Abdulmejid I

Sultan Abdulmejid was born on 25 April 1823. His father was Sultan Mahmud II, his mother Bezm-i Âlem Valide Sultan. Because he was educated and raised according to his father's wishes, Abdulmejid held reforming ideas and felt admiration for the Western world. On his father's death he came to the Ottoman throne at only seventeen. For the advancement of the state he wanted the European way of life spread throughout the country. Because of the Edict of Gülhane, proclaimed in only the fourth month of his reign, he is renowned as the sultan of the Tanzimat period.

Abdulmejid was a sultan whom Western writers recall with appreciation and affection. A just, merciful, reforming and innovating man, he died of tuberculosis in Istanbul on 25 June 1861 at the age of thirty-nine and was buried in his grave beside the tomb of Selim I.

While Mahmud II lay on his deathbed, Mehmed Ali Pasha of Kavala, who had risen against the Ottoman state, had defeated Ottoman forces at Nizip. Abdulmejid came to the throne in such confused circumstances. The Egyptian Question became a European matter when the Russian fleet came to Istanbul in accordance with the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi.

The European states — chiefly Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia — arranged a conference to settle the Egyptian question between the Ottoman state and the governor of Egypt, Mehmed Ali Pasha of Kavala. The European states did not want a strong administration in Egypt. They took the Ottoman side against Mehmed Ali Pasha, and in this setting the London Convention was signed (1840).

By its terms Egypt would remain attached to the Ottoman state, but its government would continue to be conducted by Mehmed Ali Pasha and his sons. Egypt would pay a tax of eighty thousand gold pieces. Syria, Adana and Crete were returned to Ottoman administration.

When the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi expired, another conference was held in London (1841). Besides the Ottoman state, Russia, France, Britain, Prussia and Austria took part. By its decisions sovereignty over the Straits would belong to the Ottoman state, but in time of peace no warship would pass through them.

By this agreement France and Britain secured their safety in the Mediterranean, while a restriction was placed on the Ottoman state's unconditional rights over the Straits. Russia, for its part, lost the advantage over the Straits it had gained by the Treaty of Hünkâr İskelesi.

Source: Osmanlı Tarihi Interaktif CD-ROM (Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları XXXI. Dizi-Sa.2)