Skip to content

Search Prophetic Footsteps and Athar

Era 8 · Chapter 6

Reform and the end of the sultanate (1839-1922)

For a century the sultans tried to save the empire by changing it.

  • 5 minutes read
  • 1808-1922 CE

At a glance

Era 8

The sultans reformed the army, the law and the schools through the nineteenth century, but defeat in the First World War broke the empire, and the Grand National Assembly in Ankara abolished the sultanate in November 1922.

When
1808-1922 CE
Where
Istanbul, the Balkans, Egypt, the Hijaz, Gallipoli and Ankara
Known as
The Tanzimat and the end of the Ottoman Empire
Key people
Mahmud II, Abdulmejid I, Abdulhamid II, the Young Turks, Mehmed VI, Mustafa Kemal
Key places
Istanbul, Cairo, Damascus, Madinah, Gallipoli, Ankara
Read time
5 minutes

Part oneMahmud II and the Tanzimat

Napoleon's landing in Egypt in 1798 showed the Muslim world how far it had fallen behind Europe in arms and organisation. In Egypt the governor Muhammad Ali built a modern army and industry, and soon his forces were stronger than the sultan's own.

Sultan Mahmud II, who ruled from 1808 to 1839, set out to reform the empire. In 1826 he finally broke the Janissaries, who had blocked every reform, and replaced them with a new army. He set up ministries and a council of ministers, opened embassies across Europe and encouraged European dress. The fez replaced the turban as the official headwear.

His son Abdulmejid continued the work. In 1839 the Edict of Gulhane opened the Tanzimat, the "reorganisation". It promised security of life and property to all subjects, fair taxes and equality before the law whatever a person's religion. In the decades that followed came new criminal and commercial codes, a reformed tax system, banknotes, post offices, a census, railways and the telegraph. The devshirme, long out of use, was formally ended. The Mecelle, a civil code drawn from Hanafi law, was compiled between 1869 and 1876.

Part twoAbdulhamid II

The reforms did not stop the decline. The empire borrowed heavily from European banks and in 1875 could not pay. A European-run Public Debt Administration was set up to collect taxes to repay the lenders. Balkan peoples kept rising, and after the war with Russia in 1877-78 the empire lost much of its land in Europe.

In 1876 Abdulhamid II came to the throne, and the empire's first constitution and parliament were proclaimed. Within two years he suspended them and ruled alone for thirty years. He was a careful and suspicious ruler. He put down opposition harshly, but he also built schools, colleges and telegraph lines across the empire. He stressed his role as caliph of all Muslims and won sympathy from Muslims far beyond his borders, from India to Africa. His best-known project was the Hejaz Railway, built between 1900 and 1908 from Damascus to Madinah with donations from Muslims around the world, to carry pilgrims to the holy cities in days instead of weeks.

Part threeWar and the end

In 1908 a group of reforming officers and officials, the Young Turks of the Committee of Union and Progress, forced the sultan to restore the constitution, and in 1909 he was deposed. The empire then lost Libya to Italy in 1911 and nearly all its Balkan lands in the wars of 1912 and 1913.

In 1914 the Ottoman government entered the First World War on the side of Germany. At Gallipoli in 1915 the Ottoman army threw back a great Allied landing, and a young colonel named Mustafa Kemal made his name there. Elsewhere the war went badly. In 1916 the Sharif of Makkah rose against the Ottomans with British help, and British forces took Baghdad, Jerusalem and Damascus. When the armistice was signed at Mudros in October 1918, Allied troops entered Istanbul, the first time the city had changed hands since 1453. Britain and France divided the Arab provinces between them.

The last sultan, Mehmed VI, now depended on the occupying powers. In 1919 Mustafa Kemal landed at Samsun and led a national resistance from Anatolia. A Grand National Assembly met at Ankara in 1920, rejected the peace treaty that would have carved up Anatolia, and fought on until 1922. In November 1922 the Assembly abolished the Ottoman sultanate, and Mehmed VI left Istanbul on a British warship. A member of the family, Abdulmejid II, was kept on as caliph alone, without political power. The Republic of Turkey was declared in October 1923. Five months later the caliphate itself was abolished, which is where the next part of the story begins.

The empire had begun around 1299 as a frontier beylik and lasted more than six hundred years. Its former provinces became the states of the Balkans, Turkey and much of the Arab world.

An empire that began as a frontier beylik around 1299 ended more than six hundred years later.

WatchThe lecture for this chapter

Lecture Hikma HistoryWhen The Ottomans Tried To Reform (opens on YouTube)
Opens on YouTubeWhen The Ottomans Tried To Reform, Hikma History

The mapWhere it happened

Sketch map: In its last century the empire lost the Balkans, North Africa and finally the Arab provinces, and the national movement fought from Ankara to hold Anatolia.IstanbulEdirneGallipoliSamsunAnkaraDamascusMadinahBaghdadJerusalemNReform and the end o…SKETCH · NOT TO SCALE
  • Istanbul
  • Edirne
  • Gallipoli
  • Samsun
  • Ankara
  • Damascus
  • Madinah
  • Baghdad
  • Jerusalem
In its last century the empire lost the Balkans, North Africa and finally the Arab provinces, and the national movement fought from Ankara to hold Anatolia.Sketch map, not to scale.

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

SourcesSources for this chapter

The books, lectures and maps behind this page are listed on our Sources page.

Keep travelling

One station at a time

Go back to the era, or see the whole road on the timeline.

Back to Era 8Take the RihlaThe timeline