Sultan Murad V: The Ottoman Sultan of 93 Days

Murad V was an Ottoman sultan who reigned for 93 days, from 30 May to 31 August 1876. He took the throne when his uncle Abdülaziz was removed, and he lost it when his brother Abdülhamid II was put in his place. After the deposition he was allowed to live at Çırağan Palace in Istanbul. He spent 28 years under guard and died on 29 August 1904.

Three sultans in one year, the rod of 1876

Three men were sultan in 1876: Abdülaziz, Murad V and Abdülhamid II. One rod puts all three reigns on one year. An arşın is the old Ottoman measuring rod.

How to read the rod. The three woods are cut where the throne changed hands: Murad V from 30 May, Abdülhamid II from 31 August. A day count is the number of days between the two clamps, so 30 May to 31 August is 93.

Abdülaziz was the uncle of the other two. Murad V and Abdülhamid II were sons of Sultan Abdülmecid by different mothers, so they were half-brothers.

Abdülaziz

Born on 8 February 1830. He took the throne on 25 June 1861, aged 31, after the death of his brother Abdülmecid. He loved archery, riding, hunting and above all wrestling, painted well, and drew the plans of ships for the navy himself. He also composed: one dance piece (sirto) and two songs survive.

Murad V

Born in Istanbul in September 1840. Sultan for 93 days.

Abdülhamid II

Born on 21 September 1842, in Istanbul. His mother died when he was a child, and his stepmother Piristu Kadın raised him. He learned the piano and later spent his free hours in a carpenter’s workshop. He reigned from 31 August 1876 until 1909, and died on 10 February 1918.

Before 1876, the heir who read French

Murad was born in Istanbul on 21 or 22 September 1840, the son of Sultan Abdülmecid. His given name was Mehmed. His mother was Şevkiefser (also written Şevk-Efza), a Kadın Efendi, a title for a wife of the sultan.

He had a good education: lessons in Turkish, Arabic, French, Ottoman history and science, and piano and Western music from two Italian teachers. He loved literature, had books brought from France, read Turkish and foreign newspapers, wrote letters to European princes and composed pieces in the Western style.

September 1840

Born in Istanbul, on 21 or 22 September.

25 June 1861

His uncle Abdülaziz becomes sultan, and Murad is declared heir.

1863

He goes with Abdülaziz to Egypt as heir; they set out on 3 April 1863.

21 June to 7 August 1867

The journey to Europe, with Murad again at the sultan’s side as heir.

The journey of 1867

Abdülaziz left Istanbul on 21 June 1867 and returned on 7 August. Napoleon III had invited him to the international exhibition in Paris and Queen Victoria had invited him to London, and he also called at Belgium, Prussia and Austria. He was the first Ottoman sultan to travel to Western Europe.

In England Murad met the Prince of Wales, the later King Edward VII, and the two became close friends.

The farmhouse and the writers

He spent most of his time at a farmhouse at Kurbağalıdere in Kadıköy that Abdülaziz had given him. In those years he met the New Ottomans (Yeni Osmanlılar), a group that wanted a constitution, and writers such as Şinâsi, Nâmık Kemal and Ziyâ Paşa. The two poets among them, Nâmık Kemal and Ziyâ Paşa, became his friends.

Through Ziyâ Paşa and one more go-between, he was in touch with Midhat Paşa, the leader of the group that was unhappy with Abdülaziz’s rule.

Why 1876, the money, the revolts and the students

Three things came together in 1876: money, revolts in the Balkans and unrest in Istanbul.

The reign

Abdülaziz’s reign has two halves. Until Âlî Paşa’s death in 1871 the government was in the hands of Âlî and Fuad Paşas; from then until 1876 Mahmud Nedim Paşa and Midhat Paşa had more say. Abdülaziz spent large sums, beyond the budget, on the army and the navy, the fleet grew to twenty ironclads, and the railways grew from 452 to 1,344 kilometres in his reign.

The debt

By the end of Abdülaziz’s reign the state’s debts had reached 200 million gold liras, and the yearly payment of debt and interest 14 million gold liras. The budget for 1875 had a gap of five million gold liras.

6 October 1875

The government announces that for five years it will pay half of the yearly 14 million gold liras in bonds with 5 per cent interest. The decision caused a stir at home and abroad and hurt the state’s standing.

1875 and 1876

A revolt begins in Herzegovina in 1875 and spreads to Bosnia. An uprising follows in Bulgaria on 2 May 1876. On 6 May 1876 comes the incident at Salonica, which ended with the killing of two consuls. By spring 1876 the crisis abroad was dangerous, and the great powers were ready to step in.

10 May 1876

Students of the religious schools at Fatih, Bayezid and Süleymaniye stop attending lessons and begin demonstrations. They go as far as Yıldız Palace and ask for the dismissal of the grand vizier and of the şeyhülislâm (the chief religious scholar). This student movement set off the events that led to the first constitution.

