He spent his last days studying, carpentering and writing his memoirs in custody at Beylerbeyi Palace in the Bosphorus, where he died on 10 February 1918