Abdülhamid II

Sultan

  • Born: September 21, 1842
  • Birthplace: Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey)
  • Died: February 10, 1918
  • Place of death: Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now in Istanbul, Turkey)

Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (r. 1876-1909)

Abdülhamid earned a negative reputation as an autocratic ruler and was widely denounced for his brutal tactics to quell the Armenian nationalist movement. However, other sides of his reign deserve more favorable recognition, especially his contributions to Turkish economic development.

Area of achievement Government and politics

Early Life

Abdülhamid II (AHB-dewl-hah-MEED) was the son of the Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid I. Little is known about his early years, but a good part of his youth would have involved survival, within the confines of the harem, in the face of intrigues mounted by factions that championed others—full or half brothers—for possible succession. Following the typical pattern for sultanic succession in the Ottoman Empire, heirs to the imperial throne lived relatively obscure lives prior before they were publicly announced as the choices as new rulers. Although the young Abdülhamid held several posts that were meant to prepare him for sultanic responsibilities, he was catapulted to imperial, and indeed world, attention not because of his particular skills, but because of an unforeseen confluence of circumstances in 1876.

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Life’s Work

The events surrounding Abdülhamid II’s accession were unique. In 1876, the reform movement known as the Tanzimat that had been attempted between 1839 and 1876 reached what many considered to be its logical conclusion: the expectation that the empire needed a representative parliament and a constitutional monarchy. In particular, the 1860-1876 generation of “Young Ottoman” reformers wished to convince Western observers that the empire known as the “Sick Man of Europe” could cure itself through limitations on absolute sultanic authority. The Young Ottomans also wanted to bring the multinational and multiconfessional groupings—including Turkish, Arab, Kurd, Armenian, and Balkan communities—under a single representative system. They probably hoped to use this new form of government to stave off bankruptcy—an event that would paralyze the imperial government’s search for more foreign loans to cover imperial treasury deficits.

While a constitution was being drafted for submission to an as yet to be elected parliament, it was obvious that resistance would come from the reigning sultan, Abdülaziz. A coup deposed Abdülaziz Aziz in May, 1876, only to be followed in December by another coup against his equally resistant successor, Murad V. Recognition of Abdülhamid II, as the next in line, was based on his acceptance of constitutional limits on his authority.

Although Abdülhamid gave the impression of welcoming his new constitutionally limited status, he soon found a way to thwart the efforts of the short-lived first Ottoman parliament. The circumstances involved the looming menace of Russian military advances supposedly to protect Balkan Slavs from harsh Turkish rule. The confrontation grew into the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and the near-disastrous San Stefano Treaty, which carried the threat of serious dismemberment, particularly of Ottoman Bulgaria. Wartime pressures, plus tensions connected with the terms of San Stefano, served as a pretext for suspension of the 1876 constitution, which would not be reinstituted until 1908, close to the end of Abdülhamid’s reign. The paralyzing terms of San Stefano were offset by the actions of Germany’s Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who hosted the famous Berlin Conference of 1884-1885.

The new sultan was apparently determined to show that progress in economic development and military advances would offset visible weakness in the empire’s political system. Thus, he devoted considerable effort to investing in infrastructural improvements, especially development of telegraph lines and railways to link key Ottoman provinces. By the end of the nineteenth century, the symbol of railway expansion came to be associated with two internationally famous projects.

The first project involved an announcement by the sultan that he would sponsor, in the name of all Muslims in and beyond Ottoman territory, construction of a “Hijaz Railway” from Damascus to the Islamic holy pilgrimage city of Mecca in the Arabian peninsula. Abdülhamid called for contributions from Muslims everywhere to finance this project, which seemed to be closely linked to what many have called the pan-Islamic direction of his reign.

Abdülhamid’s second project, the Berlin-to-Baghdad railway, reflected Abdülhamid’s use of his good relations with Germany for both political and economic advantages. German financial participation led several other international sources of capital for this and other railway projects. Increasing German interest in the Ottoman Empire raised British worries that German cooperation would lead to a stronger alliance between Germany and the Ottoman Empire. This impression only grew as Abdülhamid actively encouraged military aid and training exchanges between the Ottoman Empire and Germany. A growing number of Ottoman military officers received training in Germany, and German military missions to Turkey became more evident.

