A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Monday, April 30, 2012

Video: The Last Ottoman Sultan's Coronation

Mehmet VI (Wikipedia)
As Ottoman Sultans go, Mehmet VI Vahittetin will never be conrused with Selim Yavuz or Suleiman the Magnificent. Nor did he particularly look the part of the Sultan/Caliph/Padishah (right). But he does hold the distiction of being the last Sultan, deposed by the new republic in 1922. (A relative remained Caliph for a bit longer.) For our periodic nostalgia fix, though, and via Antika, here's an old clip of his coronation, July 4, 1918, as the Allies' noose was tightening around the Ottoman Empire (the Ottomans left the war with the Mudros Armistice on October 30, 1918).



Going Into Exile (Wikipedia)
When the Sultanate was abolished in 1922, he was sent into exile in Malta aboard a British warship (left).

Just a few weeks ago I noted that his granddaughter, said to be the last Ottoman princess born under the Empire, had died at age 91.

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