Abdülmecit I

1823 - 1861

Thirty-first Ottoman sultan (r. 1839 - 1861); initiated Tanzimat reform program.

Abdülmecit I was the oldest surviving son of the Westernizing sultan Mahmud II. He had a good education, with a strong European component. He knew French well, subscribed to French publications, and admired European music. Abdülmecit was also well versed in Ottoman Islamic culture: His mother, Bezmialem, a formidable lady, had a great influence on his upbringing and may have encouraged him to follow the reformist (müceddidî) Naqshbandi teaching of her Sufi spiritual adviser.

When Abdülmecit succeeded to the throne on 1 July 1839, at age seventeen, the empire was in crisis: Its army was defeated and its navy had surrendered to the rebellious governor of Egypt, Muhammad Ali. The conflict was resolved only by the intervention of France and Great Britain, which imposed a settlement defining Muhammad Ali as hereditary viceroy and limiting his territories. Henceforth, the Ottoman Empire was forced to recognize that its internal affairs would remain a concern for the Concert of Europe in its aim to establish and protect an international balance of power.

Within a few months of his accession, Abdülmecit brought to power a group of young reformist ministers, who seem to have been motivated as much by the ideals of the Naqshbandi movement as by a strong commitment to Europeanization. The leader of this group, Mustafa Reşid, prepared and publicly proclaimed, in the form of an imperial decree, the Tanzimat reform program, limiting the sultan's arbitrary power and setting forth principles of fiscal, military, and religious reorganization. The young sultan held fast to this program and left political power in the hands of Mustafa Reşid and others of similar conviction, although factionalism among ministers continued among reformists as well.

The Crimean War (1853 - 1856) illustrates both the Great Powers' involvement in Ottoman affairs and a crucial occasion for Ottoman borrowing from Europe. The loans, obtained at unfavorable rates, were spent on the military as well as various features of material Europeanization that were economically unproductive but symbolically significant. British and French alliance with the Ottomans during the war was promoted in Europe as aiding valiant Ottoman attempts at Westernization. Queen Victoria made Abdülmecit an honorary Knight of the Garter, while the sultan proclaimed a second reform decree (Islahat) to promote equality for his non-Muslim subjects, as requested by the Great Powers at the end of the war. In the long run, however, foreign loans led to financial distress and submission to European fiscal domination.

Hailed abroad as a sensitive and intelligent ruler, Abdülmecit's reforms were less popular among his Muslim subjects, who perceived little immediate benefit from them. Resentment culminated into violent uprisings in Jidda, Damascus, and Beirut, which occasioned only further European involvement. Neither were Tanzimat reforms sufficient to quell non-Muslim discontent in the Balkans, where various ethnic nationalisms were on the rise.

Abdülmecit died young, of tuberculosis. His Muslim subjects looked to his vigorous brother and successor Abdülaziz to champion their privileges. Among his many children were the last four sultans of the dynasty.

Bibliography

Davison, Roderic H. Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856 - 1876. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963.

Iḥnalcik, Halil. Application of the Tanzimat and Its Social Effects. Lisse, Netherlands: Peter de Ridder Press, 1976.

Sakaoğlu, Necdet, and Akbayar, Nuri. A Milestone on Turkey's Path of Westernization: Sultan Abdülmecid. Istanbul: Creative Yayincilik, 2001.

— I. METIN KUNT UPDATED BY BURÇAK KESKIN-KOZAT