Ibrahim | |||||
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Ottoman Caliph Amir al-Mu'minin Kayser-i Rûm Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques | |||||
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Padishah) | |||||
Reign | 9 February 1640 – 8 August 1648 | ||||
Predecessor | Murad IV | ||||
Successor | Mehmed IV | ||||
Born | 5 November 1615 Topkapı Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire | ||||
Died | 18 August 1648 Constantinople, Ottoman Empire | (aged 32)||||
Burial | Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey | ||||
Spouses |
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Issue Among others | |||||
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Dynasty | Ottoman | ||||
Father | Ahmed I | ||||
Mother | Kösem Sultan | ||||
Religion | Sunni Islam | ||||
Tughra |
Ibrahim (/ˌɪbrəˈhiːm/; Ottoman Turkish: ابراهيم; Turkish: İbrahim; 5 November 1615 – 18 August 1648) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1640 until 1648. He was born in Constantinople, the son of sultan Ahmed I by Kösem Sultan, an ethnic Greek originally named Anastasia.[1][2][3]
He was called Ibrahim the Mad (Turkish: Deli İbrahim) due to his mental condition and behavior.[4] However, historian Scott Rank notes that his opponents spread rumors of the sultan's insanity, and some historians suggest he was more incompetent than mad.[5]
Ibrahim was born on 5 November 1615, the son of Sultan Ahmed I and his Haseki Sultan and perhaps legal wife, Kösem Sultan. When Ibrahim was 2, his father suddenly died, and Ibrahim's uncle Mustafa I became the new sultan. Kösem Sultan and her children, including young Ibrahim, were sent to the Old Palace. After his brother Murad IV inherited the throne from his uncle Mustafa I, Ibrahim was confined in the Kafes, which affected his health. Murad had Ibrahim's other brothers Şehzade Bayezid, Şehzade Süleyman and Şehzade Kasım executed and Ibrahim feared he would be next, but after his brother Murad's death, Ibrahim became Sultan.
One of the most notorious Ottoman Sultans, Ibrahim spent all of his early life in the close confinement of the Kafes before succeeding his brother Murad IV (1623–40) in 1640. Three of their brothers had been executed by Murad, and Ibrahim lived in terror of being the next to die. His life was saved only by the intercession of Kösem Sultan, mother of Ibrahim and Murad.[6]
Murad's death left Ibrahim as the sole surviving prince of the dynasty. Upon being asked by Grand Vizier Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha to assume the Sultanate, Ibrahim suspected Murad was still alive and plotting to trap him. It took the combined persuasion of Kösem and the Grand Vizier, and personal examination of his brother's dead body, to make Ibrahim accept the throne.
During the early years of Ibrahim's reign, he retreated from politics and turned increasingly to his harem for comfort and pleasure. During his sultanate, the harem achieved new levels of luxury in perfumes, textiles and jewellery. His love of women and furs led him to have a room entirely lined with lynx and sable. Because of his infatuation with furs, the French dubbed him "Le Fou de Fourrures." Kösem Sultan kept her son in check by supplying him with virgins she personally purchased from the slave market, as well as overweight women, whom he craved.[7][8]
An account of his reign is given by Demetrius Cantemir. He wrote of Ibrahim:
"As Murat was wholly addicted to wine, so was Ibrahim to lust. They say he spent all his time in sensual pleasure and when nature was exhausted with the frequent repetition of venereal delights he endeavoured to restore it with potions or commanded a beautiful virgin richly habited to be brought to him by his mother, the Grand Vezir, or some other great man. He covered the walls of his chamber with looking glasses so that his love battles might seem to be enacted in several places at once. He ordered his pillows to be stuffed with rich furs so that the bed designed for the Imperial pleasure might be the more precious. Nay, he put sable skins under him in a notion that his lust might be flamed if his love toil were rendered more difficult by the glowing of his knees."[9]
