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Mehmed VI's reign began with theOttoman Empire suffering defeat by theAllied Powers with the conclusion ofWorld War I. The subsequentArmistice of Mudros legitimized further Allied incursions into Ottoman territory, resulting in an informaloccupation of Istanbul and other parts of the empire. An initial process ofreconciliation between the government and Christian minorities over theirmassacres and deportations by the government ultimately proved fruitless, when the Greeks and Armenians, via their patriarchates, renounced their status as Ottoman subjects by the end of 1918, spelling a definitive end ofOttomanism. During theParis Peace Conference, Mehmed VI turned toDamat Ferid Pasha to diplomatically outflank Greek territorial demands on the Ottoman Empire through Alliedappeasement, but to no avail.Unionist elements within the Ottoman military, discontent with the government's appeasement in the face of partition, and the establishment ofwar crimes tribunals, began taking actions into their own hands by establishing anationalist resistance to resume war. Mehmed's most significant act as Sultan was dispatchingMustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) to reassert government control in Anatolia, which actually resulted in the further consolidation of anti-appeasement actors against the court, and consequently, the end of the monarchy.
With the GreekOccupation of Smyrna on 15 May 1919 galvanizing theTurkish nationalist movement and beginning theTurkish War of Independence, by October the sultan's government had to give in to nationalist demands with theAmasya Protocol. With the Turkish nationalists standing against Allied designs for a partition of Ottoman Anatolia, the Alliesmilitarily occupied Istanbul on 16 March 1920, and pressured Sultan Mehmed VI to dissolve the Nationalist dominatedChamber of Deputies, ending theSecond Constitutional Era. Kemal Pasha responded by establishing a provisional government known as theGrand National Assembly based inAnkara, which dominated the rest of the Ottoman Empire, while the Sultan's unpopular government in Istanbul was propped up by the Allied powers and effectively impotent. Mehmed VI condemned the nationalist leaders as infidels and called for their execution, though the provisional government in Ankara claimed it was rescuing the Sultan-Caliph from manipulative foreigners and ministers. The Sultan's so-called Istanbul government would go on to sign theTreaty of Sèvres, a peace treaty which would have partitioned the remainder of the empire, leaving a rump Turkish state. With Ankara's victory in the independence war, the Sèvres Treaty was abandoned for theirTreaty of Lausanne. On 1 November 1922, the Grand National Assembly voted toabolish the Sultanate and to depose Mehmed VI as Caliph, and he left for Europe in exile. On 29 October 1923, theRepublic of Turkey was declared, with Mustafa Kemal as its first president.
After his mother's death, VahdeddinEfendi was raised and taught byŞâyeste Hanım, another of his father's consorts.[7][8] He trained himself by taking lessons from private teachers and attending some of the lessons given at the Fatih Madrasa.[1] The prince had a rough time with his overbearing adoptive mother, and at the age of 16 he left his adoptive mother's mansion with the three servants who had been serving him since childhood.[9] He grew up with nannies, female servants, and tutors. During the thirty-three years of his brother SultanAbdul Hamid II's reign he lived in theOttoman Imperial Harem.[10]
During his youth his closest friend wasAbdul Mejid (to be proclaimed asCaliph Abdul Mejid II), the son of his uncle, SultanAbdul Aziz. In the years to come, however, the two cousins became unyielding rivals. Before moving to theFeriye Palace, the prince had lived briefly in the mansion inÇengelköy owned byŞehzade Ahmed Kemaleddin.[11] During the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, Vahdeddin was considered to be the sultan's closest brother. When he ascended to the throne, this closeness greatly influenced his political attitudes, such as his intense dislike of theYoung Turks and theCommittee of Union and Progress (CUP), and his sympathy for the British.[12]
