Mustafa I

Ottoman sultan (r. 1617-1618, 1622-1623)

• Born: 1591
• Birthplace: Manisa, Ottoman Empire (now in Turkey)
• Died: January 20, 1639
• Place of death: Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now in Istanbul, Turkey)

Mustafa was mentally ill when he became the fifteenth sultan of the Ottoman Empire. Even though he is little more than a footnote in history, his accession marked the first time in three hundred years that the Ottoman throne did not pass from father to son. His sultancy was almost entirely at the mercy of powerful forces that disrupted the empire.

Early Life

Mustafa I (mew-stah-FAH) was the son of Sultan Mehmed III, who came to the throne in 1595 and ruled until 1603. Mustafa’s mother was a slave in Mehmed’s harem. His life until his accession to the throne was spent entirely in the imperial harem in Constantinople under his mother’s care. Upon the death of Mehmed III, Mustafa’s thirteen-year-old brother, Ahmed I (r. 1603-1617), inherited the Ottoman throne.

Ahmed’s accession to the throne should have marked the end of young Mustafa’s life, as it had been the Ottoman practice since the empire’s founding to avoid succession controversies by executing all the living brothers of the new sultan as potential usurpers of the throne. When Mehmed III had acceded to the throne, for example, his deceased father’s casket was preceded by nineteen coffins bearing his brothers’ bodies. Despite the energetic recommendations of important officials in the Porte (the Ottoman government), however, the new sultan broke with centuries of tradition and chose not to execute his younger brother, Mustafa. This radical alteration in tradition was attributed by some contemporaries to Mustafa’s mental illness, which may have already begun to manifest itself in Mustafa, thus rendering him an unlikely threat. Sparing Mustafa’s life also has been attributed to concerns that young Ahmed would not produce an heir, which would thus endanger the imperial succession. It is more likely that Ahmed was manipulated into sparing Mustafa through the influence of powerful forces within the harem and by the interference of the empire’s highest religious officials, the ulema, who considered the boy a useful tool in their machinations.

Although permitted to live, Mustafa was effectively imprisoned in the harem, perhaps confined to a single room, for the next fourteen years, and he lived under the constant threat of execution. According to a report by a contemporary Venetian ambassador, Ahmed several times contemplated killing his brother, after becoming sultan, and he twice issued the order for him to be strangled. An attack of stomach pains and then a ferocious thunderstorm were interpreted as omens by the young sultan, however, so he rescinded his earlier commands.

Life’s Work

Mustafa’s life was extended through an important and unprecedented break with Ottoman tradition, and he came to the throne through another unprecedented act. When Ahmed I died in late 1617 of typhus, he left several young sons, the oldest of whom, Osman, was fourteen. Powerful blocs within the government and the religious institutions took advantage of the fact that Ahmed’s grand vizier (minister), who was fighting on the eastern front, had pressed for Mustafa, rather than Osman, to occupy the throne. The blocs argued that Mustafa was the oldest living legitimate heir (a situation without precedent) and that the dead sultan’s sons were still too young to rule, this despite the fact that Osman had taken the throne at an even more youthful age. Eventually, this argument prevailed, and Mustafa became the fifteenth sultan of the Ottoman Empire in November of 1617.

Mustafa’s rule elicited significant debate, as it marked the first time in three hundred years that the Ottoman throne did not pass from father to son. A controversy was accentuated by what most accounts agree were Mustafa’s incapacitating mental infirmities. A contemporary Ottoman historian, İbrahim Peçevi, reported that these concerns were overcome when Mustafa’s supporters argued that once his confinement in the harem was ended, his eccentricity would be ameliorated through contact with the broader world. In the records of all these negotiations and debates, Mustafa is conspicuous by his absence; clearly he was a pawn in the fierce, often deadly political infighting of the ruling elite at the Porte and within the harem.

