, better known in Europe as the Committee of Union and Progress (C.U.P.), was the political movement responsible for the destinies of the Ottoman Empire from the revolution of 1908 to its destruction in 1918. The Committee had its immediate origins in a group called the “Ottoman Freedom Society” ( ʿOt̲h̲mānli̊ Ḥürriyet Ḏj̲emʿiyyeti ), founded in Salonika in August-September 1906. Spiritually, however, its antecedents ¶ went back to the conspiratorial activities of the Young Ottomans and their successors, both inside and outside the Ottoman Empire. (See T. Z. Tunaya, Türkiye’de siyas…

, generally translated as the “Muhammadan Union”, was a politico-religious organization which acquired notoriety as the instigator of the insurrection in Istanbul on 13 April 1909. Its formation was announced publicly on 5 April 1909 (= 23 Mart 1325, by the Turkish “financial” calendar), though Ḥāfi̊ẓ Dervīs̲h̲ Waḥdetī, its leading spirit and editor of the daily newspaper Volkan (“Volcano”), claimed that the Muhammadan Union had in fact been founded on 6 February 1909 ( = 24 Ḳānūn II 1324) (see T. Z. Tunaya, Türkiyede Siyasi Partiler 1854-1952, Istanbul 1952, 261 ff.). It seems t…

(“Freedom and Accord Party”), also known as Entente Libérale (“Liberal Union”), Ottoman political party, formed on 21 November 1911. It succeeded a number of other liberal-conservative political parties formed after the 1908 revolution in opposition to the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) [see ittiḥād we teraḳḳī d̲j̲emʿiyeti ], including the ʿOt̲h̲mānli̊ Aḥrār Fi̊rḳasi̊ (1908), the Muʿtedil Ḥürriyetperverān Fi̊rḳasi̊ (1909), the Ahālī Fi̊rḳasi̊ (1910), and the Ḥizb-i D̲j̲edīd (1911). It advocated a policy of administrative decentraliz…

, literally “action army”, the name usually given to the striking force sent from Salonica on 17 April 1909, under the command of Maḥmūd S̲h̲ewket Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.], to quell the counter-revolutionary mutiny in the First Army Corps in Istanbul. The striking force also known as the Army of Deliverance, reached the capital on 23 April (n.s.) ¶ and, after some clashes with the mutineers, occupied the city on the following day. (Ed.) Bibliography B. Lewis, The emergence of modern Turkey 3, London 1965, 212-3. See further ḥusayn ḥilmī pas̲h̲a and ittiḥād we teraḳḳī.

, a Turkish journalist who achieved a brief celebrity in 1909 as editor of the newspaper Serbestī , in which he made violent attacks on the Committee of Union and Progress [see ittiḥād we teraḳḳī ]. His murder on the Galata bridge by an unknown assailant on the night of 6-7 April 1909 (n.s.) was blamed by both the liberals and the Muhammadan Union [see ittiḥād-i muḥammedī ] jon the Committee, and his funeral was made the occasion for hostile demonstrations and speeches. A period of mounting tension followed, culminating in the mutiny of troops of the First Army Corps on 31 March o.s. = 13 April n.s. (…

, a Young Turk leader, was born in 1868, probably of Kurdish extraction. As a student at the Military Médical School in Istanbul, he was in May 1889 one of the original group of founders of the Secret Committee, which eventually developed into the Committee of Union and Progress [see ittiḥād we-teraḳḳī d̲j̲emʿiyeti ]. Later, in 1895, he was exiled to Rhodes but managed to escape and went to Paris, where he associated with the Young Turk émigrés. In 1897, with others, he founded the anti-government journal Osmanli ( ʿUt̲h̲mānli̊ ), which was published in Geneva. …

