by Harun Yahya
February 8th, 1830…
In Eyup Palace, Sultan Abdulaziz was born to Mahmud II and Pertevniyal Valide Sultan. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man with penetrating hazel eyes and a fair brown complexion. Aside from being exceptionally strong, Sultan Abdulaziz was also a composer, a poet and a painter. He both wrote the lyrics and composed these into songs. Abdulaziz abolished the palace band and instead, founded the Orchestra of Turkish Music. During his visit to the United Kingdom, the welcoming British orchestra performed one of his compositions. As a talented painter as well, Sultan Abdulaziz personally designed the plans for ships that were to be included in the Ottoman fleet; not many painters could draw the sketches he could produce with only a few lines. Sultan Abdulaziz worked on some paintings together with the renowned Russian painter Aivazovsky. The Russian painter expressed the artistic skills of the Sultan with the following words:
“I have never received from any sovereigns the generosity I received from Sultan Abdulaziz in return for a portrait I painted. But I have a souvenir from him that I cannot compare to any treasure in the world, which is my sole source of pride. And that is the red pencil sketching of a rowboat his majesty granted to me, which was merely drawn with a few lines. I am a painter and I have seen many sketch paintings. Yet I cannot think of any painters in the world who can depict the figure of a rowboat that is peculiar to its placement with merely four lines.”
Well-versed in the Turkish, Arabic and Persian literatures, fluent in French, and a masterful calligrapher, Sultan Abdulaziz supported and protected poets and scientists. In addition to his artistic personality, Sultan Abdulaziz also was a great sports enthusiast: He was very fond of archery, horse riding, hunting, and above all, wrestling and indeed, the greatest wrestlers of the era were trained during his reign. Sultan Abdulaziz brought along the wrestlers named Arnavutoğlu Ali and Kara İbo with him to his trip to Europe. With their hulking sizes and flamboyant clothes, the two wrestlers attracted great interest in Paris and London.
While leading a humble private life, Abdulaziz gained the admiration of the public with his modest personality. His strong, vigorous and salient figure further increased the people’s trust in him. He was 31 when he ascended to the throne in June 25, 1861 upon the death of his older brother, Sultan Abdulmajid I.
When he became the emperor, he enunciated in the royal decree dated July 1st, 1861 the following:
I will work for the welfare of my people indiscriminately. I will exercise equal justice, equal diligence and equal patience in ensuring the well-being of my people from different religions and races. Constant development of the vast resources God has bestowed upon us and accordingly, ensuring our comfort and welfare and the sovereignty of our vast territories under my rule will always be my primary concern. May God, the Originator of all that is good, bless our nation.”
Fervently admired by the people, Abdulaziz was a pious ruler who would never drink or smoke, and would meticulously perform his prayers five times a day. He even brought with him his own ablution water on his voyage to Europe. He would receive the letters sent from Medina on his feet and would not read them without taking ablution as they carried the scent of our Prophet (saas). He was reading Surah Yusuf when he was martyred in his room. Today, the Qur’an carrying the bloodstains of Sultan Abdulaziz is preserved in Topkapı Palace.
When Sultan Abdulaziz ascended to the throne, the empire was burdened with crippling foreign debt. To pay off all these debts, Sultan Abdulaziz sold all the jewelry, valuable possessions and diamonds in the palace. He achieved significant savings by cutting the palace expenditures in half. He attached great importance to education. He reconstituted the Commercial Law, ordered the construction of telegraph lines, reformed the postal service and founded the municipal organization. The construction of the railway line extending from Haydarpaşa to Baghdad was initiated during his rule. After he ascended to the throne, he tripled the length of the existing 450-kilometer-long railroads, which contributed to the expansion of trade and ensured the swift suppression of any potential revolts by allowing rapid troop deployment.
