List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire
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Ottoman Imperial Standard
The
sultans of the Ottoman Empire (
Turkish:
Osmanlı padişahları), made up solely of the members of the
Ottoman dynasty
(House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its
inception in 1299 to its dissolution in 1922. At its height, the Ottoman
Empire spanned from
Hungary in the north to
Somalia in the south, and from
Algeria in the west to
Iran in the east. Administered at first from the city of
Bursa in
Anatolia, the empire's capital was moved to
Edirne in 1366 and then to
Constantinople (currently known as
Istanbul) in 1453 following its
capture from the
Byzantine Empire.
[1]
The Ottoman Empire's
early years
have been the subject of varying narratives due to the difficulty of
discerning fact from legend; nevertheless, most modern scholars agree
that the empire came into existence around 1299 and that its first ruler
(and the namesake of the Empire) was
Osman I Khan (leader) of the
Kayı tribe of the
Oghuz Turks.
[2]
The eponymous Ottoman dynasty he founded endured for six centuries
through the reigns of 36 sultans. The Ottoman Empire disappeared as a
result of the defeat of the
Central Powers with whom it had allied itself during
World War I. The
partitioning of the Empire by the victorious
Allies and the ensuing
Turkish War of Independence led to the
abolition of the sultanate in 1922 and the birth of the modern
Republic of Turkey in 1923.
[3]
State organisation of the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire was an
absolute monarchy
during much of its existence. The sultan was at the apex of the
hierarchical Ottoman system and acted in political, military, judicial,
social, and religious capacities under a variety of titles.
[a] He was theoretically responsible only to
God and
God's law (the Islamic
شریعت şeriat, known in Arabic as
شريعة sharia), of which he was the chief executor. His
heavenly mandate was reflected in Irano-Islamic titles such as "shadow of God on Earth" (
Arabic:
ظل الله في العالم
zill Allah fi'l-alem) and "caliph on the earth" (
Persian:
خلیفه روی زمین
khalife-i ru-yi zemin).
[4] All offices were filled by his authority, and every law was issued by him in the form of a decree called
firman (
فرمان). He was the
supreme military commander and had the official title to all land.
[5] Ertoghrul
served as the elected leader of the Ottomans from 1230 until his death
in 1281. In 1281, Ertoghrul's son, Osman, became elected leader of the
Ottomans. From 1299 until his death in 1324, Osman served as
Osman I "
Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire."
After the
fall of Constantinople
in 1453, Ottoman sultans came to regard themselves as the successors of
the Roman Empire, hence their occasional use of the titles
Caesar (
قیصر kaysar) and
Emperor.
[4][6][7] Following the
conquest of Egypt in 1517,
Selim I also adopted the title of
caliph, thus claiming to be the universal Muslim ruler.
[b] Newly enthroned Ottoman rulers were girded with the
Sword of Osman, an important ceremony that served as the equivalent of European monarchs' coronation.
[8] A non-girded sultan was not eligible to have his children included in the line of succession.
[9]
Although theocratic and absolute in theory and in principle, the
sultan's powers were limited in practice. Political decisions had to
take into account the opinions and attitudes of important members of the
dynasty, the bureaucratic and military establishments, as well as
religious leaders.
[5] From the 17th century onwards, the empire entered into a long-term
period of stagnation, during which the sultans were much enfeebled. Many of them ended up being deposed by the powerful
Janissary corps. Despite being barred from inheriting the throne,
[10] women of the
Imperial Harem—especially the reigning sultan's mother, known as the
Valide Sultan—also played an important behind-the-scenes political role, effectively ruling the empire during the period known as the
Sultanate of Women.
[11]
The declining powers of the sultans are evidenced by the difference in reign lengths between early sultans and later ones.
Suleiman I, who ruled the empire when it was at its zenith in the 16th century, had a reign of 46 years, the longest in Ottoman history.
Murad V,
who ruled in the late 19th-century period of decline, had the shortest
reign on record: he was in power for just 93 days before being deposed.
