Ahmed I

Introduction
Ahmed I  was born on 18 April,1590 to Sultan Mehmed III. He was the 14th
sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1603 to his death in 1617. Ahmed's reign is
noteworthy for marking the first breach in the Ottoman tradition of
royal fratricide; henceforth, Ottoman rulers would no longer systematically
execute their brothers upon accession to the throne. He is also well known for
his construction of the Blue Mosque, one of the most famous mosques in
Turkey.

Early Life
Ahmed was probably born in 18 April 1590 at the Manisa Palace, Manisa, when
his father Şehzade Mehmed was still a prince and the governor of the Sanjak of
Manisa. His mother was Handan Sultan. After his grandfather Murad III's death
in 1595, his father came to Constantinople and ascended the throne as
Sultan Mehmed III. Mehmed ordered the execution of his nineteen half
brothers. Ahmed's elder brother Şehzade Mahmud was also executed by his
father Mehmed on 7 June 1603, just before Mehmed's own death on 22
December 1603. Mahmud was buried along with his mother in a separate
mausoleum built by Ahmed in Şehzade Mosque, Constantinople.

Riegn
Ahmed ascended the throne after his father's death in 1603, at the age of
thirteen, when his powerful grandmother Safiye Sultan was still alive. With his
accession to the throne, the power struggle in the harem flared up; Between
his mother Handan Sultan and his grandmother Safiye Sultan, who in the
previous reign had absolute power within the walls (behind the throne), in the
end, with the support of Ahmed, the fight ended in favor of his mother, because
his grandmother was too powerful and corrupt. A far lost uncle of
Ahmed, Yahya, resented his accession to the throne and spent his life
scheming to become Sultan. Ahmed broke with the traditional fratricide
following previous enthronements and did not order the execution of his
brother Mustafa. Instead, Mustafa was sent to live at the old palace at Bayezit
along with their grandmother, Safiye Sultan. This was most likely due to
Ahmed's young age - he had not yet demonstrated his ability to sire children,
and Mustafa was then the only other candidate for the Ottoman throne. His
brother's execution would have endangered the dynasty, and thus he was
spared.[2]
His mother tried to interfere in his affairs and influence his decision, especially
she wanted to control his communication and movements. In the earlier part of
his reign, Ahmed I showed decision and vigor, which were belied by his
subsequent conduct.[citation needed] The wars in Hungary and Persia, which
attended his accession, terminated unfavourably for the empire. Its prestige
was further tarnished in the Treaty of Zsitvatorok, signed in 1606, whereby the
annual tribute paid by Austria was abolished. Following the crushing defeat in
the Ottoman–Safavid War (1603–18) against the neighbouring rivals Safavid
Empire, led by Shah Abbas the Great, Georgia, Azerbaijan and other vast
territories in the Caucasus were ceded back to Persia per the Treaty of Nasuh
Pasha in 1612, territories that had been temporarily conquered in the Ottoman–
Safavid War (1578–90). The new borders were drawn per the same line as
confirmed in the Peace of Amasya of 1555.

Relations with Morrocco

During his reign the ruler of Morocco was Mulay Zidan whose father and
predecessor Ahmad al-Mansur had paid a tribute of vassalage as a vassal of
the Ottomans until his death. The Saadi civil wars had interrupted this tribute
of vassalage, but Mulay Zidan proposed to submit to it in order to protect
himself from Algiers, and so he resumed paying the tribute to the Ottomans.

