Turkey under Abdul Hamid I (Sultan: 24 December 1773 - 7 April 1789)
AH 1187 1774-1784 AD Silver 2 Zolota 44mm (26.46 grams)
Reference: KM# 401
السلطان عبدالحميد بن احمد خان دام ملكه ضرب في قسطنطينية ١١٨٧ , Sultan Abdulhamid bin Ahmed Han dame mulke darebe fi kostantiniye 1187.
سلطان البرّين و خاقان البحرين السلطان ابن ١٠ السلطان, sultan ul berreyn ve hakan ul bahreyn es sultan ibn es sultan.

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Abdülhamid I, Abdul Hamid I or Abd Al-Hamid I (Ottoman Turkish: عبد الحميد اول‎, `Abdü'l-Ḥamīd-i evvel; Turkish: Birinci Abdülhamit; 20 March 1725 - 7 April 1789) was the 27th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, reigning over the Ottoman Empire from 1773 to 1789.

Early life

He was born in Constantinople, a younger son of Sultan Ahmed III (reigned 1703-1730) and his consort Şermi Kadın. Ahmed III abdicated in favor of his nephew Mahmud I, who was succeeded by his brother Osman III, and Osman by Ahmed's elder son Mustafa III. As a potential heir to the throne, Abdul Hamid was imprisoned in comfort by his cousins and older brother, as was customary. This lasted until 1767. During this period, he received his early education from his mother Rabia Şermi, who taught him history and calligraphy.

When his brother Mustafa III died, Abdul Hamid succeeded him on 21 January 1774.

Reign

Abdul Hamid's long imprisonment had left him indifferent to state affairs and malleable to the designs of his advisors.^{[citation needed]} Yet he was also very religious and a pacifist by nature. At his accession the financial straits of the treasury were such that the usual donative could not be given to the Janissary Corps. The new Sultan told the Janissaries "There are no longer gratuities in our treasury, as all of our soldier sons should learn."

Despite his pacific inclinations, the Ottoman Empire was forced to renew the ongoing war with Russia almost immediately. This led to complete Turkish defeat at Kozludzha and the humiliating Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, signed on 21 July 1774. The Ottomans ceded territory to Russia, and also the right to intervene on behalf of the Orthodox Christians in the Empire.

Abdul Hamid now sought to reform the Empire's armed forces. He enumerated the Janissary corps and tried to renovate it, and also the navy. He established a new artillery corps. He was also credited with the creation of the Imperial Naval Engineering School.

Abdul Hamid tried to strengthen Ottoman rule over Syria, Egypt, and Iraq. However, slight successes against rebellions in Syria and the Morea could not compensate for the loss of the Crimean Peninsula, which had become nominally independent in 1774, but was in practice now controlled by Russia.

Russia repeatedly exploited its position as protector of Eastern Christians to interfere in the Ottoman Empire, and explicitly. Finally the Ottomans declared war against Russia in 1787. Austria soon joined Russia. Turkey held its own in the conflict, at first, but on 6 December 1788, Ochakov fell to Russia (all of its inhabitants being massacred). It is said that this sad defeat broke Abdul Hamid's spirit, as he died four months later.

In spite of his failures, Abdul Hamid was regarded as the most gracious Ottoman Sultan. He personally directed the fire brigade during the Constantinople fire of 1782. He was admired by the people for his religious devotion, and was even called a Veli ("saint"). He also outlined a reform policy, supervised the government closely, and worked with statesmen.

In 1789, Tipu Sultan, ruler of the Sultanate of Mysore sent an embassy to Abdul Hamid, urgently requesting assistance against the British East India Company, and proposed an offensive and defensive alliance. Abdul Hamid informed the Mysori ambassadors that the Ottomans were still entangled and exhausted from the ongoing war with Russia and Austria.

Abdul Hamid died on 7 April 1789, at the age of sixty-four, in Constantinople. He was buried in Bahcekapi, a tomb he had built for himself.

He bred Arabian horses with great passion. One breed of Küheylan Arabians was named "Küheylan Abdülhamid" after him.

Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey (Turkish:  Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info); pronounced [ˈtyɾcije d͡ʒumˈhuɾijeti]), is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries with Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the south. The country is encircled by seas on three sides with the Aegean Sea to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, which together form the Turkish Straits, divide Thrace and Anatolia and separate Europe and Asia. Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the country's citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks. Kurds are the largest minority at about 20% of the population, and other ethnic minorities include Circassians, Albanians, Arabs, Bosniaks and Laz. Minority languages spoken today in Turkey include Kurmanji, Arabic, Zaza, Kabardian and several others.

The area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic age by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Great conquered these lands, the area was Hellenized, a process which continued under the Roman Empire and its transition into the Byzantine Empire. The Seljuk Turks began migrating into the area in the 11th century, and their victory over the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 symbolizes the start of Turkification in Anatolia. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, when it disintegrated into small Turkish beyliks.

From the end of the 13th century the Ottomans started uniting Turkish principalities in Anatolia and then went on to create an empire that encompassed much of Southeast Europe, West Asia and North Africa. The Ottoman Empire became a world power beginning with the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent in the early modern period. It remained powerful and influential for two more centuries, until important setbacks in the 18th and 19th century forced it to cede strategic territories in Europe, which signalled the loss of its former military strength and wealth. After the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état, which effectively put the country under the control of the Three Pashas, the Ottoman Empire decided to join the Central Powers during World War I. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian and Pontic Greek subjects. Following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. The Turkish War of Independence, initiated by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his colleagues against occupying Allies, resulted in the abolition of monarchy in 1922 and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, with Atatürk as its first president. Atatürk enacted numerous reforms, many of which incorporated various aspects of western thought, philosophy, and customs into the new form of Turkish government.

Turkey is a charter member of the UN, an early member of NATO, the IMF and the World Bank, and a founding member of the OECD, OSCE, BSEC, OIC and G-20. After becoming one of the first members of the Council of Europe in 1949, Turkey became an associate member of the EEC in 1963, joined the EU Customs Union in 1995 and started accession negotiations with the European Union in 2005 which have been effectively stopped by the EU in 2017 due to "Turkey's path toward autocratic rule". Turkey's economy and diplomatic initiatives led to its recognition as a regional power while its location has given it geopolitical and strategic importance throughout history.

Turkey is a secular, unitary, parliamentary republic; slated to transition to a presidential system in 2019, following a 2017 referendum. However, Turkey's current administration headed by president Tayyip Erdoğan of the AKP has enacted measures to increase the influence of Islam, reversed and undermined secularist policies, and has reversed earlier reforms such as Freedom of the Press.