Tanzimat (reforms of the Ottoman Empire). Tanzimat reforms in the Ottoman Empire Omsk State Pedagogical University
After the death of Mahmud II, his son Abdulmejid I (1839-1861) announced the continuation of reforms. The beginning of the reign of the young Sultan was very difficult. The ruler himself (a 16-year-old boy) was distinguished by dementia. Before his death, his father was defeated by the Egyptian governor Muhammad Ali. Muhammad Ali, supported by France, claimed the role of regent under the young Sultan. England, Austria, and then Russia opposed French intervention. In difficult conditions, the ruling circles of the Ottoman Empire begin a new stage of reforms. Reforms of the 40-70s. XIX century received the name " tanzimat"(transformation, reformation). In domestic works, these transformations are conventionally divided into two periods.
The first period is from 1839 to 1853, that is, before the start of the Crimean War.
The second period is from 1856 to 1871/1876, that is, until the adoption of the constitution in 1876.
Tanzimat had to solve the most important problems facing the state.
First, to strengthen the economic, political and foreign policy position of the weakening Empire.
Secondly, to create real opportunities for the development of capitalism in Turkey.
Thirdly, prevent the collapse of the country and reduce the intensity of the national liberation movement.
Unlike previous reforms, the main place in tanzimate It is not military reforms that occupy the focus, but socio-economic reforms. The initiative for the reforms belonged to an educated group of the Turkish bureaucracy, headed by Mustafa Reshid Pasha. He announced in Gulhane Park on November 3, 1839 the decree he had drawn up, the Gulhane Hutt-i Sheriff. Mustafa Reshid Pasha - Minister of Foreign Affairs, later Prime Minister, lived for a long time in France and England and had his own program of reforms.
The Gulhanei decree consisted of three parts.
Firstly, he was supposed to provide all subjects of the Empire, regardless of nationality and religious affiliation, with protection of life, honor and property.
Secondly, the decree ordered the streamlining of the collection and distribution of taxes; abolished the tax farming system.
Third, the rules for recruiting soldiers into the army and the duration of military service were established.
IN Hutt-i Sherif It was emphasized that the assigned tasks can be successfully solved only if the government and the people are united. The authors of the project understood that the Empire needed a state ideology that could unite the multinational population of the country. This ideology is proclaimed Ottomanism. It is characterized by declarative internationalism, because supporters Ottomanism advocated “equality and unity of all peoples” inhabiting the Turkish state. Further Ottomanism will become the ideology of the “new Ottomans”, the Young Turks. During the First World War Ottomanism in fact will justify the domination of the Turks over non-Turkish peoples. However, in 1839, contemporaries enthusiastically perceived the ideas tanzimat. Russian Ambassador in Istanbul A.P. Butenev noted that “the proclamation procedure, as well as the style Hutt-i Sheriff somewhat strange and not in accordance with Muslim customs.” Indeed, for the first time in the text of the decree the word “ millet"(people) as a single whole, without ethnic or religious affiliation. Not only the Russian ambassador, but also the French philosopher, founder of positivism, Auguste Comte, approved the idea of “equality and unity” contained in Hutt-i Sherif. At this time, the outstanding philosopher propagated the need to create a single world religion, common to all humanity. In it, he replaced God with Man, believing that the new religion would destroy the religious contradictions and wars existing in the world. Comte addressed suggestions and advice to the Russian Emperor Nicholas I and the great to the vizier Mustafa Reshid Pasha. In 1854, Auguste Comte invited the Ottoman reformer to his society for a new world religion. The philosopher believed that the antagonism between East and West can only be resolved within the framework of a religion that is common to all humanity. This is exactly how Comte understood the problems tanzimat.
However, in the Port itself Hutt-i Sheriff caused discontent among both devout Muslims, who did not even want to formally be on the same level as the “infidels,” and Christians. After all, Christian peoples dreamed of creating independent states.
How were the reforms carried out?
In 1840, a new Criminal Code was adopted, the provisions of which were aimed at strengthening individual rights, ensuring the rule of law and eliminating administrative and judicial arbitrariness.
Much attention was paid to the issue of taxes, as they formed the country's budget. Reformers believed that it was necessary to improve the accounting and control of tax revenues. This is understandable: some provinces refused to pay taxes, in other areas the taxation system reduced real budget revenues to a minimum. The government is abolishing the tax farming system, emergency taxes, corvee, and trying to streamline the collection of taxes from non-Muslims. However, many local regulations were not implemented. Thus, tax farmers did not want to lose their income and “got around” the law in every possible way. The fight against the tax farming system ended in defeat for the reformers.
Military reform was more successful. The country is introducing universal military service for Muslims, and the length of military service is being reduced from 15 to 5-7 years. The government has done a lot in the field of public education. For this purpose, a special “Public Benefit Commission” was created. She checked the level of professional training of teachers and the quality of teaching in schools. The country introduced compulsory primary education for all children, starting from the age of 4-5, and joint education for boys and girls. On the initiative of the Commission, two schools for orphans were founded. Education reform has revealed ardent opponents tanzimat. It was primarily Muslims who opposed the “European innovations.” ulema. Mustafa Reshid Pasha failed to fulfill his dream of opening the first university in Turkey. First period tanzimat was progressive in nature and objectively contributed to the progress of the country.
