Derviş Vahdeti (1870–1909) was a Cypriot-born religious figure and Islamist politician. He was the leading figure of

31 March incident The 31 March Incident ( tr, 31 Mart Vakası, , , or ) was a political crisis within the Ottoman Empire in April 1909, during the Second Constitutional Era. Occurring soon after the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, in which the Committee of Union and Pr ...

. He was executed on 19 July 1909 due to his role in the incident.

Biography

Vahdeti was born in Cyprus in 1870. He worked as a hafiz there and joined the

Naqshbandi The Naqshbandi ( fa, نقشبندی)), Neqshebendi ( ku, نه‌قشه‌به‌ندی), and Nakşibendi (in Turkish) is a major Sunni order of Sufism. Its name is derived from Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari. Naqshbandi masters trace their ...

order or the Bektaşi order. In 1902 he settled in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

where he began to work as a public servant. After a while he was exiled to

Diyarbakır Diyarbakır (; ; ; ) is the largest Kurdish-majority city in Turkey. It is the administrative center of Diyarbakır Province. Situated around a high plateau by the banks of the Tigris river on which stands the historic Diyarbakır Fortress, ...

and soon returned to Constantinople. He attempted to continue to work in his former post, but he was not given the post. He established a daily newspaper entitled '' Volkan'' in 1908 for which he asked for financial support from Sultan Abdulhamid. However, his request was not accepted by the Sultan. He headed a Islamist movement, Muhammadan Union (Ittihad-i Muhammadi in Ottoman Turkish), which was founded by him on 5 April 1908 and was one of the major critics of the Committee of Union and Progress. His paper also acted as the organ of the Muhammadan Union. On 13 April 1909 a group of religious figured led by Vahdeti started a riot against the constitution and the Committee of Union and Progress, which is known as 31 March incident in reference to the Islamic date of the day, namely 31 March 1325. They demanded the annulment of the constitution, dissolution of the parliament, the expulsion of the Committee of Union and Progress members which were considered to be atheist, and the implementation of the

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

as the constitution of the Empire. Vahdeti argued that the rule of the Committee of Union and Progress would terminate the Ottoman Empire and damage Islam. He called for military action to realize the group's goals. During the events the editor of ''

Serbestî ''Serbestî'' ( Ottoman Turkish for "Liberty") was an Ottoman newspaper. It was founded in 1908 by Mevlanzade Rifat Bey, who in 1924 would become one of the 150 ''personae non gratae'' of the newly established Republic of Turkey. Because the pa ...

'',

Hasan Fehmi Hasan Fehmi Bey (1874 – April 6, 1909) was an Ottoman journalist, who was the editor-in-chief of ''Serbestî'', an Ottoman newspaper owned by Mevlanzade Rifat Bey, in which he wrote articles against the newly emerging Committee of Union and ...

, was killed on 6 April. They achieved their goals, and Sultan Abdulhamid endorsed all of these demands of the group which he secretly supported. However, the Committee of Union and Progress regained the power soon and Derviş Vahdeti was arrested in Constantinople on 18 April. He managed to escape, but again was arrested on 25 May in Izmir. He was sentenced to death for his involvement in the 31 March Incident and was executed in Constantinople on 19 July 1909.

In popular culture

Vahdeti was implied in a story by

Refik Halit Karay Refik Halit Karay (15 March 1888 – 18 July 1965) was a Turkish educator, writer and journalist. Biography He was born in Beylerbeyi, İstanbul, on 14 March 1888. His parents were Mehmed Halid Bey and Nefise Ruhsar Hanım. After studying at Ga ...

entitled "Dervish Hasan’s Conscience” (Turkish: “Dede Hasan’ın Vicdanı”).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vahdeti, Dervis 19th-century people from the Ottoman Empire 20th-century executions by the Ottoman Empire 1870 births 1909 deaths People executed by the Ottoman Empire by hanging Rebels from the Ottoman Empire Newspaper founders Naqshbandi order