the last great caliph_ abdülhamid ii _ lost islamic history

7/28/2019 The Last Great Caliph_ Abdlhamid II _ Lost Islamic History

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The Ottoman Empire in 1878

The Last Great Caliph: Abdlhamid IIThe Last Great Caliph: Abdlhamid II Apr. 06 Featured , Modern His tory , Ottoman His tory 3 comments

hroughout Islamic history, one of th e uniting aspects of the Muslim w orld was the caliphate. After the deathf Prophet Muhammad , his close companion, Abu Bakr, was elect ed as the first khalifah, or caliph, of the

Muslim community. His job as lead er combined political power over th e Muslim state as well as spiritualuidance for Muslims. It became a h ereditary position, occupied at fir st by the Umayyad family, and later bye Abbasids. In 1517, the caliphate was transferred to the Ottoman f amily , who ruled the la rgest and most

owerful empire in the world in the 1 500s.

or centuries, the Ottoman sultans did not place much emphasis on t heir role a s cali phs. It was an officialtle that was called in to use when needed, but was most ly neglected . Du ring th e dec line o f the empire in the800s, however, a sultan came to power that would decide to revive the im porta nce an d pow er of thealiphate. Abdlhamid II was determined to reverse the retreat of the Ottom an st ate, a nd de cided that the bestay to do it was through the revival of Islam throughout the Muslim world a nd pa n-Isla mic u nity, c entered one idea of a strong caliphate. While Abdlhamids 33-year reign did not st op th e inevitable f all of the empire,

e managed to give the Ottomans a final period of relative strength in the f ace of Euro pean encro achment andolonialism, with Islam being the central focus of his empire.

slamic Reformslamic Reformhroughout the 1800s, the Ottoman government hadeen trying desperately to slow the decline of thempire. Be ginning with M ahmud II a nd through oute reigns of Abdlmecid and Abdlaziz, attempts atforming the empire were at the forefront of the

overnme nt agend a. These Tanzimat (r eorganiza tion)forms attempted to rebuild the Ottoman stateong liberal, European lines. Islam (and religion in

eneral) was given a back seat in public life, asecular ideas began to influence laws andovernment practices.

hese reforms proved to do nothing to reverse theecline of the empire. If anything, the increasedmphasis on non-Islamic identities of Ottomanubjects just further promoted the nationalistic aimsf the Ottoman Empires numerous subjects, which created further disunity in the empire. During the Tanzimatra, the Ottoman provinces of Serbia, Greece, Wallachia, Modova, Abkhazia, Bulgaria, and Algeria were allst to European encroachment or nationalism.

bdlhamid decided to take a radically different approach. Because of the loss of European territory thatad occurred just before and in the first few years of his reign, the empire was now overwhelmingly Muslim.

hroughout Ottoman history, Christians had been a major part of the population, at some times being about0% of the population. Throughout the 1800s, however, the Ottoman Empire was losing Christian-majoritynds in Europe, and was getting a net influx of Muslim immigrants coming into the empire. With about 3/4thf his empire Muslim, Abdlhamid decided to emphasize Islam as the dominant uniting factor among hisubjects.

he rest of Europe was experiencing powerful nationalistic movements in the 1800s. Pan-Slavism and Pan-ermanism were examples of uniting factors for people who spoke the same languages and had similar

ultures. The Ottoman empire had always been multi-cultural. Turks, Arabs, Albanians, Bosnians, Kurds,rmenians, and many others made up the empire. Abdlhamid attempted to make Pan-Islamism a unitingctor for Muslims, both inside and outside of the empires borders.

o show his role as supreme leader of Muslims worldwide, Abdlhamid placed much emphasis on the holytes of Makkah and Madinah. In the 1800s, a building program commenced in the holy cit ies, with hospitals,

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Tughra of Abdulham id II

The opening o f the Hamidiye University in Beijing

barracks, and infrastructure being built in the Hejazto aid in the yearly gathering of Muslims in Makkah

the Hajj. The Kaaba itself and the Masjid al-Haramthat surrounded it were also renovated with a modernwater system that helped reduce the severity of floods.

