[THE CRIMEAN WAR (1854-56) / UKRAINE] Saika-yi zafer: 1270 senesinde Devlet-i Aliyye ile Rusya devleti beyninde tehaddüs eden muharebenin tarihçe ve harekât-i askeriyesidir. [i.e., The fire of victory]

GIRIDÎ HÜSEYIN HÜSNÜ (1839-1916), N. p., Istanbul, [AH 1292] = 1875.

Contemporary fine quarter brown bdg. Red cloth boards with traditional embossing. A label on the front board written “Ş / Ş”. Roy. 8vo. (23 x 16 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 136 p., woodcuts signed by “Samtz”.

Extremely rare first and only edition of this account of the Crimean War (1854-56), documenting the Ottoman Empire’s “so-called victory” against the Russian Empire and the European allied powers France, the United Kingdom, and Sardinia-Piedmont.

This book has many illustrations signed by “Samtz”, showing the panoramic views of the battlefields, cities, and places in the Crimean Peninsula, portraits of the Ottoman Sultan, Russian tsar, important figures of the war like commanders, scenes of the naval battles, etc.

Member of a military family, Huseyin Husnu Pasha started his professional career as a Turkish attaché in the Paris Embassy in 1866, after a brilliant military education in Istanbul and Paris. After Husnu Pasha returned to Istanbul in 1873, he was appointed as a teacher at the Military Academy, although he expected more important duties due to his education and professional qualifications. During this duty, he was given temporary duties related to the foreign ministry. With the events in the Balkans, Hüseyin Hüsnü Pasha, like many staff members, was assigned to the army and returned to his original identity. After the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878, he took part in the commissions within the scope of defense and security and again assumed military duties. In 1888, he was appointed to the Petersburg Embassy, after first serving as ambassador in Montenegro for about a year. With his nineteen years of service in Petersburg, where he came with the trust and support of Abdulhamid II, he became the longest-serving Muslim ambassador without interruption. However, when the constitutional monarchy was declared once again in 1908, Pasha was under the wrath of the Unionists. The Unionists dismissed Hüseyin Hüsnü Pasha, whom they saw as a regian, because of his absolute loyalty. He, whose service and professional experience of more than thirty years was disregarded, was not given a duty again by the constitutionalist governments, probably due to the pressure of the Unionists. Pasha, who was very disappointed with the treatment he received, died in 1916, that is, during the First World War.

Özege 17346.; TBTK 14077.; OCLC 919731697.