ABSTRACT

In the last periods of the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid in September 1859, with the denunciation of Tatar Hasan Pasha a secret society in preparation of armed action against the Sultan and the administration was uncovered in Istanbul. The moment this anti-Sultan society was disclosed, both the national and the foreign press followed the event closely. Since the detainees were judged in the court closed to the public, the Ottomans learned about the event through the media. The society which was aiming to change the administration by plotting an assassination to the Sultan began to be brought into being in April-May 1859 by a madrasah teacher called Sheikh Ahmet from Süleymaniye. In a short time, the society expanded with the participation of Pasha and officers from the military and the Ulama members such as Muşir Huseyin daim Pasha, Caferdem Pasha, Major Rasim Bey, Sheikh Feyzullah, Sheikh Ismail and teh Mufti of Tophane Bekir Efendi. According to this society, if the Sultan was removed from the power, the reform movements that had the opportunity to progress under the protection of the Sultan would come to an end; that is, as Sheikh Ahmet put it with his own words ‘the expulsion of the Reform movement would be accomplished. As a result of the trials held in Kuleli military post, suspects received various punisments such as execution, exile and confinement in a fortress. Since Sultan Abdülmecid converted the death penalties into life imprisonment sentences, this political incident whose aim was assassination ended without any bloodshed. Unlike other uprising attempts against the Sultan throughout the history of Ottoman Empire, Kuleli incidence, which was a failed assassination attempt, doesn’t have the characteristics of a mass uprising and in the political conjuncture context of the Tanzimat(reform) era, this incident emerges as the prototype of a coup attempt in the modern sense. Indeed, this opposing(opponent/anti) society became a source of legitimacy for the succeeding opposing acts, and in the modern era ottoman politics firstly the Young Ottomans act and then the Young Turk formation would base their arguments of legitimacy on this event in 1859.