Which Ottoman sultan awarded Pasteur the Order of the Medjidie in 1886?

The Ottoman sultan who awarded Pasteur the Order of the Medjidie in 1886 was Abdul Hamid II.

The honor followed Pasteur’s successful development of a rabies treatment. After Pasteur’s celebrated treatment of Joseph Meister in July 1885, the Ottoman government took a keen interest in the new method. Abdul Hamid II sent a medical delegation from Istanbul to Paris to study Pasteur’s work and presented him with the first-class Order of the Medjidie.

The delegation reached Paris in June 1886 and included physicians and a veterinarian associated with the Ottoman medical school. Abdul Hamid II also sent 10,000 francs to support the planned Pasteur Institute. The visit helped transmit bacteriological and rabies-treatment techniques to the Ottoman Empire.

The dates help separate this event from the reigns of other sultans. Abdul Hamid II ruled from 1876 to 1909; Murad V reigned only briefly in 1876, while Abdulaziz died in 1876 and Mehmed V did not become sultan until 1909.