, a secret society founded in Istanbul towards the end of 1918 by a group of former members of the Union and Progress Committee [see ittiḥād we teraḳḳī d̲j̲emʿiyyeti ]. Its aim was to organize guerilla resistance bands against the Allied forces which had occupied strategic points in Turkey following the armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918. After the organization of the Nationalist Movement in Anatolia under the leadership of Muṣṭafā Kemāl Pas̲h̲a, the Karakol society supplied the movement with intel…

, Young Turk economist and statesman. Meḥmed D̲j̲āwīd was born in 1875 in Salonika, where his father was a merchant, and received his early education both there and in Istanbul. He graduated from the Mülkiyye in 1896, where he formed a lasting friendship with his classmate Hüseyin D̲j̲āhid [Yalçin], the journalist. After a brief tour of duty with the Agricultural Bank, he entered the service of the Ministry of Education, resigning in 1902 as secretary of the bureau of primary education. Back in Salonika he became director of a private elementary school, Mekteb-i Tefeyyüz , and joined the ʿOt…

, ʿalī fetḥī (1880-1943), Turkish statesman and diplomat, was born and brought up in Macedonia, then under Ottoman rule. He entered the War College and Staff College in Istanbul, graduating as a Staff Captain in 1904. At the War College, he formed a lifelong friendship with Muṣṭafā Kemāl [Atatürk]. During service with the 3rd Army, he joined the Committee of Union and Progress [see ittiḥād we teraḳḳī d̲j̲emʿiyyeti ], which brought about the revolution of 1908. He was then posted as Military Attaché in Paris (1908-11) before returning to ser…

(“balance”), an Ottoman political weekly (later daily), published in Istanbul, Cairo, Paris, Geneva and again in Istanbul between 1886 and 1909 (with interruptions). Founded, owned and edited by Mīzānd̲j̲i̊ Meḥmed Murād [ q.v.], it “contained nothing beyond the personal opinions of Mourad Bey” (Ahmed Emin). It described itself as “A Turkish Newspaper”, but also stressed its “Muslim and Ottoman” character. The history of Mīzān reflects the main stages in the journalistic and political life of its founder. First published in Istanbul whe…

, Aḥmed (1873-1912), Young-Turk officer and one of the protagonists of the Ottoman ¶ constitutional revolution of 1908. Niyāzī hailed from Resen (he was called Resnelī, i.e. “from Resen”), and was an Albanian by birth. He went to military rus̲h̲dī and iʿdādī schools in Monastir (Bitola) before entering the military academy ( Ḥarbiyye ) in Istanbul, where he graduated as a second lieutenant in 1896. After his graduation he saw service in the European provinces of the Empire and he made a name for himself during the battle of B…

, Aḥmed (1875-1926), son of Ibrāhīm, Young Turk politician, was born in Kastamonu, near the Black Sea, into a poor family. S̲h̲ükrü graduated from the teachers’ training college in Istanbul and started out on a career in education, serving both as a teacher himself and as director of education. He joined the underground opposition movement of the Committee of Union and Progress ( Ittiḥād we Teraḳḳī Ḏj̲emʿiyyeti [ q.v.]) before the constitutional revolution of July 1908. After the revolution, he served as the district governor of Siroz [ q.v.] and spent some time at the home office,…

(Cemal Paṣa), Young Turk soldier and statesman. Aḥmed D̲j̲emāl was born in Istanbul in 1872. He graduated from the erkān-i̊ ḥarbiyye mektebi in 1895, was commissioned as a captain in the general staff, and posted to the Third Army in Salonika. There he joined the Macedonian nucleus of the Young Turk conspiracy, the ʿOt̲h̲mānli̊ Ittiḥād we Teraḳḳi Ḏj̲emʿiyyeti (known in Europe as the Committee of Union and Progress), using his assignment as inspector of railways in Macedonia to help spread and consolidate the Committee’s organizat…

