Chapter 4 analyses the second shift in modern ruler visibility, along faith-based lines, during the reign of Abdülmecid’s son, Abdülhamid II (1876–1909). It demonstrates that the sultan strove to present himself as a pious Muslim to Muslims at home and abroad, and as a Western ruler to non-Muslims at home and abroad. Therefore, the sultan tended to deprive the former of his direct visibility (public appearances and public display or dissemination of royal portraits), while at the same time channelling and staging it selectively towards the latter. Split chronologically into early-, middle- and late-reign sections, this chapter places a special emphasis on the overall shift from direct to indirect sultanic visibility over time by way of resorting to material objects and abstract metaphors as ruler proxies. Chapter 4 traces the escalation of celebration in the second half of Abdülhamid II’s reign in an attempt to capture the deliberate personality cult, centred on the sultan. At the same time, it also analyses a range of alleged provocations and attempts at subversion (ceremonial or otherwise) of symbolic central power in order to shed new light on the later channels for group activation and increasingly ethnic group realisation.
The Family Friendliness That Wasn’t: Access, but Not Progress, for Women in the Czech Judiciary