Sultan Abdulaziz was a pious ruler who devoted considerable effort to the modernization and consolidation of the Ottoman Army, and sought the foundation of Islamic Unity. Modern, enlightened and progressive, Sultan Abdulaziz transformed the Ottoman Army into the sixth largest army in the world during his rule. The biggest and most advanced ships of the era were built at the Haliç shipyards. By adding the very first ironclad into the fleet, he formed one of the most powerful navies in the world. He introduced the most advanced cannons and rifles of the era to the army.
During his rule, Sultan Abdulaziz organized frequent excursions both within and outside the country. In these travels, he was welcomed with great demonstrations of public affection and love. In the places he visited, he would fulfill the requests of the local people by building roads, hospitals, public bathhouses, bridges, schools and granaries.
The Ruler of Rulers, Sultan Abdulaziz’s first overseas trip, the Egypt visit, started in April 3, 1863. In order to thwart the English and French schemes over Egypt, Sultan Abdulaziz set sail to Alexandria. During the voyage in the company of the imperial fleet, 100-gun salutes were fired by both friendly and foreign ships alike in Sultan’s honor at every port in the Sea of Marmara, the Aegean and the Mediterranean where the flagship of the Sultan was spotted, and people rushed into coasts to greet their ruler. After disembarking his ship at the port of Alexandria, he traveled to Cairo by train, being met with massive public demonstrations of affection at every stop. During his return voyage, Sultan Abdulaziz came to Izmir, which was illuminated by lantern and candlelights at night in honor and celebration of his visit. Sacrifices were made, prayers were recited and praises were offered to God.
After his Egyptian trip, Sultan Abdulaziz made his second overseas journey to Europe upon the invitation of Napoleon III. During his European trip, which included France, Belgium, Germany, England, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria, Sultan Abdulaziz stayed in the Buckingham and Elysee Palaces as a guest, and impressed the entire Europe with his nobility, high-class conduct, education and knowledge.
During the years of Sultan Abdulaziz’s reign, materialist movements led by Marx and Engels were exceedingly popular in Europe. Day by day, positivist, materialist and Darwinist philosophies, which deny the existence of God despite the lack of any scientific evidence, were estranging the people of Europe from their Christian belief. These unscientific philosophies that outright denies the existence of God had a visible influence over the theatrical works, novels, articles and course books of the period. These materialist books were first introduced to the library of Royal Medical School during the reign of Abdulmajid who preceded Abdulaziz. However, perceiving the grave dangers and hazards Darwinism posed, Sultan Abdulaziz prevented this philosophy that denies God and religion from taking hold in the Empire upon his ascension to the throne. He did not give way to the one-sided theory of evolution propagandas, a theory that rejects God’s creation.
He deposed the prominent Darwinists and materialists of the era such as Ahmed Midhat and Munif Pasha to prevent them from propagating that irreligious philosophy. Sultan Abdulaziz issued the following order for halting the Darwinist materialist propaganda activity of Ahmed Midhat:
“Henceforth, nothing will be written in the press regarding the monkeys of Midhat Effendi.”
Sultan Abdulaziz was vehemently against the Darwinist philosophy denying the existence of God and holding no scientific merit. Having founded the Darrüşşafaka High School, Abdulaziz’s aim was to develop a pious, enlightened and modern education curriculum against the one-sided and irreligious Darwinist, materialist education model.
Sultan Abdulaziz’s endeavors to uplift the Ottoman Empire economically as well as reinforce its spiritual aspects by prohibiting the Darwinist-materialist movements were genuinely upsetting to the British Deep State. Additionally, the pro-Russian policies of Sultan Abdulaziz, and the Ottoman Navy, which had reached a strength that even rivaled the British Navy of its time, blocking the passage of the British fleet in the Red Sea were hampering the expansionist policies of the United Kingdom. Sultan Abdulaziz, a brave, valiant, courageous and a pious monarch who aimed to establish the Islamic Union, was waging a great struggle to prevent the spread of Darwinist-materialists movements that were prevalent in Europe in that era, which denied the fact that God created all living things. All of these efforts were thwarting the British Deep State’s scheme of tearing the Ottoman Empire apart. These circles sought a solution in neutralizing Abdulaziz by supporting his opponents. The pro-British Grand Vizier Midhat Pasha was in constant contact with the British Ambassador to Istanbul, Thomas Elliot. The decision taken during those meetings was in favor of dethroning Abdulaziz by inciting riots and dissent within the Empire. As the first phase of this plan, a revolt was stirred up among madrasa [theological school] students, prompting them to take to the streets in boycott of the courses.
