Selim III

Selim III (1761-1808) sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1789-1807) who introduced significant reforms to the empire. Born in Constantinople (present-day İstanbul), he succeeded his uncle Abd al-Hamid I as sultan. Selim III’s reign coincided with a difficult period for the Ottoman Empire. Internally, the authority of the central government was diminishing; externally, the empire was steadily losing territory to European foes.

On the internal front, power was shifting from the hands of the sultan and the central government into those of a number of powerful local individuals known as ayan (Turkish for “notables”). The ayan were essentially warlords who had large private armies, controlled great quantities of land, and collected taxes, all of which were in earlier times the right of the central government. In addition, the elite Janissary corps of the military—dissatisfied with their pay and conditions—periodically mutinied, seizing newly won European territory as their own and tyrannizing the inhabitants. Selim III sought to restore the sultan’s authority over the ayan by making them accountable for the administration of their lands and threatening them with removal if they failed to act in the best interests of their residents. Seeking to replace the Janissaries, he organized a new military body paid for by new taxes and equipped with new uniforms and weapons. Further reforms included trying to bring order to the empire’s chaotic budgetary process and reclaiming land and tax revenues that had been given as grants to soldiers and their descendants in return for future military service.

Externally, the empire was shrinking under the combined military pressure of both Austria and Russia. Treaties that ended wars with those two enemies (Sistova in 1791, and Jassy in 1792) cost the Ottoman Empire territory and fortresses that controlled the lower Danube and other river mouths on the Black Sea. Selim sought to stave off further Ottoman loss. Under Selim, the Ottomans resisted the French invasion of Egypt in 1798, joined France against Russia in December 1806, and maintained the empire’s sovereignty over its territorial waters by forcing Britain to withdraw its ships from the Dardanelles in 1807. In this period the Ottoman Empire played an increasingly important role in European affairs. Selim initiated permanent Ottoman diplomatic representation in Europe by establishing embassies in London in 1793, and in Berlin, Vienna, and Paris in 1795.

Despite Selim’s foreign successes, his domestic reforms adversely affected the Ottoman economy—already squeezed by the empire’s constant military expenditures—and alienated many local ayan. Selim’s failure to build support for his reform program unleashed rebellion, first by the Christian minority in the Balkans in 1805, and then by mutinous Janissaries in İstanbul in 1807. Selim, without deploying his new troops, capitulated to the Janissaries. He was deposed on May 29, 1807. Having no sons of his own, Selim was allowed to take up residence in the palace and was replaced by Mustafa IV, the eldest son of Abd al-Hamid I. In July 1808 an attempt to restore Selim III to the throne was led by the grand vizier (chief minister) and Bayraktar Mustafa Pasha of Bulgaria, who possessed his own large army. Mustafa IV had Selim executed on July 28, 1808, but he himself was soon replaced by a young prince, Mahmud II, who would eventually bring Selim’s reform program to fruition.