Mustafa’s mental problems did not improve, however, and he proved completely incompetent and incapable of ruling. The English ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe, in his A True and Faithfull Relation… (1622), a lively contemporary account of the events surrounding Mustafa’s accession to the throne, reported that Mustafa was “a man esteemed rather holy (that is franticke) than wise, and indeed fitter for a Cell, than a Scepter… [he] is esteemed a holy man, that hath visions, and Angel-like speculations, in plaine tearmes, [he is] betweene a mad man and a foole.” Mustafa was the first sultan to come to the throne who had no experience or exposure of any sort in government, having spent his entire life in the harem. Barely three months after he took the throne, court figures had spread rumors that Mustafa was insane, and on this pretext he was deposed in favor of Ahmed’s son, Osman II (r. 1618-1622). For the first time in Ottoman history, a ruling sultan had been removed from the throne.

Osman’s reign was relatively brief; he was dethroned and eventually murdered in 1622 by his own Janissaries because of his attempts to reform many of the entrenched institutions of the empire. The Janissaries and their supporters took advantage of the confused and unique situation of the existence of a living, former sultan in Mustafa to legitimize their removal of Osman from the throne. Because Osman left no living sons, his uncle, Mustafa, was again placed on the throne, though with great reluctance. Accounts report that he was dragged from prison by the same Janissaries who would murder his nephew, and was compelled to accept the throne. Although unusual, Mustafa’s two terms as sultan were not without precedent. Indeed, Mehmed II and his father, Murad II, alternated rule in the 1440’s.

Mustafa’s second imperial reign was almost as short as his first, and despite his being depicted as a saint by supporters, it was even more disastrous, characterized once again by incompetence and inertia. For example, he refused to have a concubine and thereby perpetuate the dynasty. Even more serious, the disruptiveness of the Janisssary corps led to a state of anarchy in the capital and to open rebellion in Anatolia, which in turn produced serious financial challenges to the state. Many provincial governors simply refused to remit taxes to Constantinople, claiming that it was illegal for an insane man to occupy the throne.

Mustafa must not be held responsible alone for this chaotic situation, which occurred during both of his reigns. Various grand viziers and other officials, but especially his mother, effectively ruled in his stead, making all significant decisions. He was at the eye of a long-term political and institutional crisis, which had gradually but severely weakened the sultanate over the previous several decades. Barely sixteen months after being placed on the throne for the second time, in September, 1623, Mustafa was deposed in favor of his nephew, Murad IV (1623-1640). This turn of events was driven in part by a ruling issued by ulema officials that an insane man could not sit on the throne, but it was driven even more so by the ongoing political battles raging in the Porte, wherein Mustafa was a feeble pawn.

Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, following his second deposition, Mustafa was permitted to live out the remainder of his years, probably because his mental problems made him appear a minimal threat. He died in 1639 and was honorably buried in the Hagia Sophia mosque.

Significance

In the final analysis, it seems that Sultan Mustafa I warrants little mention in the sweep of Ottoman history. Severely limited mentally and intellectually, he came to the throne and was removed from it as a pawn in the larger power politics that raged in the Porte during the first decades of the seventeenth century. His reigns were brief and characterized by significant struggle and disruption, and so not surprisingly, little was accomplished under his rule.

The only significant political achievement during Mustafa’s reign was the peace treaty signed with Poland in February of 1623, in which he had little direct involvement. His significance is more symbolic, however, as he represents the turmoil and challenges that the Ottoman sultanate faced in these difficult years.

Bibliography

McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923. New York: Longman, 1997. A sweeping historical overview of Ottoman history from the late thirteenth century to the early twentieth century. Includes discussion of the difficult period in Ottoman history during the time of Mustafa.

Peirce, Leslie P. The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. An insightful discussion of the role of women in the governance of the Ottoman Empire in the troubled seventeenth century. Mustafa was likely influenced by powerful harem women, as he spent many years in the harem after his life was spared.

Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Empire of the Gazis. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1976. A general history of the Ottoman Empire in the premodern era, this text contains important contextual and biographical details on Mustafa’s life.

Somel, Selcuk Aksin. Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2003. An indispensable resource for studies of the Ottoman Empire.