In May 10, 1876, with the first lights of dawn, the students of the Fatih, Suleymaniye and Bayazıt madrasas located in the heart of Istanbul poured into the streets and began to march. Among many other things, the students demanded a change of government, which was completely irrelevant to the issue. In this way, the potential supporters of Sultan Abdulaziz were sought to be removed from the government and replaced with a junta administration. Meanwhile, having departed from Aegean, British warships had already sailed as far as the Dardanelles Straits. Realizing the predicament he was in, Sultan Abdulaziz accepted the demands of the coup plotters and subsequently, Mehmed Rushdi Pasha was appointed as Grand Vizier, Huseyin Avni Pasha was appointed as Commander-in-Chief, and Midhat Pasha was appointed as the Head of the Council of State. Thus, the junta administration that would ultimately dethrone the Ruler of Rulers Sultan Abdulaziz had been formed. In the meantime, Midhat Pasha had instructed Kara Halil, the official in charge of fatwas, to issue a fatwa of dethronement. On May 31, 1876, Hayrullah Effendi, who was appointed as Shaykh al-Islam in the wake of the coup, approved the decision that would dethrone Sultan Abdulaziz.
Seraskier Huseyin Avni Pasha held the troops and 300 Military Academy students he had called in from Syria under the pretext of a military drill at the ready; he told them that they were assigned to prevent any potential assassination attempts on the Sultan and ordered them not to permit anyone to enter or exit the palace. At around 4 am, these soldiers and Military Academy students surrounded the palace. The British fleet, consisting of the world’s largest and most advanced warships and ironclads, had already dropped anchor on the coast of Dolmabahçe Palace. Everything had been planned; the palace was blockaded from both land and sea, and thus the dethronement decision was carried out. Following the coup, Abdulaziz, along with his wives and children, was embarked on boats in the falling rain and taken to Topkapı Palace, which at the time was abandoned, dilapidated and cold. They were kept waiting in a cold, empty room without being allowed to change their rain soaked clothes. In the meantime, all the personal possessions of Sultan Abdulaziz and the members of his family were seized.
It had been four days since the coup. Having been moved from Feriye Palace to Topkapı Palace, Sultan Abdulaziz was reading the Qur’an in his room. On June 4th, eight wrestlers who had been employed by Hüseyin Avni Pasha to work as gardeners in the Feriye Palace entered Sultan Abdulaziz’s room. Sultan Abdulaziz was a strongly built man and for a while, he fought back against those who wished to martyr him. Eventually, they laid him on his back as two of them set on his right arm, two on his left arm, two on his right leg and two on his left leg. Using a small razor with a white handle, Mustafa Çavuş cut the arteries first on his left and then on his right wrists. Sultan Abdulaziz did not immediately pass away. Without being allowed any medical attention, he was transported to the police station right next to the palace in this condition. Some of the doctors, who were there for a medical examination and writing a report, wanted to thoroughly examine the Sultan’s body but Seraskier Huseyin Avni Pasha, one of the coup plotters, interfered because their plan was to fabricate a false report alleging that the Sultan was of unsound mind and had committed suicide. Physician Ömer Pasha, who refused to write a report without conducting any examination, was stripped of his ranks and discharged from the military. Even though the death of Sultan Abdulaziz was falsely put on record as a suicide via fake reports, the fact that Sultan Abdulaziz had been actually martyred and his death had been made to seem like a suicide was verified by the court records and the statements of the eyewitnesses.
