One of the funniest forgery stories is “100 liras for the Ottoman state”.”
During the 1915 war, Ottoman army commanders sent Staff Sergeant Muhammad Muzaffar to Istanbul to secure tires for the wagons that would be used to transport soldiers and equipment to the front lines. Muzaffar found the tires at a merchant's shop, and when he went to the General Staff headquarters to collect the money to buy them, an officer read his request and replied, "I don't even have money to buy boots for a soldier's feet or a coat for his body, and you're talking about wagon tires? Leave. There's no money for your request." Ottoman soldiers were living in austerity due to the dire economic conditions resulting from the successive wars in the Ottoman Empire. .
Afterwards, Muzaffar left the General Staff and went directly to the merchant, telling him that the money would be ready in the morning. He brought paper of the type used for banknotes at that time and forged a 100-lira note using Chinese ink and paint, working on it throughout the night. After obtaining the frames, Muzaffar transported them to the port of Sirkeci, and from there by ship to Çanakkale. Several days later, the merchant went to the bank and discovered that the 100-lira note was counterfeit. The story spread throughout Istanbul, and Abdul Halim Efendi, the son of Sultan Mehmed Reshad, apologized to the merchant and compensated him by giving him the money. He took the banknote, which he donated to the Security Museum at the Police Academy in Istanbul, and it is currently on display in Ankara. .
What is interesting and amusing about this story is that at that time in the Ottoman Empire, the largest denomination was 50 liras, but the merchant's greed did not make him pay attention to this matter or ask about it; it is also worth mentioning that Sergeant Muhammad Muzaffar died shortly after, but only after leaving a memory that immortalizes the poor economic conditions that the soldiers of the Ottoman army were living in at that time!!
Dr. Tariq Al-Bawab
