September 21, 1842 - Abdul Hamid II
His reign began with a constitution and ended with its suspension — a pattern that defined the decades that followed. Ruling as an autocrat for thirty years, Abdul Hamid II presided over the systematic massacre of Armenians and Assyrians in the 1890s, events that drew international condemnation and prefigured the catastrophes of the following century. His use of pan-Islamic ideology and a vast network of spies and informants allowed him to maintain control over a weakening empire even as its territorial losses mounted.
From Wikipedia
Abdülhamid II or Abdul Hamid II (Ottoman Turkish: عبد الحميد ثانی, romanized: Abd ul-Hamid-i s̱ānī; Turkish: II. Abdülhamid; 21 September 1842 – 10 February 1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1876 to 1909, and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He oversaw a period of decline with rebellions (particularly in the Balkans), and presided over an unsuccessful war with the Russian Empire (1877–78), the loss of Egypt, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Tunisia, and Thessaly from Ottoman control (1877–1882), followed by a successful war against Greece in 1897, though Ottoman gains were tempered by subsequent Western European intervention.
Elevated to power in the wake of Young Ottoman coups, he promulgated the Ottoman Empire's first constitution, a sign of the progressive thinking that marked his early rule. But his enthronement came in the context of the Great Eastern Crisis, which began with the Empire's default on its loans, uprisings by Christian Balkan minorities, and a war with the Russian Empire. At the end of the crisis, Ottoman rule in the Balkans and its international prestige were severely diminished, and the Empire lost its economic sovereignty as its finances came under the control of the Great Powers through the Ottoman Public Debt Administration.
In 1878, Abdul Hamid consolidated his rule by suspending both the constitution and the parliament, purging the Young Ottomans, and curtailing the power of the Sublime Porte. He ruled as an autocrat for three decades. Ideologically an Islamist, the sultan asserted his title of Caliph to Muslims around the world.
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