Mehmed took private lessons. He read a great deal, and was interested in various subjects, including the arts, which was a tradition of theOttoman family. He took courses in calligraphy and music and learned how to write in thenaskh script and to play theqanun.[9] He became interested inSufism and, unknown to the Palace, he attended courses at the madrasa ofFatih onIslamic jurisprudence,Islamic theology,interpretation of the Quran, and theHadiths, as well as theArabic andPersian languages. He attended thedervish lodge of Ahmed Ziyaüddin Gümüşhanevi, located not far from theSublime Porte, where Ömer Ziyaüddin of Dagestan was the spiritual leader, and he became a disciple of theNaqshbandi order.[13]
Vahdeddin held a quiet rivalry with his brother Crown PrinceYusuf İzzeddin and repeatedly requested that his brotherSultan Mehmed V Reshad retract İzzeddin as heir apparent. In the end İzzeddin committed suicide in 1916, putting Vahdeddin on track to succeed his brother upon his death.[8]
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Mehmed in 1915
Mehmed Vahdettin succeeded to the throne after the death of his half-brother, and took the regal name of Mehmed VI, on 3 July 1918, though like his predecessor, he was known by the people, and in modernTurkey, by his personal name Vahdettin.[15] He held hisCülûs (enthronement ceremony) the day after and delivered an oath to theOttoman National Assembly.[14] Instead of commissioning his own anthem he signed an edict making his grandfatherMahmud II's anthem as the official national anthem of the Ottoman Empire.[16] Though he detested the Unionists and was an ideological absolutist, for a short while he had to maintain the monarchy's subservient relationship to the CUP. Vahdeddin reappointedTalat Pasha asGrand Vizier for another term and Mustafa Kemal Pasha commander ofSeventh Army. However due to the tides of war turning against the Ottomans, Talat Pasha resigned, the CUP dissolved itself, and the Ottomans exitedWorld War I with the signing of theArmistice of Mudros, which was a turning point for Vahdettin's reign.
The First World War was a disaster for the Ottoman Empire, which was initiated by theCUP dictatorship. British and allied forces capturedBaghdad,Damascus, andJerusalem during the war, and most of the empire was set to be partitioned amongst the Allies. As part of the armistice terms, much of the empire beyond the armistice lines was also under occupation, including the Sultan's own capital: Constantinople. Now dealing with an existential crisis over the Ottoman state, Sultan Mehmed VI hoped to pursue a policy of close cooperation with Britain and France in order to rehabilitate Turkey into the international community and a lighter peace treaty.[14] However this strategy did not turn out to be successful, as despite the leadership change, the Allies considered the participation of Turkey during theGreat War -and its recent trend in the last decade towards political instability- akin to arogue state that deserved punishment, therefore Entente statesmen sought to elevateGreece as a responsible Eastern Mediterranean Great Power in the Ottomans' place.
Mehmed VI witnessed many of the monarchies of Europe experiencing their demise or extreme shakeup with the end of the Great War. The GermanHohenzollerns, AustrianHabsburgs, and RussianRomanovs all met their demise due to the Great War, and Greece and Bulgaria's monarchies also experienced great instability due to the war. The highest priority for the Sultan was to safeguardhis dynasty's interests, which soon came into conflict with his empire's national interest.[14]
The end of the Great War allowed Vahdeddin to reassert the Sultanate, in contrast to his deceased brother who was accommodating to the CUP. With Talat Pasha's resignation, and the CUP's self-liquidation, Vahdeddin had the opportunity to appoint a new Grand Vizier. Mustafa Kemal Pasha sent a telegram to the Sultan, asking him to appointAhmed Izzet Pasha and make himself aminister of war. Izzet Pasha wooed the Sultan by promising to 'secure the dynasty's 'legitimate rights' and restore justice in the nation'.[17] The sultan assigned the task of forming the government to Izzet, hisaide-de-camp, though Mustafa Kemal was excluded from thenew cabinet, as well as any minorities.[1] In his speech for the opening of the new legislative year of the parliament, he wished for peace along the lines ofWoodrow Wilson'sFourteen Points, and that he accordingly wanted peace with the appropriate honour and dignity of the state.[14]
