City of Countless Names- Tanzimat

In the early 1800s, the influence of the Ottoman Empire continued to wane. Corrupt taxes, outdated education, persecution, and military leaders with too much power, held the empire in a stagnant decline. The great reformer, Sultan Mahmud II bought European efficiency to the government (while holding off European invasions) and tried to unite the disparate peoples of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. In 1839, his son, Sultan Abdulmejid, issued the Edict of Gulhane, promising security, justice, and equality to all of his subjects. This radical reform began the Tanzimat period.

Tanzimat (meaning reorganization in Arabic) refers to the proclamations, policies, and legislation of Sultan Mahmud II and his son, the current Sultan Abdulmejid. Mahmud II instilled in his educated sons a desire to modernize the empire. Some worried Abdulmejid wouldn’t follow his father footsteps, but four months after his succession, he continued bringing European style military, economic, and political changes to the empire.

Change is not quick. Nithamiyeen traditionalists, minorities desiring autonomy, military aristocracy, and practically anyone prospering under the old system work to stifle and ignore the reforms. Tanzimat broke from the past, restored the central Ottoman government’s power, and cut away the influence of the pashas, military leaders, and princes. New ideas in an old culture do not always take hold, and only time will tell if the European influences will save or destroy the empire.

Changes in power breed plotters and conspirators. Old Ottomans scheme to bring the empire back on track (whatever that may mean to them in private). Progressive Ottomans work to shape the Empire and their careers. European advisors, diplomats, and engineers flock to Constantinople hoping to help or take advantage of the changes.

Abdulmejid and his Grand Vizier, Mehmed Emin Ali Pasha, now work on a new edict to build on the empire’s progress and lead to further reforms and unity. Some in the Empire worry their allies in the Crimean War, France and England, have too much influence on this new proclamation.

A Few of the Changes Brought by Reforms

Pashas had the authority to give their subjects a death sentence and confiscate the property of those executed or banished.  Mahmud II took away this power much misused by corrupt Pashas. Only the Kadis, Ottoman judges, can sentence a man to death. The sentenced may appeal his case to higher authority, all the way to the Sultan himself.

Anyone wishing to avoid military service or those exempt from military service had to pay the harac, a tax. The collectors of this tax used their authority to threaten and overtax those in their responsibility. Powerful officials taxed locals to pay for their ridiculous expenses as they traveled through the empire. Mahmud’s legislation standardized taxes and gave the job of collecting to the Kadis and the leaders of the ethnic communities in each district.

Mahmud II and Abdulmejid take a greater interest in affairs of state than their predecessors and fight corruption at all levels of government. They simplified the administrative structure of the empire, banished purely ceremonial jobs, and blurred class distinctions by introducing simpler uniforms for the Imperial Household. Mahmud also broke the power of the Dereh Beys, petty potentates using their authority to make their own little kingdoms in the Empire where their word was higher than the Sultan’s law.

Abdulmejid founded European style universities, created a Council of Public Instruction, and started public schools separate from the madrasas (schools attached to mosques). These educational reforms will give a new generation of future Ottomans the skills needed for a modern Empire, such as engineers, mathematics, medicine, and soldiering. Most of the religious authorities in Constantinople find the idea of a secular school intolerable.

Mahmud’s reforms let young men of all races, classes, and beliefs, twenty years or older, enlist in his military for a five-year term. By letting all men in the army, and not just Ottoman Turks, Mahmud hoped to unite them in patriotism. These volunteers make up the bulk of each district’s quota of soldiers with only a little conscription. These soldiers are drilled and trained like the European armies admired by Mahmud, but the reforms have not yet curbed the corruption and incompetency of the army’s officers.

The slave trade’s hooks are deep into the Ottoman Empire, and but harsher regulations reduce its influence and respectability. In 1830, Mahmud freed all white slaves, and his son outlawed the importation of slaves into the Empire, but no punishments exist for anyone caught selling slaves. No regular slave markets exist, but it is no secret man still sells man in Constantinople.

Because a turban’s luxuriousness denoted a man’s status in the Ottoman Empire, and they were a symbol of the defeated Janissaries, Mahmud II ordered his government officials to wear simple fezzes. By banning turbans (and beards for similar reasons), he hoped he could remove another class division in his empire. While this policy is not diligently enforced now, most Turks stuck with the fez.  Only some traditionalists and holy men wear turbans.

The influence of European living seeping into the Ottoman government made acceptable certain practices forbidden by Nithamiyeen teachings. Adherents to the faith saw alcoholic drink as a taboo, but now it’s an open secret (if indecent and scandalous) of society. Even the Sultan seeks relief from the pressures of his position in drink. For traditionalists, this sinful decadence is proof enough of the empire’s degradation.