Constitutionalism was only
established during the reign of Murad V's successor,
Abdul Hamid II, who thus became the empire's last absolute ruler and its reluctant first constitutional monarch.
[12] Although Abdul Hamid II abolished the
parliament and the
constitution to return to personal rule in 1878, he was again forced in 1908 to
reinstall constitutionalism and was deposed. Since 2009, the head of the
House of Osman and
pretender to the defunct Ottoman throne has been
Bayezid Osman, a great-grandson of
Abdülmecid I.
[13]
List of sultans
The table below lists Ottoman sultans, as well as the last Ottoman caliph, in chronological order. The
tughras
were the calligraphic seals or signatures used by Ottoman sultans. They
were displayed on all official documents as well as on coins, and were
far more important in identifying a sultan than his portrait. The
"Notes" column contains information on each sultan's parentage and fate.
When a sultan's reign did not end through a natural death, the reason
is indicated in bold. For earlier rulers, there is usually a time gap
between the moment a sultan's reign ended and the moment his successor
was enthroned. This is because the Ottomans in that era practiced what
historian Quataert has described as "
survival of the fittest,
not eldest, son": when a sultan died, his sons had to fight each other
for the throne until a victor emerged. Because of the infighting and
numerous
fratricides that occurred, a sultan's death date therefore did not always coincide with the accession date of his successor.
[14] In 1617, the
law of succession changed from survival of the fittest to a system based on
agnatic seniority (
اکبریت ekberiyet),
whereby the throne went to the oldest male of the family. This in turn
explains why from the 17th century onwards a deceased sultan was rarely
succeeded by his own son, but usually by an uncle or brother.
[15] Agnatic seniority was retained until the
abolition of the sultanate, despite unsuccessful attempts in the 19th century to replace it with
primogeniture.
[16]
The official full style of the Ottoman Sultans was:
- 'Ala Hazrat-i-Aqdas-i-Hümayun (اعلی حضرت اقدس همایون, His Sacred and Imperial Majesty) Sultan (سلطان) N.N. Khan (خان),
- Padishah (پادشاه), i.e. Emperor,
- Hünkar-i Khanedan-i Âl-i Osman (شاه خاندان آل عثمان), i.e. Sovereign of the House of Osman,
- Sultan us-Selatin (سلطان السلاطین), i.e. Sultan of Sultans,
- Khakan (خاقان), i.e. Khan of Khans,
- Amir ül-Mü'minin ve Khalifeh ül-Rasul Rabb al-A’alimin (امیر المؤمنین و خلیفه الرسول رب العالمین), i.e. Commander of the Faithful and Successor of the Prophet of the Lord of the Universe,
- Khâdim ül-Haramayn ush-Sharifayn (خادم الحرمین الشریفین), i.e. Custodian of the Two Noble Sanctuaries (i.e. the Holy Cities of Mecca, and Medina),
- Kaysar-i-Rûm (قیصر روم), i.e. Emperor of Rome
- Padişah-i thalath şehireha-i Qostantiniyye, Edirne ve
Hüdavendigâr, ül şehireyn-i Dimaşq ve Qahira, tamam Azerbayjan, Mağrib,
Barqah, Kayravan, Haleb, ül-‘Iraq-i ‘Arab vel ‘Ajam, Basra, ül-dulan-i
Lahsa, Rakka, Musul, Partiyye, Diyârbekir, Kilikiyye, ül vilâyatun-i
Erzurum, Sivas, Adana, Karaman, Van, Barbariyye, Habeş, Tunus, Trablus-i
Garb, Şam, Kıbrıs, Rodos, Girit, ül vilâyet-i Mora, ül Bahr-i Sefid vel
Bahr-i Siyah ve i-swahil, Anadolu, Rumeli, Bagdâd, Kurdistân,
Yunanistan, Türkistan, Tatariyye, Çerkesyye, ül mintaqateyn-i Kabarda,
Gürjistan, ül-Deşt-i Qipçaq, tamam ül-mamlikat-i Tatar, Kefe ve tamam
ül-etraf, Bosna, ül şehir ve hisar-i Belgrat, ül vilâyet-i Sırbistan bil
tamam ül-hisareha ve şehireha, tamam Arnavut, tamam Eflak ve Boğdan, ve
tamam ül-mustamlak vel-hududeha, ve muteaddit mamalekat ve şehireha, i.e. Emperor of The Three Cities of Constantinople, Adrianople and Bursa, and of the Cities of Damascus and Cairo, of all Azerbaijan, of the Magreb, of Barka, of Kairouan, of Aleppo, of the Arabic and the Persian Iraq, of Basra, of Al-Hasa strip, of Ar Raqqah, of Mosul, of Diyarbakır, of Cilicia, of the provinces of Erzurum, of Sivas, of Adana, of Karaman, Van, of Barbary, of Abyssinia, of Tunisia, of Tripoli, of Damascus, of Cyprus, of Rhodes, of Crete, of the province of Morea, of the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and also their coasts, of Anatolia, Rumelia, Baghdad, Greece, Turkistan, Tartary, Circassia, of the two regions of Kabarda, of Georgia, of the steppe of Kypchaks, of the whole country of the Tatars, of Kefe and of all the neighboring regions, of Bosnia, of the City and Fort of Belgrade, of the province of Serbia, with all the castles and cities, of all Albania, of all Eflak and Bogdania, as well as all the dependencies and borders, and many other countries and cities.
