15. Ottoman Sultan
Mustafa I
- Reign
- 1617 – 1618 · 1622 – 1623
- Born
- 1592
- Died
- 1639
Twice raised to the throne and twice deposed. Both reigns were short and marked by palace rivalries.
Sultan Mustafa I was born at Manisa in 1592. His father was Mehmed III, his mother Handan Sultan. He was a handsome sultan, thinly bearded, sallow-complexioned and large-eyed. He held the sultanate twice. He was of a nervous disposition.
Throughout the reign of his elder brother Ahmed I, Mustafa lived for fourteen years confined to a room in the palace. In that age this was thought necessary; otherwise princes meddled in the government of the state, might even move to depose the sultan, and the unity of the state was endangered. To prevent this, princes were either "removed" or shut in a room. Ahmed I did not have his brother killed when he came to the throne, but kept him confined in the palace. At the end of this so-called cage life Mustafa I was raised to the throne as the eldest male of the Ottoman house — but, since his unbalanced behaviour soon showed itself, he was deposed by the agreement of the scholars, the army and the men of state. After Sultan Genç Osman was deposed and killed, Mustafa acceded once more, but a year and a half later had to be deposed again on account of his mental instability.
With Mustafa I fratricide became rare, and princes now waited in the cage within the palace for the day they would come to the throne. Naturally, rivalries began among the valide sultans, the mothers of the princes, each leaning on a vizier and other groups and trying by intrigue to change the sultan.
Mustafa I was a devout man. He greatly loved to give alms; he would even throw coins into the palace pool for the servants to gather. He passed his life in the palace in worship and in reading religious works. When he was invited a second time to take the throne, he sent word that he was reading the Qur'an in his room and did not want the sultanate.
A year and a half after his second reign began, Mustafa I was deposed again on 10 September 1623 by a fatwa of the şeyhülislam. The stated ground was that "one whose mental balance is not sound cannot be caliph." Sixteen years after his deposition, on 20 January 1639, he died of a nervous illness in the Topkapı Palace.
Source: Osmanlı Tarihi Interaktif CD-ROM (Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları XXXI. Dizi-Sa.2)