Tanzimat
Sign in to saveThe '''''' (, , lit. 'Reorganization') was a period of reforms in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Edict of Gülhane of 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. Driven by reformist statesmen such as Mustafa Reşid Pasha, Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha, and Fuad Pasha, under Sultans Abdul Mejid and Abdul Aziz, the reforms sought to reverse the empire's decline by modernizing legal, military, and administrative systems while promoting Ottomanism (equality for all subjects). Though secular courts, modern education, and infrastructure like railways, were introduced, the reforms faced r
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The Tanzimat was a period of modernizing reforms in the Ottoman Empire from 1839 to 1876 that aimed to strengthen the declining empire by overhauling its legal, military, and administrative systems while promoting equal rights for all subjects regardless of religion. The reforms, led by key statesmen under two sultans, introduced secular courts, modern education, and infrastructure projects like railways, though they ultimately faced significant resistance.
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Article
27 sectionsContents
- Origins and purpose
- Motives
- Reforms
- Edict of {{lang|ota-Latn|italic=no|Gülhane}} of 1839
- Reactions
- Edict of 1856 and religious freedom
- Legal Reforms
- Challenges and Opposition
- Financial Crisis
- Ethnic and Religious Tensions
- Conservative Backlash
- Backlash from Bureaucracy
- Principal Men of the Tanzimat
- Impacts
- Effects in different provinces
- Political consequences
- Centralization and Resistance
- Fragmentation of Ottoman Identity
- Foreign Exploitation and Territorial Loss
- Internal Power Struggles
- Scholarly Perspectives
- Gallery
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Cited sources
- Further reading
The '''''' (, , lit. 'Reorganization') was a period of reforms in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Edict of Gülhane of 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. Driven by reformist statesmen such as Mustafa Reşid Pasha, Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha, and Fuad Pasha, under Sultans Abdul Mejid and Abdul Aziz, the reforms sought to reverse the empire's decline by modernizing legal, military, and administrative systems while promoting Ottomanism (equality for all subjects). Though secular courts, modern education, and infrastructure like railways, were introduced, the reforms faced resistance from conservative clerics, exacerbated ethnic tensions in the Balkans, and saddled the empire with crippling foreign debt. The Tanzimat’s legacy remains contested: some historians credit it with establishing a powerful national government, while others argue it accelerated imperial fragmentation.
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, trade policy, secularization and codification of the legal system, crackdowns on the slave trade, education, property law, law enforcement, and the military. 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.