HAMDI BEY, OSMAN (1842-191o), Turkish statesman and art expert, son of Hilmi Pasha, one of the last of the grand viziers of the old regime, was born at Constantinople. The family was of Greek origin. Hilmi Pasha himself, as a boy of 12, was res cued from the massacre of the Greeks at Chios in 1825, bought by Mahmud Pasha, who had him educated in Paris and put him on the road to fortune. Hamdi Bey secured for Turkey the fa mous Greek sarcophagi found in a seven-chambered tomb in Sidon by the American Dr. Eddy, in 1887, which are among the treasures in the museum of antiquities at Constantinople. These are not only magnificent examples of Greek art of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., but are in perfect preservation, and the magnificent "Alexander" sarcophagus even retains traces of its original colouring. Hamdi Bey's great service to his country was the assertion of the right of Constantinople to receive the finds made by various archaeological enterprises in the Turkish Empire, in spite of the opposition of the Powers. The museum of antiq uities at Constantinople was founded by Hamdi Bey, who was its director from 1882 onwards; it owes much to his enlightened taste and to his energy. Hamdi Bey was an artist of some merit, and founded a modern school of art in Constantinople. He died on Feb. 23, 191o.
His brother, HALIL EDHEM BEY (b. 186o), was also a dis tinguished archaeologist. He held various ministerial posts, and eventually became general director of the Turkish museums in Constantinople.
For the sarcophagi with the discovery of which Hamdi Bey's name is associated see Hamdi Bey and Th. Reinach, La Necropole royale de Sidon (1892-96) .