Kara Mustafa Pasha remained as Grand Vizier during the first four years of Ibrahim's reign, keeping the Empire stable. With the Treaty of Sèvres (15 March 1642) he renewed peace with Austria and in the same year recovered Azov from the Cossacks. Kara Mustafa also stabilized the currency with coinage reform, sought to stabilize the economy with a new land-survey, reduced the number of janissaries, removed non-contributing members from the state payrolls, and curbed the power of disobedient provincial governors. During these years, Ibrahim showed concern with properly ruling the empire, as shown in his handwritten communications with the Grand Vizier.[10] Kara Mustafa in turn wrote a memo on public affairs to coach his inexperienced master. Ibrahim's replies to Kara Mustafa's reports show he had actually received a good education. Ibrahim often traveled in disguise, inspecting the markets of Istanbul and ordering the Grand Vizier to correct any problems he observed.[11]
Ibrahim was often distracted by recurring headaches and attacks of physical weakness, perhaps caused by the trauma of his early years.[12] Since he was the only surviving male member of the Ottoman dynasty, Ibrahim was encouraged by his mother Kösem Sultan to distract himself with harem girls and soon fathered three future sultans: Mehmed IV, Suleiman II and Ahmed II. The distractions of the harem allowed Kösem Sultan to gain power and rule in his name, yet even she fell victim to the Sultan's disfavor and left the Imperial Palace.[13]
Ibrahim came under the influence of various unsuitable people, such as mistress of the imperial harem Şekerpare Hatun and the charlatan Cinci Hoca, who pretended to cure the Sultan's physical ailments. The latter, along with his allies Silahdar Yusuf Agha and Sultanzade Mehmed Pasha, enriched themselves with bribes and eventually usurped enough power to secure the execution of Grand Vizier Ḳara Muṣṭafā. Cinci Hoca became Kadiasker (High Judge) of Anatolia. Yusuf Agha became Kapudan Pasha (Grand Admiral) and Sultanzade Mehmed, Grand Vizier.[12]
In 1644, Maltese corsairs seized a ship carrying high-status pilgrims to Mecca. Since the pirates had docked in Crete, Kapudan Yusuf Pasha encouraged Ibrahim to invade the island. This began 24 years of war with Venice. Crete did not completely fall under Ottoman domination until 1669. In spite of the decline of La Serenissima, Venetian ships won victories throughout the Aegean, capturing Tenedos (1646) and blockading the Dardanelles. Kapudan Yusuf enjoyed temporary success in conquering Canea, starting a jealous rivalry with Nevesinli Salih Pasha, the recently installed grand vizier. The rivalry led to Yusuf's execution (January 1646) and the Grand Vizier's deposition (December 1645).
With his cronies in power, Ibrahim's extravagant tendencies went unchecked. He raised eight concubines to the favored position of haseki (royal consort), granting each riches and land.[14] After legally marrying the concubine Telli Haseki, he ordered the palace of Ibrahim Pasha to be carpeted in sable furs and given to her.[12]
Mass discontent was caused by the Venetian blockade of the Dardanelles—which created scarcities in the capital—and the imposition of heavy taxes during a war economy to pay for Ibrahim's whims. In 1647 the Grand Vizier Nevesinli Salih Pasha, Kösem Sultan, and the şeyhülislam Abdürrahim Efendi unsuccessfully plotted to depose the sultan and replace him with one of his sons. Salih Pasha was executed, and Kösem Sultan was exiled from the harem.[14]
The next year, the Janissaries and members of the ulema revolted. On 8 August 1648, corrupt Grand Vizier Ahmed Pasha was strangled and torn to shreds by an angry mob, gaining the posthumous nickname "Hezarpare" ("thousand pieces").[12] On the same day, Ibrahim was seized and imprisoned in Topkapı Palace.[13] Kösem gave consent to her son's fall, saying "In the end he will leave neither you nor me alive. We will lose control of the government. The whole society is in ruins. Have him removed from the throne immediately."[15]
Ibrahim's six-year-old son Meḥmed was made sultan. The new grand vizier, Sofu Mehmed Pasha, petitioned the sheikh ul-Islam for a fatwā sanctioning Ibrahim's execution. It was granted, with the message "if there are two caliphs, kill one of them." Kösem also gave her consent. Two executioners were sent for; one being the chief executioner who had served under Ibrahim.[16] As the executioners drew closer, it was reported that Ibrahim's last words were: "Is there no one among those who have eaten my bread who will take pity on me and protect me? These cruel men have come to kill me. Mercy! Mercy!"[17] As his mother, Kösem Sultan, and officials watched from a palace window, Ibrahim was strangled on 18 August 1648. His death was the second regicide in the history of the Ottoman Empire.
