Murad III (Turkish: III. Murad; 4 July 1546–16 January 1595) was the Ottoman Empire's sultan from 1574 until his death in 1595.
Battles with the Habsburgs and protracted conflicts with the Safavids were part of his reign. After briefly being a subject of the empire, the long-independent Morocco recovered its independence in 1582. During his rule, the empire's power grew throughout Africa's eastern coast. But the empire was plagued by growing corruption and New World inflation, which caused discontent among the Janissary and commoners. Because they shared an enemy in the Spanish, ties with Elizabethan England were strengthened during his rule. The Siyer-i-Nebi and other illustrated manuscripts were commissioned by him, demonstrating his strong support of the arts.
Early life
Şehzade Murad, the eldest son of Şehzade Selim and his influential wife Nurbanu Sultan, was born in Manisa on July 4, 1546. He was well-educated and learned Persian and Arabic. Murad's grandfather, Sultan Suleiman I, appointed him sancakbeyi (governor) of Akşehir in 1558 following his ceremonial circumcision in 1557. He was named Sancakbeyi of Saruhan at the age of eighteen. Murad's father, Selim II, became the new sultan after Suleiman passed away in 1566 at the age of 20. In defiance of custom, Selim II sent only his eldest son outside the palace to rule a province, designating Murad to Manisa.
Reign
Murad, who replaced Selim after his death in 1574, had his five younger brothers killed at the start of his rule. Harem influences, particularly those of his mother and later Safiye Sultan, his favorite concubine, weakened his authority, frequently to the damage of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha's power in the court. Only the strong Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, who held the position until his assassination in October 1579, had been able to sustain Selim's authority. Hasan Predojević, the governor of Bosnia, protected the northern boundaries with the Habsburg realm under Murad's rule. Exhausting conflicts on the western and eastern fronts of the empire characterized Murad III's tenure. In conflicts like the Battle of Sisak, the Ottomans also lost.
Expedition to Morocco
During his banishment, Abd al-Malik established himself as a reliable member of the Ottoman administration. He proposed that Morocco become an Ottoman vassal in return for Murad III's assistance in gaining the Saadi throne.
Ramazan Pasha and Abd al-Malik departed Algiers with an army of 10,000 soldiers, the most of whom were Turks, in order to establish Abd al-Malik as Morocco's Ottoman vassal king. The Saadi Sultan fled to Marrakesh, which was also subjugated, after Ramazan Pasha took control of Fez. Then, as an Ottoman client, Abd al-Malik came to control Morocco.
Abd al-Malik struck a bargain with the Ottoman soldiers by giving them a substantial sum of gold and returning them to Algiers, implying a less rigid definition of vassalage than Murad III would have believed. The two customary indicators of Islamic authority were the recitation of Murad's name during the Friday prayer and the stamping of his name on coins. It is believed that Moroccan vassalage to the Ottoman Empire occurred during the reign of Abd al-Malik. After Abd al-Malik passed away in 1578, his brother Ahmad al-Mansur took over. At the beginning of his rule, he formally acknowledged the Ottoman Sultan's suzerainty while maintaining his de facto independence. In 1582, he declared his complete independence, ceased minting coins in Murad's name, and removed his name from the Khutba.
War with the Safavids
According to the Treaty of Amasya, which temporarily resolved border problems, the Ottomans and their neighboring rival Safavid Empire had been at peace since 1555. However, in an attempt to capitalize on the disarray in the Safavid court following Shah Tahmasp I's death, Murad declared war in 1577, sparking the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590). Grand Vizier Sokollu's opposing counsel was ignored by Murad, who was influenced by viziers Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha and Sinan Pasha. Murad also engaged in a 12-year conflict with the Safavids that ended with the Treaty of Constantinople (1590), which gave the Ottomans brief but substantial territorial gains.
Ottoman activity in the Horn of Africa
Mir Ali Beg, an Ottoman admiral, was successful in establishing Ottoman dominance in several places along the Swahili coast between Kilwa and Mogadishu during his rule. Ottoman dominance was established in a number of cities, including Barawa, Mombasa, Kilifi, Pate, Lamu, and Faza, while Ottoman suzerainty was acknowledged in Mogadishu in 1585.
Financial affairs
The Ottoman state experienced financial hardship throughout Murad's rule. The Ottomans educated infantrymen in the use of firearms and paid them straight from the treasury in order to keep up with evolving military tactics. High inflation and social discontent were brought on by a silver inflow from the New World by 1580, particularly among government officials and Janissaries who were compensated with depreciated money. Anatolia was particularly affected by the strain of overpopulation and the deprivation brought on by the ensuing uprisings. Bribery and corruption resulted from the intense competition for government positions. According to Ottoman and Habsburg accounts, Murad outbid a rival who had attempted to bribe the Grand Vizier by taking massive bribes, including 20,000 ducats from a politician in exchange for the governorship of Tripoli and Tunisia.
