The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire

by Alan Palmer

  8. Lewis, p. 65.

  9. Lewis, p. 59.

  10. Alderson, p. 87 and his genealogical table XLIV; see also the article by Deny in EI i under ‘Valide Sultanlar’. For the more romantic assumptions, see N. Barber, Lords of the Golden Horn, pp. 118–19 and, at greater length, B.A. Morton, The Veiled Empress, and Lesley Blanch, The Wilder Shores of Love.

  11. Corr. Nap. vol. 1, nos 61 and 65.

  12. Miot, Mémoires I, p. 235; J. F. Bernard, Talleyrand, pp. 201–4; C. Herold, Bonaparte in Egypt, pp. 127–9; D. Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon, pp. 211–12.

  13. Corr. Nap. vol. 4, pp. 191–2; Ottoman reactions: Shaw, Between, pp. 258–71.

  14. Herold, op. cit., pp. 286–99.

  15. Shaw, Between, pp. 278–81; Anderson, p. 33.

  Chapter 5: The Strange Fate of Sultan Selim

  1. P. Holt, Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, pp. 176–92; Shaw, Between, pp. 286–91.

  2. Ibid., pp. 317–27. On the Serb revolt and its background, M. Boro Petrovich, History of Modern Serbia, vol. 1, pp. 23–81; Temperley, History of Serbia, chapter 10.

  3. V. Puryear, Napoleon and the Dardanelles, pp. 2–39.

  4. This may have been a higher figure than usual; cf. C. Issawi, Economic History of Turkey, pp. 80 and 83–4 and Anderson, p. 60.

  5. Napoleon to Selim III, 30 January 1805, Corr. Nap. vol. 10 no. 8298.

  6. Napoleon to Talleyrand, 9 June 1806, Corr. Nap. vol. 12 no. 10339.

  7. Napoleon to Caulaincourt, 31 May 1808, L. Lecaistre, Lettres inédites de Napoleon I, vol. 1, p. 198; and see A. Palmer, Alexander I, pp. 143 and 155.

  8. M.P. Coquelle, ‘Sébastiani, ambassadeur à Constantinople’, Revue Historique Diplomatique, vol. 18 (1904), pp. 574–611.

  9. P. Mackesy, The War in the Mediterranean, 1803–10, p. 161.

  10. Ibid., pp. 166–7.

  11. Ibid., pp. 170–4, supplemented by Arbuthnot’s reports in FO 78/55.

  12. Mackesy, pp. 176–7; C. Frazee, Orthodox Church and Independent Greece, p. 8.

  13. Mackesy, op. cit., pp. 186–94.

  14. Shaw, Between, pp. 373–5.

  15. Ibid., pp. 378–95.

  16. Puryear, op. cit., pp. 207–27; Mackesy, op. cit., pp. 206–11.

  17. Shaw, Between, pp. 403–4.

  18. Temp., p. 6 and p. 401.

  19. A. Juchereau de St Denys, Les Révolutions de Constantinople en 1807–08, vol. 2, pp. 217–392; Shaws, pp. 2 and 3; Lewis, pp. 74–5.

  20. Juchereau, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 199–208.

  Chapter 6: Mahmud II, The Enigma

  1. C. Macfarlane, Constantinople in 1828, p. 111; L.A. Marchand, (ed.) Byron Letters, vol. 1, pp. 241–56; J.C. Hobhouse, Journey through Albania . . . to Constantinople, vol. 1, p. 365.

  2. Temperley, Hist. of Serbia, p. 190: the book was published in 1917, with this section probably written during the Balkan Wars; Shaws, p. 6; Davison, Essays, p. 23.

  3. L-P, vol. 1, pp. 49–53 and p. 513; Slade, Travels in Turkey, etc., chapters 8 and 9.

  4. L-P, vol. 1, p. 49.

  5. S. Canning to R. Wellesley, 9 November 1809, L-P vol. 1, p. 71.

  6. Ibid., p. 63; C. W. Crawley, The Question of Greek Independence, pp. 55–6.

  7. Kinross, Ottoman Centuries, pp. 443–4 and works cited for chapter 4, note 3, above.

  8. H. Holland, Travels in Ionian Islands, Albania, etc., vol. 1, p. 204.

  9. For following paragraphs: D. Dakin, Unification of Greece, pp. 39–43; C.W. Crawley, op. cit., pp. 18–20; R. Clogg (ed.), The Movement for Greek Independence, pp.175–200.

