Tanzimat

The Tanzimat (Turkish: [tanziˈmat]; Ottoman Turkish: تنظيمات, romanized: Tanẓîmât, lit. 'Reorganization', see nizam) was a period of Western influenced reform in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Edict of Gülhane in 1839. Its goals were to modernize and consolidate the social and political foundations of the Ottoman Empire in order to secure territorial integrity against internal nationalist movements and external aggressive powers. The reforms encouraged Ottomanism among the diverse ethnic groups of the Empire and attempted to stem the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire.

Different functions of government received reform, were completely reorganized, or started from scratch. Among institutions that received significant attention throughout this period included legislative functions, secularization and codification of the legal system, crackdowns on the slave trade, education, property law, law enforcement, and the military, to name a few. The end goal was to establish a powerful and centralized national government. Ottoman statesmen also worked with reformers of the many confessional communities of the empire, millets, to codify, and in some cases democratize, their confessional governments.

The Tanzimat built on previous reform efforts of Sultan Mahmud II. During its height, the Porte's bureaucracy overshadowed the sultans. Leading "Men of the Tanzimat" included Mustafa Reşid Pasha in the period of 1839–1855, and then Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha and Keçecizade Fuad Pasha from the early 1850s to 1871. After Âli Pasha's death, the spirit of reorganization turned towards the imperial social contract, in the form of the 1876 Ottoman Constitution, written by Midhat Pasha. The Tanzimat Period is considered to have ended with the accession of Abdul Hamid II during the Great Eastern Crisis (1875–1878). However, it can also be said that reform efforts continued into the Hamidian, Second Constitutional, and Unionist eras until the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1922.

Origins

The reforms emerged from the minds of reformist sultans like Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839), his son Abdulmejid I (r. 1839–1861) and prominent, often European-educated bureaucrats, who recognised that the old religious and military institutions no longer met the needs of the empire. Most of the symbolic changes, such as uniforms, were aimed at changing the mindset of imperial administrators. Many of the officials affiliated with the government were encouraged to wear a more western style of dress. Many of the reforms were attempts to adopt successful European practices. The reforms were heavily influenced by the Napoleonic Code and French law under the Second French Empire as a direct result of the increasing number of Ottoman students being educated in France. Changes included the conscription reforms; educational, institutional and legal reforms; and systematic attempts at eliminating political corruption.

Also, a policy called Ottomanism was meant to unite all the different peoples living in Ottoman territories, "Muslim and non-Muslim, Turkish and Greek, Armenian and Jewish, Kurd and Arab". The policy officially began with the Edict of Gülhane of 1839, declaring equality before the law for both Muslim and non-Muslim Ottomans.

Examples of dress reform

• 
  Diplomat Mehmed Cemil Bey wearing a frock coat and a bow tie.
• 
  Necip Ahmed Pasha, career officer and composer in French-inspired uniform.
• 
  Governor Rahmi Bey
• 
  Mehmed Galip Bey Efendi
• 
  Gülüstü Hanım
• 
  Şayeste Hanım

Motives

Cenab Şehabeddin was known for his liberal ideals and poetry influenced by French Symbolism.

The ambitious project was launched to combat the slow decline of the empire that had seen its borders shrink and its strength wane in comparison to the European powers. There were both internal and external reasons for the reforms.

An important purpose of the Tanzimat was to reinforce deference to, and the implementation of sharia law in the Ottoman legal system. The Gülhane rescript was based on the principles of traditional court philosophy, with Butrus Abu-Manneh arguing that there was no Western influence in the edict.

The primary purpose of the Tanzimat was to reform the military by modernizing and taking inspiration from European armies. The traditional Ottoman army, the Janissaries, had fallen from grace in terms of military prestige and a European-inspired reconstruction was a necessary change to be made. The Ottoman Empire consisted of a multitude of different cultures and the secondary priorities of the Tanzimat reforms were aimed at balancing the social structure that previously favoured Muslim subjects. Another vital section of these reforms was the abolition of İltizam, or land-tenure agreements.

Internally, the Ottoman Empire hoped that abolishing the millet system would create a more centralized government, as well as increased legitimacy of the Ottoman rule, thus gaining direct control of its citizens. Another major hope was that being more open to various demographics would attract more people into the empire. There was fear of internal strife between Muslims and non-Muslims, and allowing more religious freedom to all was supposed to diminish this threat. Giving more rights to the Christians within the empire was considered likely to reduce the danger of outside intervention on their behalf.

