The thunder of cannons that had silenced the Janissaries in 1826 still echoed in the thoroughfares of Istanbul as Sultan Mahmud II surfaced from the chaos with unknown authority. For centuries, no Ottoman sovereign had dared to strike at the heart of the Janissary fraternity; yet Mahmud had done so with tolerance, perfection, and ruthless determination. The Auspicious Incident was further than a bloody battle — it was the revitalization of Ottoman central power. Now, freed from the suffocating grip of the Janissaries, Mahmud could eventually set in stir the reforms he'd envisaged for times.