Ottoman-Safavid war
The Ottoman–Safavid War had begun shortly before the death of Ahmed's father
Mehmed III. Upon ascending the throne, Ahmed I appointed Cigalazade Yusuf
Sinan Pasha as the commander of the eastern army. The army marched from
Constantinople on 15 June 1604, which was too late, and by the time it had
arrived on the eastern front on 8 November 1604, the Safavid army had
captured Yerevan and entered the Kars Eyalet, and could only be stopped
in Akhaltsikhe.
Despite the conditions being favourable, Sinan Pasha decided to stay for the
winter in Van, but then marched to Erzurum to stop an incoming Safavid
attack. This caused unrest within the army and the year was practically
wasted for the Ottomans.In 1605, Sinan Pasha marched to take Tabriz, but the
army was undermined by Köse Sefer Pasha, the Beylerbey of Erzurum,
marching independently from Sinan Pasha and consequently being taken
prisoner by the Safavids. The Ottoman army was routed at Urmia and had to
flee firstly to Van and then to Diyarbekir. Here, Sinan Pasha sparked a rebellion
by executing the Beylerbey of Aleppo, Canbulatoğlu Hüseyin Pasha, who had
come to provide help, upon the pretext that he had arrived too late. He soon
died himself and the Safavid army was able to
capture Ganja, Shirvan and Shamakhi in Azerbaijan.
The new Grand Vizier, Nasuh Pasha, did not want to fight with the Safavids.
The Safavid Shah also sent a letter saying that he was willing to sign a peace
treaty, with which he would have to send 200 loads of silk every year to
Constantinople. On 20 November 1612, the Treaty of Nasuh Pasha was signed,
which ceded all the lands the Ottoman Empire had gained in the war of 1578–
90 back to Persia and reinstated the 1555 boundaries.
However, the peace ended in 1615 when the Shah did not send the 200 loads of
silk. On 22 May 1615, Grand Vizier Öküz Mehmed Pasha was assigned to
organize an attack on Persia. Mehmed Pasha delayed the attack till the next
year, until when the Safavids made their preparations and attacked Ganja. In
April 1616, Mehmed Pasha left Aleppo with a large army and marched to
Yerevan, where he failed to take the city and withdrew to Erzurum. He was
removed from his post and replaced by Damat Halil Pasha. Halil Pasha went for
the winter to Diyarbekir, while the Khan of Crimea, Canibek Giray, attacked the
areas of Ganja, Nakhichevan and Julfa.

War with the Habsburgs

The Long Turkish War between the Ottomans and the Habsburg monarchy had
been going on for over a decade by the time Ahmed ascended the throne.
Grand Vizier Malkoç Ali Pasha marched to the western front from
Constantinople on 3 June 1604 and arrived in Belgrade, but died there,
so Sokolluzade Lala Mehmed Pasha was appointed as the Grand Vizier and the
commander of the western army. Under Mehmed Pasha, the western army
recaptured Pest and Vác, but failed to capture Esztergom as the siege was
lifted due to unfavourable weather and the objections of the soldiers.
Meanwhile, the Prince of Transylvania, Stephen Bocskay, who struggled for the
region's independence and had formerly supported the Habsburgs, sent a
messenger to the Porte asking for help. Upon the promise of help, his forces
also joined the Ottoman forces in Belgrade. With this help, the Ottoman army
besieged Esztergom and captured it on 4 November 1605. Bocskai, with
Ottoman help, captured Nové Zámky (Uyvar) and forces under Tiryaki Hasan
Pasha took Veszprém and Palota. Sarhoş İbrahim Pasha, the Beylerbey
of Nagykanizsa (Kanije), attacked the Austrian region of Istria.
However, with Jelali revolts in Anatolia more dangerous than ever and a defeat
in the eastern front, Mehmed Pasha was called to Constantinople. Mehmed
Pasha suddenly died there, whilst preparing to leave for the east. Kuyucu
Murad Pasha then negotiated the Peace of Zsitvatorok, which abolished the
tribute of 30,000 ducats paid by Austria and addressed the Habsburg emperor
as the equal of the Ottoman sultan. The Jelali revolts were a strong factor in
the Ottomans' acceptance of the terms. This signaled the end of Ottoman
growth in Europe.

