The period between the proclamation of the Tanzimat Reforms in 1839 and the First Constitution of 1876 witnessed a series of reforms designed to bring about Westernisation of the political, social and economic structure of the Ottoman Empire. During his 22-year reign (1839-1861) Sultan Abdülmecid continued the process of modernisation commenced by his father Sultan Mahmud II, not only setting his signature to major changes in the spheres of government and education, but allowing an innovative cultural atmosphere to flourish. Sultan Abdülmecid was an accomplished calligrapher, whose inscriptions can be seen in a number of mosques in Istanbul, and a statesman who commissioned a Western-style portrait of himself by the artist Ferik İbrahim Paşa. He therefore symbolises a process of innovation that maintained respect for Ottoman traditions. His successor and younger brother Sultan Abdülaziz was interested both in the art of calligraphy and painting, and during his reign (1861-1876) was a keen patron of the arts. Advised by the military painter Şeker Ahmet Paşa, he established a magnificent collection of paintings at Dolmabahçe Palace. One of the foremost innovations during Abdülaziz’s reign was the Sergi-i Umumi-i Osmani (Ottoman Exposition) held in Sultanahmet Square in 1863. During this period European painters such as Ayvazovsky, Preziosi and Chelebowski worked for the Ottoman palace, and in 1874 Guillemet opened the first art academy in the district of Pera, Istanbul. Sultan Abdülaziz broke the traditional prejudice against figurative sculpture, becoming the first and only sultan to commission an equestrian statue of himself, which was cast in bronze.
SEE ALSO: TURKISH PAINTING from the OTTOMAN REFORMATION to the REPUBLIC | SAKIP SABANCI MUSEUM PAINTING COLLLECTION
Harmony of the Harem/Beethoven in the Harem 1915 by Prince Abdulmecid Efendi
Abdülmecid Efendi in his studio
Young Abdülmecid Efendi with his painting as Şehzâde (Prince),1890's
Mosque Gate, 1920 is a painting by Prince Abdulmecid Efendi
Sakıp Sabancı Museum
Pondering/Goethe in the harem 1898 painting by Prince Abdulmecid Efendi
Şehsuvar is shown reclining on a settee. However, according to an interview with Fatma Neslişah Sultan Osmanoğlu on 26 May 2002, she said that the figure does not resemble her paternal grandmother Sehsuvar Hanım.
[1] Şehsuvar Hanım (شہسوار خانم; 2 May 1881 – c. 1945) Circassian Şehsuvar Kadınefendi was the first wife of Abdulmejid II, the last Caliph of the Muslim world, and the mother of Şehzade Ömer Faruk Efendi of the Ottoman Empire. Her marriage took place on 22 December 1896, in the Ortaköy Palace, Istanbul. Şehzade Ömer Faruk, the couples only son was born on 29 February 1898. On 4 March 1924 she followed her husband into exile, with the other members of the entourage. They moved firstly to Switzerland and then to France where they settled in Paris.
In another work of 1915, Harmony of the Harem/Beethoven in the Harem, by her husband, she is shown playing a violin.
Arabian horses, painting by Abdulmecid Efendi (1868-1944). Turkey, 19th century. Istanbul, Guzel Sanathar Muzesi (Fine Arts Museum)
Self Portrait
| Born | 29/30 May 1868 Beşiktaş, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire |
|---|---|
| Died | 23 August 1944 (aged 76) Paris, France |
| Burial |
Al-Baqi', Medina, present-day Saudi Arabia
|
| Consorts[2] | Mihrimah Hanım Şehsuvar Hanım Hayrünissa Hanım Mehisti Hanım |
| Issue | Şehzade Ömer Faruk [3] Dürrüşehvar Sultan [4] |
In accordance with late Ottoman custom, Abdulmejid was confined to the palace until he was 40. On 4 July 1918, his first cousin Mehmed VI became Sultan and Abdulmejid was named Crown Prince. When his cousin was deposed on 1 November 1922, the Ottoman Sultanate was abolished. But on 19 November 1922, the Crown Prince was elected Caliph by the Turkish National Assembly at Ankara. He established himself in Constantinople on 24 November 1922.
On 3 March 1924, six months after the foundation of the Turkish Republic, the Ottoman Caliphate was abolished and the Ottoman dynasty was deposed and expelled from Turkey.
