Ibrahim (; ; ; 13 October 1617Tezcan, Baki; THE DEBUT OF KÖSEM SULTAN’S POLITICAL CAREER; pp 354; fn 43: Mehmed ŞEYHI, Vakâyi'ü’l-fudalâ, 2 vols., Beyazıt Kütüphanesi, MS Veliyüddin Efendi 2361-2362; facs. ed., Abdülkadir ÖZCAN, Şakaik-ı Nu'maniye ve Zeyilleri, 5 vols., Istanbul, Çagrı, 1989, vols. 3-4, vol. 3, p. 150, gives an exact date as 12 Şevvâl 1026 / 13 October 1617. – 18 August 1648) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1640 until his death in 1648.
He was born in Constantinople as the last son of sultan Ahmed I (1590–1617) and Kösem Sultan (1589–1651), also known as Mahpeyker Sultan, an ethnically Greek woman claimed to originally be named Anastasía.
He was called Ibrahim the Mad () due to his mental condition and behavior.John Freely, Inside the Seraglio: private lives of the sultans in Istanbul (2000) p. 145. online However, historian Scott Rank notes that his opponents spread rumors of the sultan's insanity, and some historians suggest that he was more incompetent than mad.Rank, 2020 ch 4. online
Early life Ibrahim was born on 13 October 1617 as the last son of Sultan Ahmed I and his Haseki Kösem Sultan and when he was only an infant his father diedTezcan, Baki: The Debut of Kösem Sultan's Career; pp 354 and Ibrahim's uncle Mustafa I became the new sultan. Kösem Sultan and her children, including an infant Ibrahim, were sent to the Old Palace. After his brother Murad IV inherited the throne from his uncle Mustafa I, Ibrahim was confined in the Kafes, which affected his health. Murad had Ibrahim's two surviving half-brothers Şehzade Bayezid, Şehzade Süleyman and a few years later, one full-brother Şehzade Kasım executed and Ibrahim feared that he would be next, but after his older brother Murad's death, Ibrahim became Sultan.
Reign Accession One of the most notorious Ottoman Sultans, Ibrahim spent all of his early life in the close confinement of the Kafes before succeeding his brother Murad IV (1623–40) in 1640. Three of their brothers had been executed by Murad, and Ibrahim lived in terror, expecting to be killed at any moment. His life was saved only by the intervention of Kösem Sultan, mother of Ibrahim and Murad.
Murad's death left Ibrahim as the sole surviving prince of the dynasty. Upon being asked by Grand Vizier Kemankeş Kara Mustafa Pasha to assume the Sultanate, Ibrahim suspected that Murad was still alive and plotting to trap him. It took the combined persuasion of Kösem and the Grand Vizier, and personal examination of his brother's dead body, to make Ibrahim accept the throne.
Early reign
During the early years of Ibrahim's reign, he retreated from politics and turned increasingly to his harem for comfort and pleasure. During his sultanate, the harem achieved new levels of luxury in perfumes, textiles and jewelry. His love of women and furs led him to have a room entirely lined with lynx and sable. His behavior caused political instability in the empire. He once started a large rebellion from several Ottoman Beylerbeyi (administrators) attempting to coerce the governor of Sivas into handing over Perihan Hanım, the wife of a Vizier for his personal harem (which would not be permissible in Islam). The resulting skirmishes between the Ottoman army and rioters even led to Köprülü Mehmed Pasha being captured by the rioters. Due to his infatuation with furs, the French dubbed him "Le Fou de Fourrures" ("The Madman of the Furs"). Kösem Sultan kept her son in check by supplying him with virgins that she personally purchased from the slave market, as well as overweight women, whom he craved.
An account of his reign is given by Demetrius Cantemir. He wrote of Ibrahim:
Kara Mustafa Pasha remained the Grand Vizier during the first four years of Ibrahim's reign, keeping the Empire stable. With the Treaty of Sèvres (15 March 1642), he renewed peace with Austria and in the same year recovered Azov from the Cossacks. Kara Mustafa also stabilized the currency with coinage reform, sought to stabilize the economy with a new land-survey, reduced the number of janissaries, removed non-contributing members from the state payrolls, and curbed the power of disobedient provincial governors. During these years, Ibrahim showed concern with properly ruling the empire, as shown in his handwritten communications with the Grand Vizier. Kara Mustafa in turn wrote a memo on public affairs to coach his inexperienced master. Ibrahim's replies to Kara Mustafa's reports show that he had actually received a good education. Ibrahim often traveled in disguise, inspecting the markets of Istanbul and ordering the Grand Vizier to correct any problems that he observed.Börekçi, Günhan. "Ibrahim I." Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Ed. Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters. New York: Facts on File, 2009. p. 263.
Decadence and crisis
Ibrahim was often distracted by recurring headaches and attacks of physical weakness, perhaps caused by the mental trauma of his early years.Gökbilgin, "Ibrāhīm." Since he was the only surviving male member of the Ottoman dynasty, Ibrahim was encouraged by his mother Kösem Sultan to distract himself with harem girls and soon fathered three future sultans: Mehmed IV, Suleiman II and Ahmed II. The distractions of the harem allowed Kösem Sultan to gain power and rule in his name, yet even she fell victim to the Sultan's disfavor and left the Imperial Palace.Baysun, "Kösem Wālide or Kösem Sulṭān"
Ibrahim came under the influence of various unsuitable people, such as mistress of the imperial harem Şekerpare Hatun and the charlatan Cinci Hoca, who pretended to cure the Sultan's physical ailments. The latter, along with his allies Silahdar Yusuf Agha and Sultanzade Mehmed Pasha, enriched themselves with bribes and eventually usurped enough power to secure the execution of Grand Vizier Ḳara Muṣṭafā. Cinci Hoca became Kadiasker (High Judge) of Anatolia. Yusuf Agha became Kapudan Pasha (Grand Admiral) and Sultanzade Mehmed, Grand Vizier.