  10. Exhortation of 1798 translated, ibid., pp. 56–64.

  11. Palmer, Alexander I, pp. 377–80; C.M. Woodhouse, Capodistria, pp. 267–70.

  12. Chabert to Strangford, 31 March 1821, Add. MSS 36299, no. 59.

  13. Chabert to Strangford, 16 April 1821, Add. MSS 36299, no. 88; Pisani Memorandum of same date, Add. MSS 36301, no. 4.

  14. Anathema of March 1821, Clogg, op. cit., pp. 203–6; cf. C.A. Frazee, Orthodox Church and Independent Greece, pp. 28–9.

  15. Patriarch’s death: eyewitness account, R. Walsh, A Residence at Constantinople, pp. 314–17; Memorandum by Pisani, 25 April 1821, Add. MSS 36301, no. 5; formal dispatch, Strangford to Castlereagh (?25) April 1821, FO 78/98/27; later account, Strangford to Castlereagh, 12 June 1821, FO 78/99/47; Frazee, op. cit., pp. 32–3; Crawley, op. cit., pp. 17–18.

  16. Strangford to Castlereagh, 23 July 1821, FO 78/99/71.

  17. Frazee, op. cit., pp. 36–9.

  18. Walsh, op. cit. I, pp. 316–17; Pisani Memorandum, 1 June 1821, Add. MSS 36301, no. 54.

  19. Temperley, Foreign Policy of Canning, pp. 336–8; Ibrahim in Greece, Crawley, op. cit., pp. 38–59.

  20. G. Canning to S. Canning, 9 January 1826, L-P, vol. 1, p. 396; A. Palmer, The Chancelleries of Europe, p. 46.

  21. Hobhouse, op. cit. I, p. 213.

  22. For the Turkish Court Chronicler see Temp., p. 16, p. 402.

  23. S. Canning to G. Canning, 19 April 1826, L-P, vol. 1, p. 401.

  24. L-P vol. 1, p. 417; Stratford’s account was written some 40 years later.

  25. Ibid., pp. 418–20; Walsh, op. cit. vol. 2, pp. 264–6 and his Appendix VII, pp. 502–25; see also Temp., pp. 18–22 and the French account translated in Laurence Kelly’s Istanbul, pp. 266–71.

  26. S. Canning to G. Canning, 12 August 1821, L-P, vol. 1, p. 424.

  Chapter 7: Egyptian Style

  1. Mahmud’s reforms: Lewis, pp. 75–103; Shaws, pp. 21–9, 35–40, 46–8.

  2. Lewis, pp. 89–92.

  3. C. Issawi, Economic History of Turkey, p. 161.

  4. Anderson, pp. 67–74; Crawley, Question of Greek Independence, pp. 86–112; Palmer, Chancelleries of Europe, pp. 48–9.

  5. For the diplomatic background as well as the naval events see C.M. Woodhouse’s The Battle of Navarino.

  6. Crawley, op. cit., pp. 164–75; Shaws, pp. 31–2; Hurst, Key Treaties, vol. 1, pp. 188–203.

  7. N. Shilder, Imperator Nikolaus I, vol. 2, pp. 250–1.

  8. Palmerston to Granville, 6 November 1832, C. Webster, Foreign Policy of Palmerston, vol. 1, p. 282. Webster’s chapter 4 is a valuable source for Great Power policies in this crisis; P. Holt, Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, pp. 232–5; P. Vatikiotis, History of Modern Egypt, p. 65; Temp., pp. 89–136.

  9. Anderson, pp. 81–6; P.E. Moseley, Russian Diplomacy and the Opening of the Eastern Question, p. 21.

  10. Palmer, Chancelleries, pp. 64–5; J. Norris, The First Afghan War, pp. 214–6.

  11. Moltke’s letter of 12 July 1839, H. von Moltke, Briefe aus dem Turkei, pp. 377–400 (for the battle and its preliminaries).

  Chapter 8: Sick Man?

  1. Temp., p. 242.

  2. Shaws, pp. 58–9; Temp. pp. 98–9, 157, 163, 243–7; L-P, vol. 2, pp. 101–14.

  3. Temp., pp. 158–61. The official French language text of the Gülhane Decree is in Young, Coup de droit Ottoman, vol. 1, pp. 257–61. Extensive quotations, Shaws, pp. 58–9.

  4. Diplomats’ comments, Temp., p. 162. See also Temperley’s article, ‘British Policy towards Parliamentary Reform and Constitutionalism in Turkey’, Cambridge Historical Journal, 1933, especially pp. 150–60.

