ABDUL-THE-DAMNED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12285, 6 April 1918, Page 5

ABDUL-THE-DAMNED.

LAST OF TURKISH DESPOTS.

Lived and Died a Mystery.

. J'fticlo, which Appeared m the New York ' 1 Tribune." is by H. I, 1 J e a Kins. Professor of History in if2v» 1 1 no^o Pliego from 1900 to IW9—the period preceding and inckidthe louiig Turk llevohition:— TC( I in Constantinople Abdul Hamui was a mystery, a fear tmi a constant sinister, influence. We never spoxo his name in the street; we never pointed at his palace; wo never noticed his outrages, it was best to keep a close mouth and eyes straight ahead in the years I was in his city. 1 saw him several times; once on his Friday attendance at the mosque—a gorgeous affair of prancing chargers, flying banners, strange uniforms and -- a bowed old man. Another time I saw Abdul Hamid on the occasion ol his annual reception to his officials at IXilma Bagtcho Palace* I was not far from him that morning, looking down from the diplomats’ gallery. The great jhrone room with its superb chandelier, its gilded galleries, from behind which veiled ladies peered; its long lines of pink Persian carpet, over which the brilliantly uniformed officials advanced and retreated after kissing the tassel of ;his Majesty’s throne, and the deeply impressive Moslem priests in green, ivliite and mauve robes and turbans, nil formed a splendid setting for the lonely figure in frock coat and grey trousers, who leaned on his shining scimitar as ho rose to greet the Sheikh-ul-lslam. His hooked nose and swarthy skin suggested the Armenian mother he'is said to have had. His'black eyes were piercing under the shaggy brows; his pointed black beard (dyed, if rumour bo correct), his slight, bent figure, 'vhirjj yet gave the spectator an impression of lonely majesty, made him a very remarkable personage. MANY ADMIRED HIM. Abdul Hamid had charm. Everyone who met him felt it.. Many a European and American visitor to the Porte, after dining at his table, came away with glowing reports of the Sultan’s graeiousnoss and interesting conversation. One man represented him as asking icrv shrewd business questions about America with a view to making good foreign investments; another told of his wit and humour. I have often been asked about Abdul Hamid’s wives and favourites. This was ouo of the ways in which lie was a mystery. Wo knew very little about his seraglio. But I think it is well established that he never allowed any woman to play Delilah to his Samson and shear his strength- The Sultans of Turkey have never married, (with one excejption) since Bayezed saw his wives dishonoured by Tamerlane. At that time they resolved that the i l .tiers of the Ottomans should never again be placed where they could be so disgraced. Thus the Sultans havo had many women, hut no legal wives. The woman who is mother of the Sultan. or heir, is the Sultana Valideh, or Mother Sultana, and the First Lady of the Land. _ Any nlbther or daughter of a Sultan is a princess of the blood, even though she may have been a Cireassiou slave or an abducted Armenian. Even- year, at a feast known as Oandlgcjersi, or, as we might say, Candlemas, the Sultana presents her eon. with a new slave. There was near us in Scutari a great palace hidden behind high bluff walls and guarded by sentries where maidens bought from Circassian parents were trained to sing and dance, to be beautiful and alluring, or to read and ■write, if they wished to learn- Some of these became honoured wives, but .more became concubines of pachas. Once a year one was given to the Sultan, But Abdul Hamid was not grossly sensual. His palace was full of women; but only a few became mothers of his children. Many of the women ■"•ere given to the pachas and others became merely ladies-in-waiting. KEPT HIS WORLD IN FEAR. ■Constantinople was a place of fear •when I lived there, from 1900 to 1909. We were afraid of Abdul Hamid and his spies; he was in constant dread of losing his power and his life. Ho realised that progress for Turkey meant ids downfall, and he was in perpetual fear of the germ of liberalism entering from Europe. He kept out of ’Turkey all books that mentioned 'Turkey or Islam. He censored all mail, and all parties and gatherings of people. No clubs or meetings were allowed. The newspapers were a nullity ; all real news being forbidden. Business was stifled. 'Telephones were forbidden because they transmitted messages so rapidly that treason might be over them. Typewriters were prohibited because they might write treasonable words. All the money in the country flowed into the bottomless pockets of the palace clique and the Sultan. By 1907, when Abdul Hamid felt sure that a revolution was brewing, a Turk was in danger if he were seen talking to a European and the coffee houses frequented by foreigners were forbidden to Moslems. If a Turkish acquaintance walked along the bridge with us we felt nervous, fearing he or we might fall under suspicion. He was in the greater danger, however, as we were protected by the, American flag. If a Turk wore once j suspected, all his friends and. acquaintances would shun him as if he were a leper. There is nothing that we have learned of espionage in these years of the war that was not outdone in Turkey in 1907, and,all because Abdul Hamid was trying to dam up progress in the Ottoman empire and keep himself on his tottering throne. LIVED IN LUXURY, The Sultan left his palace only twice a year, ou special holy days: the rest of the time he .remained'.behind the lofty walls of Yildez, protected by the lughly paid Albanian guard and a'largo iorce of sentries and catered to by a whole village of industries. He had his private theatre, where .'oqiielin, Bernhardt, Rcjane and Jane Hading gave special performances for him. Despite 'the Moslem rule that no representations of anything either in the heavens above, the earth below or the waters under the earth shall be made, he had a fifine picture gallery of modern paintings, ’ Ho lived in great luxury, but was said to be abstemious us to food and ■consistently Mahometan as to drink. Ho offered wine to Christian guests, but never touched it himself. Everyone came to him. Even the Knihop, when lie visited Constantinople, united upon the Sultan in his palace Had the Kaiser realised that to the Turk the man who pavs the visit is the inferior and that to the Moslem it would seem to bo proclaiming the superior sovereignty of the Sultan,’ it, might have dashed bis-pleasure in the “political pilgrimages” he made to the Ottoman Empire. HAD AFFINITIES FOB THE KAISER. Rut one feels that the Sultan and the Kaiser were elective affinities and met on many, common grounds. No .-amity was too great for either of "iima when the dynasty or territorial Apsrmdisfcttsuci in question. «s t*a Armenian massacres of 189G and 191G have plainly shown. Abdul Hamid was a clever diplomat, playing off one Power against another, fie was a master of secret diplomacy of the worstsort, of deday ami the broken prntui.se and the tearing up of ‘‘scraps of paper.' 1 He was clever enough to hold bade the revolution in Turkey for thirty years and fool everybody who trusted him—but, the end came. “A new day has arrived,” said a man servant to me solemnly upon my return to Constantinople in September. 1908. Indeed it scorned so- The vast, depression that had settled over the land was lifted. The army had forced a constitution on the Sultan,