In addition to his eight Haseki Sultans (the first and only certain case of the coexistence of several Haseki at the same time and a symptom of the loss of prestige and exclusivity of the title which began under Murad IV) he had a large number of concubines, of which only some are known. However, only Şivekar Sultan and Hümaşah Sultan, who also became his legal wife, had any real political power or influence over the sultan. Ibrahim was particularly famous for his brief but intense love obsessions, often with women who were not part of his harem and that he had his agents commandeer around the city.
Other anecdotes related to his harem are Ibrahim's supposed passion for obese women, which would have led Şivekar, called "the fattest woman at Constantinople", to become his favorite,[18][19] and the story that he drowned 280 concubines in his harem because of a rumor that one of them had had a forbidden relationship with a man, an anecdote however rejected by several historians as invented or exaggerated.[20][21]
Ibrahim I had eight Haseki Sultans, the last of whom was also his legal wife, plus a number of known and unknown minor concubines:[22][23][24][25]
All of Ibrahim's Hasekis received 1,000 aspers a day except for Saliha Dilaşub Sultan who received 1,300 aspers a day.[26] Ibrahim gifted the incomes of Bolu, Hamid, Nicopolis Sanjaks, and Syria Eyalet to Saliha Dilaşub, Mahienver, Saçbağlı, and Şivekar Sultans respectively.[27] He also lavished the treasury of Egypt upon Saçbağlı Sultan and Hümaşah Sultan,[28] and presented the Ibrahim Pasha Palace to Hümaşah. His known consorts were:
Ibrahim I had at least ten sons:[31][32][33][34][35][36]
At one point, Ibrahim took a great liking to the infant son of a slave woman, to the extent of preferring the unrelated child to his son Mehmed. Turhan, Mehmed's mother, grew extremely jealous and vented her anger to Ibrahim, who flew into a rage and grabbed Mehmed from Turhan's arms and threw him into a pool. Mehmed would have drowned if a servant had not rescued him. He was left with a permanent scar on his forehead.[37]
Ibrahim I had at least ten daughters:[38]
The tragic play Ibrahim, the Thirteenth Emperor of the Turks, written by Mary Pix and first performed in 1699, purported to describe incidents in Ibrahim's life. The numbering is correct only if Mehmed the Conqueror is regarded as the First Emperor, and the disputed reign of his son Cem is counted as well.
In the Turkish series Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem he is portrayed by actor Ridvan Aybars Duzey as a prince and by Tugay Mercan as a Sultan.[47]
In the film Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022), Ibrahim is portrayed by Jack Braddy, with Hugo Vella as him as a child.[48]
Kosem Walide or Kosem Sultan, called Mahpaykar (ca. 1589–1651), wife of the Ottoman Sultan Ahmad I and mother of the sultans Murad IV and Ibrahim [q.vv.]. She was Greek by birth, and achieved power in the first place through the harem, exercising a decisive influence in the state
Many of these ladies of the harem were non-Muslim, for example Sultana Kosem (Anastasia), of Greek origin, who was the wife of Ahmet I (1603–17), and the mother of Murat IV (1623–40), and of Ibrahim (1640–448)
Kosem Valide Mahpeyker, known also simply as Kosem Sultan (c. 1589–1651), consort of Sultan Ahmed I and mother of Murad IV and Ibrahim. Greek by birth, she exercised a decisive influence in the Ottoman state