  5. See discussion in Palmer, Chancelleries of Europe, pp. 65–7.

  6. Hurst, Key Treaties, vol. 1, pp. 252–8; C. Webster, Foreign Policy of Palmerston, vol. 2, p. 644–737; Anderson, pp. 100–4.

  7. Hurst, Key Treaties, vol. 1, pp. 259–60.

  8. For an account of Nicholas’s visit to London, based on the Aberdeen Papers and Russian sources, see A. Palmer, The Banner of Battle, pp. 1–7.

  9. For the Tanzimat reforms in general: Lewis, pp. 75–125; Shaws, pp. 61–118; Davison, Essays, pp. 114–28.

  10. Temp., pp. 242–3. This opinion, probably written in 1934, occurs in a strange paragraph comparing the methods used by Stratford de Redcliffe and T.E. Lawrence in ‘reforming Orientals’.

  11. See the article ‘The First
Ottoman Experiment with Paper Money’ in Davison, Essays, pp. 60–72.

  12. Detailed figures cited by Shaws, p. 107, from sources in Istanbul.

  13. Stratford de Redcliffe to Palmerston, 5 April 1851, Temp., p. 242.

  14. Temp., pp. 188–97 and p. 446, may be supplemented by Colonel Rose’s journal in the Strathnairn Papers, Add. MSS 42834.

  15. On Maronites in the Lebanon see Yapp, Making of the Modern Near East, p. 136; P.M. Holt, Egypt and the Fertile Crescent 1576–1922, pp. 236–41.

  16. The chief biographical source for Omer is a memoir by his physician, published in Sarajevo when Bosnia was under Austro-Hungarian administration: J. Koetscheck, Aus dem Leben Serdar Ekrem Omer pasha.

  17. Lord Cowley (in Vienna) to Palmerston, 3 January 1849, FO 30/122/10 mentions two occasions, basing his report on talks with Archduke John. The other occasion is cited below (note 18).

  18. Vienna visit of December 1845: T. Schiemann, Geschichte Russlands unter Kaiser Nikolaus I, vol. 4, p. 377; A. Palmer, Metternich, pp. 290–1.

  19. Temp., pp. 259–65. A British government bluebook, ‘Correspondence respecting Refugees within the Turkish dominions’, was published in 1851 (no. 1324, in volume 50 of Accounts and Papers).

  20. Temp., pp. 265–66, 502–6.

  21. Temp., pp. 292–5.

  22. H. Rose to Clarendon, 28 December 1852, FO 78/894/170.

  23. A.A. Zaionchkovskii, Vostochnaia voina v sviazi s sovremennoi i politeschkoi obstanovki, vol. 1, pp. 356–7.

  24. The fullest treatment of these talks is in G.H. Bolsover, ‘Nicholas I and the Partition of Turkey’, SEER, vol. 27 (1948–9) pp. 139–43. But this article must be supplemented by Seymour’s Journal, Add. MSS 60306. For this reference see the Journal for 9 January 1853.

  25. Palmer, Banner of Battle, pp. 14–15.

  26. Russell to Seymour, 9 February 1853, FO 65/649/38; Temp., pp. 274–5.

  27. Ibid., Palmer, op. cit., p. 16.

  28. H. Rose to Admiral Dundas, 5 March 1853, Add. MSS 42801; Rose to Clarendon, 6 March, FO 78/930/73.

  29. Stratford to Clarendon, 11 April 1853, FO 78/931/12. See also the valuable article by J.L. Herkless, ‘Stratford, the Cabinet and the Outbreak of the Crimean War’, HJ, vol. 18 iii (1975), pp. 497–523.

  30. Blakely’s report, 23 April 1853, Stratford de Redcliffe Papers, FO 352/36; Slade’s report, 21 May, is enclosed in Stratford to Clarendon, 28 May, FO 78/932/70.

  31. Herkless, loc. cit., pp. 498, 501, 522.

  32. Palmer, Banner of Battle, p. 20.

  33. Stratford to Clarendon, 14 August 1853, FO 78/939/220.

  34. Palmer, op. cit., p. 23.

  35. Vatikiotis, History of Modern Egypt, p. 72; Temp., p. 346.

  36. Temp., p. 475; Herkless, loc. cit., p. 517.

  37. Temp., p. 363.

  Chapter 9: Dolmabahche

  1. J. Curtiss, Russia’s Crimean War, pp. 186–8.

  2. Palmer, Banner of Battle, pp. 30–2.

  3. Rose’s Journal, 25 October 1854, Add. MSS 42837.

  4. On Kars: A.J. Barker, The Vainglorious War, pp. 274–9.

  5. Shaws, p. 140; Lewis, p. 115; see also the biographical entries in EI i and EI ii.

  6. Text of treaties, Hurst, Key Treaties, vol. 1, pp. 317–37. For Palmerston’s comments, see his letter to Clarendon, 26 September 1855, Add. MSS 48579. On the receipt, see also Shaws, pp. 87, 124–5, 140; Lewis, pp. 113–15 and 131; Davison, Reform, pp. 52–80.

