Murad IV

Sultan Murad IV was born in Istanbul on 26 July 1612. His father was Ahmed I, his mother Mahpeyker Kösem Sultan. Murad IV was a tall, heavily built, round-faced and imposing sultan who entered history as one of the most powerful of Ottoman rulers. He was extremely intelligent, bold, brave, strong and energetic.

He was very good at the jereed and the bow, and showed that strength in the battles he joined. He showed respect to men of religion and addressed Şeyhülislam Yahya Efendi as "Father". He banned alcohol and tobacco and imposed a night curfew. He knew Arabic and western languages very well. He greatly loved learning and men of learning, went to scholarly gatherings whenever he could and encouraged new work. Among the notable events of his reign was the flight of Hezarfen Ahmed Çelebi, who fitted himself with wings and flew from the Galata Tower to Üsküdar.

Murad IV watched what went on around him closely and never hesitated to use his initiative. Though in the first years of his rule he remained under his mother's influence, he later put an end to the sultanate of women and punished treacherous and deceitful grand viziers severely. He followed the country's problems closely and worked to produce solutions. After seventeen years of rule he died at only twenty-eight.

His reign may be divided into two phases. Since he came to the throne at only eleven, affairs of state ran largely in the hands of his mother Kösem Sultan. The viziers around her had Hafız Ahmed Pasha torn apart by the soldiery before his eyes, striking the young sultan with terror. Order and peace vanished from the Ottoman lands, and strong-arm men seized the cities. Only when, in his youth, he took the government into his own hands did Murad IV cow all those men — partly by violence — and restore the authority of the state. Using the tobacco ban as a pretext, he brought under control the idle and lawless crowd that gathered in the coffee houses, and by severe punishments and even executions was able to re-establish administrative and judicial order.

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