The Firman was issued in a time period when the Ottoman Empire was subjected to a growing diplomatic pressure from the West to suppress slave trade and
slavery in the Ottoman Empire. Responding to the influence and pressure of European countries in the 19th century, the Empire began taking steps to curtail the slave trade, which had been legally valid under Ottoman law since the beginning of the empire. One of the important campaigns against Ottoman slavery and slave trade was conducted in the Caucasus by the Russian authorities. The Ottoman Empire practiced the Islamic Law, which allowed Muslims to enslave non-Muslim (
kafir) war captives. During the Greek War of Independence, many Greek men, women and children had been captured and sold as slaves in Ottoman slave markets. One such incident was the
Chios massacre of 1822. This had caused great indignation in Europe on behalf of the Christian Greeks. In 1830, a
firman of Sultan
Mahmud II declared "white slaves" of the Empire to be manumitted. Technically, the decree applied to people who had been Christian at the time of their capture and enslavement, and in practice, it was enforced for the Greeks who had been enslaved during the recent
Greek War of Independence (1821–1829). ==See also==