Plans of reforms

Selim III receiving dignitaries at an audience at the Gate of Felicity, Topkapı Palace. Painting by Konstantin Kapıdağlı.

The talents and energy with which Selim III was endowed had endeared him to the people, and great hopes were founded on his accession. He had associated much with foreigners and was thoroughly persuaded of the necessity of reforming his state.

However, Austria and Russia gave him no time for anything but defense, and it was not until the Peace of Iaşi (1792) that breathing space was allowed him in Europe, while Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and Syria soon called for the empire's most vigorous efforts.

Ottoman provinces from Egypt to Syria began implementing French policies and differed away from Istanbul after Napoleon's attack.

French campaign in Egypt and Syria against the Mamluk and Ottoman forces.

Selim III profited by the respite to abolish the military tenure of fiefs; he introduced salutary reforms into the administration, especially in the fiscal department, sought by well-considered plans to extend the spread of education, and engaged foreign officers as instructors, by whom a small corps of new troops called Nizam-I Cedid were collected and drilled in 1797. This unit comprised Turkish peasant youths from Anatolia and was supplied with modern weaponry.^[5]

These troops were able to hold their own against rebellious Janissaries in the Balkan provinces such as the Sanjak of Smederevo against its appointed Vizier Hadži Mustafa Pasha, where disaffected governors made no scruple of attempting to make use of them against the reforming sultan.

Emboldened by this success, Selim III issued an order that in the future, picked men should be taken annually from the Janissaries to serve in the Nizam-I Cedid. Selim III was unable to integrate the Nizam-I Cedid with the rest of the army which overall limited its role in defense of the state.^[5]

Foreign relations

Selim III ascended the throne only to find that the Ottoman Empire of old had been considerably reduced due to conflicts outside the realm. In the north, Russia had taken the Black Sea through the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in 1774. Selim realized the importance of diplomatic relations with other nations and pushed for permanent embassies in the courts of all the great nations of Europe, a hard task because of religious prejudice towards Muslims. Even with the religious obstacles, resident embassies were established in Britain, France, Prussia and Austria. Selim, a cultured poet and musician, carried on an extended correspondence with Louis XVI. Although distressed by the establishment of the republic in France, the Ottoman government was soothed by French representatives in Constantinople who maintained the goodwill of various influential personages.^[6][7]

On 1 July 1798, however, French forces landed in Egypt, and Selim declared war on France. In alliance with Russia and Britain, the Turks were in periodic conflict with the French on land and sea until March 1801. Peace came in June 1802, but the following year brought new trouble in the Balkans. For decades, a sultan's word had had no power in outlying provinces, prompting Selim's reforms of the military to reimpose central control. This desire was not fulfilled. One rebellious leader was Austrian-backed Osman Pazvantoğlu, whose invasion of Wallachia in 1801 inspired Russian intervention, resulting in greater autonomy for the Dunubian provinces. Serbian conditions also deteriorated. They took a fateful turn with the return of the hated Janissaries, ousted eight years before. These forces murdered Selim's enlightened governor, ending this province's best rule in the last 100 years.^[8] Neither arms nor diplomacy could restore Ottoman authority.

French influence with the Sublime Porte (the European diplomatic designation of the Ottoman state) did not revive. Still, it led the Sultan to defy St. Petersburg and London, and Turkey joined Napoleon's Continental System. War was declared on Russia on 27 December and on Britain in March 1807.

Janissary revolt

The Sultan's most ambitious military project was the creation of an entirely new infantry corps fully trained and equipped according to the latest European standards. This unit called the Nizam-I Cedid (the new order), was formed in 1797 and adopted a pattern of recruitment that was uncommon for the imperial forces; it was composed of Turkish peasant youths from Anatolia, a clear indication that the devshirme system was no longer functional. Officered and trained by Europeans, the Nizam-I Cedid was outfitted with modern weapons and French-style uniforms. By 1806, the new army numbered around 23,000 troops, including a modern artillery corps, and its units performed effectively in minor actions. But Selim III's inability to integrate the force with the regular army and his reluctance to deploy it against his domestic opponents limited its role in defending the state it was created to preserve.

From the start of Selim's reign, the Janissaries had viewed this entire military reform program as a threat to their independence, and they refused to serve alongside the new army in the field. The powerful derebeys were alarmed by how the sultan financed his new forces—he confiscated timars and directed the other revenue toward the Nizam-I Cedid. Further opposition came from the ulama and other ruling elite members who objected to the European models on which Selim based his military reforms.

Led by the rebellious Janissaries, these forces came together in 1806, deposed Selim III, and selected a successor, Mustafa IV, who pledged not to interfere with their privileges. The decree of deposition accused Selim III of failing to respect Islam's religion and the Ottomans' tradition. Over the next year, the embassies in Europe were dismantled, the Nizam-I Cedid troops were dispersed, and the deposed sultan, whose cautious military reforms were intended to do no more than preserve the tradition of the Ottomans, was murdered.^[9]

Austro-Turkish War (1788–91)

The main Ottoman army led by the Grand Vizier advancing to Sofia in May 1788

The Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791) was an inconclusive struggle between the Austrian and Ottoman Empires. It took place at the same time as the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1792, during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Selim III.