12 May 1876

Abdülaziz names Mütercim Rüşdü Paşa grand vizier, Hasan Hayrullah Efendi şeyhülislâm and Hüseyin Avni Paşa minister of war. Midhat Paşa joins the council of ministers. The demonstrators disperse.

The four men now in office, Rüşdü Paşa, Hüseyin Avni Paşa, Hayrullah Efendi and Midhat Paşa, became known as “the four pillars” (erkân-ı erbaa). Once in office they agreed to remove Abdülaziz and told the heir, who promised not to stand in the way of a constitutional government.

The announcement said the removal came about by “general agreement” (ittifâk-ı umûmî); in fact a few men arranged it, and historians call it a coup. The great powers had decided to hand the government a note, the Berlin Memorandum, and Abdülaziz was removed before it was delivered.

The night of 29–30 May, and the oath

Murad became sultan in the night of 29–30 May 1876; his reign is counted from 30 May.

At a meeting on 26 May 1876 at Hüseyin Avni Paşa’s waterside house at Paşalimanı, the four statesmen fixed 31 May for removing Abdülaziz. Then they moved the plan up to the night of 29–30 May. Soldiers surrounded Dolmabahçe Palace by land and by sea, and nobody could go in or out.

Murad, still the heir, lived in the heir’s apartment (Veliahd Dairesi) at Dolmabahçe. The palace was built under Sultan Abdülmecid on the site of an older waterside palace at Beşiktaş; Murad V is one of the six sultans who lived there from 1856.

He did not know the plan had been moved up. He was afraid he would be arrested and did not want to leave his rooms. Süleyman Hüsnü Paşa, the head of the military schools, who had come to fetch him, persuaded him with difficulty.

1. Dolmabahçe. He leaves the heir’s apartment by carriage. Hüseyin Avni Paşa, the minister of war, catches up and, without getting down from his carriage, takes Murad in beside him. Soldiers with bayonets stop the carriage several times.
2. The quay. In a violent storm and heavy rain he is put in a boat that waits there.
3. The sea. Out on the water the passengers change vessels three times.
4. Sirkeci and Beyazıt. With difficulty they reach the Sirkeci pier. A hired carriage takes him to the Serasker Gate (Serasker Kapısı) at Beyazıt.

The crossing

Rain, high waves and one small boat on the way to Sirkeci.

At the Serasker Gate the grand vizier, the şeyhülislâm and other leading men swore allegiance to him. This is called biat. The fatwa for Abdülaziz’s removal was then read.

The minister of war

Hüseyin Avni Paşa was born in a village near Isparta and entered the military school in Istanbul in 1837. He was minister of war (serasker) four times, the fourth from 12 May 1876, and grand vizier from 15 February 1874 to 25 April 1875. He set about reorganising the army on the Prussian pattern.

The 93 days

The three months brought a second oath, a few appointments, two deaths and two ceremonies that never took place.

Abdülaziz was taken to Topkapı Palace, and Murad was taken to Dolmabahçe. Cannon fire announced the accession, and a second oath followed for the statesmen who had gathered at the palace. Custom required a new sultan to sit on the golden throne at Topkapı Palace. Murad was seated on a gilded armchair for the oath instead.

He named Ziyâ Paşa, who had helped bring him to the throne, as his chief secretary. He asked the grand vizier to bring back Nâmık Kemal and the other writers whom Abdülaziz had sent into exile. The request was not carried out. A decree published on the third day of his reign mentioned the constitution only in a few fine words, and Ziyâ Paşa was soon replaced by Sâdullah Paşa.

1 June

Abdülaziz is moved from Topkapı Palace to Feriye Palace, at his own wish, after writing a letter to Murad. Abdülaziz was upset to find that the rooms given to him at Topkapı had once been Selim III’s.

4 June

Three days after the move Abdülaziz was found dead in his rooms. How he died is still debated. In June 1881 a special court at Yıldız Palace, its judges picked from Midhat Paşa’s opponents, ruled that he had been killed and sentenced Midhat Paşa and others to death.

15–16 June

A cabinet meeting at Midhat Paşa’s house is raided and Hüseyin Avni Paşa, a minister, is killed by Çerkez Hasan Bey, an army captain and Abdülaziz’s brother-in-law, who blamed him for Abdülaziz’s death.

Hüseyin Avni Paşa, killed in the night of 15–16 June, was buried in the courtyard of the Süleymaniye Mosque.

Two ceremonies of a new reign did not take place: the sword-girding ceremony at Eyüpsultan, and the foreign ambassadors’ presentation of their credentials.

The man in the middle

Midhat Paşa runs through the three months. He was born in Istanbul in October or November 1822. He governed the Danube province for three and a half years from October 1864 and was grand vizier twice: from 31 July to 19 October 1872, and again from 19 December 1876. Of the four who removed Abdülaziz, he was the one who truly wanted a constitution; the others wanted the old order to go on.

