Abdul Hamid II

Abdul Hamid II was the Ottoman sultan who ruled from 1876 to 1909. He suspended the first Ottoman constitution, centralised authority, promoted pan-Islamic legitimacy and faced nationalist movements, foreign pressure and the Young Turk Revolution that restored constitutional government.

Abdul Hamid II also held the offices or ranks of sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Abdul Hamid II belonged to the Ottoman dynasty and operated within Ottoman Empire. Abdul Hamid II was born in Istanbul and died in Beylerbeyi Palace.

Ian Rutledge’s Sea of Troubles sets Abdul Hamid II’s reign within the mounting pressures on the late Ottoman state, especially foreign debt, European intervention, territorial losses and the struggle to reform without surrendering sovereignty. Tariq Ali’s The Stone Woman approaches the same period through fiction: an Ottoman family gathers outside Istanbul in 1899 while the empire under Abdul Hamid faces nationalism, political decay and demands for change, allowing private family divisions to mirror the uncertainty of the wider state.