Introduction

The Tanzimat Period, the mid-nineteenth century era of Ottoman legal and administrative reforms, fell into two distinct phases.1 During a fi rst phase following the issuance of the Gülhane Rescript (1839-1856), the central government struggled in its bid to centralize power due to an infl exible, brusque, and heavyhanded approach to reform.2 Diffi culties stemmed primarily from a longstanding structural disconnect between state and local authority. By the mid-nineteenth century, most Ottoman provincial communities had been governing themselves in conditions of virtual autonomy for generations. As a result, a wide spectrum of provincials viewed the state’s initial attempts to arrogate new powers for itself with ambivalence and skepticism. Changes to taxation, property transfers, censustaking, and minority rights were inherently intrusive to local autonomy and threatened to upset many delicate power-sharing arrangements.