Ahmed I

Ahmed I, who reigned as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 until his death in 1617, was born on April 18, 1590, and died on November 22, 1617. Ahmed’s administration is notable for being the first time the Ottoman custom of royal fratricide was broken; from that point on, kings would no longer routinely kill their brothers upon ascending to the throne. He is also well recognised for building the Blue Mosque, one of Turkey’s most well-known mosques.

The topic has a chance of being asked as a UPSC Prelims History Question or as a Current Affairs Question.

Note: UPSC 2023 is approaching closer, supplement your preparation with the free Daily Video Analysis of The Hindu Newspaper by BYJU’S.

Ahmed I UPSC Notes PDF –Download PDF Here

About Ahmed I

When Ahmed’s father, Ehzade Mehmed, was just a prince and the governor of the Sanjak of Manisa, he was most likely born on April 18, 1590, at the Manisa Palace in Manisa. He has Handan Sultan as his mother. His father travelled to Constantinople and assumed the title of Sultan Mehmed III after the death of his grandfather Murad III in 1595. Mehmed gave the order to have his 19 half brothers killed. Just before his own death on December 22, 1603, Mehmed also put Ahmed’s older brother, Sehzade Mahmud, to death on June 7, 1603. Mahmud and his mother were interred in a separate tomb Ahmed constructed in the Sehzade Mosque in Constantinople.

Character

Sultan Ahmed was well-known for his proficiency in numerous languages, fencing, poetry, and horseback riding. Under the pen name Bahti, Ahmed produced a lot of political and poetical works. Ahmed favoured religious leaders, calligraphers, and academics. As a result, he hired calligraphers to work on a book titled The Quintessence of Histories. He also made an effort to police adherence to Islamic customs and laws by bringing back the previous prohibition on alcohol, as well as by making an effort to enforce Friday prayer attendance and proper almsgiving.

Death

Ahmed I passed away at Istanbul’s Topkap Palace on November 22, 1617, from typhus and stomach haemorrhage. He was interred at the Sultan Ahmed Mosque’s Ahmed I Mausoleum. Sehzade Mustafa, his younger brother, took over as Sultan Mustafa I after him. Later, three of Ahmed’s sons – Osman II (1618 – 22), Murad IV (1623 – 40), and Ibrahim took the throne (r. 1640 – 48).

Note: UPSC 2023 is approaching closer, keep yourself updated with the latest UPSC current affairs where we explain the important news in a simplified manner.

Note: You can make your current affairs revision robust using Free Monthly Magazines by BYJU’S.

Reign of Ahmed I

After his father passed away in 1603, Ahmed succeeded the kingdom at the age of thirteen, while his shrewd grandmother Safiye Sultan was still living. Yahya, Ahmed’s long-lost uncle, hated that he had risen to the throne and had spent his life plotting to take over as Sultan. Following earlier enthronements, Ahmed broke with custom and did not command the death of his brother Mustafa. Instead, Safiye Sultan, their grandmother, and Mustafa were transported to reside in the old palace at Bayezit. Ahmed’s youth, the fact that Mustafa was the only other contender for the Ottoman throne at the time, and the fact that Ahmed had not yet proven his ability to procreate, all contributed to this. Because the dynasty would have been in peril if his brother had been killed, he was spared.

Ahmed I displayed vigour and determination in the early years of his rule, although this was contradicted by his actions later on. The empire fared poorly in the wars in Hungary and Persia that followed his ascension. The Treaty of Zsitvatorok, which was concluded in 1606, and removed the yearly tribute paid by Austria, further damaged its reputation. Georgia, Azerbaijan, and other sizable Caucasus territories that had been briefly conquered during the Ottoman-Safavid War (1603 – 18), which was fought against the neighbouring rival Safavid Empire (1578 – 90), led by Shah Abbas the Great, were returned to Persia under the terms of the Treaty of Nasuh Pasha in 1612. The Amasya Peace of 1555 confirmed the same line, which was used to define the new frontiers.

