III. MURAT

During the reign of Murat III, the twelfth of the Ottoman sultans, the Ottoman lands reached their widest borders. II. He took over 15,162,151 km² of the country’s territory from Selim and increased it to 19,902,000 km².

Murat III was born on July 4, 1546 in the Bozdağ Plateau of Manisa. His father was Selim II, and his mother was the Venetian Afife Banu Sultan. Having received a good education, the prince learned Arabic and Persian. In 1558, as a result of the appointment of his father Selim II as the Governor of Karaman from the Manisa Sancakbeylik, he was sent to the Alaşehir Sancakbeylik by his grandfather Suleiman the Magnificent. After Selim II became sultan, he was sent to the Manisa Sancakbeylik. After the death of his father Selim II, he came to Istanbul on December 22, 1574 and sat on the Ottoman throne.

During the reign of Murat III, who was not very interested in state affairs like his father, Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha was engaged in the administration of the state. After Sokollu’s death, Safiye Sultan, the wife of Murat III, played an important role in the state administration.

By dominating the Polish administration, the Ottoman Empire would have gained two allies that were neighbors of Austria. Good relations were established with the French during the reign of the Magnificent. However, with the vacancy of the French throne, there was a power vacuum in Poland. At the request of Murat III, Erdel Bey Bathary became the king of Poland. As a result of the agreements with Poland, the border was secured.

When Murat III came to the throne, only Morocco from the North African coast did not join the Ottoman lands. In 1578, Ottoman forces under the command of Ramazan Pasha conquered Morocco and broke the Portuguese power in the region.

In 1584, the long-standing peace with Venice came to an end when the ship carrying the family of Ramazan Pasha, the Governor of Tripolitania, who was killed in a Janissary rebellion, was attacked by Venetian ships off the coast of Kefalonia. Murad III, who sent an ultimatum to the Venetian senate, managed to get Ramazan Pasha’s family and property brought to Preveza. For example, it was resolved between the two states when Venice wanted to keep the peace.

With the capitulations given to the Genoese, Venetians and French during the reign of Murat III, merchant ships had the right to trade in Ottoman ports. In 1583, Queen Elizabeth I of England sent an envoy to express her desire to enjoy the same privileges. Merchants from non-capitulated states other than Venice and Genoa were coming to Ottoman ports under the French flag. The Ottoman government, which started to turn away from the Catholics because of the Bartalameos Massacre in 1572, got closer to England, which was Protestant, in order to break the embargo on strategic war materials imposed by the Pope. Thus, the Anglo-French rivalry in the Mediterranean began. The Ottoman Empire also gained many political benefits from this competition.

Shah Ismail, the son of Shah Tahmasb, did not respect the peace treaties between the Ottoman Empire and Iran and managed to attract some emirs of the Ottoman Empire to his side. The Ottoman government instructed Van Beylerbey to ensure peace there. The fact that the Iranian governor of Luristan took refuge in the Ottoman state further soured relations. In the meantime, Shah Ismail had died, and the struggle for the throne had begun in Iran. Wanting to take advantage of this situation, Van Beylerbeyi attacked Iran. The first Persian war lasted twelve years, between 1577 and 1589. Turkish troops under the command of Ozdemiroglu Osman Pasha defeated the Iranian forces at Çıldır. After this battle, all of Georgia was conquered. In 1578, Tbilisi was made an Ottoman province. In the same year, Shirvan also joined the Ottoman lands. As a result of these developments, Iran was forced to sue for peace. On March 21, 1590, the Treaty of Ferhat Pasha (Treaty of Istanbul) was signed. According to this treaty, Kars, Tabriz, Tbilisi, Ganja and Shahrizur were to remain in the Ottoman Empire. With this treaty, the Ottoman state reached its widest borders in the east.

The 8-year peace treaty signed with Austria in 1590 was broken in 1593 with Austria, which considered Telli Hasan Pasha’s march on the Uskuks formed by the bashibozuks as a reason for war. Emperor Rudolf II of Austria did not pay the tax he was paying and encouraged the lords of Wallachia, Erdel and Moldavia to revolt. Telli Hasan Pasha was besieging the fortress of Siska on the border with Croatia. Along with Hasan Pasha and thousands of soldiers, the Sancakbeyi of Herzegovina was also martyred. Thereupon, at the insistence of Sinan Pasha, war was declared against Austria in 1593. While the war was going on, on January 16, 1595, Murat III died of a stroke in Istanbul. His body was buried in the courtyard of the Hagia Sophia Mosque.

When Murat III died in Topkapi palace in 1595, Safiye Sultan did not inform anyone of his death. He secretly sent the officials to Manisa and invited his son to the throne. Mehmet III sat on the throne on January 27, 1595. After the pledge of allegiance, the funeral prayer of Murat III was performed and he was ceremoniously removed. After that, Mehmed III went to his harem Humayin and ordered the execution of his brothers, Mustafa, Osman, Bayezid, Jahangir, Abdullah, Abdurrahman, Hasan, Yakup, Alemşah, Yusuf, Hussein, Korkut, Ali, Ishaq, Omar, Alaeddin, Murat. The girls, who were among the concubines of Murat III, were sent to the old palace. Pregnant concubines were thrown into the Sea of Marmara and drowned. The accession to the throne of Mehmet III, who prioritized the continuation of the state and sitting on the throne above brotherly love, was bloody and disastrous.

Kaynak:Biyografiler.com