Abd-ul-Medjid

Abd-ul-Medjid, the Grand Sultan, was born 23d April 1823, and succeeded his father, Mahmud II., in 1839. The Turkish empire was then in a very dangerous position. Its army had been defeated and dispersed by the Egyptians in the battle of Nisib, and there was nothing to hinder the victorious Ibrahim Pasha from advancing on Constantinople, where a large party were favourable to the Egyptian power under Mehmet Ali. Had it not been for the intervention of the Christian powers, the house of Othman was lost. The treaty of 1840, from which France kept aloof, obliged Mehmet Ali to submit; and the treaty of 1841, to which France subsequently adhered, settled securely the future dependent relation of Egypt to Turkey. The sultan, on the advice of Reshid Pasha, proceeded in the path of reform begun by his father, and by the famous hatti-shcrif of November 3, 1839, promised equal protection to all his subjects irrespective of their creed. Numerous reforms followed, but many of his decrees had but little effect, as the sultan lacked energy both of body and mind. He acted a chivalrous part in 1850 in refusing, at the risk of losing his throne, to give up Kossuth and the other political refugees to the menaces of Russia and Austria, and he had a specially difficult part to play during the war with Russia (1854-56), and the diplomatic negotiations consequent to it. From this time, the sultan sunk into unworthy indolence, and allowed public affairs to drift into financial ruin, until he entirely lost the affection of his subjects. He died 25th June 1861.