34. Sultan of the Ottoman Empire II. Who is Abdulhamid? Who Is Not? (4-End)

Abdulhamid's Sociological Personality:

Abdulhamid was tall, with a long nose, hazel eyes, a slightly curly beard and dark complexion. It is known that Abdulhamid Han, who is said to have a strong intelligence and memory, speaks clearly and patiently listens to what is told to him for a long time, was a very religious person. His daughter Ayşe Sultan described her father's piety as follows:

“My father is none other than a true and fully religious Muslim. He would pray five times a day and recite the Qur'an. He used to tell stories that he always attended mosques, prayed at the Suleymaniye Mosque during Ramadan, and shopped at the exhibitions held in the mosque at that time. My father would have liked everyone to pray and to attend mosques. Adhan-ı Muhammedî was recited five times in the private garden of the palace. My father had a saying: "Religion and science". He would say, "It is permissible to believe in both of them." He used to work 15-16 hours a day on a regular basis. Outside of working hours, he was engaged in carpentry as a hobby. In his youth, he did sports such as horse riding, swimming, shooting and wrestling. He was interested in theater and opera. He personally brought various plays and operas in the theater he had built in Yıldız Palace and watched them with us.”

Book Collection:

Abdulhamid was very interested in printing and publishing. He brought modern printing machines to the Ottoman Empire and printed quality divan works. For example, Abdülhamid was a sultan who was very fond of detective novels and travelogues, having the Cem Sultan Divan printed and some copies sent to the Kingdom of Great Britain, Germany and America. Abdulhamid had a collection of detective novels, rumored to be between 2 and 5,000, and many of them disappeared during Star Plunder.

He had all the adventures of Sherlock Holmes translated into Ottoman Turkish. Abdülhamid had a very large library built in Yıldız Palace. This library consisted of four parts. Among them, there were works written about Turkey in foreign languages. Among these works, there were many manuscripts, which were translated privately and the copyright was paid. Therefore, it was forbidden to print and distribute them and they were in one copy. As for newspapers, the library subscribed to all the major European newspapers. Therefore, there was an extremely rich collection of periodicals. In terms of novels and stories, some 6,000 books were translated specifically for the palace. These novels were read and circulated in the harem, and then delivered to the library. For example, all the works of Carmen Silva were available. There was also a part of the library containing Arabic and Persian works. However, this part was poor compared to the others. It is said that Abdülhamid, who lived a life locked in the Yıldız Palace in terms of geography and travel books, knew and followed the world thanks to these works.

Evaluating those days, Prof. Dr. In his article listing the books burned during the reign of Abdülhamid, Emre Kongar states that "behind this censorship are the prohibitions of thought and social manipulation, including religion, politics, history and literature books, for the purpose of ideological social engineering".

Army and Navy:

After the 93 War, which resulted in the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in 1879, Sultan II. Abdulhamid decided that the Ottoman Army should be modernized against Russian expansionism and that he cooperated with Germany, another country affected by this expansionism.

A German military committee, under the command of Baron Von der Goltz, who would later be given the rank of Mushir, came to Istanbul. Von der Goltz made fundamental reforms in military schools and identified the prerequisites for the training of young officers. However, Von der Goltz formed the cornerstone of the awareness of Turkish generals, which has survived to the present day, to be trained in more modern methods than anyone else and to follow the latest military technologies. However, it was revealed with the Bâb-ı Âli Raid that the soldiers did not succeed in instilling the principle of non-interference in civilian politics, which is another basis of the Prussian constitution.

Railways in the Period of Abdulhamid:

II. During the reign of Abdulhamid, the power of the Ottoman Navy decreased due to reasons such as the general situation (ships were always bought with debts) so that the debts would not increase. For this reason, the Ottoman Navy remained in the Golden Horn Shipyard. During this period, the Abdülhamid and Abdülmecid armored submarines, which were tried by the Ottomans for the first time in the world, were successful in the trials. In addition, the first maritime museum was opened in this period (1897).

