Imperilled condition of the Turkish empire

Another gleam of light broke in upon the darkness which was overspreading the mission work in Turkey. It came from above, for while in the imperilled condition of the Turkish empire there were state reasons which led to the action of the Sultan, we are compelled to refer directly to the leading hand of God this first decisive act, in a series of remarkable documentary concessions by the Ottoman Porte.

In opposition to all the traditions of Mohammedanism and of Turkish rule, Selim III., who came to the throne in 1789, had commenced the work of reform, but the power of the Janizaries was too strong, and he fell a victim to their hostility. Mahmoud II., almost single-handed, took up the work, and, finding that either he or the Janizaries must perish, just at the moment when they were counting on success he gave the order that they should be put to the sword, and they were literally exterminated. Still the whole army of officials, with very few exceptions, were in favor of sustaining the ancient abuses, and the death of Mahmoud was the occasion of scarcely concealed joy on the part of the bigoted Mohammedans.

He was succeeded by his son Abdul Medjid, a youth of only sixteen years, who, on the 3d of November, 1839, four months after his accession to the throne, assembled the nobles of the empire, not only the Mussulmans, but the deputies of the Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, together with the ambassadors of foreign powers, and ordered his grand vizier to read to the august assemblage the first formal Bill of Rights, the Magna Charta of Turkey, and himself set the example to his olficials, by taking the oath of fidelity to the new instrument.

Hatti Sherif of Gill Ilane

This charter is known as the Hatti Sherif of Gill Ilane, so named from the garden of the Seraglio, in which it was promulgated. It did not touch the question of religious liberty which was considered in later firmans, nor, indeed, the subject of religion in any form, being confined to these three points:

1. Guaranteeing to all the subjects of the Porte security of life,.honor, and property;

2. A regular system of levying and collecting the taxes; and 3. An established system of recruiting the army and defining the period of service. But this was the first step in a series of constitutional guarantees, which afterward took the form of charters of religious freedom, culminating in the celebrated Hatti Ilumayoun of 1856.