Mehmed VI Vahideddin (, or ; or , also spelled as ; 14 January 1861 – 16 May 1926), also known as Şahbaba () among the Osmanoğlu family, was the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the penultimate Ottoman caliph, reigning from 4 July 1918 until 1 November 1922, when the Ottoman Sultanate was abolished and replaced by the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923.
He acceded to the throne after the death of Mehmed V Reşad on 4 July 1918 as the 36th padishah and 115th Islamic Caliph. Mehmed VI's chaotic reign began with Turkey suffering defeat by the Allied Powers with the conclusion of World War I nearing. The subsequent Armistice of Mudros legitimized further Allied incursions into Turkish territory, resulting in an informal occupation of Istanbul and other parts of the empire. An initial process of reconciliation with Christian minorities over their massacres and deportations failed when the Greek and Armenian patriarchates renounced their flocks' status as Ottoman subjects, marking a definitive end of Ottomanism. During the Paris Peace Conference, Mehmed VI turned to Damat Ferid Pasha to outflank Greek territorial demands on Turkey diplomatically through Allied appeasement, but to no avail. Unionist elements within the military, discontent with the government's appeasement in the face of partition and the establishment of war crimes tribunals, established a nationalist resistance to resume war. Mehmed's most significant act as Sultan was dispatching Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) to reassert government control in Anatolia, which backfired when Mustafa Kemal emerged as the leader of the Turkish national movement against the Sultan's wishes.
With the Greek Occupation of Smyrna on 15 May 1919 galvanizing the Turkish nationalists and beginning the Turkish War of Independence, Mehmed told the Turks to not resist the Greeks. The Allies occupied Istanbul militarily on 16 March 1920. Sultan Mehmed VI dissolved the nationalist dominated Chamber of Deputies and suspended the Constitution. When the Turkish nationalists stood against Allied designs for a partition of Anatolia, Kemal Pasha responded by establishing a provisional government known as the Grand National Assembly based in Ankara, which dominated the rest of Turkey, while the Sultan's unpopular government in Istanbul was propped up by the Allied powers and effectively impotent. A civil war erupted when Mehmed condemned the nationalist leaders as infidels and called for their execution, though the Ankara government claimed it was rescuing the Sultan-Caliph from manipulative foreigners and ministers. The Sultan's Istanbul government went on to sign the Treaty of Sèvres, a peace treaty which would have partitioned the empire, and left the remainder of the country without sovereignty.
With Ankara's victory in the independence war, the Sèvres Treaty was abandoned for the Treaty of Lausanne. On 1 November 1922, the Grand National Assembly voted to abolish the Sultanate and to depose Mehmed VI as Caliph and he subsequently fled the country. His cousin Abdul Mejid II was elected Caliph in his stead, though he too, and the entire Osmanoğlu family were soon exiled after the abolition of the Caliphate. On 29 October 1923, the Republic of Turkey was declared with Mustafa Kemal Pasha as its first president, ending the Ottoman monarchy. Mehmed VI died in exile in 1926 in San Remo, Italy, having never acknowledged his deposition.
Early life
thumb|357x357px|Prince Vahdeddin, Resimli Kitab magazine|left
Mehmed Vahdeddin was born on 14 January 1861. His father was Sultan Abdul Mejid I, who died five months after he was born. Abdul Mejid had forty-two children and Vahdeddin was his last child, putting him tenth in line to the succession. All of his siblings were half-siblings from different consorts and concubines, save for Mediha Sultana. His mother Gülistû Kadın was of Georgian-Abkhazian origin, the daughter of Prince Tahir Bey Chachba. Vahdeddin became an orphan when she died from one of the many cholera outbreaks of the time when he was four years old.
After his mother's death, Vahdeddin Efendi was adopted by Şâyeste Hanım, another of his father's consorts. The Şehzade had a rough time with his overbearing adoptive mother, and at the age of sixteen he left his adoptive mother's mansion with the three servants who had been serving him since childhood. He grew up with nannies, servant girls, and tutors. Physically he had a weak constitution, something he may have inherited from his father. As he grew older he developed atrophy in one of his lungs and heart palpitations.
