Abdülmecid II
Abdülmecid II (* May 29, 1868 in Istanbul, † August 23, 1944 in Paris) was dated 19 November 1922 to 3 March 1924, the last Ottoman Caliph.
Life
Abdülmecid was the son of Sultan Abdulaziz (1830-1876); he was born in the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul and educated by private tutors. On December 23, 1896, he married his first wife Şehsüvar. The couple had a son, Ömer Faruk. His second wife Hayrunnisa Abdülmecid married on June 18, 1902 his third wife Atiye Mehisti on April 16, 1912. From this marriage came out, the daughter Dürrüşehvar. Was Bihruz on March 21, 1921 his fourth wife.
He was regarded as completely uninterested in politics. His hobby was painting, one of his paintings was exhibited in Paris in 1900. Portraits of Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Sultan Selim I issued in Vienna in 1918. In addition to the chairmanship of the Ottoman society of artists, he held the rank of general in the Ottoman army.
With the accession of his cousin Mehmed VI. on July 4, 1918 he became Crown Prince of the Ottoman Empire. Attempts by Talaat Pasha and later to implicate him of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the politics of the declining empire, he knew to escape.
Caliph
When the Sultan in November 1922 hastily left the country aboard the British warship Malaya, the Minister of Religious Affairs announced a fatwa to its deposition. The Sultanate was abolished, which, however, still the religious function of the Caliph was to occupy that had exercised centuries of the Sultan in personal union. On November 19, 1922, the Grand National Assembly in Ankara Abdülmecid II elected as the new caliph. In the hitherto customary ceremonies for the inauguration has been omitted.
The British representative at the inauguration of the Topkapi Palace, the diplomat George Young, described the scene in his memoirs (London 1926) as:
" A delegation of members from Angora shared with an older amateur that he had been elected by majority vote as some union leaders. "
" It has the Caliph refused the sword of Osman and given him for the sword of Damocles. "
He was the 101st Caliph and the 37th Head of the Ottoman Dynasty. The power of the new Caliph was low. The Ottoman Empire was under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the transition to a republic. Ataturk remembered the Caliph several times on its limited role. A letter from two prominent Muslims from India, Amir Ali and the Aga Khan III. , The new Prime Minister İsmet İnönü, where they made suggestions on the future role of the caliphate, came to the press.
The Turkish National Assembly decided to abolish the Caliphate. On March 3, 1924 Abdülmecid was deposed, he and all members of the Ottoman dynasty were forced to leave the country.
Exile
The authorities took him from his palace to the Orient Express, he settled with his family in Paris. He died there on 23 August 1944 in his house in the Boulevard Suchet in the 16th arrondissement. His body was taken to Medina in Saudi Arabia.
Two of his daughters were in a double wedding November 12, 1931 married in Nice with sons of the last Nizam of Hyderabad Asaf Jah VII. The older, Dürrüşehvar, married Nawab Sir Mir Himayat Walashan Ali Khan Azam Jah, Prince of Berar. The couple had two sons; the older, Nizam ul- Mulk Fath Jang Barkat Ali Khan Mukarram Jah Asaf Jah VIII ( born 1933 in Nice ) is the current pretender to the throne of the principality in 1956 resolved Hyderabad. The younger daughter Abdülmecids, Nilüfer, married Nawab Sahibzada Muazam Jah ( * December 22, 1907 ).