ABDULLAHI. See KHALIFA, THE.
abd-ool-me-jid', 31st Sultan of the Ottoman Turks, son of Mahmud II; b. 23 April or 6 May 1823 ; acceded 1 July 1839; d. 25 June 1861. He received the usual enfeebling harem education, his father failing in his efforts to rescue his children from the sys tem. On his accession Turkish affairs were critical. The great viceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, had a second time revolted; 10 days pre viously the Turkish admiral had turned traitor and put the entire fleet in his hands; and three days afterward Mehemet's son Ibrahim, the greatest Moslem soldier of the century, had routed the Turkish army at Nizib, and was marching straight on Constantinople, where the orthodox party, enraged at Mahmud's reforms, had conspired to place Mehemet Ali on the throne. But the European powers interfered, and the treaties of 27 Nov. 1840 and Tulv 1841 confined Mehemet to Egypt again. Abd-ul Medjid at once set about complying with his father's express instructions and carrying out his reforms : 3 Nov. 1839, he promulgated the "Hatti-sherif of Gulhane,° placing all his sub jects on full religious and civil equality, and providing for security of life and property to all, with just and equal taxation, administration of laws, and conscription; February 1856, after the Crimean War, it was supplemented by another to the same purport. But the Mussulman aris tocracy and the educated classes (Ulema) re garded it as an anti-Mussulman revolution to no profit but that of the infidels, and fought it so furiously that it remained practically inopera tive, and rather sharpened the edge of their ill treatment of the Christians; and repeated con spiracies were formed against his life, whose members however the kindly Sultan would not put to death. His right hand in reform work was the able and humane Reshid Pasha, a Mussulman educated in France : through him the army was reorganized 1843-44; a board of education instituted 1846; a university founded, with military, medical, and agricultural colleges; a hateful capitation tax abolished, slave-trading repressed, and commerce advanced. Nothing can better prove the intrinsic and hopeless rot tenness of the Mussulman system under modern conditions than the fact that these measures were written in water and died almost with their birth; their main fruit was bloody insur rections in various parts of the empire, of which the great Syrian massacres of 1860 (see SYRIA) were the worst. In 1849 Abd-ul-Medjid honored himself by boldly refusing to surren der Kossuth and the other Hungarian refugees, after the failure of the Hungarian revolution, at the joint demand of Russia and Austria. For the Crimean War, and its antecedents and re sults, see that head. In later life he sank into extravagance and sensuality; but he was essen tially a good-hearted and honorable man, power less against fate. He was succeeded not by one
of his seven sons, but by his brother Abd-ul Aziz, the oldest living member of the house of Othman.
5.bd-oor-ra'man, Sul tan of Fez and Morocco: b. 1778; succeeded his uncle 1823; d. 1859. His first four years of rule were occupied in quelling insurrections. Next, Austria refused to pay the tribute for safety against pirates levied by Morocco on European ships in the Mediterranean : the Sul tan wisely adjusted the dispute by relinquishing this blackmail. (See Morocco.) The religious war under Abd-el-Kader against the French in Algeria involved Morocco in its movements : the defeat by the French in 1844 compelled the Sultan to order Abd-el-Kader to quit the country, which, however, he did not for three years longer. The piratical habits of the Moroccans brought him to the brink of war with more than one European state. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Sidi-Mohammed (1859-73).
man-Han, amir of Afghanistan, son of Afzul (uf'-zool) Kahn, nephew of the amir Shere Ali, grandson of Dost Mohammed : b. Kabul, 1844; d. 3 Oct. 1901. During the civil war of 1864 in Afghanistan (q.v.) between Dost Mohammed's sons, he played a leading part on his father's side against his uncle, won several battles,— the important victories of Shaikhabad and Khelat-i-Ghilzai were mainly due to his ability, —and for a time his father seemed secure of the amirate; Abd-ur-Rahman was made gover nor of Balkh, and won great popularity by his moderation and by marrying the daughter of the chief of Badakh-shan. In 1868, however, Shere Ali gained the mastery, and the English government helped to put down further resist ance for order's sake. Yakub-Khan drove out his cousin Abd-ur-Rahman, who after hunted wanderings reached Russian territory, and Gen eral Kaufman allowed him to live at Samarcand with a pension of 25,000 rubles a year. Here he remained till 1879, when Shere Ali's death, and the weakness of Yakub, whom the English had recognized as amir, gave him a chance to return to Balkh, where he was welcomed. The murder of the British Resident at Kabul and Yakub's deposition followed; Abd-ur-Rahman came forward once more, and was acknowledged amir by the principal chiefs and the English government, which gave him a subsidy of £160, 000 a year, and large gifts of artillery, rifles, ammunition, etc. In 1893 the Indian govern ment turned over to him Kafiristan, in the Hindu-Kush mountains, and he brought its savage tribes under control in 1896. The Eng lish government showed him great honor, as he deserved; and made him G.C.B. and G.C.S.I. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Habibullah Khan, who had been associated with him in the government for some time.