Vahdeddin educated himself by taking lessons from private tutors, becoming a man of intellect and deep religious knowledge. He read a great deal, and was interested in various subjects, including the arts, which was a tradition of the Ottoman family. He took courses in calligraphy and music and learned how to write in the naskh script and to play the qanun. He became interested in Sufism and, unknown to the Palace, he attended courses at the madrasa of Fatih on Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic theology, interpretation of the Quran, and the Hadiths, as well as the Arabic and Persian languages. He attended the dervish lodge of Ahmed Ziyaüddin Gümüşhanevi, located not far from the Sublime Porte, where Ömer Ziyaüddin of Dagestan was the spiritual leader, and he became a disciple of the Naqshbandi order. From time to time, the Sheikh-ul-Islam would have to contend with Vahdeddin demanding an amendment on a fatwa which did not follow fiqh. Before moving to the Feriye Palace, the Şehzade had lived briefly in the mansion in Çengelköy owned by Şehzade Ahmed Kemaleddin.
In his youth he collected pistols and carried one on him throughout his life. He enjoyed skeet shooting and was a good shot. His closest friend was Şehzade Abdul Mejid (later proclaimed as Caliph Abdul Mejid II), the son of his uncle, Sultan Abdul Aziz. They went on hunting trips together in the forests beyond the Bosphorus. Their bond was later tied by marriage when Vahdeddin's daughter Sabiha married Abdul Mejid's son Ömer Faruk – the two fell in love before lobbying their parents for an unprecedented cousin marriage within the Ottoman family. Their friendship went against the prevailing Mejidian–Azizian feud: Abdul Aziz's children believed their father was murdered following the 1876 coup d'état, and were suspicious Abdul Mejid I's children orchestrated it. In the years to come however, the two cousins had an intense falling out over the politics of the Turkish War of Independence, reactivating the feud between their respective branches.
During the 33-year reign of Abdul Hamid II, Vahdeddin was considered to be the Sultan's closest half-brother. He gave him an allowance to supplement the money he received from the state, and his own mansion in Çengelköy, designed by the architect Alexandre Vallaury, which bore his name: the Vahdettin Pavilion. Vahdeddin built another house next to it on the estate for his adoptive mother Şâyeste. Sabiha explained her father's uncommonly close relationship with Abdul Hamid due to his distaste towards family intrigues, something in common with Abdul Hamid's personal paranoia. When he ascended to the throne, this closeness greatly influenced his political attitudes, such as his intense dislike of the Young Turks and the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), his sympathy for the British, and a wait-and-see policy to political problems.[[File:Sultan Mehmed VI LCCN2014708082.tif|thumb|
Mehmed in 1915]]
Much of Vahdeddin's princedom, especially under Abdul Hamid II, was spent in luxurious peace, without care for politics or conflict. After all, during Abdul Hamid's reign, he was behind Reşâd Efendi, Kemaleddin Efendi, Süleyman Efendi, and Yusuf İzzeddin Efendi in the succession, so it did not seem likely he would ever come to the throne. At Feriye he liked to host guests, and frequently organized music parties with his fasıl orchestra, which consisted of musician apprentices whom he personally took care of in training. Many of the most popular contemporary Ottoman musicians of the time frequented his Çengelköy Pavilion. While Vahdeddin was not one for pomp and flamboyancy, he did care for fashion. He was one of the best dressed princes of the royal family, and his first consort Nazikeda Hanım made sure their daughters dressed in the most contemporary styles, which invited compliments from Abdul Hamid and other members of the royal family.
In 1909, at the age of forty-six, he took his first steps outside of Istanbul when he accompanied his half-brother, the new Sultan Mehmed V Reşâd on a tour of Bursa. He accompanied him for another royal tour of Edirne a year later.