The Crimean War interrupted the implementation of reforms; it became a logical continuation of the two Russian-Turkish wars (1806-1812 and 1828-1829). At the heart of the conflict of 1853-1856. lay the same “Eastern Question”, namely: the struggle of Russia, England, France and other European powers for the Middle East. The war was provoked by Russia. In February 1853, Nicholas I sent an ultimatum to the Porte, in which he demanded that the Sultan recognize Russia's right of patronage over all Christian peoples inhabiting the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan viewed the ultimatum as interference in the internal affairs of his state and rejected the demands of Nicholas I. The Crimean War began. Russia hoped to fight only with Turkey, but it miscalculated. England, France, and then Sardinia entered into an alliance with the Sultan and fought on the side of the Porte. The beginning of the military campaign was successful for Russia. Admiral Nakhimov's flotilla defeated the Turkish fleet in Sinop Bay (November 1853). However, later England and France entered the war. In 1855, Sevastopol fell (the heroic defense of Sevastopol lasted a year). The Russian Empire lost the war. According to the Treaty of Paris (1856), Russia returned the Kars fortress to Turkey in exchange for Sevastopol, as well as part of Bessarabia. She was forced to agree to the “neutralization” of the Black Sea and recognize the Sultan’s power over Serbia, Moldova, and Wallachia.
From the outside, the Turks looked like winners. However, England, France and Austria signed a special agreement guaranteeing “the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire within the boundaries of the Treaty of Paris.” Thus, the Paris Peace Treaty became a “collective protectorate” of Western countries over Turkey. It was in 1854 that the Porte took out its first loan from England and France. In 1855, the Rothschild banking house provided Turkey with a new loan. The terms of the loans were harsh. By the end of the century the Porte would declare itself bankrupt. Therefore the second period tanzimat did not give tangible results.
The reforms of the second period began with the confirmation of a number of decrees of 1839-1853. But if the Gülhaney Decree was aimed at preventing the interference of foreign powers in the internal affairs of the country, the manifesto of 1856 consolidated foreign trusteeship over Turkey.
The main document of the second period was Khatt-i Humayun 1856 This manifesto confirmed the equality of rights of Muslims and non-Muslims and expanded the rights of the non-Turkish bourgeoisie. The secular elements of the 1856 decree are outlined much more clearly than in Hutt-i Sherif 1839 The decree of 1856 dealt not only with the economic equality of representatives of different faiths, but also with political equality. The political equality of all subjects of the Ottoman Empire clearly contradicted the imperial idea. For the non-Turkish majority of the empire had long been nurturing plans to create national states on its ruins.
According to the Land Law (1858), all land relations that had developed after the abolition of the military-feudal system were confirmed. The decree on universal primary education was repeated, and the guild system was abolished.
At the same time, under pressure from European powers, laws were adopted that provided foreign entrepreneurs with special rights in the state. Western investors were given the right to buy land in Turkey; build railways; participate in the development of mineral resources; control maritime transport; establish mixed courts. In 1856, the Ottoman Bank was opened with the participation of English and French capital. The initiator opposed these innovations tanzimat Mustafa Reshid Pasha. The onslaught of the West was so strong that the implementation tanzimat has lost its usefulness. And if in the first period the reforms had a progressive significance, then the reforms of the second period were carried out only in the interests of the comprador bourgeoisie and foreign entrepreneurs. Their result was the economic and political enslavement of Turkey.
The only force that opposed this enslavement was that which arose in the 50-60s. "New Ottomans" movement. Who are the “new Ottomans”? The educational reform led to the formation of a national intelligentsia: writers, journalists, scientists. In 1865, in Istanbul, representatives of the national intelligentsia created a secret political organization. Its members called themselves “new Ottomans”; in Europe they began to be called the Young Turks. By origin, the “new Ottomans” belonged to the landowning bureaucracy, and by ideology – to liberals. The “New Ottomans” advocated the political and economic independence of the Porte and the limitation of the power of the Sultan, the creation of a constitutional monarchy and the further spread of education. At the end of the 70s of the XIX century. many of them were forced to leave the country. Thanks to the efforts of the “new Ottomans,” the first constitution was adopted in Turkey (1876). This will be discussed in the next lecture.
THE TANZIMAT PERIOD AND CONCILIatory STEPS TOWARDS THE LOCAL ELITES (1839-1876)
After the turbulent period of I8o8-1839, the statist reformers of the Tanzimat era, pursuing a policy of centralization, still tried to find a common language with the provincial elites. The main reason for the change in policy towards local elites was that the presence of ayans, even those deprived of political influence, remained an indisputable socio-economic factor in the provinces.
Despite the confiscations, the Ayans still owned large tracts of land and wealth and continued to act as feudal lords, land managers and moneylenders. The people looked at them not as oppressors, but as benefactors and protectors.
That is, the ayans maintained their prestigious position among the local population, and people respected the title of ayan more than the titles of government officials. In such conditions, to implement reforms to modernize the country, state representatives of the Tanzimat era required active cooperation from local elites.
