1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:17,960 Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky Listener discretion advised. On the 3 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:23,200 Speaker 1: twenty second of December sixteen o three, the Ottoman Imperial 4 00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:28,120 Speaker 1: Council assembled for an ordinary administrative meeting in the capital 5 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:33,960 Speaker 1: of Istanbul. The Sultan's Grand Vizier, a man named Kassim Pasha, 6 00:00:34,479 --> 00:00:39,720 Speaker 1: oversaw these regular meetings, directing the official business and foreign 7 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:43,560 Speaker 1: policy of an empire which reigned as far as Mecca 8 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:49,120 Speaker 1: and Algier's Budapest and Cairo. There was really no other 9 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: imperial competitor putting up much of a threat. The Habsburgs 10 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:57,560 Speaker 1: remained far to the north, The Safavids in Persia were 11 00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:00,920 Speaker 1: captain Czech for now and and while there may have 12 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,000 Speaker 1: been a rebellion or two among the ranks of the 13 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:08,720 Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire's peasant fighters, the Imperial Council had their own 14 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:14,760 Speaker 1: means of brutally ruthlessly disbanding them. To the Grand Vizier, 15 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:19,479 Speaker 1: God seemed to cast his divine light upon the Ottomans. 16 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:24,399 Speaker 1: Just as Kasim Pasha set the meeting in motion, a 17 00:01:24,520 --> 00:01:27,919 Speaker 1: royal secretary from the inner courtyard of the took copy 18 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,720 Speaker 1: palace burst into the room, still gasping for breath. All 19 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:35,840 Speaker 1: the servant could do was point toward the letter he 20 00:01:35,959 --> 00:01:39,160 Speaker 1: was holding in his hand, a letter that seemed to 21 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:44,040 Speaker 1: come from the Sultan himself. Kasimpasha snatched the letter from 22 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:47,920 Speaker 1: the servant's hands and began reading, but he could barely 23 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,400 Speaker 1: make out any of the words. Was this a joke, 24 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:55,680 Speaker 1: certainly not. It had all of the markings of an 25 00:01:55,720 --> 00:02:01,000 Speaker 1: official royal correspondence. All the vizier could read with certainty 26 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:07,000 Speaker 1: was the word babam my father had the Sultan gone mad? 27 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:13,239 Speaker 1: His father had died eight years ago. Frustrated with the letter, 28 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:17,280 Speaker 1: Kasim Pasha passed it to a senior secretary of the 29 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:22,160 Speaker 1: Imperial Council, who finally was able to divine meaning from 30 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:27,520 Speaker 1: the chicken scratch. It read, you, Cassim Pasha, my father 31 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:30,520 Speaker 1: is gone by God's will, and I have taken my 32 00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:34,200 Speaker 1: seat on the throne. You had better keep the city 33 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: in good order. Should sedition arise, I will behead you. 34 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 1: Maybe God's divine light had missed this part of the palace. 35 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:50,920 Speaker 1: Kasim Pasha had only ever been a loyal adviser and 36 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: administrator to Sultan Mehmed. Why would Sultan Mehmed test him 37 00:02:56,280 --> 00:03:02,040 Speaker 1: like this, sending him such a strange message. Kasimpasha immediately 38 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: wrote the Chief Eunuch of the Imperial Harem, one of 39 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:09,720 Speaker 1: the highest offices of the Palace, for his take on 40 00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 1: the strange letter. All he got in response was a 41 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:18,359 Speaker 1: solemn decree come to the audience hall of the Sultan. 42 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:25,480 Speaker 1: Immediately as the vizier walked through the inner chamber, everything 43 00:03:25,639 --> 00:03:30,359 Speaker 1: began to make sense. Sitting upon the throne was not 44 00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:35,440 Speaker 1: Sultan Mehmed but his son, a thirteen year old boy 45 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:41,640 Speaker 1: named Ahmed. What stunned kasim Pasha the whole city, in fact, 46 00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: wasn't just that the youngest sultan to ever reign had 47 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:51,320 Speaker 1: seized the throne, but more astonishingly, that so much had 48 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:57,119 Speaker 1: been kept secret, Sultan Mehmed's illness, his death, his intention 49 00:03:57,320 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: that his son Ahmed should come to the throne without 50 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:05,040 Speaker 1: any bloodshed at all. Even the Imperial Council hadn't known 51 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:10,640 Speaker 1: about any of it. Kasimpasha ordered a hasty enthronement ceremony 52 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:14,560 Speaker 1: to be conducted within the palace. The new Sultan's throne 53 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:18,880 Speaker 1: was erected before a lavish gait. The royal clerics and 54 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:23,640 Speaker 1: advisers assembled for an oath swearing, But the entire time 55 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:29,360 Speaker 1: everyone kept glancing at the young sultan's only other brother, 56 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:34,599 Speaker 1: his half brother really, and only a child himself, a 57 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:39,200 Speaker 1: boy named Mustafa Kasim Pasha, and the rest of the 58 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:46,040 Speaker 1: palace likely expected that Ahmed becoming sultan meant death for Mustafa. 59 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:49,159 Speaker 1: Even though Mustafa at this point may have been no 60 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:52,919 Speaker 1: older than four years old, no one in the city 61 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:57,320 Speaker 1: could have forgotten the former sultan's barbaric slaughter of his 62 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:01,640 Speaker 1: own brothers as a way of securing the dynasty. Why 63 00:05:01,680 --> 00:05:05,799 Speaker 1: wouldn't Mehmed's son Ahmed kill his own brother, the boy 64 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:10,760 Speaker 1: who might one day usurp his throne. Many noble blood 65 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:15,920 Speaker 1: episodes begin with a murder, an assassination, may be a poisoning. 