However, for various reasons, the Ottoman Empire had to enter the First World War without a single submarine. Hasan Hüsnü Pasha, who was the navy minister for the longest time, left his mark on the period of Abdülhamid. With the restructuring of the army by von der Goltz, the Ottomans placed their first extensive arms orders to German companies such as Krupp and Mauser. Von der Goltz also supported the construction of the Baghdad railway in order to ensure the state authority of Germany and the Ottoman Empire in the east. This idea also coincided with the interests of the German economy, which supported the construction of railways in order to find new markets. In 1888, Sultan II. Abdulhamid granted the license for the construction of the Baghdad train line to a German consortium led by the German Bank Deutsche Bank. The Ottoman Army's use of modern weapons immediately bore fruit in the 1897 Ottoman-Greek War. The Ottoman armies recaptured Athens, but the Russian Tsar II. Nikolay's Sultan II. He sent a message to Abdulhamid and prevented the Russian armies from attacking Erzurum if an immediate ceasefire was not achieved.

Abdülhamid's Perspective on Education and Training:

Primary girls' schools II. It was opened during the reign of Abdulhamid. However, when Abdüllatif Suphi Pasha, who was a knowledgeable person, was hesitant and meticulous in his attempt to open a girls' art school for the first time, Abdülhamid openly supported by saying "You open the school, I am behind you" and always encouraged his circle to take the first steps for girls to study.

The most vibrant educational breakthrough in Ottoman history coincides with the reign of Abdülhamid. The number of high school, which was 250 in the year he took the throne, increased to 900 in 1909, and the number of high schools, which was six, increased to 109. While there were only 200 modern primary schools in Istanbul in 1877, it had increased to 9,000 in 1905.

Unfulfilled Projects:

II. Abdulhamid; At the beginning of the 20th century, he thought of building bridges to the Golden Horn and moreover to the Bosphorus in Istanbul, and he had projects prepared for this. Although the two Bosphorus bridge projects, which the French architect Ferdinand Arnodin (1845-1924) wanted to realize under the leadership of the Bosphorus Railway Company in 1900, could not be realized, at least he has documents, drawings and pictures.

One of the projects that could not be realized but whose project was drawn up, whose feasibility studies were completed and whose tender was started, is the Yemen Railway Project. The report was submitted by Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha, who was then the Governor of Yemen (later the Grand Vizier), in 1898, and its construction began in 1913. However, when the Italian forces bombarded the Cibana port in Yemen, the work stopped, the project was stopped and the project was canceled with the First World War.

Innovations Made in the Period of Abdulhamid:

II. Some of the social, cultural, political and economic developments during the reign of Abdulhamid were as follows:

Civil Service (Political Studies) was opened by being brought to the Faculty level.

The civil servants began to be registered.

Museum of Antiquities opened.

Faculty of Law was opened.

The Divan-ı Muhasebat (TCA) was established.

Faculty of Fine Arts was opened.

Faculty of Commerce was opened.

The Faculty of Engineering was opened.

Dârülmuallimât (Girls Teacher's School) was opened.

Terkos Water network was built and made available to the people of Istanbul.

Idadis (High School) started to be opened all over the country.

Ziraat Bank was established.

İpekhane opened in Bursa.

Halkalı Faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (Halkalı Agriculture and Veterinary School of Veterinary Medicine) were opened.

Bursa Railway was put into service.

Rüştiye (Secondary School) started to be opened all over the dormitory.

The Jerusalem Railway was put into service.

Ankara Railway was put into service.

Hamidiye Paper Factory was established.

Kadıköy Gashanesi was established.

Port and dock were built in Beirut.

The Ottoman Insurance Company (Ottoman Public Insurance Company) was established.

Kadıköy Plumbing was put into service.

Thessaloniki-Manastir Railway was put into service.

Damascus Railway was put into service.

Eskişehir-Kütahya Railway was put into service.

Galata Dock was built.

Beirut Railway was put into service.

Darülaceze (Home for the Orphans) was put into service.

Candle Factory was established.

Afyon-Konya Railway was put into service.

