ABDUL-AZIZ. 



ABDUL-HAMID II. 



continued anarchy existing in his empire, and 

 the insurrection in Candia, occupied the entire 

 attention. of himself and of his ministers, and 

 at the same time absorbed the resources of the 

 empire. In the year previous, giving way to 

 the counsels of the other European nations, 

 and in order not to be involved in difficulties 

 with Servia while having the revolt in Candia 

 on his hands, he had withdrawn the Turkish 

 garrison from the important fortress of Bel- 

 grade, and had thus granted Servia complete 

 political autonomy. In addition to this state 

 of affairs, a conflct threatened with Greece in 

 1868, which country was aiding the rebels in 

 Candia. As> a war against Greece would have 

 brought on new complications with the Euro- 

 pean powers, the Sultan, although hating the 

 Greeks, and dreaming of the restoration of the 

 power and the glory of his empire, permitted 

 the difficulties to be adjusted by his ministers 

 at a conference of the powers in Paris. The 

 victory here gained by Turkish diplomacy gave 

 the Sultan and his government the courage 

 and the power to force Ismail Pasha, who in 

 1867 had been invested with the title of khe- 

 dive of Egypt, and who had for some time 

 been meditating to throw off his allegiance to 

 the Sultan, to an apparent subjection, so that 

 in 1870 the latter came to Constantinople as if 

 suing for mercy. But in the visits of 1872 

 which the khedive paid the Sultan, he suc- 

 ceeded, by making a wise use of the financial 

 embarrassments of the latter, in regaining the 

 concessions made at his previous visit, and 

 in obtaining at the same time a new law of 

 succession for his house, and almost all the 

 prerogatives of an independent sovereign. In 

 the mean while the condition in the imme- 

 diate dominions of the Sultan assumed every 

 day more threatening forms. One ministry 

 followed another at short intervals, while the 

 influence of the Russian embassador, General 

 Ignatieff, had become all-powerful with the 

 Sultan. The state of the finances had fallen 

 so low that the revenues barely sufficed to 

 pay the interest on the public debt. This 

 was the condition of the country when in 

 1875 the revolt in the Herzegovina broke out, 

 which, originating in the refusal of a few- 

 villages to pay still further the exorbitant tax- 

 es imposed upon them, soon spread over the 

 whole province of Bosnia. Owing to the 

 depleted condition of the treasury, the gov- 

 ernment of the Sultan was unable to meet 

 it with such energy as it demanded. Abdul- 

 Aziz himself appeared to be entirely unable 

 to comprehend the gravity of the situation. 

 In this emergency the softas, the theological 

 students, demanded his abdication, and the 

 council of ministers, in the name of the nation, 

 decreed his removal from the throne, pro- 

 claiming his nephew Murad V. as his succes- 

 sor. Shortly afterward, on June 4th, he was 

 found dead in his chambers. As rumors began 

 to circulate that he had been assassinated at 

 the instigation of the existing government, hia 



successor had his body examined by a number 

 of physicians, who arrived at the following 

 verdict : 



1. That the death of the ex-Sultan Abdul-Aziz was 

 caused by the haemorrhage produced by the wounds 

 made in the blood-vessels of the bends of the arms. 



2. That the instrument shown to us could per- 

 fectly inflict those wounds. 



3. That the direction and nature of the injuries, as 

 well as the instrument which caused them, lead us 

 to conclude it to be a case of suicide. 



The report was signed by the following 

 physicians : 



Dr. Marco, doctor to Abdul-Aziz Khan; Dr.Nouri, 

 Dr. Sotto. attaclie of the imperial and rojal em- 

 bassy of Austria and Hungary ; Dr. Spagnolo, Ital- 

 ian ; Dr. Marc Markel, of the British embassy ; Dr. 

 I. de Casho, Italian ; Dr. A. Manoni, of the French 

 embassy ; Dr. Jules Mullingen, English ; Dr. G. D. 

 Dickson, of the British embassy; Dr. 0. Vitalis, of 

 the Sanitary Administration ; Dr. Eduard Spodaro, 

 Italian; Dr. Nouridjan, Armenian; Dr. Intropoulo, 

 Hellenic ; Dr. Abdinour, Dr. Servet, Dr. Miltiade 

 Bey, Greek ; Dr. Moustapha, Dr. Mebemet. 



A favorite scheme pursued by Abdul-Aziz, 

 during the greater part of his reign, aimed fit 

 the abolition of the law of seniority by which 

 he himself had ascended the throne, to the ex- 

 clusion of the sons of his brother, and for which 

 he desired to substitute a law similar to that 

 prevailing in other European states, thus giving 

 the throne to his oldest son in preference to 

 his nephew Murad Efiendi, who was entitled 

 to it by the law of succession then prevailing. 

 To prepare the way for this important change, 

 he permitted the introduction of a similar law 

 in Egypt ; empowered his nephew Murad to 

 establish his own household by making him a 

 pasha, thus destroying the exclusiveness of the 

 imperial harem, and finally abolished the bar- 

 barous custom of killing all male children of 

 princesses married to high officers of state. 

 On his journey through Europe, in 1867, he 

 also endeavored by all possible means to have 

 his son regarded as his successor, while he kept 

 his nephews in the background. His plans, 

 however, failed, and he was succeeded by his 

 nephew Murad. See Azam, " L'avenement 

 d' Abdul-Aziz " (1861); Millingen (Osman- 

 Seify-Bey), " La Turquie sous la regne d'Ab- 

 doul-Aziz" (1868). See also MUE^.B V., and 

 TURKEY. 



ABDUL-HAMID II., Sultan of Turk-ey, was 

 born September 22, 1842. He is the second 

 son and fourth child of Abdul-Medjid. He 

 succeeded his brother, Murad V., as Sultan 

 of Turkey, on August 31, 1876. His life has 

 been quiet and uneventful. His mother died 

 young, and he was adopted by his father's 

 second wife, herself childless, who is very 

 wealthy, and has made him heir to all her 

 property. During the lifetime of his father 

 he, as well as his elder brother, the deposed 

 Murad V., led a merry life, his every wish and 

 fancy being indulged to the utmost, his educa- 

 tion chiefly consisting in being diverted by the 

 amusements and tricks devised for his enter- 

 tainment by the numerous slaves surrounding 