Jelali Revolts
Resentment over the war with the Habsburgs and heavy taxation, along with
the weakness of the Ottoman military response, combined to make the reign of
Ahmed I the zenith of the Jelali revolts. Tavil Ahmed launched a revolt soon
after the coronation of Ahmed I and defeated Nasuh Pasha and the Beylerbey
of Anatolia, Kecdehan Ali Pasha. In 1605, Tavil Ahmed was offered the position
of the Beylerbey of Shahrizor to stop his rebellion, but soon afterwards he went
on to capture Harput. His son, Mehmed, obtained the governorship
of Baghdad with a fake firman and defeated the forces of Nasuh Pasha sent to
defeat him.
Meanwhile, Canbulatoğlu Ali Pasha united his forces with
the Druze Sheikh Ma'noğlu Fahreddin to defeat the Amir of Tripoli Seyfoğlu
Yusuf. He went on to take control of the Adana area, forming an army and
issuing coins. His forces routed the army of the newly appointed Beylerbey of
Aleppo, Hüseyin Pasha. Grand Vizier Boşnak Dervish Mehmed Pasha was
executed for the weakness he showed against the Jelalis. He was replaced by
Kuyucu Murad Pasha, who marched to Syria with his forces to defeat the
30,000-strong rebel army with great difficulty, albeit with a decisive result, on
24 October 1607. Meanwhile, he pretended to forgive the rebels in Anatolia and
appointed the rebel Kalenderoğlu, who was active in Manisa and Bursa, as
the sanjakbey of Ankara. Baghdad was recaptured in 1607 as well.
Canbulatoğlu Ali Pasha fled to Constantinople and asked for forgiveness from
Ahmed I, who appointed him to Timișoara and later Belgrade, but then
executed him due to his misrule there. Meanwhile, Kalenderoğlu was not
allowed in the city by the people of Ankara and rebelled again, only to be
crushed by Murad Pasha's forces. Kalenderoğlu ended up fleeing to Persia.
Murad Pasha then suppressed some smaller revolts in Central Anatolia and
suppressed other Jelali chiefs by inviting them to join the army.
Due to the widespread violence of the Jelali revolts, a great number of people
had fled their villages and a lot of villages were destroyed. Some military chiefs
had claimed these abandoned villages as their property. This deprived the
Porte of tax income and on 30 September 1609, Ahmed I issued a letter
guaranteeing the rights of the villagers. He then worked on the resettlement of
abandoned villages.

Capitulations and trade treaties

Ahmed I renewed trade treaties with England, France and Venice. In July 1612,
the first ever trade treaty with the Dutch Republic was signed. He expanded
the capitulations given to France, specifying that merchants
from Spain, Ragusa, Genoa, Ancona and Florence could trade under the French
flag.

Architecture and services to Islam

Sultan Ahmed constructed the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the magnum opus of the
Ottoman architecture, across from the Hagia Sophia. The sultan attended the
breaking of the ground with a golden pickaxe to begin the construction of the
mosque complex. An incident nearly broke out after the sultan discovered that
the Blue Mosque contained the same number of minarets as the grand mosque
of Mecca. Ahmed became furious at this fault and became remorseful until the
Shaykh-ul-Islam recommended that he should erect another minaret at the
grand mosque of Mecca and the matter was solved.
Ahmed became delightedly involved in the eleventh comprehensive
renovations of the Kaaba, which had just been damaged by flooding. He sent
craftsmen from Constantinople, and the golden rain gutter that kept rain from
collecting on the roof of the Ka’ba was successfully renewed. It was again
during the era of Sultan Ahmed that an iron web was placed inside the Zamzam
Well in Mecca. The placement of this web about three feet below the water
level was a response to lunatics who jumped into the well, imagining a promise
of a heroic death.
In Medina, the city of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a new pulpit made of
white marble and shipped from Istanbul arrived in the mosque of Muhammad
and substituted the old, worn-out pulpit. It is also known that Sultan Ahmed
erected two more mosques in Uskudar on the Asian side of Istanbul; however,
neither of them has survived.
The sultan had a crest carved with the footprint of Muhammad that he would
wear on Fridays and festive days and illustrated one of the most significant
examples of affection to Muhammad in Ottoman history. Engraved inside the
crest was a poem he composed:
“If only could I bear over my head like my turban forever thee, If only
I could carry it all the time with me, on my head like a crown, the
Footprint of the Prophet Muhammad, which has a beautiful
complexion, Ahmed, go on, rub your face on the feet of that rose.“

Character
Sultan Ahmed was known for his skills in fencing, poetry, horseback riding, and
fluency in several languages.
Ahmed was a poet who wrote a number of political and lyrical works under the
name Bahti. Ahmed patronized scholars, calligraphers, and pious men. Hence,
he commissioned a book entitled The Quintessence of Histories to be worked
upon by calligraphers. He also attempted to enforce conformance to Islamic
laws and traditions, restoring the old regulations that prohibited alcohol, and
he attempted to enforce attendance at Friday prayers and paying alms to the
poor in the proper way.
Death
Ahmed I died of typhus and gastric bleeding on 22 November 1617 at
the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul. He was buried in Ahmed I Mausoleum, Sultan
Ahmed Mosque. He was succeeded by his younger half-
brother Şehzade Mustafa as Sultan Mustafa I. Later three of Ahmed's sons
ascended to the throne: Osman II (r. 1618–22), Murad IV (r. 1623–40)
and Ibrahim (r. 1640–48).