Şehzade Bayezid

Şehzade Bayezid

An Ottoman miniature showing Suleiman the Magnificent with his son, Şehzade Bayezid
Spouse Fatma Haseki Sultan
Issue Şehzade Orhan
Şehzade Osman
Şehzade Abdullah
Şehzade Mahmud
Şehzade Murad
Mihrumah Sultan
Hatice Sultan
Ayşe Sultan
Hanzade Sultan
House House of Osman
Father Suleiman the Magnificent
Mother Hürrem Sultan
Born 1525
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Died September 25, 1561 (aged 35-36)
Safavid Persia
Religion Islam

Şehzade Bayezid (1525 – September 25, 1561) was an Ottoman prince (Turkish: şehzade), who attempted to win the throne of the Ottoman Empire.

Background

Bayezid was born to Sultan Suleiman I (1494–1566), known as the Lawgiver or the Magnificent, and his favorite consort and later the legal wife, Hürrem Sultan (1500–1558).

As a court rule, Ottoman princes were appointed to govern a province in order to gain administrative experience. Bayezid became a governor of an Anatolian province (Turkish: sanjak). However, during his father's 12th campaign to Nakhchivan, part of modern Azerbaijan, in 1553, he was assigned to rule in Edirne, the Ottoman capital in European part, to control Rumelia, European territories of the empire, in the absence of his father. During the campaign, Bayezid's oldest brother, Şehzade Mustafa, was executed upon Sultan's order. The news of execution caused unrest in all parts of the empire and an impostor, claiming to be the executed Mustafa, rebelled against Suleiman in Rumelia. Although the rebellion was subdued by a vizier, Suleiman suspected that his son Bayezid was deliberately slow to react.[1]

Rebellion

Suleiman had five sons. His second son Mehmed had died a decade earlier in 1543. After the execution of Mustafa, who had been the heir apparent of the throne in 1553 and Şehzade Cihangir's death, the youngest brother, who suffered from poor health, only two princes were left to be the potential claimant to throne: Selim, the future Selim II, and Bayezid. Selim was the governor of Manisa and Bayezid was the governor of Kütahya, two cities at almost equal distance from Constantinople, the capital.

Suleiman was in his 60s, and the competition between the two brothers over the throne was evident. Suleiman scolded his sons and decided to change their places of duty. Selim was assigned to rule in Konya and Bayezid in Amasya, both provinces being this time further from the Constantinople but still equidistant. Selim was quick to obey and promptly moved to Konya. But to the dismay of his father, Bayezid obeyed only after much hesitation, because Amasya was the sanjak of his executed brother Mustafa, he took it as a humiliation ). Angered, Suleiman accused Bayezid of being a rebel and supported his elder son Selim against the disobedient Bayezid. Selim, in collaboration with Sokollu Mehmet Pasha, the future grand vizier, defeated his brother in a battle near Konya on May 31, 1559.[2]

After the rebellion

Bayezid returned to Amasya and escaped to Safavid Persia with his sons and a small army. According to journalist and historian researcher Murat Bardakçı, Sokullu Mehmet Pasha sent an army after Bayazıt, which was defated by Bayazıt's forces.[3] Although Shah Tahmasp I initially welcomed Bayezid, he later jailed him on the request of Sultan Suleiman. Both Suleiman and Selim sent envoys to Persia to persuade the shah to execute Bayezid. Finally, on September 25, 1561, Bayezid and his four sons were executed in Persia by an Ottoman executioner.[4]

Marriage and issue

Bayezid married Fatma Sultan, who bore him five sons and four daughters.

Sons

Daughters

References

  1. ↑ An essay on Süleyman's sons (Turkish)
  2. ↑ Prof.Dr.Yaşar Yücel-Prof.Dr.Ali Sevim: Türkiye Tarihi II, AKDTYK yayınları, İstanbul,1990 p 299-300
  3. ↑ Habertürk newspaper Murat bardakçı's article (Turkish)
  4. ↑ Joseph von Hammer:Osmanlı Tarihi Vol II (condensation: Abdülkadir Karahan), Milliyet yayınları, İstanbul. p 36-37