Sultan Vahdeddin soon requested the resignation of Izzet, which was unconstitutional, and assigned his in-lawAhmed Tevfik Pasha to form a government. Two days later, theallies occupied Istanbul. After Tevfik Pasha received a vote of confidence from parliament, Vahdeddin made a press statement, stating that the CUP was solely responsible for the war and its excesses, not to the Ottoman people (seecollective guilt). He asked his government to establish tribunals to try war criminals and that he would work with all his might to maintain friendship with England. When theChamber of Deputies, dominated by Unionistselected back in 1914, objected that only the chamber has the authority to establish special tribunals, Vahdeddin dissolved the chamber on 21 December 1918. He postponed elections until after a peace treaty could be signed, even though they were constitutionally mandated to occur four months after parliament's dissolution, on the grounds that the country was under occupation.[14]
The question which immediately dominated the Ottoman Empire was the fate of the war criminals and the Unionists. Sultan Vahdeddin soon asked Tevfik Pasha to resign and assigned him to form a new government in order to purge Unionist sympathizers from the government. Before making arrests, Damat Ferid Pasha, in the capacity of an envoy, attempted to meet with the British High Commissioner, to gauge British support for the new regime and its goals in purging the Unionists. The escape of the former governor of Diyarbekir, Reşid Bey, from prison (25 January 1919) renewed British interest in prosecuting war criminals. Britain ended up cooperating with the Ottoman government in these arrest campaigns, though controversially demanded extradition of some criminals. British and French demands on war criminals increasingly mounted on the Tevfik Pasha government, and after the Sultan complained about the lack of progress on the matter in the last three and a half months, he resigned, andDamad Ferid Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier on 4 March 1919.[14]
Riding the royal carraige
A new government, consisting of members of theFreedom and Accord Party, arrested the leaders of the CUP, including one of the former grand viziers,Said Halim Pasha. The trial ofBoğazlıyan District GovernorMehmed Kemal Bey was quickly concluded. He was sentenced to death and publicly hanged inBeyazıt Square after thefatwa was signed by the sultan, which did not go over well with the Turks, and he was declared a national martyr.[1] Ferid Pasha was unable to send an Ottoman delegation to theParis Peace Conference, and the Allies increased interference in government. To calm the situation at home and shore up his popularity, Vahdeddin dispatchedCommissions of Admonition [Heyet-i Nasîha], delegations representing the imperial family headed by royal princes to Anatolia and Rumelia.[14]
By the end of the war, conditions in Thrace and Anatolia -by all metrics- were disastrous, to the point where public order collapsed. The Allied Powers allowed officers to be assigned to the army in Anatolia to ensure public order. On 30 April 1919Mustafa Kemal Pasha was assigned to the Ninth Army Troops Inspectorate, a wide-ranging responsibility which effectively gave him civil and administrative authority over all of Anatolia. A fringe historical theory alleges the Sultan to have instructed Mustafa Kemal to start a resistance movement against the Allies in a prior audience. Out of the reaches of Istanbul, Kemal indeed used his extraordinary powers to coordinate a nationalist resistance with like minded officers, which soon led to British demands for his recall. The Sultan was indifferent to his activities until late June.[14]
In order to calm nationalist tempers, the Sultan had Damad Ferid, who had resigned after the GreekOccupation of Izmir, form his second government on 19 May, which included ten ministers without portfolio unaffiliated with political parties or the palace. Twenty-three jailed nationalists, who's trials had already been postponed were released. On 26 May, Damad Ferid convened aSultanic Council [meclis-i Saltanat], a faux parliament akin to anestates general, to formulate a way forward after the Greek occupation of Izmir. The delegates demanded for complete independence and the urgent establishment of an emergency national council. In response, the Allies extradited sixty-seven prisoners from the Bekir Ağa Division toMalta, making them the first of theMalta exiles.[14]
After the Allies invited an Ottoman delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, the trial and arrest of the Unionists once again began. The Sultan demanded Tevfik accompany Damad Ferid Pasha, who headed the delegation, as he did not trust the Grand Vizier. At this time the crown-princeAbdul Mecid sharply criticized his cousin for following such a pro-British policy and placing Ferid in a position of authority.[14]
