The Tanzimât, literally meaning "reorganization" of the Ottoman Empire (see "Nizam"), was a period of reformation that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. Although the motives for the implementation of Tanzimât were burocratic, it was impulsed by liberal ministers and intellectuals like Dimitrios Zambakos Pasha, Kabuli Mehmed Pasha, the secret society Young Ottomans, and Midhat Pasha, who is also often considered as one of the founders of the Ottoman Parliament. Many changes were made to improve civil liberties, but many Muslims saw them as foreign influence on the world of Islam. That perception complicated reformist efforts made by the state. A policy called Ottomanism was meant to unite all the different peoples living in Ottoman territories, "Muslim and non-Muslim, Turkish and Greek, Armenian and Jewish, Kurd and Arab". The policy officially began with the Edict of Gülhane of 1839, declaring equality before the law for both Muslim and non-Muslim Ottomans.