1897 — Very Good Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928) Original engraved map on the silk handkerchief made in Yildiz Palace for the 'Iane Sergisi' [i.e. Exhibition of the Social Assistance] in the period of Sultan Abdülhamid II. In its decorative frame. Frame size: 53,5x53,5 cm; map size: 38x38 cm. In Ottoman script. Scale: 1/600.000. Several minimal splits, minor foxing, and slight stains on cloth. Otherwise in good condition. A rare and decorative 1897 silk handkerchief map of the Greco-Turkish War in 1897, which was the only war in which the Ottoman army was victorious during the reign of Abdulhamid 2, is a fine example of Ottoman / Turkish cartographic textiles made in Ottoman court (Yildiz Palace textile workshops). This beautiful map depicts an attractive war scene from the 1313 Greek War on the upper half, and it's engraved a map of Balkan & Greek lands on its lower half. War painting has 'Melona' signature in Ottoman script. The map shows Thessaloniki [i.e. Salonica] Bay on the west; Yanya [i.e. Ioanna] Vilayat on the east; lands of Greece, Galos Bay, Uzi Strait on the south and Dimetoka and Avalonia areas in the Serefiye, Ergiri sanjaks on the north in its period. Written on the map, "Baht-i himâye-yi feyzvâne-i cenâb-i hilâfetpenâhide evlad-i süheda ve mecrûhin-i asakir-i sâhâne", [i.e. It was printed for the "Iane Sergisi" (i.e. The Social Help Exhibition) in the high memory of our soldiers who were martyred and veterans in the Greek War under the patronage of the Sultan.]. The Greco-Turkish War of 1897, also called the Thirty Days' War and known in Greece as the Black '97 (Mauro '97), or the Unfortunate War (Atychis polemos), was a war fought between the Kingdom of Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Its immediate cause was the question over the status of the Ottoman province of Crete, whose Greek majority long-desired union with Greece. Despite the Ottoman victory on the field, an autonomous Cretan State under Ottoman suzerainty was established the following year (as a result of the intervention of the Great Powers after the war), with Prince George of Greece and Denmark as its first High Commissioner. This was the first war effort in which the military and political personnel of Greece were put to test since the Greek War of Independence in 1821. For the Ottoman Empire, this was also the first war effort in which the reorganized military personnel were put to test. The Ottoman army was under the guidance of a German military mission led by Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz, who had reorganized it after the defeat in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878). The conflict proved Greece was wholly unprepared for war. Plans, fortifications and weapons were non-existent, the mass of the officer corps was unsuited to its tasks, and training was inadequate. As a result, the numerically superior, better organized, equipped and led Ottoman forces pushed the Greek forces south out of Thessaly. Almost all of the aids made to the families or disabled people of those who were martyred in the 1897 Ottoman-Greek War (such as printing this map) were made within the framework of the donations of "Evlâd-i Süheda and Malûlîn-i Guzât-i Asâkir-i Sahane". People and citizens of all classes and beliefs, including members of the Ottoman court, ministers, bureaucrats, civil servants, merchants and tradesmen, participated in this aid campaign at the end of the 19th, beginning of the 20th century. Not in OCLC.
