Ahmed I

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Ahmad I" redirects here. For others named Ahmed I and Ahmad I, see Ahmad I (disambiguation).
Ahmed I
Şehzade Süleyman
Şehzade Kasım
Atike Sultan
Ibrahim I
Names
Şah Ahmed bin Mehmed Han[1]
DynastyOttoman
FatherMehmed III
MotherHandan Sultan
ReligionSunni Islam
TughraAhmed I's signature

Ahmed I (

Blue Mosque
, one of the most famous mosques in Turkey.

Early life

Ahmed was probably born in 18 April 1590[3][4] at the Manisa Palace, Manisa, when his father Şehzade Mehmed was still a prince and the governor of the Sanjak of Manisa. His mother was Handan Sultan. After his grandfather Murad III's death in 1595, his father came to Constantinople and ascended the throne as Sultan Mehmed III. Mehmed ordered the execution of his nineteen half brothers. Ahmed's elder brother Şehzade Mahmud was also executed by his father Mehmed on 7 June 1603, just before Mehmed's own death on 22 December 1603. Mahmud was buried along with his mother in a separate mausoleum built by Ahmed in Şehzade Mosque, Constantinople.

Reign

Ahmed ascended the throne after his father's death in 1603, at the age of thirteen, when his powerful grandmother

Yahya, resented his accession to the throne and spent his life scheming to become Sultan. Ahmed broke with the traditional fratricide following previous enthronements and did not order the execution of his brother Mustafa. Instead, Mustafa was sent to live at the old palace at Bayezit along with their grandmother, Safiye Sultan. This was most likely due to Ahmed's young age - he had not yet demonstrated his ability to sire children, and Mustafa was then the only other candidate for the Ottoman throne. His brother's execution would have endangered the dynasty, and thus he was spared.[2]

His mother tried to interfere in his affairs and influence his decision, especially she wanted to control his communication and movements. In the earlier part of his reign, Ahmed I showed decision and vigor, which were belied by his subsequent conduct.[

Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–90). The new borders were drawn per the same line as confirmed in the Peace of Amasya of 1555.[5]

Relations with Morocco

During his reign the ruler of Morocco was

Algiers, and so he resumed paying the tribute to the Ottomans.[6]

Ottoman-Safavid War: 1604–06

The

Safavid army had captured Yerevan and entered the Kars Eyalet, and could only be stopped in Akhaltsikhe. Despite the conditions being favourable, Sinan Pasha decided to stay for the winter in Van, but then marched to Erzurum to stop an incoming Safavid attack. This caused unrest within the army and the year was practically wasted for the Ottomans.[9]

In 1605, Sinan Pasha marched to take Tabriz, but the army was undermined by Köse Sefer Pasha, the Beylerbey of Erzurum, marching independently from Sinan Pasha and consequently being taken prisoner by the Safavids. The Ottoman army was routed at Urmia and had to flee firstly to Van and then to Diyarbekir. Here, Sinan Pasha sparked a rebellion by executing the Beylerbey of Aleppo, Canbulatoğlu Hüseyin Pasha, who had come to provide help, upon the pretext that he had arrived too late. He soon died himself and the Safavid army was able to capture Ganja, Shirvan and Shamakhi in Azerbaijan.[9]

War with the Habsburgs: 1604–06

The

Stephen Bocskay, who struggled for the region's independence and had formerly supported the Habsburgs, sent a messenger to the Porte asking for help. Upon the promise of help, his forces also joined the Ottoman forces in Belgrade. With this help, the Ottoman army besieged Esztergom and captured it on 4 November 1605. Bocskai, with Ottoman help, captured Nové Zámky (Uyvar) and forces under Tiryaki Hasan Pasha took Veszprém and Palota. Sarhoş İbrahim Pasha, the Beylerbey of Nagykanizsa (Kanije), attacked the Austrian region of Istria.[9]

Ottoman miniature of Ahmed I.

