Abdul Hamid I

Abdülhamid I took the throne in 1774 with empty coffers and ambitions to overhaul the Janissaries and navy. A devout man inclined toward peace, he faced revolts in Syria, Egypt, and Greece that he managed to suppress. But the external losses defined him: the 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca handed Russia not just territory but religious influence inside Ottoman lands, and Crimea slipped away for good. Defeats by Russia and Austria kept coming. When the fortress of Ochakov fell in 1788, he died soon after—sixty-four years old, his reforms unfinished, the empire smaller than he'd found it.