مراد الثالث
Murad III (r. 982–1003/1574–1595) — trilingual poet-sultan; saw Poland placed under Ottoman protection, Tiflis and Tabriz taken from the Safavids, and in two Rajab 988/September 1580 letters offered the Sa'dids 300 sultanic galleys and an army to recover al-Andalus — then, facing al-Mansur's readiness and his near-agreement with Spain, ordered Uluj Ali to stand down. Sokollu's assassination in his reign opened the era of palace-made grand viziers. Buried in Hagia Sophia's courtyard.
Reign · Ottoman Empire · no. 4 in the chain · 1574–1595 CE
Ruled the caliphate
Events of the reign
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The Mahdawi regime at Ahmadnagar falls; vizier Jamal Khan killed, 999
On Wednesday 14 Rajab 999 the Mahdawi regime at Ahmadnagar in the Deccan fell; the vizier Jamal Khan was killed, his head brought to Ahmadnagar, paraded and hung for days, and Burhan Shah took the sultanate.
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Battle of Addi Qarro (1578)
Draft card for Battle of Addi Qarro (1578); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Alvar
Draft card for the Battle of Alvar in 1585, the Ottoman victory over the Safavids in Ferhad Pasha's Caucasus campaign; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Brest
Draft card for the Battle of Brest in 1592, the Ottoman victory over the Habsburgs in Croatia; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Călugăreni
Draft card for the Battle of Călugăreni in 1595, Michael the Brave's ambush of Sinan Pasha's army in the Long War; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Cecora
Draft card for the Battle of Cecora in 1595, the Ottoman victory over the Poles in Moldavia; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Chuvash Cape
Draft card for the Battle of Chuvash Cape in 1582, Yermak's victory that toppled the Khanate of Sibir; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Çıldır
Draft card for the Battle of Çıldır in 1578, the Ottoman victory over the Safavids that opened Georgia to the empire; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Dewair (1582)
Draft card for the Battle of Dewair in 1582, of Akbar's war with Mewar; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Ganja
Draft card for Battle of Ganja; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Giurgiu
Draft card for the Battle of Giurgiu in 1595, Michael the Brave's victory over the Ottoman army in Wallachia; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Hadiya (1576)
Draft card for Battle of Hadiya (1576); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Hannik (1585)
Draft card for Battle of Hannik (1585); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Khatisopeli (1584)
Draft card for Battle of Khatisopeli (1584); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Kota Batu (1578)
Draft card for Battle of Kota Batu (1578); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Koyun Gecidi
Draft card for the Battle of Koyun Gecidi in 1578 in the Ottoman–Safavid war; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Mayan (1585)
Draft card for Battle of Mayan (1585); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Mombasa (1589)
Draft card for Battle of Mombasa (1589); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Mukhrani (1582)
Draft card for Battle of Mukhrani (1582); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Romhany
Draft card for Battle of Romhany; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Rubas River (1579)
Draft card for Battle of Rubas River (1579); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Shanb Ghazan (1585)
Draft card for Battle of Shanb Ghazan (1585); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Sisak
Draft card for the Battle of Sisak in 1593, the great Ottoman defeat by the Croatian forces that opened the Long War; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Slunj
Draft card for the Battle of Slunj in 1584, the Croatian-Ottoman border clash; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Szikszó
Draft card for the Battle of Szikszó in 1588, the Hungarian clash with Ottoman forces; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of the Irtysh (1582)
Draft card for Battle of the Irtysh (1582); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Tondibi
Draft card for the Battle of Tondibi in 1591, the Moroccan musketeers' victory that toppled the Songhai empire; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Torches
Draft card for the Battle of Torches in 1583, the Ottomans' night victory over the Safavids in the Caucasus war; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Tukaroi
Draft card for the Battle of Tukaroi in 1575, Akbar's victory over the Sultan of Bengal; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Battle of Wadi al-Makhazin (986/1578)
The Battle of the Three Kings at al-Qasr al-Kabir, Monday 30 Jumada II 986/4 August 1578. Morocco's sultan Abd al-Malik al-Mu'tasim — Ottoman-backed — met King Sebastian of Portugal, who had massed tens of thousands of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German troops to restore his deposed ally Muhammad al-Mutawakkil. Abd al-Malik cut the enemy from his fleet and blew the river's only bridge; he died of illness minutes into the battle, his chamberlain Ridwan and brother Ahmad al-Mansur concealing it until victory was complete in four hours and a third. All three kings perished — Sebastian slain, al-Mutawakkil drowned, Abd al-Malik on the field — and Ahmad al-Mansur was acclaimed on the spot; the Sa'di star rose until Europe's embassies 'kept morning and evening at her palace gates'.
