Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Israr Ahmad, Rise and Decline of the 

Muslim Ummah. Translated by S. Ansari (London: Ta-

Ha,1986); Tanzeem-e-Islami Web site. Available online. 

URL: http://www.tanzeem.org/. Accessed December 19, 

2005.

tanzil

  See 

revelation

.

Tanzimat

The term Tanzimat (plural of tanzim = “ordering”) 

refers to the series of reforms designed to reorga-

nize and modernize the Ottoman state, which were 

introduced under Sultan Abd al-Majid (r. 1839–61) 

and continued under Abd al-Aziz (r. 1861–76), and 

more generally to this period in Ottoman history. 

Earlier reforms had been attempted during the 

Tulip Period (1718–30), when military defeats had 

convinced Ottoman intellectuals of the need for 

adopting European technologies. After the French 

Revolution (1789), Selim III (r. 1789–1807) initi-

ated a series of military, economic, political, and 

diplomatic reforms, and interaction with Europe 

continued to develop during the process. These 

reforms were elaborated under Mahmud II (r. 

1808–39). The Tanzimat reforms drew on these ear-

lier attempts, and they were prompted by military 

defeats resulting in the independence of Greece and 

the autonomy of e

gypt

. Confronted with the eco-

nomic and military superiority of e

Urope

, the Otto-

mans felt an increased need for modernization.

Abd al-Majid acceded to the throne as 

sUltan

in 1839, and he named as his foreign minister 

Mustafa Rashid Pasha, a diplomat with experi-

ence in Europe. Rashid Pasha urged the sultan to 

approve an imperial decree known as the Gulhane 

Edict, which Rashid Pasha read publicly in 1839. 

This decree constituted a quasi-constitutional 

document outlining a replacement of traditional 

economic, legal, and educational institutions with 

modern ones, many of them derived from Europe, 

which many Ottomans saw as representing prog-

ress. It called for reforms in tax collection and 

military conscription, provided for the formation 

of councils of representatives at the provincial 

level and of secular schools, and ensured some 

rights and protections for citizens of all classes 

and religious communities. This gesture of equal-

ity to Christian and Jewish minorities was meant 

to curb the threat of separatism by promoting a