One of his first conflicts with the CUP was when he harbored an anti-Unionist, Şabân Efendi, in his palace in the aftermath of the 1913 coup d'état. Mahmud Şevket Pasha obtained an arrest warrant for the man, and had Vahdeddin's palace surrounded. Vahdeddin did not consent to the soldiers entering his palace, saying he would shoot dead anyone who attempted to enter in order to arrest an innocent man taking refuge in his palace. He was able to facilitate Şaban's escape to Egypt. Vahdeddin's attitude greatly infuriated Şevket Pasha, and their dispute could only be mulled over by Abdul Mejid's mediation. Nevertheless, under the Unionist dictatorship, Vahdeddin's happy-go-lucky life in Çengelköy moved on, save for the spies and surveillance officers which were reporting his activities to the CUP's Central Committee.
There was a quiet rivalry with his half-brother Crown Prince İzzeddin and he repeatedly requested that Mehmed V retract İzzeddin as heir apparent. In the end İzzeddin unexpectedly committed suicide on 1 February 1916, putting Vahdeddin on track to succeed his brother upon his death.
Harem
thumb|[[Sabiha Sultana’s wedding day in 1920, left to right: Ulviye Sultana, Dürrüşehvar Sultana, Nazikeda Kadınefendi, Sabiha, Mehmed Ertuğrul Efendi, Şehsuvar Hanımefendi]]
One day in 1884, Vahdeddin visited his half-sister Cemile Sultana, where he discovered one of her ladies-in-waiting, Emine Nazikeda Hanım, an Abkhaz noblewomen from the Marshan family. It was love at first sight. But when he asked Cemile for Emine's hand in marriage, she flat out refused, for she treated Nazikeda like a daughter, and thought her company was irreplaceable during her daughter's tragic bout with tuberculosis. After more than a year pleading with Cemile she finally gave her blessing on the condition she would be Vahdeddin's only wife. Vahdeddin and Nazikeda's marriage was held on 8 June 1885. The couple was popular among the high society. They lived in one of the palaces of Feriye, but when it was destroyed in a fire they moved to the Çengelköy Pavilion. They enjoyed horseback riding together in the wilderness of their estate. Their first daughter was born three years after their marriage: Fenire Sultana, who died a few weeks later. They had two daughters that survived to adulthood: Fatma Ulviye Sultana, (1892–1967), and Rukiye Sabiha Sultana (1894–1971), who were gifted mansions known as the Twin Palaces in Nişantaşı. After Sabiha's birth Nazikeda was informed by doctors that she could not have any more children.
Even though Vahdeddin was far in the line of succession, he wanted a son on the off chance he could become Sultan and change the succession law to agnatic primogeniture. He took new wives with the consent of Nazikeda, breaking his oath to Cemile after 20 years of monogamy. In 1905 he married İnşirah Hanım but this marriage was not happy and he permitted her a divorce in 1909. In 1912 Şehzade Mehmed Ertuğrul was born from his second consort: Müveddet Kadın (m. 1911). In 1918 he married Nevvare Hanım – Müveddet's niece. Vahdeddin did not have a harem in Çengelköy, so when he moved to Dolmabahçe Palace and Yıldız, he chose to keep some of Mehmed V's kalfas and servants instead of establishing a new harem. One of these kalfas was Nevzad Hanım who he married soon after being officially deposed, though he never gave her a title.
When he did ascend to the throne in 1918, Vahdeddin's biological and adoptive mothers (Gülistû and Şâyeste) – who could have become Valide Sultanas – were already dead, leaving Nazikeda the most prominent lady of the court. Vahdeddin bestowed upon her the title BaşKadın and she was known as "The Last Empress".
Crown prince
thumb|1916 portrait
As veliahd he represented Mehmed V at the funeral of the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph I in 1916. CUP leader Talât was concerned by Crown Prince Vahdeddin's surprisingly popular conduct at the funeral.
