information:classification, stylistic:tone
Plans of reforms

The talents and energy with which Selim III was endowed had endeared him to the people, and great hopes were founded on his accession. He had associated much with foreigners and was thoroughly persuaded of the necessity of reforming his state.

However, Austria and Russia gave him no time for anything but defense, and it was not until the Peace of Iaşi (1792) that breathing space was allowed him in Europe, while Napoleon 's invasion of Egypt and Syria soon called for the empire's most vigorous efforts.

Ottoman provinces from Egypt to Syria began implementing French policies and differed away from Istanbul after Napoleon 's attack.

Selim III profited by the respite to abolish the military tenure of fiefs; he introduced salutary reforms into the administration, especially in the fiscal department, sought by well-considered plans to extend the spread of education, and engaged foreign officers as instructors, by whom a small corps of new troops called Nizam-I Cedid were collected and drilled in 1797. This unit comprised Turkish peasant youths from Anatolia and was supplied with modern weaponry.

These troops were able to hold their own against rebellious Janissaries in the Balkan provinces such as the Sanjak of Smederevo against its appointed Vizier Hadži Mustafa Pasha, where disaffected governors made no scruple of attempting to make use of them against the reforming sultan.

Emboldened by this success, Selim III issued an order that in the future, picked men should be taken annually from the Janissaries to serve in the Nizam-I Cedid. Selim III was unable to integrate the Nizam-I Cedid with the rest of the army which overall limited its role in defense of the state.