ABDUL MEJID me-jed') (1823-1861), sultan of Turkey, was born April 23, 1823, and succeeded his father, Mahmud II., on July 2, 1839. Mahmud appears to have been unable to effect the reforms he desired in the mode of edu cating his children, so that his son received no better education than that usually given to Turkish princes in the harem. Abdul Mejid succeeded to the throne at a moment of crisis. The news was on its way to Constantinople that the Turkish army had been defeated at Nezib by that of the rebel Egyptian viceroy, Moham med Ali ; and the Turkish fleet was on its way to Alexandria, where it was handed over by its commander, Ahmed Pasha, to the enemy, on the pretext that the young sultan's advisers were sold to Russia. Through the intervention of the European Powers Mohammed Ali was obliged to come to terms, and the Ottoman Empire was saved. See MOHAMMED ALI.
Abdul Mejid set at once about carrying out the reforms to which Mahmud had devoted himself. In Nov. 1839 was proclaimed an edict, known as the Tanzimat, or Hatt-i-sherif of Gulhane, consolidating and enforcing these reforms; this was supplemented at the close of the Crimean War by a similar statute issued in Feb. 1856. These enactments provided that all classes of the sultan's subjects should have security for their lives and property ; that taxes should be fairly imposed and justice impartially adminis tered ; and that all should have full religious liberty and equal civil rights. The scheme was opposed by the governing classes and the ?Ilona, or privileged religious teachers, and was but partially put in force, especially in the remoter parts of the empire ; and more than one conspiracy was formed against the sultan's life on account of it.
Of the other measures of reform promoted by Abdul Mejid the more important were : the institution of a council of public instruction (1838), the reorganization of the army (1843-44), and of a ministry of public instruction (1857), the abolition of an odious and unfairly imposed capitation tax, the repression of slave trading, and various provisions for the better adminis tration of the public service and for the advancement of com merce, including the establishment of a mixed commercial court at Constantinople. For the general history of his times-the disturbances and insurrections in different parts of his domin ions throughout his reign, and the great war successfully carried on against Russia by Turkey, and by Britain, France and Sardinia, in the interest of Turkey (1853-56)-see TURKEY and CRIMEAN WAR. When Kossuth and others sought refuge in Tur key, after the failure of the Hungarian rising in 1849, the sultan refused to surrender them. It is to his credit, too, that he would not allow the conspirators against his own life to be put to death. He was described as a kind and honourable man, if somewhat weak and easily led.
His extravagance, especially towards the end of his life, was excessive. He died on June 25, 1861, and was succeeded by his brother, Abdul Aziz (q.v.), as the oldest survivor of the family of Osman. He left several sons, of whom two, Murad V. and Abdul Hamid II., eventually succeeded to the throne.