Abdul Hamid is the son of Abdul Medjid, who abdicated in 1861 in favor of his eldest son, Abdul Aziz. The latter reigned until 1876, when he was overthrown and his next brother, Murad V., was placed in power. The latter was an impetuous reformer and one of the founders of the “Young Turkey” party, which demands a constitution and a change in the form of government from an absolute to a limited monarchy. When he attempted to carry his ideas into effect his ministers pronounced him insane—and perhaps it was an evidence of insanity to introduce liberal reforms into Turkey—so they shut him up in the Tcheragan Palace, upon the banks of the Bosphorus, where it is supposed that he still resides in seclusion, although no one is bold enough to show curiosity as to his fate in the presence of those who would be apt to know. It was in that palace also that Abdul Aziz died after his abdication. So reliable a witness as the surgeon of the British embassy testified that it was a case of suicide; that the deposed Sultan, in a fit of passion and disappointment, opened the arteries in his arms with a pair of scissors that were given him to trim his nails. But the popular theory is that somebody opened them for him and let him bleed to death. Perhaps Prince Murad may have met with a similar fate years ago. He has not been seen by any competent witness since the spring of 1877, and was then pronounced to be in an advanced state of paresis—a mere idiot—but the circumstance that the Tcheragan Palace has never been opened since, and is as closely guarded as ever, leads people to suppose Murad still survives. But, as I have said, nobody but the confidential eunuchs of the Sultan knows anything about him.
The heir to the Turkish throne is not the son of the Sultan, but his eldest living male relative—brother, son or cousin, whoever it happens to be. This is the law of Islam, and has been a fruitful source of conspiracy and tragedy ever since the Turks have been in possession of the Ottoman Empire. It was formerly customary for a new Sultan to order the immediate execution of all his brothers as soon as he was seated upon the throne; but public sentiment in Europe has forbidden the application of that heroic precaution during the last fifty or sixty years. It is generally assumed that the present Sultan would like to murder his brothers, but dare not do so; hence he keeps them prisoners or constantly under surveillance in the many palaces of Constantinople. They are the most unhappy and wretched of all his subjects. He has five brothers:
Murad Effendi, born September 21, 1840.
Mohammed Reshad Effendi, born November 3, 1844.
Kemel Eddin Effendi, born December 3, 1847.
Suleiman Effendi, born March 12, 1860.
Wahid Uddin Effendi, born January 12, 1861.
GATE TO DOLMA BAGHTCHEH PALACE, CONSTANTINOPLE
Reshad Effendi, the second brother, is therefore the heir to the throne, and, although he has been kept a practical prisoner for twenty years, so that very few people know him, he is said to be a man of refinement, education and integrity, much superior to his imperial brother in intellect and appearance. He occupies a portion of the Dolma-Baghtcheh Palace in Constantinople during the winter months, and during the summer goes to Machla, a suburban town, where he has a farm and a pretty villa. He has never been allowed to leave the immediate vicinity of Constantinople, and his communications with the outside world have been closely restricted by the orders of his brother. He is said to read French readily and to receive the principal newspapers and reviews of Europe that are printed in that language. He is also believed to have been in sympathy and in communication with his brother-in-law, the late Damad-Mahmoud Pasha, who fled to escape a sentence of death for his liberal opinions. This is, however, purely conjecture, because if the Sultan, with all his spies, cannot discover such a circumstance, it would seem impossible for the gossips to learn anything about it.
Prince Kemel Eddin, the third brother, is an invalid, and quite as feeble in mind as in body, with a low degree of cunning and strong animal instincts. He inherits the family tendency to pulmonary complaints. Prince Suleiman and Prince Wahid Uddin are allowed to go about Constantinople more freely than the other brothers, and are quite familiar to the public, better known perhaps than any other members of the family. Both live in handsome palaces and have liberal allowances from the public revenues, which they spend with great extravagance in luxury and vice. Neither Turks nor foreigners seem to care much for them. They have no social position and very few friends.
The Sultan has several sisters. One of them, Djemile Sultana, six years older than he, is a woman of strong character and has a great deal of influence with her brother. She is with him frequently and takes an active interest in public affairs. She has been a widow since 1858, and really has been a mother to him. They were born of the same mother, a Circassian slave, who lost her life in giving him birth, and hence they have naturally been very much attached to each other. The other brothers and sisters are the children of different wives of his father. As previously stated, all children born in the harem, whether of free women or of slaves, are legitimate and of equal rank; but, by the law of succession, the crown is inherited by the senior male descendant of Othman, the founder of the present dynasty in 1299. Therefore, so long as he has any brothers living, the children of Abdul Hamid will not come to the throne.
The Princess Senieh Sultana, another sister of Abdul Hamid, is about fifty years old, and the widow of Mahmoud Pasha, who was the leader of the “Young Turkey” party and for years an active advocate of its principles, regardless of his near relationship to the Sultan. His conspiracies, if they may be called such, were always carried on directly under the eyes of the Sultan, and of course were very offensive to him. Mahmoud was a good man, judged by our standard, but a great traitor and an unpardonable villain from the Turkish point of view. He was educated in France and England, where he imbibed liberal ideas, and, returning to Turkey, married the Sultan’s sister and introduced into his own family many of the customs and ideas which he had acquired in western Europe.
Being anxious that his sons should have a liberal education, he sent them to Robert College, the American Presbyterian Institution on the Bosphorus, just beyond the Sultan’s palace, which was founded there half a century ago by the munificence of Mr. Robert, an American merchant. Mahmoud Pasha himself went to arrange for the education of his boys, and as there were reasons why he did not wish them to form intimacies with the ordinary students, he persuaded Dr. Washburn, the president of the institution, to take them into his own family.