Mehmed V

Mehmed V Reşâd (Ottoman Turkish: محمد خامس, romanized: Meḥmed-i ḫâmis; Turkish: V. Mehmed or Mehmed Reşad; 2 November 1844 – 3 July 1918) was the penultimate sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1909 to 1918. Mehmed V reigned as a constitutional monarch, interfering little when it came to government affairs, though the constitution was held with little regard by his ministries. The first half of his reign was marked by contentious politicking between factions of the Young Turks, and the second half by war and domination of the Committee of Union and Progress and the Three Pashas.

Reşad was the son of Sultan Abdulmejid I. He succeeded his half-brother Abdul Hamid II after the 31 March Incident. Coming to power in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt, his nine-year reign featured three coups d'etat, four wars, and numerous uprisings. The Italo-Turkish War saw the cession of the Empire's North African territories and the Dodecanese Islands, including Rhodes, during which the CUP was forced out of power by the military. This was followed up by the traumatic loss of almost all of the Empire's European territories west of Constantinople (now Istanbul) in the First Balkan War, and the return of a now radicalized CUP rule in another coup. Eastern Thrace was retaken in the Second Balkan War.

The Ottomans entered World War I in November 1914 during which Mehmed declared jihad against the Allies. While Ottoman forces successfully fended off an Allied invasion at Gallipoli, defeat loomed on the Caucasian and Mesopotamian fronts. Military collapse in the field and a revolt by the Empire's Arab subjects spelled impending disaster, though Mehmed died before Ottoman surrender, and he was succeeded by Mehmed VI.