  7. Anderson, pp. 156–7.

  8. Lewis, p. 339; Shaws, pp. 116 and 141.

  9. R.G. Richardson, Nurse Sarah Anne, p. 80; Cook; Florence Nightingale, p. 85.

  10. Charles Gordon to Lord Aberdeen, 10 May 1854, Add. MSS 43225.

  11. Celik Gulbersoy’s Dolmabahche is a beautifully illustrated book which, though written in Turkish, gives non-Turkish readers a clear impression of the palace’s magnificence.

  12. Shaws, pp. 63, 82–3.

  13. For a detailed study of the effect of the electric telegraph in the Ottoman Empire, see Davison, Essays, pp. 133–65.

  14. Vatikiotis, History of Modern Egypt, pp. 71–4, 84.

  15. See Sumner, p. 140.

  16. Lebanon settlement: Holt, Egypt and Fertile Crescent, p. 241; text of Lebanon statute of 1861, Hurewitz, I, pp. 165–68; Hurst, Key Treaties, vol. 1, pp. 408–10.

  17. Queen Victoria to Crown Princess of Prussia, 13 July 1867, R. Fulford (ed.), Your Dear Letter, p. 143.

  18. Shaws, pp. 83–91, 106–11, 119.

  19. Lewis, pp. 145–51; Shaws, pp. 130–3.

  20. Edward Hornby, Autobiography, p. 74, cited by Davison, Essays, p. 111.

  21. Sumner, p. 101; H. Feis, Europe, The World’s Banker, pp. 312–4; C. Issawi, Economic History of Turkey, pp. 321–4.

  22. Queen Victoria to Crown Princess of Prussia, 20 July 1867, Fulford, op. cit., p. 145; The Times, 19 July 1867.

  23. Sumner, p. 103.

  24. C. Issawi, Economic History of the Middle East, pp. 90–1.

  25. Shaws, p. 153.

  26. Sumner, p. 101; Shaws, pp. 154–6.

  27. R.W. Seton-Watson, Disraeli, Gladstone and the Eastern Question, pp. 32 and 37; A.P. Vacalopoulos, History of Thessaloniki, pp. 116–20.

  28. Sir Henry Elliot, Some Revolutions and Other Diplomatic Experiences, p. 231; Lewis, pp. 156–8; Shaws, p. 163.

  29. Davison, Reform, pp. 330–9; Alderson, p. 69; J. Haslip, The Sultan, pp. 70–2.

  30. Davison, Reform, pp. 317–49, while his Appendix D (p. 418) discusses the fate of Abdulaziz. For Çerkes Hasan affair see also: Shaws, p. 164; Lewis, p. 159; Alderson, p. 70.

  31. H. Elliot to Lord Derby, 17 August 1876, FO 78/2462/867; Seton-Watson, op. cit., p. 36.

  32. The Times, 3 August 1876, printing a report from Therapia dated 26 July.

  33. Elliot to Derby, 25 September 1876, FO 78/2464/1079.

  Chapter 10: Yildiz

  1. J. Haslip, The Sultan, p. 84; cf. the extract from Pierre Loti’s Aziyade in L. Kelly (ed.), Istanbul, pp. 208–10. See also R. Devereux, The First Ottoman Constitutional Period, pp. 41–6.

  2. H. Elliot to Derby, 15 September 1876, FO 78/2463/1016.

  3. Haslip, op. cit., pp. 76–8; Shaws, p. 172; for Sir Henry Elliot and ‘the Englishman’ see his dispatch to Lord Derby, 27 August 1876, FO 78/2462/915.

  4. Constitution of 1876: R. Devereux, op. cit., p. 80; Davison, Reform, pp. 358–408; and the article ‘Dustur’ by Bernard Lewis in EI ii. See also Shaws, pp. 174–8.

  5. Sumner, pp. 198–234; Seton-Watson, Disraeli, Gladstone, etc., pp. 51–105.

  6. Kenneth Rose, The Later Cecils, p. 62, citing from the Hatfield archives (C51/1–2) a private letter from Salisbury to Lord Robert Cecil, 25 December 1876.

