The Gülhane Rescript (Khatt-i Sharif)

The Imperial Edict of Gülhane was issued in 1839 CE in the name of the sultan Abdulmejid I, through Mustafa Reshid Pasha, and it made the rights of Muslim and non-Muslim subjects equal. ² It was read out in Istanbul.

Al-Salabi says that the edict was not welcomed by Muslim Ottoman public opinion; the scholars declared their objection to it, and they declared Reshid Pasha an unbeliever and held the edict to contradict the Qur'an as a whole. ²

Al-Salabi holds that it was issued as the price Britain and the European states obtained for settling the dispute between the sultan and Muhammad Ali Pasha (1255–1257 AH, 1839–1841 CE). He holds that it set aside a number of provisions of the law concerning the protected subjects, and brought in the concept of the "homeland" instead of the "nation", so that it was among the first steps toward separating religion from the state. ²

This is the account of a single author, and it needs an additional source from another point of view.