(Source: Syracuse University Press)
Syracuse
University Press is publishing a new book on the Yildiz Case in 19th
century Ottoman law.
ABOUT THE BOOK
In 1876, a
recently dethroned sultan, Abdülaziz, was found dead in his chambers, the veins
in his arm slashed. Five years later, a group of Ottoman senior officials stood
a criminal trial and were found guilty for complicity in his murder. Among the
defendants was the world-famous statesman former Grand Vizier and reformer
Ahmed Midhat Paşa, a political foe of the autocratic sultan Abdülhamit II, who
succeeded Abdülaziz and ruled the empire for thirtythree years.
The alleged
murder of the former sultan and the trial that ensued were political dramas
that captivated audiences both domestically and internationally. The
high-profile personalities involved, the international politics at stake, and
the intense newspaper coverage all rendered the trial an historic event, but
the question of whether the sultan was murdered or committed suicide remains a
mystery that continues to be relevant in Turkey today. Drawing upon a wide
range of narrative and archival sources, Rubin explores the famous yet
understudied trial and its representations in contemporary public discourse and
subsequent historiography. Through the reconstruction and analysis of various
aspects of the trial, Rubin identifies the emergence of a new culture of
legalism that sustained the first modern political trial in the history of the
Middle East.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Avi Rubin is
senior lecturer in the Department of Middle East Studies at Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev. He is the author of Ottoman Nizamiye Courts: Law and
Modernity.
More information
here
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