Ali Bilgin: “Saltanat-i ​​Eclâf: Ferit Tek’s Unknown Monograph on Osman II”

Summary: Tek-Esin Foundation Library not only provides services open to researchers but also produces publications that present many of the works in its archive to the relevant readers through meticulous editing.

“Sultan-ı Saltanat” is a vague historical monograph by Ferit Tek. As a young officer who opposed absolutism, Ferit Bey was exiled (1898). With the declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy, he returned to Istanbul and entered Parliament (1909). Unable to reconcile with the policies of the Committee of Union and Progress, Ferit Bey formed a separate party and began his opposition, but this time he was exiled by the Committee of Union and Progress (1913).

During this exile, where he would spend the years of World War I, he penned a monograph titled “Saltanat-ı Eclâf.” When his close friend Yusuf Akçura read it, he exclaimed: “How is this possible? You’ve written something that, when you exchange the grand viziers and janissary chiefs for fezzes and kalpaks, we end up with the men we see today. How can you possibly print this at this time!”

Ferit Bey could only serialize his review in the newspaper İfham (lacking gap), which he republished in 1919. However, published in the atmosphere of the Armistice Period, the work would find itself in a very different context than the one in which it was written and perhaps lose its footing in the rapidly changing political climate.

As an example of the Tek-Esin Foundation’s publication production process, a presentation will be given detailing the content of the work, the restitution process, the conditions of writing and publication, and the editorial process itself. The work seeks to address shortcomings and errors using manuscript drafts discovered in the Foundation’s archives and the sources Ferit Bey used.