Şehzade Yusuf Izzeddin

Şehzade Yusuf Izzeddin (1857 – 1 February 1916) was an Ottoman prince, the eldest son of Sultan Abdulaziz, and crown prince of the Ottoman Empire from 27 April 1909 until his death. A field marshal who commanded the First Army in his teens, he lived his last years in anxiety that he would be displaced from the succession, and died by suicide at his Istanbul villa. ¹

His birth day is given three ways in the sources: 10 October 1857 in the Turkish article and Wikidata, which this record follows; 29 September 1857 in the English article's infobox and text, citing Adra's genealogy of the imperial family; and 11 October 1857 in the English article's lead. ^{2 3 1}

He was born at Dolmabahçe Palace to the then-prince Abdulaziz and Dürrinev Kadın. Because princes were forbidden to father children before ascending the throne, the boy was brought up concealed at Eyüp until his father's accession in 1861. Educated in the Prince's School at Dolmabahçe, he was enlisted in the army as a small child and promoted quickly: at fourteen he was made chief of staff, then commander, of the First Imperial Army, and he accompanied his father on journeys to İzmit, Egypt and Europe. ¹

Abdulaziz was rumoured to intend changing the succession in his son's favour, and after the sultan's deposition and death in 1876 Izzeddin fell under the suspicion of Abdul Hamid II, who had a police station built opposite his country house. When Mehmed V came to the throne in 1909, Izzeddin became crown prince. He was described as a conservative and pious man, and also as proud; he suffered anxiety and depression, feared poisoning, and pressed even the sultan to swear he would not be removed as heir. ¹

On 1 February 1916 he died by suicide at his villa at Zincirlikuyu, Istanbul. He was buried in the mausoleum of his grandfather Sultan Mahmud II at Çemberlitaş. ^{1 2}

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