Russo-Turkish war

Ottoman troops desperately attempt to halt advancing Russians during the Siege of Ochakov (1788).

The first major Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) began after Turkey demanded that Russia's ruler, Catherine II the Great, abstain from interfering in Poland's internal affairs. The Russians went on to win impressive victories over the Turks. They captured Azov, the Crimea, and Bessarabia, and under Field Marshal Pyotr Rumyantsev, they overran Moldavia and also defeated the Turks in Bulgaria. The Turks were compelled to seek peace, concluding in the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. This treaty made the Crimean khanate independent of the Turkish sultan and advanced the Russian frontier. Russia was now in a much stronger position to expand, and in 1783 Catherine annexed the Crimean Peninsula outright.

War broke out in 1787, with Austria again on the side of Russia. Under General Alexander Suvorov, the Russians won several victories that gave them control of the lower Dniester and Danube rivers, and further Russian successes compelled the Turks to sign the Treaty of Jassy on 9 January 1792. Turkey ceded the entire western Ukrainian Black Sea coast to Russia by this treaty. When Turkey deposed the Russophile governors of Moldavia and Walachia in 1806, war broke out again, though in a desultory fashion since Russia was reluctant to concentrate large forces against Turkey while its relations with Napoleonic France were so uncertain. But in 1811, with the prospect of a war between France and Russia in sight, the latter sought a quick decision on its southern frontier. The Russian field marshal Mikhail Kutuzov’s victorious campaign of 1811–12 forced the Turks to sign the Treaty of Bucharest on 18 May 1812. Ending the war that had begun in 1806, this peace agreement established the Ottoman cession of Bessarabia to Russia.^[10]

The Russians also secured amnesty and a promise of autonomy for the Serbs, who had rebelled against Turkish rule, but Turkish garrisons were given control of the Serbian fortresses. Several disputes forestalled the treaty's implementation, and Turkish troops invaded Serbia again the following year.

Relations with Tipu Sultan

Selim III

Tipu Sultan was an independent ruler of the Sultanate of Mysore, with high regard for loyalty to the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II. He had urgently requested Ottoman assistance during the Third Anglo-Mysore War, in which he had suffered an irreversible defeat. Tipu Sultan then began to consolidate his relations with France. In an attempt to support and open a route to link up with Tipu Sultan, Napoleon invaded Ottoman Egypt in the year 1798, causing a furor in Constantinople.

The British then appealed to Selim III to send a letter to Tipu Sultan requesting the Sultanate of Mysore to halt its state of war against the British East India Company. Selim III then wrote a letter to Tipu Sultan criticizing the French and also informed Tipu Sultan that the Ottomans would act as an intermediary between the Sultanate of Mysore and the British. Tipu Sultan wrote twice to Selim III, rejecting the advice of the Ottomans; before most of his letters could arrive in Constantinople, the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War broke out and Tipu Sultan was killed during the Siege of Seringapatam (1799).^[11]

Alcohol prohibition

Many Ottoman sultans imposed alcohol bans (often with limited success). Despite Selim III's hardline stance on alcohol consumption and threats to execute Christians and Jews caught selling wine or rakı to Muslims, it proved extremely difficult to curtail alcohol consumption in Istanbul, where wines were locally produced, and the city had many established wine-houses serving its non-Muslim residents.^[12]

Consorts

Selim III had at least thirteen consorts:

• Nefizar Kadın. BaşKadin (first consort). Also called Nafizar, Safizar or Sefizar. She died on 30 May 1792 and was buried in the Laleli Mosque.
• Afitab Kadın. She became BaşKadin after Nefizar's death. She died in 1807.
• Zibifer Kadın. Also called Ziybülfer. After Selim's assassination, she lived in a palace on the Bosphorus. She died on 10 March 1817 and was buried in the Büyük Selimiye in Üsküdar.
• Tabisefa Kadın. After the assassination of Selim III, he lived in the Fındıklı Palace. She died on 14 March 1855 and was buried in the Laleli mosque.
• Refet Kadın. She was born in 1777. She was one of two concubines who tried to prevent Selim's murder. Refet threw herself on the sultan to protect him but was thrown away and had to watch the killers finish the job while she screamed, cried, and tore her hair. She died on 22 October 1867 and was buried in the Mihrişah Sultan mausoleum in Eyüp.
• Nüruşems Kadın. She died in May 1826 and was buried in the Laleli mosque.
• Hüsnümah Kadın. She received the income of Tire. She died in 1814 and was buried in the Laleli mosque.
• Demhoş Kadın. She became one of the consorts in 1799. She probably died around 1806.
• Goncenigar Kadın. She died after 1806.
• Mahbube Kadın. She died after 1806.
• Aynısefa Kadın. She died after 1794.
• Pakize Hanım. BaşIkbal, she was one of the major favorites. She was one of the two consorts who tried to prevent Selim's murder. Pakize threw herself between the assassins and the sultan and was wounded in the hand in the struggle.
• Meryem Hanim. She died on 22 August 1807.