© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004385245_011
chapter 9The Eighteenth Century: the Westernizers
Unlike the preceding years, the final decade of the eighteenth century is one of
the most studied periods in Ottoman history.1 Selim III (1789–1807) succeeded
Abdülhamid in the course of the war against Russia and was determined to
enforce decisive reforms and restore Ottoman power. Even before his ascen-
sion, from 1786 on, he had been corresponding with the French king Louis XVI
with the help of his tutor, Ebubekir Ratıb Efendi, as seen in the previous chap-
ter, with a view to seeking advice and diplomatic support for his plans.2 At
the beginning of his reign, he called an enlarged council, consisting of more
than 200 administrators and military and religious officials to ask their opinion
on how to restore Ottoman power. It is interesting to note that this was not
a novelty; such councils (meşveret) were regularly held at many administra-
tive levels and they became increasingly important in the second half of the
eighteenth century.3 For instance, we have the minutes of the council called
after the disaster at Maçin (1791), arguably the central event that set Selim’s
thoughts into action.4 After the end of the 1787–92 war, Selim III asked a series
of high administration officials to write memoranda on the situation of the
army and the state and to propose reforms or amendments, and then set out
to make radical changes, particularly in the military. In the janissary corps, ad-
ministrative roles were allocated to special supervisors, while the former aghas
were left with military tasks alone. What remained of the timariot system was
rearranged, with special care given to producing a cavalry ready to fight during
both summer and winter, thanks to a system of rotation; provincial governors
were asked to recruit and train troops as reserves; the engineering schools, ini-
tiated by Bonneval and Tott earlier, were expanded and enhanced; and foreign
advisors were invited to contribute their knowledge to drilling and training the
janissaries and other soldiers. Most importantly, an entirely new corps was cre-
ated, the Nizam-i Cedid or “New order”. This was composed of youths recruit-
ed in Anatolia; they were trained and commanded by European officers and
1 On the events of this period, see Shaw 1971; Mantran 1989, 425–445; Beydilli 2001, 70–90;
Hanioğlu 2008, 42–71.
2 Uzunçarşılı 1938; Ratıb Efendi – Yıldız 2013.
3 See Aksan 2004, 21–22, and cf. Yaycıoğlu 2008, 144ff.; Yılmaz 2015a, 255–258. The preambles
of the Nizam-i Cedid regulations often stress that these decisions were taken unanimously
(ittifak-ı ara-yı ulema ve erbab-ı şura ile); see, for example, Koç – Yeşil 2012, 3, 60, 79, 95.
4 Yıldız 2016, 150–156.