Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1703 to 1730
Ahmed III (, "Aḥmed-i sālis"; 30 December 1673 – 1 July 1736) was sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648–1687). His mother was Gülnuş Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hacıoğlu Pazarcık, in Dobruja. He succeeded to the throne in 1703 on the abdication of his brother Mustafa II (1695–1703). Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha and the Sultan's daughter, Fatma Sultan (wife of the former) directed the government from 1718 to 1730, a period referred to as the "Tulip Era".
During the initial days of Ahmed III's reign, significant efforts were made to appease the janissaries. However, Ahmed's effectiveness in dealing with the janissaries who had elevated him to the sultanate was limited. Grand Vizier Çorlulu Ali Pasha, whom Ahmed appointed, provided valuable assistance in administrative affairs and implemented new measures for the treasury. He supported Ahmed in his struggles against rival factions and provided stability to the government. Ahmed was an avid reader, skilled in calligraphy and knowledgeable on history and poetry.
Early life and education.
Sultan Ahmed was born on 30 December 1673. His father was Sultan Mehmed IV, and his mother was Gülnuş Sultan, originally named Evmenia. His birth occurred in Hacıoğlupazarı, where Mehmed stayed to hunt on his return from Poland in 1673, while Gülnuş was pregnant at that time. In 1675, He and his brother, Prince Mustafa (future Mustafa II) were circumcised. During the same ceremony their sisters Hatice Sultan and Fatma Sultan were married to Musahip Mustafa Pasha and Kara Mustafa Pasha respectively. The celebrations lasted 20 days.
He grew up in the Edirne Palace. His schooling began during one of the sporadic visits of the court to Istanbul, following a courtly ceremony called "bad-i basmala", which took place on 9 August 1679 in the Istavroz Palace. He was brought up in the imperial harem in Edirne with a traditional princely education, studying the Qur’an, the hadiths (traditions of Muhammad), and the fundamentals of Islamic sciences, history, poetry and music under the supervision of private tutors. One of his tutors was chief mufti Feyzullah Efendi.
Ahmed was apparently curious and intellectual in nature, spending most of his time reading and practising calligraphy. The poems that he wrote manifest his profound knowledge of poetry, history, Islamic theology and philosophy. He was also interested in calligraphy, which he had studied with the leading court calligraphers, primarily with Hafız Osman Efendi (died 1698), who influenced his art immensely, and, therefore, practiced it because of the influence of his elder brother, the future Sultan Mustafa II, who also became a notable calligrapher.
During his princehood in Edirne, Ahmed made friends with a bright officer-scribe, Ibrahim, from the city of Nevşehir, who was to become one of the outstanding Grand Viziers of his future reign. From 1687, following the deposition of his father, he lived in isolation for sixteen years in the palaces of Edirne and Istanbul. During this period he dedicated himself to calligraphy and intellectual activities.
Reign.
Accession.
The Edirne succession occurred between 19 August to 23 August. Under Mustafa, Istanbul had been out of control for a long time. As arrests and executions mounted, theft and robbery incidents became common. The people were dissatisfied with the poor governing of the Empire. Mustafa was deposed by the Janissaries and Ahmed, who succeeded him to the throne on 22 August 1703. The first Friday salute was held in Bayezid Mosque.
Fındıklılı Mehmed Ağa welcomed the new sultan at the Harem gate on the Hasoda side, entered the arm, brought him to the Cardigan-i Saadet Department and placed them on the throne, and were among the first to pay tribute to him.
As part of the fief system, Ahmed reorganized the land law in 1705. Bringing order to land ownership reduced the crime wave and brought peace to the troubled Empire. Due to his ardent support of the new laws, Ahmed was given the title 'law-giver', a title given to only three sultans earlier, Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512), Selim I (r. 1512–1520) and Suleiman I (r. 1520–1566). In the first three years of his reign, Ahmed appointed four separate Grand Viziers. However, the government only gained some stability after the appointment of Çorlulu Ali Pasha in May 1706.
