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Mehmed V Reşâd (; 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. He had little influence over government affairs and the Ottoman constitution was held with little regard by his ministries. The first half of his reign was marked by increasingly polarizing politics, and the second half by war and domination of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and the Three Pashas.
Reşad was the son of Sultan Abdülmecid I. Abdulmecid, Coskun Cakir, Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, ed. Gábor Ágoston, Bruce Alan Masters, (Infobase Publishing, 2009), 9. He succeeded his half-brother Abdul Hamid II after the 31 March Incident. Coming to power in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt, his nine-year reign featured three coups d'etat, four wars, eleven governments, and numerous uprisings. The Italo-Turkish War saw the cession of the Empire's territories and the Dodecanese Islands, including Rhodes, during which the CUP was forced out of power by the military. This was followed 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. East Thrace was retaken in the Second Balkan War.
The Ottomans entered World War I in November 1914, upon which Mehmed declared a jihad against the Allies. In 1915, Ottoman forces successfully fended off an Allied invasion at Gallipoli and captured a large British garrison at Kut. During that year, the CUP initiated the Armenian genocide against the Sultan's wishes, though his private disapproval over his governments' actions was inconsequential. By Mehmed V's death on 3 July 1918, defeat loomed on the Palestinian and . With military collapse in the field and the Arab Revolt spelling impending disaster, the Ottomans signed the Armistice of Mudros during the reign of his successor Mehmed VI.
In 1856, aged twelve, he was ceremoniously circumcised together with his younger half-brothers, Şehzade Ahmed Kemaleddin, Şehzade Mehmed Burhaneddin, and Şehzade Ahmed Nureddin. (1993). 9789757306078, Kültür Bakanlığı. ISBN 9789757306078
Şehzade Reşad received his education at the palace. Halid Ziya, the chief clerk of the Chamberlain's office between 1909 and 1912, described this as being a poor one. Thanks to his comparatively high intelligence, however, he made good use of the education he had. He studied Arabic and Persian language, and spoke the latter very well. He took piano lessons from an Italian pianist and calligraphy lessons from a famous Ottoman calligrapher, Kazasker Mustafa Izzet Efendi, who designed the giant pendant medallions of the Hagia Sophia. In addition to Persian literature, Reşad was also interested in Mevlevi Order and the Masnavi.
He enjoyed the company of his uncle Abdulaziz. Reşad became Crown prince in 1876 with the ascension of his half-brother Sultan Abdul Hamid II, but was essentially kept in house arrest in Dolmabahçe Palace under close surveillance. For a variety of reasons, especially superstitious ones, Abdul Hamid abhorred his half-brother. It was said that Abdul Hamid was afraid of the evil eye of his brother and that he had sacrifices made, held prayers, and incense burned immediately after he left the palace when he came to congratulate him on holidays. He was even heard to say, "I am doing my brother a great favor by not showing myself to the public" out of concern that his half-brother might be indiscreet. The belief in his bad luck began when he learned a favorite mare of his died hours after taking a walk around the palace stables with Prince Reşad. Abdul Hamid did have grounded reasons to be suspicious of Reşad, who maintained a correspondence with exiled Young Turks.
After the lifting of many restrictions in the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution Reşad earned popularity as crown prince by attending ceremonies that celebrated the constitution, much to the chagrin of his previously absolutist half-brother.Sakaoğlu, Necdet (1999) Bu Mülkün Sultanları, İstanbul:Oğlak Yayınları p. 486
Because of his house imprisonment, Reşad sat on the throne at the age of 65 and with no experience in state affairs. His time as a Şehzade was sheltered because of his bad relationship with his now deposed half-brother. Due to his meek, weak-willed, and naïve personality and the strength of the Committee of Union and Progress, the government was firmly out of his hands. When the CUP asked something from him he would immediately acquiesce without push back, typically replying "I am pleased!" or "I am humbled!" The Sultan was incredibly afraid of the men of action of the CUP, and the possibility he could end up like one of his predecessors: His uncle Abdul Aziz was deposed and died in suspicious circumstances, his half-brother Murad V was deposed by the Young Ottomans after suffering a nervous breakdown and held in house arrest for the rest of his life, and Abdul Hamid was now deposed (and held in house arrest in Salonika) after his palace and harem was ransacked.
The sultan complained to one of the few companions he had: Elif Efendi, Sheikh of the Sütlüce Sadi Sufi order, of the situation he was in. “Everyone complains that I do not interfere in anything, and that I do not even use the rights given to me by the Constitution. However, if I did not do this, these guys the would send me to Konya and declare a republic. I am doing this for the survival of the sultanate that was the legacy of my ancestors.” When the sultan was asked to take a more proactive approach to politics as the CUP stirred up trouble, Reşad responded "Everyone tells me not interfere in business. What was my brother’s crime if I interfered with the Constitutional Monarchy?"
On May 5, 1909, Ahmed Tevfik Pasha, Abdul Hamid II's last grand vizier who was appointed in the middle of the 31 March Crisis, resigned under the pressure from the CUP, and a new government more favorable to the committee was formed under the grand viziership of Hüseyin Hilmi Pasha.
