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This book explores an event described by the Times as ´one of the greatest and most sensational political conspiracies of modern times´. On 21 July 1905, just after the Friday Prayer at the Yildiz Hamidiye Mosque in Istanbul, a car bomb exploded and left 26 dead with another 58 wounded. Sultan Abdülhamid II, the target of the attack, remained unscathed. The Ottoman police soon discovered that Armenian revolutionaries were behind the plot and several people were arrested and convicted, among them the Belgian anarchist Edward Joris. His incarceration sparked international reaction and created a diplomatic conflict. The assassination attempt failed, the events faded from memory, and the plot became a footnote in early twentieth-century history. This book rediscovers the conspiracy as a transnational moment in late Ottoman history, opening a window on key themes in modern history, such as international law, terrorism, Orientalism, diplomacy, anarchism, imperialism, nationalism, mass media and humanitarianism. It provides an original look on the many trans- and international links between the Ottoman Empire, Europe and the rest of the world at the start of the twentieth century. This book explores an event described by the Times as ´one of the greatest and most sensational political conspiracies of modern times´. On 21 July 1905, just after the Friday Prayer at the Yildiz Hamidiye Mosque in Istanbul, a car bomb exploded and left 26 dead with another 58 wounded. Sultan Abdülhamid II, the target of the attack, remained unscathed. The Ottoman police soon discovered that Armenian revolutionaries were behind the plot and several people were arrested and convicted, among them the Belgian anarchist Edward Joris. His incarceration sparked international reaction and created a diplomatic conflict. The assassination attempt failed, the events faded from memory, and the plot became a footnote in early twentieth-century history. This book rediscovers the conspiracy as a transnational moment in late Ottoman history, opening a window on key themes in modern history, such as international law, terrorism, Orientalism, diplomacy, anarchism, imperialism, nationalism, mass media and humanitarianism. It provides an original look on the many trans- and international links between the Ottoman Empire, Europe and the rest of the world at the start of the twentieth century.



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1 INTRODUCTION: Anatomy of the Yildiz Bombing: Tracing the Global in the Particular; Houssine Alloul , Edhem Eldem , and Henk de Smaele.- 2 The Armenian Revolutionary Federation and Operation ´ Nejuik ´; Ga‹dz Minassian.- 3 Edward Joris: Caught between Continents and Ideologies?; Maarten Van Ginderachter.- 4 The Ottoman War on ´Anarchism´ and Revolutionary Violence; Toygun Altintas.- 5 Belgium and the Hamidian Regime; Or, the Antinomies of Small State Diplomacy; Houssine Alloul.- 6 Extraterritorial Prosecution, the Late Capitulations, and the New International Lawyers; Will Hanley .- 7 Covering the Ottoman Empire: Orientalism and the Mass Media; Henk de Smaele.- 8 The ´ Jorisards ´: Public Mobilization between Local Emotions and Universal Rights; Marnix Beyen.- 9 CONCLUSIONS: Ottoman Armenian Revolutionaries and the Dilemma of Deliverance through Violence; Ipek K. Yosmaogul.- 10 EPILOGUE; Edhem Eldem.

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