and he was no longer the Autocrat, hub a shrinking old man. At first he accepted the change with so much adroitness that the people cried; “ Our Padishah has given us this constitution.” But underneath his smiling acceptance he plotted, plotted. The wonderful “honeymoon” of Turkish history slowly wore off. It was the greatest experience I ever lived through—those months of ecstatic freedom when every Ottoman stretched his arms in the joy of broken chains. The revolution has accomplished ranch, although not all that wo had hoped, but Abdul Hamid did his best to nullify it. His plotting finally caused the mutiny of .1909 and the effort to restore the Sheriat, or Sacred Law, and his power of Caliph of Islam. Those were dark days for us when the newlv arisen Turkey seemed shaken again. But the Young Turks gathered themselves together, and this time it was Abdul Hamid who fell. When he saw that he could not save himself he resolved that Turkey should crash with him, and ordered massacres all over the land. Some were executed; in other cases the Governors refused. Scutari, where our college was located, was to have been attacked and « general massacre of foreigners and Christians was set for Friday at seven o’clock in the morning. The terrifying suspense of those hours can never be forgotten. At five o’clock the army of liberation entered the city, and we were saved bytwo hours. DIED AS HE LIVED, A MYSTERY. Then, indeed. Abdul Hamid’s hour had struck. Some of his soldiers were loyal, and fought for him, but were defeated. Others deserted. He cowered alone in his palace of Yildiz, abandoned even by most of his women, while in the Bosphorus below men-of-war menaced him. He made no sign. How his

superstitious, fear-ridden soul endured those days of suspense I do not know. All Constantinople held its breath. Then, one day, the spell was broken, the cannon began to boom. "We rushed to our roof, where we could seo the Bosphorus below, and the city beyond, with the palace of Yildiz at the right. More than twenty-one shots were fired, and we knew then that the Sultan ]iad been deposed. We held our flag rope in readiness, and when the first ship in the harbour dressed up flew our flag. By this time the roof i of the college was filled with teachers and students- All classes were dismissed for the day. ami all were ready to shout, “ Hurrah ! Abdul Hamid has fallen!” The old fox, who had never appeared without a procession and banners, was ushered out of the city ignominiously, with no one to speed him on his way, accompanied only by a few women and attendants, and even mourning the loss of his favourite cigarettes, which had been forgotten. Abdul Hapiid is still a mystery. He possessed cleverness without greatness, skill without success. Ho was intellectual. yet childish and superstitious, and until his death recently the fear of his plottings had never quite left Turkey.