Although the motives for the implementation of Tanzimât were bureaucratic, liberal ministers and intellectuals contributed to reform like Dimitrios Zambakos Pasha, Kabuli Mehmed Pasha, the secret society of the Young Ottomans, and Midhat Pasha. During the Great Eastern Crisis, government ministers lead by Midhat Pasha conspired to overthrow Sultan Abdul Aziz in a coup and introduce a constitution. This began the First Constitutional Era, which many historians agree represents the end of the Tanzimat, even though reform continued uninterrupted at its end in 1878, and then into the Hamidian Era.

Reforms

On November 3, 1839, Sultan Abdulmejid I issued a hatt-i sharif, or imperial edict, called the Edict of Gülhane. The edict gave guarantees to ensure the Ottoman subjects perfect security for their lives, honour, and property. This was followed by several statutes enacting its policies.

In the edict the Sultan stated that he wished "to bring the benefits of a good administration to the provinces of the Ottoman Empire through new institutions". Among the reforms thereafter included were the following:

• Establishment of the Ministry of Trade and Agriculture (1839)
• Introduction of the first Ottoman paper banknotes (1840)
• Establishment of the Ministry of Post and the first post offices of the empire (1840)
• Reorganization of the finance system (1840)
• Reorganization of the Civil and Penal Code (1840)
• Establishment of the Council of Education (Meclis-i Maarif-i Umumiye) (1841)
• Reorganization of the army and a regular method of recruiting, levying the army, and fixing the duration of military service (1843–44)
• Redesign of Ottoman national anthem and Ottoman national flag (1844)
• First nationwide Ottoman census in 1844 (only male citizens were counted)
• First national identity cards (officially named the Mecidiye identity papers, or informally kafa kağıdı (head paper) documents, 1844)
• Institution of a Council of Public Instruction (1845) and the Ministry of Education (Mekatib-i Umumiye Nezareti, 1847, which later became the Maarif Nezareti, 1857)
• Establishment of the Chaldean Catholic Millet (1846)
• Disestablishment of the Istanbul Slave Market (1847)
• Suppression of the slave trade in the Persian Gulf (1847)
• Establishment of the Protestant Millet (1847)
• Establishment of the first telegraph networks (1847–1855) and railway networks (1856)
• Establishment of the first modern universities (darülfünun, 1848), academies (1848) and teacher schools (darülmuallimin, 1848)
• Establishment of the Ministry of Healthcare (Tıbbiye Nezareti, 1850)
• Promulgation of the Commerce and Trade Code (1850)
• Establishment of the Academy of Sciences (Encümen-i Daniş) (1851)
• Establishment of the Şirket-i Hayriye which operated the first steam-powered commuter ferries (1851)
• Reorganization of the Penal Code (1851)
• Prohibition of the Circassian and Georgian slave trade (1854–1855)
• Legislative functions of the Supreme Council of Judicial Ordinances (Meclis-i Vâlâ-yı Ahkâm-ı Adliye) passed to the Council of Reorganization (Meclis-i Âli-i Tanzimat) (1854)
• Establishment of the modern Municipality of Constantinople (Şehremaneti, 1854) and the City Planning Council (İntizam-ı Şehir Komisyonu, 1855)
• The Imperial Reform Edict of 1856 promising full legal equality for citizens of all religions (1856)
• Establishment of the Ottoman Bank (originally established as the Bank-ı Osmanî in 1856, and later reorganized as the Bank-ı Osmanî-i Şahane in 1863) and the Ottoman Stock Exchange (Dersaadet Tahvilat Borsası, established in 1866)
• Prohibition of the Black Slave Trade (1857)
• Codification and promulgation of the Land Code (1858)
• Permission for private sector publishers and printing firms with the Serbesti-i Kürşad Nizamnamesi (1857)
• Decriminalization of homosexuality (1858)
• Promulgation of a western-inspired Penal Code, replacing 1851 codex, which endured until 1928 (1858)
• Establishment of the School of Civil Service, an institution of higher learning for civilians under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the School of Economical and Political Sciences (Mekteb-i Mülkiye-i Şahane) (1859)
• Internal security duties of the office of Grand Vizier passed to a new Ministry of the Interior (1860)
• Establishment of the Bulgarian Catholic Millet (1860)
• Establishment of the Refugee Commission (Mihacirin Komisyonu) to resettle refugees from the Caucasus, which built on the Immigration Law of 1857 (1860)
• Promulgation of a French inspired Mixed Commercial Code (1861)
• Merging of the Supreme Council of Judicial Ordinances and Council of Reorganization (1861)
• Establishment of the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate (1861)
• Promulgation of basic laws for the Greek Millet (1862)
• Promulgation of a French inspired Maritime Commerce Code (1863)
• Promulgation of a Constitution for the Armenian Millet and the Armenian National Assembly (1863)
• Promulgation of a Press and Journalism Regulation Code (Matbuat Nizamnamesi) (1864)
• Reorganization of provincial administration with the Vilayet Law (1864)
• Establishment of secular Nizamiye courts (1864)
• Promulgation of a Constitution for the Jewish Millet and a Jewish National Assembly (1865)
• Governance over Sufi Orders handed to the ulema with the establishment of the Assembly of Shaykhs (Meclis-i Meşayıh) under the Şeyhülislam, (1866)
• Reorganization of waqf, or Islamic mortmain property (1867)
• Regulation of foreigners on owning Ottoman property, effectively weakening capitulation treaties (1867)
• Supreme Council of Judicial Ordinances (Meclis-i Vâlâ-yı Ahkâm-ı Adliye) split into a Council of State and a Judicial Council (Divan-ı Ahkâmı Adliye), the latter of which acted as a supreme court of appeal and cassation (1868)
• Establishment of Galatasaray High School (Imperial Ottoman Lycée at Galatasaray), another institution of higher learning for civilians (1868);
• Nationality Law creating a common Ottoman citizenship irrespective of religious divisions, another attack on capitulations (1869)
• Establishment of the Ottoman Gendarmerie (1869)
• Publication of a Hanefite-Sharia civil code: the Mecelle, which endured until 1926 in Turkey and beyond in other post-Ottoman states (1869–1876)
• Reorganization of the judiciary of the Muslim millet (1869)
• Establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate and the Bulgarian millet (1872)
• Due to Mahmud Nedim Pasha's absolutist agenda, the power of the Council of State reduced at the expense of the Judicial Council and a new Reform Commission (Islahat Komisyonu) and a Reduction and Economy Commission to streamline the bureaucracy (Tensikat ve Tasarrufat Komisyonu). Midhat Pasha's entry to the Grand Vizier's office sees these commissions quickly repealed, and the Council of State restored to its powers, and then some. (1872)
• Establishment of the Syriac Orthodox Millet (1873)
• Adoption of the metric system (1875)
• Promulgation of an Ottoman Constitution, Senate, and Chamber of Deputies after the 1876 revolution (1876)

