Abdul Hamid II

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Abdul Hamid II
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
Portrait of Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1899
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Padishah)
Reign	31 August 1876 – 27 April 1909
Predecessor	Murad V
Successor	Mehmed V
Grand viziers	See list Mehmed Rushdi Pasha Midhat Pasha Ibrahim Edhem Pasha Ahmed Hamdi Pasha Ahmed Vefik Pasha Mehmed Sadık Pasha Saffet Pasha Tunuslu Hayreddin Pasha Ahmed Arifi Pasha Mehmed Said Pasha Kadri Pasha Abdurrahman Nurettin Pasha Kâmil Pasha Ahmed Cevad Pasha Halil Rifat Pasha Mehmed Ferid Pasha Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha Ahmet Tevfik Pasha
Ottoman Caliph (Amir al-Mu'minin)
Predecessor	Murad V
Successor	Mehmed V
Born	(1842-09-21)21 September 1842[1][2] Topkapı Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Died	10 February 1918(1918-02-10) (aged 75) Beylerbeyi Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Burial	1918 Tomb of Sultan Mahmud II, Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey
Consorts	List Nazikeda Kadın Safinaz Nurefsun Kadın Bedrifelek Kadın Bidar Kadın Dilpesend Kadın Mezidemestan Kadın Emsalinur Kadın Destizer Müşfika Kadın Sazkar Hanım Rabia Peyveste Hanım Fatma Pesend Hanım Behice Hanım Saliha Naciye Kadın
Issue Among others	List Şehzade Mehmed Selim Zekiye Sultan Naime Sultan Şehzade Mehmed Abdülkadir Şehzade Ahmed Nuri Naile Sultan Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin Şadiye Sultan Ayşe Sultan Refia Sultan Şehzade Abdurrahim Hayri Şehzade Ahmed Nureddin Şehzade Mehmed Abid
Names Abdul Hamid bin Abdulmejid
Dynasty	Ottoman
Father	Abdulmejid I
Mother	Biological mother: Tirimüjgan Kadın Adoptive mother: Rahime Perestu Sultan
Religion	Sunni Islam
Tughra

Abdulhamid II or Abdul Hamid II (Ottoman Turkish: عبد الحميد ثانی, romanized: Abd ul-Hamid-i s̱ānī; Turkish: II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 – 10 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state.^[3] He oversaw a period of decline with rebellions (particularly in the Balkans), and presided over an unsuccessful war with the Russian Empire (1877–78), the loss of Egypt and Cyprus from Ottoman control, followed by a successful war against the Kingdom of Greece in 1897, though Ottoman gains were tempered by subsequent Western European intervention.

Elevated to power in the wake of Young Ottoman coups, he promulgated the Ottoman Empire's first constitution during the Tersane Conference,^[4] a sign of the progressive thinking that marked his early rule. But his enthronement came in the context of the Great Eastern Crisis, which began with the Empire's default on its loans, uprisings by Christian Balkan minorities, and a war with the Russian Empire. At the end of the crisis, Ottoman rule in the Balkans and its international prestige were severely diminished, and the Empire lost its economic sovereignty as its finances came under the control of the Great Powers through the Ottoman Public Debt Administration.

In 1878, Abdul Hamid consolidated his rule by suspending both the constitution and the parliament,^[4] purging the Young Ottomans [tr], and curtailing the power of the Sublime Porte. He ruled as an absolute monarch for three decades. Ideologically an Islamist, the sultan asserted his title of Caliph to Muslims around the world. His paranoia about being overthrown, like his uncle and brother, led to the creation of secret police organizations and a censorship regime. The Ottoman Empire's modernization and centralization continued during his reign, including reform of the bureaucracy, extension of the Rumelia Railway and the Anatolia Railway, and construction of the Baghdad Railway and the Hejaz Railway. Systems for population registration, sedentarization of tribal groups, and control over the press were part of a unique imperialist system in fringe provinces known as borrowed colonialism.^[5] The farthest-reaching reforms were in education, with many professional schools established in fields such as law, arts, trades, civil engineering, veterinary medicine, customs, farming, and linguistics, along with the first local modern law school in 1898. A network of primary, secondary, and military schools extended throughout the Empire. German firms played a major role in developing the Empire's railway and telegraph systems.^[4]

Ironically, the same education institutions that the Sultan sponsored proved to be his downfall. Large sections of the pro-constitutionalist Ottoman intelligentsia sharply criticized and opposed him for his repressive policies, which coalesced into the Young Turks movement.^[6] Ethnic minorities started organizing their own national liberation movements. Armenians especially suffered from massacres and pogroms at the hands of the Hamidiye regiments. Of the many assassination attempts during Abdul Hamid's reign, one of the most famous is the Armenian Revolutionary Federation's Yıldız assassination attempt of 1905.^[7] In 1908, the Committee of Union and Progress forced him to recall parliament and reinstate the constitution in the Young Turk Revolution. Abdul Hamid II attempted to reassert his absolutism a year later, resulting in his deposition by pro-constitutionalist forces in the 31 March incident, though the role he played in these events is disputed.