The Ottoman Empire was
one of the greatest powers that world has ever known. With territory spanning 3
continents and a reign of over 600 years the “House of Osman” was not to be
trifled with. The empire was ruled by the all powerful Sultan, the king of
kings, the khan of khans, he ruled by decree.
Some Sultans were warriors, others thoughtful poets. But of the 36 or so Sultan’s that ruled during the empire, there is one who stands out to both the Turkish people and historians alike as…different from the rest. Sultan Ibrahim I, more commonly known as Ibrahim the mad.
But to
do justice to the story of Ibrahim the Mad, we must first tell the story of his
mother, the beautiful Greek concubine Maypeyker Kösem, and his father, the
compassionate Sultan Ahmed.
Kösem Sultan: (1589
–1651) known as Mâh-Peyker Sultan. She was one of the most powerful women in
Ottoman history, Favorite Consort and wife of Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I
(1603–1617).
She achieved power and influenced the course of the Ottoman
Empire through her consort Sultan Ahmet I, then through her sons Murad IV
(1623–40) and Ibrahim I (1640–48) and finally through her minor grandson Mehmed
IV (1648–87).
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| Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim I |
Kösem Sultan was of Greek origin, the daughter of a priest on the island of Tinos.
Her maiden name was
Anastasia. She was sent to Constantinople the capital of the Ottoman Empire by
Bosna Beylerbeyi where she was sold at the age of fifteen to the harem of
Sultan Ahmed I.
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| Kösem Sultan |
Her name was changed after her capture to Mahpeyker (Moon-Shaped), and later by Sultan Ahmed I to Kösem. She was transferred to the old palace on the death of Sultan Ahmed in 1617, but returned as Valida Sultan (Queen Mother), when her son Murat IV was installed in 1623.
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| Mehmed mother--Turhan Hatice |
It was Mehmed's mother Turhan Hatice who
proved to be Kösem's arch-rival.
It is rumored that Turhan ordered Kösem's assassination when she heard that Kösem was said to be plotting Mehmed's removal and replacement by another grandson with a more pliant mother.
Furthermore, some have speculated that Kösem was strangled with a curtain by the chief black eunuch of the harem, Tall Süleyman.
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| Sultan Ahmaed Majid (Blue Masjid)--Istanbul |
After her death her
body was taken from Topkapi to the Old Palace (Eski Sarayı) and then buried in
the mausoleum of her husband Ahmad I.
Kösem was renowned for her charity work
and for freeing her slaves after 3 years of service. When she died the people
of Constantinople observed three days of mourning.
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Mahperkey Kösem Sultan had 8 children, 4 boys and 4
girls.
Male-Murad IV, Prince Süleyman, Prince Kasım, İbrahim I.
Girl-Ayşe Sultan, Fatma Sultan, Gevherhan Sultan, Hanzade
Sultan
When the Sultan died a sort of deadly
musical chairs for would-be Sultans began.
Often, the son who
was closest to the throne at the time of the Sultans death, literally the one
nearest in physical distance from the throne, would become the new Sultan by
jumping into the chair and declaring himself so.
Upon ascending to the throne, the triumphant new Sultan
would shout his first decree, usually something like “All my brothers are to be
immediately killed.”
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| Kösem Sultan |
An army of deadly eunuchs would then be sent forth to do
just that. All brothers, including infant children, and mothers carrying as of
yet unborn brothers were quickly eliminated.
(These eunuch assassins were curious in that, in addition to having been castrated, they had also had their eardrums poked out, so as not to hear the screams of their victims, and their tongues split, so that they could not speak of their dastardly deeds.
The preferred method for royal fratricide was strangulation by
silk rope…a classy way to go at least.)
Royal fratricide was the standard and
regarded as simply part of the bargain.
So far the policy of
brother killing was working out great. But it had one major drawback; it nearly
wiped out the Osman family line. Once the Sultan had killed all his brothers it
was up to him to carry on the Osman name, a risky business.
All of this changed in 1590 with the rule of Ahmed I. He is
well known for commissioning the building of the the amazing Sultan Ahmed
Mosque, aka the Blue Mosque. In fact, the entire old town of Istanbul is also
known by his name, as the Sultan Ahmet district.
Ahmed was a kind ruler, and was very
much in love with a young and beautiful Greek girl named Maypeyker Kösem.
Kösem, however, was more then just beautiful, she was cunning, brilliant and
hungry for power.