In 1900, Abdlhamid commenced the beginning of the Hejaz Railway. It began in Istanbuland traveled through Syria, Palestine, and the

Arabian desert, ending in Madinah. The goal of therailway was to better connect the holy sites with thepolitical authority of Istanbul, as well as make thepilgrimage easier. To show his emphasis on theprotection of Makkah and Madinah, Abdlhamiddecided that the gauge (width of the rails) of theHejaz Railway should be slightly smaller than

andard European ones. His reasoning for this was that if Istanbul were to ever fall to European imperialists,e wanted to make sure they could not use the Hejaz Railway with European trains to easily invade Makkahnd Madinah.

Non-Ottoman MuslimsNon-Ottoman Muslimshroughout Ottoman history, t here have been examples of the sultans helping Muslim communities outs ideeir borders whenever the opportunity arose and the Ottoman state was capable. For example, in the 1500s,e Ottoman navy was a key force in the Indian Ocean, aiding local Muslims fighting Portuguese colonialism

s far away as India and Indonesia. Abdlhamid considered it his duty to do the same in the 1800s, especially

nce large populations of Muslims in Africa and Asia were under European imperial control.

Delegations were sent to African Muslim kingdomssuch as Zanzibar, giving gifts from Abdlhamid andasking them to acknowledge the caliph as their protector against European imperialism. Similar delegations were sent to Muslims living withinRussian and Chinese borders.

In 1901, Abdlhamid sent one of his advisors, Enver Pasha, along with numerous Islamic scholars, toChina. When they arrived in Shanghai, they werewarmly greeted by the Chinese authorities, andespecially so by the local Chinese Muslims, who

had lived in China for centuries. Abdlhamid later helped establish a Muslim university in Beijing,called the Peking (Beijing) Hamidiye University. Evenas far away as China, Abdlhamid wanted to c reatea sense of belonging and unity among Muslims,

entered on the caliphate.

bdlhamids efforts resulted in the caliph of the Muslim world being acknowledged in Friday prayers frommall t owns throughout Africa to the major Muslim communities of India and China.

The Issue of Palestinehe Issue of Palestinen the late 1800s, a potent nationalist movement was forming among European Jews: Zionism. Zionisteology called for a Jewish st ate to be established in their ancient homeland, Palestine. Although European

ews were dispersed throughout Europe, the unique financial and political power of numerous Jewish families

as able to make Zionism a major force in the late 1800s.

heodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, personally requested from Abdlhamid II specialermission to sett le in Palest ine, in exchange for 150 million pounds of gold, which could have helped thettomans repay their enormous debts. Herzls aims were not to sett le there and live under Ottoman authority,e clearly wanted to establish a Jewish s tate carved out of Muslim lands (as of course happened in948). Abdlhamid realized that his role as caliph required him to protect the sanctity and sovereignty of

Muslim land, so he responded to Herzl with the following:

Even if you gave me as much gold as the entire world, let alone the 150 million English pounds in gold, I would not accept this at all. I have served the Islamic milla [nation] and theUmmah of Muhammad for more than thirty years, and never did I black en the pages of theMuslims- my fathers and ancestors, the Ottoman sultans and caliphs. And so I will never accept what you ask of me.

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In the late 1800s, Sultan Abdlhamid IIattempted to bring back the Islamiccharacter of the Ottoman Em pire.

Al-Biruni: A Master of Scholarship

e further prevented the purchase of tracts of land within Palestine byionist organizations, ensuring that their attempts at establishing a

oothold there were futile. Ultimately, the Zionists were allowed tourchase land and settle in Palestine after the reign of Abdlhamid II,hen the Young Turk movement was in charge of the Ottomanmpire.