For the writers who had pinned their hopes for a constitution on a new ruler, it was another disappointment.

31 August 1876, the deposition

Murad V was deposed on 31 August 1876. On 30 August the council of ministers decided to depose him and put his brother Abdülhamid on the throne; the next morning the deposition fatwa was read before the statesmen at Kubbealtı, and Abdülhamid II became sultan. The reign had lasted 93 days.

Abdülhamid II had declared that he favoured a constitution, and had promised Midhat Paşa, without announcing it, to proclaim one.

What came next, the constitution and its first parliament

The first Ottoman constitution, the Kanun-ı Esasi, came in the reign of Murad V’s brother. After Abdülhamid II took the throne a commission was set up under pressure from Midhat Paşa. It drew on the French constitution of 1875 and the Belgian one of 1831. The sultan had a second commission, which included the historian Ahmed Cevdet Paşa, look at the draft. The sultan made changes that widened his own powers, among them a clause that allowed him to send people into exile.

The text was accepted on 23 December 1876 and proclaimed by imperial decree (hatt-ı hümâyun) on 23 or 24 December. A conference of the great powers on the Balkan crisis was meeting in Istanbul at the time, and 101 cannon shots were fired for the proclamation. A commission of 28 members, all appointed by the sultan, prepared the text. No elected body wrote it, but it moved the state from absolute to constitutional monarchy. The text had 119 articles and was amended seven times while it was in force.

Midhat Paşa became grand vizier on 19 December 1876. The sultan dismissed him on 5 February 1877, the 49th day of his term, and sent him abroad. After the trial of 1881, at which he was sentenced to death and the sultan changed the sentence to life imprisonment, Midhat Paşa was sent to Taif in July. He was kept under close watch there until he died in the night of 7–8 May 1884; his remains were brought to Istanbul in 1951 and placed in a tomb on the Abide-i Hürriyet square.

The first parliament opened on 19 March 1877, with 141 members: 115 deputies and 26 members of the upper house. On 13 February 1878 the sultan adjourned the chamber of deputies for an unlimited time, without announcing that he had given up the constitution. He put the Kanun-ı Esasi back into force on 23 July 1908 and was deposed in April 1909.

Was he a Freemason?

He met the Prince of Wales, the later Edward VII, on the 1867 journey, and under his influence joined the Freemasons. Turkish historians date it to 23 October 1872. His brothers did not welcome it.

Çırağan, 1876 to 1904, three attempts and a quiet end

After the deposition Murad was allowed to live at Çırağan Palace in Istanbul. He lived on in the palace for 28 more years.

The palace stands on the shore between Beşiktaş and Ortaköy. A wooden palace stood there, which Sultan Abdülmecid had pulled down in 1859–60 to build one of stone. His death put the plan off, and after Abdülaziz took the throne the work went ahead on a plan by the architect Nikogos Balyan, carried out by his sons Sarkis and Agop Balyan. Building began in earnest in 1863 and was finished in 1871. It was a three-storey building in the neo-classical style, with a marble front 120 metres long on the sea side. The cost was four to five million gold liras.

Abdülaziz moved in but left a few months later, because the building was damp, and went back to Dolmabahçe. When Abdülhamid II took the throne he gave the palace to his deposed brother, and for 28 years, until Murad’s death in 1904, it was the home of the former sultan and his family.

1. November 1876. Four people, two Turks and two foreigners, try to enter Çırağan in women’s clothes, to take him to Europe and have his reign recognised. They are caught.
2. 15 April 1877. A committee led by Cleanti Scalieri and Aziz Bey plans to take him to a mosque and proclaim him sultan again. One member tells the authorities, and the members are caught before they act.
3. 20 May 1878. The Çırağan Incident (Çırağan Vak‘ası). Ali Suâvi raids the palace to put Murad back on the throne. Guards from the Beşiktaş police post stopped the raid, and Ali Suâvi and his followers were killed. Ali Suâvi had come with refugees from Rumelia.

After the three attempts he was guarded more closely, and for 28 years he lived, in effect, as a prisoner.

He died on 29 August 1904 and was buried beside his mother at the New Mosque (Yeni Cami) in Istanbul, in the tomb known as Cedîd Havâtîn.

He is remembered as the Ottoman sultan with the shortest reign. He took an interest in painting, music and architecture, and played the piano.

The palace outlived him by only six years. About four months after the constitution was restored in July 1908, the palace was given to the parliament, and the second session of the chamber of deputies opened there on 14 November 1909. On 19 January 1910, around noon, a fire, thought to have started in a heating flue or from an electrical fault, burned for five hours and destroyed the main building. Only the outer walls were left. It was later restored as part of a large hotel built in its garden.

Quick answers, and the sources