When he was invited by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to make a state visit in 1917, he was accompanied by his aide-de-camp, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk). The tour would encompass Bad Kreuznach, Strasbourg, Colmar, Essen and Berlin. The two first met on 13 December 1917. Kemal Pasha was on leave after resigning from the Yıldırım Army Group command due to his conflict with Erich von Falkenhayn, and received the invitation to accompany the crown prince from Enver Pasha. Colonel Naci invited Mustafa Kemal to meet the heir apparent at his palace. Vahdeddin left a bad impression on Kemal, who he thought had the mannerisms of a "mad man." When they departed from the train station the next day, Kemal had to remind him to wave to the guard of honor. On the train, he was invited to another audience with Vahdeddin; this time he apologized for his behavior to Kemal the day before and expressed gratitude for his role in the Gallipoli campaign and the two had a long and fruitful conversation, making him cautiously optimistic of the veliahd. On the way back from Berlin, Kemal advised Vahdeddin to request a field command and offered to serve as his chief of staff if he wanted to boost his popularity. The crown prince demurred at this request, giving the excuse that the CUP government would refuse. On the other hand, writing of this first encounter Vahdeddin described Mustafa Kemal as loyal and having a bright mind, who was fiercely anti-German and critical of Enver Pasha. Six years later, Mustafa Kemal declared a republic after deposing Sultan Vahdeddin in 1922.
Enthronement
thumb|Mehmed VI's cülûs ceremony, where he was girded the [[Sword of Osman]]On 3 June 1918, Talât Pasha, now the Grand Vizier, called Vahdeddin to tell him of Sultan Mehmed V's death. Even though he was the crown prince and eligible to become the new Sultan as the eldest male of the Ottoman family, he was greatly shaken by the news and did not immediately accept his entitlement over the call. Later that day Talât, Enver, and Hayri, the Sheikh-ul-Islam, visited Vahdeddin in his palace, and he again wavered over becoming Sultan, suggesting they should focus on his half-brother's funeral, raising anxieties about a constitutional crisis. Following a long night of contemplation, prayer, and even some sleep, Vahdeddin let Talât know he was ready to become Sultan during the funeral. <!-- a noteworthy drama of its own!(80) -->They held an enthronement ceremony at Topkapı Palace. He delivered an oath to the National Assembly and Constitution, and he took the regal name Mehmed VI, though like his predecessor he was known by the people, and in modern Turkey, by his personal name, Vahdettin. He held his sword girding ceremony on 31 August.
Reign
Beginning of his reign
thumb|500 [[kuruş gold coin of Mehmed VI, struck in Constantinople in 1336 [<nowiki/>AH] (1918 AD)]]
Mehmed Vahdettin ascended to the throne at the age of fifty-seven with little experience in statecraft at possibly the worst possible moment to become an Ottoman sultan. He described his situation the following: "I did not sit on a feathered throne but upon the ashes of fire." He was not at all prepared for the crises he had to tackle in his reign; the Great War was going poorly for Turkey and her allies and he would soon oversee the empire's surrender and sure dissolution. In addition, the last few Sultans had a bad track record ruling the empire: his uncle Abdul Aziz was deposed and died in suspicious circumstances, Murad V and Abdul Hamid II were also deposed, and Mehmed V never could wield power. He later wrote that he decided to become Sultan because he believed it was his national duty and he did not trust Abdul Mejid, but that this decision was a mistake. Sabiha recounted how she, her nurse, and her mother could not hold back their tears as they moved to the Dolmabahçe Palace, and had to be admonished by the foremen and eunuchs to compose themselves otherwise entering the palace may bring bad luck. Vahdeddin reappointed Talât Pasha as Grand Vizier for another term. This awkward fact aside, he was happy to allow the Unionists to take responsibility for their crimes, troubles, and mishaps, and for now there were not too many problems between him and the CUP. The Sultan strongly demanded his Grand Vizier send Damat Ferid Pasha to negotiate an armistice with the British, but İzzet and other statesmen thought of him as a quack, and categorically refused Vahdeddin's request. He instead dispatched Hüseyin Rauf (Orbay), a famous naval officer with Anglophile leanings, and Major General Charles Townshend, a British officer who had been captured by the Turks, to parley with the British on the battleship HMS Agamemnon. Vahdeddin insisted the delegation prioritize the protection of the Caliphate, Sultanate, and Ottoman dynasty over British demands on Ottoman provinces. İzzet had to remind him that they were simply signing an armistice, not a peace settlement.
