# Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Abdul Medjid

See also Abdülmecid I on Wikipedia; Abd-ul-Mejid in the 11th Edition; and the disclaimer.
​Abdul Medjid, Sultan of Turkey, the thirty-first sovereign of the house of Othman, was born April 23, 1823, and succeeded his father Mahmoud II. on the 2d of July 1839. Mahmoud appears to have been unable to effect the reforms he desired in the mode of educating his children, so that his son received no better education than that given, according to use and wont, to Turkish princes in the harem. When Abdul Medjid succeeded to the throne, the affairs of Turkey were in an extremely critical state. At the very time his father died, the news was on its way to Constantinople that the Turkish army had been signally defeated at Nisib by that of the rebel Egyptian viceroy, Mehemet Ali; and the Turkish fleet was at the same time on its way to Egypt, to be surrendered perfidiously by its commander to the same enemy. But through the intervention of the great European powers, Mehemet Ali was obliged to come to terms, and the Ottoman empire was saved. In compliance with his father's express instructions, Abdul Medjid set at once about carrying out the extensive reforms to which Mahmoud had so energetically devoted himself. In November 1839 was proclaimed an edict, known as the Hatti-sheiif of Gulhané, consolidating and enforcing these reforms, which was supplemented, at the close of the Crimean war, by a similar statute, issued in February 1856. By these enactments it was provided that all classes of the sultan's subjects should have security for their lives and property; that taxes should be fairly imposed and justice impartially administered; and that all should have full religious liberty and equal civil rights. The scheme was regarded as so revolutionary by the aristocracy and the educated classes (the Ulema) that it met with keen opposition, and was in consequence but partially put in force, especially in the remoter parts of the empire; and more than one conspiracy was formed against the sultan's life on account of it. Of the other measures of reform promoted by Abdul Medjid the more important were—the reorganisation of the army (1843-4), the institution of a council of public instruction (1846), the abolition of an odious and unfairly imposed capitation tax, the repression of slave trading, and various provisions for the better administration of the public service and for the advancement of commerce. The public history of his times—the disturbances and insurrections in different parts of his dominions throughout his reign, and the great war successfully carried on against Russia by Turkey, and by England, France, and Sardinia, in the interest of Turkey (1853-56)—can be merely alluded to in this personal notice. When Kossuth and others sought refuge in Turkey, after the failure of the Hungarian rising in 1849, the sultan was called on by Austria and Russia to surrender them, but boldly and determinedly refused. It is to his credit, too, that he would not allow the conspirators against his own life to be put to death. He bore the character of being a kind and honourable man. Against this, however, must be set down his excessive extravagance, especially towards the end of his life. He died on the 25th of June 1861, and was succeeded, not by one of his sons, but by his brother, Abdul Aziz, the present sultan, as the oldest survivor of the family of Othman.