The Fall of Abd-Ul-Hamid


by

Francis McCullagh

 

This is the 1910 First Edition (but please see the note below)

A particularly rare eye-witness account of the “Young Turk” Revolution of 1908-1909


 

Front cover and spine

Further images of this book are shown below

 

 
 



 
Publisher and place of publication   Dimensions in inches (to the nearest quarter-inch)
London: Methuen & Co. Ltd   5½ inches wide x 8¾ inches tall
     
Edition   Length
Although the Copyright page clearly states that this is the 1910 First (and only) Edition, bound in at the end of the book is Methuen's catalogue for July 1912. I can only assume that unsold stock of this Edition remained as I have previously seen an example with a 1911 catalogue bound in. According to all the various bibliographic databases, the 1910 remains the only edition apart from the cheap, modern, print-on-demand versions.   [xiii] + 316 pages
     
Condition of covers    Internal condition
Original black cloth gilt. The covers are rubbed and scuffed, quite heavily in places, which shows up more prominently on the black cloth. The spine ends and corners are bumped and frayed. There is a small frayed section on the rear spine gutter, near the head.   There are no internal markings and the text is clean throughout; however, the paper has tanned with age and some pages have grubby marks. Some of the gatherings stand proud of the remainder of the text block and two pages, in particular, are chipped and creased at the edge as a result: page 17/18 and page 31/32, the later being the worst affected (both are shown below). The edge of the text block is dust-stained and lightly foxed. The rear inner hinge is cracked but has been re-glued by a previous owner. There is a small W. H. Smith label on the rear pastedown and a small circular hole in the rear end-paper. Finally, there is a black mark on the tissue guard to the portrait frontispiece (and please note that the signature on the frontispiece is a printed facsimile).
     
Dust-jacket present?   Other comments
No   Exhibiting average signs of wear for a book of this age with the most prominent defect being some chipping to the edges of a few pages which stand proud of the text block.
     
Illustrations, maps, etc   Contents
Please see below for details   Please see below for details
     
Post & shipping information   Payment options
The packed weight is approximately 900 grams.


Full shipping/postage information is provided in a panel at the end of this listing.

   Payment options :
  • UK buyers: cheque (in GBP), debit card, credit card (Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal
     
  • International buyers: credit card (Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal

Full payment information is provided in a panel at the end of this listing. 


 



 

The Fall of Abd-Ul-Hamid

Contents

 

Book I
THE "CONSTITUTIONAL" CALIPH
I. The Opening of Parliament
II. "Djournalism"
III. Abd-Ul-Hamid's Fears
IV. The Fall of Kiamil Pasha
V. The Ahrar

Book II
THE CAUSES OF THE MUTINY
 I. The Sultan
II. The Mohammedan League
III. The "Liberal" Press
IV. The Private Soldier
V. The General Disillusionment

Book III
THE MUTINY
I. The Murder of Hassan Fehmi
II. To the Heart of the Mutiny
III. Mahmud Mukhtar's Story
IV. The Grand Vizier's View
V. In S. Sophia Square
VI. In the Parliament House
VII. The Night of Horror
VIII. The Moderation of the Mutineers
IX. The Reign of Terror
X. How the Grand Assasin Over-reached Himself


Book IV
THE TOCSIN SOUNDS IN SALONICA
I. The Sultan's Plans
II. The Oliver Cromwell of the Turks
III. The "Heroes of Liberty"
IV. The March Begins

Book V
CONSTANTINOPLE BEFORE THE ATTACK
I. Funeral if the Murdered Emir
II. The Rump Parliament
III. A Distracted City

Book VI
THE MARCH OF THE MACEDONIANS
I. A Ride to the Thessalonian Lines
II. The Graveyard of a Civilization

Book VII
THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE
 I. The Last Selamik
II. The Capture of Stamboul
III. The Silent Army
IV. The Capture of Pera
V. Among the Sultan's Men
VI. The Beleaguering of Yildiz
VII. Abd-Ul-Hamid's Last Days in Yildiz
VIII. The House of Fear

Book VIII
THE PASSING OF ABD-UL-HAMID
I. The Deposition of the Sultan
II. Cleansing of the City and Dispersal of the Imperial Harem
III. The Deportation of Abd-Ul-Hamid
IV. The Ogre's Den
V. The Exile of Salonica

APPENDIX
INDEX

 

Illustrations

  • Mahmud Shefket Pasha

  • "He led me to a tent at the entrance of which stood two armed Turkish soldiers"

  • "Against the sky-line stood out faintly the Domes and Minarets and dark cypress groves of Istamboul"

  • "The glory of that ride over classic ground I shall not soon forget"

  • The Macedonian vanguard reaches the heights over-looking Constantinople

  • "In half an hour we had struck camp and were in full march on the capital"

  • The victors strolling about Constantinople on the day of the fight

  • Ancient Turkish cemetery outside the Walls

  • Map to illustrate Mahmud Shefket Pasha's advance on Constantinople on the night of April 23

  • "In the facade there was a still larger hole, evidently made by a shell exploding"

  • Civilians watching the fighting in Taxim Square

 


 

The Fall of Abd-Ul-Hamid

Author’s Preface

 

Parts of this book have already appeared, in outline at least, in the Fortnightly Review, the Dublin Review, the New York Times, the Osaka Mainchi Shimbun (one of the leading papers in Japan), the Morning Leader, Daily Mail, Chicago Daily News, Times of India, Civil and Military Gazette, North China Daily News, Japan Chronicle, Otago Daily Times, and T. P.'s Weekly.

I must return thanks to Mr. Allan Ramsay, of Constantinople, without whose kind encouragement this work would never have been begun, and to various Turkish friends, especially Salih Keramet Bey, to whom I am indebted for many excellent translations from the Turkish. Mr William Petrie Watson most kindly assisted me in the reading of the proofs.

