Abd al-Hamid II

Abd al-Hamid II (1842-1918), sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1876-1909), son of Abd al-Madjid I. He succeeded his brother Murad V, who had been declared insane. In reprisal against Ottoman misrule in the Balkans, Russia declared war against the Ottoman Empire in the second year of Abd al-Hamid's reign. He suffered disastrous military reverses and, by the terms of the Treaty of San Stefano in 1878, was deprived of most of his European territorial possessions. Massacres of Armenians occurred in the Ottoman Empire during 1895 and 1896, but Abd al-Hamid refused to intervene, despite international protests. Internal dissatisfaction with his despotic rule led to the development of the powerful revolutionary organization known as the Young Turks. In 1909 Abd al-Hamid II was deposed and exiled.