Food prices rose during his time, silver money's value was continuously manipulated, and there was rampant inflation. Silver should be decreased from 600 dirhams to 400 dirhams, but 800 dirhams were cut, resulting in 100% inflation. For the same reason, the purchasing power of wage earners was half, and the consequence was an insurrection.
English pact
Sultan Murad III and Elizabeth I exchanged a large number of letters and envoys. In one letter, Murad promoted an alliance between England and the Ottoman Empire while entertaining the idea that Islam and Protestantism shared "much more in common than either did with Roman Catholicism, as both rejected the worship of idols." When war broke out with Spain in 1585, Francis Walsingham was advocating for a direct Ottoman military involvement against the shared Spanish enemy. To the dismay of Catholic Europe, England exported ammunition, tin, and lead (for cannon-casting) to the Ottoman Empire. Elizabeth also seriously discussed joint military operations with Murad III. Both the sultan and Safiye Sultan would carry on this diplomacy under Mehmed III, Murad's successor.
Personal life
Palace life
Murad was the second Ottoman sultan to spend his whole reign in Constantinople rather than going on war, following in the footsteps of his father, Selim II. He did not even leave Topkapı Palace in the last years of his rule. He broke tradition for the first time by skipping the Friday procession to the imperial mosque for two years in a row. According to Ottoman historian Mustafa Selaniki, anytime Murad was about to leave the palace for Friday prayer, he decided against it after learning of purported Janissary schemes to remove him from power. Murad retreated from his subjects and lived alone for most of his reign, following a daily schedule dictated by the five Islamic prayers. Domenico Hierosolimitano, Murad's personal physician, detailed a normal day in the sultan's life:
He gets up at the crack of dawn, spends thirty minutes praying, and then spends another thirty minutes writing. He then sets himself up to read for an additional hour after receiving a delicious collation. Then, on the four days of the week that this takes place, as previously said, he starts to address the Divan members. After that, he walks around the garden for an additional hour, enjoying the delight of the fountains and animals while being entertained by the dwarves, buffoons, and other creatures. He then resumes his studies till he realizes that lunchtime has arrived. He only remains at the table for thirty minutes before getting up to spend as much time as he wants in the garden. After that, he does his lunchtime prayer. When it is time to say the evening prayer, he will stay with the women for one or two hours after stopping to pass the time and entertain himself. After that, he either goes back to his quarters or, if it makes him happier, he spends the evening reading or chatting with the dwarfs and buffoons in the garden. At dusk, he returns to say his prayers. After that, he eats and converses until two hours after dark, when it is time for prayer, spending more time at dinner than at lunch. He consistently adheres to this daily routine.
According to Özgen Felek, Mustafa Òlî and Mustafa Selaniki, two prominent Ottoman historians who lived during Murad's reign, disapproved of him because of his sedentary lifestyle and lack of involvement in military wars. Later historians were impacted by their unfavorable depictions of Murad.
Murad and the arts
Murad had a deep passion for the arts, especially books and miniatures. He actively supported the Society of Miniaturists' court by commissioning a number of books, including the Book of Skills, the Book of Festivities, the Book of Victories, and the Siyer-i Nebi, the most extensively illustrated biographical work on the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. A enormous wax candle dressed in tin that he donated to the Rila monastery in Bulgaria is on exhibit at the monastery museum. He also had two large alabaster urns carried from Pergamon and set on either side of the nave of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
Additionally, Murad provided Şüca Dede, his spiritual advisor, with the contents of Kitabü'l-Menamat (The Book of Dreams). It describes Murad's spiritual experiences as a Sufi follower in a series of first-person narratives. It is a hagiographic self-portrait that was assembled from thousands of letters that Murad wrote about his dream visions. In his nightmares, Murad sees himself being stripped nude by his father and forced to sit on his lap, slaying 12,000 unbelievers by himself in combat, walking on water, going to heaven, and making milk with his fingers, among other things.
Murad stated, "I wish that God, may He be glorified and exalted, had not created this poor servant as the descendant of the Ottomans so that I would not hear this and that and would not worry," in a different letter to Şüca Dede. I wish I had no known ancestry. After that, I would only have one assignment to complete and could disregard everyone else."
Death
On January 16, 1595, Murad passed away in the Topkapı Palace from what are thought to be natural causes. He was interred in a mausoleum adjacent to the Hagia Sophia. The sultan's 54 sarcophagi, as well as those of his wives and children, are interred in the tomb. Additionally, he is in charge of altering the sultans' mothers' funeral traditions. Murad made his mother Nurbanu the first consort to be interred alongside her husband, Selim II.