Murad III

Murad III
His Imperial Majesty Grand Sultan, Commander of the Faithful and Successor of the Prophet of the Lord of the Universe
Reign	1574–95
Period	Growth of the Ottoman Empire
Full Name	Murad III
Born	4 July 1546
Birthplace	Bozdağan or Manisa
Died	15/16 January 1595
Place of death	Topkapı Palace of Constantinople
Predecessor	Selim II
Successor	Mehmed III
Royal House	House of Osman
Dynasty	Ottoman Dynasty

Murad III (Ottoman Turkish, Persian: مراد ثالث Murād-i sālis, Turkish:III.Murat) (4 July 1546 – 15/16 January 1595) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death.

Biography

Born in Bozdağan or Manisa, Murad III was the eldest son of sultan Selim II (1566–74), and succeeded his father in 1574. Murad began his reign by having his five younger brothers strangled.^[1] His authority was undermined by the harem influences, more specifically, those of his mother and later of his favorite wife Safiye Sultan. The power had only been maintained under Selim II by the genius of the all-powerful Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokollu who remained in office until his assassination in October 1579. During his reign the northern borders with the Austro-hungarian empire were defended by the Bosniak kapetan Hasan Predojević. The reign of Murad III was marked by wars with Safavids and Habsburgs and Ottoman economic decline and institutional decay. The Ottomans also faced defeats during battles such as the Battle of Sisak.

Murad took great interest in the arts, particularly miniatures and books. He actively supported the court Society of Miniaturists, commissioning several volumes including the Siyer-i Nebi, the most heavily illustrated biographical work on the life of Muhammad, the Book of Skills, the Book of Festivities and the Book of Victories^[2]. He had two large alabaster urns transported from Pergamon and placed on two sides of the nave in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and a large wax candle dressed in tin which was donated by him to the Rila monastery in Bulgaria is on display in the monastery museum.

From him descend all succeeding Sultans,^[3] through his marriage to his maternal relative Valide Sultan Safiye Sultan, originally named Sofia Baffo, a Venetian noblewoman, mother of Mehmed III.

Numerous envoys and letters were exchanged between Elizabeth I and Sultan Murad III.^[4] In one correspondence, Murad entertained the notion that Islam and Protestantism had "much more in common than either did with Roman Catholicism, as both rejected the worship of idols", and argued for an alliance between England and the Ottoman Empire.^[5] To the dismay of Catholic Europe, England exported tin and lead (for cannon-casting) and ammunitions to the Ottoman Empire, and Elizabeth seriously discussed joint military operations with Murad III during the outbreak of war with Spain in 1585, as Francis Walsingham was lobbying for a direct Ottoman military involvement against the common Spanish enemy.^[6] This diplomacy would be continued under Murad's successor Mehmed III, by both the sultan and Safiye Sultan alike.

Murad died in the Topkapı Palace of Constantinople^[7][8] in 1596.

In fiction

Orhan Pamuk's historical novel Benim Adım Kırmızı (My Name is Red, 1998) takes place at the court of Murad III, during nine snowy winter days of 1591, which the writer uses in order to convey the tension between East and West.

References

1. ^ Marriott, John Arthur. The Eastern Question (Clarendon Press, 1917), 96.
2. ^ Pamuk, Orhan. My Name is Red, Alfred A. Knopf, 2010. ISBN 9780307593924
3. ^ See A. D. Alderson, The structure of the Ottoman dynasty [Oxford: Clarendon, 1956], Table XXXI et seq., for details.
4. ^ The Jamestown project by Karen Ordahl Kupperman
5. ^ Kupperman, p.40
6. ^ Kupperman, p.41
7. ^ The Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol.7, Edited by Hugh Chisholm, (1911), 3; Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish Empire...
8. ^ Britannica, Istanbul:When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved to Ankara, and Constantinople was officially renamed Istanbul in 1930.

External links

Media related to Murad III at Wikimedia Commons

• Ancestry of Sultana Nur-Banu (Cecilia Venier-Baffo)

Murad III House of Osman Born: 4 July 1546 Died: 15 January 1595[aged 48]
Regnal titles
Preceded by Selim II	Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 12 December 1574 – 15 January 1595	Succeeded by Mehmed III
Sunni Islam titles
Preceded by Selim II	Caliph of Islam 12 December 1574 – 15 January 1595	Succeeded by Mehmed III

Persondata
Name	Murad III
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	4 July 1546
Place of birth	Bozdağan or Manisa
Date of death	16 January 1595
Place of death	Topkapı Palace of Constantinople