The time was 1826, and Istanbul still quivered from the thunder of cannon fire. The air carried the acrid reek of bank from the Janissary barracks that had been set fiery, the corses of thousands buried hastily in mass graves, the terror of a centuries-old military estate wiped down in a single upheaval of state power. Mahmud II, the sultan who had formerly appeared so conservative, so reluctant, now stood revealed as a sovereign of iron will. His palm over the Janissaries, flashed back ever as the Auspicious Incident, was both emancipation and burden.