Achmed Abdullah

Biography

Alexander Nicholayevitch Romanoff (Achmed Abdullah) was the author of numerous adventure and mystery stories, usually set in strange and exotic locations. His father, Grand Duke Nicholas Romanoff, was a cousin of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his mother, Princess Nourmahal Durani, was the daughter of the Amir of Afghanistan. Alexander, along with his brother Yar and sister Gothia, were born at the Romanoff Palace in Yalta, the future site of the historic Second World War conference among Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. After pressure from the Afghan and Russian royal houses forced their parents to divorce, Alexander--along with his sister--went to live with their uncle in Afghanistan; Yar, the oldest, stayed with his father in Russia. Alexander was adopted by his uncle, who changed his name to Achmed Abdullah Nadir Khan el-Durani el Iddrissyeh and raised him in the Muslim faith. Yar became an officer in the Russian army and was killed in 1914 at the Battle of Tannenberg. Gothia was said to have married an Indian rajah. In 1936, after years of being torn between the Russian Orthodox Church he was baptized in and the Muslim faith he was raised in, Abdullah became a Roman Catholic. He went to schools in Afghanistan, India, France and finally England, where he attended Eton and Oxford. Upon graduation he became a British citizen and joined the British army, where he served with merit in China, Tibet, Russia, Eastern Europe, France, India and Africa. Because of his ability to blend in with different cultures, he was often called upon by British Intelligence to work as a spy. Not long after Abdullah retired from the British army with the rank of captain, he joined the Turkish army and fought with distinction in the First Balkan War (1912-1913). By the time Abdullah decided to pursue a writing career his life experiences had gained him a plethora of material to draw upon for decades to come. Abdullah began writing in earnest after coming to the US sometime after 1914. Soon stories like "The Blue Eyed Manchu", "The Red Stain", "The Soul Catcher" and "Bucking the Tiger" were appearing in newspapers and magazines across the country. By the early 1920s he was writing for both the stage and the screen. In 1928 he published a collection of ballads and poems from Central Asia entitled "Lute and Scimitar". His autobiography, "The Cat Had Nine Lives" (1933), reads like one of his romantic adventure stories. In 1937 he wrote with John Kenney, a cookbook entitled, "For Men Only". Abdullah's first Broadway play, "The Honourable Mr. Wong" (1932), was adapted from his story "The Hatchetman" and was written with the help of David Belasco around the time he became a permanent resident of the US. Though many of his stories and plays were very popular with the public, he will probably always be best remembered for the classic films The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935). Abdullah must have cut quite an imposing figure when seen out in public, with his military posture, impeccable suit, hat tilted just so, gray spats and monocled eye. In 1945 he passed away on his birthday at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York after an illness of several months. He was survived by his third wife, Rosemary Dutton, whom he married in 1940, a year after his second wife of 20 years, literary agent Jean Wick, had passed away. His first wife, Irene Augusta Bainbridge, was still married to him when he filled out his Word War One draft registration card in 1918.