Ahmed III

Ahmed III احمد ثالث
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Caliph of Islam
File:Sultan ahmed III.jpeg
23rd Ottoman Sultan (Emperor)
Reign	August 22, 1703 – October 1, 1730
Predecessor	Mustafa II
Successor	Mahmud I
Born	December 1673
Died	1 July 1736 (aged 62) Istanbul
Consorts	Mihrişah Kadın Şermi Kadın
Full name Ahmed bin Mehmed
Dynasty	House of Osman
Father	Mehmed IV
Mother	Emetullah Rabia Gülnûş Sultan
Tughra

Ahmed III (Ottoman Turkish: احمد ثالث, Aḥmed-i sālis) (30/31 December 1673 – 1 July 1736) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of Sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648–87). His mother was Emetullah Rabia Gülnûş Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hajioglupazari, 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, Hatice Sultan (wife of the former) directed the government from 1718 to 1730, a period referred to as the Tulip Era.

Biography

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.

Sultan Ahmed III had become unpopular by reason of the excessive pomp and costly luxury in which he and his principal officers indulged; on September 20, 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 in front of which the Sultan was forced to give up the throne.

Ahmed voluntarily led his nephew Mahmud I (1730–54) 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.

Ahmed III's rule

Sultan Ahmed III receives French ambassador Vicomte d'Andrezel at Topkapı Palace.

French ambassador Marquis de Bonnac being received by Sultan Ahmed III.

Sultan Ahmed III at a reception, painted in 1720

The reign of Ahmed III lasted for twenty-seven years and was not unsuccessful. The recovery of Azov and the Morea, and the conquest of part of Persia, managed to counterbalance the Balkan territory ceded to the Habsburg Monarchy through the Treaty of Passarowitz, after the Ottoman Empire was defeated in Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18. In 1716, he sent an army of 33,000 men to capture Corfu from the Republic of Venice but that expedition eventually failed,

Ahmed III left the finances of the Ottoman Empire in a flourishing condition, which had remarkably been obtained without excessive taxation or extortion procedures. He was a cultivated patron of literature and art, and it was in his time that the first printing press authorized to use the Arabic or Turkish languages was set up in Istanbul, operated by Ibrahim Muteferrika (while the printing press had been introduced to Constantinople in 1480, all works published before 1729 were in Greek, Armenian, or Hebrew).

File:Levni 002 detail.jpg

A miniature of Sultan Ahmed III by Levni

It was in this 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 Eugene of Savoy. The Phanariotes constituted a kind of Dhimmi nobility, which supplied the Porte with functionaries in many important departments of the state.

Relations with the Mughal Empire

Jahandar Shah

In the year 1712, the Mughal Emperor Jahandar Shah, a grandson of Aurangzeb sent gifts to the Ottoman Sultan Ahmad III and referred to himself as the Ottoman Sultan's devoted admirer.

Farrukhsiyar

The Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar a 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 providing a graphic description of the efforts of the Mughal commander Syed Hassan Ali Khan Barha against the Rajput and Maratha rebellion.

Marriages and issue

Consorts

• Emetullah Kadın (d. 1732);
• Rukiye Kadın (d. 1738);
• Mihrişah Kadın, mother of Mustafa III;
• Hatice Kadın (d. 1712);
• Şahin Kadın (d. 1723);
• Şermi Kadın, mother of Abdul Hamid I;
• Muslihe Kadın (d. 1750);
• Zainab Kadın (d. 1757);
• Gülşen Kadın (d. 1731);
• Fatma Kadın (d. 1732);
• Ümmügülsüm Kadın (d. 1768);
• Hünüşah Kadin (d. 1733);
• Hürrem Kadın;
• Meyli Kadın;
• Nazife Kadın;
• Nijad Kadin;
• Hanife Kadın.