However, with Jelali revolts in Anatolia more dangerous than ever and a defeat in the eastern front, Mehmed Pasha was called to Constantinople. Mehmed Pasha suddenly died there, whilst preparing to leave for the east. Kuyucu Murad Pasha then negotiated the Peace of Zsitvatorok, which abolished the tribute of 30,000 ducats paid by Austria and addressed the Habsburg emperor as the equal of the Ottoman sultan. The Jelali revolts were a strong factor in the Ottomans' acceptance of the terms. This signaled the end of Ottoman growth in Europe.[9]

Jelali revolts

Resentment over the war with the Habsburgs and heavy taxation, along with the weakness of the Ottoman

Harput. His son, Mehmed, obtained the governorship of Baghdad with a fake firman and defeated the forces of Nasuh Pasha sent to defeat him.[9]

Meanwhile,

sanjakbey of Ankara. Baghdad was recaptured in 1607 as well. Canbulatoğlu Ali Pasha fled to Constantinople and asked for forgiveness from Ahmed I, who appointed him to Timișoara and later Belgrade, but then executed him due to his misrule there. Meanwhile, Kalenderoğlu was not allowed in the city by the people of Ankara and rebelled again, only to be crushed by Murad Pasha's forces. Kalenderoğlu ended up fleeing to Persia. Murad Pasha then suppressed some smaller revolts in Central Anatolia and suppressed other Jelali chiefs by inviting them to join the army.[9]

Due to the widespread violence of the Jelali revolts, a great number of people had fled their villages and a lot of villages were destroyed. Some military chiefs had claimed these abandoned villages as their property. This deprived the Porte of tax income and on 30 September 1609, Ahmed I issued a letter guaranteeing the rights of the villagers. He then worked on the resettlement of abandoned villages.[9]

Ottoman-Safavid War: Peace and continuation

Bilingual Franco-Turkish translation of the 1604 Franco-Ottoman Capitulations between Ahmed I and Henry IV of France, published by François Savary de Brèves in 1615[10]

The new Grand Vizier, Nasuh Pasha, did not want to fight with the Safavids. The Safavid Shah also sent a letter saying that he was willing to sign a peace treaty, with which he would have to send 200 loads of silk every year to Constantinople. On 20 November 1612, the Treaty of Nasuh Pasha was signed, which ceded all the lands the Ottoman Empire had gained in the war of 1578–90 back to Persia and reinstated the 1555 boundaries.[9]

However, the peace ended in 1615 when the Shah did not send the 200 loads of silk. On 22 May 1615, Grand Vizier Öküz Mehmed Pasha was assigned to organize an attack on Persia. Mehmed Pasha delayed the attack till the next year, until when the Safavids made their preparations and attacked Ganja. In April 1616, Mehmed Pasha left Aleppo with a large army and marched to Yerevan, where he failed to take the city and withdrew to Erzurum. He was removed from his post and replaced by Damat Halil Pasha. Halil Pasha went for the winter to Diyarbekir, while the Khan of Crimea, Canibek Giray, attacked the areas of Ganja, Nakhichevan and Julfa.[9]

Capitulations and trade treaties

Ahmed I renewed trade treaties with England, France and Venice. In July 1612, the first ever trade treaty with the Dutch Republic was signed. He expanded the capitulations given to France, specifying that merchants from Spain, Ragusa, Genoa, Ancona and Florence could trade under the French flag.[9]

Architect and service to Islam

Ahmed I plate at Masjid al-Nabawi marking Bab al-Tawba

Sultan Ahmed constructed the

Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the magnum opus of the Ottoman architecture,[according to whom?] across from the Hagia Sophia
. The sultan attended the breaking of the ground with a golden pickaxe to begin the construction of the mosque complex. An incident nearly broke out after the sultan discovered that the Blue Mosque contained the same number of minarets as the grand mosque of Mecca. Ahmed became furious at this fault and became remorseful until the Shaykh-ul-Islam recommended that he should erect another minaret at the grand mosque of Mecca and the matter was solved.

Sultan Ahmed Mosque

Ahmed became delightedly involved in the eleventh comprehensive renovations of the Kaaba, which had just been damaged by flooding. He sent craftsmen from Constantinople, and the golden rain gutter that kept rain from collecting on the roof of the Ka’ba was successfully renewed. It was again during the era of Sultan Ahmed that an iron web was placed inside the Zamzam Well in Mecca. The placement of this web about three feet below the water level was a response to lunatics who jumped into the well, imagining a promise of a heroic death.

In Medina, the city of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a new pulpit made of white marble and shipped from Istanbul arrived in the mosque of Muhammad and substituted the old, worn-out pulpit. It is also known that Sultan Ahmed erected two more mosques in Uskudar on the Asian side of Istanbul; however, neither of them has survived.