66 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:21,839 Speaker 1: This episode is about an act of mercy. Mustafa was 67 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:26,200 Speaker 1: technically spared, but what does it mean to be spared 68 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:29,279 Speaker 1: when the rest of your life is written by others. 69 00:05:29,960 --> 00:05:34,040 Speaker 1: Mustafa is rarely mentioned in scholarship on the Ottoman Empire, 70 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:37,680 Speaker 1: yet there are few other lives of the period that 71 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:42,719 Speaker 1: show so plainly that even future Ottoman sultans could not 72 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:47,919 Speaker 1: master their own circumstances. Because Mustafa would go on to 73 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:51,560 Speaker 1: become sultan, although he could not have known that that 74 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:56,240 Speaker 1: day as a child watching his half brother's enthronement ceremony. 75 00:05:56,880 --> 00:05:59,480 Speaker 1: If that was to be a day of glory for 76 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:03,640 Speaker 1: the Odduennce Empire, it was a glory that Mustapha would 77 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:09,280 Speaker 1: never truly be able to baskin dead or alive. I'm 78 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: Danish schwartz, and this is noble blood. According to a 79 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:27,440 Speaker 1: long standing tradition, officially codified in fourteen fifty one, Ottoman 80 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:30,880 Speaker 1: princes were expected to battle one another for the throne 81 00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:34,640 Speaker 1: upon the death of their father, the Sultan. In the 82 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:37,880 Speaker 1: eyes of the court and the public, these were tests 83 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:42,640 Speaker 1: of divine grace, who had the mandate or devlet to 84 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:48,359 Speaker 1: rule every generation. Fratricidal wars spilled the blood of all 85 00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:53,159 Speaker 1: potential heirs, minus the winning prince, whose progeny would carry 86 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:58,320 Speaker 1: out yet another round of merciless massacres. Every brother was 87 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:03,400 Speaker 1: a threat. When Ahmed and Mustapha's grandfather took the Ottoman 88 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:08,680 Speaker 1: throne in fifteen seventy four, he had his five brothers strangled. 89 00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: When their father, Sultan Mehmed, took the throne in fifteen 90 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:18,080 Speaker 1: ninety five, he had his nineteen brothers strangled some of 91 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 1: them were as young as nine. According to one popular myth, 92 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:28,760 Speaker 1: paranoid about word spreading of the rather unsportsmanlike nature of 93 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:33,120 Speaker 1: this competition, the Sultan killed the very servants who had 94 00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:38,040 Speaker 1: carried out the executions. Of course, no one in Istanbul 95 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:41,880 Speaker 1: needed to know the gruesome details to understand that those 96 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:46,160 Speaker 1: executions meet something of a mockery of what was supposed 97 00:07:46,200 --> 00:07:49,920 Speaker 1: to be, in theory, at least, a noble tradition. In 98 00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:54,040 Speaker 1: what world did strangling children prove one's right to rule? 99 00:07:54,840 --> 00:07:59,640 Speaker 1: Historians and ambassadors from the period recall a shadow casting 100 00:07:59,640 --> 00:08:04,920 Speaker 1: all over the city as nineteen coffins streamed into the 101 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:10,120 Speaker 1: Hya Sophia in descending size. The trauma from that massacre 102 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:14,320 Speaker 1: may have contributed to the new sultan, Ahmed decision to 103 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:18,560 Speaker 1: keep his half brother Mustapha alive after he took the 104 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:23,240 Speaker 1: throne in sixteen o three. In all likelihood, the Imperial 105 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:27,239 Speaker 1: council decided to keep the younger print around in case 106 00:08:27,360 --> 00:08:32,440 Speaker 1: anything unexpected happened to Ahmed. One ambassador wrote that the 107 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:37,240 Speaker 1: teenage sultan was quote of white complexion and displayed a 108 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:43,360 Speaker 1: weak constitution. Only three months after his coronation, Ahmed contracted 109 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:47,920 Speaker 1: a frightful bout of smallpox that almost broke the nearly 110 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:52,440 Speaker 1: three hundred year line of Ottoman succession, but the disease 111 00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:57,200 Speaker 1: luckily passed without severely harming the boy. It was commonly 112 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:02,120 Speaker 1: understood that Mustapha was, if anything, an insurance policy on 113 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:05,760 Speaker 1: the true air, and he would be an insurance policy 114 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:10,000 Speaker 1: that the Imperial Court wouldn't need as soon as Ahmed 115 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:14,280 Speaker 1: could produce progeny of his own. The boy king had 116 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:17,600 Speaker 1: to prove his virility before he could ever think of 117 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:23,160 Speaker 1: executing his brother, and the first step to that was circumcision. 118 00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:28,280 Speaker 1: Ahmed was the first Ottoman ruler to be circumcised after 119 00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:32,760 Speaker 1: he had already ascended to the throne. Normally, for any prince, 120 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:38,920 Speaker 1: circumcision entailed a lavish ceremony that symbolized a boy's transition 121 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:44,559 Speaker 1: into manhood and therefore political and sexual maturity. In the 122 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:50,079 Speaker 1: cold winter of sixteen o four, ahmed ceremony was likely 123 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:53,800 Speaker 1: a little less public and a little more restrained. The 124 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:58,040 Speaker 1: festival took place in the Palace Harem, where performers treated 125 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:04,520 Speaker 1: the court to staged plays, fireworks, and splendid musical arrangements. 