Pride of the Ottoman Navy: Muzaffer-I Derya - 1809
A large Ship of the Line being planned in 1791 and finally finished in 1798.
Muzaffer-I Derya was the biggest Ottoman Ship of the Line with 130 guns, around 1,300 men on the Ship, coppered bottoms taking British examples and 24 pounders. The Ship was seen as the watchdog of the Ottoman Sultans in the Mediterranean of which even the French and Spanish Navies feared to face. With many permanent ambassadors in Europe, the Ottoman Ambassadors were getting informed of the latest European upgrades of the Navy and Army which the Ottoman State could use. Muzaffer-I Derya was thus being prepared as the British would built their ships. Entire documents would be sent to Istanbul to support the Ottoman Navy. And the first creation of “The Victorious of Seas”. The ship was used as the ship of the Admiral, as
Osmaniye, The former biggest ship with 84 guns was being upgraded. The Pride of the Ottoman Navy was used against the Greek Pirates in the Southern and Western Aegean. No Pirate ship could ever beat the pride. An attempt to capture the Ship was made in 1805 when the Maniots found out that the Ship was near Melos Island. The attempt failed but it put the Naval Commanders at high alert, keeping the Ship with escorts. With the 1804-1808 campaign in the Aegean, it played a huge role in beating the Greeks on the Seas. And it put the Navy in stronger position in the Ottoman Government.
Muzaffer-I Derya with an escort, 1807
The Ottoman Flag - 1809
For a long time, the Ottoman State had several flags. It were mostly three crescents on a red flag but it differ from time to time. As the neighbouring nations started to adopt more of a standard flag, Selim III ordered his Divan to choose a flag for the State to be on part with the Europeans. Selim III made his decision:
The official Ottoman state flag from 1809
Embassies in Europe were ordered to use this in their buildings as an official flag of the Ottoman State. Already being used before, it was now used permanently. In all around the State, in diplomacy, in battles, in the armies and navies. The old triangle flags would be used as Army and Navy Flags next to the state flag.
Navy Flag from 1809
Army Flag from 1809
The old flag who was used mostly until 1809, still active until 1819 in various parts of the Empire
Designing new flags was not something Selim considered but using old flags for various posts was the idea. With the opposition of France getting closer to each other and Sultan Selim III as well as his Grand Vizier Celebi Mustafa Pasha agreed that France would lose sooner or later all their power in Europe. It was to them to get closer to the European States and be a part of a New Europe. For that, it needs to resemble them in some ways.
Belgrade University - 1809
Hadzi Mustafa Pasha started to build a university in Belgrade, much to the request of the Serb Elite in the Belgrade Pashaluk. Many wealthy Serbs were sending their sons to Vienna and Budapest since the late 18th century to get them educated and bring them in contact with other Europeans. Being far away was always a problem for them. After many requests, Selim III personally came to Belgrade during his Balkan tour and allowed Hadzi Mustafa Pasha, the governor of the Pashaluk, to start build the university his Serb Subjects wished so. Starting in 1803, the building were stopped during a rebellion in 1804 when Belgrade was under siege. After 4 years, the rebellion ended and the university was being built again. Hadzi Mustafa Pasha was getting ill however and let the Serb Elites take over the project to build their university. In 1809, the building was ready, although the outside and some parts were not finished yet. The University had 60 students in 1809 when it opened, nothing compared to the University of Vienna were many Serbs were going before, but would grow in the upcoming years. The second university in the Empire and the first according to European Standards.
Belgrade University, 2014
Expanding the Sancak Militias - 1810
Selim III gave orders to build local forces which would be paid by the state with the tax from the Sancak they are from. The Divan of those Sancak had their own responsibility to decide the size of the militia as it could not be more than 10% of the total male population and less than 2%. In a decade time these militia forces were largely kept as order troops and the defense of the region against enemy troops. The first experiment was already started in the Belgrade Pashaluk under Hadzi Mustafa Pasha. Hadzi Mustafa build a Force of 8,000 men to experiment on how this would work. Ilija Bey, a Serb Knez, was appointed as the commander of the forces. A trusted friend of Hadzi Mustafa. The biggest challenge was the rebellion in 1804 to support the Greek Rebellion in the South and the Herzegovinian Rebellion in the West. A decent share of the Militia deserted but the vast majority remained loyal and defended the settlements vs the Rebels. Due to this loyalty, the Christian Conscription in local Militias were continued. These units were not used in any territory away from their home territory if there was war unless the region is lost.
Not so surprisingly either was the Bosnian Militia. The Bosnian Militia was unlike the Belgrade Militia largely Muslim even though there numbers of Serbs and Croats. But even more as expected was that the Militia was more the watchdogs of the Bosnian Landowners than Government troops. In the Belgrade Pashaluk, about two third of the soldiers in the militias were Christian Serbs. A quarter were Muslim Serbs and the rest were largely Albanian with some Turkish and Bulgarians among them. In Bosnia, three quarter of the Militia was Bosnian Muslim. About 15% was Bosnian Orthodox and the remainder was Catholic. Although recently created and an effective force to use in the region, it was still unbalanced according to the population in the region. And the dangers of decentralisation was still existent. However, it was cheaper to let the governors use the Militia than sending an Army from Istanbul to the corner of the Empire. Rather than raising troops, and sending them to Istanbul or Uskudar, the standing Armies should be regional. But those were plans for later. The Militias would at some point replace the existing Janissary Units that were not purged in 1793. In 1810, Baghdad Eyalet was the first to shut down the Janissary Corps in their Eyalet as it was no longer necessary with the Saudi threat gone. The Local Militias would replace them.
The New Uniform of the Standard Ottoman Army during Selim III Army Reforms and reorganisation, 1810