Legacyegacybdlhamid II was the last of the Ottoman sultans who had any realower. He was overthrown in 1909 by a group known as the Youngurks. They were Western-educated liberal secularists whoehemently disagreed with the Islamic direction that Abdlhamid took

e empire in from 1876 to 1909. After his overthrow, his brother Mehmed Reshad was chosen as sultan by the Young Turks, but hefectively had no power, and the empire was run by an oligarchy of ree ministers in the Young Turk government.

hree more people held the office of caliph after Abdlhamid II:Mehmed V, Mehmed VI, and Abdlmecid II, none of which had anyower. In 1924, the caliphate was abolished by the new Turkisharliament and Abdlmecid and the rest of the Ottoman family wereorced into exile. As such, Abdlhamid II was the last of the caliphs

have had any power over the Muslim world. The tradition of a strong, in charge caliph that commenced withbu Bakr in 632 was upheld by Abdlhamid in the late 1800s before finally being overthrown by liberalements within the empire.

bdlhamid II died in Istanbul in 1918, and was buried in a mausoleum along with Sultans Mahmud IInd Abdlaziz near Sultanahmet Square.

ibliography:

inkel, Caroline. Osmans Dream . New York: Basic Books, 2005. Print.

ourani, Albert Habib. A History Of The Arab Peoples . New York: Mjf Books, 1997. Print.

chsenwald, William, and Sydney Fisher. The Middle East: A History . 6th. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.rint.

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ags: Abdlhamid , Africa, Caliphate , China , Empire , Europe , Hejaz , History , Imerialism , India, Indonesia ,lam , Istanbul , khilafah , Madinah , Makkah , Ottoman , Palestine , Religion, Zanzibar

comments on comments on The Last Great Caliph: Abdlhamid IIThe Last Great Caliph: Abdlhamid II

timupham April 6, 2013 a t 3:44 pm

dul Hamid II was an atrocious sultan. He presided over the Armenian Massacres of 1894 to 1896, where over ,000 Armenians were killed. The massacres did not s top, until Armenians seized the Ottoman Central Bank in

nstantinople, then the Great Powers (Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, and Italy)ssured him to stop them. He violated the rules of Islam, by taking on more than 4 wives. He was so corrupt,

is why the Young Turks overthrew him. But unfortunately, the Young Turks were not much better.

ReplyDalkilich

April 6, 2013 a t 5:38 pm

true. There were atrocities against the Armenians before, during and after Abdul Hamid IIs rule but heainly did not endorse, condone or preside over them. In fact Abdul Hamids own mother, the Valide Sultan,

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most likely Armenian herself. The 19th century was a bloody time all over the world and there were ethnic,gious and tribal conflicts all over the world and in every empire, from millions of Muslims killed in Qing Chinaing the Panthay Rebellion to Tsarist Russia deporting or killing millions of Muslims during their conquests of Caucasus and Central Asia. No one mentions these millions but the Armenian lobby is very effective at

mpaigning against Abdul Hamid and the Ottomans.

ch of the violence against the Armenians was ethnic rivalry with Kurds and others in Eastern Anatolia, it wasan organized top-down genocide.

rules of Islam allow for concubines beyond the 4 wives, to address your other slander against the last truealifah of Islam. As for corruption he did his best but was holding on to a beleaguered and embattled position

even after suppression of the Janissaries the sultans were virtual prisoners and figureheads in their palaces.

Replytimupham

April 6, 2013 a t 5:57 pm

First of all, it not an Armenian lobby. If I talk about the massacre of the Roma during World War II, I am notpart of the Roma (Gypsy) lobby. It is human rights regardless. Second of all, if Sultan Abdul Hamid II wasnot corrupt, then why was he overthrown by the Young Turks? Of course, we do mention the imperial Czaristpurges of the people in the Caucasus Mountains. I have lived in the Middle East, and all the Circassians Imet, are descendants of those Czarists purges. But if we can remember what made the Circassians a partof the Middle East today, we can also remember those Armenians that were the victims of Ottomanslaughter, and those Roma who were victims of Nazi slaughter. Also, the sultans 7 wives were notconcubines either, they were his wives.

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