126 00:10:04,559 --> 00:10:09,040 Speaker 1: To many, the circumcision festivities felt more like a consolation 127 00:10:09,679 --> 00:10:13,720 Speaker 1: than a reflection of the empire's splendor. Here was a 128 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:16,960 Speaker 1: young boy who was often ill, a boy who was 129 00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:21,400 Speaker 1: of course childless, and worst of all, was a novice 130 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:25,839 Speaker 1: when it came to imperial administration. For all of the 131 00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:30,960 Speaker 1: inefficiencies and bloodshed of the Ottoman succession system before Ahmed, 132 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:35,000 Speaker 1: it did have the advantage of sending young princes to 133 00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:38,760 Speaker 1: provinces as a way of training them for future rule 134 00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:42,520 Speaker 1: if they made it that far. Of course, Ahmed and 135 00:10:42,679 --> 00:10:46,640 Speaker 1: Mustapha's father, Mehmed, was sent to the nearby city of 136 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:50,680 Speaker 1: Menisa for over ten years before he was invited to 137 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:55,080 Speaker 1: Istanbul to attempt to claim the sultanate. In that time, 138 00:10:55,160 --> 00:11:01,240 Speaker 1: he established an administration of trusted viziers Anders, which he 139 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:05,160 Speaker 1: then brought to the Ottoman capital. When he became sultan, 140 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:09,800 Speaker 1: Ahmed didn't have the luxury of a decade of preparation. 141 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:15,840 Speaker 1: The court now was beset with factions opportunistic enemies raiding 142 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:20,239 Speaker 1: Ottoman border towns, and the fate of the empire itself 143 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:25,840 Speaker 1: hung in the balance at this point. Sometime around sixteen 144 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:31,360 Speaker 1: oh four, Mustafa nearly disappears from our sources. What we 145 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:36,800 Speaker 1: know with certainty is that Sultan Ahmed's imperial council locked 146 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:41,400 Speaker 1: Mustafa away in a heavily guarded part of the palace, 147 00:11:41,920 --> 00:11:45,720 Speaker 1: a set of private chambers that the servants referred to 148 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:51,959 Speaker 1: as the cage. We can also presume that perpetual isolation 149 00:11:52,240 --> 00:11:56,680 Speaker 1: from the outside world laid a heavy burden on the prince, 150 00:11:57,559 --> 00:12:01,760 Speaker 1: not to mention that royal fraturessie was, up to this 151 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:07,040 Speaker 1: point a normal expectation that Mustapha certainly understood from his 152 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:12,359 Speaker 1: gilded palace. Right after Ahmed gained the throne, a Venetian 153 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:17,000 Speaker 1: ambassador caught a glimpse of Mustafa as a toddler and 154 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:21,320 Speaker 1: wrote that he was nurtured like an innocent little sheep 155 00:12:21,640 --> 00:12:25,960 Speaker 1: who must soon go to the butchers. The specter of 156 00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:35,439 Speaker 1: execution loomed over Mustafa's entire existence. Meanwhile, Sultan Ahmed occupied 157 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:39,600 Speaker 1: himself with restoring his vulnerable empire as soon as he 158 00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:43,040 Speaker 1: could shake off the influence of his mother and his tutor. 159 00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:47,520 Speaker 1: For the last decade, a faction from the empire's very 160 00:12:47,559 --> 00:12:52,480 Speaker 1: own soldiers turned to banditry in the provinces, angered by 161 00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:56,560 Speaker 1: the sparse pay given for their services. A new round 162 00:12:56,600 --> 00:13:00,280 Speaker 1: of revolts had flared up in sixteen o five, which 163 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:04,559 Speaker 1: the fifteen year old Ahmed, eager to prove himself, wanted 164 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:08,000 Speaker 1: to crush with the might of his army. His mother 165 00:13:08,120 --> 00:13:11,320 Speaker 1: wouldn't allow it, but when she died later that year 166 00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:15,920 Speaker 1: from a drawn out illness, Ahmed left her mourning ceremony 167 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:21,080 Speaker 1: early for a military campaign, as though God were punishing 168 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:25,640 Speaker 1: the teenage sultan for his hubris. Ahmed suffered from a 169 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:29,520 Speaker 1: horrifying fever and he was forced to return from the 170 00:13:29,559 --> 00:13:33,240 Speaker 1: front lines. His viziers would handle the campaign for the 171 00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:38,040 Speaker 1: time being. Maybe that was for the best. Ahmed's reign 172 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:40,320 Speaker 1: would come to be best known for the work he 173 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:43,880 Speaker 1: did within the capital city itself, which might never have 174 00:13:44,040 --> 00:13:48,280 Speaker 1: happened had he been busy out crushing rebels in the provinces. 175 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:52,880 Speaker 1: The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, known the world over as the 176 00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:57,880 Speaker 1: Blue Mosque, is considered the crowning jewel of oddoman architecture 177 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:02,319 Speaker 1: and the second most famous building in Istanbul, only after 178 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:06,600 Speaker 1: the higha Sophia. For that project, Ahmed recruited the help 179 00:14:06,679 --> 00:14:11,880 Speaker 1: of a new court favorite, the powerful chief Eunuch Mustafa 180 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:17,040 Speaker 1: Aga in the Ottoman Imperial court. The chief Unik served 181 00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:22,640 Speaker 1: a particularly powerful rule. Eunichs traditionally attended to the women 182 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:26,280 Speaker 1: of the Imperial Harem, but over the years the role 183 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:30,640 Speaker 1: expanded into advising the Sultan as well. The chief eunich 184 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:34,920 Speaker 1: of Ahmed's reign was named Mustafa Aga. I know his 185 00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:38,880 Speaker 1: name is also Mustafa, but he's different from the Mustafa. 186 00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:42,040 Speaker 1: Our story is about the sultan half brother away in 187 00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:47,520 Speaker 1: his cage. Anyway, Mustafa Aga, the eunuch, had nearly unlimited 188 00:14:47,640 --> 00:14:51,360 Speaker 1: access to the private apartments of the Sultan, access to 189 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:54,720 Speaker 1: the Queen mother and the mothers of the Sultan's heirs. 