Relations with Morocco

Mulay Zidan, whose father as well as predecessor Ahmad al-Mansur had been a vassal of the Ottomans until his death, was the monarch of Morocco throughout his administration. This tribute of vassalage had been halted by the Saadi civil wars, but Mulay Zidan proposed to agree to it to shield himself from Algiers, and so he began paying the tribute to the Ottomans.

Ottoman-Safavid War

The Ottoman-Safavid War had hardly started when Ahmed’s father Mehmed III passed away. Ahmed I named Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha as the leader of the eastern army after succeeding to the throne. When the army finally reached the eastern front on 8 November 1604, it was too late for the Safavid army had already taken Yerevan and invaded the Kars Eyalet. The army could only be stopped in Akhaltsikhe. Despite the favourable circumstances, Sinan Pasha chose to spend the winter in Van. However, he later marched to Erzurum to stave off an approaching Safavid onslaught. As a result, there was dissent in the army, and the Ottomans’ year was essentially wasted. Sinan Pasha led an army to capture Tabriz in 1605, but Kose Sefer Pasha, the Beylerbey of Erzurum, marched separately from Sinan Pasha and as a result, was captured by the Safavids. Following its defeat at Urmia, the Ottoman army was forced to evacuate, first to Van and then to Diyarbekir. Here, Sinan Pasha incited a revolt by killing Canbulatoglu Hüseyin Pasha, the Aleppo Beylerbey who had come to offer assistance, under the pretence that he had arrived too late. He soon passed away, and in Azerbaijan, the Safavid army was able to seize Ganja, Shirvan, and Shamakhi.

Peace and Continuation

Nasuh Pasha, the new Grand Vizier, wished to avoid conflict with the Safavids. The Safavid Shah also wrote a letter expressing his willingness to sign a peace agreement that required him to send 200 tonnes of silk to Constantinople annually. The Treaty of Nasuh Pasha, which was concluded on November 20, 1612, restored the 1555 borders and gave the Ottoman Empire all the territory it had lost during the conflict of 1578–1590. The Shah did not bring the 200 tonnes of silk, and the peace was broken in 1615. Grand Vizier Okuz Mehmed Pasha was tasked with planning an assault on Persia on May 22, 1615. Mehmed Pasha postponed the assault until the next year when the Safavids organised their invasion of Ganja. Mehmed Pasha led a sizable army out of Aleppo in April 1616 and marched to Yerevan, but he was unable to capture the city and withdrew to Erzurum. He was demoted, and Damat Halil Pasha took his position. While the Khan of Crimea, Canibek Giray, invaded the regions of Ganja, Nakhichevan, and Julfa, Halil Pasha travelled to Diyarbekir for the winter.

Battle with the Habsburgs

By the time Ahmed succeeded to the throne, the Ottomans and the Habsburg monarchy had been engaged in the Long Turkish War for more than a decade. On June 3, 1604, Grand Vizier Malkoç Ali Pasha marched from Constantinople to Belgrade, but he passed away there. As a result, Sokolluzade Lala Mehmed Pasha was named Grand Vizier and head of the western army. Mehmed Pasha’s western force succeeded in retaking Pest and Vac, but failed to take Esztergom once the siege was lifted because of unfavourable weather and the soldiers’ protests. Stephen Bocskay, the Prince of Transylvania, who fought for the region’s independence and had previously backed the Habsburgs, dispatched a message to the Porte requesting assistance.

