The Tanzimât (Ottoman Turkish: تنظيمات), meaning reorganization of the Ottoman Empire, was a period of reformation that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. The Tanzimât reform era was characterized by various attempts to modernize the Ottoman Empire, to secure its territorial integrity against nationalist movements and aggressive powers. The reforms encouraged Ottomanism among the diverse ethnic groups of the Empire, attempting to stem the tide of nationalist movements within the Ottoman Empire. The reforms attempted to integrate non-Muslims and non-Turks more thoroughly into Ottoman society by enhancing their civil liberties and granting them equality throughout the Empire.

Tanzimât emerged from the minds of reformist sultans like Mahmud II and Abdülmecid I as well as prominent reformers who were European educated bureaucrats. They recognized that the old religious and military institutions no longer met the needs of the empire in the modern world. Most of the symbolic changes, such as uniforms, were aimed at changing the mindset of imperial administrators. Many of the reforms were attempts to adopt successful European practices. Changes included universal conscription; educational, institutional and legal reforms; and systematic attempts at eliminating corruption and decriminalizing homosexuality. Tanzimat included the policy of Ottomanism, which was meant to unite all of the different peoples living in Ottoman territories, "Muslim and non-Muslim, Turkish and Greek, Armenian and Jewish, Kurd and Arab". For this purpose, Islamic law was put aside in favour of secular law. This policy officially began with the Imperial Rescript of the Rose Chamber of 1839, declaring equality before the law for both Muslim and non-Muslim Ottomans.

Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi (Urdu: اﺸﺘﻴﺎﻖ حسين قریشی;November 3, 1903— January 22, 1981; popularly known as I.H. Qureshi), SP, HI, was a Pakistani historian, scholar, writer and a professor a political history at the Karachi University.

An early activist of Pakistan Movement, Qureshi served as the Member of Parliament for the Pakistan Parliament, serving as the minister-secretary at the Ministry of Education (MoEd), and deputy-secretary at the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions. However, he resigned from his government appointments and joined the academic faculty at the Columbia University as a professor of Soviet history. But soon, he returned to Pakistan and founded the National Language Authority (MLA) in 1970s. Later, Qureshi joined the faculty of history at the University of Karachi where he remained there the remainder of his life. Qureshi is also credited for editing a four-volume series on history of Pakistan.

Ishtiaq was born on November 20, 1903 in a noble family of Patiali, District Etah, a town in Uttar Pradesh, British India. He did matriculation in 1916, and joined MAO College Aligarh. At this time, he took active part in Khilafat movement. He did graduation and M.A. in History from St. Stephen's College, Delhi with distinction. In 1927, he got M.A. in Persian. He served as Lecturer in History at St. Stephen's College from 1928 to 1944. Between 1937-40, he studied at Cambridge University for a PhD degree. The topic of his thesis was Administration of Sultanate of Delhi. During this period, he also briefly joined the Pakistan National Movement founded by Choudhary Rahmat Ali.