This book is a product of the doctoral thesis titled “Public Order and Security in Istanbul During the Period of Mahmud II (1808-1829)”, which was completed in 2024 at the Department of History at Istanbul Medeniyet University. This study examines the period of Sultan Mahmud II’s rule between 1808-1829, focusing on public order and security issues in the context of centralization politics and military reform policies. The study examines the Greek Revolt of 1821, the abolition of the Janissary Corps in 1826, and the Ottoman-Russian War of 1828-1829. The aim of this study is to analyze the effects of the Greek Revolt (1821), the abolition of the Janissary Corps (1826), and the Ottoman-Russian War of 1828-1829, primarily on the capital city of Istanbul, in the context of the centralization and security policies of the state. The events in question were the events of Sultan Mahmud II’s reign. Whether it constituted a security problem for Mahmud and the Ottoman State, how it affected public order and security in the capital Istanbul, and what kind of measures the state took against these events are the basic questions of this study.
The security issue was addressed within the framework of theoretical approaches developed in the social sciences literature; in particular, the securitization theory was utilized. It was aimed to contribute to the literature in this field by examining the security discourse and policies of the Mahmud II period in the events that are the subject of this study with an interdisciplinary approach.
The primary sources used in the study include the Ottoman Archives catalogs of the Presidency of the State Archives, the Istanbul Catalogue of the Kadı Registers translated into modern Turkish by the Center for Islamic Studies (İSAM), chronicles from the period, and memoirs and travelogues written by foreigners who personally observed the period.