Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
(1842-1918), Reigned 1876-1909Sitter in 5 portraits
Born in Constantinople (present day Istanbul), Abdul Hamid II was the thirty-fourth sultan of the Ottoman Empire, he came to the throne after the deposition of his mentally ill brother Murad V. During his reign he oversaw a period of decline in the Ottoman Empire. In his later years, he suffered increasingly from paranoia and the fear that his power and status may be impinged upon by some individual or organisation. In an attempt to hold onto control, he cutback army funding and restricted civil and political rights further however his injustices came back to haunt him, provoking the Young Turk Revolution in 1908. He was deposed in 1909, making him the last Ottoman ruler to rule autonomously with absolute power.
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