- published: 12 Dec 2013
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Abd Al-Aziz, His Imperial Majesty (Ottoman Turkish: `Abdü´l-Âzīz عبد العزيز) (February 9/18 1830 – 4 June 1876) was the 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and reigned between 25 June 1861 and 30 May 1876. He was the son of Sultan Mahmud II and succeeded his brother Abdülmecid I in 1861.
Born and later circumcised at the Eyüp Palace, Constantinople (Istanbul), on 9/18 February 1830, Abdülaziz received an Ottoman education but was nevertheless an ardent admirer of the material progress that was made in the West. He was interested in literature and was also a classical music composer. Some of his compositions have been collected in the album "European Music at the Ottoman Court" by the London Academy of Ottoman Court Music.
His parents were Mahmud II and Valide Sultan Pertevniyal ("Partav-Nihal"). (1812–1883), originally named Besîme but sometimes called as Hasnâ, a noble Vlach (1812 – 5 February 1883), descendant of Mihai Viteazu/Michael the Brave a Member of the Drăculeşti line. He was a quarter French. In 1868 Pertevniyal was living in the Dolmabahçe Palace. That year Abdülaziz led the visiting Eugénie de Montijo, Empress of France, to see his mother. Pertevniyal perceived the presence of a foreign woman within her quarters of the seraglio as an insult. She reportedly slapped Eugénie across the face, almost resulting in an international incident. The Pertevniyal Valide Sultan Mosque was built under the patronage of his mother. The construction work began in November 1869 and the mosque was finished in 1871.