For centuries it was believed that the state was ultimately the owner of land in the Ottoman Empire, and peasants and feudal lords were only users of these lands. But during decentralization in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Ayans and other elites claimed that they already had hereditary rights to the cultivated lands.
The Land Code of 1858, reaffirming ownership only to the state (with the exception of certain private lands and lands owned by religious trusts), stipulated that government agencies could transfer ownership of land to individuals. The owner received a title document (tapu), which confirmed his right to the land. Communal tenure periods were not recognized.
This law was an important step towards the development of the concept of private property in land use. In Anatolia and the Balkans, the Land Code strengthened the position of the Ayans in this regard.
It is noteworthy that this period saw the rise of a wealthy merchant class as a result of the integration of the Ottoman Empire into the world economy. The urban merchant elite included both Muslims and non-Muslims. The growing wealth of the secular non-Muslim trading elite led to a change in the worldview of the Greek, Slavic and Armenian populations.
The strict religious-communal worldview of previous centuries was replaced by more secular nationalist views. In the provincial ports of Thessaloniki, Izmir, Trabzon and Beirut, a very significant Christian middle class, oriented towards a Western lifestyle, emerged.
The disintegration of patriarchal non-Muslim religious communities, which divided this part of the population into secular segments, was another reason why Tanzimat statists integrated these new groups into the new administrative structure.
ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES AND AYANS
The Gülhane Decree (1839) guaranteed the safety of life, property and honor of all subjects of the empire, regardless of their religion, belonging to one class or another. Another of his articles announced the liquidation of taxable farms.
The reformers' desire to establish regular civil government in the provinces meant the elimination of feudal rights and privileges. Thus, these policies targeted aristocracies in peripheral regions and tribal areas, which caused local resistance.
The elimination of the institution of taxable households and the desire to endow governors with the competence of tax collectors led to the emergence of a new institution of power - a “collector of tax revenues” (muhassili emval) appointed from the center.
The next step of the Tanzimat reformers was the transformation of city councils into semi-representative bodies of local government, which integrated local elites into the regular structures of the provincial administration and balanced the power of the governor. In 184, a decree was issued to create provincial councils at the level of small administrative units (sancak) and large districts (kaza). But if in traditional city councils meetings were organized and chaired by the local kadi, then after 184 new administrative officials sent from Istanbul began to chair.
Provincial councils were of two types: large councils (buyuk meclis) and small councils (kucuk meclis). Their main responsibilities were to discuss and resolve issues of taxation and local police. For the first time in the history of the Ottoman Empire, non-Muslims received the right to vote in the provincial administration.
Unfortunately, the non-Muslim religious hierarchs and nobles who served on the councils used their membership to consolidate their own power over their communities. In the 185s this situation worsened and ultimately led to internal reform of non-Muslim communities.
It is important to note that a number of the governors of minor administrative units who took office between the 1840s and 1860s came from local ayans. The Brilliant Porte was in great need of ayans loyal to the state.
The aforementioned measures to reorganize the security forces and civil administration created a power vacuum at the provincial level that only they could fill, at least temporarily. Only after 1864 did all government positions begin to be occupied by officials sent from Istanbul itself.
The 1864 Provincial Act, which established a new administrative structure, did not give local elites the opportunity to increase their participation in decisions on provincial problems. The only change concerned the restoration of the procedure for electing nobility to city councils. Another innovation was the principle of representation on the councils of all religious heads of officially recognized non-Muslim communities.
LOCAL ARISTOCRATS OF PERIPHERAL REGIONS AND TRIBAL AREAS
In such peripheral areas as Bosnia and Albania, local aristocracies saw the unification of provincial administrations and the introduction of the concept of equality of citizens as undermining their feudal interests.
The Muslim nobility of Bosnia was not ready to give up feudal rights to the forced labor of Orthodox peasants. The former Kapetans refused to return the lands they had illegally occupied to the Orthodox and Catholic peasants. They also did not want to cooperate in introducing the institution of regular conscription into the army.
It was not until 1852 that the Ottoman state managed to overcome this feudal resistance by occupying Bosnia. In Albania, tribal leaders and large landowners, as well as urban guilds, resisted the abolition of centuries-old privileges in taxation and military service. The 184s were a period of local resistance, and the Ottomans failed to establish civil administration in parts of northern Albania and Kosovo.
After the return of Syria to Ottoman rule
in 1841, the city's noble families (ayans and ulema) and the leaders of the Syrian tribes retained their influence locally. Until 1860, the Porte was unable to implement Tanzimat reforms in this region. The administrative reforms mentioned above were carried out in Syria only after the intercommunal civil war in Lebanon and the bloody massacre of Christians in Damascus.
As a result of religious conflicts, the Ottoman civil administration took steps to introduce secular institutions. The creation of secular courts and schools narrowed the social functions and local influence of the Syrian Muslim ulema. Gradually, the sons of Syrian ayans and ulema entered Ottoman public schools, and a new generation of Syrian urban nobility entered the civil service and the new provincial administrations.
