page_title: Tanzimat
section_title: Edict of 1856 and religious freedom
hierarchical_section_title: Tanzimat / Reforms / Edict of 1856 and religious freedom
caption_attribution_description: English: A cropped portrait of Mehmed Emin Ali Pasha (1815-1871) from the Bahattin Öztuncay collection.
context_page_description: The Tanzimat was a period of reform in the Ottoman Empire that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876.
  The Tanzimat era began with the purpose, not of radical transformation, but of modernization, desiring to consolidate the social and political foundations of the Ottoman Empire. It was characterised by various attempts to modernise the Ottoman Empire and to secure its territorial integrity against internal nationalist movements and external aggressive powers. The reforms encouraged Ottomanism among the diverse ethnic groups of the Empire and attempted to stem the tide of the rise of nationalism in the Ottoman Empire.
  The reforms sought to emancipate the empire's non-Muslim subjects or dhimmis and more thoroughly integrate non-Turks into Ottoman society by enhancing their civil liberties and granting them equality throughout the empire. In the midst of being forced to recognize the supremacy of Western power, the Ottoman elite intellectuals attempted to bring reconciliation between the West and the East within the framework of Islam.
  Part of the reform policy was an economic policy based on the Treaty of Balta Liman of 1838.
context_section_description: The Reform Edict of 1856 was intended to carry out the promises of the Tanzimat. The Edict is very specific about the status of non-Muslims, making it possible "to see it as the outcome of a period of religious restlessness that followed the Edict of 1839". Officially, part of the Tanzimat's goal was to make the state intolerant to forced conversion to Islam, also making the execution of apostates from Islam illegal. Despite the official position of the state in the midst of the Tanzimat reforms, this tolerance of non-Muslims seems to have been seriously curtailed, at least until the Reform Edict of 1856. The Ottoman Empire had tried many different ways to reach out to non-Muslims. First it tried to reach out to them by giving all non-Muslims an option to apply for Dhimmi status. Having Dhimmi status gave non-Muslims the ability to live in the Ottoman Empire and own property, but this ability was not without special taxes (jizya).
  For the "Ottoman ruling elite, 'freedom of religion' meant 'freedom to defend their religion'".
caption: Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha, the principal architect of the Islâhat Fermânı.
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