In 1644, the Knights of Malta seized a ship carrying high-status pilgrims to Mecca. Since the Knights had docked in Crete, Kapudan Yusuf Pasha encouraged Ibrahim to invade the island. This began 24 years of war with Venice. Crete did not completely fall under Ottoman domination until 1669. In spite of the decline of La Serenissima, Venetian ships won victories throughout the Aegean, capturing Tenedos (1646) and blockading the Dardanelles. Kapudan Yusuf enjoyed temporary success in conquering Canea, starting a jealous rivalry with Nevesinli Salih Pasha, the recently installed grand vizier. The rivalry led to Yusuf's execution (January 1646) soon after the Grand Vizier's deposition (December 1645).
With his cronies in power, Ibrahim's extravagant tendencies went unchecked. He raised eight concubines to the favored position of haseki sultan (royal consort), granting each riches and land.Börekçi, p. 263. After legally marrying the concubine Telli Haseki Sultan, he ordered the palace of Ibrahim Pasha to be carpeted in sable furs and given to her.
Deposition and execution Mass discontent was caused by the Venetian blockade of the Dardanelles—which created scarcities in the capital—and the imposition of heavy taxes during a war economy to pay for Ibrahim's whims. In 1647 the Grand Vizier Nevesinli Salih Pasha, Kösem Sultan, and the şeyhülislam Abdürrahim Efendi unsuccessfully plotted to depose the sultan and replace him with one of his sons. Salih Pasha was executed, and Kösem Sultan was exiled from the harem.
The next year, the Janissaries and members of the ulema revolted. On 8 August 1648, corrupt Grand Vizier Ahmed Pasha was strangled and torn to shreds by an angry mob, gaining the posthumous nickname "Hezarpare" ("thousand pieces"). On the same day, Ibrahim was seized and imprisoned in Topkapı Palace. Kösem gave consent to her son's fall, saying "In the end, he will leave neither you nor me alive. We will lose control of the government. The whole society is in ruins. Have him removed from the throne immediately."Quioted in Thys-Senocak, p. 26.
Ibrahim's six-year-old son Meḥmed was made sultan. The new grand vizier, Sofu Mehmed Pasha, petitioned the sheikh ul-Islam for a fatwā sanctioning Ibrahim's execution. It was granted, with the message "if there are two caliphs, kill one of them." Kösem also gave her consent. Two executioners were sent for; one being the chief executioner who had served under Ibrahim.Kohen, p. 142. As the executioners drew closer, it was reported that Ibrahim's last words were: "Is there no one among those who have eaten my bread who will take pity on me and protect me? These cruel men have come to kill me. Mercy! Mercy!" As his mother, Kösem Sultan, and officials watched from a palace window, Ibrahim was strangled on 18 August 1648. His death was the second regicide in the history of the Ottoman Empire.
Family
In addition to his eight Haseki Sultans (the first and only certain case of the coexistence of several Haseki sultan at the same time and a symptom of the loss of prestige and exclusivity of the title which began under Murad IV) he had a large number of concubines, of which only some are known. However, only Şivekar Sultan and Hümaşah Sultan, who also became his legal wife, had any real political power or influence over the sultan. Ibrahim was particularly famous for his brief but intense love obsessions, often with women who were not part of his harem and that he had his agents commandeer around the city.
Other anecdotes related to his harem are Ibrahim's supposed passion for obese women, which would have led Şivekar, called "the fattest woman at Constantinople", to become his favorite, and the story that he drowned 280 concubines in his harem because of a rumor that one of them had had a forbidden relationship with a man, an anecdote however rejected by several historians as invented or exaggerated."Old World Empires: Cultures of Power and Governance in Eurasia". Ilhan Niaz (2014). p. 296.
Consorts Ibrahim I had seven or eight Haseki sultan (seven according to Evliya Çelebi, eight according to Ahmed Refik, the archival research confirming Evliya's information),Mustafa Çağatay. Uluçay (2011). Padişahların kadınları ve kızları. Ankara, Ötüken. pp. 56–61. the last of whom was also his legal wife, plus a number of known and unknown minor concubines:Resimli tarih mecmuasi. Iskit Yayinevi. 1956. p. 229.Çelebi, Evliya; Erkılıç, Süleyman Cafer (1954). Turk Klasikleri, Issue 34. p. 62.Kal'a, Ahmet (1997). Vakıf on defterleri: Hatt-ı Hümâyûn, 1577–1804. İstanbul Araştırmaları Merkezi. p. 57. ISBN 978-9-758-21504-1.
Haseki sultan All of Ibrahim's Haseki sultan received 1,000 aspers a day except for Saliha Dilaşub Sultan who received 1,300 aspers a day. Ibrahim gifted the incomes of Bolu, Hamid, Nicopolis Sanjaks, and Syria Eyalet to Saliha Dilaşub, Mahienver, Saçbağlı, and Şivekar, respectively. He also lavished the treasury of Egypt upon Saçbağlı Sultan and Hümaşah Sultan, and presented the Ibrahim Pasha Palace to Hümaşah. His known consorts were: