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MURAD IV
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See also:MURAD IV . (1611-1640) was the son of See also:Sultan Ahmed I., and succeeded his See also:uncle Mustafa I. in 1623. For the first nine years of his reign his youth prevented him from taking more than an observer's See also:part in affairs. But the lessons thus learnt were sufficiently striking to See also:mould his whole See also:character and policy. The minority of the sultan gave full See also:play to the anarchic elements in the See also:state; the soldiery, See also:spahis and See also:janissaries, conscious of their See also:power and reckless through impunity, See also:rose in revolt whenever the whim seized them, demanding privileges and the heads of those who displeased them, not sparing even the sultan's favourites. In 1631 the spahis of See also:Asia See also:Minor rose in revolt, in protest against the deposition of the See also:grand See also:vizier Khosrev; their representatives crowded to See also:Constantinople, stoned the new grand vizier, See also:Hafiz, in the See also:court of the See also:palace, and pursued the sultan himself into the inner apartments, clamouring for seventeen heads of his advisers and favourites, on See also:penalty of his own deposition. Hafiz was surrendered, a voluntary See also:martyr; other ministers were deposed; Mustafa See also:Pasha, See also:aga of the janissaries, was saved by his own troops. But Murad was now beginning to assert himself. Khosrev was executed in Asia Minor by his orders; a See also:plot of the spahis to depose him was frustrated by the See also:loyalty of Koes Mahommed, aga of the janissaries, and of the spahi See also:Rum Mahommed (Mahommed the See also:Greek); and on the 29th of May 1632, by a successful See also:personal See also:appeal to the loyalty of the janissaries, Murad crushed the rebels, whom he surrounded in the See also:Hippodrome. At the See also:age of twenty he found himself possessed of effective autocratic power. His severity has remained legendary. See also:Death was the penalty for the least offence, and no past services—as Koes Mahommed was to find to his cost—were admitted in extenuation. The use of See also:tobacco, See also:coffee, See also:opium and See also:wine were forbidden on See also:pain of death; eighteen persons are said to have been put to death in a single See also:day for infringing this See also:rule. During his whole reign, indeed, supposed offenders against the sultan's authority were done to death, singly or in thousands. The See also:tale of his victims is said to have exceeded roo,000. But if he was the most cruel, Murad was also one of the most manly, of the later sultans. He was of gigantic strength, which he maintained by See also:constant See also:physical exercises. He was also fond of See also:hunting, and for this See also:reason usually lived at See also:Adrianople. He See also:broke through the alleged tradition, bequeathed by See also:Suleiman the Magnificent to his successors, that the sultan should not command the troops in See also:person, and took command in the See also:Persian See also:war which led to the See also:capture of See also:Bagdad (1638) and the conclusion of an See also:honourable See also:peace (May 7, 1639). See also:Early in 1640 he died, barely twenty-nine years of age. The cause of his death was acute See also:gout brought on by excessive drinking. In spite of his See also:drunkenness, however, Murad was a bigoted Sunni, and the See also:main cause of his See also:campaign against See also:Persia was his See also:desire to extirpate the Shia See also:heresy. In the intervals of his campaignings and cruelties the sultan would amuse his entourage by exhibiting feats of strength, or compose verses, some of which were published under the See also:pseudonym of Muradi. See, for details of the lives of the above, J. von See also:Hammer-Purgstall, Geschichte See also:des osmanischen Reiches (Pest, 1840), where further authorities are cited. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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