16. Ottoman Sultan
Osman II
Genç Osman, the Young
- Reign
- 1618 – 1622
- Born
- 1604
- Died
- 1622
He tried to reform the military order; deposed and killed in a Janissary revolt. He was eighteen years old.
Sultan Genç Osman — Osman the Young — was born in Istanbul on 3 November 1604. His father was Ahmed I, his mother Mahfirûz Haseki Sultan.
At the age of fourteen, when his uncle Mustafa I was deposed, he ascended the Ottoman throne. His mother took great care over his upbringing. Genç Osman received a good education; he learned eastern and western languages — Arabic, Persian, Latin, Greek and Italian — well enough to translate from their classics. Very handsome, he was clever, energetic, enterprising, brave and bold.
Following the custom that had lasted until the time of Mehmed the Conqueror, Genç Osman married outside the palace: the daughters of Şeyhülislam Es'ad Efendi and of Pertev Pasha. Since the time of Selim I princes and sultans had not married outside the palace, so this was an important change.
He could not find a grand vizier who would carry out his plans. Deposed in a manner rarely seen in history and martyred by strangling in the dungeons of Yedikule, Genç Osman was buried in the tomb of his father Ahmed I beside the Sultanahmet Mosque.
Changing the senior officials among the men of state as soon as he came to the throne, and taking from the şeyhülislam the power to appoint professors and judges, Genç Osman was a highly reforming sultan.
- Sons: Ömer, Mustafa
- Daughter: Zeynep Sultan
Source: Osmanlı Tarihi Interaktif CD-ROM (Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları XXXI. Dizi-Sa.2)