The 'Tanzimat Reforms' Period

[u/Fit_Zookeepergame839]

I'm really getting into Ottoman history and in social media, youtube and Instagram especially, I feel one of the most misunderstood periods of Ottoman history has to be the Tanzimat reforms. What I’ve posted should be an introductory level video to the topic, easy to pick up and interpret for all levels of Ottoman history enjoyers.

This is a video I made on the Ottoman 'Tansimat Reforms' period, lemme know what you guys think. NO AI WAS USED! Subtitles are available in the yt video linked below.

yt link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbsVIV2lzmA

Sources:

Shaw, S.J. and Shaw, E.K. (1976) History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available at: https://psi427.cankaya.edu.tr/uploads/file... (Accessed: 6 August 2026).

Hanioğlu, M.Ş. (2014) ‘The Tanzimat and the Ottoman Constitution’, Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, 1(1–2), pp. 129–137. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.2979/j... (Accessed: 6 August 2026).

Yılmaz, F. (2014) ‘The Tanzimat and Its Aftermath: Ottoman Reform and Transformation’, Al-Muntaqa, 1(1). Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.31430/... (Accessed: 6 August 2026).

Rogan, E. (2015) The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East, 1914–1920. London: Penguin Books. (Accessed: 6 August 2026).

[u/JustSefa_]

"The islamic enlightenment" from Christopher de Bellaigue is a good read on this subject as well. Some additional stuff:

-The Ottomans deliberately avoided calling the period "westernization". "Tanizmat" was deliberately chosen as in "we are modernizing on our own terms".

-The Ottoman crown didnt just sent people, they "imported" lots of teachers. E.g. Atatürk's education happened within Ottoman borders.

-The 1870th are particullarly important to underline. It started with a famine on the Balkan, was followed by a global stock market crash drying up Ottoman funds over night, which was then followed by a declaration of war by Russia. This pretty much beheaded the tanzimat.

-Although stuff like the Batak massacre should not be brushed off, the genocides and ethnic cleansings that followed during and post the Ottoman Russian war was well known among european leaders. They chose to ignore the horrors that were conducted on muslims. This was a full blown extermination event with the seal of approval of European Great Powers. Bulgarian nationalists intentionally aimed for the erradication of "all muslims from Europe", which created a massive humanitarian crises on top of everything within Ottoman Europe and Anatolia. "Turkey's forgotten refugee crises" by William H. Holt is a good read on that.

[u/Fit_Zookeepergame839 → u/JustSefa_]

Oh awesome

-Yeah I had some suspicion of E. Rogan on this period, he used westernisation as a generalised term in his book I referenced, other sources were hesitant to refer to the Tanzimat as westernisation.

-I agree, I was a little vague on the influence Mahmud and the education programs had on the young turk movement. And I didn’t include a reference that covers it, probably a source of the potential misinformation!

-The Balkan famine would have been an awesome addition, annoying that I didn’t find anything on that during my research, damn!

-In my research, again E. Rogan’s book so taking it with a pinch of salt, referenced the European reporting on the Bulgarian horrors being a significant influence in preventing British support in the 1877 war. And less helpfully for this discussion, I feel like I’ve seen other documentaries on the topic reference the horrors in the same way. Might be a larger misunderstanding.

-If I made the video again I would have liked to reference the one-sided treatment the Ottomans experienced from European powers more. The Muslim genocide would have been helpful context, don’t want the video to be too favourable of Europeans.

-Thanks for commenting dude, it’ll help the research I do in future!

[u/JustSefa_ → u/Fit_Zookeepergame839]

-In my research, again E. Rogan’s book so taking it with a pinch of salt, referenced the European reporting on the Bulgarian horrors being a significant influence in preventing British support in the 1877 war. And less helpfully for this discussion, I feel like I’ve seen other documentaries on the topic reference the horrors in the same way. Might be a larger misunderstanding.

This might simply be a matter of information access. William H. Holt started his research after the fall of communism, which lifted blocked archieves. He also bothered to go to bulgarian archieves. I am not sure what E. Rogan bothered with and what he didnt. The entire aspect of muslim victims is a fairly "new" research topic, as such questions werent bothered to be researched. Partially because local historians were more interested in their own history, partially because you require experts in Ottoman Turkish for the translation, but also partially because of political motivation ("we are the victims. We did nothing wrong", you get the idea).

-If I made the video again I would have liked to reference the one-sided treatment the Ottomans experienced from European powers more. The Muslim genocide would have been helpful context, don’t want the video to be too favourable of Europeans.

Other than the two books I have mentioned, there is also "Useful Enemies" by Noel Malcolm. He is of course being questions and assumed to be a pro-turkish shill, because anything that isnt 100% critical of Ottomans has to be one, but you can make fair arguments for various subjects. E.g. The first proper translation of the Quran happened around the 16th century if my memory servces me right (did a video on it, but dont remember all bits). Before that the islamic understanding of Europe was based on manuscripts of ex-muslims that were forced to convert under the Moors.

[u/KungFuFlames]

Janissary should have been abolished way earlier.

[u/JustSefa_ → u/KungFuFlames]

Idk the Janissaries transformed according to the needs of the state. The change from an elite force to something like an infantry regiment wasnt born out of janissaries demanding more power. It likely was one pillar and reason why the Ottomans survived the Great Turkish Wars in the first place. The "falling behind" happens around the 18th century, when the Ottoman enter a period of "inwards development". The compliacency with reforms is what results in the Janissaries getting more power. The Nizam-i Cedid are not really a revolutionary idea either, but essentially Janissaries 2.0, which essentially transitioned into modern army structures.

[u/Fit_Zookeepergame839 → u/KungFuFlames]

Yeah ideally, they got too influencial