("Prens" Sabahattin) (1877-1948), late Ottoman political theorist. Ṣabāh al-Dīn was born in Istanbul, the elder son of Dāmād (imperial son-in-law) Maḥmūd Ḏj̲elāl al-Dīn Pas̲h̲a. His mother was Senīḥa Sulṭān, a younger sister of Sultan ʿAbd al-Hamīd II. He was educated privately. When his father fled to Paris in 1899, Ṣabāḥ al-Dīn and his younger brother Luṭf Allāh accompanied him. Ṣabāḥ al-Dīn came to the fore as one of the leading Young Turk emigré publicists and politicians. Backed by his father’s wealth, he soon became a serious com…

, meḥmed sālim (1868-1914), a Turkish political journalist of the late Ḥamīdian and early constitutional period. Better known by his nom de plume ʿAwn Allāh Kāẓimī, he was born in Istanbul in 1868. He was the son of Ḥüseyn Ḥüsnī Beg, who was private secretary ( mabeyin kātibi ) to the sultan. His family came from Erzurum in eastern Anatolia where al-Kāẓimī’s grandfather, ʿAlī Beg, had been a derebey [ q.v.]. He was given a traditional education, though he learned French as well as Arabic and Persian. Finding no suitable position in the stratified bureaucracy of th…

, the Ottoman Turkish name for ¶ Macedonia, a region which occupies the centre of the Balkan Peninsula. Despite its historically mixed population of Slavs, Ottoman Turks, Greeks, Albanians, Vlachs, Sephardic Jews and others, Macedonia forms a geographical unit. Its boundaries are sometimes disputed, but may be said to follow the line of peaks which stretches from the Šar Planina in the north to the Rhodope range and the river Mesta in the east, and to the Albanian mountains and t…

, the Turkish name of a harbour on the Aegean island of Limnī [ q.v.] or Lemnos; it is alternatively known by its Greek name of mudros or Moudros. Mondros’s claim to fame is that it was the site of the armistice of 30 October 1918 which ended the Ottoman Empire’s participation in the First World War. The decision of the Unionist cabinet of Meḥmed Ṭalʿat Pas̲h̲a [see ittiḥād we teraḳḳī d̲j̲emʿiyyeti ] to seek an armistice was prompted by the rapidly deteriorating military position of the Ottoman Empire and its German and Austro-Hungarian allies.…

ʿAbd Allāh Bey or Efendi (1869-1923), one of the last S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Islāms of the Ottoman Empire, known for his fetwā s condemning the Turkish nationalist movement under Muṣṭafā Kemāl (Atatürk). He was born into a wealthy family claiming the title of seyyid , most of whose male members belonged to the ʿilmiyye class, and five of whom had previously served as S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Islām [see preceding article]. The son of the last there mentioned, ʿAbd Allāh, was Dürrīzāde Meḥmed Efendi, who rose to the rank of Ḳaḍīʿasker of Rumeli, and was the father of the ʿAbd A…

(Hüseyin Ḥilmi Paşa), twice Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, was born in Mitylene (Midilli) in 1855. He came from a modest background, being the son of Kütahyali̊zāde Muṣṭafā Efendi, an ordinary merchant. After receiving a traditional education—first in a medrese , then in a rüs̲h̲diye (secondary school), and learning fiḳh (Islamic jurisprudence) and French from private tutors—Ḥilmī entered the local bureaucracy in 1874. He remained in Mitylene for a further nine years and then saw service in Aydi̊n (1883), Syria (1885) and Bag̲h̲dād (1892); he became governor ( wālī …

, (< Ar. ḥarbiyya ) the Ottoman and Turkish war college. Ottoman reforms in the 12th/18th century included some innovations in military training, notably the opening of the Hendesek̲h̲āne by the Comte de Bonneval in 1734 and the opening of the Mühendisk̲h̲āne-i Berrī-i Hümayūn in 1791-95 A number of military training centres for Maḥmūd II’s new army were set up in various parts of Istanbul in the 1830’s, including the Alay Mekteb-i Ḥarbiyesi (Rami, 1832), the Mekteb-i Fünūn-i Ḥ…