In the mid-nineteenth century, the Ottoman government instituted the Tanzimat, a series of reforms intended to equalize the status of Ottoman subjects regardless of confession, a goal that was strongly opposed by Islamic clergy and Muslims in general. In reality, the Tanzimat failed to improve the condition of the Armenian peasantry in the eastern provinces, which regressed from 1860 onwards. What became known as in international diplomacy as the "Armenian Question" emerged from land disputes between Armenian peasants and Muslims in the eastern provinces as well as the inaccessibility of security and justice for non-Muslims. The Ottoman Land Code of 1858 enabled those already wealthy and powerful to register land and disputes were adjudicated in Islamic courts, which favored Muslims; in addition, many Armenian peasants now had to pay double taxation to both Kurdish landlords and the Ottoman government.