At theSan Remo conference of April 1920, theFrench were granted a mandate overSyria and theBritish were granted one overPalestine andMesopotamia. On 22 July 1920, theSultanic Council (Şurayı Saltanat) gathered inYıldız Palace to discuss the principles of the settlement debated in Sèvres. On 10 August 1920, Mehmed's representatives signed theTreaty of Sèvres, which recognised the mandates andHejaz as an independent state. Since he had to resign two and a half-months later,Damat Ferid Pasha dispatched the last delegation of Tevfik Pasha, the last delegation of the Ottoman Empire, on 2 October 1920.[18]
As the nationalist movement strengthened its military positions in late August 1922, Mehmed VI, his five wives, and attendant eunuchs could no longer leave the safety of the palace.[19] The Grand National Assembly of Turkeyabolished the Sultanate on 1 November 1922, and Mehmed VI was expelled fromIstanbul. One day before his departure, he had lunch with his daughter,Ulviye Sultan, and spent a night at her palace.[20] Leaving aboard theBritishwarshipHMSMalaya on 17 November 1922, he took care not to bring valuable items or jewellery, other than his personal belongings. British generalCharles Harington himself took the last Ottoman ruler fromYıldız Palace. Ten people with the sultan were sent off early in the morning by an English battalion. He went into exile inMalta, later living on theItalian Riviera.[1]
On 16 November 1922, Vahideddin wrote to Sir Charles Harington: "Sir, considering my life in danger in Istanbul, I take refuge with the British Government and request my transfer as soon as possible from Istanbul to another place. Mehmed Vahideddin, Caliph of the Muslims". Accompanied by his First Chamberlain, the bandmaster, his doctor, two confidential secretaries, a valet, a barber and two eunuchs, at 6 am on 19 November, two British ambulances took them to the house of General Sir Charles Harington.
Mehmed VI arrives in Malta on a British warship, 9 December 1922. On the left, 10-year-old PrinceMehmed Ertuğrul Efendi
Mehmed sent a declaration to theCaliphate Congress and protested the preparations made, declaring that he had never waived the right to reign and be caliph. The congress met on 13 May 1926, but Mehmed died without the news of the congress meeting on 16 May 1926 inSanremo,Italy.[21] His daughterSabiha Sultan found money for a burial, and the coffin was taken to Syria and buried in the cemetery of theSulaymaniyya Takiyya inDamascus.[22][23][1][24]
Mehmed had an optimistic and patient personality according to the testimony of his relatives and employees. He was evidently a kind family man in his palace; outside, and especially at official ceremonies, he would stand cold, frowning and serious, and would not compliment anyone; he attached great importance to religious traditions; he would not tolerate rumors, nor would he allow them to circulate in his palace. Even in his informal conversations, he always attracted attention with seriousness.
The sources in question also state that he was intelligent and quick-grasped, but he was under the influence of his entourage and especially those he believed in, that he had a very evident, unstable and stubborn temperament.[1]
Mehmed VI had dealt with advanced literature, music, and calligraphy.[25] His compositions were performed in the palace when he was on the throne. The lyrics of the songs he repeatedly composed while in Tâif envision the longing of the country and the pain of not getting the news that they have left behind. Sixty-three works belonging to him can be identified, but only forty works have notes. His poems, which can be an example to his poetry, are only the lyrics of his songs. He was also a good calligrapher.[1]
Nazikeda Kadın (9 October 1866 – 4 April 1941).Başkadin and only consort for twenty years, she is considered the last Ottoman Empress. She was born Emine Marşania, she was Abkhazian and before marrying Mehmed she was in the service ofCemile Sultan with her sisters and cousins. Mehmed married her in 1885, after a year of insistence and the threat that he would never marry anyone else and the promise that Nazikeda would be his only consort. He kept his word until, after giving him three daughters, Nazikeda could no longer have children, which forced Mehmed to take other consorts to have male heirs. She was described as tall and beautiful, buxom, with fair skin, light hazel eyes, and long auburn hair.
