He succeeded his brother, Mustapha III., in 1774. He was twice involved in wars with Russia. By the treaty of Kutchuk-Kainardji in 1774, he was compelled to relinquish his suzerainty over the Crimea and other Tartar regions. In 1788 the town of Otchakov was stormed by the Russians, a humiliation that doubtless hastened his death. Consult: Assim Tarischi, History of Abd-ul-Hamid and Selim III. (Constantinople, 1867).
ABD-UL-HAMID II. (1842—). Thirty-fourth sultan of the Ottoman Empire; second son of Abd-ul-Medjid. He was born September 22, 1842, and succeeded to the throne August 31, 1876, on the deposition of his elder brother, Murad V. Abd-ul-Hamid came to power at a trying time. The insurrection in Bosnia and Herzegovina was gaining strength, Servia had declared open war upon Turkey, and Russia was fomenting the spirit of dissatisfaction in the Slav states tributary to Turkey. The party of Young Turkey, led by Midhat Pasha, attempted to establish a parliamentary government and to escape European control just when the aid of Europe was needed against Russia. The savage measures taken to suppress the revolt in Bulgaria and the failure of all Turkish promises of reform quickly alienated the Powers, who gave Russia a free hand. The Czar declared war in April, 1877, a Russian army at once invaded Turkey, and advanced almost to Constantinople. Turkey was saved only by European jealousy of Russia. The treaty of San Stefano between the belligerents was materially modified by the Congress of Berlin (q.v.), but even then Turkey lost its remaining claims to suzerainty over Montenegro, Servia, and Rumania, yielded all real sovereignty in Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, and lost some of its territory in Asia Minor. The Sultan was bound by the treaty to introduce reforms in the Christian provinces, but he failed to do this, and adopted a distinctly reactionary policy. He took into his own hands the direction of the council of ministers and made his government a personal one. The Armenian outrages from 1895 to 1896 at first aroused the signatory powers of the Berlin treaty to action, but the international relations at the time were complicated, and Abd-ul-Hamid pursued the policy he has always so well understood of eluding all demands for redress or reform by means of promises and excuses, playing off the rival Powers against one another in the meantime. In 1897 a rising in Crete, brought on by Turkish misgovernment, was assisted by Greece and led to war between that country and Turkey, in which Greece was defeated and forced to consent to a rectification of the Thessalian border in favor of Turkey and to pay an indemnity. Conditions which threatened to revive the Eastern question in an acute form were, however, obscured by events in other parts of the world, and Turkish affairs remained quiet. Abd-ul-Hamid stands as the representative of the conservative orthodox Mohammedan party, and has revived the pretension to the actual headship of Islam. Consult: Bérard, La Turquie et l'Hellénisme contemporain (Paris, 1893), and La politique du sultan (Paris, 1897); E. Oilier, Cassell's Illustrated History of the Russo-Turkish War (London, 1900), voluminous, but not critical.
ABDULLÂH IBN ABDUL MUTTALIB, ah-di.il'la 'b'n ali'di.il ninnt-tii'U-b (c. 545-570). The
father of Mohammed. He was an only child, and was about to be sacrificed by his father when another person interfered and persuaded the father to sacrifice a hundred camels instead of the boy. Soon after Abdullah married Amina, a daughter of Wahb, and of this union came the great Prophet. So beautiful was Abdullah that, according to tradition, on the day of his marriage two hundred maidens of Mecca died of broken hearts.
ABDULLAHI IBN SEYID MOHAMMED, ab'dul-Ui'liA "b'n sa-yed' mo-lium'med (c. 1845-99). The "Khalifa," follower of the Mahdi (q.v.), whom he succeeded in 1885. He extended his dominions in the Sudan, but incurred the enmity of his followers by his cruelty. He was defeated by the British under Kitchener at Omdurman, September 2, 1898, and fled to the south with the remainder of his army, which was dispersed in the battle of Om Debrikat, November 24, 1899. Abdullahi himself being slain.
ABD-UL-LATIF, iibd'ul-la-tef (1160-1231). A prolific Arabian writer, physician, and traveler. He was born at Bagdad, and died while on the pilgrimage to Mecca. His early training consisted in memorizing not only the Koran, but also works on law, philology, and the standard poets. He then went to Damascus, whither Saladin had assembled the learned men of the Mohammedan world. Thanks to the liberality of Saladin and with letters of introduction from his vizier, Fadhl. Abd-ul-Latif was able to travel to Egypt, and in Cairo he sought out the great Jewish doctor and philosopher, Maimonides. At Cairo he taught medicine and philosophy (subjects with the Arabs generally combined), but his love of travel brought him to Damascus again and to Aleppo. Of the many works of Abd-ul-Latif only one, The Account of Egypt, is generally known. This was translated into Latin by White (1800) and into French by De Sacy (1810), Relation de l'Egypte (Paris, 1810). Consult Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (Weimar, 1898).
ABD-UL-MEDJID, abd'ul-mc-jed' (1823-61). Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1839
to 1861. He succeeded his father, Mahmud II., at a time when the Turkish Empire was threatened by the ambition of the great Viceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali. The army had been defeated and dispersed by the Egyptians in the battle of Nisib, June 24, 1839, and there was nothing to hinder the victorious Ibrahim Pasha from advancing on Constantinople, where a large party was favorable to the elevation of Mehemet Ali to the sultanate. The intervention of the Christian Powers saved the house of Osman. The treaty of July, 1840, from which France kept aloof, rescued the young Sultan from sure destruction. Mehemet Ali had to submit, November 27, 1840, to the restriction of his power to Egypt; and the treaty of July, 1841, to which France subsequently adhered, settled the future dependent relation of Egypt to Turkey. The Sultan, though not very energetic in body or mind, proceeded in the path of reform begun by Selim III. and Mahmud II. In this he had for his chief adviser Reshid Pasha, an intelligent and humane Mussulman, educated in France. The aim of all his measures was to place the Ottoman population on a footing with the civilized inhabitants of the West. A proclamation of the rights of all subjects, irre-