Ahmed was the first Sultan to break with the practice of
royal fratricide. Ahmed had grown up with a slightly retarded brother named
Mustafa. Ahmed was well known for his compassion, and when it came time to have
his mildly retarded brother Mustafa done in, he just couldn’t do it.
Instead the childish
Mustafa lived with his grandmother in a single room of the Harem known as the
Kafe or the Golden Cage. A special room, it had windows only on the second floor,
and a slot for delivering food. Though it was beautifully decorated on the
inside, it was merely an exquisite prison cell.
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| Sultan Ahmet I |
For the first time in
Ottoman history a royal brother was spared the silk rope and allowed to live.
This simple act of kindness was to change the way the entire Osman line of
succession worked and Mustafa would be the first of many royal brothers who
would spent most of their lives in this gilded jail.
When Ahmed died of typhoid fever, Mustafa, despite being
retarded or perhaps because of it was installed to the throne. Another first,
it was the first time in Osman house history, a Osman brother was made Sultan
instead of a son. His rule didn’t last long.
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| Kösem Sultan |
After a few months the confused Sultan was sent on a
hunting trip only to come back and find he had been deposed by his nephew Osman
II and Mustafa was sent back to the golden cage. (This was the first deposing
in Ottoman history).
The young Osman II was then himself deposed
and killed.
Mustafa was dragged
back out of the golden cage, re-enthroned, only to be deposed again by his
other nephew Murad IV.
Mustafa was finally
sent happily back to his safe Golden Cage where he could read in peace…before
eventually being strangled by the silk rope.
The cause of all this conflict really lay
between the Janissaries (special soldiers) and the Greek beauty Maypeyker
Kösem.
Kösem, the widow of Ahmed I and mother of Murad IV was in
league with the eunuch corp. Kösem and the eunuchs ruled through the mentally
disabled Mustafa, while the Janissaries ruled through Osman II… whom they
decided they didn’t like after all, and killed.
It was a time of firsts, this being the first regicide in Ottoman history. (When the Janissaries killed Osman II they killed him by “compression of his testicles”, “a mode of execution reserved by custom to the Ottoman sultans.” They also cut off his ear and sent it to his mother Hadice show who was in charge.)
Kösem took the
opportunity presented by the death of Osman II. Her oldest son Murad IV was
only 11, still a minor, so when he took the throne, the seductive Kösem became
official regent of the Ottoman Empire.
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| Murad IV |
Murad IV’s rule (and
his mother Kösem’s by proxy) was iron fisted. He banned alcohol, tobacco, and
coffee on pain of death. He also returned to the practice of brother killing,
(and son killing if Mama Kösem was behind it) offing a couple of his brethren.
But Murad IV didn’t kill all his brothers. History tends to repeat itself.
Like his father Ahmet with his
retarded brother Mustafa, Murad IV also had a slightly weird brother whom he
allowed to live. His name was Ibrahim.
Murad IV was determined not to make the same mistake his father had with Mustafa. Murad IV ordered that upon his death, his weird brother Ibrahim was to be killed as well.
All fine and well, except had these orders be carried out the Osman line
would have ended. It seems Murad IV would have rather seen the end of the house
of Osman, and then has the mad Ibrahim as Sultan.
Murad died at the age of 27 of cirrhosis of
the liver (Ironically, the prohibition crazy Murad may have been a closet
alcoholic).
As Murad IV lay on
his death bed his mother Kösem lied to him, saying that Ibrahim had already
been strangled. Happy at the news, Murad IV died smiling.
After Murad’s death Kösem promptly placed
Ibrahim;- (The Mad Sultan on to the throne).
Ibrahim was in no
shape to rule a nation. Odd to begin with, it didn’t help that he had spent his
entire life living as a prisoner in the golden cage, staring longingly out the
unreachable stained glass windows.
Inside the prince was
kept company by a few deaf-mute servants, and a couple of harem girls, barren
ones, to prevent him from fathering possible heirs to the throne.(The servants
were, by default, prisoners as well.)
Ibrahim also lived under the constant and reasonable fear
of deaf-mute eunuchs throttling him with a silk rope. So it makes sense that
when guards showed up to bring him to the throne, he refused to go, thinking it
was a trick.
Ibrahim wouldn’t even
open the door until Murad’s body was produced. When Ibrahim was finally
convinced that he was not about to be garroted to death, he ran deliriously
through the halls screaming “the butcher is dead”, “the butcher of the empire
is dead.”
