Şehzade Bayezid
| Şehzade Bayezid | |
|---|---|
 An Ottoman miniature showing Suleiman the Magnificent with his son, Şehzade Bayezid | |
| Born |
1525 Constantinople, Ottoman Empire |
| Died |
September 25, 1561 (aged 35-36) Safavid Persia |
| Burial | Melik-i Acem Türbe, Sivas |
| Spouse | Fatma Hatun |
| 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 |
| Religion | Islam |
Şehzade Bayezid (1525 – September 25, 1561) was an Ottoman prince (Turkish: şehzade), who attempted to win the throne of the Ottoman Empire. After the death of three of Suleiman's sons, only Bayezid and Selim were alive. By the course of the 1550s, when Suleiman was already in his 60s, a protracted competition for the throne between Bayezid and Selim was evident. Angered by Bayezids disobedience stemming from around the same years, Bayezid had fallen in disfavour with his father as opposed to his brother Selim (who would eventually succeed as Selim II). After a staged rebellion, which was suppressed in 1559 by Selim (who was further aided by Suleiman and Sokollu Mehmet Pasha) he fled to the neighbouring Safavid Empire, where he was wholeheartedly and lavishly received by Tahmasp I. However, in 1561, upon continous insistment of Suleiman throughout the entire period of his exile, and by the means of several large payments, Tahmasp allowed Bayezid to be executed by an Ottoman executioner.
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 (1502–1558).
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 Bayezıd, which was defated by Bayezıd's forces.[3] In the autumn of 1559, he reached the Safavid town of Yerevan, where he was received with great respect by its governor. Some time later, he reached Tabriz, where he was welcomed by king (shah) Tahmasp I. Although Tahmasp I initially wholeheartedly and lavishly welcomed Bayezid, including giving magnificent parties in his honour, he later jailed him on the request of Sultan Suleiman.[4][5] Both Suleiman and Selim sent envoys to Persia to persuade the shah to execute Bayezid. For the coming one and half year in fact, embassies would continue to travel between Istanbul and Qazvin. On 16 July, what would be the last of the Ottoman embassies would arrive, whose formal task, like the previous embassies, was to try return Bayezid to Istanbul.[6] As stated by Prof. Colin P. Mitchell, this included Khusrau Pasha (the governor of Van), Sinan Pasha, Ali Aqa Chavush Bashi, and a retinue of two hundred officials.[6] In the letter that was given with the embassy, Suleiman also declared his readiness to reconfirm the Treaty of Amasya (1555) and to begin a new era of Ottoman–Safavid relations.[6] Suleiman, throughout the embassies, also gave Tahmasp numerous gifts. He also agreed with Tahmasp's demand to pay him for handing Bayezid over (400,000 gold coins were given[7][8]). Finally, on September 25, 1561, Bayezid and his four sons were handed over by Tahmasp and executed in the environs of the Safavid capital Qazvin by the Ottoman executioner, Ali Aqa Chavush Bashi, through the way of garrotting.[9][6]
Marriage and issue
Bayezid's consort was Fatma Hatun.
Sons
- Şehzade Orhan (1543 in Kütahya - September 25, 1561 in Qazvin)
- Şehzade Osman (1545 in Kütahya - September 25, 1561 in Qazvin)
- Şehzade Abdullah (1548 in Kütahya, - September 25, 1561 in Qazvin)
- Şehzade Mahmud (1552 in Kütahya, - September 25, 1561 in Qazvin)
- Şehzade Mehmet (1559 in Amasya, - October 3, 1561 in Bursa)
Daughters
- Mihrumah Sultan (1547 Kütahya - 1594 Istanbul))
- Hatice Sultan (born and died 1550 in Kütahya)
- Ayşe Sultan (1553 in Kütahya - 1572 in Tokat)
- Hanzade Sultan (born and died 1556 in Kütahya)
References
- ↑ An essay on Süleyman's sons (Turkish)
- ↑ Prof.Dr.Yaşar Yücel-Prof.Dr.Ali Sevim: Türkiye Tarihi II, AKDTYK yayınları, İstanbul,1990 p 299-300
- ↑ Habertürk newspaper Murat bardakçı's article (Turkish)
- ↑ Faroqhi, Suraiya N.; Fleet, Kate (2012). The Cambridge History of Turkey: Volume 2, The Ottoman Empire as a World Power, 1453–1603. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1316175545.
Tahmasp, thus presented with the opportunity to take revenge for the reverse flight of his own brother some years before, received Bayezid with great honour, as Suleyman had Alkas Mirza
- ↑ Clot, André (2012). Suleiman the Magnificent. Saqi. pp. 1–399. ISBN 978-0863568039.
"(...) In the autumn of 1559, the prince reached Yerevan, where the governor received him with the greatest respect. A little later, Shah Tahmasp, delighted to have such a hostage in his hands, went to Tabriz to welcome him. The shah held magnificent parties in his honour. Thirty heaped plates of gold, of silver, of pearls and precious stones, "were poured on the prince's head".
- 1 2 3 4 Mitchell 2009, p. 126.
- ↑ Van Donzel, E.J. (1994). Islamic Desk Reference. BRILL. p. 438. ISBN 978-9004097384.
- ↑ Lamb, Harold (2013). Suleiman the Magnificent - Sultan of the East. Read Books Ltd. pp. 1–384. ISBN 978-1447488088.
Four hundred thousand gold coins were sent to Tahmasp by the hand of an executioner
- ↑ Joseph von Hammer:Osmanlı Tarihi Vol II (condensation: Abdülkadir Karahan), Milliyet yayınları, İstanbul. p 36-37
Sources
- Clot, André (2012). Suleiman the Magnificent. Saqi. pp. 1–399. ISBN 978-0863568039.
Then, since he had promised never to hand him over to Suleiman, he delivered Bayezid to Selim's envoy. The unlucky man was strangled with his four sons. A little later, his fifth son, 3 years old was also put to death in Bursa by a eunuch that Suleiman had sent with a janissary.
- Mitchell, Collin P. (2009). The Practice of Politics in Safavid Iran: Power, Religion and Rhetoric. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-0857715883.
- Tezcan, Baki (2010). The Second Ottoman Empire: Political and Social Transformation in the Early Modern World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 42–43. ISBN 978-0521519496.
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