Murad III (Ottoman Turkish: مراد ثالث Murād-i sālis, Turkish:III.Murat) (4 July 1546 – 15/16 January 1595) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595. Born in Bozdağan or Manisa, Şehzade Murad was the son of Sultan Selim II and Haseki Valide Nurbanu Sultan. After his ceremonial circumcision in 1557, Murad was appointed sancakbeyi of Akşehir by Suleyman I (his grandfather) in 1558. At the age of 18 he was appointed sancakbeyi of Saruhan. Suleiman died when Murad was 20, and his father became the new Sultan. Selim II broke with tradition by sending only his oldest son out of the palace to govern a province, and Murad was sent to Manisa. Selim died in 1574 and was succeeded by Murad, who began his reign by having his five younger brothers strangled. His authority was undermined by the harem influences, more specifically, those of his mother and later of his favorite wife Safiye Sultan. The power had only been maintained under Selim II by the genius of the all-powerful Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokollu who remained in office until his assassination in October 1579. During Murad's reign the northern borders with the Habsburg Monarchy were defended by the Bosnian kapetan Hasan Predojević. The reign of Murad III was marked by exhausting wars on the empire's western and eastern fronts and Ottoman economic decline and institutional decay. The Ottomans also faced defeats during battles such as the Battle of Sisak. The Ottomans had been at peace with the Safavid Empire since 1555. But in 1577 Murad declared war, seeking to take advantage of the chaos in the Safavid court after the death of Shah Tahmasp I. He was influenced by viziers Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha and Sinan Pasha and disregarded the opposing counsel of Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokollu. The war would drag on for 12 years, ending with the Istanbul Treaty of 1590. Murad's reign was a time of financial stress for the Ottoman state. To keep up with advances in European technology, the Ottomans trained infantrymen in the use of firearms, paying them directly from the treasury. By 1580 an influx of silver from the New World had caused high inflation and social unrest, especially among Janissaries and government officials who were paid in debased currency. Deprivation from the resulting rebellions, coupled with the pressure of over-population, was especially felt in Anatolia. Competition for positions within the government grew fierce, leading to bribery and corruption. Ottoman and Habsburg sources accuse Murad himself of accepting enormous bribes, including 20,000 ducats from a statesman in exchange for the governorship of Tripoli and Tunisia, thus outbidding a rival who had tried bribing the Grand Vizier. From Murad descend all succeeding Sultans, through his marriage to Safiye Sultan, mother of Mehmed III. Numerous envoys and letters were exchanged between Elizabeth I and Sultan Murad III. In one correspondence, Murad entertained the notion that Islam and Protestantism had "much more in common than either did with Roman Catholicism, as both rejected the worship of idols", and argued for an alliance between England and the Ottoman Empire. To the dismay of Catholic Europe, England exported tin and lead (for cannon-casting) and ammunitions to the Ottoman Empire, and Elizabeth seriously discussed joint military operations with Murad III during the outbreak of war with Spain in 1585, as Francis Walsingham was lobbying for a direct Ottoman military involvement against the common Spanish enemy. This diplomacy would be continued under Murad's successor Mehmed III, by both the sultan and Safiye Sultan alike. Murad died in Topkapı Palace and was buried in tomb next to Hagia Sofia. 54 of his wives and children are also buried there. He is also responsible for changing the burial customs of the Sultans' mothers. Murad had his mother Nurbanu buried next to her husband Selim II, making her the first concubine to share a Sultan's tomb. Palace Life Following the example of his father Selim II, Murad was the second Ottoman Sultan to never go on campaign during his reign, which spent entirely in Istanbul. During the final years of his reign, he did not even leave Topkapı Palace. For two consecutive years he did not attend the Friday procession to the imperial mosque—an unprecedented breaking of custom. The Ottoman historian Mustafa Selaniki wrote that whenever Murad planned to go out to Friday prayer, he changed his mind after hearing of alleged plots by the Janissaries to dethrone him once he left the palace. Murad withdrew from his subjects and spent the majority of his reign keeping to the company of few people and abiding by a daily routine structured by the five daily Islamic prayers.

• published: 20 Apr 2015
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