gradually the reins of absolute power into his own hands,
being animated by a profound distrust, not unmerited, of his
ministers. Financial embarrassments forced him to consent to
a foreign control over the Debt, and the decree of December
1881, whereby many of the revenues of the empire were handed
over to the Public Debt Administration for the benefit of the
bondholders, was a sacrifice of principle to which he could
only have consented with the greatest reluctance. Trouble in
Egypt, where a discredited khedive had to be deposed, trouble
on the Greek frontier and in Montenegro, where the Powers were
determined that the decisions of the Berlin Congress should
be carried into effect, were more or less satisfactorily got
over. In his attitude towards Arabi, the would-be saviour of
Egypt, Abd-ul-Hamid showed less than his usual astuteness, and
the resulting consolidation of England's hold over the country
contributed still further to his estrangement from Turkey's old
ally. The union in 1885 of Bulgaria with Eastern Rumelia, the
severance of which had been the great triumph of the Berlin
Congress, was another blow. Few people south of the Balkans
dreamed that Bulgaria could be anything but a Russian province,
and apprehension was entertained of the results of the union
until it was seen that Russia really and entirely disapproved of
it. Then the best was made of it, and for some years the sultan
preserved towards Bulgaria an attitude skilfully calculated
so as to avoid running counter either to Russian or to German
wishes. Germany's friendship was not entirely disinterested,
and had to be fostered with a railway or loan concession from
time to time, until in 1899 the great object aimed at, the
Bagdad railway, was conceded. Meanwhile, aided by docile
instruments, the sultan had succeeded in reducing his ministers
to the position of secretaries, and in concentrating the
mhole administration of the country into his own hands at
Yildiz. But internal dissension was not thereby lessened.
Crete was constantly in turmoil, the Greeks were dissatisfied,
and from about 1890 the Armenians began a violent agitation
with a view to obtaining the reforms promised them at
Berlin. Minor troubles had occurred in 1892 and 1893 at
Marsovan and Tokat. In 1894 a more serious rebellion in
the mountainous region of Sassun was ruthlessly stamped
out; the Powers insistently demanded reforms, the eventual
grant of which in the autumn of 1895 was the signal for a
series of massacres, brought on in part by the injudicious
and threatening acts of the victims, and extending over many
months and throughout Asia Minor, as well as in the capital
itself. The reforms became more or less a dead letter.
Crete indeed profited by the grant of extended privileges,
but these did not satisfy its turbulent population, and early
in 1897 a Greek expedition salled to unite the island to
Greece. War followed, in which Turkey was easily successful
and gained a small rectification of frontier; then .a few
months later Crete was taken over ``en depot'' by the Four
Powers---Germany and Austria not participating,---and Prince
George of Greece was appointed their mandatory. In the next year
the sultan received the visit of the German emperor and empress.
Abd-ul-Hamid had always resisted the pressure of the European
Powers to the last moment, in order to seem to yield only
to overwhelming force, while posing as the champion of Islam
against aggressive Christendom. The Panislamic propaganda
was encouraged; the privileges of foreigners in the Ottoman
Empire-often an obstacle to government--were curtailed; the
new railway to the Holy Places was pressed on, and emissaries
were sent to distant countries preaching Islam and the
caliph's supremacy. This appeal to Moslem sentiment was,
however, powerless against the disaffection due to perennial
misgovernment. In Mesopotamia and Yemen disturbance was
endemic; nearer home, a semblance of loyalty was maintained
in the army and among the Mussulman population by a system
of delation and espionage, and by wholesale arrests; while,
obsessed by terror of assassination, the sultan withdrew
himself into fortified seclusion in the palace of Yildiz.
The national humiliation of the situation in Macedonia
(q.v.), together with the resentment in the army against
the palace spies and informers, at last brought matters to a
crisis. The remarkable revolution associated with the names
of Niazi Bey and Enver Bey, the young Turk leaders, and
the Committee of Union and Progress is described elsewhere
(see TURKEY: History); here it must suffice to say that
Abd-ul-Hamid, on learning of the threat of the Salonica troops
to march on Constantinople (July 23), at once capitulated.
On the 24th an irade announced the restoration of the
suspended constitution of 1875; next day, further irades
abolished espionage and the censorship, and ordered the
release of political prisoners. On the 10th of December
the sultan opened the Turkish parliament with a speech
from the throne in which he said that the first parliament
had been ``temporarily dissolved until the education of
the people had been brought to a sufficiently high level
by the extension of instruction throughout the empire.''
The correct attitude of the sultan did not save him from
the suspicion of intriguing with the powerful reactionary
elements in the state, a suspicion confirmed by his attitude
towards the counter-revolution of the 13th of April, when
an insurrection of the soldiers and the Moslem populace of
the capital overthrew the committee and the ministry. The
comittee, restored by the Salonica troops, now decided on
Abdul-Hamid's deposition, and on the 27th of April his brother
Reshid Effendi was proclaimed sultan as Mahommed V. The
ex-sultan was conveyed into dignified captivity at Salonica.
