Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Tuesday, 6 June 1876

I read back over yesterday's entry, the last page. People will not understand it — the thing is that I was writing as I suffered, and between each word there are three words of pain and tears.
The heat is unbearable.
Sultan Abdul Aziz has killed himself, or been killed. I know well enough — they feared it. Mourad V is starting badly — or rather, no: since the death of the deposed sovereign can serve the peace of the State, Mourad is right.
But to the devil with it all!

Notes

Sultan Abdul Aziz of the Ottoman Empire was deposed on 30 May 1876 and found dead on 4 June — officially a suicide, though murder was widely suspected. He was succeeded by Murad V (r. 1876). Marie's awareness of this current event is characteristic of her habits of political self-education. ↩