Portrait: AI-generated imagined likeness
Monarch
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. After the suspension of the constitution, he implemented autocracy and combined pan-Islamism with modernization policies. He is a person who thinks about reform and governance at the end of the empire.
View in catalogIstanbul
Work
First Constitutional Era
1876
Political event · Leader
Young Turk Revolution
1908
Revolution · Subject
Map: Natural Earth (PD)
Born in Istanbul as a member of the Ottoman imperial family. In the 19th century, the empire struggled to survive amid Tanzimat reforms, intervention by great powers, national movements, and financial crises.
He ascended the throne in 1876 and promulgated the Midhat Constitution, but suspended parliament after the Russo-Turkish War. While improving railways, communications, and education, he ruled with emphasis on the authority of the sultan and Islamic solidarity.
Abdul Hamid II is also known as the "Red Sultan" and is talked about in terms of both oppression and reform. He is a ruler with the contradiction of suppressing political freedom while promoting modernization.
If you study Abdul Hamid II, you will understand that the modernization of the late Ottoman Empire was not just Westernization, but progressed among imperial power, Islam, ethnic issues, and great power diplomacy. It can also be used for comparison with surrounding areas from the same era.
