Celebrating the new Sultan. Sultan Mehmed V Reshad of Turkey (1844 - 1918). Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1909 until his death in 1918, Mehmed - original name Mehmed Resad - 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