Sons

• Şehzade Mehmed (1 March 1697 – June 1703).
• Şehzade Ibrahim (1704 – bef. 1720).
• Şehzade Mehmed (25 November 1705 – 20 June 1706).
• Şehzade Murad (January 1706 – 5 April 1708).
• Şehzade Isa (23 February 1706 – 25 May 1706), son of Hurram Kadin Effendi.
• Şehzade Ali (18 June 1706 – 12 September 1706).
• Şehzade Selim (6 September 1707 – 4 May 1708), son of Hurram Kadin Effendi.
• Şehzade Murad (17 November 1707 – died young).
• Şehzade Murad (4 February 1708 – 1 April 1708).
• Şehzade Abdul Majid (12 December 1709 – 8 March 1710), twin with Abdul Malik.
• Şehzade Abdul Malik (12 December 1709 – 7 March 1711), twin with Abdul Majid.
• Şehzade Mustafa (born 1710 – died young).
• Şehzade Sultan Sulaiman Khan (25 August 1710 – 11 December 1732), son of Aminā (Emine) Mihrişah Effendi.
• Şehzade Mehmed (17 October 1712 – 15 July 1713), son of Hurram Kadin Effendi.
• Şehzade Selim (1712 – 11 July 1715).
• Şehzade Mahmud (17 October 1713 – 22 December 1756).
• Şehzade Selim (20 April 1715 – February 1718), twin with Saliha Sultan; son of Hatim Khanum Effendi.
• Şehzade .... (1 December 1715 – died young).
• Şehzade Sultan Mehmed Khan (1 January 1717 – murdered 22 December 1756), Crown Prince since 13 December 1754.
• Mustafa III (28 January 1717 – 21 January 1774), son of Aminā (Emine) Mihrişah Effendi.
• Şehzade Sultan Bayazid Khan (4 October 1718 – 25 January 1771), Crown Prince since 30 January 1757; son of Aminā (Emine) Mihr-î-Mâh Effendi.
• Şehzade Hasan.
• Şehzade Selim (6 December 1718 – died young).
• Şehzade .... (September 1719 – 12 December 1719).
• Şehzade Abdullah (18 December 1719 – 19 December 1719), son of Hurram Kadin Effendi.
• Şehzade Ibrahim (9 January 1721 – 5 April 1721).
• Şehzade Murad (born and died 4 April 1721).
• Şehzade .... (born and died 20 August 1722).
• Şehzade Orkhan (born 1722 – died young), son of Hurram Kadin Effendi.
• Şehzade Sultan Numan Khan (22 February 1723 – 29 December 1764), Second Crown Prince since 30 January 1757.
• Şehzade Abdul Majid (1723 – aft. 1774).
• Abdul Hamid I (20 March 1725 – 7 April 1789), son of Rabia Sharmi Effendi.
• Şehzade Saifuddin (3 February 1728 – 1732).
• Şehzade Ahmed (8 March 1728 – 1728).