The Berlin-to-Baghdad railroad line, had it been completed, would have provided an alternative route from the interior of Europe to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, diminishing the obvious importance of the Suez Canal. This was an important consideration behind Great Britain’s offer of a protectorate to Kuwait in 1900—a move that risked an open break with Abdülhamid.

The most dramatic event to occur in the last years of Abdülhamid’s reign, however, was the beginning of violent outbursts involving nationalists from the empire’s minority Armenian community, both in the capital Constantinople (now Istanbul) and in the provinces. A series of clashes begun with terrorist bombings in Constantinople during the late 1890’s expanded into wholesale destruction of Armenian villages and enormous loss of life. The conflict continued unresolved into World War I, after Abdülhamid II was out of power.

The growth of internal opposition to Abdülhamid’s excesses from what came to be known as the Young Turk Movement, or Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which ended his reign. The CUP eventually depended on gradually expanding secret participation by army officers to carry off two coups against the sultan, in 1908 and 1909. CUP organizers, however, believed that the empire could survive only by restoring the 1876 constitution and calling elections for a new parliament.

In July, 1908, a flurry of excitement followed a seemingly successful uprising in Salonica that was led by officers of the Third Army Corps in Macedonia who had ties with the Young Turks. They called for the restoration of the 1876 constitution. Giving in, at least on the surface, Abdülhamid convinced the constitutionalists that he could and would adjust his rule to their demands. According to some sources, he even offered to become a candidate for election as president of the CUP. Behind the scenes, however, the sultan devoted himself to fomenting discontent with a newly elected all-Ottoman parliament, with representatives from provinces as distant as Mosul and Basra in Iraq, Syria, and even British-occupied Egypt.

Abdülhamid’s efforts, combined with those of other supporters of the system that had evolved between 1876 and 1908, sparked several forms of opposition. There were demonstrations by students training for traditional Islamic religious careers. Many of them feared a secularizing move by the CUP against the traditional prominence of Islamic religious law.

In April, 1909, a dramatic mutiny by select military garrisons in the capital itself tried to unseat Abdülhamid’s newly appointed cabinet. This revolt, coupled with its leaders’ open support for Abdülhamid, menaced the continuation of CUP-dominated constitutional government. This time the Third Army Corps marched from Macedonia to Constantinople to reverse the “pocket rebellion.” Sultan Abdülhamid was identified as the hidden force behind the reactionary movement, and the Sheikh al-Islām, whether willingly or under duress, announced to the parliament that Abdülhamid had given up his throne. Abdülhamid was replaced by Sultan Muhammad V (r. 1909-1918). The CUP’s original intention was to exile the former sultan permanently to Salonika, but during the unsettling events that accompanied the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 and the outbreak of World War I, Abdülhamid was allowed to return to Constantinople, where he died in early 1918.

Significance

Abdülhamid II was the last historically notable sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Whatever his other, obviously varied contributions might have been, he left a permanent mark on global perceptions of the Turkish sultanate in the last years of its existence before the institution was abolished by the Turkish republic. The fact that his reign began and ended with efforts to install a multinational Ottoman imperial parliament was in itself important, even though those efforts failed. The image that Abdülhamid left of sultanic opposition to parliamentary representation was not a positive one. This, coupled with his involvement in the first stages of violent suppression of nascent Armenian nationalism, served to earn him the notorious label, “The Red Sultan.”

Bibliography

Dadrian, Vahakn. The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus. New York: Berghahn Books, 2003. A new edition of an Armenian historian’s account of the breakdown of Armenian-Turkish relations during and after Abdülhamid’s reign.

Deringil, Selim. “Legitimacy Structures in the Ottoman State: The Reign of Abdulhamid II.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 23 (1991): 345-359. Examination of institutions defining both religious and political authority in the Ottoman Empire.

Swenson, Victor. “The Military Rising in Istanbul in 1909.” Journal of Contemporary History 5 (1970): 171-184. Describes events leading to Abdülhamid’s overthrow one year after the Young Turk coup.

Yasamee, F. A. K. Ottoman Diplomacy: Abdülhamid II and the Great Powers. Istanbul: Isis Press, 1996. Traces the delicate balance in Turkish relations with Germany, Russia, France, and Britain from the 1878 Congress of Berlin to 1909.

May, 1876: Bulgarian Revolt Against the Ottoman Empire; 1894-1896: Ottomans Attempt to Exterminate Armenians.