Name of Object:

Monument commemorating the installation of the Hijaz-Damascus telegraph connection, Beirut

Other name of the Object (second name):

Constructed as the focal point of the new Ottoman urban centre at Merje square

Location:

Berlin, Germany

Holding Institution:

Museum of Islamic Art at the Pergamon Museum, State Museums

 About Museum of Islamic Art at the Pergamon Museum, State Museums, Berlin

Date of Object:

1910

Description:

This monument is a well-known benchmark, which remained the symbol of the municipal administration until a few years ago. The bronze column in the middle of the Merje Square was erected in commemoration of the Istanbul-Damascus-Mecca telegraph link. It was the line with the sultan’s Islamist policy, acting as a symbol of the Ottoman claim to leadership over Muslims. The monumental telegraph column is crowned by a model of the Istanbul Hamidiye Mosque, where every week the Sultan ‘Abdülhamid [`Abd al-Hamid II] had his visit to the mosque for Friday prayers celebrated with an imperial march-past- a demonstration of the concentrated political power of the Sultan.

Type of Object

Photograph; postcard

Citation of this web page:

Stefan Weber "Monument commemorating the installation of the Hijaz-Damascus telegraph connection, Beirut" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;de;18;en

Prepared by: Stefan Weber

MWNF Working Number: DE 018