190 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:59,160 Speaker 1: In that capacity, he controlled the flow of people and 191 00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:04,320 Speaker 1: information through the palace, influencing Ahmed for his own benefit 192 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:09,280 Speaker 1: and leveraging a vast network of allies and patrons to 193 00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:13,400 Speaker 1: carry out the Sultan's commands. He was a trusted ally 194 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:18,440 Speaker 1: and a master schemer. When Ahmed wanted to clear the 195 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:21,920 Speaker 1: site next to the Hia Sophia for his own ambitious 196 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:26,840 Speaker 1: mosque project, it was Mustafa Aga who found funding, who 197 00:15:26,960 --> 00:15:31,320 Speaker 1: negotiated with the powerbrokers of the city, and who oversaw 198 00:15:31,360 --> 00:15:35,600 Speaker 1: the construction. To this day, a verse of sixteen lines 199 00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:39,480 Speaker 1: is etched into the side of the blue mosque. Eight 200 00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:44,280 Speaker 1: lines celebrate Sultan Ahmed for his piety and judgment, and 201 00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:48,320 Speaker 1: the other eight lines honor Mustafa Aga as though he 202 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:54,200 Speaker 1: were the Sultan's equal. Most importantly, for our story, Mustafa 203 00:15:54,240 --> 00:15:58,000 Speaker 1: Aga curried so much favor with the Sultan that Ahmed 204 00:15:58,120 --> 00:16:01,960 Speaker 1: even entrusted him with the supervision of his heirs. By 205 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:05,600 Speaker 1: the time the Blue Mosque was erected in sixteen seventeen, 206 00:16:06,200 --> 00:16:11,840 Speaker 1: Ahmed had at least fifteen living children and eight male heirs. 207 00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:16,760 Speaker 1: His two oldest sons, Osman and Mehmed, were the healthy, 208 00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:21,240 Speaker 1: viable successors that the empire needed so desperately for the 209 00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:26,760 Speaker 1: line of succession to remain intact. Technically, Ahmed no longer 210 00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:31,480 Speaker 1: needed to keep his younger half brother, Mustafa alive. Why then, 211 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:38,000 Speaker 1: did execution never come From ages four to nineteen, Mustafa 212 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:42,880 Speaker 1: lived a severely secluded life and remained all but a 213 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:47,760 Speaker 1: mystery to the people of Istanbul. Historians don't agree on 214 00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:51,080 Speaker 1: why Mustapha was allowed to live after the births of 215 00:16:51,160 --> 00:16:56,400 Speaker 1: Ahmed's sons, but they do have their theories. One theory 216 00:16:56,640 --> 00:17:00,720 Speaker 1: is that Ahmed's favorite consort, Kosam Sultan, the mother of 217 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:06,159 Speaker 1: Ahmed's second oldest son, recognized that her son's chances of 218 00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:10,600 Speaker 1: survival as the second oldest son didn't look good. If 219 00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:14,879 Speaker 1: the Sultan's brother Mustafa were killed, that would continue the 220 00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:19,480 Speaker 1: tradition of fratricide. And if the beloved firstborn prince Osmond 221 00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:23,480 Speaker 1: took the throne, that would mean fratricide for her son, 222 00:17:23,680 --> 00:17:28,680 Speaker 1: the second son, Mehmed. It's possible that Kosam Sultan influenced 223 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:33,040 Speaker 1: Ahmed to keep Mustapha alive and thereby secure her own 224 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:38,840 Speaker 1: son's safety by breaking the tradition of fratricide. Another possibility 225 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:44,359 Speaker 1: lies with the Islamic jurists, whose interpretation and administration of 226 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:48,000 Speaker 1: Sharia law kept the power of the sultan in zech 227 00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:53,280 Speaker 1: These jurists were already weary of familial executions during the 228 00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:58,440 Speaker 1: reign of Ahmed and Mustafa's father, and for the Grand 229 00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:03,040 Speaker 1: Mufti Asad, the chief jurist of the empire, keeping Mustafa 230 00:18:03,119 --> 00:18:07,480 Speaker 1: alive served as a point of leverage in case Ahmed 231 00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:11,520 Speaker 1: did anything that upset him and his faction of Islamic elites, 232 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:17,040 Speaker 1: they could, let's say, dethrone this particular sultan without risking 233 00:18:17,160 --> 00:18:22,840 Speaker 1: the complete collapse of the institution. Finally, one last theory 234 00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:27,840 Speaker 1: is that Mustafa was simply mad. He was deemed too 235 00:18:28,119 --> 00:18:32,800 Speaker 1: mentally unfit to be considered a serious contender for the throne, 236 00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:36,240 Speaker 1: and so there would be no point in executing him. 237 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:40,720 Speaker 1: This is by far the most commonly cited theory explaining 238 00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:45,280 Speaker 1: Mustafa's survival, but notice how it conflicts with the other two. 239 00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:49,600 Speaker 1: Was Mustafa too mad to rule? Or was he just 240 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:53,840 Speaker 1: mad enough for a court faction to keep under their 241 00:18:53,920 --> 00:19:00,000 Speaker 1: control should Ahmed disappoint them. Whatever the reasons for his service, 242 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:06,719 Speaker 1: Mustafa outlived his older brother in sixteen seventeen, a grave 243 00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:13,720 Speaker 1: stomach ailment, probably Typhus, consumed the already weak Sultan Ahmed. 244 00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:20,399 Speaker 1: Ahmed's death was a contingency that an inner court faction 245 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:24,840 Speaker 1: led by the Grand Mufti Asad, had already accounted for. 246 00:19:25,560 --> 00:19:28,720 Speaker 1: Asad was the first to hear of the Sultan's death 247 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:31,879 Speaker 1: on the night of November twenty first, when he immediately 248 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:36,679 Speaker 1: convened with other major statesmen to finalize the details of succession. 249 00:19:37,320 --> 00:19:41,000 Speaker 1: This wouldn't be difficult, would it. Ahmed had two viable 250 00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:44,639 Speaker 1: heirs of his own, and could therefore resume the long 251 00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:48,679 Speaker 1: standing tradition of passing the sultanate to his sons, who 252 00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:52,560 Speaker 1: would then compete for the throne. The chief eunuch Mustafa 253 00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:57,600 Speaker 1: Aga certainly advocated for that position, after all, he had 254 00:19:57,680 --> 00:20:03,640 Speaker 1: essentially raised the boys himself. But according to Asad's contrived 255 00:20:03,720 --> 00:20:09,200 Speaker 1: interpretation of ancient law, Osman and Mehmed, the two sons, 256 00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:14,600 Speaker 1: then aged fourteen and thirteen, were too young for the sultanate, 257 00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:19,359 Speaker 1: never mind that Ahmed himself had been only thirteen when 258 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:23,240 Speaker 1: he was enthroned. No, the Grand Mufti proclaimed in the 259 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:28,480 Speaker 1: Secret Council only the nineteen year old Mustafa had the 260 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:33,399 Speaker 1: mandate to rule. The next morning, the forlorn brother of 261 00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:39,600 Speaker 1: Ahmed emerged from his cage after fifteen years in captivity. 