Wednesday, December 4, 2013

The Times-Square Suicide of an Ottoman Prince

Samuel Dolbee, New York University

Hotel Cadillac, Source: Museum of the City of New York.

In early August of 1935, a man named Abdul Kerim shot himself in the head in a $3-a-night room at the Hotel Cadillac at 43rd and Broadway in New York City. This man was the grandson of the late Sultan Abdül Hamid II. According to American newspapers, Abdul Kerim had fallen into despair after a Bronx woman had refused his marriage request. He had hoped this marriage might help him procure wealth, with which he intended to raise a mercenary army in China for reclaiming the throne and an Ottoman legacy ended in 1923 with the founding of the Turkish Republic.

While Abdul Kerim wished to leverage American wealth and Ottoman nostalgia into future power for himself, others were eager to use Abdul Kerim for their own purposes. The Japanese, for example, had entered talks with the Prince to serve as an emissary to Central Asian Muslims, whom the expanding East Asian power wished to include in their future empire. Another world power with dreams of Chinese expansion also tried to utilize Abdul Kerim, as the Ford Motor company had contracted with him to be their point man in Chinese Turkestan. Even after the end of the Ottoman Empire, the cachet of an Ottoman royal as an emissary to Muslims all around the world lived on, whether to sell Japanese imperialism or cars. Abdul Kerim, however, didn't list either of these sales positions on his immigration form (below) upon entering the United States aboard a ship from Shanghai nearly a year before.  Instead, he opted for student. However, this claim did not seem to fool customs officials, who placed an asterisk next to Abdul Kerim's name leading to a note reading, "Prince of Ottoman Empire traveling incognito." 



He died with 75 cents in his possession, a three-quarters empty bottle of gin by his side, and a .32 caliber revolver in his hand. The imam who presided over Abdul Kerim's funeral service hailed from Brooklyn's Court Street; long before this stretch of the borough became home to Trader Joe's it boasted an Arab community that likely included more than a few Yusufs. Abdul Kerim was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens before his remains were to be shipped to Beirut where his family lived in exile.   

 





Sources:
"Japanese Activity Alleged." Associated Press. New York Times. Dec. 8, 1933, p. 9.
"Prince of Turkey Ends Life Here." New York Times. Aug. 4, 1935, p. 21.
"Prince, Suicide Here, To Get Royal Burial." New York Times. Aug. 7, 1935, p. 10.  
"Rites for Turkish Prince." New York Times. Aug. 11, 1935, p. 26.
"La fin tragique d'un adventurier: Le prince Abdulkérim, petit-fils d'Abdul Hamid s'est sucidé." La République. Aug. 5, 1935, p. 1.  
National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Manifests of Passengers Arriving in the St. Albans, Vermont, District through Canadian Pacific Ports, 1929-1949; National Archives Microfilm. Publication: M1465; Roll: 10; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Sevice; Record Group Number: 85. (via ancestry.com)
New York
China

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