Suddenly out of the
cage and the supreme ruler of an enormous empire, Ibrahim barely knew what to
do with himself. While his mom did most of the actual decision making, Ibrahim
busied himself with his new harem.
He first decorated his room with mirrors so
that he might get a better view of himself in action. He then called the girls
in.
One time the Mad Sultan saw the beautiful daughter of the Grand Mufti, the empire’s highest religious authority, and asked for her hand in marriage.
Her father,
aware of Ibrahim’s depravities, urged his daughter to decline. So the Mad
Sultan ordered her kidnapped and carried to his palace, where he ravished her
for days, before returning her to her father.
Ibrahim’s harem was
full of young, nubile, girls from around the world. But after a while, the
slender things from Russia and the Balkans didn’t do it for him anymore.
One day Ibrahim happened to see the
genitalia of a female cow.
Pleased by what he
saw, Ibrahim had a gold cast made and, hoping to find a human match to the
bovine privates, he ordered his aides to “bring him the fattest woman in the
world.” They did their best, finding a 300 pound Armenian girl named “Sugar
Cube” (Sechir Para or more literally translated “Sweet Lump of Sugar”).
Ibrahim loved her,
and spent many a night curled in her large arms. It wasn’t long until the big
woman had gained power over Ibrahim equal only to that of her girth.
It would be Sugar Cube who would spell the
final downfall of Ibrahim the Mad.
Sugar Cube told
Ibrahim that a member of his concubine was sleeping with an outsider and
conspiring against him. The paranoid Ibrahim, decided to clean house and had
the majority of his harem, some 280 girls, tied up in sacks and drowned in the
river.
This worried his
mother Kösem, who was actually ruling the foundering empire. Concerned about
Sugar Cube’s rising power, she in turn had Sugar Cube strangled. The palace was
indeed a rough place.
They knew her
everywhere as “the Filthy Sultana.” One day one of her many enemies caught up
with her and poisoned her coffee with chopped hair and ground glass, causing a
long and painful death.”)
With permission from Kösem, the Grand Mufti
whose daughter Ibrahim had had his way with, lead the overthrow.
Between heavy taxes,
the mismanaged wars, and with a Venetian blockade reducing the Ottoman capital
to starvation, discontent boiled over. In 1648, a popular revolt broke out, and
an angry mob tore Ibrahim’s Grand Vizier to pieces.
Ibrahim was deposed
in favor of his 6 year old son, and a fatwa was then issued for the Mad
Sultan’s execution, which was carried out by strangulation.
Ibrahim was deposed,
sent back to the golden cage, and 10 days later his worst fears were realized
at the hands of a deaf-mute eunuch wielding a silk rope. This time Ibrahim met
his end gleefully, assuming that the guards were there to reinstate him as
Sultan.
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| Murder of Sultan Ibrahim I (The Mad Sultan) |
This would mark the end of Ibrahim the Mad’s
rule, but not the rule of his mother Kösem.
After Ibrahim’s
death, she had Ibrahim’s son, and her grandson, Mehmed IV put onto the throne
with the words “Here he is! See what you can do with him!” While Mehmed IV was
still a child, Ibrahim apparently stabbed him in the face, and tried to drown
him.
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| An Eunuch in Hrem |
In a certain irony,
Kösem’s reign would finally come to an end at the hands of another woman. Her
daughter-in-law and Mehmed’s IV mother Turhan had Kösem killed and started her
own rule of the Ottoman Empire. (She was the only other woman besides Kösem to
officially rule the Ottoman Empire.)
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| Murder in Topkapi Palace by an Eunuch |
For a woman who ruled the empire for well
over 30 years Kösem met with a very ignoble fate.
When she was
confronted by the eunuchs sent to kill her “she went mad, stuffıng her precious
jewels into her pockets and fleeing through the intricate mazes of the harem,
which she knew better than anyone.
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| Kösem Sultan |
She crept into a
small cabinet, hoping that the eunuchs would go past her and the janissaries
come to the rescue. But a piece of her skirt caught in the door, betraying her
hiding place.
The eunuchs dragged her out, tearing her clothes, stealing
her jewels. She fought; but she was an old woman now. One of her attackers
strangled her with a curtain. Her naked, bleeding body was dragged outside and
flaunted before the janissaries.”
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| Murder of Kösem Sultan |
The rule of Ibrahim
the Mad, Kösem and the period surrounding it, marked a turning point in the
Ottoman Empire, and the beginning of its decline.
The End
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