Interregnum period (1402–1413)
See also
Notes
- a1 2 : The full style of the Ottoman ruler was complex, as it was composed of several titles and evolved over the centuries. The title of sultan
was used continuously by all rulers almost from the beginning. However,
because it was widespread in the Muslim world, the Ottomans quickly
adopted variations of it to dissociate themselves from other Muslim
rulers of lesser status. Murad I, the third Ottoman monarch, styled himself sultan-i azam (سلطان اعظم, the most exalted sultan) and hüdavendigar (خداوندگار, emperor), titles used by the Anatolian Seljuqs and the Mongol Ilkhanids respectively. His son Bayezid I adopted the style Sultan of Rûm, Rûm
being an old islamic name for Anatolia. The combining of the Islamic
and Central Asian heritages of the Ottomans led to the adoption of the
title that became the standard designation of the Ottoman ruler: Sultan [Name] Khan.[64] Ironically, although the title of sultan is most often associated in the Western world with the Ottomans, people within Turkey generally use the title of padishah far more frequently when referring to rulers of the Ottoman Dynasty.[65] The full style of the Ottoman sultan once the empire's frontiers had stabilized became:[66]
"Sovereign of The House of Osman, Sultan es Selatin (Sultan of Sultans), Khakhan (Khan of the Khans), Commander of the faithful and Successor of the Prophet of the lord of the Universe, Custodian of the Holy Cities of Mecca, Medina and Kouds (Jerusalem), Padishah of The Three Cities of Istanbul (Constantinople), Edirne (Adrianople) and Bursa, and of the Cities of Châm (Damascus) and Cairo (Egypt), of all Azerbaijan, of the Magreb, of Barkah, of Kairouan, of Alep, of the Arab and Persian Iraq, of Basra, of El Hasa strip, of Raka, of Mosul, of Parthia, of Diyâr-ı Bekr, of Cilicia, of the provinces of Erzurum, of Sivas, of Adana, of Karaman, of Van, of Barbaria, of Habech (Abyssinia), of Tunisia, of Tripoli, of Châm (Syria), of Cyprus, of Rhodes, of Crete, of the province of Morea (Peloponnese), of Bahr-i Abyâz (Mediterranean Sea), of Bahr-i Siyah (Black Sea), of Anatolia, of Rumelia (the European part of the Empire), of Bagdad, of Kurdistan, of Greece, of Turkestan, of Tartary, of Circassia, of the two regions of Kabarda, of Gorjestan (Georgia), of the steppe of Kipchaks, of the whole country of the Tatars, of Kefa (Feodosiya) and of all the neighbouring regions, of Bosnia, of the City and Fort of Belgrade, of the province of Sirbistan (Serbia), with all the castles and cities, of all Arnaut, of all Eflak (Wallachia) and Bogdania (Moldavia), as well as all the dependencies and borders, and many others countries and cities"
- b^ : The Ottoman Caliphate
was one of the most important positions held by rulers of the Ottoman
Dynasty. The caliphate symbolized their spiritual power, whereas the
sultanate represented their temporal power. According to Ottoman historiography, Selim I acquired the title of caliph during his conquest of Egypt in 1517, after the last Abbasid in Cairo, Al-Mutawakkil III,
relinquished the caliphate to him. However, the general consensus among
modern scholars is that this transference of the caliphate was a
fabricated myth invented in the 18th century when the idea of an Ottoman
Caliphate became useful to bolster waning military power. In fact,
Ottoman rulers had used the title of caliph before the conquest of
Egypt, as early as Murad I. It is currently agreed that the caliphate "disappeared" for two-and-a-half centuries, before being revived with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, signed between the Ottoman Empire and Catherine II of Russia
in 1774. The treaty was highly symbolic, since it marked the first
international recognition of the Ottomans' claim to the caliphate.
