'Meclis-I Ali-I Umumi' (The Supreme Conseil-General) and the Transformation in the Ottoman Political Thought (1839-1876) (Essay‪)‬

The Tanzimat Era (1839-1876) in the Ottoman Empire was a period when the state and its political, ideological and economic structures witnessed great transformation and reform. The Tanzimat reforms, in other words, were a process of change and reorganization designed to instate a centralized administrative structure. The main goal of these reforms, which enabled the changes in question, can be defined as a struggle by making use of its benefits for the Ottoman bureaucracy against European supremacy. The process of structuring shifted from the central into rural areas and was based on basic concepts expressed within the Tanzimat Decree, which was declared on November 3, 1839. The transformation, no doubt, intended to establish a new state and social structure, embracing concepts that reflected the Ottoman understanding of the European natural rights. These can be summed up as "the security of life, honor and property," "fair taxation" and "equality in military obligation." These new ideas served as the main goal of a transformation in the Ottoman political thought. The Tanzimat movement required the Empire to experience the transition from an understanding of an absolute sultanate and administration to a structure of an "enlightened absolute" state, and was interested in forming and institutionalizing in order to implement the concepts it had introduced. (1) Since it was a semi-constitutional document, the Tanzimat Decree (2) determined the rights and obligations of the Ottoman subjects while the sovereign's authority was limited with his own will (auto-limitation). Thus the edict followed the path of such absolute monarchies as Prussia, Austria and Russia, all of which had been affected by this change in Europe. Unlike liberal states of England and France, these traditional countries pursued a course which the Ottoman administrative elite could take as a model with the new institutions they had established. This notion which is openly seen in the writings of leading Tanzimat individuals as Sadik Rifat Pasha and Mustafa Resit Pasha, appears as the main factor to determine the conception and the administrative understanding of the Tanzimat Era.