["REVENGE!": EARLY ILLUSTRATED OTTOMAN PROPAGANDA BOOKS] Intikâm: Evlâd ve ahfâda yadigâr. Anadolu evlâdlarina okundurulmak üzere tertîb edilmistir. [i.e., Revenge! An heirloom to our children and grandchildren. Prepared for the children of Anatolia]

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DR. CEMIL [TOPUZLU] (1866-1958), Kader Matbaasi, Istanbul, [AH 1330] = 1915.

Newly rebound to quarter brown handsome calf. Gilt lettering and raised bands on the spine. Cr. 8vo. (20 x 14 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 229 p., b/w ills. Original covers saved inside, two diagonal transparent papers added on the front and rear covers, and two tears on the rear cover; overall, a very good copy.

First and only edition of this extremely rare early Ottoman illustrated propaganda book prepared against the enemy states such as Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, etc. by the Society for the Muslim Immigrants from Roumelia. This early book was published to influence public opinion to require support from the Ottoman public and to call on Ottomans to contribute to its activities such as donating money on the eve of World War 1. The same illustrations also were used in this book with the famous propaganda book titled "Kirmizi Siyah Kitap" [i.e., The Red and Black Book].

The main idea of the book is to introduce the enemies that the Ottoman Empire was at war with. However, the author, who says that the idea of "revenge" is harmful and that the real revenge should be taken from the Turks' own ignorance, arrogance, and mistakes, writes what needs to be done to prevent these mistakes from being repeated.

Professor Cemil Topuzlu, also known as Cemil Pasha, was a Turkish social democratic politician who served two terms as mayor of Istanbul. During his time in office, he oversaw major developments in the city, including the creation of Gülhane Park. He was also a leading surgeon in Turkey, who was internationally recognized for his pioneering work in several areas, including open-chest cardiac massage, and described in several papers published in Ottoman Turkish (later in modern Turkish), French and German.

On 27 August 1903, one of his patients undergoing external urethrotomy under chloroform anesthesia developed cardiac arrest, and he performed open-chest cardiac massage. He also defined the "Do not resuscitate" code in cases involving serious heart disease and other diseases, where life expectancy is very short. He introduced novel vascular suture techniques, which he presented at the International Medical Congress in Moscow in August 1897 and at the annual Congress of the Société de Chirurgie de Paris in July 1904, where he reported two cases of arterial tear during breast carcinoma resection and repair within the same session. He also reported the removal of a pen cover from the right main bronchus of a 7-year-old girl through a tracheotomy in 1903.

ON THE SOCIETY FOR THE MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS FROM ROUMELIA: During the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), civil organizations tried to compile evidence of atrocities and brought these kinds of information and images to the attention of national and international public via their publications. The main civil society of the immigrants in the Ottoman Empire and people who were left in the lost territories was Rumeli Muhacirîn-i Islâmiyye Cemiyet-i Hayriyyesi [i.e., The Society for the Muslim Immigrants from Roumelia]. The society protested Bulgaria after the military mobilization started and the first news of atrocities began to be heard and published in the Ottoman press. In its press release, the organization condemned the "barbarity and savagery", of the Bulgarian “gangster government” whom they held responsible for the atrocities. They also underlined the fact that European humanity and civilization should be ashamed of such acts in the 20th century and referred to the "Bulgarian monsters".

Source: Intibah, ibret intikam: Balkan Savaslari’nda Osmanli propaganda kitaplari, YOLCU, CENGIZ, 2020.

Özege 9277.; As of 2023 September, OCLC locates the sole copy in the Orient-Institut of Istanbul (1030931703).