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Historical person

Mahmud II

1785–1839

Mahmud II was Ottoman sultan from 1808 to 1839 and pursued extensive centralising reforms. He destroyed the Janissary corps in the Auspicious Incident of 1826, reorganised government and the army, and faced Greek independence, provincial revolts and the challenge of Muhammad Ali of Egypt.

Mahmud II also held the offices or ranks of sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Mahmud II belonged to the Ottoman dynasty and operated within Ottoman Empire. Mahmud II was born in Istanbul.

Ian Rutledge’s Sea of Troubles traces the erosion of Ottoman and North African sovereignty from the mid-eighteenth century to the end of the First World War. Ian Rutledge begins with the economic and political structures of the Ottoman Mediterranean, Morocco and the Barbary regencies before following Russian expansion, Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt, the French conquest of Algeria and the struggles of Mahmud II and Muhammad Ali. Later chapters examine Suez, foreign debt, European financial control and the occupations or attempted partitions of Morocco, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Libya and the Balkans. In Jason Goodwin’s An Evil Eye, Istanbul, 1839. Mahmud II is dead, a young sultan is installing a new household and the Ottoman fleet has been taken to Egypt by its commander, Fevzi Ahmet Pasha. Further fictional perspectives on Mahmud II can be found in Allan Mallinson’s On His Majesty’s Service, Jason Goodwin’s The Janissary Tree, and Jason Goodwin’s The Snake Stone.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Mahmud II (2 series)

Matthew Hervey in Order

by Allan Mallinson 14 books 4.2(11,911)

The Matthew Hervey novels follow an English cavalry officer from the final campaign against Napoleon into the unsettled decades after Waterloo. Beginning as a young cornet in the 6th Light Dragoons, Hervey advances through command while trying to reconcile professional duty, personal honour, family obligations and the often…

All books in this series

Yashim the Ottoman Detective in Order

by Jason Goodwin 5 books 3.8(16,235)

The Yashim the Ottoman Detective series follows a eunuch intelligence agent through Istanbul between 1836 and 1842, during the final years of Mahmud II and the accession of Abdülmecid I. Yashim’s unusual legal and social position allows him to move through the imperial palace, harems, embassies, markets and…

All books in this series

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Mahmud II (1 book)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.