  7. Kennedy, Salisbury, p. 100; Seton-Watson, op. cit., pp. 133–7; Sumner, pp. 235–51. See also the diary kept during the ambassadors’ conference by the German diplomat C.A. Busch and edited by one of his colleagues, Leopold Raschdau, for publication in Deutsche Rundschau, vol. 141 (Berlin, 1909), especially pp. 22–7.

  8. Ali Haydar Midhat, Midhat Pasha, p. 145; Devereux, op. cit., p. 110; Davison, Reforms, pp. 400–2.

  9. For the elections and composition of parliament see Devereux, op. cit., pp. 123–45; opening ceremony, ibid., pp. 108–13.

  10. Sumner, p. 271; Anderson, p. 193.

  11. Sumner, pp. 319–33 and 339.

  12. Devereux, op. cit., pp. 186–7.

  13. Layard to Derby, 30 April and 18 May 1877, cited from Add. MSS by Seton-Watson, op. cit., p. 207.

  14. Layard to Beaconsfield, 5 February 1878, ibid., p. 354.

  15. Devereux, op. cit., pp. 236–48.

  16. Sumner, p. 373; Seton-Watson, op. cit., p. 311.

  17. Layard to Derby, 15 February 1878, copy in Add. MSS 39131; cf. Seton-Watson, op. cit., p. 317.

  18. Derby to Layard, 14 February 1878, Add. MSS 39137; cf. Seton-Watson, op. cit., pp. 331–2.

  19. E. Corti, The Downfall of Three Dynasties, p. 241.


  20. Joan Haslip, The Sultan, p. 131.

  21. Text of San Stefano Treaty: Sumner, pp. 627–37; Hurst, Key Treaties, vol.2, pp. 528–46.

  22. Anderson, pp. 210–16; Sumner, pp. 434–8.

  23. Layard to Derby, 13 March 1878, FO 195/1176/343. For ‘place of arms’ proposals, Seton-Watson, op. cit., pp. 324–5.

  24. Sumner, pp. 475–95 and 637–51.

  25. Seton-Watson, op. cit., p. 325 and p. 423.

  26. Sumner, p. 510, citing Colonel Dmitri Anuchin’s diary, from Russkaya Starina, vol. 150.

  27. Lewis, p. 172; Shaws, p. 189.

  28. Seton-Watson, op. cit., pp. 427–9.

  29. Shaws, pp. 213–25, using Yildiz Palace archives; Haslip, op. cit., p. 184; Kinross, Ottoman Centuries, pp. 533–5.

  30. Haslip, op. cit., pp. 152–3. Sir Edwin Pears’s Life of Abdul-Hamid was written by a diplomat with considerable personal knowledge of Yildiz and supplements his Forty Years at Constantinople. G. Dorys, Abdul Hamid Intime, and Paul Regla, Les Secrets de Yildiz, are good quarries for fiction; they were written during Abdulhamid’s later years.

  31. Layard to Sir Henry Elliot, 5 July 1878, Add. MSS 39138. See also Sumner, p. 506 and Seton-Watson, op. cit., pp. 419–20 and 509–12.

  32. Berlin Treaty text: Sumner, pp. 658–69; Hurst, Key Treaties, vol. 2, pp. 551–77.

  33. Stratford de Redcliffe, The Eastern Question, p. 49.

  34. Lewis, p. 447; C. Issawi, Economic History of Turkey, pp. 361–5; D.C. Blaisdell, European Financial Control in the Ottoman Empire, pp. 88–93; Shaws, p. 223 and p. 225.

  Chapter 11: The Hamidian Empire

  1. Sumner, pp. 563–8; Anderson, pp. 227–31; C. Jelavich, Tsarist Russia and Balkan Nationalism, pp. 215–43; R. Crampton, A History of Bulgaria 1878–1918, pp. 85–114.

  2. P.J. Vatikiotis, History of Modern Egypt, p. 73.

  3. For Ismail: P. Holt, Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, pp. 195–210. See also Anderson, pp. 242–3, and M.E. Yapp, Making of the Modern Near East, pp. 213–32.

  4. Anderson, pp. 244–51; Lewis, p. 402; Yapp, op. cit., p. 181.

  5. Foreign Office to Treasury, 7 November 1898, FO 78/4967, cited by G. Papadopoulos, England and the Near East, p. 27.

  6. Layard to Beaconsfield, 1 August 1877, copy Add. MSS 39137.