Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire: The rise, The fall, and the conspiracy

Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire: The Osmania Empire (Ottoman Empire) was a vast empire that lasted for many centuries, in which it ruled large parts of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa and left far-reaching influence.

Various characters from the era of the Osmania empire are the subject of TV dramas and series nowadays. 

In this, a series is made on the life of Sultan Ahmed I and especially his wife, Kosem Sultan.

In this series, Sultan Ahmed is continuously under pressure to murder his younger brother on behalf of the people around him and those occupying the prominent, high positions of the Sultanate.

In the history of the world, in many societies, examples of murder and war are found on the throne of brothers, father-sons, and other relatives. 

So what are the examples of such incidents in the history of the Sultanate of Osmania? 

Let’s start with Sultan Ahmad I’s father, Sultan Mehmet III, sitting on the throne.

Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire: The rise, The fall, and the conspiracy

Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire: A day of 1595. The Osmania Sultanate is at its height. This is the day when the superpower of that time has been given to his son Mehmet after the death of Sultan Murad III, who is now Sultan Mehmet III.

But the reason why this day is remembered in history was probably the departure of 19 Shahzad’s men from there more than the arrival of the new Sultan in the royal palace in Istanbul.

These men belonged to the brothers of the new Sultan Mehmet III, who were strangled to death as he sat on the throne of the late Sultan under the royal tradition of killing the brothers prevailing in the Sultanate at that time.

In the book ‘Lord of the Horizons’ written on the history of the Osmania Sultanate, author Jason Goodwin narrates the story of Shahzad’s death concerning various sources of history that the Sultan was one by one. 

The eldest of them, who was the most beautiful and healthy, requested that my friend, my brother, who is now like my father, do not end my life in this way. 

With sorrow, the Sultan snapped his beard but did not utter a word in response.

Continuing the mention of that day, Jason writes that Istanbul’s townsmen were heartbroken by seeing them go on the streets.

Historian Leslie P. Pyers in his book ‘Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire’ refers to a report made at the time when Sultan Murad III’s massacre of his 19 Shahzadas came out.

So at that time, double the number of Istanbul townsmen had come out, and each eye was filled with tears, compared to Sultan Murad III’s funeral.

Death of nine princesses

Going back twenty-one years from 1595, it would be known that even the first day of the reign of Sultan Murad III, the father of Sultan Mehmet III, was no different. 

He, too, faced such a tough decision. Sultan Murad’s father Salim II, the 11th Sultan of the Osmania Sultanate, died in 1574 at the age of 50. (The Osmania Sultanate also won Tunis in North Africa this year.)

The Sultanate took over the reins of his eldest son Murad III, who was 20 years older than his later brother, and his zucchini had no real danger. 

But still, Finkle writes, “He got all his brothers killed on his throne and who was then buried in equal to his father Sultan Salim II.”

Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire: Historian Caroline Finkle, in her book ‘Osman’s dream: the story of the Osmania Sultanate 1300-1923’, narrated the scene of the death of the Shahzadas concerning Sultan Salim II’s Jewish Hakim Dominico Hirosolimitano, “but Sultan Murad, who is sorrowful Heart was there, and blood could not stand the excuse. 

He waited for eighteen hours, during this time he neither sat on the plank nor announced his arrival in the city and Considering the ways to save the lives of his nine brothers… he cried for fear of breaking the law of the Osmania Sultanate by strangling his (especially deaf and dumb deaf) workers with Shahzad Rushed to kill and for this work gave nine handkerchiefs to the charge of that person with their own hands. “

“The small tombstones of Murad and Mehmet’s brothers describe the cost to avoid the chaos in the Sultanate that often arose when a new Sultan was overthrown.”

What was the background of the ‘murder of brothers’?

The important thing about the deaths of dozens of Shahzad and Shahzadis is that the killing of the princess was not the result of any rebellion or any other crime. Still, some of them were not even capable of making a mistake.

The law or tradition under which these princesses and princesses were killed was laid about a hundred years ago in the 15th century under the reign of Sultan Mehmet II, who commanded a few years before his death in 1481, under which the new Sultan was his brothers. Could kill

Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire: Finkle wrote that Sultan Mehmet II had not revealed the name of his successor but had expressed his reputation for a successor a few years before his death, in which he allowed the brothers to kill him, saying that Whatever son becomes Sultan, he will do well, if he dies the rest for the betterment of the world.

Professor Akram Bora Akanje, an expert in history and law in Turkey, spoke about this tradition. I wrote in an article that this law was made for the betterment of ‘world order in the words of Sultan Mehmet II, and according to the Sultan, the number of Ulema is often in its favor, so action should be taken accordingly.

This article by Dr. Akram was published on the website of the Turkish newspaper ‘Roznama Subah.’

Dr. Akanje writes, “Of course, the law of the killing of brothers is one of the most disputed topics in Osmanian history … There have been many such incidents in the history of the Sultanate, most of which were deemed justified, but some deaths/murders are such. 

Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire: There were also those who were misunderstood and criticized. “

He further wrote that it was not necessary to do anything wrong for a Shahzad to be killed, and many times it was deemed right to die because of the danger that those princesses / Shahzade might revolt in the future.

But why did Sultan Mehmet II feel the need for this law? To understand this, we can take the help of an incident. For this, we have to go back almost 70 years in the history of the Sultanate of Osmania when in July 1402, there was a great war between Sultan Bayazid and Sultan Taimur (Timur Lang), the near Usmani king of Iqra.