Edict of Gülhane of 1839

Main article: Edict of Gülhane

Mustafa Reşid Pasha, the principal architect of the Edict of Gülhane

The Hatt-ı Şerif of Gülhane, was the first major reform in the Tanzimat reforms under the government of sultan Abdulmejid and a crucial event in the movement towards secularization. The decree, named after the rosehouse (gülhane) on the grounds of the Topkapi Palace, abolished tax farming. It also created a bureaucratic system of taxation with salaried tax collectors. This reflects the centralizing effects of the Tanzimat reforms. Additionally, the Edict of Gülhane imposed forced military conscription within the administrative districts based on their population size.

However, the most significant clause of the Gülhane decree was the one enforcing the rule of law for all subjects, including non-Muslims, by guaranteeing the right to life and property for all. This put an end to the kul system, which allowed the ruler's servants to be executed or have their property confiscated at his desire. These reforms sought to establish legal and social equality for all Ottoman citizens. The reforms eliminated the millet system in the Ottoman Empire. The millet system created religiously based communities that operated autonomously, so people were organized into societies, some of them often receiving privileges. This clause terminated the privileges of these communities and constructed a society where all followed the same law.

The new reforms called for an almost complete reconstruction of public life in the Ottoman Empire. Under the reconstruction, a system of state schools was established to produce government clerics. Ottomans were encouraged to enroll. Each province was organized so that each governor would have an advisory council and specified duties in order to better serve the territory. The new reforms also called for a modern financial system with a central bank, treasury bonds and a decimal currency. Finally, the reforms implemented the expansion of roads, canals and rail lines for better communication and transportation.

Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha, the principal architect of the Imperial Reform Edict of 1856.

Reactions

The reaction to the edict was not entirely positive. Christians in the Balkans refused to support the reforms because they wanted an autonomy that became more difficult to achieve under centralized power. In fact, its adoption spurred some provinces to seek independence by rebelling. It took strong British backing in maintaining Ottoman territory to ensure that the reforms were instated.

Edict of 1856 and religious freedom

Main article: Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856

The Reform Edict of 1856 was intended to carry out the promises of the Tanzimat. The Edict is very specific about the status of non-Muslims, making it possible "to see it as the outcome of a period of religious restlessness that followed the Edict of 1839". Officially, part of the Tanzimat's goal was to make the state intolerant to forced conversion to Islam, also making the execution of apostates from Islam illegal. Despite the official position of the state in the midst of the Tanzimat reforms, this tolerance of non-Muslims seems to have been seriously curtailed, at least until the Reform Edict of 1856. The Ottoman Empire had tried many different ways to reach out to non-Muslims. First it tried to reach out to them by giving all non-Muslims an option to apply for Dhimmi status. Having Dhimmi status gave non-Muslims the ability to live in the Ottoman Empire and own property, but this ability was not without special taxes (jizya).

