From ‘Renewal and Regeneration’ to ‘Decline and Collapse’: The Rise and Fall of Tanzimat (1839–1950)

Abstract

This chapter scrutinizes and discusses the evolution and transformation of the meanings and imagery attributed to the Tanzimat, begin- ning from the invention of the Tanzimat as the rebirth of the Ottoman Empire in 1839. This is particularly remarkable because both Turkish historiography and Cold War Western historiography were based on the self-narrative and premises of the Tanzimat, and its historiography was constructed simultaneously with its inception.