Ancient discovery or mystery,Selim III and the Vision of Renewal (1789–1792)

The death of Sultan Abdulhamid I in April 1789 left the Ottoman Empire sick, wounded, and uncertain of its future. On the battlegrounds of the Danube and the Black Sea, the conglomerate was at war with both Russia and Austria, and master sounded ineluctable. In Istanbul, the people mourned the loss of a pious and humble sultan, but at the same time, they looked anxiously toward the horizon, wondering who would now steer the boat of state through similar stormy waters. The answer came fleetly the throne passed to his youthful whoreson, Selim III, a man slightly in his twenties, whose ideas, disposition, and determination would mark him as one of the most remarkable liberals in Ottoman history. Selim III was born in 1761,