"The Fall of Abd-Ul-Hamid" is the result of my own observations and experiences in Turkey last year and the years before last, but I derived a very great deal of assistance from the Turkish Press, especially the newspapers published in French, and from the following publications: Streffieurs Militarische Zeitschrift (to which excellent organ of the Austro-Hungarian Army I owe the map illustrating the capture of Constantinople and also many technical military details regarding the same event) ...

April 13, 1910

 

Preface

By H. E. Mahmud Shefket Pasha

At the present moment, everything must be reformed in Turkey. And each Ministry is now occupied with the reforms which particularly concern it. For my own part I am doing my utmost to carry out the necessary reforms in the department which has lately been confided to me.

But though these reforms deal with war, I hope that the civilized world is under no apprehension as to the serious and peaceful character of the change that we have made in Turkey.

The Europe of to-day wants peace and detests war. But if, despite the tendency and the opinion of the civilized world, war unfortunately breaks out in Europe, I believe that it will be kindled by a spark from the East. Now, there will be no spark from the East if Turkey becomes powerful. With a strong Turkey it will be possible to keep the peace even in the Balkans. A weak Turkey will constitute, on the other hand, a perpetual menace to the peace of the world. It is in order to destroy that menace that I am working to-day with my able collaborators on the reform of the Ottoman Army. I am persuaded that the civilized world will lend support, even if it be only moral support, in the completion of this task.

March 3, 1326 [Turkish year]

[signed] MAHMUD SHEFKET

 


 

The Fall of Abd-Ul-Hamid

Excerpt:

 

The scene presented by the great Square of S. Sophia at noon on December 17, 190s, was unforgettable. To give an idea of density of the crowd I need only say that the dogs — the famous dogs of Constantinople — had temporarily disappeared, there being in that tightly wedged mass of humanity no room for a pin, much less for a dog. The spaces in front of the ancient church — the Augusteum, the Hippodrome, and all the surrounding meidan whose ancient name carry one so far back into the centuries — were a sea of bright red fezzes, with a sprinkling of the white or green turbans of ecclesiastics, and through this sea ran like breakwaters long lines of fixed bayonets, while a brilliant sun glistened on the gorgeous uniforms of the Household troops.


Here and there phalanxes of young, beardless faces, the faces of Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Jewish and Persian schoolboys, of military students, clerical students, law students, all sorts of students, marshalled in military order under their respective teachers. On the left of the Parliament House were the Albanian soldiers of the Guard in their white uniforms, on the right were the Syrian Zouaves in their green turbans. In close proximity were the men from Salonica, the famous khaki-clad soldiers of the 3rd Corps whose action in July 1908 gave freedom to Turkey. These pillars of the Constitution were evidently ready for any emergency, as I noticed that each man carried not only a beltful of cartridges round his body but also scores of additional cartridges stowed away in three little pockets arranged, one above the other, in the front of each coat-sleeve. The Sultan might be murdered or deposed (his deposition was not impossible in case he refused to open the Parliament in person), there might be a reactionary coup d'etat, or a mutiny among the Palace Guards, but, come what might, these Macedonians were ready for it. They foresaw everything.


But who could have foreseen that, in less than four months, these champions of Young Turkey, corrupted by the Sultan's gold, would themselves have headed a reactionary mutiny in front of this very Parliament House, and would have carried with them in their downfall the whole of the 1st Army Corps whose soldiers make such a brave show in the streets of the capital to-day?


Despite the fact that the festival was supposed to mark the triumph of the democracy over despotism, I must say that the soldiers sometimes treated their masters, the people, with scant ceremony for whenever the order was given to drive back the crowd, the military ran like mad bulls or New York policemen at the nearest civilians, whom they mercilessly belaboured with their fists and with the butts of their muskets. Then there would be a feeble, swaying movement in the first few ranks of sightseers, but nothing short of machine-guns could dislodge the main body.


The populace was, however, not quite a herd of dumb, driven cattle. It knew something of politics, it seemed, else why that loud cheering for the men from Salonica and for Sir Gerard Lowther, the British ambassador? Why that ominous silence when the Marquis Pallavicini, the Austrian ambassador, drove past?


From the heart of the crowd came smothered, high-pitched shouts of " Irade ! Irade ! " (official proclamation.) They came from cute newsboys who were selling slips of paper which were anything but official and on which were printed appeals to the deputies to begin their legislative labours by punishing the criminals or the old regime "who drank the people's blood for thirty years." ...
 

 



 

Please note: to avoid opening the book out, with the risk of damaging the spine, some of the pages were slightly raised on the inner edge when being scanned, which has resulted in some blurring to the text and a shadow on the inside edge of the final images. Colour reproduction is shown as accurately as possible but please be aware that some colours are difficult to scan and may result in a slight variation from the colour shown below to the actual colour.

In line with eBay guidelines on picture sizes, some of the illustrations may be shown enlarged for greater detail and clarity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Packed weight of this item : approximately 900 grams

 

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International buyers:

To estimate the “packed weight” each book is first weighed and then an additional amount of 150 grams is added to allow for the packaging material (all books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard book-mailer). The weight of the book and packaging is then rounded up to the nearest hundred grams to arrive at the shipping figure. I make no charge for packaging materials and do not seek to profit from shipping and handling.

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Packed weight of this item : approximately 900 grams

 

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Book dimensions are given in inches, to the nearest quarter-inch, in the format width x height.

Please note that, to differentiate them from soft-covers and paperbacks, modern hardbacks are still invariably described as being ‘cloth’ when they are, in fact, predominantly bound in paper-covered boards pressed to resemble cloth.

 


 


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