The liquidation of the Kurdish Emirates in eastern Anatolia in the 1830s and 1840s undermined order in the region. The disappearance of powerful local leaders led to anarchy: vassal tribes, no longer controlled by powerful leaders, began to attack less powerful tribes and settled populations. The central government was unable to fill this power vacuum.
Many Kurdish leaders turned into landowners, some of them migrated to the cities and formed a new class of landowners who settled in the cities. Having abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and become part of the urban elite of the provincial capitals of eastern Anatolia, these chiefs (agha) successfully integrated into the Ottoman political structure and entered the provincial councils. Unlike the leaders of the nomadic tribes, these agha considered themselves Ottoman subjects.
Due to the collapse of large tribes, the influence of Sufi sheikhs grew. Sheikhs of Muslim Sufi orders such as the Naqshbandiyya and Qadiriya became influential community leaders. They were able to combine religious holiness with material wealth. They received land property as a gift from their wealthy followers, thus the sheikhs turned into feudal landowners.
Since they were not tied to any tribe, their role as arbiters in local conflicts increased their prestige. In fact, the vacuum left by the former Kurdish emirs was filled by Sufi sheikhs, becoming an important political factor; some of them became members of provincial councils.
NON-MUSLIMS AND THEIR POSITION DURING THE TANZIMAT PERIOD
The traditional dominance of the clerics over non-Muslim communities began to weaken as a result of the emergence of a new class of wealthy merchants. Although this new urban middle class possessed significant material resources, it was excluded from the governance of its communities.
Disagreements also emerged between the traditional religious and Western-educated secular trading elites.
At the same time, Tanzimat reformers viewed the non-Muslim communal structure in its patriarchal form as a foreign body. They wanted to introduce the institution of citizenship, independent of professed religion, but the communal split in society prevented the implementation of this goal.
Therefore, after the Reform Decree of 1856, representatives of the Ottoman state forced the Greek and Armenian communities to secularize their administrations. As a result, the Greeks in 1859, and the Armenians in 1863, formed new communal structures, which allowed the laity to participate in the work of communal administrations; At the same time, the influence of the clerics decreased.
The Provincial Act of 1864 guaranteed participation in provincial councils not only by laymen, but also by all non-Muslim communal leaders.
EXPERIMENT WITH THE FIRST PARLIAMENT AND REPRESENTATION OF LOCAL ELITES IN ISTANBUL (1876-1878)
The 1876 Declaration of a Constitutional Regime was revolutionary in that for the first time local elites were allowed to participate in the political life of Istanbul.
The first Ottoman parliament was convened in 1877-1878. Due to time constraints, the first members of parliament were not elected directly by the population of the empire, but from among the members of the provincial councils. Therefore, most of the parliamentarians were ayans and other representatives of the nobility. One third were non-Muslims.
Istanbul's traditional image of the provincial population as a controlled crowd was destroyed. When Abdud Hamid II dissolved parliament, Istanbul's ruling elite accepted the move largely silently, thereby implicitly demonstrating satisfaction with the measure.
The weakness of the Turkish state became obvious from the end of the 18th century. The country needed radical changes. The first administrative and financial reforms called the “new order” were undertaken under the impression of defeats in the war with Russia even under the Padishah Selime III(1789-1807). His work continued Mahmud II(1808-1839). In 1826, at the height of the Greek uprising, he liquidated the Janissary corps, which had shown its inconsistency as a military force. The barracks of the Janissaries in Istanbul were burned along with the people, then the Janissaries were subjected to complete extermination in all provinces. The destruction of the Janissaries opened the way for the formation of a new Turkish army and for other reforms that were undertaken after the Russian-Turkish War of 1828-1829.
At this time, the first Turkish newspaper appeared, Turkey received a modern administrative structure, and private ownership of land was recognized. However, to transform a country like the Ottoman Empire, these measures were not enough. “How many natural forces are wasted here fruitlessly!” - wrote the future winner of Napoleon III, G. von Moltke, who served as a military instructor in the Turkish army.
First period of the Tanzimat
November 3, 1839, after the beginning of the second Egyptian crisis, the new padishah Abdul-Mejid(1839-1861) issued a decree on reforms, which ushered in an era of transformation - "tanzimat-i-hairie"(“beneficent reforms”). “In the last hundred and fifty years, a series of incidents and various causes” have led to the fact that “the strength of the state and internal prosperity have turned into weakness and poverty,” said this historical decree. Therefore, it was decided “through new institutions to provide the regions that make up the Ottoman Empire with the benefits of good governance.” The decree proclaimed the following “establishments” necessary for the well-being of the empire:
1) ensuring to subjects the complete safety of their lives and the safety of their property;
2) fair distribution and collection of taxes;
3) proper organization of recruitment for military service and establishment of a reasonable period for it.
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| Mahmud II |
The law on the creation of secular, non-religious schools was important for the cultural development of the country. Currency reform was also carried out and new trade legislation was adopted. The formal equality of rights of the Muslim and non-Muslim populations was proclaimed (in reality, nothing was done to resolve the national issue, which occupied a key place in the destinies of the country).
