Sultan Ahmed III

Ahmed III, the twenty-third Ottoman sultan, son of Mehmed IV, was born in 1084/1673 and reigned from 1115/1703. His reign divides into a first phase of political instability and wars and a second phase, the lâle devri, of taste for the arts and for European models.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) describes Ahmed III as the twenty-third Ottoman sultan, son of Mehmed IV. He succeeded his brother Mustafa II on 10 Rabi' II 1115/21 August 1703, when Mustafa abdicated after a Janissary rising. The leaders of the rising were soon removed, and the sultan made Istanbul the habitual seat of the court again. Many people suspected of involvement were dismissed, banished or executed in the following years. He dismissed the 700 bostandis of the palace service and replaced them with devshirme conscripts, the last use of the devshirme, and later sharply reduced the Janissary establishment. ¹

For the first half of a reign of twenty-seven years he lived in dread of "revolutionaries" (fitnecilar), and for three years he could not find a capable grand vizier until Corlulu 'Ali Pasha was appointed in Muharram 1118/May 1706. A palace camarilla, headed by the valide sultan, the kizlar agasi and the sultan's favourite, later Silahdar Damad 'Ali Pasha, shaped policy for the next eight or nine years. Ministers from outside the palace service were distrusted. ¹

The Ottoman government was drawn into war with Russia through Charles XII of Sweden, who took refuge at Bender in 1709 after his defeat at Poltava. Under pressure from Charles and from France and Venice, war was declared on 20 November 1710. The Russian army was trapped on the Pruth and forced to make the treaty of the Pruth, by which Peter gave up Azov and the other fortresses. Charles was removed by force from Bender in 1714. The Ottoman war with Russia was renewed three times before the treaty of Adrianople of June 1713 settled peace for twenty-five years. ¹

The war with Venice was declared in December 1714 after Venice refused to hand over the Vladika and other Montenegrins who had taken refuge in its territory. Within two months in the summer of 1715 the Ottoman army under Silahdar 'Ali, with the fleet, reconquered the Morea, and the fleet took several islands and Suda and Spinalonga in Crete. Austria then made a treaty of mutual aid with Venice in 1716 and declared war on the Porte. Silahdar 'Ali was mortally wounded at Peterwardein in August 1716, and Eugene of Savoy took Temesvar and in 1717 Belgrade. The peace of Passarowitz, of 21 July 1718, gave Belgrade, the Banat and Little Wallachia to Austria, and the Morea, the Cretan ports and Tenos to the Ottomans; Venice received Cerigo and its Albanian and Dalmatian strongholds, and Austrian and Venetian traders gained commercial advantages. ²

The grand vizier who made this treaty was Nevşehirli Ibrahim Pasha, another favourite, who married the sultan's thirteen-year-old daughter Fatma Sultan and so became damad. For the last twelve years of the reign he dominated the court, and this second phase is the lâle devri, the Tulip Age. Ahmed loved pleasure and the arts, and Ibrahim shared his tastes, so that they set new fashions. Pavilions and gardens were built more often than mosques, to western designs. An ambassador to Louis XV was instructed to study French institutions; in 1724 the sultan's son helped Ibrahim Müteferrika to set up the first printing press in Istanbul; a French engineer was invited to plan army reform, and a fire service was organised. Three-decker warships were built for the first time, a translation society was founded, five libraries were opened at the capital, including the Enderun library, of which Nedim was curator. The porcelain factories at Kütahya and İzmit were revived, and the Byzantine walls were repaired between 1722 and 1724. The chief monuments are the mosque at Üsküdar built for his mother and the fountain outside the Bab-ı Hümayun of Topkapı, for which the sultan himself composed the chronogram. ²

Under Ibrahim's policy of avoiding war, Ottoman rule extended over large parts of western Persia. The Safavid decline and the Afghan capture of Isfahan in 1135/1722 led Russia and the Porte to seize provinces. The Russo-Ottoman treaty of 1724 partitioned them, and the Ottomans formed about ten new eyalets. In 1725 the Afghan Ashraf proclaimed himself shah and demanded the return of these conquests. He defeated Ahmad Pasha in November 1726, but a year later made peace and recognised Ottoman sovereignty over the provinces. In 1729 Nadir Shah overthrew Ashraf and in 1730 defeated the Ottomans and forced them to give up all their gains. ²

The revolt at Istanbul began on 28 September 1730, led by Patrona Khalil, an Albanian Janissary affiliate, with two disaffected ulama and the approval of Janissary officers. The crowd gathered in the Atmeydanı, and the sultan and Ibrahim, returning from Üsküdar, found no support in the troops. On 30 September the sultan sacrificed his favourite, whose body, with those of the kapudan pasha and the kahya bey, was handed to the rebels. Ahmed agreed to abdicate, on condition that his life and those of his sons were spared, and was succeeded on 1 October 1730, 18 Rabi' I 1143, by his nephew Mahmud I. He lived in retirement and died in 1149/1736. ³

The article describes Ahmed III as handsome, an accomplished calligrapher, letter-writer and poet. He was normally of a mild disposition but ruthless towards those he feared or who had offended him. He had no taste for war, partly because of its cost, and he was fond of money and of accumulating a treasure, though his love of pleasure and display ran against this. Ibrahim Pasha served both his avarice and his extravagance by raising revenues and cutting other spending. He was devoted to his harem but did not let its members influence public affairs. He had thirty-one children, and his reign had frequent festivities for the circumcisions of his sons and the marriages of his daughters. Among the lesser events were a revolt of the Muntafik Arabs near Basra in 1117/1705, the taking of Oran from Spain by Algerian forces in 1708, and insurrections in Egypt in 1712–13 and 1727–28. The Crimean khans played a large part, the khan Dewlet Giray backing Charles XII. Francis Rakoczy's offer of help came too late to be used, and from 1716 Phanariote Greeks were appointed to govern the Danubian principalities after the treachery of Cantemir. ³