For the "Ottoman ruling elite, 'freedom of religion' meant 'freedom to defend their religion'".

Principle Men of the Tanzimat

Offices held by the principal men of the Tanzimat, 1836–1876

Year	Mustafa Reşid Pasha	Mehmed Emin Âlî Pasha	Mehmed Fuad Pasha
1839	Foreign minister, 1837–1841
1840	Ambassador to Paris, 1840–1845		First translator of the Porte, 1838–1852
1841		Ambassador to London, 1841–1844
1842
1843
1844		Member of the Supreme Council of Judicial Ordinances, 1844–1846
1845
1846	Grand Vizier, 1846–1848	Foreign minister, 1846–1848
1847
1848		Foreign minister, 1848–1852
1849
1850
1851
1852	Grand Vizier, 1852	Grand Vizier, 1852	Foreign minister, 1852 Member of the Council of Reorganization, 1852–1855
1853	Foreign minister, 1853–1854
1854	Grand Vizier, 1854–1855	Foreign minister, 1854–1855
1855		Grand Vizier, 1855–1856	Foreign minister, 1855–1856
1856	Grand Vizier, 1856–1857	Foreign minister, 1856–1858	Chairman of the Council of Reorganization, 1856–1858
1857	Grand Vizier, 1857–1858
1858	Died, 1858	Grand Vizier, 1858–1859	Foreign minister, 1858–1860
1859		Chairman of the Council of Reorganization, 1859–1861
1860
1861			Grand Vizier, 1861–1863
1862
1863			Grand Vizier, 1863–1866
1864
1865
1866
1867		Grand Vizier, 1867–1871	Foreign minister, 1867–1869
1868
1869			Died, 1869
1870
1871		Died, 1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876

Impacts

The 1876 Constitution: Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the Grand Vizier, and the millets grant freedom to an idealized female figure representing Turkey, whose chains are being smashed. The flying angel displays a banner with the motto of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity in Turkish (Arabic script) and in Greek. The scene takes place in a generic Bosphorus scenery. Reproduced from a 1908 postcard (the printed caption of 1895 is inaccurate) celebrating the re-introduction of the constitution thanks to the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.

Although the Edict of Gülhane and the Tanzimat provided strong guidelines for society, they were not a constitution and did not replace the authority of the sultan.

Still, the Tanzimat reforms had far-reaching effects overall. Those educated in the schools established during the Tanzimat period included major personalities of the nation states that would develop from the Ottoman Empire. The system was ultimately undone by negotiations with the Great Powers following the Crimean War. As part of the Charter of 1856, European powers demanded a much stronger sovereignty for ethnic communities within the empire, differing from the Ottomans, who envisioned equality meaning identical treatment under the law for all citizens. That served to strengthen the Christian middle class, increasing their economic and political power.

The reforms peaked in 1876 with the implementation of an Ottoman constitution checking the autocratic powers of the Sultan. The details of this period are covered under the First Constitutional Era. Although the new Sultan Abdul Hamid II signed the first constitution, he quickly turned against it.

Historian Hans-Lukas Kieser has argued that the reforms led to "the rhetorical promotion of equality of non-Muslims with Muslims on paper vs. the primacy of Muslims in practice" (see Tanzimat Dualism); other historians have argued that the decreased ability of non-Muslims to assert their legal rights during this period led to the land seizure and emigration. Part of the reform policy was an economic policy based on the Treaty of Balta Liman of 1838. Many changes were made to improve civil liberties, but many Muslims saw them as a foreign influence on the world of Islam. That perception complicated reformist efforts made by the state. During the Tanzimat period, the government's series of constitutional reforms led to a fairly modern conscripted army, banking system reforms, the replacement of religious law with secular law and guilds with modern factories.

Some scholars argue that from the Muslim population's traditional Islamic view, the Tanzimat's fundamental change regarding the non-Muslims, from a status of a subjugated population (dhimmi) to that of equal subjects, was in part responsible for the Hamidian massacres and subsequent Armenian genocide. In their view, these were inevitable backlashes from the Muslim community to the legal changes, as the Tanzimat's values were imposed from above and did not reflect those of society.

