Ahmed I

Sultan Ahmed I was born at Manisa on 18 April 1590. His father was Mehmed III, his mother Handan Sultan. He was well educated and had learned Arabic and Persian to perfection. A master of the arts of war and soldiery — archery, swordsmanship, horsemanship — Ahmed I was greatly devoted to hunting and to the game of jereed. He dressed very plainly. On the death of his father Mehmed III he girded the sword at Eyüp Sultan and came to the throne on 21 December 1603.

Ahmed I was the first sultan after Süleyman the Magnificent to occupy himself intensively with affairs of state. Even at an age when he was still a child he took excellent decisions. He was always in the company of great men of learning and understanding and consulted them.

The number fourteen holds an important place in his life: he became sultan at fourteen, reigned fourteen years, and was the fourteenth of the Ottoman sultans. A devout sultan, his attachment to the Prophet went so far that he wrote a poem within a drawing of the Prophet's footprints and carried that poem in his turban until he died. The poem runs:

"N'ola tâcim gibi başımda götürsem dâim
Kadem-i resmini ol Hazreti Şâh-i Resûlün
Gül-i gülzâri nübüvvet, o kadem sahibidir
Ahmeda durma yüzün sür kademine ol gülün"

Ahmed I could not recover from the typhus he contracted and died during the night of 21-22 November 1617, at the age of twenty-eight.

• Sons: Osman II, Murad IV, Sultan İbrahim, Bayezid, Süleyman, Kasım, Mehmed, Hasan, Selim, Hanzâde, Ubeyde
• Daughters: Gevherhan Sultan, Ayşe Sultan, Fatma Sultan, Atike Sultan

Source: Osmanlı Tarihi Interaktif CD-ROM (Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları XXXI. Dizi-Sa.2)