Timur Lung and Osmania Sultanate

 Caroline Finkle writes that when Taimur Lang came out of his house on a war footing, after 30 years, he reached the territory of the Osmani Sultans in Anatolia via China and Iran.

Finkle says that Taimur Lung considered himself the heir to Genghis Khan, and for this reason, he had the right over the Anatolia Seljuq Mongol areas. 

He tried to take advantage of differences between the various princely states of Anatolia (which had not come under the rule of the Osmani Sultans till that time). But Osmani Sultan Bayazid was also eyeing the same princely states.

Finkle says that it was concluded that the forces of Timur Lung and Bayezid came face-to-face with the Incra on 28 July 1402. Sultan Bayezid was defeated in this battle, and he did not live long after this. How did he die? Finkle says there are many opinions about it.

But in the context of today’s topic, the important thing is that the Sultanate of Osmania has entered a difficult phase. For the next 20 years, the Sultanate of Osmania faced massive destruction and ruin due to civil war.

Dr. Akanje writes that the four sons of Bayezid I had thousands of their own supporters, and they fought among themselves for years.

At the end of the civil war, the Sultan’s youngest son Mehmet I defeated his brothers and became the sole heir of the Osmania Sultanate in 1413.

Sultan Mehmet I had to struggle for many more years to bring the Osmania Sultanate to the limits that were under the rule of his father, Sultan Bayezid.

During this time, an exciting thing happened through letters between Shahrukh, son of the new Sultan, and Timur Lung (who had died), which highlights our present-day topic. 

Caroline Finkle writes that in 1416 Shah Rukh wrote a letter to Sultan Mehmet I and objected to the murder of his brothers, Usmani Sultan’s reply was that “two kings cannot live in one country … our enemies who surround us All the time looking for opportunities. “

It is essential here that Sultan Bayezid himself sat on the throne after ‘killing his brother.’ In 1389, Murad I, the third Sultan of the Osmania Sultanate, died during the war against Serbia. 

At that time, Shahzad Bayzid took over the charge of the Sultanate after killing his brother.

Finkle writes that the murder of his brother Shehzada Yaqub at the hands of Shahzad Bayzid ‘is the first murder of a brother in Usmani Khanadan whose record exists.’

But he has further written that it is not clear whether this murder was done as soon as he got the news of his father’s death on the battlefield or it was done after a few months. But Usmani won this battle, and Serbia became a princely state under him.

The tradition of killing brothers and the principle of succession of Turks

Regarding the tradition of succession among Turks, Jason Goodwin writes in his book ‘Aka of the West and East’ that initially there was an issue of power in the Osmani Sultanate in which brothers, uncles, cousins ​​and sometimes female relatives also share to some extent Used to be. 

This situation was different from the sultanates of the world, where power was only the right of the elder son.

Leslie Pyers writes that the Usmani Sultan may not have changed one of his traditions in centuries. 

She writes, “Usmani Khanadan could never completely abandon the principle of his rule, under which every Shahzada was worthy of sitting on the throne, no matter how real the possibility was.”

“The killing of his brothers on behalf of Sultan Murad and his son Mehmet proves that the law of Europe under which inheritance is entirely transferred to the eldest son and where the younger brother is not a threat to the elder brother, the Turks Could not take the place of thinking under which every son inherits the rule of his family. “

In this situation, it was not necessary for any brother to revolt or intrigue the Sultan, but it was also possible that the Sultanate’s essential areas would be unhappy with the Sultan and try to make any other ruler.

Dr. Akram Akanje, in his article, mentioned the reaction of Ogier Guslin de Bisbeck, an ambassador of Austria who was present there during the reign of Sultan Suleiman I.

“Usmani Sultan’s son is not a stroke of good luck because when one of them becomes a Sultan, the rest is waiting for death. If the Sultan’s brothers are alive, then the Sultan of the army does not necessarily end with the Sultan, and if the Sultan If they do not listen to them, they say that God should protect your brother, which means that he can also sit on the plank. “

The end of the tradition of killing brothers

Leslie Pyers has written that the custom of killing brothers in the royal family was disliked. “Initially, this tradition was tolerated to maintain the unity of power so that the Sultan would not face any challenge.”

He further wrote that when the Osmania Sultanate was expanding, and the Sultan himself would drive away from the capital for an extended period of time, people would have liked the tradition at that time but “after the era of Sultan Suleman the young boys and children who It was still in the lap to be a target of this tradition and often to save the Sultans who went out of the capital very little. 

By 1574, the people of Istanbul did Its murdered and would not have seen the drama. “

Historian drinks S writes, “Seeing the killing of all the brothers of a new Sultan together and the outpouring of Janajas from the palace together, some of whom were very young, people must have thought that this was all for the old times.”

In his book, referring to this tradition of killing brothers, he has talked in detail about different aspects of its elimination.

After Mehmet III, Sultan Ahmad became the dictator, but he did not get his brother killed despite pressure, but this tradition did not end entirely at that time.

History shows that out of the seven sons of Sultan Ahmed I, four were killed on the orders of two sons sitting on his throne Sultan Usman II and Sultan Murad IV.

Dr. Akram wrote that when Sultan Ahmad I died, he was replaced by his brother Takht Nasheen, although his sons were present. “This was the first time that his brother took his place after the death of a Sultan.”