In February 2007, the bloodstained clothes of the Ruler of Rulers Sultan Abdulaziz were found inside an untied bag in the storehouse of the Topkapı Palace. Upon the bag was written “The clothes worn by Abdulaziz at the time of his martyrdom”. The bloodstained clothes of Sultan Abdulaziz consisting of trousers, a sweater, a knee-guard, a shirt, a scarf and undergarments were kept by his mother Pertevniyal Sultan after the Sultan’s martyrdom. One of the eyewitnesses of the era, the Preacher of Sultan Ahmed Mosque, Ömer Said Effendi, said in his statement to the court investigating the martyrdom of Sultan Abdulaziz that he had noticed a stab wound on his left breast while washing his body. The mark of the stab is also visible on the bloodstained shirt found in the Topkapı Palace.
In the epistle he wrote in the 1920s, Caliph Abdulmajid Effendi spoke of his father, Sultan Abdulaziz as follows: “Thanks be to God that my father, His Majesty Sultan Abdulaziz did not suffer from such weaknesses of morality. On the contrary, besides never having touched a drop of alcohol throughout his life, he would never smoke tobacco, and he would not even drink coffee except on the rarest occasions. This is how he achieved such an immensely strong body. He spent more than fifteen years of his reign without having any illness. But as he did not have anyone on his side that would assist him and in his major undertakings, he had to suffer the disaster of dethronement and was martyred.”
The Ruler of Rulers Sultan Abdulaziz was a saintly ruler who reached the ranks of guardianship and martyrdom. The Minster of Health Mamduh Pasha described Sultan Abdulaziz as follows: “The deceased Emperor, Sultan Abdulaziz had a handsome face, eloquence and a quick grasp of matters. He would immediately catch on any insinuation. He was as imposing a person as he was polite in his manners and speech. He was of superior mind and character.
CONCLUSION:
Following the martyrdom of Sultan Abdulaziz, in 1876, the British Deep State moved on to the second phase of its plans to the detriment of the Middle East and Muslims. Through its global “sick man” propaganda, it tore the Ottoman Empire apart while realizing its occupation plans one by one. In 1881, the British occupied Egypt and through the financial support of the British Governor of Egypt, Lord Cromer, they made al-Azhar University a headquarters for Muslim evolutionists. Abdulhamid II, who was sitting on the throne in those years, reinstated the pro-British Midhat Pasha, who had played a part in the coup overthrowing Abdulaziz. In accordance with the British Deep State’s plans, Midhat Pasha appointed the Darwinist Ahmed Midhat Effendi as the head of the State Printing House. In 1882, under the rule of Abdulhamid II, the first Darwinist book denying the truth of God’s Creation of life was written. Darwinist Munif Pasha was appointed as the Minister of Education and subsequently tens of thousands of Darwinist books were printed and distributed all over the Ottoman Empire via ships, camels and trains. The Darwinist-materialist publications spread around the Empire like wildfire, paving the way for the disaster. By imposing a financial blockade on the Ottoman Empire on the one hand and playing a major role in the opening of brothels, the encouragement of alcohol production and the spread of Darwinist-materialist publications that deny the existence of God on the other hand, the British Deep State brought about the spiritual collapse of Ottoman society. The goal was to tear the Islamic world apart, formulate a new Islamic philosophy separate from the Qur’an that deems what is unlawful lawful and embraces Darwinism, and thus keep the Muslim community under control. What should be done today to foil this almost 300-year-old plan of the British Deep State is to struggle against this evil dajjal organization through science and knowledge just as our brave, valiant and courageous martyr, the Ruler of Rulers, Sultan Abdulaziz once did.
The writer has authored more than 300 books translated in 73 languages on politics, religion and science. He may be followed at @Harun_Yahya and www.harunyahya.com
