The Ottoman Empire: a Historical Encyclopedia [2 Volumes]
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See also: Sultans: Orhan Gāzi
Further Reading
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2005.
Ibn Battuta. The Travels of Ibn Battuta. Translated by H. A. R. Gibb. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1962.
Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The Structure of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Inalcik, Halil. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1973.
Köprülü, M. Fuad. The Origins of the Ottoman Empire. Translated by Gary Leiser. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.
Lowry, Heath W. The Nature of the Early Ottoman State. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003.
Osman II (1604–1622)
A sultan of the Ottoman Empire who ruled from 1618 to 1622. Osman was born in 1604. He was the oldest son of the Ottoman sultan Ahmed I, who ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to 1617. His mother was a concubine named Mahfiruz, who died when Osman was six years old. When Ahmed I died in 1617, the powerful court officials refused to support Osman as the next sultan. Instead, they installed Mustafa, Ahmed I’s brother, on the throne. Mustafa I was mentally unstable and was wholly dependent on his mother, his brother-in-law, and the wily Kösem Sultan, the wife of his brother, Ahmed I. Three months after he had ascended the throne, the chief eunuch led a coup d’état and deposed Mustafa I. In February 1618, after the removal of his uncle, the 13-year-old Osman II ascended the throne as the new sultan of the Ottoman Empire. To rule his vast empire, the young sultan relied heavily on Ömer Efendi, his tutor, as well as Ali Pasha, the grand admiral of the Ottoman navy.
During Osman’s short reign from 1618 to 1622, the Ottomans sent a large force to capture the city of Tabriz, the capital of Iranian Azerbaijan. This army suffered heavy losses in September 1618 at Pol-e Shekasteh, but as it continued to push toward the interior of Iran, the Safavid monarch Abbas I agreed to renew the peace treaty of 1612. The Safavids received all the Iranian territory lost to Selim I and a reduction of the amount of silk to be sent to the sultan.
Though very young and green, Osman was dogged in his determination to salvage the waning power and prestige of the Ottoman Empire. He modeled himself after the most successful Ottoman sultans: Mehmed II (r. 1444–1446, 1451–1481), Selim I (r. 1512–1520), and Süleyman I (r. 1520–1566). It is not surprising, therefore, that he insisted on leading Ottoman armies against the Poles, who were intervening in the internal affairs of the Romanian-populated principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. The Ottomans won a victory against the Poles in September 1620 with support from the Crimean Tatars. A year later the Ottoman forces conquered the fortress of Khotyn (Hotin) in present-day western Ukraine on the right bank of the Dniester River. The capture of Khotyn forced Poland to sue for peace and promise not to intervene in the Danubian principalities and to respect the sultan’s authority over them. Before marching against the Poles, Osman killed his blood brother, Mehmed, but he refused to order the execution of his half brothers, Murad and Ibrahim, and their mother, the powerful and influential Kösem Sultan.
Portrait of the Ottoman sultan Osman II (r. 1618–1622). (DeAgostini/Getty Images)
Despite the quick resolution of the conflict with Poland, the sultan’s zeal for reforms triggered a fatal confrontation with the janissary and sipāhi corps. Critical of its efforts in the war against the Poles, the sultan had hinted at replacing the devşirme-based army with newly trained units from Anatolia. He also tried to centralize power by curbing the influence of the şeyhülislam and forbidding him to appoint the members of the ulema (Shaw: 1:191). Thus the sultan created a unified opposition, which included the janissaries, the sipāhis, the ulema, and the faction within the royal harem led by Kösem Sultan, who was anxious to secure the throne for her sons. The pretext for the revolt against the sultan was provided when Osman announced his intention to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. A rumor spread that the pilgrimage was merely a pretext for the sultan to raise a new army in the eastern provinces of the empire and replace the existing janissary and sipāhi units with his newly recruited force. Troops who feared the idea of a new army were supported by the chief mufti, who opposed the idea of the Ottoman sultan performing a hajj. The rebels gathered at the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, where they were joined by the members of the ulema. With the blessing of the şeyhülislam, who issued a fetva against corrupt officials surrounding the sultan, the rebellious troops rampaged through the streets of the capital, killing any official they encountered. As the sultan vacillated between resisting and giving in to their demands, the rebels stormed the palace and murdered his officials. Mustafa I was brought out of the harem and installed as the new sultan. Osman, who was trying to convince the commander of janissaries to resist the rebels, was deposed and murdered a short time later, on May 20, 1622 (Alderson: 64). In place of the murdered sultan, the weak and incompetent Mustafa I was restored to the throne with support from the wily Kösem Sultan, the mother of Princes Murad and Ibrahim.
See also: Empire and Administration: Abbas I, Shah of Iran; Sultans: Kösem Sultan; Mustafa I
Further Reading
Alderson, A. D. The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956.
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2005.
Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The Structure of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923. London and New York: Wesley Longman Limited, 1997.
