What was required to continue the pace of reform was to remove the Janissaries as a force of consequence. And the sultan Mahmud II, in 1826, did exactly that. He abolished the Janissary Corps. Mahmud II, who ruled from 1808 to 1839, is often described as the Ottoman version of the Russian Peter the Great, in terms of his contribution to the modernizing and reforming of the Ottoman Empire. In the Greek revolt of the 1820s, that we referred to in our previous lesson, the Janissaries, as a military force, revealed their total incompetence. Mahmud II renewed his attempt at forming a new army in 1826. This time however, he was careful in formulating the reforms within an Islamic framework, in order to forestall accusations of infidel innovations. This time, there were Muslim instructors and a fatwa, a religious ruling, was issued to the effect that the reforms were in line with the Sharia, with Islamic law. However, the Janissaries, as Mahmud had expected, revolted again against the reforms. But the Sultan was not surprised, and he was now ready to crash the Janissaries, and he did so with great force. The Janissaries no longer enjoyed popular support as protectors of the faith. They were seen now for what they really were, an unruly, self-interested rabble. Thousands of Janissaries were killed in the uprising, and the Janissary Corps was finally abolished. Ottoman historians refer to this as The Auspicious Event, and in terms of reform and modernization, indeed it was. The road to creation of a European style army, and for comprehensive reforms, was now wide open. The Ulama, the men of religion, the religious establishment, and provincial notables who enjoyed a great deal of political power, gradually suffered a reduction in their power and influence, as the result of the strengthening of state power in the advent of reform. European style reforms and assistance from European advisors were now openly carried out. New schools were established, mainly to support the military reforms. A medical school for Army doctors. A school of military sciences. And it's important to note that the language of instruction in these schools was French. The exposure to foreign languages doesn't only mean the exposure to foreign manuals on military sciences. It eventually becomes an exposure to the world of foreign ideas. But in the meantime, we are dealing with the reform of the military. And it took a long time for the new army to prove itself in the battlefield. It did so, very successfully in the initial phase of the first world war, but that was a long time ahead. But the reform of the military was a very important tool in maintaining the power of the central government. Mahmud II also reformed the bureaucracy. Clerks now became ministers with European titles. And Ottoman Muslims were encouraged to learn foreign languages. Student missions were sent abroad from 1827 onwards. And from 1833, we have the operation in the Ottoman empire of a Translation Bureau. The spread of a growing body of translations, by means of the printing press, obviously meant with time, the spread of foreign ideas. The reopening of overseas embassies in 1834, which had been closed down after the fall of Celine III in 1807, was again, another important exposure to the windows of the West. It is important to note, this was not a revolution of the masses. This was not a revolution that was taking place as a result of popular protest. This was a top-down reform process. And as a top-down reform process, it even encountered as we will see, at very many junctures, opposition from below, rather than being encouraged by the population at large. But the reforms definitely strengthened the position of the central government at the expense of competing agents of power that used to exist in the Ottoman Empire, such as the Ulama, the Janissaries, the professional guild, the notables, etc. A major importance of the reforms of Mahmud II is that they regularized and legitimized change. It was now acceptable to engage in reform and change, overcoming the initial traditional opposition to this kind of innovation. The opening to modest reform, in fact, opened the floodgates of Western style modernization. Mahmud II, in order to legitimize his reforms, concealed the extent of change by presenting his reforms as the abolition of harmful innovations to protect Islam. Thereby presenting the reforms as if they were part of a project, not to weaken the hold of Islam on society, but actually to reinforce it. And the driving force behind the reforms was the need to preserve the empire. And not answering to public pressure. The mass of the population was indifferent to the reforms, or even hostile to change, and the impact on the masses was only very partial. And this is important to remember, when we move from the mid-19th century, to the 20th or to the 21st century. In later years when there was a revival of tradition through Islamic movements, there were very many takers amongst the general population. Because the reform was top-down, when changes in the leadership took place in the Ottoman Empire, reforms were often set back if the Sultan coming to power was somewhat less interested in change than his predecessor.