Daughters

• Fatma Sultan (22 October 1704 – 3 January 1733), daughter of Emetullah Banu Bas Kadin Effendi. Married:
  • firstly 13 May 1709, H.H. Damad Fazil Ali Pasha, Grand Vizier 1713–1716.
  • secondly 18 February 1717, H.H. Damad Ibrahim Pasha, Grand Vizier.
• Aisha Sultan (1705–1706).
• Khadija Sultan (22 December 1706 – 21 January 1708), daughter of Rukiya Kadin Effendi.
• Rukiya Sultan (2 May 1707 – 4 May 1708).
• Zainab Sultan (7 February 1708 – 14 November 1708), twin with Ümmügülsüm Sultan; daughter of Aminā (Emine) Mihrişah Effendi.
• Ümmügülsüm Sultan (7 February 1708 – November 1732), twin with Zainab Sultan; daughter of Aminā (Emine) Mihrişah Effendi. Married:
  • firstly Damad Abdu-Rahman Pasha, 4th Vizier 1708.
  • secondly 6 January 1724 Damad Genc Ali Pasha, Vizier 1724.
• Zainab Sultan (5 January 1710 – 1 August 1710).
• Khadija Sultan (8 February 1710 – died young).
• Khadija Sultan (28 September 1710 – 1738). Married:
  • firstly 6 March 1724, Damad 'Ali Pasha.
  • secondly Damad Halil Agha.
• Atika Sultan (28 February 1712 – 1737). Married 6t January 1724 Damad Muhammad Pasha.
• Rukiya Sultan (7 March 1712 – 1 October 1714).
• Zainab Sultan (8 April 1714 – 25 March 1774), daughter of Rabia Sharmi Effendi; the Zeynep Sultan Mosque was built by her order. Married:
  • firstly 21 October 1727, Damad Mustafa Pasha.
  • secondly February 1765, Damad Malik Muhammad Pasha, Vizier 1753.
• Saliha Sultan (20 April 1715 – 11 October 1778), twin with Şehzade Selim; daughter of Hatim Khanum Effendi. Married:
  • firstly May 1728, Damad Sari Mustafa Pasha.
  • secondly 30 April 1740, Damad 'Ali Pasha, Vizier 1762.
  • thirdly December 1744, Damad Yahya Pasha, Vizier 1734.
  • fourthly 28 February 1757, Damad Khoja Muhammad Ragib Pasha, Vizier 1744.
  • fifthly May 1764, Admiral H.E. Damad Agha Muhammad Pasha, Vizier 1759.
• Aisha Sultan (11 October 1715 – 9 July 1775), daughter of Amina Mushalli Kadin Effendi. Married:
  • firstly 1733, H.H. Damad Muhammad Pasha, Grand Vizier.
  • secondly January 1744, Damad Ahmed Ratib Pasha, Vizier 1740.
  • thirdly 16 January 1759, Field Marshal H.H. Damad Muhammad Pasha Jahangiri, Master-General of the Ordnance, Governor of Bosnia 1767-1770; 1775-1776 and Egypt 1783-1785, Grand Vizier 1770-1771.
• Ferdana Sultan (1718 – died young).
• Umm us-Salima Sultan (born and died 26 December 1718).
• Umm us-Salima Sultan (born and died 1719).
• Nazifa Sultan (1719–1721).
• Rabia Sultan (19 November 1719 – 1721).
• Khadija Sultan (20 November 1719 – 1738). Married 1734, H.H. Damad Hafiz Ahmed Pasha.
• Raihana Sultan (born and died 12 December 1719).
• Baikhan Sultan (born and died 1720).
• Amina Sultan (1720–1723).
• Rukiya Sultan (born and died 30 January 1720).
• Ummatullah Sultan (23 December 1719 – 5 February 1720).
• Naila Sultan (1722 – 10 December 1726).
• Rabia Sultan (1722–1729).
• Ummatullah Sultan (17 September 1723 – 28 January 1724).
• Umm us-Salima Sultan (1725–1732).
• Musta Sultan (May 1725 – 29 December 1764).
• Esma Sultan (14 March 1726 – 13 August 1788), daughter of Zainab Kadin Effendi. Married:
  • firstly 19 February 1743, Damad Yakub Pasha, Master-General of the Ordnance 1731-1733, Vizier 1733.
  • secondly 1744, Damad Pir Mustafa Pasha.
  • thirdly 24 June 1758, Damad Muhammad Pasha.
• Sabiha Sultan (26 November 1726 – 3 December 1726).
• Rabia Sultan (4 August 1727 – 4 April 1728).
• Zubaida Sultan (29 March 1728 – 4 June 1756), daughter of Hatim Khanum Effendi. Married:
  • firstly 6 January 1748, Damad Sulaiman Pasha, Cdr. of the Adrianople Imperial Bodyguard.
  • secondly 16 December 1749, Damad Numan Pasha.
• Umm ul-Habiba Sultan (1729–1730).
• Akila Sultan (1730–1737).

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 cut off the heads of my viziers; I am ending my days in the old seraglio; my nephew, Sultan Mahmoud, sometimes allows me to travel for my health, and I have come to spend the Carnival at Venice." [1]

This episode was taken up by the modern Turkish writer Nedim Gürsel as the setting of his 2001 novel Le voyage de Candide à Istanbul.

In fact, there is no evidence of the deposed Sultan being allowed to make such foreign travels, nor did Voltaire (or Gürsel) assert that it had any actual historical foundation.

See also

• Fountain of Ahmed III
• Fountain of Ahmed III (Üsküdar)
• Ibrahim Muteferrika
• Esma Sultan, daughter of Ahmed III

Sources

• This article incorporates text from the History of Ottoman Turks (1878)
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons+

Works written by or about Ahmed III at Wikisource

Ahmed III House of Osman Born: December 30, 1673 Died: July 1, 1736[aged 62]
Regnal titles
Preceded by Mustafa II	Sultan of the Ottoman Empire August 22, 1703 – October 1 / 2, 1730	Succeeded by Mahmud I
Sunni Islam titles
Preceded by Mustafa II	Caliph of Islam August 22, 1703 – October 1 / 2, 1730	Succeeded by Mahmud I