Life of Abdul Hamid

by Sir Edwin Pears

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365 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1973

Reviews

[Recep Pehlivan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very misleading in many aspects, but the British people of that era could not have known and would have taken this as fact as coming from a distinguished Knighted Gentleman .

Quite clearly a propaganda tool to incite the British minds against the Oriental Turk , enemy of the time and holder of the middle east and all its petrol wells… than a subjective attempt at explaining the life of Abdul Hamid .. but such was the classic British strategy of the era .. Lie, confuse and incite , get the job done and by the time people find the truth it would be all over and too late … may this sorry creature Edwin Pears turn in his grave ..

[Jawwad Khan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book out of curiousity but it turned out to be a British propaganda book only to insult the Sultan rather than to write about him.

[Alp Eren Topal · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book, Life of Abdulhamid was published in 1917 for a series titled “Makers of the Nineteenth Century”. Editor’s introduction is very revealing regarding the book’s perspective –and thereof indirectly of the general British public opinion of the time- of Abdulhamid II. Editor makes up for “including this sorry creature, Abdul Hamid, among the Makers of the Nineteenth Century” by assuring the reader of his evil influence on the European powers.

Pears does not follow an exact chronological order in narrating Hamidian Era. Rather he focuses on certain periods and explains them in detail most of the time his own opinion’s mixed with verifiable facts. He focuses on the dethronement of Abdülaziz and later of Murat followed by a detailed account of accession of Abdulhamid to the throne and his dealing with Midhat Paşa. He then goes on to talk about different affairs such as Bulgarian problem, Egyptian problem, administrative problems of the Empire, railroads, daily life of Abdulhamid and finally a long section on Committee of Union and Progress and his dethronement. The longest part of the book –about a hundred pages-, however, is allocated to Abdulhamid’s dealing with subject races which amounts to in the author’s eyes to the “massacres”.

The main aspiration of the author can be summarized in two or three points and he strives to prove these points. First one is that Abdulhamid was not a likeable man, he lacked intelligence, administrative skill and mental capacity to become a ruler. Second, he was an absolutist tyrant who committed many atrocities. And finally he brought about the demise of his Empire despite the effort of French and the British and some able Ottoman bureaucrats to save it. And underlying minor effort is to prove an Orientalist perspective of the Turkish people.

The book is an interesting combination of amateur history writing, journalism, biography and narration of correspondences between important figures. It cannot be called a scholarly piece as it lacks a coherent method of research and the author rarely cites valid sources. A recurrent problem is that the author refers to certain rumors in Istanbul about Hamid with explicit reservations about the validity of the rumor; nonetheless he goes on saying that the widespread prevalence of these rumors could be regarded as a proof of the fact that they have some truth in them.

Do not bother reading this book unless you are going to write a paper or a thesis on Orientalism or historiography.