Osmanlı Medeniyeti Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

The twelve-year period following the promulgation of the Tanzimat Edict, which aimed restructure the Ottoman Empire, was not easy. Provincial administrators were informed about the reforms planned at the centre much later, and the public was informed only to the extent that they were directly concerned with issues, such as military service and taxation. What Asad Pasha, who served as governor in the provinces of Sivas, Aleppo, Sidon, Erzurum, Mosul, and Kurdistan in the first decade of the period, witnessed reveals all the difficulties of changing the established order in the Ottoman Empire. Asad Pasha had a respectable place among the administrators of the period in terms of honesty, loyalty, and resilience. He was a poet and calligrapher. His name was one of the first names that came to mind when a governor was sought for a troubled province. Therefore, it can be said that he experienced all the difficulties related to the implementation of Tanzimat. He was often dissatisfied with the regulations, especially on military and financial affairs. Using his moderate and artistic personality, he reflected his objections to the centre as much as possible. At the cost of being away from his family for years, he did not shirk from any duty and tried to contribute to the faster and more accurate way of doing things. This study examines, the implementation phases and difficulties of the Tanzimat in the provincial states in lig33ht of his experiences.