The last caliph, Abdulmecid II, played the violin, entertaining a mixed audience of men and women at concerts.
"Abdülmecid Efendi was a cultured man who spoke Turkish, Arabic, French and German, and called France a second fatherland. He had spent his seclusion (kafes) composing classical music, reading the complete works of Victor Hugo and the latest numbers of Revue des Deux Mondes and cultivating his park. Like other educated Ottomans of his day, he painted in a modern Parisian style, mainly peyzaj (landscapes) and scenes from Ottoman history.
At once cosmopolitan and patriotic, Abdülmecid Efendi encouraged the revival of Turkish culture. His earlier house was in the neo-Turkish style, with wide eaves, brightly painted walls and fireplaces lined with Kütahya tiles; he himself designed the neo-Seljuk gate. He held gatherings of Turkish writers and musicians, and put on plays in his garden." SOURCE
"Abdülmecid Efendi was a cultured man who spoke Turkish, Arabic, French and German, and called France a second fatherland. He had spent his seclusion (kafes) composing classical music, reading the complete works of Victor Hugo and the latest numbers of Revue des Deux Mondes and cultivating his park. Like other educated Ottomans of his day, he painted in a modern Parisian style, mainly peyzaj (landscapes) and scenes from Ottoman history.
At once cosmopolitan and patriotic, Abdülmecid Efendi encouraged the revival of Turkish culture. His earlier house was in the neo-Turkish style, with wide eaves, brightly painted walls and fireplaces lined with Kütahya tiles; he himself designed the neo-Seljuk gate. He held gatherings of Turkish writers and musicians, and put on plays in his garden." SOURCE
Abdulmejid's painting of his wife.
Abdulmejid was given the title of General in the Ottoman Army, but did not have strong military inclinations. He had a more significant role as Chairman of the Ottoman Artists' Society.
He is considered as one of the most important painters of late period Ottoman art. His paintings of the Harem, showing a modern musical gathering, and of his wife, Şehsuvar Hanım, reading Goethe's novel Faust, express the influence of western Europe in his elite circle.These were displayed at a 1918 exhibition of Ottoman paintings in Vienna. His personal self-portrait can be seen at Istanbul Modern.
Abdulmejid was also an avid collector of butterflies, an activity that he pursued during the last 20 years of his life. His favourite magazine was Revue des deux Mondes.
On 23 August 1944, Abdulmejid II died at his house in the Boulevard Suchet, Paris. His death coincided with the Liberation of Paris from the German occupation. He was buried in Medina by the recommendation of King Saud of Saudi Arabia.
[2]
- Mihrimah Hanım (died at Nakkaştepe Palace, 23 May 1899, buried in Nuhkuyusu Mosque, Istanbul);[8]
- Şehsuvar Hanım (m. Ortaköy Palace, 23 December 1896; Istanbul, 2 May 1881 – Paris, 1945, buried there at Bobigny cemetery);
- Hayrünissa Hanım[9] (m. Ortaköy Palace, 18 June 1902; Bandırma, c. 1877 – Nice, 3 September 1936);
- Mehisti Hanım (m. Çamlıca Palace, 16 April 1912, Adapazarı, c. 1896 – London, Middlesex, 1964, buried in Brookwood cemetery), daughter of Akalsba Hacımaf Bey, and Safiye Hanım;
[3] Şehzade Ömer Faruk (Constantinople, Ortaköy, Ortaköy Palace, 27 February 1898 – 28 March 1969/1971) - with Şehsuvar, married firstly at Yıldız Palace on 29 April 1920 to his second cousin Sabiha Sultan (Constantinople, Ortaköy, Ortaköy Palace, 19 March/1 April 1894 – Istanbul, 26 August 1971), and had three daughters, and married secondly in İskenderiye on 31 July 1948 to his cousin Mihrişah Sultan (Constantinople, Beşiktaş, Beşiktaş Palace, 1 June 1916 – Istanbul, 25 January 1987), without issue:
[4] Dürrüşehvar Sultan Begum Sahiba Hatice Hayriye Ayşe Dürrüşehvar Sultan (Ottoman Turkish: خدیجه خیریه عائشه درشهوار سلطان;)(Constantinople, Üsküdar, Çamlıca Palace, 26 January 1914 – 7 February 2006) - with Mehisti, married in Nice on 12 November 1931 to Damat Walashan Nawab Sir Mir Himayat Ali Khan Azam Jah Bahadur (22 February 1907 – 9 October 1970), Prince of Berar, son of the last Nizam of Hyderabad India, and had issue was the daughter of Abdulmejid II of the Ottoman dynasty, who was the last heir apparent to the Ottoman Imperial throne and the last Caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate. She held the titles of Princess of Berar through marriage, and Imperial Princess of the Ottoman Empire by birth before the monarchy's abolition in 1922.