Inşirah Hanım (10 July 1887 – 10 June 1930). Born Seniye Voçibe, she was Circassian, the niece ofDurriaden Kadin, consort ofMehmed V, older half-brother of Mehmed VI. She was tall, with beautiful blue eyes and very long dark brown hair. She was proposed by Mehmed in 1905. Inşirah refused, but was obliged by her father and her brother. Unhappy but still jealous, she divorced Mehmed in 1909, when she found a servant in his quarters. Having divorced before Mehmed's accession to the throne, she was never an Imperial Consort. Later she fell intodepression. She tried to return to her husband in 1922, when he was in exile atSanremo, Italy, but she was not allowed to see him and he was not notified of her presence. She attempted suicide twice. The first of hers was saved by her niece, but the second she managed by drowning herself in the Nile.
Müveddet Kadın (12 October 1893 – 20 December 1951). Second Imperial Consort and only consort other than Nazikeda to obtain the title of Kadın. Born Şadiye Çıhcı, she was introduced to the court by Habibe Hanım, treasurer of Mehmed's harem. They were married in 1911. She was tall, with blue eyes and auburn hair and was known as a very sweet, shy, kind-hearted and hardworking woman. She was also loved and respected by her stepdaughters. She bore Mehmed her only son, whose death caused her to fall into depression. After Mehmed's death she remarried, but divorced after four years.
Nevvare Hanım (4 May 1901 – 13 June 1992).Başikbal. Born Ayşe Çıhçı, she was niece of Müveddet Kadın, who raised her. She married Mehmed in 1918, although Müveddet did everything possible to prevent this. She was tall and beautiful, with green eyes and long black hair, of a kind but proud disposition. She filed for divorce in 1922, when Mehmed was deposed and exiled, and she was granted it in 1924. After that, she remarried.
Nevzad Hanım (2 March 1902 – 23 June 1992). Second Ikbal and last woman to become consort of an Ottoman sultan. Born Nimet Bargu. She married Mehmed in 1921, previously she had been aKalfa (servant) in the household ofŞehzade Mehmed Ziyaeddin, son of SultanMehmed V. She was Mehmed's favorite consort in his later years, so much so that it is said that he never agreed to part with her. After Mehmed's death she changed her name back to Nimet and remarried. By her second marriage she had a son and a daughter. She never agreed to talk about her years as Imperial Consort.
Münire Fenire Sultan (1888 – 1888, two weeks later) – with Nazikeda Kadın. Died an infant, she is sometimes regarded as twins rather than a single princess.
Fatma Ulviye Sultan (11 September 1892 – 1 January 1967) – with Nazikeda Kadın. Married twice, she had one daughter.
^Britannica.com, Istanbul:When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved to Ankara, and Constantinople was officially renamed Istanbul in 1930.
^Aredba, Rumeysa; Açba, Edadil (2009).Sultan Vahdeddin'in San Remo günleri. Timaş Yayınları. p. 73.ISBN978-9-752-63955-3.
^Raşit Güdogdu; Büşra Yildiz (2020).The Sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Rumuz Yayınları. p. 247.ISBN978-605-5112-15-8.His funeral was brought to Beirut and later to Damascus and buried in the cemetery in the garden of Süleymaniye Complex.
^Freely, John,Inside the Seraglio, 1999, Chapter 19: The Gathering Place of the Jinns
^abcdeYılmaz Öztuna (1978).Başlangıcından zamanımıza kadar büyük Türkiye tarihi: Türkiye'nin siyasî, medenî, kültür, teşkilât ve san'at tarihi. Ötüken Yayınevi. p. 164.
^Alp, Ruhat (2018).Osmanlı Devleti'nde Veliahtlık Kurumu (1908–1922). pp. 131–132.
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