SELIM III. (1762-1808) was a son of Sultan Mustafa III. and succeeded his uncle Abd-ul-Hamid I. in 1789. He was thoroughly persuaded of the necessity of reforming his state. But Austria and Russia gave him no time for anything but defence, and it was not until the peace of Jassy (1792) that a breathing space was allowed him in Europe, and Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt and Syria shattered the old-standing French alliance. Selim prof ited by the respite to abolish the military tenure of fiefs ; he introduced salutary reforms into the administration, especially in the fiscal department, sought to extend education, and engaged foreign officers as instructors, by whom a small corps of new troops called nizam-i-jedid were collected and drilled. These troops were able to hold their own against rebellious Janissaries in the European provinces, where disaffected governors made no scruple of attempting to use them against the reforming sultan.
Emboldened by this success, Selim issued an order that in future picked men should be taken annually from the Janissaries to serve in their ranks. - Hereupon the Janissaries and other
enemies of progress rose at Adrianople, and the reforms had to be abandoned. Serbia, Egypt and the principalities were suc cessively the scene of hostilities in which Turkey gained no successes, and in 1807 a British fleet appeared at Constantinople, to insist on Turkey's yielding to Russia's demands and on the dismissal of the ambassador of Napoleon I. Selim was, however, thoroughly under the influence of this ambassador, Sebastiani, and the fleet retired without effecting its purpose. The Janissaries rose once more in revolt, induced the Sheikh-ul-Islam to grant a fetva against the reforms, dethroned and imprisoned Selim (1807), who was strangled in the seraglio, and placed his nephew Mustafa on the throne.
For authorities see TURKEY: History.