Sultanhisar (named after a town in the province of Aydın in the Aegean Region of Turkey) was constructed in 1907 by Schneider & Cie in Chalon-sur-Saône, France, transferred to and commissioned by the Ottoman Navy in the same year.

In October 1912, Sultanhisar was assigned to the Bosporus Fleet Command and later, from 19 December 1912 onward, she served with the Armoured Warship Division. Sultanhisar took part in the Balkan Wars, and after the Ottoman Empire’s entry into the First World War, she assumed the duty of patrolling the Dardanelles Strait and transporting German General Otto Liman von Sanders, an advisor and military commander of the Ottoman Army, between Eceabat and Gelibolu.

Four days after the Allied landings in Gallipoli, on 29 April 1915, Sultanhisar received orders to return to Istanbul but altered her route eastward after reports of a possible enemy submarine in the area. The Australian submarine AE2 had successfully navigated the blocked Dardanelles Strait and entered the Sea of Marmara on 25 April, becoming the first Allied vessel to do so. On 30 April, through the morning fog at the Gulf of Erdek, Sultanhisar sighted the periscope of the AE2, and despite the submarine's attempts to evade, she engaged in torpedo exchange. Eventually, Sultanhisar called for assistance from Turkish gunboats Zuhaf and Aydın Reis. After having been forced to surface, AE2 was hit in the engine room by Sultanhisar's gunfire. AE2’s commander scuttled the submarine, and its crew abandoned the vessel, which sank to the bottom. Sultanhisar rescued the crew of 32 sailors and returned to Gelibolu before heading to Istanbul.

Sultanhisar remained in service until the end of the war and was decommissioned after the Armistice of Mudros in October 1918. Upon the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, she returned to service in 1924 but was ultimately decommissioned in 1928 and broken up in 1935.