His troops also joined the Ottoman army in Belgrade after being promised assistance. With its assistance, the Ottoman army surrounded Esztergom, which it eventually took on November 4th, 1605. Ottoman assistance allowed Bocskai to take Nové Zámky (Uyvar), while armies led by Tiryaki Hasan Pasha captured Veszprém and Palota. The Beylerbey of Nagykanizsa (Kanije), Sarhoş Ibrahim Pasha, attacked the Istria province of Austria. Mehmed Pasha was summoned to Constantinople, though, as the Jelali revolts in Anatolia became more hazardous than ever and there was a loss on the eastern front. While getting ready to travel towards the east, Mehmed Pasha passed away suddenly there. The Peace of Zsitvatorok, mediated by Kuyucu Murad Pasha, eliminated the 30,000 ducat payment given by Austria and referred to the Habsburg emperor as the equivalent of the Ottoman sultan. The Ottomans’ agreement of the conditions was significantly influenced by the Jelali uprisings. This indicated the decline of Ottoman expansion in Europe.

Jelali Revolts

The height of the Jelali uprisings occurred under the reign of Ahmed I due to resentment over the conflict with the Habsburgs, oppressive taxation, a flimsy Ottoman military reaction, and a combination of these factors. Soon after Ahmed I was crowned, Tavil Ahmed led a revolt and overthrew Kecdehan Ali Pasha, the Beylerbey of Anatolia, as well as Nasuh Pasha. Tavil Ahmed was given the opportunity to become the Beylerbey of Shahrizor in 1605 in an effort to put an end to his uprising, but not long after that, he moved on to seize Harput. Mehmed, his son, beat the Nasuh Pasha soldiers sent to overthrow him in order to take over as governor of Baghdad using a bogus firman.

To beat Tripoli’s Amir Seyfolu Yusuf, Canbulatolu Ali Pasha combined his forces with the Druze Sheikh Ma’nolu Fahreddin. He then established an army and started issuing coins when he took over the Adana region. Hüseyin Pasha, the newly appointed Beylerbey of Aleppo, was routed by his men. Due to the weakness, he displayed in dealing with the Jelalis, Grand Vizier Boşnak Dervish Mehmed Pasha was put to death. He was succeeded by Kuyucu Murad Pasha, who, on October 24, 1607, marched to Syria with his army to decisively, albeit with considerable difficulty, destroy the 30,000 strong rebel army. He also named the rebel Kalenderolu, who was active in Manisa and Bursa, the sanjak bey of Ankara while pretending to pardon the Anatolian rebels.

In 1607, Baghdad was once again taken. Canbulatolu Ali Pasha left for Constantinople, where he begged Ahmed I for pardon. Ahmed I then appointed Canbulatolu Ali Pasha to Timișoara and eventually Belgrade, but later had him put to death for his misdeeds there. When Kalenderolu was denied entry to the city by the Ankara residents, he rebelled once more but was put down by Murad Pasha’s men. In the end, Kalenderolu escaped to Persia. After that, Murad Pasha put down a few smaller uprisings in Central Anatolia and put down additional Jelali chiefs by inviting them to enlist in the army. Many people had left their communities as a result of the Jelali revolts’ widespread violence, and many villages had been devastated. These abandoned villages have been claimed as their property by several military chiefs. As a result, Ahmed I issued a letter on September 30, 1609, safeguarding the rights of the locals and depriving the Porte of tax revenue. He subsequently started working on resettling settlements that had been abandoned.

Capitulations and Trade Treaties of Ahmed I

Trade pacts with England, France, and Venice were revived under Ahmed I. The first-ever commercial agreement was concluded with the Dutch Republic in July 1612. He increased the number of concessions made to France and stipulated that traders from Florence, Ragusa, Ancona, Genoa, and Spain could operate under the French flag.

Legacy of Ahmed I

Ahmed I is best recognised today for building the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, popularly referred to as the Blue Mosque, one of the greatest works of Islamic architecture. Sultanahmet is the modern name for the region in Fatih that surrounds the mosque. He passed away at the Topkap Palace in Constantinople and was laid to rest just outside the walls of the renowned mosque in a tomb.

Note: You may get all the History Questions for the UPSC Mains exam by visiting the linked article.

Start your IAS Exam preparation by understanding the UPSC Syllabus in-depth and planning your approach accordingly.

Related Links: