Because of his threat to the ruling House of Osman, of which he was a member, and his political activity and push for democracy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he was exiled.

As a follower of Émile Durkheim, Sabahaddin is considered to be one of the founders of sociology in Turkey, influencing thinkers such as Le Play.

Sabahaddin fled the Ottoman Empire in late 1899 with his brother Ahmed Lutfullah and his father, who had fallen out with Abdul Hamid II, first to Great Britain, then to Geneva, to join the Young Turks.

Prince Sabahaddin rose rapidly among the Young Turks in France, having the advantage of being a member of the royal family and son of a government minister.

This division plagued the Young Turk movement before 1908 and would be the central dispute in the more institutionalized political discourse of the Second Constitutional Era.

In the first phase of his career in political opposition (1900–1908), he sought unity between Christians and Muslims, and met with leaders from the respective groups.

He published the journal Terakki, which was the publication organ of the society, and defended the principles of decentralization in administration and “personal enterprise” in economics.

[10] After the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 and the seizure of power by the CUP, Prince Sabahaddin returned to the Ottoman Empire.

After the Raid on the Sublime Porte on 23 January 1913, his supporters planned to overthrow the government and put him into power by carrying out a similar operation.

His body was brought to Turkey in 1952; and he was buried in the Halil Rıfat Pasha Tomb in the Eyüpsultan district of Istanbul, where his father and grandfather's graves are located.

Sabahaddin brought Bennett into the world of spirituality by encouraging him to read Les Grands Initiés ("The Great Initiates") by Édouard Schuré.