ENTHRONING A KHALIF

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 January 1923, Page 7

ENTHRONING A KHALIF

————— RITES OF GOLDEN KEY. The customary ceremonial was observed in glorious sunshine on 24th 1 November at the accession of Prince Abdul Medjid to the throne of the Khalifate, says the Constantinople correspondent of the “'Daily Mail.’’ The ' Prince, who is 54, was the Heir Apparent of the Sultan-Khalif Mohammed VI., who, fearing death at the hands of the Turkish Nationalists, fled from Constantinople to Malta in a British warship. The Turkish Nationalist Parliament, which had already abolished the Sultanate, thereupon I elected Prince Abdul Medjid Khalif. ' As the succession of Mohammed the Prophet the Khalif is the spiritual head of Islam, o’ Mohammedans of alt lands. The ceremony began when the Prince left Dolma Baghcheh Palace, in the north of Constantinople, and drove in state to the Old Seraglio in Stamboiil, the Turkish and oldest part <>f the city. There he was met by a delegation from th<; Turkish Nationalist Parliament, who handed him a letter announcing that he had been elected Khalif by the representatives of the people, the governors of Turkey. Surrounded by princes and officials, he. entered the Pavilion of the Mantle of the Prophet, the walls of which glittered with precious faience. The head of. the parliamentary delegation handed him a. golden key with which he unlocked three golden reliquaries. In these are kept the Prophet’s Mantre wrapper in forty silken coverings, his 'sword and flag, some hairs of his beard, and a sacred Koran. The new Khalif venerated these sacred relics ceremonially and accepted thc guardianship of them. He then proceeded underneath a verandah, where he sat on the throne of the ancient Egyptian Khalifs- Having received obeisance, the Khalif, with General Rafet Pasha the Governor of Constantinople, who lias been superseded because he allowed Mohammed VI. to escape, went, in a state carriage io the Mosque of Mohammed the Conqueror. The carriage was drawn by four chestnut horses with outriders. It was preceded by a company of Turkish Lancers with fluttering pennons. Crowds lined the route of thc procession, the Turks making a holiday in accordance with custom. Tn the mosque Abdul Medjid. made his first public devotions as Khalif. Th e prayer asking for the blessing of Allah on the Khalif was for the first time recited in Turkis.i (hitherto it has been recited in Arabic), and a salute of 101 nuns announced the accession.