Selim III

Sultan Selim III was born in Istanbul on 24 December 1761. His father was Sultan Mustafa III, his mother Mihrişah Sultan. His father, who believed in soothsayers, was overjoyed when they told him that his newborn son Selim would become a world-conqueror without equal, and ordered seven days and seven nights of festivity.

Selim III grew up in the atmosphere created on the day of his birth and was very finely raised in the palace. Mustafa III had wanted his son Selim to become sultan after him; but after his father it was his uncle Abdul Hamid I who was brought to the throne. Abdul Hamid I kept Selim under his eye in the palace, yet still gave importance to his education. On the death of his uncle, Selim III ascended the Ottoman throne on 7 April 1789, at the age of twenty-eight.

Selim III was greatly devoted to literature and to fine writing. Some of the calligraphic panels he produced hang in mosques and tombs. He spoke Arabic and Persian very well. A merciful man, he was brought up with a serious education. He was a good poet, a player of the tanbur and the ney, and a singer. A composer as well, Selim III was devoted to the fine arts and open-minded, but soft in character to the point of weakness, and he wished to see Westernism established in the Ottoman state.

When Selim III came to the throne the people fastened great hopes on him. They thought the young ruler would bring the Ottoman state back to its old powerful and splendid days.

After surrendering the Ottoman sultanate to Prince Mustafa on 29 May 1807, Selim III lived a further year and two months. During the affair of Alemdar Mustafa Pasha he was killed on 28 July 1808 by men of the new sultan. He was buried in the courtyard of the Laleli Mosque beside his father Mustafa III.

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