262 00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:44,360 Speaker 1: In a twist of fate, Mustapha was now a sultan, 263 00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:50,119 Speaker 1: but not necessarily a free man. The same court that 264 00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:55,040 Speaker 1: had propelled him into power could just as easily stuff 265 00:20:55,119 --> 00:21:00,359 Speaker 1: him back into the recesses of palace chambers. Mustapha Tufah's 266 00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:06,000 Speaker 1: sovereignty would come with a heavy price. As in all 267 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:11,960 Speaker 1: succession crisses, the coronation had winners and losers. On the 268 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:15,840 Speaker 1: winning side was the Grand Mufti Asad and his faction 269 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:20,200 Speaker 1: of jurists, who felt more confident about their power over 270 00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:24,920 Speaker 1: the new sultanate. Joining their ranks of winners was Mustafa's mother, 271 00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:28,719 Speaker 1: Halime Sultan, who had been locked away in took copy 272 00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:32,520 Speaker 1: palace just like her son, but who now emerged into 273 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:37,679 Speaker 1: a position of conspicuous power. On the losing side was 274 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:41,879 Speaker 1: the chief eunuch, Mustafa Aga, who had spent more than 275 00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:47,119 Speaker 1: a decade preparing Osman and Mehmed for rule, no doubt, 276 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:50,920 Speaker 1: a rule that would be amenable to his interests, only 277 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:54,520 Speaker 1: to be sidelined in the last moment by the once 278 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:59,880 Speaker 1: insurance policy half brother. Mustafa, and of course Prince Osman 279 00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:03,000 Speaker 1: felt he had been betrayed as the true heir to 280 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:08,320 Speaker 1: the throne. This succession was abnormal by all accounts. It 281 00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:12,280 Speaker 1: was the first time that the brother of the sultan 282 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:18,520 Speaker 1: and not a viable son, inherited the throne. Mustapha Aga 283 00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:24,000 Speaker 1: began organizing a coup against Sultan Mustafa almost immediately. He 284 00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:27,160 Speaker 1: called upon an ally in the navy named Ali Pasha, 285 00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:31,520 Speaker 1: who could leverage his connections with Ottoman merchants to sow 286 00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:37,199 Speaker 1: discontent in Mustafa and support for jan Osman. Getting the 287 00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:41,480 Speaker 1: public on his side was another matter. The public had 288 00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:47,359 Speaker 1: to be convinced that Mustafa was incompetent. Established law dictated 289 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,359 Speaker 1: that a sultan needed to be old enough to rule, 290 00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:53,520 Speaker 1: but it also dictated that he needed to be of 291 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:59,600 Speaker 1: sound mind. The French ambassador to the Imperial Palace recorded 292 00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:03,760 Speaker 1: in one of his letters that Mustafa Aga was disseminating 293 00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:11,600 Speaker 1: or at least magnifying rumors about Mustafa's supposed madness. According 294 00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:16,520 Speaker 1: to one rumor, the sultan embarrassed his viziers during audiences 295 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:22,000 Speaker 1: as he wouldn't stop unraveling their turbans and yanking their beards. 296 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:27,120 Speaker 1: Another rumor claimed Mustafa would throw money to birds and 297 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:32,840 Speaker 1: fish when he sailed upon the Bosphorus. Mustafa AGA's vicious 298 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:37,240 Speaker 1: rumor mill presents us with a predicament, how do we 299 00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:41,080 Speaker 1: separate fact from fiction? If so many of the sources 300 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:45,520 Speaker 1: we have on Sultan Mustafa are colored by the obviously 301 00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:50,000 Speaker 1: biased campaign the chief Eunuch was waging to discredit the 302 00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:55,160 Speaker 1: new monarch? Is there a chance Sultan Mustafa wasn't nearly 303 00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:59,040 Speaker 1: as mad as history made him out to be. There 304 00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:03,280 Speaker 1: is no doubt that Mustafa wasn't treated the same as 305 00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:07,919 Speaker 1: other sultans before him. The coins minted during his reign 306 00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:11,520 Speaker 1: still bear the face of his older brother and his father. 307 00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:15,560 Speaker 1: But then again, Mustafa may not have ruled long enough 308 00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:19,520 Speaker 1: for the coins to change design. We also know that 309 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:24,399 Speaker 1: while most royal correspondents was handled by a male counselor, 310 00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:30,000 Speaker 1: Mustapha's letters were strangely drafted by a female slave from 311 00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:35,280 Speaker 1: the Harem who doubled as Mustapha's tutor. Then again, Ahmed 312 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:39,720 Speaker 1: didn't allow Mustapha to have any contact with others, with 313 00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:43,680 Speaker 1: the exception of female servants and his own mother back 314 00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:48,000 Speaker 1: when he was imprisoned. We have evidence to support the 315 00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:52,760 Speaker 1: idea that Mustapha was an active participant in his administration. 