A Russian traveler wrote in 1850: “...New laws collide with the ancient prescriptions of the Koran, corporal punishment completely replaces the death penalty... The Sultan’s promises are also in clear contradiction with reality. The system, which the Sultan’s decree solemnly branded as a disgrace and the scourge of the empire, currently continues to dominate here with the permission and with the most energetic support from the authorities.” Of all the promised reforms, only military reforms were closest to implementation, although old abuses persisted in this area.
Second Tanzimat period
Constitutional reforms
The crisis of the financial system, the cruelty and persecution to which all those dissatisfied were subjected gave rise to a movement for constitutional reforms. It was headed by the “Society of New Ottomans”. The movement was soon suppressed and "new Ottomans" moved their activities abroad. At the same time, new reforms were undertaken: representatives of non-Turkish peoples received greater opportunities for trade, and the regulation of crafts was abolished. The 1869 law on universal education was of particular importance.
Overall, the Tanzimat policy was a failure. The main branch of the Turkish economy - agriculture - fell into decline. The “New Ottomans” wrote: “As for agriculture, its products, due to the lack of communications, have no markets, and, moreover, they are crushed by endless taxes, the collection of which is carried out with merciless barbarity.” The population suffered from constant hunger, which destroyed entire villages. The Ottoman Empire entered a period of general crisis.
On this page there is material on the following topics:
Tanzimat failure
Decline of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt's struggle for independence
Ottoman Empire report briefly
Abstract Ottoman Empire
Brief report of the Ottoman Empire
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During the struggle with his strong vassal, Abdulmecid in 1839 promulgated the hatt-i sherif (“sacred decree”), announcing the beginning of reforms in the empire, which was addressed to the highest state dignitaries and invited ambassadors by the chief minister, Reshid Pasha. The document abolished the death penalty without trial, guaranteed justice for all citizens regardless of their race or religion, established a judicial council to adopt a new criminal code, abolished the tax farming system, changed the methods of recruiting the army, and limited the length of military service. It became obvious that the empire was no longer able to defend itself in the event of a military attack from any of the great European powers. Reshid Pasha, who had previously served as ambassador to Paris and London, understood that it was necessary to take certain steps that would show the European states that the Ottoman Empire was capable of self-reform and manageable, i.e. deserves to be preserved as an independent state. Khatt-i Sherif seemed to be the answer to the doubts of the Europeans. However, in 1841 Reshid was removed from office. Over the next few years, his reforms were suspended, and only after his return to power in 1845 they began to be implemented again with the support of the British ambassador Stratford Canning. This period in the history of the Ottoman Empire, known as the Tanzimat ("ordering"), involved the reorganization of the system of government and the transformation of society in accordance with ancient Muslim and Ottoman principles of tolerance. At the same time, education developed, the network of schools expanded, and sons from famous families began to study in Europe. Many Ottomans began to lead a Western lifestyle. The number of newspapers, books and magazines published increased, and the younger generation professed new European ideals. At the same time, foreign trade grew rapidly, but the influx of European industrial products had a negative impact on the finances and economy of the Ottoman Empire. Imports of British factory fabrics destroyed cottage textile production and siphoned gold and silver from the state. Another blow to the economy was the signing of the Balto-Liman Trade Convention in 1838, according to which import duties on goods imported into the empire were frozen at 5%. This meant that foreign merchants could operate in the empire on an equal basis with local merchants. As a result, most of the country's trade ended up in the hands of foreigners, who, in accordance with the Capitulations, were freed from control by officials.
25. Reasons and prerequisites for the transformations of the Nizam-i Jedid era in the Ottoman Empire. The threat of complete collapse and death of the Ottoman Empire gave rise to a search for ways to restore the former power of the empire, to create a centralized feudal-absolutist state. The first attempt at reform was made under Sultan Selim III (reigned 1789-1807). The reforms, called " new system" (Nizam-i Jedid "), had the goal of streamlining military-fief land ownership, provided for the formation of a new, European-trained and disciplined infantry army, the expansion of manufacturing production for military needs, etc. From the very beginning, the reforms aroused opposition from most of the large feudal lords, ulemas and especially the Janissaries, who saw in them a direct a threat to your privileges. The success of the “new system” was also hampered by foreign policy complications: the Egyptian expedition of 1798-1801 of Napoleon Bonaparte and the resulting entry of Turkey into the war with France (1798-1801), and then the war between Turkey and Russia that began in 1806. In May 1807, the Janissary rebellion in Istanbul put an end to both the “new system” and the reign of Selim III. Mustafa Pasha Bayraktar tried to resume reforms, but the Janissary rebellion (1808) thwarted this attempt to stop the collapse of the empire. In 1826, Sultan Mahmud II (reigned 1808-39) liquidated the Janissary corps, subjecting the Janissaries to almost total extermination. Following this, a reorganization of the army and a number of other progressive measures were carried out in the field of administration, finance, law and partly culture; the most important of them was the abolition of the military-feudal system. However, the reforms of Mahmud II could no longer prevent the further collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In the beginning. 