BETWEEN THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT AND REBELS (Old Serbia during the rebellion of the Shkodra Pasha Mustafa Bushati and the Bosnian aristocracy 1830–1832)

Abstract

One of the major problems which the Turkish central authorities had to cope with after 1826 was the issue of relations with great feudal lords who represented the holders of political and economic power in the inland parts of the empire. The problem was even more intensified when the Porte came into permanent conflict with the local government in the Rumelia pashalik wanting to abolish the old theocratic-military system and introduce a more modern and liberal regime. This conflict in the Muslim society was destroying the unity of the Turkish Islamic state and was one of the important factors in the further weakening of the Ottoman Empire. The fight with the Sultan and the Porte was first started by the Shkodra Pasha Mustafa and then by the Bosnian captain Husein Gradaščević. Both of these uprisings developed into a large military-political movement whose aim was to force the Sultan and Porte with armed force to suspend the reforms and to permit the return to old traditions and institutions stipulated by the Sharia.