Description

An exceedingly rare groundbreaking work on the history of Bulgaria, printed in a Turkish city Trabzon on the coast of the Black Sea was published less than two years after Bulgaria was proclaimed an independent state. The text is written in Ottoman and accompanied with Bulgarian names and expressions. Text also discusses Macedonia.

The author was a controversial Ottoman military officer Kiraz Ahmed Hamdi Paşa (1871 – 1935), born in Montenegro. As a supporter of the last Sultan Mehmed VI during the Turkish War of Independence, he was tried in his absence for treason and sentenced to death, after which he took a refuge at the British Embassy. He eventually settled in Constanta, Romania, and atht he end of his life took an Albanian citizenship.

We could only find one institutional example (Berlin State Library).

References: OCLC 251304763. Electronic reproduction: OCLC 682537981. MİL – ÖZEGE; 2623 – TBTK; 1397.