Şehzade Mahmud

Vorlage:Infobox royalty

Şehzade Mahmud (Vorlage:Lang-ota; 1584 - 7 June 1603) was an Ottoman prince, the eldest son of Sultan Mehmed III. He was the grandson of Sultan Murad III and Safiye Sultan, and the half brother of the two future sultans, Ahmed I and Mustafa I.

Early years

Şehzade Mahmud was born in 1584Vorlage:Cref2 in Manisa Palace, when his father was still a prince, and the governor of the Saruhan Sanjak. He was the eldest son of his father. When Murad died in 1595, Şehzade Mehmed ascended the throne as Mehmed III, Mahmud came to Istanbul with his father. His father ordered the execution of ninteen of his brothers and half brothers.

In Istanbul, Mahmud was very popular with the Janissaries, and was remembered after his death as courageous and zealous. Mehmed was disturbed by Mahmud’s eagerness to leave the palace and take up the role of warrior prince, especially since he himself had grown so fat that he could not campaign. Hoping to dispel his father’s worries over provincial rebellions and Safavid advances, Mahmud would ask his father to send him, and give him the command of the army.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn Whenever he spoke like that, Ahmed would try unsuccessively to stop him because this made Mehmed distressful. Furthermore, Mehmed feared that the youth intended to mount a rebellion against him from within the palace.Vorlage:Sfn

Mahmud became grieve to see how his father was altogether led by Safiye Sultan, his grand mother and the state was going into ruin. His mother was also not favoured by Safiye.Vorlage:Sfn Mahmud was circumcissed between the years 1600 and 1602. According to turkish tradition all princes were expected to work as provincial governors (Sanjak-bey) as a part of their training. However, Mahmud was not sent to govern any province because of the outgoing Jelali revolts and the long Turkish War, an indecisive land war between the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire, primarily over the Principalities of Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia.Vorlage:Sfn

Imprisonment

Mahmud's mother send a message to a religious seer for she was superstitious to know if her son would become the next Sultan, and how much longer her husband would reign. The man answered, but the messenger failed in delivering the message, and gave it to Safiye instead of her. The message said that Mehmed would die within six months without showing whether by death or deposition, and her son will become the next Sultan. Safiye incensed Mehmed, and he had Mahmud examined, who indeed knew nothing of his mother's action.Vorlage:Sfn

Mahmud was imprisoned, and beaten to make him confess. After two days he was beaten again having every time two hundred blows but nothing came out. Then his mother was called in question and examined, who confessed that she did send a message to the religious seer to know about her son's fortune, but without any intention of hurt or thought of the deprivation of her husband. But this statement didnot satisfy Mehmed and his mother, Safiye.Vorlage:Sfn

The Sultan decided to consult with his grand vizier Yemişçi Hasan Pasha and the mufti on the issue. He demanded a legal opinion from Mufti Ebulmeyamin Mustafa Efendi, whether he could execute his son or not. The mufti gave the opinion that he cannot execute his son without any witnesses, and could only be executed on the ground that his death would satisfy his father.Vorlage:Sfn

Death and aftermath

Mahmud was executed on 7 June 1603,Vorlage:Sfn just six and half months before Mehmed's own death on 22 December, which was caused by distress of Mahmud's death,Vorlage:Sfn leaving the two future Sultans Ahmed I and Mustafa I living.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn According to English Ambassador Henry Lello, his mother was thrown into the sea with thirty more of her followers which they supposed to be involved in the matter.Vorlage:Sfn Vorlage:Sfn However, according to the Venecian ambassador Francesco Contarini, rumours were circulating about her execution, but she was actually send to the Eski (old) Palace by the end of June.Vorlage:Sfn After his death, Mahmud joined the category of those who were much loved by the janissaries, an Ottoman way of posthumously describimg ambitious princes who didnot make it.Vorlage:Sfn

Mahmud was buried firstly obscurely, but was later honored after his father’s death with burial in a tomb built on the orders of his brother, the new Sultan Ahmed I,Vorlage:Sfn in Şehzade Mosque, Istanbul. After Ahmed's accession he send Safiye Sultan to the Eski (old) Palace in January 1604. He also replaced the chief black eunuch of the imperial harem, Abdürrezak Ağa, with a new one, suggesting that he most probably had role in Mahmud's execution.Vorlage:Sfn

In popular culture

In the 2015 TV series Muhteşem Yüzyıl: Kösem, Şehzade Mahmud is portrayed by as a child by Turkish actor Arda Taşarcan, and as adult by Turkish actor Barış Cankurtaran.

Notes

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References

Vorlage:Reflist

Sources

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Baki Tezcan: The Second Ottoman Empire: Political and Social Transformation in the Early Modern World. Cambridge University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-51949-6.
International Journal of Turkish Studies - Volume 13. University of Wisconsin, 2007.
Baki Tezcan, Karl K. Barbir: Identity and Identity Formation in the Ottoman World: A Volume of Essays in Honor of Norman Itzkowitz. Center for Turkish Studies at the University of Wisconsin, 2007, ISBN 978-0-299-22750-0.
Michalis N. Michael, Matthias Kappler, Eftihios Gavriel: Archivum Ottomanicum. 2009.
Hasan Celâl Güzel, Cem Oğuz, Osman Karatay: The Turks: Ottomans (2 v. ). 2002.
FMR : the Magazine of Franco Maria Ricci - Issues 14-16. Franco Maria Ricci International, 1985.
Ga ́bor A ́goston, Bruce Alan Masters: Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4381-1025-7.
Jeroen Duindam: Dynasties: A Global History of Power, 1300–1800. Cambridge University Press, 2015, ISBN 978-1-107-06068-5.
Anne Walthall: Servants of the Dynasty: Palace Women in World History. University of California Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-520-25444-2.
Selcuk Aksin Somel: The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire. Rowman & Littlefield, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8108-7579-1.
Gabriel Piterberg: An Ottoman Tragedy: History and Historiography at Play. University of California Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-520-93005-6.
Günhan Börekçi: İnkırâzın Eşiğinde Bir Hanedan: III. Mehmed, I. Ahmed, I. Mustafa ve 17. Yüzyıl Osmanlı Siyasî Krizi.

External links