Palace in the Mist: The inside story of the 1908 Young Turk revolution
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Imran Mulla
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Wed, 06/24/2026 - 14:41
Ayse Osmanoglu, a descendant of two Ottoman sultans, wrote her new book based on the recollections of her family members
The Ciragan Palace in Istanbul pictured in 2013 (Wikimedia Commons)
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There is a rare thrill that comes from being afforded a behind-the-scenes insight into the inner world of one of history’s great dynasties.
That is precisely what Ayse Osmanoglu, a writer and member of the House of Osman, the Ottoman dynasty, has given us in her new book Palace in the Mist, published on 3 July by Hanedan Press.
Osmanoglu, who lives in England, is a princess by lineage - a descendant of two Ottoman sultans, Murad V and Mehmed Resad, and the granddaughter of an imperial prince exiled from Istanbul in 1924 when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, did away with the caliphate.
This makes her uniquely placed to pen this captivating book set in the twilight of the Ottoman empire.
Palace in the Mist tells the intimate story of Osmanoglu’s ancestors in the palaces of Istanbul against the backdrop of the 1908 Young Turk revolution, which transformed the empire’s history.
It is an unusual work, somewhere between a novel and an academic history. Every major character depicted is real and Osmanoglu has gone to great lengths to ensure her portrayals are historically faithful.
Her aversion to embellishment means that some of the characters occasionally feel thin and under-written. Yet this is a price well worth paying for the book’s accuracy and authenticity.
Indeed, Osmanoglu’s sources are unique: the obscure memoirs of figures who lived at that time, and accounts passed down to her personally.
Ayse Osmanoglu, the author of Palace in the Mist (Ayse Osmanoglu)
“During my childhood, I was lucky enough to be told numerous stories regarding bygone times by my paternal grandparents and my great-aunts and uncles and I tried to commit all of these to memory,” she tells us at the book's opening. “They gave me a precious insight into what life was like for the people who lived in the Ottoman palaces at the turn of the 20th century.”
The Young Ottomans, a band of reformers who aimed to turn the empire into a liberal constitutional monarchy, launched a coup against the reigning Sultan Abdulaziz on 30 May 1876.
They swiftly deposed him and installed his nephew Prince Murad, Osmanoglu’s ancestor, as the new sultan.
Murad, a liberal constitutionalist, was so paranoid that people would suspect him of having conspired against Abdulaziz that he had a nervous breakdown. He was deemed unfit to govern and the sultanate passed to his younger brother, who became Sultan Abdulhamid II on 1 September 1876.
A parliament was established, along with a constitution. But before long the highly paranoid Abdulhamid dissolved parliament and began arresting dissenters. He felt threatened by his own family, and locked them up too.
This included Murad and his son Prince Mehmed Selahaddin, confined in the “gilded cage” of the Ciragan Palace for 28 years.
'The world moves against me'
Palace in the Mist begins in the final years of Abdulhamid’s iron-fisted rule and Osmanoglu reconstructs that history in vivid prose and with fastidious attention to detail.
We are told, for instance, about the sultan’s “crisp white linen shirt and navy-blue trousers” and the gold buttons of his tailored jacket.
“The world moves against me,” he whispers at one point, waving a pistol around in an empty room.
Betrayal and revolt are central themes of the book. The Young Turks, including one of the protagonists, Captain Hafiz Ismail Hakki, grapple with the prospect of betraying the sultan in an attempt to establish the empire as a democratic constitutional monarchy.
There is plenty of intrigue; in one scene masked rebels stand over a table on which lie “the Qu’ran and the revolver, gleaming ominously in the golden light”.
The Deposition of Sultan Abdulhamid II, painted by Abdulmecid II in or before 1914, shows the dethronement of Abdulhamid in 1909 (Creative Commons)
But Osmanoglu also pays attention to the lives of the women of the Ottoman imperial family, including young princesses living in confinement.
Thus we are introduced to Princess Rukiye, Murad’s granddaughter, who devours the Sherlock Holmes novels gifted to Abdulhamid by their English author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
There is also the tragic Princess Hadice, a daughter of Murad, and her illicit romantic correspondence with the young Kemaleddin Pasha. She is disgraced and he exiled. When he finally returns years later to Istanbul, she refuses to see him.
Osmanoglu describes glamorous parties held beneath soaring ceilings and “chandeliers dripped with countless crystals”.
In this rarified and privileged world, the scent “of oud and musk clung to the tailored frock coats” of princes and politicians drinking sherbet and “cardamom-scented coffee”, to the sound of the “soft melodies of the Imperial orchestra”.
The watershed moment comes in July 1908, when the Young Turks force Abdulhamid to reinstate the 1876 constitution and recall parliament.
The sheikh-ul-islam, the chief jurisconsult of the empire, sides with the revolutionaries at the most critical juncture.
When asked to issue a legal ruling against the insurgents, the sheikh-ul-islam tells a dismayed Abdulhamid that “the Constitution accords with Sharia… To refuse it would be to defy Divine law”.
Thus parliament is given the power to hold the sultan to account, and his absolutism is brought to an end.
A revolution betrayed
This extraordinary political experiment frees Murad’s family from their confinement. But it is short-lived.
We are introduced to Ali Kemal, a liberal journalist with a “flamboyant moustache” - an ancestor of Boris Johnson, a recent British prime minister.
“They may silence a man,” Kemal boldly declares, “but never an idea. If ink is treason, let the gallows be our pressroom.”
Palace in the Mist, published on 3 July 2026 (Ayse Osmanoglu)
Many of the Young Turks, however, desire a centralised and bureaucratic state. Prince Sabahaddin, the revolutionary son of Abdulhamid’s sister, argues in vain that “it is essential that the provinces be given autonomy if the Empire is to survive”. He loses the debate.
Ultimately the revolution is betrayed on all sides. An armed uprising erupts, initially consisting of disgruntled soldiers and madrasa students. The Young Turks turn autocratic and ruthlessly put down the mutiny.
Abdulhamid, accused of “appeasing” the mutineers, is deposed and exiled from Istanbul. “Allah and history will bear witness that I have served the State faithfully,” he insists.
Mehmed Resad, an ancestor of Osmanoglu, is appointed the new sultan. There will be much more tumult and bloodshed to come.
Beautifully written and carefully crafted, moving gracefully between high politics and family drama, Palace in the Mist is an extraordinary accomplishment.
Osmanoglu has gifted us an inside story, and an essential read for all lovers of Ottoman history.
Palace in the Mist: The Ottoman Dynasty Chronicles by Ayse Osmanoglu is available in paperback and hardback from 3 July
Inside Turkey
Palace in the Mist: The inside story of the 1908 Young Turk revolution
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