MAHMUD II., Sultan of Turkey, the younger son of Abdul-Hamed, was born at Constantinople on the 2d September 1789, or, according to another account, on the 20th July 1785. He passed his early years in the Seraglio, engaged in the study of Turkish and Persian literature until 1808, when his brother Mustapha IV. was deposed and imprisoned, and himself raised to the throne, by Mustapha Bairaktar, pasha of Rusjuk. No sooner had he taken the sceptre than he appointed Bairaktar grand vizier, and boldly proclaimed his intention of prosecuting the reforms for which his uncle Selim III. had been deprived of his crown. He also restored the Nizam Jedid, or army organized according to European discipline. Startled at these proceedings, the Janissaries rushed to arms, besieged the grand vizier in his palace, and clamoured for the head of the sultan. At this crisis, Mahmud ordered Mustapha IV. and his infant son to be strangled, and his four pregnant sultanas to be sewn up in sacks and thrown into the Bosphorus. By
thus becoming the sole male descendant of Osman, he Mahogany. rendered his person sacred in the eyes of his subjects, and was enabled more effectually to quiet the tumult. Then began his unsuccessful war with Russia, which was terminated by the peace of Bucharest on the 28th May 1812. Mahmud had for some time looked with a jealous eye upon the growing dominion of Ali, the ambitious pasha of Jenina, and he now strained all his energies to effect his overthrow. But no sooner had he succeeded in crushing him in 1822, than the Greeks broke out into open rebellion. Aided by the forces of Mehmed Ali, pasha of Egypt, the sultan suppressed this revolt with such sanguinary cruelty that Britain, France, and Russia interfered; and when their interference had been slighted, their combined armaments attacked and routed the Turko-Egyptian fleet in the Bay of Navarino in 1827. Meanwhile, at Constantinople, a desperate rebellion of the Janissaries, in 1826, had ended in the complete subjugation and dispersion of that order, and in the permanent establishment of an army organized according to the European system. Expecting that his soldiers, under their new discipline, would now be able to cope successfully with the armies of Europe, Mahmud declared war against Nicholas of Russia in 1828. After his forces had been cut to pieces, and General Diebitsch had occupied Adrianople, and Prussia, Britain, and France had interfered to effect a reconciliation, he unwillingly signed the treaty of Adrianople in 1829. With a determination untamed by so many reverses, the sultan now began to muster all his strength for the purpose of curbing the restless ambition of Mehmed Ali. The refusal of that pasha in 1832 to withdraw his troops from Syria, which his son Ibrahim had conquered in the preceding year, furnished Mahmud with a pretext for war. Accordingly, he commenced hostilities, but, with his usual ill fortune, was defeated by Ibrahim at Hems and Kouiah, and was only saved from total humiliation by the intervention of a Russian army. The result of this mediation was the treaty of Unkiar Skeleski, in which it was agreed that Russia should assist Turkey at any emergency with an armed force, and that Turkey in return should close the Dardanelles against all the foes of Russia. In 1834 another war between the sultan and Mehmed Ali was prevented by the interference of the European powers. In the midst of all these distractions from abroad, Mahmud had completed the reorganization of his army, had constructed roads, and had established postage communication throughout the country. Ambassadors were also stationed at Vienna, London, and Paris; and women, for the first time, were allowed to appear in public. Still intent, however, upon taking vengeance upon Mehmed Ali, he commenced hostilities in 1839, on the pretext of forcing that pasha to pay his arrears of tribute. His forces were defeated by Ibrahim near Nisibis; and he died on the 1st July 1839, before the news of the disaster reached Constantinople. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Abdul Mejid.