Although the treaty officialised the Ottoman Empire's loss of the Crimean Khanate, it acknowledged the Ottoman caliph's continuing religious authority over Muslims in Russia.[67] From the 18th century onwards, Ottoman sultans increasingly emphasized their status as caliphs in order to stir Pan-Islamist sentiments among the empire's Muslims in the face of encroaching European imperialism. When World War I broke out, the sultan/caliph issued a call for jihad in 1914 against the Ottoman Empire's Allied enemies, vainly inciting the subjects of the French, British and Russian empires to revolt. Abdülhamid II
was by far the Ottoman sultan who made the most use of his caliphal
position, and was recognized as caliph by many Muslim heads of state,
even as far away as Sumatra.[68] He had his claim to the title inserted into the 1876 Constitution (Article 4).[69]
- c1 2 : Tughras were used by 35 out of 36 Ottoman sultans, starting with Orhan in the 14th century, whose tughra has been found on two different documents. No tughra bearing the name of Osman I,
the founder of the empire, has ever been discovered, although a coin
with the inscription "Osman bin Ertuğrul bin Gündüz Alp" has been
identified.[70] Abdülmecid II, the last Ottoman caliph, also lacked a tughra of his own, since he did not serve as head of state (that position being held by Mustafa Kemal, President of the newly founded Republic of Turkey) but as a religious and royal figurehead.
- d^ : The Ottoman Interregnum, also known as the Ottoman Triumvirate (Turkish: Fetret Devri), was a period of chaos in the Ottoman Empire which lasted from 1402 to 1413. It started following the defeat and capture of Bayezid I by the Turco-Mongol warlord Tamerlane at the Battle of Ankara, which was fought on 20 July 1402. Bayezid's sons fought each other for over a decade, until Mehmed I emerged as the undisputed victor in 1413.[71]
- e^ : The dissolution of the Ottoman Empire
was a gradual process which started with the abolition of the sultanate
and ended with that of the caliphate 16 months later. The sultanate was
formally abolished on 1 November 1922. Sultan Mehmed VI fled to Malta on 17 November aboard the British warship Malaya.[55] This event marked the end of the Ottoman Dynasty, not of the Ottoman State nor of the Ottoman Caliphate. On 18 November, the Grand National Assembly (TBMM) elected Mehmed VI's cousin Abdülmecid II, the then crown prince, as caliph.[72] The official end of the Ottoman State was declared through the Treaty of Lausanne (24 July 1923), which recognized the new "Ankara government," and not the old Istanbul-based Ottoman government, as representing the rightful owner and successor state. The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed by the TBMM on 29 October 1923, with Mustafa Kemal as its first President.[73] Although Abdülmecid II was a figurehead
lacking any political power, he remained in his position of caliph
until the office of the caliphate was abolished by the TBMM on
3 March 1924.[69] Mehmed VI later tried unsuccessfully to reinstall himself as caliph in the Hejaz.[74]