"Like any father in Islamic society, the Caliph’s main worry was to find a suitable match for his beautiful and talented daughter, Princess Dürrüşehvar. His rescuer in this matter was the same man who had solved the Caliph’s financial worries, the Nizam.
In Nice, on November 12, 1931, a double wedding took place. Princess Dürrüşehvar was married to Azam Jah, Prince of Berar and heir apparent to the throne of Hyderabad; and her cousin, Princess Nilüfer, great-granddaughter of Sultan Murad V, married Muazzam Jah, the second prince of Hyderabad." SOURCE
"Like any father in Islamic society, the Caliph’s main worry was to find a suitable match for his beautiful and talented daughter, Princess Dürrüşehvar. His rescuer in this matter was the same man who had solved the Caliph’s financial worries, the Nizam.
In Nice, on November 12, 1931, a double wedding took place. Princess Dürrüşehvar was married to Azam Jah, Prince of Berar and heir apparent to the throne of Hyderabad; and her cousin, Princess Nilüfer, great-granddaughter of Sultan Murad V, married Muazzam Jah, the second prince of Hyderabad." SOURCE
SEE ALSO: At home with the last Caliph BY PHILIP MANSEL
EXCERPT: The most intelligent and cultivated prince of the Ottoman dynasty, he was a frequent visitor to Zonaro’s studio and one of his greatest admirers. They shared many friends, such as the archaeologist and artist Osman Hamdi Bey and the politician and soldier Enver Pasha, and both supported the Young Turk revolution. Born in 1868, a son of Sultan Abdülaziz (1861–1876), and first cousin of Sultan Abdülhamid, Abdülmecid had received an education in both traditional Ottoman and modern French cultures at the princes’ school in Yıldız Palace. In 1895, on the death of the previous owner, the ex-Khedive Ismail of Egypt, Sultan Abdülhamit bought for his first cousin Abdülmecid an estate below the isolated, wooded Çamlıca Hill, on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. It was, by intention, far from Istanbul and Yıldız, and there the kiosk that bears Abdülmecid’s name was constructed.
The kiosk’s architecture and decoration mirror the cosmopolitan character of Istanbul. The architect, Alexandre Vallaury – born in Istanbul in 1850, the son of an Italian baker – had studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He subsequently became the most fashionable architect in Istanbul and taught generations of Turkish architects at the Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1883.
The kiosk is an imposing two-storey wooden structure, built in the shape of a Maltese cross and resting on a stone basement. It is a nineteenth-century reinterpretation of traditional Ottoman designs and motifs. Its external decoration of neo-Ottoman and neo-Moorish polychrome painted panels of flowers and arabesques gives it an unusual and colourful appearance. The decoration was repeated on the inside, with neo-Mameluke arches and columns and brightly coloured Ottoman tiles on the walls. The tiles are from the workshop of Mehmet Emin, who pioneered the revival of the manufacture of traditional Turkish tiles at Kütahya – a sign of a growing pride in Turkish culture in the late Ottoman Empire.
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After Abdülhamid was deposed in April 1909, Abdülmecid was so overjoyed that he executed a painting depicting the moment when, in Yıldız Palace, four deputies of the Ottoman parliament informed the Sultan of his deposition. To give the picture authenticity, the deputies in question (an Albanian, a Jew, an Armenian and a Laz) were summoned to sit for him in his studio. The only picture of a monarch’s deposition painted by a member of his dynasty, The Deposition of Sultan Abdülhamid II illustrates the proverb “Revenge is a dish best eaten cold”, and reflects the bitterness of power struggles within the Ottoman dynasty between traditionalists and modernisers, supporters of absolute or constitutional monarchy…
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