The sultan had a crest carved with the footprint of Muhammad that he would wear on Fridays and festive days and illustrated one of the most significant examples of affection to Muhammad in Ottoman history. Engraved inside the crest was a poem he composed:

“If only could I bear over my head like my turban forever thee, If only I could carry it all the time with me, on my head like a crown, the Footprint of the Prophet Muhammad, which has a beautiful complexion, Ahmed, go on, rub your face on the feet of that rose.“

Character

Sultan Ahmed was known for his skills in fencing, poetry, horseback riding, and fluency in several languages.

Ahmed was a poet who wrote a number of political and lyrical works under the name Bahti. Ahmed patronized scholars, calligraphers, and pious men. Hence, he commissioned a book entitled The Quintessence of Histories to be worked upon by calligraphers. He also attempted to enforce conformance to Islamic laws and traditions, restoring the old regulations that prohibited alcohol, and he attempted to enforce attendance at

Friday prayers
and paying alms to the poor in the proper way.

Death

Ahmed I's türbe

Ahmed I died of

Sultan Ahmed Mosque. He was succeeded by his younger half-brother Şehzade Mustafa as Sultan Mustafa I. Later three of Ahmed's sons ascended to the throne: Osman II (r. 1618–22), Murad IV (r. 1623–40) and Ibrahim
(r. 1640–48).

Family

Consorts

Ahmed had two known consorts, plus several unknown concubines, mothers of the other princes and princesses.[11][12]

The known consorts are:

  • Haseki Sultan
    and probably legal wife, mother of many of his children.
  • Hatice Mahfiruz Hatun. Also called Mahfiruze Hatun, she was his first concubine and the mother of his firstborn son Osman II.

Sons

Ahmed I had at least thirteen sons:

  • Osman II (3 November 1604, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace – murdered by janissaries, 20 May 1622, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - with Mahfiruz Hatun.[13][14] 16th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire;
  • Şehzade Mehmed (11 March 1605, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace – murdered by Osman II, 12 January 1621, Istanbul, Topkapı Palace, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan;[15][16]
  • Şehzade Orhan (1609, Constantinople – 1612, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) – maybe with Kösem Sultan.[17]
  • Şehzade Cihangir (1609, Constantinople – 1609, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque).[17]
  • Şehzade Selim (27 June 1611, Constantinople – 27 July 1611, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - maybe with Kösem Sultan.[17]
  • Murad IV (27 July 1612, Constantinople – 8 February 1640, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan.[13][18][19][20] 17th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire;
  • Şehzade Hasan (25 November 1612, Constantinople – 1615, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque).[17]
  • Şehzade Bayezid (December 1612, Constantinople – murdered by Murad IV, 27 July 1635, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque);[13][14]
  • Şehzade Selim (1613?, Constantinople – murdered by Murad IV, 27 July 1635, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - maybe with Kösem Sultan;[21]
  • Şehzade Süleyman (1613?/1615?, Constantinople – murdered by Murad IV, 27 July 1635, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - maybe with Kösem Sultan;[13][14][19]
  • Şehzade Hüseyin (14 November 1614, Constantinople – 1617, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Mehmed III Mausoleum, Hagia Sophia Mosque);[13][14]
  • Şehzade Kasım (1614, Constantinople – murdered by Murad IV, 17 February 1638, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, buried in Murad III Mausoleum, Hagia Sophia Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan;[13][18][19][20]
  • Ibrahim I (5 November 1615, Constantinople – 18 August 1648, Constantinople, Topkapı Palace, murdered by janissaries and buried in Ibrahim I Mausoleum, Hagia Sophia Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan.[13][18][19][20] 18th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Daughters

Ahmed I had at least eleven daughters:

  • Ayşe Sultan (1605 or 1608,[22] Constantinople – 1657, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan,[19]
  • Fatma Sultan (1606, Constantinople – 1667, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan;[19][23]
  • Gevherhan Sultan (1605 or 1608,[24] Constantinople – c. 1660, Constantinople, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan,[25][26]
  • Hatice Sultan (Constantinople, 1608 – Constantinople, 1610, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque)[17]
  • Hanzade Sultan (1609, Constantinople – 21 September 1650, Constantinople, buried in Ibrahim I Mausoleum, Hagia Sophia Mosque) - with Kösem Sultan;[23]
  • Esma Sultan (Constantinople, 1612 – Constantinople, 1612, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque)[17]
  • Zahide Sultan (Constantinople, 1613 – Constantinople, 1620, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque)[17]
  • Burnaz Atike Sultan (c. 1614/1616?, Constantinople – 1674, Constantinople, buried in Ibrahim I Mausoleum, Hagia Sophia Mosque) - maybe with Kösem Sultan;[23][27][28]
  • Zeynep Sultan (Constantinople, 1617 – Constantinople, 1619, buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan Ahmed Mosque)[17]
  • Ümmühan Sultan (? - after 1688) - with Kösem Sultan[29]
  • Abide Sultan (Constantinople, 1618 – Constantinople, 1648). Called also Übeyde Sultan, married in 1642 to Koca Musa Pasha.[17]