ABD-UL-MEJID (1823-.1861), sultan of Turkey, was born on
the 23rd of April 1823, and succeeded his father Mahmud II.
on the 2nd of July 1839. Mahmud appears to have been unable
to effect the reforms he desired in the mode of educating
his children, so that his son received no better education
than that given, according to use and wont, to Turkish
princes in the harem. When Abd-ul-Mejid succeeded to the
throne, the affairs of Turkey were in an extremely critical
state. At the very time his father died, the news was on
its way to Constantinople that the Turkish army had been
signally defeated at Nezib by that of the rebel Egyptian
viceroy, Mehemet Ali; and the Turkish fleet was at the same
time on its way to Alexandria, where it was handed over by its
commander, Ahmed Pasha, to the same enemy, on the pretext
that the young sultan's advisers were sold to Russia. But
through the intervention of the European Powers Mehemet Ali
was obliged to come to terms, and the Ottoman empire was saved.
(See MEHEMET ALI.) In compliance with his father's express
instructions, Abd-ul-Mejid set at once about carrying out
the reforms to which Mahmud had devoted himself. In November
1839 was proclaimed an edict, known as the Hatt-i-sherif of
Dulhane, consolidating and enforcing these reforms, which
was supplemented at the close of the Crimean war by a similar
statute issued in February 1856. By these enactments it was
provided that all classes of the sultan's subjects should
have security for their lives and property; that taxes should
be fairly imposed and justice impartially administered; and
that all should have full religious liberty and equal civil
rights. The scheme met with keen opposition from the Mussulman
governing classes and the ulema, or privileged religious
teachers, and was but partially put in force, especially in
the remoter parts of the empire; and more than one conspiracy
was formed against the sultan's life on account of it. Of
the other measures of reform promoted by Abd-ul-Mejid the more
important were---the reorganization of the army (1843-1844),
the institution of a council of public instruction (1846),
the abolition of an odious and unfairly imposed capitation
tax, the repression of slave trading, and various provisions
for the better administration of the public service and for
the advancement of commerce. For the public history of his
times--the disturbances and insurrections in different parts of
his dominions throughout his reign, and the great war successfully
carried on against Russia by Turkey, and by England, France and
Sardinia, in the interest of Turkey(1853-1856)-- see TURKEY,
and CRIMEAN WAR. When Kossuth and others sought refuge in
Turkey, after the failure of the Hungarian rising in 1849,
the sultan was called on by Austria and Russia to surrender
them, but boldly and determinedly refused. It is to his
credit, too, that he would not allow the conspirators against
his own life to be put to death. He bore the character of
being a kind and honourable man, if somewhat weak and easily
led. Against this, however, must be set down his excessive
extravagance, especially towards the end of his life. He
died on the 25th of June 1861, and was succeeded by his
brother, Abd-ul-Aziz, as the oldest survivor of the family of
Osman. He left several sons, of whom two, Murad V. and
Abd-ul-Hamid II., eventually succeeded to the throne. In his
reign was begun the reckless system of foreign loans, carried
to excess in the ensuing reign, and culminating in default,
which led to the alienation of European sympathy from Turkey
and, indirectly, to the dethronement and death of Abd-ul-Aziz.
ABDUR RAHMAN KHAN, amir of Afghanistan (c. 1844-1901),
was the son of Afzul Khan, who was the eldest son of Dost
Mahomed Khan, the famous amir, by whose success in war the
Barakzai family established their dynasty in the rulership of
Afghanistan. Before his death at Herat, 9th June 1863, Dost
Mahomed had nominated as his successor Shere Ali, his third
son, passing over the two elder brothers, Afzul Khan and Azim
Khan; and at first the new amir was quietly recognized. But
after a few months Afzul Khan raised an insurrection in the
northern province, between the Hindu Kush mountains and the
Oxus, where he had been governing when his father died; and
then began a fierce contest for power among the sons of Dost
Mahomed, which lasted for nearly five years. In this war,
which resembles in character, and in its striking vicissitudes,
the English War of the Roses at the end of the 15th century,
Abdur Rahman soon became distinguished for ability and daring
energy. Although his father, Afzul Khan, who had none of
these qualities, came to terms with the Amir Shere Ali, the
son's behaviour in the northern province soon excited the
amir's suspicion, and Abdur Rahman: when he was summoned to
Kabul, fled across the Oxus into Bokhara. Shere Ali threw
Afzul Khan into prison, and a serious revolt followed in
south &fghanistan; but the amir had scarcely suppressed it by
winning a desperate battle, when Abdur Rahman's reapearance
in the north was a signal for a mutiny of the troops
stationed in those parts and a gathering of armed bands to his
standard. After some delay and desultory fighting, he and
his uncle, Azim Khan, occupied Kabul (March 1866). The amir
Shere All marched up against them from Kandahar; but in the
battle that ensued at Sheikhabad on 10th May he was deserted
by a large body of his troops, and after his signal defeat
Abdur Rahman released his father, Afzul Elian, from prison
in Ghazni, and installed him upon the throne as amir of
Afghanistan. Notwithstanding the new amir's incapacity, and
some jealousy between the real leaders, Abdur Rahman and his
