Mustafa III.

Sultan Mustafa III.

Mustafa III. ( January 28, 1717 - January 21, 1774 ) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1757 to 1774 . He was ready to reform in various areas without always being able to assert himself against opposing forces. After the severe earthquake in 1766/67, he did a lot for the reconstruction in Istanbul. After previous tensions, he declared war on Russia in 1768 , thus ending one of the longest periods of peace in Ottoman history. The war itself was catastrophic for the Ottoman Empire and severely weakened the Empire.

Life

He was one of the younger sons of Ahmed III. and the mother Mihrişah Kadın. Before he came to power, he lived isolated in the café of the Topkapı Palace and developed into a poet and scholar. Mustafa studied astrology , literature, medicine, but also Ottoman and Islamic history. He was also interested in religious arguments.

He succeeded Osman III. on the throne because his brother Mohammed, who was considered the future sultan, had died shortly before. When he took office, he was girded with the sword of Caliph Omar, demonstrating his special interest in law and justice.

Internal politics

Coin 1 piaster 1770 (1183AH) with the Tughra Sultan Mustafa III.

Since the Peace of Belgrade in 1739, the empire experienced an outwardly peaceful development. Still employed by his predecessor, Koca Mehmed Ragıp Pascha, as Grand Vizier, was the real shaper of politics. He maintained this position until his death in 1763. The coinage system was regulated, tax reforms started, grain stores laid out and the water supply in Istanbul improved. However, the financial reforms in particular proved to be inefficient. The desired administrative reforms could only be implemented in the capital. The provinces remained in the hands of the local Ayans (governors). The Grand Vizier had little interest in reforming the army, as he had to reckon with resistance from the janissaries, who were always restless .

In connection with the Seven Years' War, the Hohe Pforte concluded a friendship treaty with Prussia in 1761 . The Sultan sent Ahmed İbrahim Resmî to Prussia to study the reforms there. The grand vizier even pleaded for an alliance, but was unable to prevail against the sultan and influential ulama .

After the grand vizier's death in 1763, Mustafa III took over. even the rule. In the following time he appointed numerous grand viziers and mostly dismissed them again soon.

Laleli mosque

He had a new suburb built near Istanbul. Since 1759 he had the Laleli Mosque built. During his reign, four severe earthquakes destroyed large parts of the capital in 1766 and 1767. He also made parts of his private fortune available for the reconstruction. He had the Fatih Mosque and the Eyup Sultan Mosque restored. He also took up the ultimately unrealized plan of a canal between the Gulf of İznik and the Black Sea . The same applies to the construction of a Suez Canal between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean .

War with russia

Destruction of the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Cesme (historical painting by Iwan Aivazovsky (1881))

From 1762, tensions between the Ottoman Empire and Russia increased. They were sparked by the offensive Russian policy in Poland and the Crimea . The sultan himself was ready for war. Russian diplomacy and the rejection of war by some ulama initially prevented this. That changed when Mustafa III. In 1768 he was able to obtain a fatwa for a war against Russia from an eminent scholar .

This marked the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War from 1768 to 1774 . The sultan hoped for a victory. However, it soon became apparent that the Ottoman army was completely unprepared for a lengthy war. The war on land therefore quickly developed to the disadvantage of the Ottomans. The sultan had one of the unsuccessful grand viziers executed. A Russian fleet also operated successfully in the Mediterranean. The Ottoman fleet suffered a devastating defeat in the 1770 naval battle of Çeşme . On land, the Russians conquered the entire Crimean peninsula. The Ottomans could only hold out in Ochakiv and Kilburnu . Today's Romania and parts of today's Bulgaria were also occupied by the Russians.

In Istanbul, various European embassies from Austria and Prussia, for example, tried to mediate between the warring parties. An armistice was signed in June 1772. Initial peace negotiations did not lead to any result. The armistice was extended and new peace negotiations took place in Bucharest in November . Negotiations were broken off in March. In Istanbul the ulama in particular resisted the harsh Russian peace conditions.

The war continued in 1773 with varying successes on land for both sides. In connection with an uprising in Egypt against Ottoman rule, a Russian fleet bombed Beirut . The Sultan wanted to join the troops himself in the summer of 1774. His environment opposed this and an illness prevented this.

Military reforms

Given the experience with the Russian army and fleet, Mustafa III tried. introduce some changes in the military during the war with the help of Baron de Tott. In particular, this French expert reformed the artillery. This marked the beginning of the conscious attempt to learn from the European states. The Sultan reopened the Naval Engineering School in 1773 after it had been closed in 1747 under the pressure of the Janissaries. Also in 1773 he founded a school for mathematicians in the navy. But the changes were not far-reaching enough to compensate for the clear military inferiority vis-à-vis the Russians. The military organization was so bad that at times there were mass desertions.

Succession

After two sultans without offspring, he had eight daughters and two sons. He placed great hopes in his son, who later became Selim III. whom he had carefully trained.

He died before the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca could be concluded. This step took place under his successor Abdülhamid I. In the end, he left an empire with great economic and administrative problems. The economic growth of the past sixty years has stalled and the occupation of territories by the Russians severely diminished the authority of the central government.

literature

• JH Kramers: Mustafa III. In: EJ Brill: First encyclopaedia of Islam . Volume VI. 1927 (reprint: Leiden 1993), p. 761 f.
• Hans-Jürgen Kornrumpf: Mustafa III. In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Vol. 3. Munich 1979, p. 268 f.
• Mustafa III. In: Selçuk Akşin Somel: The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire . Lanham, 2006, p. 203
• Kahraman Şakul: Mustafa III. In: Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire . Facts On File, New York 2009 ( Modern World History Online )

Web links

• Mustafa III. In: Encyclopædia Britannica

predecessor	Office	successor
Osman III	Sultan and Caliph of the Ottoman Empire 1757–1774	Abdülhamid I.