Mahmud II (Ottoman Turkish : ????? ???? Mahmud-i sani ) (20 July 1785 – 1 July 1839) was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. He was born in the Topkapi Palace ,Constantinople , the son of Sultan Abdulhamid I .
His reign is notable mostly for the extensive administrative, military
and fiscal reforms he instituted, which culminated into the Decree of Tanzimat (Reorganization) that was carried out by his sons Abdülmecid I and Abdülaziz I . His mother was Valide Sultan Naksh-i-Dil Haseki (there have been speculations that she was a cousin of Napoleon 's wifeJosephine , but this is now widely regarded as false; see Aimée du Buc de Rivéry ). Accession In 1808, Mahmud II's predecessor (and half-brother) Mustafa IV (1807–08) ordered his execution along with his cousin, the deposed Sultan Selim III (1789–1807),
in order to defuse the rebellion. Selim III was killed, but Mahmud was
safely kept hidden by his mother and was placed on the throne after the
rebels deposed Mustafa IV. The leader of this rebellion, Mustafa Bayrakdar , then became Mahmud II's vizier . There
are many stories surrounding the circumstances of his attempted murder.
A version by the 19th century Ottoman historian Cevdet Pasha gives the
following account: one of his slaves, a Georgian girl
named Cevri, gathered ashes when she heard the commotion in the palace
surrounding the murder of Selim III. When the assassins approached the
Harem chambers where Mahmud was staying, she was able to keep them away
for a while by throwing ashes into their faces, temporary blinding them.
This allowed Mahmud to escape through a window and climb onto the roof
of the Harem. He apparently ran to the roof of the Third Court where
other pages saw him and helped him come down with pieces of clothes that
were quickly tied together as a ladder. By this time one of the leaders
of the rebellion, Alemdar Mustafa Pasha arrived with his armed men and upon seeing the dead body of Selim III proclaimed Mahmud as padishah . The slave girl Cevri Kalfa was awarded for her bravery and loyalty and appointed haznedar usta ,
the chief treasurer of the imperial Harem, which was the second most
important position in the hierarchy. A plain stone staircase at the Altinyol (Golden
Way) of the Harem is called Staircase of Cevri (Jevri) Kalfa, since the
events apparently happened around there and are associated with her. Reign overview The vizier took the initiative in resuming reforms that had been terminated by the conservative coup of 1807 that had brought Mustafa IV to power .
However, soon the vizier was killed by Ibrahim's army, and Mahmud II
temporarily abandoned the reforms. Mahmud II's later reformation efforts
were more successful. During the early years of Mahmud II's reign, his governor of Egypt Mehmet Ali Pasa successfully reconquered the holy cities of Medina (1812) and Mecca (1813) from the Nejdi rebels . His reign also marked the first breakaway from the Ottoman Empire, with Greece gaining its independence following
a rebellion that started in 1821. In 1827 the combined British, French
and Russian navies defeated the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Navarino ; in the aftermath, the Ottoman Empire was forced to recognize Greece with the Treaty of Constantinople in July 1832. This event, together with the occupation of the Ottoman province of Algeria by France in
1830, marked the beginning of the gradual break-up of the Ottoman
Empire. Non-Turkish ethnic groups living in the empire's territories,
especially in Europe, started their own independence movements. Among Mahmud II's most notable acts during his reign was the abolition of the Janissary corps
in 1826, permitting the establishment of a European-style conscript
army, recruited largely from Turkish speakers of Rumelia and Asia Minor.
Mahmud was also responsible for the subjugation of the Iraqi Mamluks in 1831. He ordered the execution of the renowned Ali Pasha of Tepelena , an 80-year-old man, for condemning The Auspicious Incident . He sent his Grand Vizier to execute the Bosnian Muslim hero Husein Gradašcevic . He began preparations for the Tanzimat reforms in 1839. The Tanzimat marked the beginning of modernization in Turkey ,
and had immediate effects on social and legal aspects of life in the
Empire, such as European style clothing, architecture, legislation,
institutional organization and land reform. He
was concerned also for aspects of tradition. He made great efforts to
revive the sport of archery. He ordered his archery student, Mustafa
Kani, to write a book about the history, construction, and use of Turkish bows , from which comes most of what is now known of Turkish bowyery. Mahmud II died of tuberculosis - some say he was murdered - at the Esma Sultana Palace \PÇamlica , in 1839. His funeral was attended by crowds of people who came to bid the Sultan farewell. His sonAbdülmecid succeeded him. |