Abdülmecid II

Abdülmecid II (29 May 1868 – 23 August 1944) was the last Ottoman caliph, the only caliph elected by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and head of the Ottoman dynasty from 1926 until his death. A son of Sultan Abdulaziz, he reigned as caliph from 19 November 1922 until the abolition of the caliphate on 3 March 1924, and he is also counted among the most important painters of the late Ottoman period. ¹

His birth day is split inside the English article itself: its infobox gives 29/30 May 1868, its lead 29 May and its early-life text 30 May 1868 at Dolmabahçe Palace. This record follows 29 May, the reading of the Turkish article and of Wikidata. ^{2 3}

Abdülmecid was born at Dolmabahçe Palace to Sultan Abdulaziz and Hayranidil Kadın, spent much of his youth in palace confinement after his father's deposition and death in 1876, and used those years for painting, music and languages. When his cousin Mehmed VI became sultan on 4 July 1918, Abdülmecid became crown prince. After the sultanate was abolished and Mehmed VI deposed on 1 November 1922, the Grand National Assembly elected Abdülmecid caliph on 19 November 1922; he took the title Halîfe-i Müslimîn, "Caliph of the Muslims", and held his biat ceremony at Topkapı Palace. ¹

His tenure was strained from the start: he pressed for the standing and allowance of a head of state, conservative deputies and an open letter from the Aga Khan and Syed Ameer Ali rallied support for the caliphate, and the Ankara government read the campaign as a political challenge. On 3 March 1924 the Assembly abolished the caliphate by Law 431 and expelled the dynasty; Abdülmecid left Istanbul that night. ¹

He lived first in Switzerland, where he declared the abolition contrary to Sharia and illegitimate without the consent of all Muslims, then at Nice from October 1924, and finally in Paris, where he performed Friday prayers at the Grand Mosque of Paris. After Mehmed VI's death in 1926 a family conference recognised him as head of the dynasty. In exile he painted, composed and wrote a twelve-volume memoir. As a painter he had chaired the Ottoman Artists' Society; works such as his harem scenes and his portrait of his wife Şehsuvar reading Goethe's Faust were shown at the 1917 Vienna exhibition of Turkish art, and he is considered one of the most important painters of late Ottoman art. ^{1 2}

He died of a heart attack in Paris on 23 August 1944. Turkey refused his body burial at home; his remains lay at the Grand Mosque of Paris for ten years before burial at Jannat al-Baqi in Medina on 30 March 1954. ^{1 2}

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