Right after ascending the throne, he made an imperial tour of Bursa, to demonstrate the monarchy's new openness to the people. His entourage also included the Crown Prince Yusuf İzzeddin, Mehmed VI, Grand Vizier Hüseyin Hilmi, Minister of the Navy Arif Hikmet Pasha and the official historian of the state Abdurrahman Şeref Efendi. He embarked on another imperial tour of Edirne in 1910, with Prince Vahdeddin, Grand Vizier İbrahim Hakkı Pasha, Foreign Minister Rıfat Pasha, and Interior minister Talaat Pasha.
The Albanian Revolt of 1910 broke out and was suppressed by Şevket Pasha, now War Minister. The assassination of Ahmet Samim Bey and the Western-sponsored integration of the Cretan State into Greece threw the sultan into a fit of depression.
In June 1911, he embarked on an imperial tour of Selânik (Salonica, today Thessaloniki) and Manastır (today Bitola), stopping by Florina on the way. He also visited Üsküp (Skopje) and Priştine (Pristina), where he attended at the Tomb of Sultan Murad. The visit was recorded on film and photographs by the Manaki brothers. It would soon prove to be the last visit of an Ottoman sultan to the Rumelian provinces before the catastrophe of the Balkan Wars the following year.
In the backdrop of the 1912 Albanian revolt and the Italian invasion of Libya, due to the CUP's policies of centralization and Turkish nationalism, the 1912 elections were mainly a contest between the CUP and the new Freedom and Accord Party. With the CUP rigging the proceedings to their advantage, the military decided to dispute the results. The Savior Officers demanded the pro-CUP Grand Vizier Mehmed Said Pasha dissolve parliament and to resign, which he did. Reşad appointed Ahmed Muhtar Pasha in his place, who formed a national unity government called the Great Cabinet. Martial law was declared. With defeat in the Balkan Wars, Muhtar Pasha resigned, and was replaced by Kâmil Pasha.
The sudden loss of these enormous swaths of land, which had been Ottoman territory for centuries and were ceded to the Empire's opponents within a span of only two years, was traumatic to the Turks. The CUP organized the 1913 coup d'état, where a party of ~50 Unionists led by Enver Pasha and Talaat Pasha raided the Sublime Porte, and Enver famously demanded Kâmil resign at gunpoint. Upon the Sultan hearing of the news he said "Peki o halde... Hayırlı olsun" ("Well in that case... good luck to").
Muhacir were expelled from their homes and emigrated behind the new Ottoman border surrounding Constantinople. The resulting refugee crisis overwhelmed municipal authorities. It also spelt the end of the Ottomanism movement, which for several decades had advocated equal rights to all citizens of the Empire regardless of ethnicity or religion, in order to foster 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's raison d'être also evaporated, and the country's politics soon began to take on a more exclusionary character, centered around Turkish nationalism. The more extreme elements of a right-wing faction, primarily in the upper echelons of the CUP-dominated government, would go on to commit genocide against the Armenians. (2026). 9780230297784, Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 9780230297784
After the assassination of Mahmud Şevket Pasha, it was discovered a member of the royal family was involved in the plot. Şehzade Kemaleddin's daughter Münire Sultan married Grand Vizier Hayreddin Pasha's son: Salih Pasha. Sultan Reşad had no qualms with signing the death sentence of one of his brothers’ damats. Salih Pasha was tried and sentenced to death, and when Sultan Reşad signed the sentence, he was hanged. Djemal Pasha is said to have threatened the sultan, saying, “If you do not sign this, we will dethrone you too." Münire Sultan cursed her uncle Sultan Reşad, who had authorized her husband’s execution, saying “God willing, his beard will be stained with blood!”, the grey-haired sovereign defended himself along the lines of “What could I do? Enver put his gun to my head, I signed it” and tried to compensate for his cognitive dissonance by snapping the pen which he signed the decision.
Despite his preference that the country stayed out of further conflict, Sultan Reşad's most significant political act was to formally declare a jihad against the Triple Entente on 14 November 1914, following the Ottoman government's decision to join the First World War on the side of the Central Powers.Lawrence Sondhaus, World War One: The Global Revolution, (Cambridge University Press, 2011), 91. He was actually said to look with disfavour on the pro-German policy of Enver Pasha, but could do little to prevent war due to the sultanate's diminished influence. This was the last genuine proclamation of jihad in history by a Caliph, as the Caliphate was abolished in 1924. As a direct result of the declaration of war, the British annexed British Cyprus, while the Khedivate of Egypt proclaimed its independence and was turned into a British protectorate; these provinces had at least been under nominal Ottoman rule. The proclamation had no noticeable effect on the war, despite the fact that many Muslims lived in Ottoman territories. Some Arabs eventually joined the British forces against the Ottoman Empire with the Arab Revolt in 1916.
Reşad hosted Kaiser Wilhelm II, his World War I ally, in Constantinople on 15 October 1917. He was made Generalfeldmarschall of the Kingdom of Prussia on 27 January 1916, and of the German Empire on 1 February 1916. He was also made a Feldmarschall of Austria-Hungary on 19 May 1918.
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