Description

The letter was written by Prince Mustafa Fazil Pasa in 1866 to sultan Abdul Aziz, when this Ottoman sultan changed the law of the succession, making it possible only by a direct male line, causing Mustafa to lose his title, which he inherited from his deceased brother in 1863. In this grand text Mustafa discusses the Ottoman history, constitution and liberty.  

The letter, which is considered one of the great works on the Turkish liberty, was first published in the newspaper Istikbal at the proclamation of the New Constitution, in a December 1876 or January 1877 edition.  

31 years after the original text was written, it was published for the first time in Cairo as a pamphlet, when the city was under the British rule. The text, where the repetitive words liberté and constitution are exposed in italic lettering, was printed to support the ideas of the new revolutionary movement of the Young Turks, which demanded replacement of the Ottoman absolute monarchy with a constitutional government.  

The further printed editions of this letter followed immediately the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.  

Worldcat lists five institutional examples (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Boğaziçi University Library, British Library, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Library).

References: OCLC 1014584174, 563174133, 251589865 & 458232220.  Roderic H. Davison, Reform in The Ottoman Empire, 1856-1876, pp. 204-205.