Yet despite these and other difficulties, the new idea struck root, and in the course of the nineteenth century the concept of equal citizenship for Ottoman subjects of different religions gradually gained strength. It drew its main support from the continuing and growing pressure of the European powers for reform within the Empire. But it also began to draw by the midcentury on a significant group of reformers among the Muslim Turks themselves, trying to bring their country into line with what they perceived as modern enlightenment. In Persia the movement for “enlightenment” thus interpreted was later and slower, and encountered significant resistance.
The Ottoman Rescript of the Rose Bower, promulgated on November3, 1839, took a first minor official step in this direction. Dealing with such matters as the security of life, honor and property of the subject ,fiscal reform, regular and orderly recruitment into the armed services, judicial reform, and the like, the edict goes on to say that “these imperial concessions are extended to all our subjects, of whatever religion or sect they may be…”
The edict of 1839 was in principle concerned with administering existing laws and enforcing existing rights rather than creating new ones. The notion, however, of the equality of persons of all religions before the law and in the application of the law represented a radical breach with the past and posed some problems of acceptance for Muslims.
The issue became more urgent in a new phase of the reform that began in 1854, and involved significant changes affecting the status of both slaves and unbelievers, To the dismay of many, the Ottoman government indicated its intention to abolish the two major forms of discrimination against non-Muslims-the jizya , or poll-tax, which had universally been imposed by Muslim governments on tolerated non-Muslim subjects and the ban on bearing arms, a restriction of almost equal universality and duration. These reforms were embodied in the new reform charter, the Imperial Rescript issued on February 18, 1856, in which the sultan laid down, in much more explicit terms than previously, the full equality of all Ottomans irrespective of religion, while at the same time reaffirming all the “privileges and immunities accorded in former times by my empire.” It took some time to perceive the inherent contradiction between these two. The resolution of that contradiction came only with the dissolution of the Empire.
These two major reforms, the equalization of non-Muslims and the ban on the traffic in black slaves, came at approximately the same time. By early 1855 the impact of these changes was already affecting the Hijaz, where there was special concern about the measures against slavery. The reduction in the supply of white slaves from the Caucasus, resulting from the Russian conquest, had already caused alarm; this was heightened by the imposition of restrictions on the importation of black slaves from Africa.

尽管有这样那样的阻碍，新思想还是对固有的理念造成了冲击，再加上19世纪期间在土耳其帝国所征服的不同的宗教信仰中，平等公民权的概念不断壮大。对这种概念的支持主要源自于帝国内部各欧洲列强对改革所施加的压力。另一方面，中世纪土耳其国内穆斯林中社会改革者所组成的一个重要的团体也支持平等公民权概念的发展，这个团体试图将自己的国家带入到他们所理解的现代文明之列。在波斯，这种“文明”的到来则更晚、更慢，并且受到了明显的阻力。
1839年11月3日，土耳其颁布了Rose Bower法案，是官方在这个方向上迈出的最初一步，此法案用于处理日常生活的安全问题、荣誉和财产的分配问题、政府财政改革、定期有序的新兵招募制度和司法改革等问题。法案还将君王的特权扩展至所有宗教和教派所涉及的事务中。
1839年法案原则上基于现有的法律和执行条件而非新的规定。然而，在概念上，所有的不同宗教的人在法律面前平等，并且将成为法律的规定，对于穆斯林来说是对过去和现在已经认可的问题的彻底推翻。
这个问题在1854年改革的新阶段变得更加显著，其中还包含了几个显要的改变，这些改变影响了奴隶和无信仰者的地位。在许多人惊愕的目光中，土耳其政府表现出废除两项歧视非穆斯林的法案的意图――jizya，即人头税，政府强迫此法案来接受非穆斯林国民的平等权，另一个即入伍的禁令，此禁令限制了平等权的普遍性和持续性。这些改革体现于新的改革纲领中，1856年2月18日，土耳其皇帝制定的法案颁布，较先前有更多明确的条款：所有的土耳其人不论信仰一律平等，尽管同时他重申“在帝国内所有的特权和豁免权与以前相同”。这也不时让人感觉到其二者内部所存在的矛盾，而这种矛盾的解决，只有到帝国消亡时才能到来。
还有两个法案的改革，非穆斯林人的平等化和黑奴交易的禁令，也差不多来自于同时期。1855年初时，这两个改革的影响已经波及到Hijaz，在那里人们十分关注奴隶制度的解决措施。高加索白人奴隶的供应减少原因在于高加索地区被俄国所占领，并已引起了人们的担忧，而这种担忧又因为法案禁止从非洲运进黑奴而变得更加突出。