The Ottoman Sultan, Abdul Hamid the second ( who ruled from 1876 to 1909), reigned over an empire (including Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia) in the eve of the break.
At the end of his reign, Sultan became paranoid.He never traveled again and rarely appeared in public.
In order to get informed information about the situation in his empire, he had a network of spies, but also photographers who took pictures of his multiethnic state. When in 1909 was forced to resign, his photographic collection of the Yildiz-Saraj remained until moved to the Library of the University of Istanbul.
You can see a series of photos from Albania and the Western Balkans (photos Skopje Kacanik, Ferizaj, Pristina, Shkodra, Podgorica and Ulcinj).
