Timeline Saturday 23 December 1876

Events on Saturday 23 December 1876 1

• 1876 The Constitution of 1876 -- the first parliament The Ottoman Constitution of 23 December 1876, engineered by grand vizier Midhat Pasha, is the first constitution in the Islamic world. It establishes a bicameral parliament (a Senate appointed by the sultan and an elected Chamber of Deputies), guarantees civil liberties, and enshrines the principle that the sultan governs through law. The first parliament meets in March 1877 with deputies representing all the empire's ethnic and religious communities. Abdülhamid II suspends the constitution in February 1878, citing the war with Russia, and does not restore it for 30 years. The Constitution of 1876 is nevertheless historically important: it establishes the principle of constitutional government that the Young Turks revive in 1908.