Rauf reluctantly signed the Armistice of Mudros. He and Mehmed VI recognized the potentially harsh cease fire terms, but thought it a prudent step in order to regain the lost trust with Britain. Rauf himself believed the many loopholes of the terms would not be exploited due to his trust in English diplomatic credit and Admiral Calthorpe. Instead, the allies exploited Article VII to continue occupying more Ottoman territory, to much dismay from Ottoman Anglophiles. Writing of the armistice terms during his exile, Vahdeddin believed Rauf Bey, who later became a Prime Minister of the Ankara government, to be responsible for the ensuing crisis, and Mustafa Kemal for aggravating it.
Ruling in force
thumb|Riding the royal carriage
The First World War was a disaster for the Ottoman Empire. Turkey's entry into the war was initiated by the CUP dictatorship. British and Allied forces captured Baghdad, Damascus, and Jerusalem during the war, resulting in a defeated Turkey set to be partitioned amongst the Allies. Now dealing with an existential crisis over the Turkish state, Sultan Mehmed VI was prepared to offer Britain and France the traditional policy of close cooperation in order to rehabilitate Turkey into the international community and sign a lighter peace treaty – or as he call it: friendship with Britain, closeness with France. Vahdeddin's Justice Minister, Ali Rüştü Efendi, had already stated in May 1919 that "Prayers will be said for the success of the Greek army", and "This army is our army". Pro-Vahdeddin factions pushed the view that the Greek army was the caliph’s army and had come to protect the rights of the Ottoman Empire.
In May 1920, on the orders of Mehmed, Ahmet Anzavur noted that "The Sultan does not consent to war against the Greeks. The Greeks are our friends. To take up arms against them, contrary to the Sultan's order and approval, is unbelief and rebellion". During the Greek Summer Offensive of 1920, the Kuva-yi Inzibatiye, established by Vahdeddin and the imperial government of the Ottoman Empire, landed in Izmit (Nicomedia) to help the Greeks. At the same time, religious and Ottoman civil leaders in Bursa were declaring that the Greek Army was advancing with the permission of "the Caliph" Vahdeddin, allowing Greek troops to occupy the city with no resistance from the Muslim inhabitants.
Lead up to deposition
thumb|1922 portrait of Mehmed VI
A series of events coincided with the Allies shifting away from Greece. In particular, the fall of Georges Clemenceau in France after the January 1920 French elections, the fall of Eleftherios Venizelos after the November 1920 Greek elections and the return of King Constantine, as well as support for Ankara throughout the Islamic world. The Allies now hoped to draw up a new peace settlement more acceptable for the Turks, and invited Istanbul and Ankara to the Conference of London. As such, Vahdeddin's stance slowly shifted as well.
In October 1920, the Allied Powers sent their high commissioners in Istanbul to the Sultan and requested that the government of Ferid be changed for a new government that could reach an agreement with Ankara to implement the treaty. The Sultan reappointed Tevfik Pasha to the premiership, who composed a cabinet made up of ministers sympathetic to the Nationalists. Istanbul once again began a rapprochement with Ankara, though they would be in dispute over which delegation represented the nation. Istanbul's delegation eventually conceded to only represent the interests of the Ottoman dynasty, though this was not enough for Ankara, which wished for sole representation in the negotiations.
