Sultan Abdulhamid II was the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. His reign (1876-1909) is one of the most significant, complex, and controversial periods in late Ottoman history. He presided over a time of immense internal and external pressure, territorial losses, modernization efforts, and ultimately, revolution.
Abdulhamid II came to the throne on August 31, 1876, after his elder brother, Murad V, was deposed due to mental illness. He ascended under the influence of reformist statesmen like Midhat Pasha. To secure their support and stabilize the volatile political situation, he agreed to promulgate the Ottoman Empire's first constitution, the Kanun-i Esasi, in December 1876. This ushered in the First Constitutional Era, establishing a bicameral parliament (Meclis-i Mebusan).
The disastrous Turkish - Russian War (1877-1878) resulted in significant territorial losses and thus provided Abdulhamid II with a pretext. Citing the emergency situation and disagreements with the parliament, he suspended both the constitution and the parliament in 1878. He would rule as an autocrat for the next 30 years, concentrated power firmly in his own hands. Marked by paranoia, he established an extensive network of spies and informants (hafiye's) and implemented strict censorship of the press and publications.
He used Pan-Islamism as an ideology to counter rising ethnic nationalism within the empire and to rally support against European colonial expansion in Muslim lands. The construction of the Hejaz Railway linking Damascus to Medina was a major project tied to this policy, facilitating the Hajj pilgrimage. He expanded railways, telegraph lines, and roads. He established numerous professional schools on law, medicine, engineering, civil service and military. He also improved the healthcare system. Abdulhamid II pursued a cautious foreign policy to preserve the territorial integrity of the shrinking empire. He skillfully managed the Ottoman Public Debt Administration.
Growing discontent among intellectuals, students, civil servants, and particularly army officers coalesced into the Committee of Union and Progress (Ittihat ve Terakki in Turkish), also known as the "Young Turks". They demanded the restoration of the 1876 constitution and parliament. In July 1908, facing a major military revolt led by the Committee officers like Enver Pasha and Niyazi Bey threatening to march on Istanbul, the sultan was forced to yield. He restored the constitution, recalled parliament, and ended censorship. But this did not end the political turmoil. In April 1909, a counter-revolutionary uprising occurred in Istanbul (known as the "31 March Incident"), involving conservative soldiers and religious elements demanding a return to Sharia law and protesting the influence of the Committee. The Committee accused the Sultan of supporting the revolt and the "Action Army" (Hareket Ordusu), marching from Thessaloniki suppressed the uprising. Shortly after, on April 27, 1909, the restored parliament voted to depose Abdulhamid II.
Abdulhamid was exiled to Thessaloniki, then an Ottoman city. When Thessaloniki fell to Greece during the Balkan Wars (1912), he was moved back to Istanbul and confined to the Beylerbeyi Palace on the Bosphorus. He died there in 1918.