316 00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:57,800 Speaker 1: He's reported to have taken great interest in inspecting Istanbul's 317 00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:03,680 Speaker 1: arsenal and docs. French ambassador wrote that Mustafa even contemplated 318 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:08,879 Speaker 1: leading a campaign against the Sephavids. It's also worth noting 319 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:12,760 Speaker 1: that Mustapha had been imprisoned in the palace for fifteen 320 00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:18,760 Speaker 1: important developmental years. What manifested as madness might have been 321 00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:23,679 Speaker 1: the consequences of that isolation. Either way, for all of 322 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:28,040 Speaker 1: the chief Eunuch's insistence on discrediting the monarch in the 323 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:32,400 Speaker 1: public eye, his campaign may have actually had the unintended 324 00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:36,480 Speaker 1: consequence of suggesting that the new Sultan was in fact 325 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:41,840 Speaker 1: a holy man. Throughout the pre modern world, madness and 326 00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:48,280 Speaker 1: holiness converged in unexpected ways. The thirteenth century mystic Saint 327 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:52,159 Speaker 1: Francis of Assisi honored those that lived as fools in 328 00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:55,760 Speaker 1: the eyes of men, but sages in the eyes of God. 329 00:25:56,359 --> 00:26:00,160 Speaker 1: The sixteenth century Teresa of Avila gained a noise we're 330 00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,679 Speaker 1: miss renown for her visions of Christ and bouts of 331 00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:10,000 Speaker 1: religious ecstasy. Some of Istanbul's populace saw elements of Mustapha's 332 00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:15,280 Speaker 1: madness as proof of his divinity. They referred to him 333 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:20,240 Speaker 1: as belli or saint. An English diplomat to the Ottoman 334 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:24,120 Speaker 1: Empire had the following choice words for the new sultan. 335 00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:29,240 Speaker 1: He is esteemed a holy man that hath visions and 336 00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:35,600 Speaker 1: angelic speculations. In plain terms, between a madman and a fool. 337 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,359 Speaker 1: None of these alternative accounts of the sultan mattered in 338 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:45,640 Speaker 1: the court politics that slowly pointed in mustapha AGA's favor. 339 00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:50,440 Speaker 1: For the first couple months of Sultan Mustapha's reign, the 340 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:54,920 Speaker 1: only major statesman pushing for Osmond taking the throne had 341 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,520 Speaker 1: been the Chief Eunuch and his naval Admiral Ali Pasha. 342 00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:03,320 Speaker 1: But when news broke that Mustafa planned on replacing the 343 00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:07,560 Speaker 1: existing Grand Vizier with his own brother in law, the 344 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:12,480 Speaker 1: Imperial Council swerved in favor of a coup. Mustafa Aga 345 00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:15,560 Speaker 1: struck a deal with the elite army corps in the city, 346 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:20,600 Speaker 1: the janissaries to swear fealty to Osmon in return for 347 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:26,439 Speaker 1: a generous shipment of Buyan. Assad, once devoted to Mustafa's cause, 348 00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:33,280 Speaker 1: resigned himself to accepting Osmond's inevitable ascension. On the morning 349 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:39,160 Speaker 1: of Monday, February twenty sixth, sixteen eighteen, the Chief Eunuch 350 00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:45,240 Speaker 1: guided the Sultan to a remote, suspiciously familiar apartment of 351 00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:49,919 Speaker 1: the palace, making up some excuse along the way. We 352 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,680 Speaker 1: can only speculate what it must have felt like when 353 00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:59,600 Speaker 1: Sultan Mustafa realized he was being led back to the cage. 354 00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:06,199 Speaker 1: Mustapha Aga politely asked the Sultan to wait inside before 355 00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:10,080 Speaker 1: he exited the room, and had a servant lock the 356 00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:15,520 Speaker 1: door from the outside. With Mustapha locked away, all of 357 00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:19,800 Speaker 1: the court swore allegiance to the fourteen year old Osmon, 358 00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:24,000 Speaker 1: and not a peep of outcry was heard in the city. 359 00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:31,359 Speaker 1: Mustapha's reign had lasted a little under three months. Osmond 360 00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:35,840 Speaker 1: and his allies in court promptly began erasing Osmond's uncle's 361 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:39,480 Speaker 1: short rule from memory, part of the reason we know 362 00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:43,680 Speaker 1: so little about Mustapha in the first place. One courtier 363 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:47,440 Speaker 1: referred to the reign of Mustapha as the false dawn 364 00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:52,440 Speaker 1: before Osmond's real dawn. Sultan Osmon was much like his 365 00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:56,920 Speaker 1: father Ahmed. He was extraordinarily pious, so much so that 366 00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:01,840 Speaker 1: he opted for simple, ascetic attire over the lavish robes 367 00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:05,440 Speaker 1: of his predecessors. He even went so far as to 368 00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:10,040 Speaker 1: take up legal wives instead of traditional concubines, and he 369 00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:14,800 Speaker 1: banned the consumption of tobacco, a wicked weed introduced by 370 00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:18,960 Speaker 1: the English, which was, according to Osman, corrupting the souls 371 00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:22,959 Speaker 1: and minds of his subjects Ahmed may have built a 372 00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:27,760 Speaker 1: mosque that recalled the heavens, but Osmon was purifying the 373 00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:32,760 Speaker 1: soul of his empire. Osmond was also purifying his court 374 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:37,080 Speaker 1: of competitors. Before heading into a campaign against the Polish, 375 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:41,600 Speaker 1: he executed his own half brother, Mehmed, but once again 376 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:46,640 Speaker 1: he kept Mustapha alive, as though his uncle no longer 377 00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:51,640 Speaker 1: posed a threat after being so severely discredited and dethroned. 378 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:56,280 Speaker 1: When Osmon returned from war, dissatisfied with the conduct of 379 00:29:56,320 --> 00:30:00,560 Speaker 1: his troops, he made covert plans to reform the army 380 00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:04,400 Speaker 1: with mercenaries he hired from the South, the very same 381 00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:09,800 Speaker 1: mercenaries who had rebelled against his father, Sultan Ahmed. Rumors 382 00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:14,960 Speaker 1: spread like wildfire, as did contempt within the Janissary Corps. 