Nizam-ı Cedid

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	Military of the Ottoman Empire
Sipahi - Akinci - Timariot - Janissary - Nizam-ı Cedid
Navy - Air Force
Conflicts:	Europe - Russian - Serbian - Near East - Sieges and Landings
See also:	Reform - Naval treaties - Kaptan Pashas

The Nizam-ı Cedid (from Arabic َAl-Niẓām Al-Jadīd via Persian Nizām-e Jadīd - "New Order") was a series of reforms carried out by the Ottoman Empire sultan Selim III during the late eighteenth century in a drive to catch up militarily and politically with the Western Powers. The term later came to refer to the new regular army established under the reform program.

Main article: Ottoman Military Reform Efforts

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Between 1829 and 1855 the new army was constantly being improved under the sight of military advisors. The troops of the Nizam-ı Cedid corps were equipped with European-style uniforms and educated in European military strategy. The Sultan made sure that, if the campaign of 1829 against the Russians was fought over again in 1855, the result would be very different.

During 1895 a visitor defined the service as popular, and the troops were well paid. He said, the rations consisted of meat, bread, rice, and vegetables that were in abundance every day. The military hospitals served as a pattern of cleanliness to the first armies of the world, and the medical officers were perfectly efficient, with some of them having studied at European universities, others having become proficients in their art at the new medical college of Istanbul, and a few of them being foreigners. The health of the troops was consequently excellent; so much so, that on one occasion, 50 men out of 3450 were in hospital. One man in every seventy was no unusual occurrence in the hospitals of the British army. The Turkish clothing was excellent; it was strong and warm.

In their evolution the Turkish soldiers were rapidly progressing forward, in particular the cavalry and the artillery, whose horses were excellent; but there may have perhaps had more room for improvement in their steadiness. It was remarked at Bucharest, where the Turkish and Russian occupying armies had their headquarters, and were consequently often reviewed, that the latter were infinitely slower than the former, and that their light infantry drill was far inferior to that of the Turks, but when moving in line or open column, Russians, stiff as planks and dreading the lash, kept their distances and dressing somewhat better than the Turks. It may be added in illustration of the respective solicitude of the two armies for the health of the men, that, after one field day, three hundred Russians were in hospital in consequence of exposure to time, sun, and one hundred and sixty of them died, while there was not a single instance of the kind amongst the Turkish troops.