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| 1831–38 |
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| Reassertion of direct Ottoman rule in Iraq and Kurdistan. In Sept. 1831 an Ottoman expeditionary force entered Baghdad after a 90-day siege and took over direct control of the province, which had been under Mamluk rule since 1747. In 1834 the Ottomans restored direct control over Mosul, ending the rule of the Jalili family. An Ottoman force then marched through Kurdistan and by 1838 broke the authority of the Kurdish chieftains in the areas of Bitlis, the Jazira, and Amadiyya. The Babans of Sulaymaniyya held out until 1850, when they finally submitted. | 1 |
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| 1831–40 |
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| THE EGYPTIAN OCCUPATION OF SYRIA. The army of Muhammad Ali of Egypt occupied Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria (Nov. 1831–July 1832) and then advanced into Anatolia, defeating an Ottoman army near Konya (Dec. 21, 1832) and pushing as far as Kutahya (Feb. 1833). The sultan accepted Russian military aid, for which he paid with a defensive alliance in the Treaty of Hunkiar Iskelesi (July 8, 1833) (See 1833). The treaty included a secret clause that opened the Dardanelles to the Russians in times of war and closed them to everyone else. Under pressure from France and Britain, the Ottomans and Egyptians reached a peace at Kutahya (May 1833) by which Syria, the district of Adana, and Crete were granted to Muhammad Ali's son Ibrahim in return for a yearly tribute. | 2 |
| Egyptian rule in the region became unpopular due to heavy taxation, forced labor, disarmament of the population, and military conscription, which provoked uprisings from 1834 onward. In 1839 Sultan Mahmud tried to recapture Syria, but his army was defeated in Nezib (June 24) while his navy defected to Alexandria. With the Ottoman Empire at the mercy of Muhammad Ali, a coalition of European powers led by Britain intervened to impose a settlement (the convention of London, July 15, 1840) by which Muhammad Ali was to withdraw from Syria in return for recognition of his hereditary rule in Egypt. When Muhammad Ali refused to comply, European forces, combined with a popular uprising, drove his forces from Syria in 1840. | 3 |
| For Syria's population, Egyptian rule represented a rude introduction to features of a modernizing regime that were to become increasingly common after the return of Ottoman government in 1840 and the gradual application of reforms in the region. | 4 |
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| 1835, May |
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| Restoration of Ottoman direct control over Libya, which lasted until the Italian occupation in 1911. | 5 |
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| 1835–39 |
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| Reorganization of the central government. Mahmud began the process by which the central administration was divided by function into ministries and departments. He established, among others, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1836), the Ministry of the Interior (1836), and the Ministry of Finance (1838). The ministers (vekils) were appointed by the sultan and were responsible to him rather than the grand vezir, whose powers were reduced. Several advisory councils were created (1838) to review and initiate legislative proposals. Mahmud also reorganized the bureaucracy, eliminating the traditional practice by which officials had to be reappointed annually and introducing a regular salary system to replace the dependence on fees as the main source of income. This was part of the development of “big government” in the empire over the 19th century; the number of scribes in the civil service increased from about 2,000 in 1790 to some 35,000 in 1900. | 6 |
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| 1835 |
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| Creation of the office of chief rabbi (hahambashi) of the Ottoman Jews. Its holder, based in Istanbul, was responsible for mediating between the authorities and the community and administering the financial and welfare needs of the community, in addition to being its religious head. Similar offices were subsequently created in the provincial towns (the first chief rabbi of Jerusalem was appointed in 1841, and of Baghdad, in 1849). | 7 |
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| 1836 |
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| The introduction of steamboats on the Euphrates River. An expedition under Francis Chesney carried two steamers across the Syrian desert and sailed them down the Euphrates. In 1839–42 four steamboats belonging to the East India Company sailed on the Tigris and Euphrates, surveying the rivers and carrying mail and passengers. Captain B. Lynch took over the boats in 1841 and established a successful transport service that continued in operation until 1949. An Ottoman government line began operating in 1859. The steamers reduced the journey from Baghdad to Basra to 2–3 days, compared with 5–8 days by sailing boat. | 8 |
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| 1837 |
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| A major earthquake in Palestine and southern Lebanon. Its epicenter was near Safed, which was largely destroyed. | 9 |
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| 1838, Aug. 16 |
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| The Anglo-Ottoman Commercial Convention (Balta Liman) prohibited the use of monopolies throughout the empire and severely lowered the level of internal duties. The agreement, to which other European powers soon acceded, was intended to break the Ottoman and particularly the Egyptian system of monopoly of the purchase, sale, and export of various agricultural products, and to allow direct business with the peasants. It secured for European merchants uninterrupted access to Middle Eastern agricultural products on favorable terms. In subsequent years most Ottoman internal duties were abolished, making the empire an open market for European manufactures while providing little protection for its domestic products. | 10 |
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| 1839–61 |
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| SULTAN ABDULMEJID I. The death of Mahmud (June 30, 1839) and the accession of his son Abdulmejid ushered in the second stage of the Ottoman reform movement, a stage commonly known as the TANZIMAT (literally, orders or regulations). The Tanzimat program of reforms, which reached its climax in the constitution of 1876, drew its inspiration from European models and aimed at rejuvenating the empire through administrative centralization, modernization of the machinery of state, westernization of society, and limited secularization of law and education. The driving spirit behind the reforms was the statesman Mustafa Reshid Pasha (1800–58), who served as grand vezir and foreign minister. Two of his protégés, Ali Pasha (1815–71) and Fu'ad Pasha (1815–69), rose to the same high positions in the government and continued the movement of reform with vigor. | 11 |
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| 1839 |
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| The Imperial School of Medicine was established in Istanbul. | 12 |
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| Nov. 3 |
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| THE IMPERIAL RESCRIPT (HATT-I SHERIF) OF GULHANE. The proclamation, timed to win British diplomatic support in the crisis with Egypt, spelled out a set of projected reforms in the judicial, administrative, and military institutions of the empire. It promised to guarantee security of life, honor, and property for all subjects; to establish an orderly system of fixed taxes to replace tax farming; and to develop a regular system of conscription, with the term of service reduced from lifetime to four or five years. It also adopted for the first time the principle of equality of all subjects, regardless of religion. | 13 |
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