Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Abdulhamid II (Ottoman Turkish: عبد الحميد ثانی, Turkish: II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 – 10 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state He oversaw a period of decline, with rebellions (particularly in the Balkans), and presided over an unsuccessful war with the Russian Empire (1877–78), followed by a successful war against the Kingdom of Greece in 1897, though Ottoman gains were tempered by subsequent Western European intervention. Hamid Efendi was born on 21 September 1842 either in Çıragan Palace, Ortaköy, or at Topkapı Palace, both in Istanbul. He was the son of Sultan Abdulmejid I and Tirimüjgan Kadın (Circassia, 20 August 1819 – Constantinople, Feriye Palace, 2 November 1853), originally named Virjinia. Following his mother's death, he became the adoptive son of his father's legal wife, Perestu Kadın. Perestu was also the adoptive mother of Abdul Hamid's half-sister Cemile Sultan, whose mother Düzdidil Kadın had died in 1845, leaving her motherless at the age of two. The two were brought up in the same household, where they spent their childhood together. Unlike many other Ottoman sultans, Abdul Hamid II visited distant countries. In the summer of 1867, nine years before he ascended the throne, he accompanied his uncle Sultan Abdul Aziz on a visit to Paris (30 June – 10 July 1867), London (12–23 July 1867), Vienna (28–30 July 1867), and capitals or cities of a number of
other European countries. Elevated to power in the wake of Young Ottoman coups, he promulgated the Ottoman Empire's first constitution, a sign of the progressive thinking that marked his early rule. But his enthronement came in the context of the Great Eastern Crisis, which began with the Empire's default on its loans, uprisings by Christian Balkan minorities, and a war with the Russian Empire. At the end of the crisis, Ottoman rule in the Balkans and its international prestige were severely diminished, and the Empire lost its economic sovereignty as its finances came under the control of the Great Powers through the Ottoman Public Debt Administration. In 1878, Abdul Hamid consolidated his rule by suspending both the constitution and the parliament, purging the Young Ottomans, and curtailing the power of the Sublime Porte. He ruled as an absolute monarch for three decades. The Hamidian era was defined by Abdul Hamid's convictions and personality. Ideologically an Islamist, the sultan asserted his title of Caliph to Muslims around the world. His paranoia about being overthrown, like his uncle and brother, led to the creation of secret police organizations and a censorship regime. The Ottoman Empire's modernization and centralization continued during his reign, including reform of the bureaucracy, extension of the Rumelia Railway and the Anatolia Railway, and construction of the Baghdad Railway and the Hejaz Railway. Systems for population registration, sedentarization of tribal groups, and control over the press were part of a unique imperialist system in fringe provinces known as Borrowed Colonialism. The farthest-reaching reforms were in education, with many professional schools established in fields such as law, arts, trades, civil engineering, veterinary medicine, customs, farming, and linguistics, along with the first local modern law school in 1898. A network of primary, secondary, and military schools extended throughout the Empire. German firms played a major role in developing the Empire's railway and telegraph systems. Ironically, the same education institutions that the Sultan sponsored proved to be his downfall. Large sections of the pro-constitutionalist Ottoman intelligentsia sharply criticized and opposed him for his repressive policies, which coalesced into the Young Turks movement. Under similar conditions, minorities started organizing their own national liberation movements. Armenians especially suffered from massacres and pogroms at the hands of the Hamidiye regiments.
The Ottoman Army was the army of the Ottoman Empire after the country was reorganized along modern western European lines during the Tanzimat modernization period. It operated during the decline and dissolution of the empire, which roughly occurred between 1861 (though some sources date back to 1842) and 1918, the end of World War I for the Ottomans. The Crimean War was the first war effort in which the modern army took part in, proving itself as a decent force. The uniforms of the modern army reflected the military uniforms of the western European countries who were the Ottoman army's principal advisors at the time. The Ottoman government considered adopting a Western-style headdress for all personnel within the army, but the fez was favoured as it was more suited to the postures of the Islamic ritual prayer. French-style uniform and court dress were common during the early stage of the Tanzimat period. After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the Ottoman government searched for other role models, so German- and British-style uniforms became popular. The shift from the Classical Army (1451–1606) took more than a century and began with the failed attempts of Selim III (r. 1789–1807) and Alemdar Mustafa Pasha (1789–1808), continued through a period of Ottoman military reforms (1826–1858) and finally concluded during the reign of Abdul Hamid II (1876–1909). As early as 1880, Abdul Hamid sought German assistance, which he secured
two years later, culminating in the appointment of Lieutenant Colonel Otto Köhler. Although the consensus was that Abdul Hamid II favored the modernization of the Ottoman army and the professionalization of the officer corps, it seems that he neglected the military during the last fifteen years of his reign, evidenced by his military budget cuts. The formation of the modern Ottoman army proved a slow process with various ups and downs.
The Ottoman dynasty (Turkish: Osmanlı Hanedanı) consisted of the members of the imperial House of Osman (Ottoman Turkish: خاندان آل عثمان, romanized: Hanedan-ı Al-i ʿOsman), also known as the Ottomans (Turkish: Osmanlılar). According to Ottoman tradition, the family originated from the Kayı tribe branch of the Oghuz Turks, under Osman I in northwestern Anatolia in the district of Bilecik, Sögüt. The Ottoman dynasty, named after Osman I, ruled the Ottoman Empire from c. 1299 to 1922. The Ottoman dynasty operated under several basic premises: that the Sultan governed the empire's entire territory, that every male member of the dynastic family was hypothetically eligible to become Sultan, and that only one person at a time could be the Sultan. Such rules were fairly standard for monarchic empires of the time. The certain processes through which men rose to the Sultanate, however, were very specific to the Ottoman Empire. To go into greater detail about these processes, the history of succession between Sultans can be divided into two eras: the period between the reign of Orhan (1323–1362), the first person to inherit the Ottoman sultanate, and the reign of Ahmed I (1603–1617); and the period following Ahmed I's reign. The succession process during the first period was dominated by violence and intra-familial conflict,
in which the various sons of the deceased Sultan fought until only one remained alive and, thus, inherited the throne. During the second period, the tradition of fratricide was replaced by a simpler and less violent procedure. Starting with the succession from Ahmed I to Mustafa I in 1617, the Ottoman throne was inherited by the eldest male blood relative – not necessarily the son – of the Sultan, regardless of how many eligible family members were alive. The change in succession procedure was likely instigated by numerous factors, including fratricide’s decline in popularity among Ottoman elites and Ahmed I’s decision not to kill Mustafa when inheriting the throne from Mehmed III in 1603. With the door open for a policy change, a political debate arose between those who supported unrestricted Sultanic privilege and those who supported a stronger, centralized law system that would supersede even the Sultan’s power to an extent. Historian Baki Tezcan has argued that the latter faction – with the help of the influential seyhülislam Hocazade Esad Efendi – was able to prevail in this instance. The bloodless succession from Ahmed I to Mustafa I in 1617 "provided a reference for the eventual stabilization of the rule of Ottoman succession, the very regulation of which by an outside force was in effect a constitutional check on the dynastic prerogative," Tezcan has written. The precedent set in 1617 stuck, as the eldest living family member successfully inherited the throne in each of the following 21 successions, with relatively few instances of a son inheriting the throne.
The sultan is dressed in the ceremonial uniform of the Sultan as commander-in-chief of the Ottoman armed forces. He wears the collar of the Order of the House of Osman and the sash of the Order of Glory. On the tsar's chest there are stars of three Ottoman orders: the Order of Distinction, Order of the Medjidie and Order of Osmanieh.
