Öz
Neither discussions about an indispensable element of modern state systems; Neither the bureaucracy, which is often regarded as an indispensable structure for a gangrene, nor about Sultan Abdulhamid II, one of the most impressive leaders of the Turkish world, do not seem to end soon. In this study, Abdulhamid's management understandings on foreign policy, domestic policy, economy, education, justice services and military were examined and some determinations were made about their place in the Ottoman bureaucratic structure. Often times, the milestones that Abdulhamid II who is mentioned with tyranny, one-manhood, centralism and reaction, laid in the process of Turkish modernization are ignored. As a matter of fact, he is the first sultan to open a parliament in Ottoman history and to declare a constitution for the first time. However, when he came to the throne, his struggle with the corrupt bureaucracy in power led him to take contradictory decisions from time to time. Especially after Tanzimat, the modernization of the Ottoman bureaucracy took place in the cultural field rather than in the scientific or technological fields, and the bureaucracy gradually took the authority of the state by bringing itself to a privileged position. After Abdulhamid II came to the throne, he started to struggle with the bureaucracy by reconnecting the state authority to the palace. However, this struggle is not with the aim of destroying the bureaucracy; It was carried out in order to institutionalize it by removing it from the arbitrary and to ensure loyalty to the palace. Abdulhamid II, who burned the modernization movements in many areas, made very important arrangements in order to modernize the bureaucracy. The inheritor of the bureaucratic structure designed by Abdulhamid II was the Republic of Turkey.