محمود الثاني

Mahmud II, son of Abd al-Hamid I, was Ottoman sultan from 1223/1808 to 1255/1839, coming to the throne after the Bayrakdar coup and the killing of Selim III. The Encyclopaedia of Islam reports that he restored the centre's authority over the provinces, abolished the Janissaries in 1826, built a new Western-style army and reorganised the administration into ministries and councils, while the empire lost ground to Russia, Greece and Muhammad Ali, and that he died on 1 July 1839 after the defeat at Nizib. Its author judges that his reforms set Ottoman society irrevocably on the road to modernisation, while al-Salabi says he followed Western civilisation in dress.

Reign · Ottoman Empire · no. 22 in the chain · 1808–1839 CE

Ruled the caliphate

Events of the reign

The museum record for this caliph