As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Home / People / Mahmud II

Historical person

Mahmud II

1785–1839

Mahmud II was Ottoman sultan from 1808 to 1839 and pursued extensive centralising reforms. He destroyed the Janissary corps in the Auspicious Incident of 1826, reorganised government and the army, and faced Greek independence, provincial revolts and the challenge of Muhammad Ali of Egypt.

In Jason Goodwin’s The Janissary Tree, Ten years after Sultan Mahmud II destroyed the Janissary corps, four officers of the modern New Guard disappear shortly before a major military review. In Jason Goodwin’s The Snake Stone, Sultan Mahmud II is dying while rumours about the future of the empire spread through the capital. Other novels featuring Mahmud II include Jason Goodwin’s An Evil Eye and Allan Mallinson’s On His Majesty’s Service.

In non-fiction, Mahmud II is discussed in Ian Rutledge’s Sea of Troubles. In Ian Rutledge’s Sea of Troubles, Ian Rutledge begins with the economic and political structures of the Ottoman Mediterranean, Morocco and the Barbary regencies before following Russian expansion, Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt, the French conquest of Algeria and the struggles of Mahmud II and Muhammad Ali.

Series

Series featuring Mahmud II (2 series)

Matthew Hervey in Order

by Allan Mallinson 14 books 4.2

The Matthew Hervey novels follow an English cavalry officer from the final campaign against Napoleon into the unsettled decades after Waterloo. Beginning as a young cornet in the 6th Light Dragoons, Hervey advances through command while trying to reconcile professional duty, personal honour, family obligations and the often…

All books in this series

Yashim the Ottoman Detective in Order

by Jason Goodwin 5 books 3.8

The Yashim the Ottoman Detective series follows a eunuch intelligence agent through Istanbul between 1836 and 1842, during the final years of Mahmud II and the accession of Abdülmecid I. Yashim’s unusual legal and social position allows him to move through the imperial palace, harems, embassies, markets and…

All books in this series

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Mahmud II (1 book)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.