8vo. xiii, [1], 479 pp., cloth d/w, appendices, biblio, index, book plate of Professor R. M. Burrell verso front cover, jacket lightly faded & rubbed at spine extremities, minor foxing to outer edges, otherwise copy clean inside in very good condition, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, first edition, 1963.

Synopsis

The author examines in detail the Tanzimat reforms, and focuses on the final crucial phase between the reform edict of 1856 and the Ottoman constitution of 1876. The attempts to strengthen the central government, to remake provincial administration, to introduce the representative principle on a limited scale, to revise the structure of the non-Muslim minority groups, and to modernise law, education, and the army are explored within the context of the forces converging upon them. In 1876 the Midhat’s constitution brought this reform movement to a culmination when it set up a representative parliament and a “limited autocracy” under this first genuine constitution in any Muslim country. (Jacket flap).