Abdul Hamid II | Official report on the assassination attempt, (1905)

TURKEY--[ABDUL HAMID II]

Official report on the Armenian assassination attempt of Sultan Abdul Hamid II on 21 July 1905, published in Constantinople, AH1323 (1905).

FIRST EDITION, folio (350 x 230mm.), text in Ottoman Turkish, 67pp., 8pp., 34 matt silver prints (27: 130 x 85mm.; 6: 180 x 235mm.; one: 120 x 170mm.) mounted on 14 leaves, publisher's pale blue cloth with tughra of Abdul Hamid II on upper cover and Ottoman crescent on lower cover in gilt, modern marbled endpapers, some stamps removed, stains and light wear to mounts, slight wear to binding

RARE. NO COPY TRACED AT AUCTION. On 21 July 1905, just after Friday Prayers at the Yıldız Hamidiye mosque in Constantinople, a carriage bomb exploded and left 26 dead and 58 wounded. Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1876-1909), the target of the attack, remained unscathed. The Ottoman police soon discovered that Armenian revolutionaries were behind the plot and several people were arrested and convicted, among them the Belgian anarchist Edward Joris. This official report, illustrated with photographs of suspects, equipment and devices used in the assassination attempt, was published by the Der Saadet Bidayet Mahkemesi (Court of First Instance) in Constantinople, overseen by magistrate Sadr al-Din (Sadreddin). The attack was described by The Times as "one of the greatest and most sensational political conspiracies of modern times".

RARE. NO COPY TRACED AT AUCTION. On 21 July 1905, just after Friday Prayers at the Yıldız Hamidiye mosque in Constantinople, a carriage bomb exploded and left 26 dead and 58 wounded. Sultan Abdul Hamid II (1876-1909), the target of the attack, remained unscathed.

PROVENANCE:

Tuma Başaranlar, Diyarbakir (blue inkstamp on final text leaf)