A COUNCIL OF JUSTICE established, a new PENAL CODE was promulgated in 1840, a new COMMERCIAL CODE in 1841, which was based on a French model. An OTTOMAN BANK was established (1840), the first paper money issued (1841)

In 1841, resistance to certain aspects of the reform, regarded in violation with Islamic tradition, caused the dismissal of Reshid Pasha, one of the main architects of the Tanzimat reforms. In 1846 an ASSEMBLY OF PROVINCIAL NOTABLES was called to assemble, a first parliament of the Ottoman Empire. Intended as a forum which would provide the administration with information about the situation in the provinces and the sentiment of the respective population, it was an utter failure, as the delegates, selected from the educated and trusted, remained silent (unaccustomed to democratic tradition and distrustful of the administration).

An ambitious reform of education was begun but only partially implemented, due to lack of funding. The plan to found an Ottoman University had failed; a number of secondary schools were established (1845). In 1847 new courts were created, in which European legal tradition dominated over Islamic legal tradition. In 1850 a COMMERCIAL CODE (Reshid Pasha) was published. Reshid Pasha again was dismissed in 1852. In 1856 the Sultan again proclaimed intended reforms, the most drastic the introduction of equal treatment of all subjects, disregarding their religion. In 1858 a new PENAL CODE and a LAND CODE were published, a judicial reform in 1860, another Commercial Code in 1861; a Maritime Code - after Sultan Abdulmecid's death - in 1863.

Sultan Abdulmecid's administration, in addition to the everpresent challenge posed by Khedive Muhammad Ali of Egypt and his son Ibrahim, in 1852 found another enemy - Russia. At French request, the Sultan had ordered the key of Church of the Holy Sepulchre handed over to the Catholic Community; the Czar of Russia, claiming to be the protector of the Ottoman Empire's Ottoman christians demanded the key to be returned to her former holders; when this demand was not fulfilled, Russia declared war (the CRIMEAN WAR). The Ottoman fleet was quickly defeated; Britain and France, joined by Sardinia, came to the Ottoman Empire's rescue. The fact that the Sultan did not have to cede major territories to Russia was due primarily to Anglo-French military achievements.

Courtesy --- CHAITANYA