Peksevgen, Șefik. “Osman II.” In Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters, 446–447. New York: Facts On File, 2009.
Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Somel, Selçuk Akșin. Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003.
Sugar, Peter. Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354–1805. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977.
Osman III (1699–1757)
A sultan of the Ottoman Empire who ruled from 1754 to 1757. Osman was born in 1699. He was the son of the Ottoman sultan Mustafa II (r. 1695–1703). His mother was Șahsavar (Shahsavar) Kādin. Osman III ascended the throne after his older brother, Mahmud I (r. 1730–1754), died in 1754. At the time when he ascended the throne, Osman III was 55 years old. Our knowledge about his childhood and upbringing is extremely limited because he grew up in the privacy of the royal harem, which was closed to the outside world. Osman’s three-year reign was uneventful. The Ottoman armies did not fight a major war either against Iran in the east or a European power in the west. Two major fires, however, left significant damage in the Ottoman capital (Somel: 219). The fire of July 4–5, 1756, in particular was devastating, destroying 3,851 buildings (Șakul: 447). Istanbul also suffered from an epidemic of plague, which ravaged the city and its population (Somel: 219). As a response to these disasters, Osman III embarked on a major construction program to revive the Ottoman capital and the spirit of its population. The construction of the Nuruosmaniye Mosque was completed in 1755. Osman III died in 1757. He was succeeded by Mustafa III (r. 1757–1774).
See also: Sultans: Mahmud I; Mustafa III
Further Reading
Alderson, A. D. Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956.
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2005.
McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923. London and New York: Wesley Longman Limited, 1997.
Șakul, Kahraman. “Osman III.” In Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters, 447. New York: Facts On File, 2009.
Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Sugar, Peter. Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354–1805. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977.
Selim I (1465–1520)
An Ottoman sultan who ruled from 1512 to 1520. He was the son of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512). During his short reign, Selim I defeated Shah Ismail, the founder of the Safavid dynasty in Iran, at the Battle of Chaldiran on August 22–23, 1514. He then proceeded by conquering Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, which was accomplished after Ottoman armies defeated the Mamluks in 1516 and 1517.
After ascending the throne Selim, also known as Yavuz (the Terrible), killed all his brothers and nephews. During Selim’s short reign the Ottoman Empire emerged as the supreme power in eastern Anatolia and the Arab world. Before confronting the threat posed by the Safavid dynasty in Iran, Selim led his army into Anatolia and massacred 40,000 people who were accused of holding pro-Shia and pro-Safavid sympathies. He then pushed east and entered Iranian Azerbaijan. In 1514, at the Battle of Chaldiran, near Khoi in present-day northwestern Iran, Ottoman forces defeated the armies of Shah Ismail, the ruler of Iran and the founder of the Safavid dynasty. Next, Selim annexed the Emirate of Dulkadir, which served as a buffer state between the Ottoman Empire and the Mamluk Sultanate based in Egypt. Between 1516 and 1517 Ottoman forces attacked the Mamluks, who were defeated at the battle of Marj Dabiq (Mercidabik) in 1516. The Mamluk sultan Qansu al-Ghawri was killed on the battlefield. The Ottoman forces inflicted another defeat on the Mamluk forces at the Battle of Ridaniya near Cairo. Syria and Egypt were thus brought under Ottoman rule. Western Arabia, including the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina, also accepted Ottoman suzerainty. With this conquest, the Ottoman sultan could claim the title of caliph and guardian of the holiest sites in Islam.
See also: Empire and Administration: Ismail I, Shah of Iran; Sultans: Bayezid II; Süleyman I
Further Reading
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2005.
Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The Structure of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Inalcik, Halil. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1973.
McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923. London and New York: Wesley Longman Limited, 1997.
Selim II (1524–1574)
A sultan of the Ottoman Empire who ruled from 1566 to 1574. Selim was born in 1524. He was the third son of Süleyman I (the Magnificent) (r. 1520–1566). His mother was Süleyman’s favorite wife, Hürrem Sultan (Roxalane). Some historians of the Ottoman Empire have maintained that the decline of Ottoman power began during Selim’s reign.
By 1561 Süleyman I had ordered the execution of all of his other sons, leaving Selim the sole successor to the Ottoman throne. Selim ascended the Ottoman throne after Süleyman I died in September 1566. Known for his love of women and wine, the new sultan was called Sarhoș (Sarhosh) Selim or Selim the Drunkard (Shaw: 1:175–176). Selim spent much of his time in the Dar üs-Saade, or the House of Felicity, in the inner section of the Topkapi Palace, leaving the affairs of state to his grand vizier, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, who had served Süleyman and was married to Selim’s daughter Esmahan (Ismahan) Sultan (Freely: 206). The grand vizier’s power and influence grew as the sultan became increasingly more detached from managing the everyday affairs of the state. Selim’s favorite wife, Nur Banu Sultan, reputed to be of Jewish origin and mother of the future sultan Murad III, also played a prominent role in decisions made by the palace.