A memorandum of understanding was published in January 1921, where Istanbul recognized the Grand National Assembly. Vahdeddin put responsibility of the treaty on Ferid. The newly appointed Grand Visier, Ahmet Tevfik Pasha, suspended the Special War Tribunal for war criminals of the Great War, lifted Mustafa Kemal's death penalty sentence, and pardoned nationalist prisoners. Vahdeddin's Chief of Staff Avni Pasha now sought ways to make Vahdeddin escape the capital to join Kemal in Ankara. But this was as far as he was able to go. Ministers like İzzet, Ali Rıza, and Tevfik advised Vahdeddin against doing so, as there was no guarantee Kemal's movement would succeed and they too had antagonist relationships with him. Avni was pressured to resign. Around early summer 1921, Vahdeddin's nephew Sami Bey organized an escape attempt with the royal yacht Söğüt, only to be confronted on the docks by High Commissioner Rumbold right before he was to fetch the Sultan, reminding him that if he leaves the Allies would evacuate Constantinople too, allowing the Greeks to take sole custody of the city if he fled.
In another secret session of parliament in February 1922, Mustafa Kemal and the delegates discussed the feasibility of dethroning Vahdeddin with the justification that the Sultan had vacated the Caliphate by accepting Sèvres. On 19 October 1922, after the Armistice of Mudanya ending the Greco-Turkish War, Refet Pasha arrived in Constantinople as an emissary from Ankara to an exuberant city (at least the Muslims were), his mission to unite Turkey under the Ankara government. To one of Tevfik's sons welcoming him on behalf of Vahdeddin, Refet declared his greeting to the Caliph, not the Sultan, and met with Istanbul's ministers on a personal basis, not in an official capacity. Refet gave speeches announcing that sovereignty belonged to people now, no longer Khans, Sultans, and Constitutional Monarchs. In a meeting with İzzet Pasha, Refet informed him that should Istanbul send a delegate to the peace talks to be held in Lausanne, Ankara would quit the talks.
When Refet met with the Sultan and then the Grand Vizier, he requested him to dissolve the Istanbul government and recognize Ankara as Turkey's sole legitimate government. However, they rejected Refet's demand by claiming that he was a constitutional monarch and he could not dissolve the government and he wished for a delegation to represent the interests of the dynasty. When news reached Ankara of Vahdeddin's intransigence the Grand National Assembly voted to abolish the Sultanate on 1 November 1922. Vahdeddin told Refet Pasha, who notified him of the decision of the assembly, that even if the existence of such a Caliphate without executive authority was enacted, no one could accept it, as a Caliphate could not exist without a Sultanate. Nineteen days later Abdul Mejid accepted the Grand National Assembly's election of him as Caliph. </blockquote>He stated that he expected the protection of his person by England, which had the most Muslim subjects and its history of friendship with the Ottoman royal family and the Islamic Caliphate. He had requested British occupation authorities (and Lord Curzon) security of his person in the event he had to flee the country since July 1919 and made it his highest priority after the formal occupation of Istanbul. The day before his departure, he had lunch with his daughter, Ulviye Sultana.
Waking up to a rainy day on 17 November 1922, he took care not to take valuable items or jewelry owned by the Ottoman family, other than his personal belongings and burned many documents. He refused to bring with him the Relics of the Sacred Trust. He and his entourage of ten, including his son Şehzade Mehmed Ertuğrul left Yıldız Palace under British ambulance escort to Dolmabahçe, and with Harington himself, boarded the British warship HMS Malaya at the Tophane docks. Admiral Sir Osmond Brock asked the Sultan where he wished to go, but a despondent Vahdeddin had no preference. Osmond suggested Malta, which he accepted. His compositions were performed in the palace when he was on the throne. Instead of commissioning his own anthem he signed an edict making his grandfather Mahmud II's anthem as the official national anthem of Turkey. The lyrics of the poems he composed while in Taif envision the longing of the country and the pain of not getting the news that they have left behind. He loved to play the saz and qanun. Sixty-three works belonging to him can be identified, but only forty works have signatures.
- Order of Glory, Jeweled
Family
thumb|[[Şehzade Ömer Faruk|Ömer Faruk and Sabiha with family ]]
Consorts
Mehmed VI had five consorts:
- Şehzade Mehmed Ertuğrul (5 November 1912 – 2 July 1944) – with Müveddet Kadın. He never married or had children.
Daughters
Mehmed VI had three daughters: