thumb|right|200px|A janissary musketeer. The entire janissary corps was disbanded during the Auspicious Incident.
The Auspicious Incident or Auspicious Event ( in Constantinople; , in the Balkans) was the forced disbandment of the centuries-old janissary corps by Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II on 15 June 1826. Most of the 135,000 janissaries revolted against Mahmud II, and after the rebellion was suppressed, many of them were executed (6,000 or more), During the 15th and 16th centuries they were recognized as one of the best-trained and most effective military units in Europe. They became known for their discipline, morale and professionalism. They were paid regularly and were expected to be ready to enter battle at any time.
However, by the early 17th century, the janissary corps had ceased to function as an elite military force, and had become a privileged hereditary class, and their exemption from paying taxes made them highly unfavorable in the eyes of the rest of the population. Additionally, since the early eighteenth century, several prominent Istanbul Jewish families had served as moneylenders (sarrafs) and financiers for the corps, with Isaac Çelebi Bekhor Carmona also being one of the Pekidei Kushta at the time. The number of janissaries grew from 20,000 in 1575 to 135,000 in 1826, about 250 years later. Many were not soldiers but still collected pay from the empire, as dictated by the corps since it held an effective veto over the state and contributed to the steady decline of the Ottoman Empire. Any sultan who tried to diminish its status or power was immediately either killed or deposed.
As opportunities and power continued to rise within the janissary corps, it began to undermine the empire. Turkish historians claim that the counter-Janissary force, which was great in numbers, included the local residents who had hated the janissaries for years.
Aftermath
thumb|Portrait of [[Mahmud II by Henri-Guillaume Schlesinger, 1836, presumably commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Auspicious Incident]]
The janissary leaders were promptly put to death. Carmona and two other leading figures of the Istanbul Jewish community serving as moneylenders and financiers for the corps were also executed. The incident had a negative impact on the Muslim communities in the Balkans, who lost their privileges, as rebellions broke out across Rumelia, especially in Bosnia and Albania.
Taking advantage of the temporary weakness in the military position of the Ottoman Empire following the Auspicious Incident, the Russian Empire forced the Ottomans to accept the Akkerman Convention on 7 October 1826.
Vis-à-vis the impact on the Jewish philanthropic network fundraising for the Land of Israel in Western Europe at the time, in 1827, leading force Hirsch Lehren behind Amsterdam-based Pekidim ve-Amarkalim wrote to Istanbul officials expressing his sympathy over the recent demise of Carmona, though modern Jewish history scholar Matthias B. Lehmann notes "it is also clear that the increasingly assertive role played by [both] was facilitated in part by the declining fortunes of the Jewish leadership in the Ottoman capital."