Draft:Magyar Abdullah

He was born in 1799 as Karl Hammerschmidt in Vienna. His father was Anton Hammerschmidt, a bureaucrat, was from Transylvania. Karl Hammerschmidt attended the Medical School of Vienna University and graduated as a medical doctor. While studying for a degree in medicine, he also studied philosophy, zoology and botany. He was specifically interested in entomology and had one of the largest insect collections of his time^[2].

October 6, 1848, marks an important turning point in Dr. Abdullah Bey's life. On that day, he is seen as one of the leading figures in the famous Vienna Uprising. When the uprising was brutally suppressed by the Habsburgs on October 31, he, along with Polish Józef Bem and some of his friends, sought refuge with the approaching Hungarian army near Vienna. Bem was entrusted with the defense of Transylvania, then part of Hungary. Once the Russians came to the help of Austrians against the Hungarians, they had to leave there also and ended up in Ottoman Empire which gave them refuge^[3][4]. In 1850 he began teaching in the Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa Medical School. Due to constant pressure from the Austrians, he was sent away to Damascus where he practiced medicine. It is here that he converted to Islam and took the name Abdullah. Some claim this conversion took place before he left Constantinople. It is also possible that conversion provided him protection against any possibility of extradition. He was also known as Magyar (Hungarian) Abdullah. Noteworthy that Józef Bem also converted and became “Murat (Paşa)" and appointed governor to Aleppo. Magyar Abdullah served as a doctor in the Ottoman Army during the Crimean War. After the war he returned to teaching in Istanbul. In addition to medicine he also taught zoology, geology and minerology there^[5].

After attending a Red Cross meeting in Paris, he returned and established an organization (Mecruhin ve merda-i askeriyye'ye imdat ve muavenet) to provide medical and other support for war veterans^[6]. Though due to conflict of interest with the military, it was short lived, still it was the basis of the Ottoman Red Crescent established a decade later. While surveying the country for the new railroad lines, he got sick and passed away in 1873.

In 1867, he attended the meeting of Societe Geologique de France and displayed over 1200 mineral and fossil samples he had collected from country around Bosporus^[7]. He made a presentation there and donated his samples to a natural history museum in Paris^[8]. He collaborated with the renowned French geologist Pyotr Chikhachyov and shared some of his samples who referred to paleontologist Édouard de Verneuil for identification. A number of new fish fossils were discovered and Verneuil even named one after Abdullah Bey^[9][10]

In a follow up conference to 1864 First Geneva Convention meeting, a conference was held in Paris in 1867 to deal with "War Wounded Aid", which was the precursor to Red Cross. Ottoman Empire had already signed on the convention in 1865^[11]. Abdullah Bey attended this conference representing the Ottoman Empire. He returned to Constantinople determined to establish a branch of this organization. In spite of many bureaucratic difficulties, in 1868 he was able to get a royal decree to establish an organization for the purpose of "aid and support for war wounded", with a Red Crescent (Hilal-ı Ahmer Cemiyeti) as its symbol. Many of the Ottoman famous doctors of the time were included in the board of directors, and Abdullah Bey informed the Paris headquarters of Red Cross of the establishment of Red Crescent in a letter dated June 11, 1868.

• Abdullah Bey (Hammerschmidt), "Note relative a une collection des fossiles recueillis dans le terrain devoinen du Bosphore", Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Seances de l"Academie des Sciences, 64, 914, Paris, 1867.
• Abdullah Bey (Hammerschmidt), "Bemerkungen uber die Pterefaktender dvonischen Formation des Bosphorus", Verhandlungen der Geologischen Bundesanstalt, Reichsanstalt, 416-417, Wien, 1868.
• Abdullah Bey (Hammerschmidt), "Remarques geologiques sur le calcaire devonien du Bosphore", Bolletino Comitato Geologica d'Italia, 1, 187-189, Firenze, Roma, 1870.
• Abdullah Bey (Hammerschmidt), "Ilm-ul Arz ve El-Maadin" (Geology and Mineral Sciences, edited and translated by Major Ibrahim Lutfi), Mekteb-i Sahane Matbaasi, Istanbul 1875.

• Kemal Erguvanli "Dr. Abdullah Beyin Hayati ve Eserleri" Turkiye Jeoloji Kurumu Bulteni, Cilt V, Sayi 1-2, Ekim 1954
• R. Brinkmann, "Turkiye Yer Bilimleri Bibliografyasi, 1825-1975, Bolum 1, TURDOK, Tubitak Dokumantasyon Merkezi 1981, Ankara.