The patient. The Ottoman Empire possessed immense wealth, which the strong could seize, some of it from others. It would become the legacy of this patient upon his death. And you consider this reality.

The European powers were concerned with the issue of the East, and they quarreled over its parts. They fought over parts of the Ottoman state, and they worked to prolong the patient's life when their interests required it. Then they worked to eliminate him when they saw the necessity of his death.

As for the symptoms of the illness that became apparent, they began to appear in the late eighteenth century in various aspects of the state's life. They were evident in its administration and its defense system. They were clear in the lives of its peoples and the rule imposed upon them. This clarifies an important aspect of the state's reality, as we review the history of the sultans who succeeded each other in ruling it during that period.

Sultan Selim III ascended the throne in the year 1203 AH / 1789 AD, while the war was raging between his state and Russia. The latter had the upper hand. It was able to occupy several Ottoman provinces. If it were not for the intervention of other European powers competing, the Ottoman state would have suffered greatly. However, the competition between Austria and Russia and England's intervention to protect the state stopped the war. The Sultan welcomed the end of the war, dedicating himself to internal reform. The harsh experience the state went through in the early years of his reign during that war and the successive defeats suffered by the Ottoman army opened his eyes to the necessity of eliminating the ailments from which the state suffered internally so that it could stand and resist its covetous enemies. The ailments that caught his attention were related to the state's defensive situation, and they appeared and were revealed in the successive defeats of the army. The reality is that the defensive situation was extremely bad. The Janissaries became a burden on the state and a factor in its decline, after they had been the most important factor in its progress during the time of conquests.