While historians debate Muhammad Ali’s motives in promoting modernization and reform, there is no doubt that they were a pivotal development in the history of nineteenth-century Egypt and, indeed, in the history of the Ottoman Empire as a whole. After narrowly escaping defeat at the hands of Muhammad Ali’s French-trained army, and then only through European intervention, the Ottoman government launched a decades-long reform movement of its own. Known as the Tanzimat, these reforms were meant to strengthen the Ottoman central government and prevent the emergence of another Muhammad Ali. The reforms also helped the empire meet the challenge posed by Western industrialization and modern military technology. Moreover, the wave of interest in modernization and reform that began with Muhammad Ali was not a purely top-down phenomenon. Ordinary Ottomans discussed and debated the appropriate response to the shifting fortunes of the empire, in the process widening the potential scope of reform to include fundamental social and cultural change.

The documents included in this activity offer an opportunity to explore nineteenth-century Ottoman reform efforts from a variety of perspectives. As you read them, think about the challenges faced by the Ottoman Empire and its subjects and the solutions proposed by reformers. How did different reformers define these challenges? How did each reformer’s understanding of his society’s problems shape his proposed solutions?