Why It Sucked to Be the Sultan Himself (in the Ottoman Empire)

Why did it suck to be the Sultan himself in the Ottoman Empire? You were thirteen when they woke you in the dark and sat you on a cold throne, with a whole court staring at you and one question in every head: what will you do with your little brother? From the outside, life on the Ottoman throne looked like bowls of gold, six minarets and a whole empire. Inside the Topkapi Palace it meant eating almost every meal alone, a court that talked in sign language around you, pages watching you sleep, and a fever in 1604 that nearly ended the dynasty with you. The Sultan you follow is real: Ahmed I, who ruled from 1603 to 1617 and built the mosque most visitors call the Blue Mosque. The stations of his life are recorded, many of them by Venetian envoys who wrote home almost every week. The moments in between, what you see, hear and feel, are dramatized. Where historians disagree, we say so below. YOUR LIFE, CHAPTER BY CHAPTER 00:00 Thirteen, and suddenly the Sultan 00:58 December 1603: the cold throne 02:22 An empire on fire 02:56 Your little brother 03:50 The brother who lives 04:26 A sword and an empty harem 04:49 Sending your grandmother away 06:44 The palace of silence 07:23 Dinner for one 09:21 The fever of 1604 11:12 Mahfiruz 11:38 An heir at last 12:35 Kosem 13:57 Hunting in the frozen hills 14:43 A mosque without a victory 16:02 A report about your brother 17:45 Why it really sucked to be the Sultan 18:26 The throne passes to your brother 19:30 The Blue Mosque today THE EVIDENCE Every line below is tagged. A HISTORIAN tag points to modern scholarship, EYEWITNESS to a person who saw it, CHRONICLE to an Ottoman-era account, and DEBATED to a point where the experts are split. The hurried accession, the boy who avoids the empty harem rooms, Safiye's departure, the circumcision a month later, the fever of Sultan and brother at the same time, the brother raised "like an innocent lamb". EYEWITNESS: the Venetian envoy Francesco Contarini, quoted in Gunhan Borekci, A Dynasty at the Threshold of Extinction, Divan 2009. Ahmed lets his brother Mustafa live, the first new Sultan to do so. HISTORIAN: Borekci 2009; Leslie Peirce, The Imperial Harem, 1993. The sword girding at Eyup, Safiye sent to the Old Palace. HISTORIAN: Mucteba Ilgurel, Ahmed I, and Abdulkadir Ozcan, Kilic Alayi, TDV Encyclopedia of Islam. Dinner alone, ten roasted pigeons in one bowl, mutes and jesters, the thrown loaf of bread, the sign language of the court. EYEWITNESS: Ottaviano Bon, A Description of the Grand Signour's Seraglio, English translation by Robert Withers, 1653. HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993. The winter hunts near Edirne, Nasuh Pasha watching from a corner of the tent. CHRONICLE: Mustafa Safi, via Tulay Artan, Ahmed I's Hunting Parties, in Starting with Food, 2011. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, six minarets, the Hippodrome site, the dome-closing celebration, the "unbeliever's mosque". HISTORIAN: Ahmet Vefa Cobanoglu, TDV Encyclopedia of Islam; Unver Rustem, Muqarnas 2016; Samet Budak, Muqarnas 2019. Kosem, the heir Osman in November 1604, the death in November 1617 and the throne passing to Mustafa. HISTORIAN: Ilgurel, Ahmed I and Kosem Sultan, TDV; Peirce 1993. Mahfiruz, mother of Osman II; the one-mother-one-son rule and its end under Ahmed. HISTORIAN: Peirce 1993. DEBATED: thirteen or fourteen at the accession; measles or smallpox in 1604; Mustafa's age; whether Ahmed twice ordered his brother's death (one Venetian report of 1612); the cause of Ahmed's death. STORIES WE CHOSE NOT TO TELL A royal food taster: none of the sources we read mentions one for Ahmed. The legend that the architect heard "six" when the Sultan said "gold" minarets: even the popular retellings call it folklore. Scenes from TV series about Kosem and Ahmed: dramatic, but not in the sources. YOUR TURN If you were thirteen, and your little brother's life was in your hands, what would you have done? Let us know below. ABOUT THIS CHANNEL Ottoman Days is an educational history channel about everyday lives in the past. Our videos explain history; they are not commentary on today's conflicts, politics or religious debates, and they take no side for or against any faith, nation or people today. Everything here is for educational purposes only and based on historical sources. #OttomanEmpire #OttomanHistory #Sultan #AhmedI #BlueMosque #Topkapi #Istanbul #OttomanSultan #Kosem #DailyLife #History #AnimatedHistory #HistoryFacts #Documentary #WhyItSucked