Russo-Turkish War of 1710–1711.
Ahmed III cultivated good relations with France, doubtless in view of Russia's menacing attitude. He afforded refuge in Ottoman territory to Charles XII of Sweden (1682–1718) after the Swedish defeat at the hands of Peter I of Russia (1672–1725) in the Battle of Poltava of 1709. In 1710 Charles XII convinced Sultan Ahmed III to declare war against Russia, and the Ottoman forces under Baltacı Mehmet Pasha won a major victory at the Battle of Prut. In the aftermath, Russia returned Azov back to the Ottomans, agreed to demolish the fortress of Taganrog and others in the area, and to stop interfering in the affairs of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Forced against his will into war with Russia, Ahmed III came nearer than any Ottoman sovereign before or since to breaking the power of his northern rival, whose armies his grand vizier Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha succeeded in completely surrounding at the Pruth River Campaign in 1711. The subsequent Ottoman victories against Russia enabled the Ottoman Empire to advance to Moscow, had the Sultan wished. However, this was halted as a report reached Istanbul that the Safavids were invading the Ottoman Empire, causing a period of panic, turning the Sultan's attention away from Russia.
Wars with Venice and Austria.
On 9 December 1714, war was declared on Venice, an army under Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha's command managed to recover the whole Morea (Peloponnese) from Venice through coordinated operations of the army and navy.
This success alarmed Austria and in April 1716, Emperor Charles VI provoked the Porte into a declaration of war. The unsuccessful battle, also commanded by Silahdar Ali Pasha, ended with the Treaty of Passarowitz, signed on 21 July 1718, according to which Belgrade, Banat, and Wallachia were ceded to Austria. This failure was a disappointment for Ahmed as the treaty led to Istanbul's economy suffering from increased inflation.
Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha who was the second leading figure of the empire after Ahmed had joined the Morea campaign in 1715, and was appointed as the city of Nish's minister of finance the following year. This post helped him realize the downturn of the state's finances, which led him to avoid war as much as possible during his vizierate. Ibrahim Pasha's policy of peace suited Ahmed well since he had no wish to lead any military campaigns, in addition to the fact that his interest in art and culture made him reluctant to leave his Istanbul.
Character of Ahmed's rule.
While shooting competitions were held in Okmeydanı, Istanbul with the idea of increasing the morale of the soldiers and the people, a new warship was launched in Tersane-i Amire.
He tried three grand viziers at short intervals. Instead of Hasan Pasha, he appointed Kalaylikoz Ahmed Pasha on 24 September 1704, and Baltacı Mehmed Pasha on 25 December 1704.
In 1707, a conspiracy led by Eyüplü Ali Ağa was unearthed to bring the sultan off the throne. What resulted were that necks were ordered to be cut in front of the Bab-I-Hümayun.
Ahmed III left the finances of the Ottoman Empire in a flourishing condition, which had remarkably been obtained without excessive taxation or extortionate procedures. He was a cultivated patron of literature and art, and it was in his time that the first printing press was authorized to use either the Arabic or Turkish languages; it was set up in Istanbul, and operated by Ibrahim Muteferrika (while the printing press had been introduced to Constantinople in 1480, all published works before 1729 were in Greek, Armenian, or Hebrew).
It was in his reign that an important change in the government of the Danubian Principalities was introduced: previously, the Porte had appointed Hospodars, usually native Moldavian and Wallachian boyars, to administer those provinces; after the Russian campaign of 1711, during which Peter the Great found an ally in Moldavia Prince Dimitrie Cantemir, the Porte began overtly deputizing Phanariote Greeks in that region, and extended the system to Wallachia after Prince Stefan Cantacuzino established links with Prince Eugene of Savoy. The Phanariotes constituted a kind of "Dhimmi" nobility, which supplied the Porte with functionaries in many important departments of the state.
Foreign relations.
The ambassadors of Safavid Iran and the Archduchy of Austria were well received when they came from 1706 to 1707.
