The Sultan returning from Friday prayers at the Ayasofya (St Sofia) Mosque, Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey, surrounded by a crowd of people. Sultan Mehmed V Reshad of Turkey (1844-1918) served as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1909 until his death in 1918. He spent much of his life in seclusion until the forced abdication of his brother Sultan Abdul Hamid II at the hands of the Young Turks in 1909. A kindly, gentle man with an interest in Persian literature, Mehmed was effectively little more than a puppet Sultan whose actions were directed by leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress. He was little able to govern of his own accord and thus accepted direction from Young Turk leaders including Enver Pasha.