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Capture of Fez
Draft card for the capture of Fez in 1576, Abd al-Malik's Ottoman-backed entry into the Moroccan capital; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Capture of Muscat
Draft card for the Capture of Muscat in 1581, Mir Ali Beg's raid on the Portuguese garrison; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Capture of Tabriz
Draft card for the Capture of Tabriz in 1585, Uthman Pasha's seizure of the Safavid city; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Capture of Tbilisi (1578)
Draft card for Capture of Tbilisi (1578); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Castille War
Draft card for the Castille War of 1578, the Spanish-Bruneian conflict over Borneo and the Philippines; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Celali Revolts
Draft card for the Celali Revolts of the late sixteenth century, Anatolia's great risings against the Ottoman state; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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The great tailed comet of 985
In 985 a comet 'great-tailed, very long, bright-rayed' rose and kept appearing about two months — the Great Comet of 1577; al-Suyuti's Husn al-Muhadara transmits the lore of the tailed star's appearances.
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End of the beylerbey system in Algiers (995/1587)
With Uluj Ali's death in 995/1587 the beylerbey system ended in Algiers — the arrangement that had made her governors near-sovereigns — replaced by the pasha system as in Tunis and Tripoli: a salaried pasha sent from Istanbul for three years with no local base. Al-Salabi explains the change as the sultan's fear that strong beylerbeys, with the navy weakened, would drift toward independence. So after Lepanto (978/1571) Ottoman North Africa split from a single beylerbey at Algiers into three ordinary wilayas: Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers.
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Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War
Draft card for the Hundred Years' Croatian–Ottoman War, the long chain of border wars between Croatia and the Ottomans; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Murad III's offer of an alliance with the Sa'dids to recover al-Andalus
Rajab 988/September 1580 — as Spain swallowed Portugal, Murad III wrote the Sa'dids proposing an alliance sworn at the Ka'ba: three hundred imperial galleys and an Ottoman army to 'open the land of al-Andalus'.
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Algiers fleet raids on Spain and the Canaries (990/1582)
In 990/1582 the Ottoman wali of Algiers readied his fleet to fight Spain on its own soil: the mujahidun landed at Barcelona and dealt destruction, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and struck the Canary Islands, destroying the military posts and taking their plunder — the fleet's aim, in al-Salabi's telling, went beyond merely punishing the Spaniards.
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The Long War
Draft card for the Long War between the Ottomans and the Habsburgs on the Hungarian frontier from 1593 to 1606; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Ottoman–Portuguese Conflicts of 1586–1589
Draft card for the Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts of 1586–1589, Mir Ali Beg's raids on the East African coast; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Ottoman–Safavid War of 1578–1590
Draft card for the Ottoman–Safavid War of 1578–1590, Murad III's wars for the Caucasus and Azerbaijan ended by the Peace of Istanbul; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Polish–Ottoman War (1593–1595)
Draft card for Polish–Ottoman War (1593–1595); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Sinan builds the Selimiye Mosque at Edirne
The architect Sinan built the Selimiye mosque complex at Edirne in 1569-75 for Selim II, who died the year before it was completed; Sinan himself considered it the crowning achievement of his career, surpassing even the Süleymaniye in Istanbul. Its great dome stands six cubits higher than that of Ayasofya.
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Serbian–Ottoman Wars
Draft card for the Serbian–Ottoman wars of 1352–1913, the centuries of Serb–Ottoman conflict; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Shahoglu revolt (1578)
Draft card for Shahoglu revolt (1578); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Bihać
Draft card for the Siege of Bihać in 1592, Hasan Pasha's Ottoman capture of the Croatian fortress; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Daman (1581)
Draft card for the Siege of Daman in 1581, of the Mughal–Portuguese struggle; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Esztergom (1595)
Draft card for the Siege of Esztergom in 1595, the Ottoman garrison's stand against the Habsburgs; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Gyor (1594)
Draft card for Siege of Gyor (1594); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Johor
Draft card for the Siege of Johor in 1587, the Portuguese counter-attack on the sultanate after Malacca; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Malacca (1575)
Draft card for Siege of Malacca (1575); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Shamakhi (1578)
Draft card for the Siege of Shamakhi in 1578, the Ottoman capture of the city from the Safavids in the Caucasus war; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Szekesfehervar (1593)
Draft card for Siege of Szekesfehervar (1593); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Tata Castle
Draft card for Siege of Tata Castle; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Tbilisi (1579)
Draft card for Siege of Tbilisi (1579); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Tbilisi (1582)
Draft card for Siege of Tbilisi (1582); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Varpalota (1593)
Draft card for Siege of Varpalota (1593); its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Siege of Veszprem
Draft card for Siege of Veszprem; its sources are not yet checked on the page.
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Uluj Ali's bid to annex Morocco (989/1581)
With the Ottoman state settled in Tunis, kapudan Uluj Ali set his sights on annexing Morocco; ordered to march on it, he reached Algiers in Jumada II 989/June 1581 while Ahmad al-Mansur stood camped at the Tensift with his kingdom's passes sealed and shores fortified, an embassy bound for Istanbul and a near-agreement with Spain struck in exchange for Larache. Facing the fait accompli the sultan ordered Uluj Ali and his deputy Jafar Pasha to abandon the Morocco operation and head east, where the Hejaz had grown troubled.