ABSTRACT
Reschid Mustapha pasha, his favourite minister, was summoned hastily from his London Embassy to take over the Foreign Office and to administer it in the spirit of Mahmud. Reschid argued that England alone could protect the Turks from the terrible Ibrahim and that she would not do so unless Turkey reformed. In appearance Reschid was impressive, with strong black brows and broad shoulders. Reschid’s ideas and policy are of the greatest interest, for they differed in some degree from Mahmud’s. Apparently the councils of justice and of administration, which Mahmud had set up, were designed by Reschid to be filled by election instead of by nomination. Reschid’s successful stroke over the ‘Rose Chamber’ increased his prestige with the Sultan and enabled him to persevere in his course of reform. The first or ‘Rose Chamber’ phase of reform, as directed by Reschid, lasted from 1839 to 1841.
