The Eastern Question: Proclaiming The Constitution At Constantinople

Description

This engraving, published in The Illustrated London News on January 6, 1877, depicts the proclamation of the Ottoman Constitution (Kanun-i Esasi) in Istanbul on December 23, 1876, as described by the newspaper’s special correspondent. The event took place before the Sublime Porte (Bab-ı Ali) on the first day of the the Constantinople or Tersane Conference, which sought a diplomatic solution to the “Eastern Question.” Drawn on the spot under heavy rain, the engraving captures the solemn moment when the Sultan’s representative, under a green silk umbrella, publicly read the new Constitution before a vast crowd of soldiers, officials, and citizens gathered in the muddy square. The setting, on one of the high hills of Stamboul overlooking the Golden Horn, included sweeping views of Galata, Pera, and Üsküdar, as noted by the ILN reporter. The Ottoman Constitution of 1876, drafted chiefly by Midhat Pasha, promised complete religious liberty, freedom of the press, compulsory education, and legal equality for all Ottoman subjects regardless of faith or ethnicity. It introduced a bicameral legislature (a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate) and envisioned a new decentralized administrative system. The crowd’s umbrellas, the music of the military band, and the flags draped from the Porte’s façade convey the mixture of celebration and anxiety that marked this symbolic modernization of the Empire. As the ILN’s correspondent observed, “not pearls or diamonds, but an ordinary stairway led the Grand Vizier’s delegate to the red-covered platform, from where, in a clear voice, he proclaimed to the people the will of their Sultan.” Ironically, within months, the same Midhat Pasha—celebrated here as the architect of constitutional reform—would be dismissed and exiled, accused of subverting his own charter by suspending payment on the national debt.