"The Abdullah Brothers. Beyond Competition" (continued) - Based on the book by Engin OZENDES
The article by Engin Özendes, "The Abdullah Brothers: Beyond Competition" (continued), is devoted to the history of the famous Istanbul photo studio of the Abdullah brothers — court photographers of the Ottoman Empire — and is based on materials from the author's book "The Abdullah Brothers: Court Photographers of the Ottoman Empire." The publication concludes the series begun in the previous issue of the journal and is supplemented by an interview with Engin Özendes herself.
Introduction and Methodology
The material is structured as a chronological narrative drawing on documentary sources of the era — newspaper publications ("Levant Herald," "Masis"), the memoirs of Kevork Abdullah, correspondence with contemporaries (Hovhannes Aivazovsky, Khoren Nar-Bey), and archival photo albums. This approach makes it possible to reconstruct not only the creative biography of the brothers but also the socio-cultural context of their activity.
International Recognition
The author examines in detail the studio's European fame:
• the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1869 and the unrealized plan to open a London branch;
• photographs of the French Empress Eugénie and the presentation album "Ancient and Modern Turkey";
• work commissioned by the architect Sarkis Balyan for the Çırağan Palace;
• a list of crowned heads and statesmen captured by the studio — from the German Emperor Wilhelm II to the Persian Shah Naser al-Din.
Court Status and Its Loss
Special attention is given to the dramatic episode of 1878, when Kevork Abdullah's friendly contacts with Grand Duke Nicholas Romanov during the Russo-Turkish War led to the loss of the right to use the sultan's monogram and to the subsequent decree by Abdul Hamid II prohibiting the photographing of the sultan without permission, as a result of which all studio photographs of the monarch taken during his lifetime were destroyed.
The Cultural Activity of Kevork Abdullah
The multifaceted personality of the studio's chief master is revealed: his knowledge of several languages, his interest in Armenian philology and history, his authorship of patriotic poems, his translation of Mordtmann's scholarly work on Armenian cuneiform inscriptions, his organization of public lectures, and his publication of the journal "Anthology of Arts and Sciences."
The Egyptian Period
The concluding section is devoted to the work of Kevork and Hovsep Abdullah in Cairo at the invitation of Khedive Tewfik Pasha, including the large-scale expedition along the Nile in 1887 and the photographic documentation of the monuments of Karnak and Luxor, which the author characterizes as the pinnacle of Kevork's artistic and technical mastery.
The article's key conclusion is that the success of the Abdullah brothers was determined by a unique combination of technical perfection in printing, deep aesthetic sensibility, and broad cultural erudition, which allowed them to remain beyond competition for decades, both within the Ottoman Empire and beyond its borders, despite political upheavals and court intrigues.
The article tells the story of the Abdullah Frères' Istanbul photo studio — court photographers of the Ottoman Empire — through period documents, international recognition, conflict with sultanic authority, and their Egyptian period of work.
Photographer as Cultural Intermediary