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Recent research has stressed how inappropriate the paradigm of decline is to describe the diverse political, economic and social transformations which occurred in the Ottoman Empire during the early modern period. But what does this mean for the historiography of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century? Generally the Tanzimat reforms are seen as a pivotal point and a rupture. Against the backdrop of Sultan Mahmud II's reign, the Tanzimat reforms appear rather as an epilogue to Mahmud's policy of creative destruction, as Alp Eren Topal shows in his lecture.
Alp Eren Topal's research project "Prelude to Modern Islamic Government: Sadık Rıfat Paşa and Ottoman Political Thought in the Age of Reform" was funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation as part of the special programme Islam.