During the Russo-Turkish War, the government in both parts of Kurdistan (Ottoman Kurdistan and Iranian Kurdistan) lost control of the land. After the war there was a famine. There was also a rumour that the Ottoman Empire was going to recognize a new state for the Armenians. Armenians were the largest minority in parts of Kurdistan. At that time, Sheikh Ubeydullah started his rebellion. He hoped to start new Kurdish state whose lands would be both Ottoman Kurdistan and Iranian Kurdistan. The rebellion ended without having this success. The Shi'ite Qajar government punished the Sunni Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan when they took control again. In Ottoman Kurdistan, Sultan Abdul Hamid II started to get support from Muslims by using Islamism, going against the secularization of the modernization reforms. The sultan's government tried to get friends among the Kurdish tribes. In 1891, the sultan started a new Ottoman military unit in the cavalry: the "Hamidiye." Many Kurdish men from the tribes started to work for the government in the "Hamidiye". Abdul Hamid II gave the "Hamidiye" his own name.