1806 Edirne incident

The ultimate outcome of the confrontation was the retreat of imperial forces back to Istanbul and to Anatolia, constituting a deathblow to Selim III's ambitions of expanding his reformed army, as well as a major blow to his legitimacy.

Under his ad hoc command, according to the British consul of Bucharest, 186 local ayans signed a secret agreement to resist the New Order and to overthrow Selim III and, in his place, install the future Mustafa IV.

[3] This agreement encouraged the violence against the New Order as they faced attacks on their supply lines and received no provisional support from the towns and cities along their path.

[4] The threat of large scale civil war also loomed on the horizon as Rumelian ayans rallied their forces which the French ambassador to Istanbul, Horace Sébastiani, estimated to number around 80,000 men.

As the situation worsened the Porte became distinctly aware of the danger that the incident presented and began to close dozens of coffee shops in the capital in an attempt to prevent the rebellion from spreading into Istanbul.

[6] Though the center attempted to spin the return of the New Order as an example of Selim III's generosity to his subjects in avoiding a civil war, it was in fact an incredible humiliation for the Sultan and a deathblow for his ambitions of centralization and reform.