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Mehmed V photo by Unknown-.

Top 10 amazing facts about Mehmed V

Mehmed V Reşâd was the 35th and penultimate Ottoman Sultan. Resad was born in the Old Çırağan Palace, Constantinople on the 2nd of November 1844. He was the son of Sultan Abdulmejid I.

He ascended the throne after the 31 March Incident. He had succeeded his half-brother Abdul Hamid II and was later succeeded by his half-brother Mehmed VI.

He is historically known for being the oldest person to ascend the Ottoman throne at the age of 64. He ruled for 9 years and was linked to the coup d’etat of the Ottoman empire.

During his reign, the empire lost all three strongholds, the First Balkan War, and the entry of the Ottoman Empire into World War I in 1914. He died at the age of 9 years at Yıldız Palace on the 3rd of July 1918.

1. He reigned as the 35th and penultimate Ottoman Sultan

Mehmed V photo by Unknown-.

Resad served as the second-last sultan of the Ottoman empire before it collapsed. The 35th sultan’s reign began at the conclusion of the 31 March Incident.

Initially, he was a figurehead with no real political power, as a consequence of the demonstration of the CUP’s power in the 31 March Incident and the Young Turk Revolution. 

He regained power after the coup d’état in 1913 of the CUP. This brought the dictatorial triumvirate of the Three Pashas to power.

2. Mehmed succeeded his half-brother Abdul Hamid II after the 31 March Incident

Mehmed V photo by Bain News Service, publisher-.

Abdul Hamid II was the 34th sultanate of the Ottoman Empire and the last sultan to exert effective control over the fracturing state. He was the half-brother of Resad Mehmed V.

He oversaw a period of decline with rebellions and presided over an unsuccessful war with the Russian Empire followed by a successful war against the Kingdom of Greece in 1897.

He lost the throne after the 31 March Incident during the Second Constitutional Era. This was a political crisis within the Ottoman Empire.

It occurred soon after the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 in which the Committee of Union and Progress had successfully restored the Constitution and ended the absolute rule of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

The crisis ended after eleven days when troops loyal to the CUP restored order in Istanbul. Mehmed V then became the sultan afterward.

3. After his mother’s demise his siblings were entrusted to Servetseza Kadın

Mehmed V photo by Carl Pietzner-.

Resad’s father was Sultan Abdulmejid I, and his mother was Gülcemal Kadın. He had three elder sisters, Fatma Sultan, Refia Sultan, and Hatice Sultan.

His mother died in 1851 and his care together with his sisters was entrusted to Servetseza Kadın.Servetseza Kadın was Sultan Abdulmejid’s senior consort.

She had the sultan herself take the motherless children under her wing, raise them as her own, and carried out the duties of a mother who cares for her children with compassion and concern.

4. Mehmed V was the oldest person to ascend the Ottoman throne

Mehmed V photo by Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr.-.

Mehmed only came into power after the 31 March Incident. The sometimes referred to attempted countercoup or counterrevolution consisted of a general uprising against the CUP within Istanbul.

It was largely led by reactionary groups, particularly Islamists opposed to the secularizing influence of the CUP and supporters of absolutism. Mehmed V Resad then became the sultan in 1909. He became the oldest person in the office at age of 64 in the Ottoman Empire.

5. He achieved great feats as a child

Mehmed received educated at the palace which was regarded as poor by the chief clerk of the Chamberlain’s office, Halid Ziya.  Fortunately, Mehmed did not let this deter him.

He had comparatively high intelligence and made good use of the education he had and used it to go further. He became bilingual studying Arabic and Persian and spoke quite efficiently.

He went ahead and took piano lessons from an Italian pianist. In addition, he learned calligraphy from a famous Ottoman calligrapher, Kazasker Mustafa Izzet Efendi. The calligrapher had also designed the giant pendant medallions of the Hagia Sophia

6. Under his rule, the Empire lost all three strongholds in the First Balkan War

When Mehmed V came to power the country had undergone major authoritative changes.

The empire lost all its remaining territory in North Africa, the Dodecanese to Italy in the Italo-Turkish War, and nearly all its European territories during the First Balkan War.

The war which had involved actions of the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire only left a small strip of land west of Constantinople under Ottoman rule.

The empire soon made some small gains in the following war, recapturing the peninsula comprising East Thrace up to Edirne.

The victory of this war was lowly regarded since the bulk of Ottoman territories that they had fought to keep had been lost forever.

7. His most significant political act was to formally declare jihad against the Entente Powers

After the loss of bulky Ottoman territories, Mehmed preferred the country to stay out of any further conflict. Mehmed V still showed vigilance by declaring jihad against the Entente Powers.

In November 1914 jihad was declared against the powers of the Triple Entente during World War I.

This was after the Ottoman government’s decision to join the First World War.

Mehmed was said to look with disfavor on the pro-German policy of Enver Pasha but could do little to prevent war due to the sultanate’s diminished influence since he overthrew his half-brother.

8. The sudden loss of land culminated in the 1913 Ottoman coup d’etat

After the sudden loss of these enormous swathes of land, which had been Ottoman territory for centuries the government received a massive popular backlash.

This resulted in the 1913 Ottoman coup d’etat. A coup d’etat is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers.

In addition, the Ottomanism movement ended that for several decades had advocated equal rights to all citizens of the Empire regardless of ethnicity or religion.

This was to create a communal sense of belonging and allegiance to the Ottoman state. With the loss of the Empire’s ethnic minorities in Rumelia and North Africa, the movement lost much of its impetus.

9. Mehmed died at Yıldız Palace at the age of 73

Mehmed ascended to the throne at age 64. He served for 9 years. The Ottoman Empire was on the verge of collapse with three major territories lost and the 1913 Ottoman coup d’état.

Resad spent most of his life at the Dolmabahçe Palace and Yıldız Palace in Istanbul. Mehmed V died on the 3rd of July 1918 only four months before the end of World War I.

He did not live to see the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. His grave is in the Eyüp district of modern Istanbul.

10. He was awarded numerous ottoman and foreign honors

Mehmed has received numerous accolades during his time. He was awarded 4 ottoman honors.

He was awarded the Grand Master of the Order of the Crescent, Order of Glory, Order of the Medjidie, and the Order of Osmanieh.

He also received three foreign honors. He received the Grand Cross of St. Stephen, in Diamonds in 1914, the Knight of the Military Order of Max Joseph, and the Grand Cross of the Star of Karađorđe.