19th century Egyptian Pasha Muhammad Ali became essentially an independent ruler of Egypt. In the Balkans, during the First Serbian Uprising of 1804-13, in the context of the Russian-Turkish War of 1806-12, a virtually independent Serbia was formed; The Bucharest Peace Treaty of 1812 moved the borders of Russia to the South-West, to the Prut. Although the diversion of Russian forces to the war with Napoleon allowed Mahmud II to restore his power in Serbia in 1813, a Serbian uprising broke out in 1815 ( Second Serbian uprising 1815). In 1821, the Greek National Liberation Revolution of 1821-29 began. After Turkey's defeat in the Russian-Turkish War of 1828-29, Türkiye, under the Treaty of Adrianople of 1829, pledged to grant autonomy to Greece. The Treaty of Adrianople, in addition, obliged Turkey to grant autonomy to Serbia and expand the rights of Moldova and Wallachia. In the 30s 19th century, when Muhammad Ali entered into an armed conflict with the Sultan ( Egyptian crises), the intervention of European powers ultimately led to the establishment of virtually collective trusteeship over Turkey. Turkey's economic dependence on European capital also increased, especially after the conclusion of the Anglo-Turkish and Franco-Turkish trade conventions in 1838, which opened unimpeded access to European manufactured goods to the domestic market of the Ottoman Empire. Growing dependence on European powers prompted the Turkish ruling class to undertake a new attempt at reform in 1839 ( Tanzimat). These reforms put an end to the remnants of the military-feudal order in state and administrative management, streamlined the judicial process, and contributed to the formation of the Turkish intelligentsia. But the most essential thing in the Tanzimat - the guarantee of life and property of all the Sultan's subjects proclaimed by its acts - remained on paper. The Crimean War of 1853-56, in which Great Britain, France and Sardinia fought on the side of Turkey against Russia, ended with the Paris Peace Treaty of 1856, which confirmed the “integrity and inviolability of the Ottoman Empire.” However, in reality, this principle was only a cover for the Western European powers, using which they strengthened their influence on the policies of the Turkish government. The reforms carried out during the 2nd period of the Tanzimat (from 1856) met mainly the interests of foreign capital and the comprador bourgeoisie associated with it (in Turkey until the 20s of the 20th century, a foreign national). Foreigners received the right to own land, a number of concessions for the construction of railways, the exploitation of mineral resources, ports and municipal enterprises, foreign banks were established, including the Anglo-French Ottoman Imperial Bank, which received the right to issue banknotes. At the same time, the reforms contributed to the gradual growth in Turkish society of forces that opposed themselves to the ruling class of feudal lords. From their midst came the first Turkish "enlighteners" - NamykKemal, Ibrahim Shinasi, Ali Suavi, Zia Pasha and other progressive-minded writers, journalists, teachers, officials, officers; in 1865 they founded a secret society - " New Ottomans", which set as its goal the establishment of a constitutional order in Turkey.
The day of November 3, 1839 went down in the history of the Ottoman Empire as the beginning of a new period of reforms. Their inspirer, the great statesman Reshid Pasha, organized a magnificent ceremony in the square in front of the Sultan's summer palace to proclaim the decree on reforms, known by the name of this palace as Gulhaney. Not far from the palace, stands were built on which the capital's nobility, the highest Muslim clergy, heads of non-Muslim communities, representatives of city workshops, and foreign diplomats were located. The troops who were to greet such an important event were stationed behind the stands. Sultan Abdul Mecid watched the celebrations from the window of the palace.
The reformers did not shy away from tradition. First, the court astrologer announced the arrival of a favorable moment for reading the act. Then Reshid Pasha read out the text of the Sultan’s decree written by him, which proclaimed guarantees of the safety of life, honor and property of all the Sultan’s subjects without distinction of religion, fair collection of taxes and duties, the elimination of the tax-farm system of their collection, improvement of the judicial system, and establishment of order in the recruitment of recruits. The ceremony ended with the traditional prayer of the imam, who raised a request to Allah for help in the planned transformations, and an artillery salute.
The Gulhanei Rescript was followed by a whole series of reforms that somewhat changed the order in the empire. During the Tanzimat period (“tanzimat” in Turkish means “reforms”), i.e. in the 30-60s of the 19th century, many government departments gradually began to acquire European features.
At the beginning of the second half of the 19th century. the structure of the highest government institutions of the Ottoman capital was already very extensive. Many thousands of officials worked in government departments and departments. There were ten ministries - military, maritime, foreign affairs, justice, finance, public education, police, trade, public works and vacancies. The role of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was played by the office of the Musteshar (Advisor) of the Grand Vizier. The ministers, led by the Grand Vizier, formed the Supreme Council of the Empire, which also included Sheikh-ul-Islam, the chairman of the State Council created in 1868, several senior dignitaries and the prefect of the capital. The Supreme Council met weekly to discuss government affairs. The Sultan himself presided, and in his absence, which happened quite often, the meetings of the council were led by the Grand Vizier.
The Ottoman table of ranks had many steps and gradations. The officials of the central administration (kalemiye) alone were divided into five ranks, the highest of which corresponded to the rank of ferik - division general.