383 00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:18,960 Speaker 1: Not only was Osmond planning on sidelining the beating heart 384 00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:22,440 Speaker 1: of the Empire's military, he was going to staff his 385 00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:27,000 Speaker 1: new army with former traders. The Sultan made up some 386 00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:31,720 Speaker 1: excuse to begin his recruitment expedition, proclaiming that he was 387 00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:35,280 Speaker 1: going to take pilgrimage to Mecca in the auspicious year 388 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:40,800 Speaker 1: of sixteen twenty two. Except no sultan before Osman ever 389 00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:45,400 Speaker 1: issued plans to take Haj. Even the mufties the religious 390 00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:50,000 Speaker 1: jurists of the city begged the young Sultan not to leave, 391 00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:54,080 Speaker 1: knowing full well he was headed on a collision course 392 00:30:54,480 --> 00:30:59,640 Speaker 1: with the Janissary Corps. Sure enough, the city's troops gathered 393 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:04,480 Speaker 1: outdid the Hya Sophia. As Sultan Osman prepared to leave. 394 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:10,120 Speaker 1: They decried Osman's betrayal and demanded that the monarch both 395 00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:14,760 Speaker 1: stay put in the city and execute his closest advisers. 396 00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:19,400 Speaker 1: Osman agreed to remain in Istanbul, but he scoffed at 397 00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:23,560 Speaker 1: the idea of killing any of his viziers. Enraged, the 398 00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:29,400 Speaker 1: crowd turned into a mob, entering the palace, seizing Mustapha 399 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:33,320 Speaker 1: from his cage and forcing all of the courtiers they 400 00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:37,480 Speaker 1: could find to swear allegiance to the man they now 401 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:43,680 Speaker 1: proclaimed was sultan again. As the story goes, the former 402 00:31:43,800 --> 00:31:48,160 Speaker 1: Sultan Osman disguised himself amidst the chaos and fled to 403 00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:52,000 Speaker 1: the chambers of the janissary's commanders, where, in a poor 404 00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:56,160 Speaker 1: attempt to work out a deal, he was assassinated in 405 00:31:56,240 --> 00:32:00,880 Speaker 1: the first regicide the Empire had ever seen. The Janissaries, 406 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:05,560 Speaker 1: the jurists, and the people had just had enough. A 407 00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:10,560 Speaker 1: messenger brought the severed ear of Osman to Mustafa as 408 00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:15,320 Speaker 1: proof of just that. A little over three years after 409 00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:19,200 Speaker 1: he had been deposed in favor of his nephew, Mustafa 410 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:23,280 Speaker 1: returned to the throne again. The first act of his 411 00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:27,640 Speaker 1: second reign was to execute all the conspirators who were 412 00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:32,040 Speaker 1: responsible for Osman's death, But it seems that quick act 413 00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:36,520 Speaker 1: of justice wasn't enough to settle Mustapha's mind. He wept 414 00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:40,840 Speaker 1: before his courtiers for the most unexpected reasons. He had 415 00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:45,040 Speaker 1: bouts of bliss, followed by episodes of rage. It said 416 00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:48,080 Speaker 1: that the Sultan often woke up in the dead of night, 417 00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:52,840 Speaker 1: calling out to his nephews to relieve him of this burden. 418 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:58,840 Speaker 1: What burden? The burden of being sultan? The burden of 419 00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:05,560 Speaker 1: surviving Osman's regicide caused an uproar across the empire. The 420 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:09,440 Speaker 1: governor of one province in what is now northeast Turkey 421 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:15,000 Speaker 1: led a revolt against the janissaries. Meanwhile, Polish troops took 422 00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:20,360 Speaker 1: advantage of the instability and raided border towns. When Mustafa 423 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:25,920 Speaker 1: supposedly called for the execution of Ahmed's seven remaining heirs, 424 00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:31,440 Speaker 1: young children no older than twelve, the Imperial Council finally 425 00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:35,920 Speaker 1: dethroned him. Four months after being put upon the throne 426 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:41,440 Speaker 1: a second time, Mustafa returned to his cage, this time 427 00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:48,680 Speaker 1: for good. He passed the hours, days, seasons another sixteen 428 00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:54,000 Speaker 1: years within his ornate prison, until he died in sixteen 429 00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:59,920 Speaker 1: thirty nine, around the age of forty. Historians regularly described 430 00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:03,400 Speaker 1: Mustafa as a sort of puppet, controlled by the jurists, 431 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:07,680 Speaker 1: the janissaries, and his own family. But if the events 432 00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:12,760 Speaker 1: of Mustafa's life were any indication, he wasn't alone. Every 433 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:16,960 Speaker 1: Ottoman sultan after Ahmed had less power to execute the 434 00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:20,720 Speaker 1: royal competitors, for one, but also to impose their will 435 00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:24,680 Speaker 1: upon the janissaries or to ignore the word of the clergy. 436 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:30,640 Speaker 1: Mustafa was not really unique as a puppet. Rather, there 437 00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:34,160 Speaker 1: were just so many more players who could pull the strings. 438 00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:38,759 Speaker 1: Royals could be brought out to dance and then stuffed 439 00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:43,240 Speaker 1: back into the closet, from whence they came, not quite dead, 440 00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:56,120 Speaker 1: but never quite alive. That's the story of Sultan Mustafa. 441 00:34:56,200 --> 00:34:59,359 Speaker 1: But keep listening after a brief sponsor break, to hear 442 00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:14,320 Speaker 1: a little bit more about another of the Sultan's brothers. 443 00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:19,279 Speaker 1: There's one nasty little detail we've left out of the 444 00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:24,600 Speaker 1: already tormented life of Mustafa, namely the fact that he 445 00:35:24,840 --> 00:35:30,839 Speaker 1: had a full brother named Mohmed, whom Mustapha never actually 446 00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:35,120 Speaker 1: got the chance to meet. In fifteen ninety six, when 447 00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:38,560 Speaker 1: the Austrians invaded the part of modern day Hungry, then 448 00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:44,160 Speaker 1: ruled by the Ottomans, Mustapha's father, Mehmed, saddled up for retaliation. 