Ottoman military reforms in the context of "Nizam-i Djedid Army"

The term Nizam-i Djedid Army (Ottoman Turkish: نظام جديد, romanized: Niẓām-i Jedīd, lit. 'new order') refers to the new military establishment of the Nizam-i Cedid reform program which started in the Ottoman Empire c. 1789. The Nizam-i Djedid Army, largely a failure in its own time, nevertheless proved a much more effective infantry force than the Janissaries.

After Austria and Russia defeated the Ottoman Turkish forces in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–92, the Ottoman Sultan Selim III (r. 1789–1807) concluded that Ottoman military required serious reform if the empire was to survive. As a result, he began implementing a series of reforms aimed at reorganizing the military after the model of European militaries. This included the usage of European training tactics, weapons, and even officers. These reforms troubled the Janissaries, who were suspicious and unreceptive towards the reforms. To this end, Selim III established the Nizam-i Djedid in 1797 in order to develop a replacement for the Janissaries. By 1806 this new army stood 26,000 men strong, equipped with French-style uniforms, European weapons, and a modern artillery corps. Due to their distinctly modern nature, the army was named Nizam-ı Cedid, which has the meaning of 'New Order' in Ottoman Turkish. English-speakers borrowed the Ottoman Turkish word niẓām as "nizam" and applied it generically in the 19th century to the Ottoman army or to any Ottoman soldier.