Memoirs Of An Ottoman Prince

H.I.H. Prince Ali Vâsıb was born in the Çırağan Palace, on the shores of the Bosphorus in İstanbul, in 1903. His memoirs deal with the life and times of the Ottoman Imperial family during the last years of the Ottoman Sultanate. During his years in İstanbul, he was in the presence of the last three Sultans and witnessed the First World War, the abolition of the Sultanate on 1st November 1922 and that of the Caliphate on 3rd March 1924, at which time he was exiled along with the rest of the Imperial family. His exile fi rst took him to Hungary, then 10 years in the South of France, before fi nally settling in Egypt. He was fi nally allowed to return to his homeland in 1974, after half a century in exile. Ali Vâsıb Efendi is the only Ottoman Imperial Prince to have written his memoirs, and they give a unique insight into the people and politics of his day.

In addition, the book contains family trees and statistics relating to the period from Sultan Mahmud II (beginning of the 19th century) up to the present day.