449 00:35:44,960 --> 00:35:48,360 Speaker 1: It was typical for sultans to lead, or at least 450 00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:52,000 Speaker 1: pretend to lead their armies into battle as a way 451 00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:57,280 Speaker 1: of signifying their own right to rule. Mehmed undoubtedly felt 452 00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:01,279 Speaker 1: that pressure. But after reaching Hungary and catching wind of 453 00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:06,279 Speaker 1: an Austrian army some fifty five thousand men strong, the 454 00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:11,440 Speaker 1: king wished to disband his forces and scamper back to Istanbul. 455 00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:16,799 Speaker 1: His advisers pushed him to stay, and he relented, but 456 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:21,160 Speaker 1: in the middle of the battle itself, Mehmed again wanted 457 00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:25,560 Speaker 1: to flee. His army didn't have that choice. The Austrian 458 00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:29,239 Speaker 1: troops drove the Ottomans back to their camps, and then 459 00:36:29,320 --> 00:36:34,440 Speaker 1: they began plundering the tents. Distracted by the promise of treasure, 460 00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:39,720 Speaker 1: the Austrians never saw all the Ottoman horse groomers, cooks, 461 00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:45,480 Speaker 1: and royal attendants assembling themselves into a makeshift fighting force. 462 00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:51,440 Speaker 1: Shocked and disheveled, the Austrians were driven back by an 463 00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:57,319 Speaker 1: army wielding ladles and hammers. Of course, Sultan Mehmed took 464 00:36:57,360 --> 00:37:01,480 Speaker 1: credit for the miraculous victory in Hunger. He returned to 465 00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:05,920 Speaker 1: Istanbul at the head of a triumphant procession, marching to 466 00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:09,640 Speaker 1: the roaring applause of the people. Despite the fact that 467 00:37:09,719 --> 00:37:13,719 Speaker 1: he played no real important role in the victory, to 468 00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:16,799 Speaker 1: the people of Istanbul, to the army, and even to 469 00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:21,120 Speaker 1: his own sons, he was a hero. His son, Mahmud, 470 00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:25,440 Speaker 1: then fifteen years old, implored his father to send him 471 00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:29,520 Speaker 1: on a similar expedition, this time against the Sephovid threat 472 00:37:29,560 --> 00:37:33,160 Speaker 1: to the east. After all, it was customary for the 473 00:37:33,239 --> 00:37:36,800 Speaker 1: sultan to send his sons to the provinces to gain 474 00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:42,200 Speaker 1: experience on the battlefield. Sultan Mehmed, however, couldn't seepass his 475 00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:47,200 Speaker 1: own paranoia. Was this a customary right or an attempt 476 00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:52,520 Speaker 1: at usurping power from the father? Rumor spread that Mahmud 477 00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:57,640 Speaker 1: planned to take his father's throne. The king called upon 478 00:37:57,719 --> 00:38:01,120 Speaker 1: the Grand Mufti, the leading Islamic daist in the empire, 479 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:05,160 Speaker 1: to see if he could secure legal sanction to execute 480 00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:09,239 Speaker 1: his son. The Grand Mufti wouldn't entertain an audience on 481 00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:12,560 Speaker 1: the matter, so the king went to the second most 482 00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:17,120 Speaker 1: powerful jurist in Istanbul, and while that Mufti wasn't particularly 483 00:38:17,239 --> 00:38:21,600 Speaker 1: pleased about the circumstances, he relented to the Sultan's wishes. 484 00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:25,960 Speaker 1: An English diplomat in Istanbul at the time recorded the 485 00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:31,000 Speaker 1: exchange between king and cleric in a report. In this council, 486 00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:34,840 Speaker 1: the Mufti was of the opinion by their law without witness, 487 00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:38,960 Speaker 1: the prince Mahammud could not be put to death. Yet, 488 00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:42,440 Speaker 1: perceiving that nothing but his death would satisfy the father, 489 00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:47,680 Speaker 1: the Mufti condescended and gave sentence that it's better that 490 00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:51,160 Speaker 1: the son were deprived of his life than the father 491 00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:56,320 Speaker 1: live in fear and jealousy. It was decided. The Sultan 492 00:38:56,480 --> 00:39:01,560 Speaker 1: received his stamp of approval, ordered his son beaten into confession, 493 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:05,919 Speaker 1: and finally executed him in the same way he had 494 00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:11,719 Speaker 1: executed nineteen brothers at the hands of mute servants who 495 00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:16,680 Speaker 1: could never tell a lie nor tell the truth. When 496 00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:20,720 Speaker 1: the Sultan died only six months later, the very death 497 00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:24,440 Speaker 1: that started this episode, when his son Ahmed would take 498 00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:28,000 Speaker 1: the throne, They say it was because of the immense 499 00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:32,040 Speaker 1: grief he felt at the loss of his son. That 500 00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:37,480 Speaker 1: seems too convenient for a story about royal tragedy. After all, 501 00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:42,040 Speaker 1: Mehmed was no alien to the execution of close family members. 502 00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:46,680 Speaker 1: A letter from a Venetian diplomat in Istanbul gives us 503 00:39:46,719 --> 00:39:51,520 Speaker 1: a more likely explanation. It was probably the plague or 504 00:39:51,600 --> 00:40:10,440 Speaker 1: maybe a stroke. Noble Blood is a production of iHeart 505 00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:14,920 Speaker 1: Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood 506 00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:19,239 Speaker 1: is created and hosted by me Dana Schwort, with additional 507 00:40:19,360 --> 00:40:24,480 Speaker 1: writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, 508 00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:28,799 Speaker 1: Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and 509 00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:34,040 Speaker 1: produced by Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, with supervising 510 00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:39,680 Speaker 1: producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, 511 00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:44,600 Speaker 1: and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the 512 00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:48,960 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 513 00:40:49,000 --> 00:41:02,240 Speaker 1: favorite shows.