After a revolt in Yemen, the Ottoman armies invaded that country in 1567–1568, capturing Aden and Sana’a a year later and establishing their control over the trade and commerce of the Red Sea (Imber: 61–62). The Ottomans also embarked on an ambitious campaign to capture the key strategic town of Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea, which would allow the sultan to block a Russian advance toward the Caucasus, threaten the Iranian-held regions of the south Caucasus and Azerbaijan, establish a direct link with the Uzbeks (the principal ally of the Ottomans in Central Asia), and revive the old caravan routes connecting east to west by diverting them from Iranian and Russian territory and bringing them under the sultan’s direct control (Imber: 61–62). Despite the best efforts of Sokullu Mehmed, the project did not materialize, and the Ottomans were forced to rely on their allies, the Crimean Tatars, to act as a buffer against Russian ambitions on the northern coast of the Black Sea.
A son of Süleyman the Magnificent, Selim II ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1566 to 1574. Some historians have identified Selim’s reign as the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
The Ottomans were far more successful in their campaign to capture the island of Cyprus, which was considered a safe haven for pirates who raided Ottoman ships in the eastern Mediterranean (Parry: 108–110). In September 1570 the Ottoman forces seized Nicosia; they went on to capture Famagusta in August 1571. The fall of Cyprus convinced the Christian powers of Europe to unify their forces in an attempt to regain the island. The naval forces of the newly formed Holy League, under the leadership of Don Juan of Austria, attacked and trapped the Ottoman fleet, which had recently returned from the conquest of Cyprus and was anchored at Lepanto on the Greek coast. The Holy League’s fleet destroyed most of the Ottoman ships, killing a large number of sailors (Parry: 109). The victory at Lepanto on October 7, 1571, was hailed throughout Europe as the beginning of the end of Ottoman domination in the eastern Mediterranean and was a great boost for European morale. To the disappointment of Europe, however, the Ottomans bounced back from the humiliation at Lepanto within a short time. The Ottoman navy was rebuilt within a year and immediately began to challenge the Holy League and its fleet in the waters of the eastern Mediterranean. In 1573 Venice, which was the most important naval power in the Holy League, sued for a separate peace with the sultan. In August 1574 the reorganized Ottoman fleet attacked and occupied Tunis, establishing a formidable territorial base for the Ottoman Empire in North Africa (Parry: 110).
Among his subjects, Selim was known for his love of drinking and hunting. He was also a patron of arts, literature, and poetry. Selim sponsored the construction of the Selimiye Mosque, which was designed and built by the brilliant Ottoman architect Sinan. The mosque was completed in 1574, the same year Selim died. Selim also provided generous support for a significant number of Ottoman writers, scholars, and poets, including the historian Mustafa Ali and the poet Bāki. Selim II was succeeded by his oldest son, Murad III (r. 1574–1595).
See also: Battles and Treaties: Lepanto, Battle of; Sultans: Murad III; Süleyman I
Further Reading
Clot, André. Süleiman the Magnificent. London: Saqi Books, 2005.
Findley, Carter V. Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire: The Sublime Porte, 1789–1922. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2005.
Finkelstein, Louis, ed. The Jews: Their History, Culture, and Religion. New York: Harpers & Brothers, 1960.
Freely, John. Inside the Seraglio: Private Lives of the Sultans in Istanbul. London: Penguin Books, 1999.
Freely, John. Istanbul the Imperial City. London: Penguin Books, 1998.
Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The Structure of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Inalcik, Halil. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1973.
McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923. London and New York: Wesley Longman Limited, 1997.
Parry, V. J. “The Successors to Sulaiman.” In A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730, edited by M. A. Cook, 103–132. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman
Empire. Vol 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Selim III (1761–1808)
An Ottoman sultan who ruled from 1789 to 1807. He was born in 1761. Selim’s father was the Ottoman sultan Mustafa III (r. 1757–1774). His mother was Mihrșah (Mihrshah) Valide Sultan, “a concubine of Georgian origin” (Șakul: 514). Selim ascended the throne after his uncle, Abdülhamid I (r. 1774–1789), died in 1789. As a young prince, Selim became fascinated with Europe and organized a small group of friends and confidants who shared his fascination with European customs, ideas, and institutions (Zürcher: 21). Once he ascended the throne, Selim introduced a reform program called Nizam-i Cedid (Nizam-i Jedid), which was intended to re-establish the authority of the Ottoman central government over the provinces that were ruled by a new class of local notables or āyāns. The most important component of his reforms was a new army, which was opposed by the janissaries and other traditional-minded elements within the Ottoman ruling elite, including the ulema. In addition, Selim could not secure a stable financial base for his military and administrative reforms without debasing the Ottoman currency and increasing taxes. The unpopularity of the sultan’s reforms and the opposition of the ulema and the janissaries ignited a revolt, which deposed Selim from the throne. The reform-minded sultan was murdered in 1808.