In the year 1712, the Mughal Emperor Jahandar Shah, a grandson of Aurangzeb, sent gifts to the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III and referred to himself as the Ottoman Sultan's devoted admirer.
The Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar, another grandson of Aurangzeb, is also known to have sent a letter to the Ottomans but this time it was received by the Grand Vizier Nevşehirli Damad Ibrahim Pasha. The letter provided a graphic description of the efforts of the Mughal commander Syed Hassan Ali Khan Barha fighting against the Rajput and Maratha rebellion.
Deposition.
Sultan Ahmed III had become unpopular by reason of the excessive pomp and costly luxury in which he and his principal officers indulged; on 20 September 1730, a mutinous riot of seventeen Janissaries, led by the Albanian Patrona Halil, was aided by the citizens as well as the military until it swelled into an insurrection, this consequently led the Sultan to give up his throne.
Ahmed voluntarily led his nephew Mahmud I (1730–1754) to the seat of sovereignty and paid allegiance to him as Sultan of the Empire. He then retired to the Kafes previously occupied by Mahmud and died at Topkapı Palace after six years of confinement.
Architecture.
Ahmed III commissioned the building of water claps, fountains, park waterfalls and three libraries, one inside the Topkapı Palace, with the famous lines "Ahmed was a master in the writings on plates" which have survived. The “Basmala” at the Topkapi Palace apartment door with its plates in the Üsküdar Yeni Mosque are among them.
A library was built by Ahmed in 1724–1725 situated next to the tomb entrance of Turhan Sultan, the structure has stone-brick alternate meshed walls, is square-shaped and covered with a flattened dome with an octagonal rim, which is provided with pendentives. There are original pen works left in the pendentives and dome of the library.
Disasters.
In 1714, an Egyptian galleon near the Gümrük (Eminönü) Pier caught fire and burned, which resulted in the deaths of 200 people.
While Nevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha continued his preparations for his return to Istanbul, a fire broke out in the city. The districts of Unkapanı, Azapkapı, Zeyrek, Fatih, Saraçhane, Horhor, Etmeydanı, Molla Gürani, Altımermer, Ayazma Gate, Kantarcılar, Vefa, Vez Neciler, Old Rooms, Acemioğlanlar Barracks, Çukur Çeşme, Langa, Davudpaşa were burned from the fire.
A large three-minute earthquake occurred on 14 May 1719. While the city walls of Istanbul were destroyed in the earthquake, 4,000 people died in Izmit and Yalova was destroyed. Reconstruction work followed after the quake ended in Istanbul. The most meaningful element to reflect the cultural aspect or weight of these works today is the Topkapı Palace Enderun Library, which was built in that year. A rich foundation was established for this institution, which is also known as the Sultan Ahmed-i Salis Library, which has a face-to-face with its architectural and valuable manuscripts.
Family.
Ahmed III is known to be the Sultan with the largest family (and harem) of the Ottoman dynasty. The hostess of his harem was Dilhayat Kalfa, known to be one of the greatest Turkish composeress of the early modern period.
Consorts.
Ahmed III had at least twenty-one consorts:
Sons.
Ahmed III had at least twenty-one sons, all buried, apart from the two who became Sultans, in the Yeni Cami:
Daughters.
Ahmed III had at least thirty-six daughters:
Death.
Ahmed lived in Kafes of the Topkapi Palace for six years following his deposition, where he fell ill and died on 1 July 1736. He was buried in his grandmother's tomb in Turhan Sultan Mausoleum in New Mosque, at Eminönü in Istanbul.
In fiction.
In Voltaire's "Candide", the eponymous main character meets the deposed Ahmed III on a ship from Venice to Constantinople. The Sultan is in the company of five other deposed European monarchs, and he tells Candide, who initially doubts his credentials:
I am not jesting, my name is Achmet III. For several years I was Sultan; I dethroned my brother; my nephew dethroned me; they