v11_2496 - TURQUIE - SULTAN ABDOUL HAMID II 50 Piastres en or (50 Kurush) AH 1293, An 23 = 1898 Constantinople

TURKEY - SULTAN ABDUL HAMID II

(AH 1293 1327/ 1876-1909)

Abdoul Hamid II (1842-1918) is the brother of Mourad V (1840-1904), nephew of Abdoul Aziz. He succeeded his brother who was deposed for mental weakness in 1876. Abdoul Hamid bears the nickname "bloody". His reign begins with the Russo-Turkish war and the revolt of the Balkan Christians. The Treaties of San Stéfano and Berlin put an end to the war and marked the emancipation of Bulgaria and Rumelia. Between 1878 and 1909, the Ottoman Empire was gradually dismembered by Western powers who seized most of Ottoman Africa, Tunisia, Tripolitania and Egypt. Abdoul Hamid was finally deposed in 1909.