Legacy

Today, Ahmed I is remembered mainly for the construction of the

Sultan Ahmed Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque), one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture. The area in Fatih around the Mosque is today called Sultanahmet. He died at Topkapı Palace in Constantinople
and is buried in a mausoleum right outside the walls of the famous mosque.

In popular culture

In the 2015 TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem, Ahmed I is portrayed by Turkish actor Ekin Koç.

See also

References

  1. ^ Garo Kürkman, (1996), Ottoman Silver Marks, p. 31
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-19-508677-5
    .
  3. ^ Börekçi, Günhan. İnkırâzın Eşiğinde Bir Hanedan: III. Mehmed, I. Ahmed, I. Mustafa ve 17. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Siyasî Krizi - A Dynasty at the Threshold of Extinction: Mehmed III, Ahmed I, Mustafa I and the 17th-Century Ottoman Political Crisis. pp. 81 n. 75.
  4. ^ Börekçi, Günhan (2010). Factions And Favorites At The Courts Of Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603-17) And His Immediate Predexessors. pp. 85 n. 17.
  5. ISBN 1438110251
  6. ^ a b Les Sources inédites de l'histoire du Maroc de 1530 à 1845. E. Leroux.
  7. ^ Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer, Volume 17.
  8. ^ Histoire du Maroc. Coissac de Chavrebière. Payot.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Ahmed I" (PDF). İslam Ansiklopedisi. Vol. 1. Türk Diyanet Vakfı. 1989. pp. 30–33. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09.
  10. ISBN 9004092390
    . Retrieved 2012-01-26.
  11. ISBN 978-9-753-29623-6
    .
  12. ISBN 0-19-508677-5
    .
  13. ^
    ISBN 978-3-319-44758-2
    .
  14. ^
    ISBN 978-9-754-37840-5
    .
  15. ^ Tezcan, Baki (2007). "The Debut of Kösem Sultan's Political Career". Turcica. 39–40. Éditions Klincksieck: 350–351.
  16. ^ Börekçi, Günhan (2010). Factions And Favorites At The Courts Of Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603-17) And His Immediate Predecessors (Thesis). Ohio State University. pp. 117, 142.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i Yılmaz Öztuna - Sultan Genç Osman ve Sultan IV. Murad
  18. ^ a b c Mustafa Naima (1832). Annals of the Turkish Empire: From 1591 to 1659 ..., Volume 1. Oriental Translation Fund, & sold by J. Murray. pp. 452–3.
  19. ^
    ISBN 81-261-0403-1
    .
  20. ^
    ISBN 0195086775
  21. ISBN 978-9-004-17327-9
    .
  22. ^ Ayşe and her sister Gevherhan Sultan were born one in 1605 and one in 1608, but historians are uncertain about assigning dates
  23. ^
    ISBN 0195086775
  24. ^ Ayşe and her sister Gevherhan Sultan were born one in 1605 and one in 1608, but historians are uncertain about assigning dates
  25. ISBN 81-261-0403-1
    . Through her beauty and intelligence, Kösem Walide was especially attractive to Ahmed I, and drew ahead of more senior wives in the palace. She bore the sultan four sons – Murad, Süleyman, Ibrahim and Kasim – and three daughters – 'Ayşe, Fatma and Djawharkhan. These daughters she subsequently used to consolidate her political influence by strategic marriages to different viziers.
  26. ISBN 0195086775
  27. ^ Uluçay 2011, p. 52.
  28. ^ Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2008). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler. Oğlak Yayıncılık. p. 235.
  29. ISBN 978-0-19-967241-7
    .

External links

Media related to Ahmed I at Wikimedia Commons

Wikisource logo Works by or about Ahmed I at Wikisource

Ahmed I
House of Osman
Born: April 18, 1590 Died: November 22, 1617[aged 27]
Regnal titles
Preceded by Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
December 22, 1603 – November 22, 1617 		Succeeded by
Sunni Islam titles
Preceded by Caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate
December 22, 1603 – November 22, 1617 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ahmed_I&oldid=1219479374"