Effects in different provinces

In Lebanon, the Tanzimat reforms were intended to return to the tradition of equality for all subjects before the law. However, the Sublime Porte assumed that the underlying hierarchical social order would remain unchanged. Instead, the upheavals of reform would allow for different understandings of the goals of the Tanzimat. The elites in Mount Lebanon, in fact, interpreted the Tanzimat far differently from one another, leading to ethno-religious uprisings among newly emancipated Maronites. As a result, "European and Ottoman officials engaged in a contest to win the loyalty of the local inhabitants — the French by claiming to protect the Maronites; the British, the Druze; and the Ottomans by proclaiming the sultan's benevolence toward all his religiously equal subjects."

In Palestine, land reforms, especially the change in land ownership structure via the Ottoman Land Law of 1858, allowed Russian and Yemeni Jews to buy land, thus enabling them to immigrate there under the first Aliya. In order to boost its tax base, the Ottoman state required Arabs in Palestine, as elsewhere, to register their lands for the first time. As a rule the fellahin didn't trust the ailing regime, fearing that registration would only lead to higher taxation and conscription. Prevailing illiteracy among the fellahin meant in the end that many local mukhtars were able to collectively register village lands under their own name. Thus, they were able to later claim ownership and to sell the local peasants' lands out from under their feet to the new Jewish immigrants, as they themselves relocated permanently to Syria or Turkey. Alternately, rich Christian or Muslim families, the class of the 'Effendis', were able to accumulate large amounts of land which they exploited by themselves or sold on.

In 1863 the Armenian National Constitution was approved by the Ottoman government. The "Code of Regulations" consisted of 150 articles drafted by the Armenian intelligentsia and defined the powers of the Armenian Patriarch under the Ottoman millet system and the newly formed Armenian National Assembly.

Political consequences

Despite progressive intentions, the policy of reform in the form of Tanzimat ultimately failed. The historical circumstances of the reforms, the reasons for this failure and the consequences of the reforms are of interest for historical analysis and are considered by historians all over the world. Zeynep Çelik wrote: "In summary, from 1838 to 1908 the Ottoman Empire staged its final but doomed struggle for survival."

Gallery

• 
  Meeting of the Parliament, 1877.
• 
  Meeting of the Parliament, 1908.
• 
  Building of the Ottoman Parliament.
• 
  The Imperial Ottoman Bank headquarters, 1896.
• 
  Naum Theatre in Constantinople.
• 
  Tobacco factory in Samsun, 1910.
• 
  Bomonti brewery of Constantinople.
• 
  Beyazıt Square, 1880s.
• 
  Marmara University, 1880s.
• 
  Turkish delegates to Budapest

See also

• Decline and modernization of the Ottoman Empire
• Ottoman military reforms
• Young Ottomans
• Court uniform and dress in the Ottoman Empire
• Düstür
• Ahmed Cevdet Pasha

Cited sources

• Cleveland, William L.; Bunton, Martin P. (4 December 2012). A history of the modern Middle East (Fifth ed.). Boulder, CO. ISBN 978-0-8133-4833-9. OCLC 813691473.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Davison, Roderic (1963), Reform in the Ottoman Empire: 1856–1876, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press

Further reading

• Lafi, Nora. The Ottoman Municipal Reforms between Old Regime and Modernity: Towards a New Interpretative Paradigm. OCLC 695237486.
• Lafi, Nora (2002). Une ville du Maghreb entre ancien régime et réformes ottomanes : genèse des institutions municipales à Tripoli de Barbarie, 1795–1911. Paris: L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-7475-2616-6. OCLC 52813928.
• Lafi, Nora. Municipalités méditerranéennes. Les réformes urbaines ottomanes au miroir d'une histoire comparée. OCLC 695236822.
• Finkel, Evgeny; Gehlbach, Scott (2020). Reform and Rebellion in Weak States (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108855112. ISBN 978-1-108-85511-2. S2CID 219497050.
• Gelvin, James L. (2008). The Modern Middle East: A History (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532759-5.
• Indzhov, Emil (2017). The Bulgarians and the Administrative Reforms in the Ottoman Empire in 50-60 Years at the XIX Century (in Bulgarian). Vol. 56. Avalon. ISBN 978-0-8133-4833-9. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Creasy, Edward Shepherd (2011). History of the Ottoman Turks : from the beginning of their empire to the present time. British Library, Historic. ISBN 978-1-241-43206-5. OCLC 942693443.
• Costanza, Maurizio (2010). Le mezzaluna sul filo : la riforma ottomana di Mahmûd II (1808–1839) : politica, società, arte e cultura di un grande impero euro-asiatico all'alba della modernità e del confronto con l'Occidente. Venezia: Marcianum Press. ISBN 978-88-6512-032-3. OCLC 722436035.