European principles of organizing public administration also required a new bureaucracy. The process of creating a new bureaucracy lasted several decades. At first, the translation agency that existed in Istanbul (Tercüman odasi) played a big role in it; it became a center for training not only diplomats, but also politicians. The Sultan founded this bureau after the Greek uprising of 1821, when the Porte ceased to trust the Phanariot Greeks who served as government translators. Many major statesmen of the mid-19th century emerged from this institution. Later, the cadre of officials in the capital's institutions began to be replenished with graduates of new secular secondary and special educational institutions.
Administrative and municipal departments of the capital also underwent some changes by the middle of the century. Istanbul and its district formed an independent vilayet (governor-general), which was divided into four mutesarrıflyk (governorship) - Istanbul itself, Pera, Üsküdar and Büyük Çekmece (a region in the European part of Turkey adjacent to the territory of the capital). The prefecture was in charge of municipal affairs, and the capital was divided into 14 municipal areas. The population, according to the 1844 census, was about 800 thousand people. In the 70s of the 19th century, according to the capital’s authorities, approximately a million people lived in the city; according to European statistics, in Istanbul at that time there were 1200 thousand inhabitants, including 620 thousand Muslims and 580 thousand non-Muslims.
Gradually, the appearance of the capital's population began to change. Special decrees regulated the appearance of government employees. A decree was even issued requiring that the length of the mustache be consistent with the length of the eyebrows. European influence gradually began to affect the clothing and manners of officials, merchants, and the emerging intelligentsia. One of his contemporaries noted that oriental attire began to give way to European ones in the capital; the traditional turban was replaced by a new headdress - the fez; and the size of beards also decreased. “The younger generation of the upper Turkish class,” wrote this author, “babbled in French, burbling and simpering; patent leather boots have taken the place of yellow shoes, the bare feet of rich women are dressed in thin, well-stretched stockings, and even some waists seem to be already being compressed by corsets. The European crews were separated on recumbent springs...”
Even in the behavior of the sultans something changed. The Russian diplomat K. Basili, who knew Istanbul well in the first half of the 19th century, noting changes in the established habits of the capital's residents, cited the example of the Sultan himself. He dressed relatively simply, crossed the Bosphorus without the previous escort of two dozen decorated gondolas, on a modest eight-oared caique. Only the traditional Friday departure of the Sultan to the mosque retained some pomp. The number of courtiers and palace servants also decreased, although the Sultan's court was still costly to the state treasury.
The changes, however, were not limited to external manifestations. In the middle of the 19th century. Istanbul became the center of formation of the Turkish intelligentsia, whose influence soon began to be felt in all spheres of the political and cultural life of the capital. The formation of the intelligentsia was especially facilitated by the development of the secular school. In 1826, a military medical school was opened in Istanbul. Somewhat later, several new military schools were created, as well as educational institutions for training officials of civilian departments. In 1846, an Agricultural School was opened on the outskirts of Istanbul, and in 1850 a Veterinary School was opened. By the middle of the century, the first comprehensive secular primary schools appeared.
In 1848, the first male pedagogical school in Turkey was opened in the capital. By 1874/75, there were already 264 secular primary schools in Istanbul, including 25 for women; 13 thousand children studied there. If we take into account that the Muslim population of Istanbul was approximately 600 thousand people, then for every 40-50 residents there was only one student at a secular school. Yet these were important cultural shifts for Turkish society.
On February 18, 1856, a week before the opening of the peace congress in Paris, a new decree on reforms was published, the essence of which was to confirm the guarantees of the Gulhaney Decree of 1839 on the benefits and privileges of the Sultan's non-Muslim subjects and their full equality with Muslims before the law. This decree, which had a clear foreign policy orientation, stimulated further reforms in agriculture, legislation, the administrative system, in the field of education and culture.
In the 70s of the XIX century. The first secular secondary schools appeared in Istanbul; on September 1, 1868, the Galatasaray Lyceum was opened. Its graduates - school teachers, army and navy officers, and officials - joined the ranks of the young Turkish intelligentsia. The Galatasaray Lyceum was a privileged educational institution; it was patronized by the Sultan and the Porte. France provided significant assistance in its creation, sending experienced teachers to the lyceum. With the help of France, a good library and several laboratories were created there.
A major event in the cultural life of Istanbul was the opening of the university. In the early 60s, the construction of the university building was largely completed, a library was created (about 4 thousand volumes in various languages), equipment and visual aids were ordered from European countries. The organization of the first Turkish university was greatly facilitated by the activities of the Ottoman Scientific Society, established in 1861 in Istanbul, which set itself broad educational goals. The society created a public library in Istanbul with 600 volumes with a reading room, and organized courses in the study of English and French. Since July 1862, it began publishing the monthly “Journal of Sciences” - the first popular science magazine in the history of Turkey. Over the course of four years, it published articles on the humanities and natural sciences, and essays on the political situation in various countries. It is no coincidence that it was members of the society who became the first lecturers at the university.
