ABDUL-HAMID II. (1842-1918), sultan of Turkey, son of Sultan Abdul-Mejid, was born on Sept. 21, 1842, and succeeded to the throne on the deposition of his brother Murad V., on Aug. 31, 1876. He accompanied his uncle Sultan Abdul-Aziz on his visit to England and France in 1867. At the time of his accession he was supposed to be of liberal principles, and conservative Turks were for some years inclined to regard him with suspicion as a too ardent reformer. But the circumstances of the country at his accession were ill-adapted for liberal developments. An empty treasury, the revolts in Serbia and Montenegro, the feeling aroused throughout Europe by the savage methods adopted in stamping out the Bulgarian rebellion, all combined to prove to the new sultan that he could expect little aid from the Powers. But he obstinately opposed the pressing requests of the Powers that the necessary reforms should be instituted. During the interna tional conference which met at Constantinople towards the end of 1876, a constitution was indeed promulgated, but the demands of the conference were rejected in spite of solemn warnings. Mid hat Pasha, the author of the constitution, was exiled, and his work was suspended.
Early in 1877 the disastrous war with Russia followed. The hard terms, embodied in the treaty of San Stefano, to which Ab dul-Hamid was forced to consent, were to some extent amended at Berlin, thanks in the main to British diplomacy (see EUROPE : History) ; but by this time the sultan had lost all confidence in England, and thought that he discerned in Germany the future friend of Turkey. He employed Germans to reorganize his finances and army, and determined to resist foreign encroach ments and gradually to take the reins of absolute power into his own hands. Financial embarrassments forced him to consent to a foreign control over the debt, and to issue the decree of Dec. 1881, under which many of the revenues of the empire were handed over to the Public Debt Administration for the benefit of the bondholders. Trouble in Egypt, where a discredited khedive had to be deposed, trouble on the Greek frontier and in Montenegro, where the Powers were determined that the decisions of the Berlin Congress should be carried into effect, were more or less satisfac torily got over. In his attitude towards Arabi, the would-be sav iour of Egypt, Abdul-Hamid, showed less than his usual astute ness, and the resulting consolidation of England's hold over the country contributed still further to his estrangement from Tur key's old ally. The union in 1885 of Bulgaria with Eastern Ru melia was another blow. Few people south of the Balkans dreamed that Bulgaria could be anything but a Russian province, and apprehension was entertained of the results of the union until it was seen that Russia really and entirely disapproved of it. For some years the sultan preserved towards Bulgaria an attitude skil fully calculated to avoid running counter either to Russian or to German wishes. Germany's friendship was not entirely disinter ested, and had to be fostered with a railway or loan concession from time to time, until in 1899 the Baghdad railway was conceded.
Meanwhile the sultan had succeeded in reducing his ministers to the position of secretaries, and in concentrating the whole ad ministration of the country into his own hands at Yildiz. But in ternal dissension was not thereby lessened. Crete was constantly in turmoil, the Greeks were dissatisfied, and from about 'Soo the Armenians began a violent agitation with a view to obtaining the reforms promised them at Berlin. Minor troubles had occurred in 1892 and 1893 at Marsovan and Tokat. In 1894 a more serious rebellion in the mountainous region of Sassun was ruthlessly stamped out ; the Powers insistently demanded reforms, the event ual grant of which in the autumn of 1895 was the signal for a series of massacres in the Armenian provinces and in Constanti nople itself. The reforms became more or less a dead letter. Crete indeed profited by the grant of extended privileges, but these did not satisfy its turbulent population, and early in 1897 a Greek expedition sailed to unite the island to Greece. War followed, in which Turkey was easily successful and gained a small rectifica tion of frontier; then a few months later Crete was taken over en depot by the Four Powers (Germany and Austria not par ticipating) and Prince George of Greece was appointed their man datory. In the next year the sultan received the visit of the German emperor and empress.
Abdul-Hamid had always resisted the pressure of the European Powers to the last moment, in order to seem to yield only to overwhelming force, while posing as the champion of Islam against aggressive Christendom. Pan-Islamic propaganda was en couraged ; the privileges of foreigners in the Ottoman Empire (often an obstacle to government) were curtailed; the new rail way to the Holy Places was pressed on, and emissaries were sent to distant countries preaching Islam and the caliph's supremacy. This appeal to Muslim sentiment was, however, powerless against the disaffection due to perennial misgovernment. In Mesopotamia and Yemen disturbance was endemic ; nearer home, a semblance of loyalty was maintained in the army and among the Muslim population by a system of delation and espionage, and by whole sale arrests; while, obsessed by terror of assassination, the sultan withdrew himself into fortified seclusion in the palace of Yildiz.
Macedonian Crisis.—The humiliation of the situation in Macedonia (q.v.), together with the resentment in the army against the palace spies brought matters to a crisis. The remark able revolution associated with the names of Niazi Bey and Enver Bey, the young Turk leaders, and the Committee of Union and Progress is described elsewhere (see TURKEY : History) ; here it must suffice to say that Abdul-Hamid, on learning of the threat of the Salonika troops to march on Constantinople (July 23), at once capitulated. On the 24th an irade announced the restoration of the suspended constitution of 1875; next day, further irades abol ished espionage and the censorship, and ordered the release of political prisoners. On Dec. Ic) the sultan opened the Turkish par liament with a speech from the throne in which he said that the first parliament had been "temporarily dissolved until the educa tion of the people had been brought to a sufficiently high level by the extension of instruction throughout the empire." The correct attitude of the sultan did not save him from the suspicion of intriguing with the powerful reactionary elements in the State, a suspicion confirmed by his attitude towards the coun ter-revolution of April 13, when an insurrection of the soldiers and the Muslim populace of the capital overthrew the committee and the ministry. The committee, restored by the Salonika troops, now decided on Abdul-Hamid's deposition, and on April 27 his brother Reshid Effendi was proclaimed sultan as Mohammed V. The ex-sultan was confined at Salonika. When Salonika capitu lated to the Greeks in the Balkan War (1912) Abdul-Hamid was brought back to Constantinople. In 1915 he was removed to Mag nesia, in Asia Minor, where he died on Feb. lc), 1918.
See Sir E. Pears, Life of Abdul-Hamid (Tg17); C. Hacquard, La Turquie sous Abdul-Hamid II. (Brussels, igoi).