Istanbul-Thessaloniki Railway was put into service.

Demirkapı Canal was opened in Danube River.

Damascus-Aleppo Railway was put into service.

Şişli Etfal Hospital was put into service.

Hejaz Telegraph line was established.

Hama Railway was put into service.

Basra-India Telegraph line was connected to Beyoğlu.

Hamidiye Water was put into service.

Port and Dock were built in Thessaloniki.

Haydarpaşa Port and Dock was built.

Mining Faculty was opened.

Haydarpaşa Military Medical Faculty was opened.

The railway was put into service in Konya Ereglisi.

Radio Stations were established all over the country.

Hejaz Railway was put into service. The train, which departed from Istanbul on 27 August, reached Medina 3 days later.

The first raki factory was opened in Tokat, Umurca and Tekirdağ.

First brewery Bomonti opened

Abdülhamit Han, who reduced the debts of the Ottoman Empire from two hundred and fifty million to one hundred and six million, started education and training mobilization with a great reconstruction activity and brought many works such as mosques, small mosques, schools, madrasas, hospitals, fountains and bridges to his country.

Conclusion:

II. Abdülhamid, who is highly cultured, follows the world, enjoys classical music, opera and theater, takes an interest in all branches of art, creates works that go beyond its age in carpentry, gives importance to schooling throughout the country, pioneers the opening of modern schools, and lives free enough to establish distilleries. In fact, the obvious one was a sultan who was rumored to be rich with the stock market and interest.

II. Abdulhamid was a sultan who ascended to the Ottoman throne after his uncle, Sultan Abdulaziz, was killed and his brother suffered from a mental depression. For this reason, he had a constant fear of being killed. He always led a cautious life, it became a part of his personality.

As soon as he ascended the throne, he faced the 93 War (Ottoman-Russian War), which caused perhaps the greatest destruction in Ottoman history. He ruled his country for more than 30 years with an oppressive and distrustful absolutism understanding, with the instinct of keeping his country together and protecting his throne, against those who wanted to change the regime by bringing western systems such as constitutionalism to the Ottoman Empire, as well as separatist actions of nationalist movements. From the point of view of international relations, it is understood that he tried to follow a policy of balance, acted with an understanding that shifted to pragmatism, and could sometimes be cruel towards his own people in order not to increase the pressure of foreigners.

A sultan who could combine his religious personality with civilized life, II. As it can be seen, Abdülhamid is neither the Red Sultan, as the Armenians say, nor the perfect Great Hakan to be politically attributed to him. He came to the fore with what he did and could not do in the late period of the Ottoman Empire, put a barrier in front of political currents as much as possible, had a Westernist mindset, but saw it as a necessity to keep the country together with Islamism politically, but did not want to read the winds of change that were blowing in his country, and even prevented these winds. he is an 'unlucky' sultan who was ultimately dethroned and exiled.

References:

#Siyasal tarih 3.baskı 1980 prof : Coşkun Üçok (1789-1960)

#Siyasi tarih 1964 prof.Dr:Fahir H.Armaoglu siyasal bilgiler fakültesi yayınları.(1789-1960)

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#Tahsin Paşa, Abdülhamid’in Yıldız Hatıraları, İstanbul 1931.

#Necib Âsım, “Sultan Aziz’in Avrupa Seyahati”, TOEM, XLIX (1916).

#B. Şehsuvaroğlu, “Sultan Abdülaziz’in Avrupa Seyahati”

#Belgelerle Türk Tarihi Dergisi, sy. 1, İstanbul 1967, s. 41-51.

#Yüzüncü yılında II. Meşrutiyet, Asım Öz, Pınar Yayınları, 2008

#Palmer, Alan (1993). Bir Çöküşün Yeni Tarihi. İstanbul: Sabah Kitapları. s.159-160.

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#"Kanun-i Esasi". 24 Ekim 2012 tarihinde kaynağından arşivlendi.

# İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 1988, İstanbul, 1.cilt, s.216-224

#"Doksanüç Harbi - İslâm Ansiklopedisi". .