The official opening of the university took place on February 20, 1870. But on December 31, 1863, the first public lecture took place there, which attracted a considerable audience for Istanbul at that time - 300 listeners. The lecture on physics was given by Dervish Pasha, who was educated in Europe. Public lectures were also held in a number of other disciplines - in natural science and mathematics, astronomy and history. Lectures on history were given by the prominent historian and figure of Turkish education, Ahmed Vefik Efendi. True, most of the listeners had clearly insufficient preparation. For example, the experiments that accompanied many lectures were perceived by them as magic tricks or miracles.
The fate of the first university in Istanbul was unenviable. It soon became clear that there were neither teachers nor a sufficient number of textbooks. The university was actually reduced to the status of a secondary educational institution, and at the end of 1871, as a result of sharp attacks by the reactionary Muslim clergy, it was closed altogether. In 1874, attempts were renewed to open a university, this time on the basis of the Galatasaray Lyceum. But they also ended in failure due to serious difficulties with the staff of teachers. Finally, in 1900, the Sultan University was opened in Istanbul with three faculties - theological, literary and technical. This time the university became a permanent institution of higher education, although under the dictatorship of Sultan Abdul Hamid II it was, in the words of one of the Turkish historians of the Enlightenment, a “very thin and silent” institution.
No matter how complicated and difficult the path of secular educational institutions in Istanbul was, their existence changed the cultural atmosphere in the capital and led to the creation of a layer of educated people. The Istanbul Turkish press also played a huge role in the formation of the young national intelligentsia. Its development occurred at a rapid pace. On November 1, 1831, the first official newspaper in Turkish began to be published - “Takvimi Veki” (“Calendar of Events”). And in 1876, 13 newspapers were published in Turkish in Istanbul, including 7 daily ones. In the same year, 34 newspapers were published in other languages in the capital of the Ottoman Empire: 9 each in Greek and Armenian, 7 in French, 2 in English, 1 in German, 3 in Bulgarian, 2 in Hebrew and 1 - in Arabic.
By that time, Istanbul had also become a major book publishing center. At the end of the 70s of the XIX century. There were several dozen public and private printing houses in the city. They supplied tens of thousands of copies of various books to the book market. Not only religious Muslim works were published in the capital (restrictions on their publication gradually disappeared by the end of the 60s), but also school textbooks, monuments of Arabic and Persian classical literature, and works by Turkish writers. In Istanbul bookstores one could buy Turkish translations of the works of Moliere and Lamartine, Hugo and Dumas the Father, Defoe and Swift. Translations of extracts from the works of Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau were published.
Foreign educational institutions played a certain role in the cultural life of Istanbul. Back in the 16th century. French Catholic missionaries, with the support of the French government, began to create their own schools in the Ottoman Empire. By the middle of the 19th century, in Istanbul alone there were more than 40 French Catholic schools, half of them for women; more than two-thirds of the students were local Catholics. There were also several Belgian and Italian schools. From the middle of the 19th century. Protestant missionaries, supported by the US government, actively began to create their own schools in the Ottoman Empire, including in the capital. In September 1863, the American Robert College was opened in Istanbul, in the Bebek quarter, which over the years became extremely popular among the Turkish intelligentsia. Being the largest center for the propaganda of Protestantism in the Ottoman Empire, this college helped strengthen the political and cultural influence of the United States in the Sultan's possessions. However, all foreign schools in the Ottoman Empire pursued similar goals. At the end of the 19th century. In Istanbul, with the growth of German expansion in the Middle East, several German and Austrian schools appeared. In 1879, a Russian girls' school was opened, and in 1892, a Russian school; These educational institutions were designed primarily for the children of Russian diplomats. Despite the very definite political and cultural orientation of most foreign schools, they greatly contributed to the formation of various national groups of the Istanbul intelligentsia.
In the 60-70s, Istanbul became the center of socio-political activity of the Turkish intelligentsia, among whom a movement arose to transform the Ottoman Empire into a constitutional monarchy. The awakening of public opinion was greatly facilitated by the newspaper “Tasviri Efkar” (“Image of Ideas”) created by the educational writer Ibrahim Shinasi, the first issue of which was published in Istanbul on June 28, 1862. This newspaper played a big role in promoting the views of the West, which were advanced for Turkey at that time, in the ideological formation of the first Turkish constitutionalists. In the 60-70s, a prominent place in the Istanbul press was occupied by newspapers published by the leaders of this social movement - Ali Suavi (“Muhbir” - “Correspondent”, 1867) and Namık Kemal (“Ibret” - “Edification”, 1872- 1873).
In June 1865, in the Istanbul suburb of Yeniköy, the first meeting of the founders of the secret “Society of New Ottomans” took place, whose activities paved the way for the struggle for the constitution. Two years later, the leaders of this society were forced to flee to Europe. There - in Paris, London and Geneva - the “new Ottomans” published newspapers in Turkish, in which they demanded constitutional reforms. These newspapers were secretly transported to Turkey. The demand for them was so great that, for example, the price of one copy of the “new Ottomans” newspaper “Hurriyet” (“Freedom”) in Istanbul reached one Turkish lira (6 rubles in gold). The Istanbul bookseller Frenchman Kok even dared to display copies of the newspaper in the window of his store, attracting crowds of curious people.