Sehzade Mustafa

Şehzade Mustafa (1515- October 6, 1553), the prince of Manisa from 1533 to 1541 and the prince of Amasya from 1541 to 1553, was Suleiman the Magnificent's first born son by "Gülbahar Sultan" (Rose of Spring). He was the apparent heir to the Ottoman throne.

Life

Mustafa experienced problems in his relations with his father. He was the first born son and therefore the apparent heir to the throne but his father, according to some historians, was more interested in Mehmet, the younger brother of Mustafa. Suleiman created more opportunities to the younger one and seemed as if preparing him for the throne. The situation was not pleasant for Mustafa because of the treatment he got from his father. Then he faced a second shock after being sent to Amasya from Manisa. The rule of Manisa was given to the younger brother, Mehmet. It was important because Manisa was much closer to Constantinople than Amasya.

According to the Ottoman tradition, Mustafa must be sent to the closest province to Constantinople, the capital of the empire, but he was sent to Amasya. There he got the news of the death of his brother, Mehmet. It seemed like the barriers between the throne and Mustafa was gone but he faced another challenge just after the death of Mehmet. Another brother of Mustafa, Bayezid, was sent to Konya for his "Sancak" assignment. Bayezid then passed to Kütahya from Konya which were both closer to Constantinople than Amasya. [ [http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst373/readings/fisher1.html Fisher, Alain. "Suleyman and His Sons"] ]

It was a critical decision because Bayezid's mother was Hürrem Sultan. Her support to his own son made Mustafa's political career hard but he successfully ruled Amasya for 12 years. In 1547, during Suleiman's "Elkas" Campaign, the Sultan met with his sons Selim, Bayezid and Mustafa in different places and talked with them about the political situation. It was long after the death of Mehmet but the race between the three princes was going on. After Bayezid's "Sancak" assignment, Selim was also sent to Anatolia as the prince of Manisa in 1544. [Sakaoğlu, Necdet; "Bu Mülkün Sultanları", "pg.137"]

Possibly, this was a hard situation because now there were three princes in Anatolia with the potential of being the new emperor and two of them were the sons of Hürrem Sultan. This means that the only barrier between the power and Hürrem was Mustafa. Mustafa's life was in danger because of the alliance between Hürrem Sultan and Rüstem Pasha.

Conspiracy

Roxelana (later Hürrem), a woman who had been taken captive from the Ukraine and was taken to the harem of the sultan and became his favorite, accused of wanting one of her sons to be the next sultan. According to the common belief, she prepared a conspiracy to overthrow Mustafa. [ [http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b1suleyman.htm Suleyman the Magnificent 1495-1560] ] [ [http://www.allaboutturkey.com/harem.htm The Ottoman Harem] ] Roxelena's partner in this plot was Rüstem Pasha, the son-in-law of Roxelana who was possibly planning to gain more power in the imperial government. [ [http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst373/readings/fisher1.html Fisher, Alain. "Suleyman and His Sons"] ]

Rüstem Pasha sent one of Suleiman’s most trusted men to report that since Suleiman was not at the head of the army, the soldiers thought the time had come to put a younger prince on the throne, whilst spreading rumours Mustafa had proved receptive to the idea. Suleiman wasn't interested at first but he became ferocious when he heard it from a trusted source. [Clot, André (1992). Suleiman the Magnificent : The Man, His Life, His Epoch. pg 157.]

Execution

During Suleiman's Iran campaign, his army settled in Konya for a while. While Suleiman's army was in Konya, Rüstem Pasha offered Mustafa to join his father's army. At the same time he warned Sulemian and he persuaded the Sultan that Mustafa was coming to kill him. [ [http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/cmh/cmh304.html#121 Beosch, Moritz. The Height of the Ottoman Power; "Murder of Prince Mustafa"] ]

Mustafa accepted Rüstem Pasha's offer and assembled his army to join his father. Suleiman saw this as a threat and ordered the execution of his son. When Mustafa entered his father's tent to meet with him, Suleiman's guards attacked Mustafa, and after a long struggle they killed him. [ [http://xenohistorian.faithweb.com/neareast/ne13.html#Suleiman "A General History of the Middle East", Chapter 13: Ottoman Era, Suleiman the Magnificent] ]

After the Execution

After the death of the prince, janissaries and Anatolian soldiers of Mustafa protested the decision of Suleiman. Mustafa's army found the execution unfair because they were thinking that the reason of the execution was the political maneuvers of Hurrem Sultan and Rüstem Pasha, neither of whom were Anatolian or Turkish. Janissaries were supporting Mustafa, both because of the Ottoman traditions about the succession and the success of Mustafa as a warrior. After the protest of the army, Suleiman took Rüstem Pasha from his position and sent him back to Constantinople.

Mustafa's execution caused unrest in Anatolia, especially in Amasya, because people were seeing him as the next sultan. People were angry at Rüstem Pasha and others who were accused of taking part in this conspiracy. In some regions of Anatolia, people remembered Mustafa as the "Sultan Mustafa". His life and fate became a part of the Anatolian Turkish literature. The important Anatolian poet "Taşlıcalı Yahya" composed an elegy for the dead prince. His story was similar to the story of Cem Sultan.

References