Sehzade Mustafa

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Şehzade Mustafa(1515- October 6, 1553), the prince of Manisa from 1533 to 1541 and the prince of Amasya from 1541 to 1553, was Suleiman's first born son by Gülbahar Sultan (Rose of Spring). He was the apparent heir to the Ottoman throne.

1 Life
2 Conspiracy
3 Execution
4 After the Execution
5 References

[edit] Life

Mustafa experienced problems in his relation with his father. He was the first born son and therefore the apparent heir to the throne but his father was more interested in Mehmet, the younger brother of Mustafa. Suleiman created more opportunities to the younger one and seemed like preparing him for the throne. The situation was not pleasant for Mustafa because of the treatment he got from his father. Then he faced a second shock after being sent to Amasya from Manisa. The rule of Manisa was given to the younger brother, Mehmet. It was important because Manisa was much closer to Constantinople than Amasya.

According to the Ottoman tradition, Mustafa must be sent to the closest province to Constantinople, the capital of the empire, but both because of his father's unwillingness to provide him advantage in the race between Sehzades and Hurrem Sultan's conspiracy against him, he was sent to Amasya. There he got the news of the death of his brother, Mehmet. It seemed like the barriers between the throne and Mustafa was gone but he faced another challenge just after the death of Mehmet. Another brother of Mustafa, Bayezid, was sent to Konya for his Sancak assignment. Bayezid then passed to Kütahya from Konya which were both closer to Constantinople than Amasya.^[1] ^[2]

It was important because Bayezid's mother was Hurrem Sultan. Her support to his own son made Mustafa's political career hard but he worked properly as the ruler of Amasya. There he made the people of Amasya love and respect him. He successfully ruled Amasya for twelve years.

In 1547, during Suleiman's Elkas Campaign, the emperor met with his sons Selim, Bayezid and Mustafa in different places and talked with them about the political situation. It was long after the death of Mehmet but race between three princes was going on. After Bayezid's Sancak assingment, Selim was also sent to Anatolia as the prince of Manisa in 1544.^[3]

This was a hard situation because now there were three princes in Anatolia with the potential of being the new emperor and two of them were the sons of Hurrem Sultan. This means that the only barrier between the power and Hurrem was Mustafa. Mustafa's life and his future as the apparent heir to the throne were in danger because of the alliance between ambitious Sultana and Rüstem Pasha.

[edit] Conspiracy

Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana), a woman who had been taken captive from the Ukraine and was taken to the harem of the sultan and became his favorite, wanted one of her sons to be the next sultan so she prepared a conspiracy to overthrow Mustafa.^[4] ^[5] Roxelena's partner in this plot was Rüstem Pasha, the son-in-law of Roxelana who was an ambitious man. He was planning to gain more power and secure his position as the Grand Vizier.^[6] Rüstem Pasha created documents which were seemed like written by Mustafa. Then he gave these false documents to Suleiman to make him believe his son's betrayal. At first, Suleiman wasn't interested in the rumors, which were created by Hurrem and Rüstem, about Mustafa's plans to become the emperor because of his trust to Mustafa but after seeing the false documents, he convinced that his son was a rebel.

[edit] Execution

During Suleiman's Iran campaign, his army settled in Konya for a while. While Suleiman's army was in Konya, Rüstem Pasha offered Mustafa to join to his fathers army. At the same time he warned Sulemian and he persuaded the Sultan that Mustafa was coming to kill him.^[7]

Mustafa accepted Rüstem Pasha's offer and assembled his army to join his father. Suleiman saw this as a threat because of Hurrem's and Rüstem Pasha's continuous effect on him and ordered the execution of his son. When Mustafa entered his father's tent to meet with him, Suleiman's guards attacked Mustafa, and after a long struggle they killed the prince.^[8]

[edit] After the Execution

After the death of the prince, janissaries and Anatolian soldiers of Mustafa protested the decision of Suleiman. Mustafa's army found the execution unfair because the reason of the execution was Hurrem Sultan's and Rüstem Pasha's, who weren't Anatolian, political maneuvers. Janissaries were supporting Mustafa, both because of the Ottoman traditions about the succession and the success of Mustafa as a warrior. After the protest of the army, Suleiman took Rüstem Pasha from his position and sent him back to Constantinople.

Mustafa's execution caused unrest in Anatolia, especially in Amasya because people were seeing him as the next emperor. People were angry to Rustem Pasha and others who took part in this conspiracy. In some regions of Anatolia, people remembered Mustafa as the Sultan Mustafa. His life and fate became a part of the Anatolian Turkish literature. Important Anatolian poet Taşlıcalı Yahya composed a elegy for the death prince. His story was similar to the story of Cem Sultan.