The story of Şehzade Ahmed (Prince Ahmed) is usually told from its end: the plain of Yenişehir, a throne lost to a brother, and a life that closed with a silken cord. Yet before he was a defeated prince, Ahmed was the prince who remained longest in a single sanjak in Ottoman history. For thirty years, from 1481 to 1511, he governed Amasya, laid the foundation of one of the city's most important mosque complexes, and saw a circle of poets gather around his palace. For most of these years there is no detailed council register or palace diary; what we know is pieced together from traces scattered through chronicles, archival reports and the buildings of the city. Where the sources disagree, this is stated plainly, and where they say nothing, nothing is added.

Birth and Family

Ahmed, the eldest son of Bayezid II, is believed to have been born in Amasya in 1465, though some sources give around 1466. His mother was Bülbül Hatun. When Ahmed was born, his father Bayezid had long been sanjak governor (sanjak-bey) of Amasya, having been sent to the post at the age of seven, the youngest of all the princes appointed there. Ahmed thus came into the world in a prince's palace, in the household of the governor of the very city he would later rule for years.

Bayezid's sons are listed as Abdullah, Şehinşah, Ahmed, Korkut, Selim, Mehmed, Âlemşah and Mahmud. Apart from Ahmed, Korkut and Selim, all of them died before their father. According to a study drawing on Uzunçarşılı, Ahmed was the eldest of the sons who were still living in Bayezid's lifetime. Amasya knew another prince of the same name: Ahmed Çelebi, eldest son of Murad II, was born in the city in 1420, became sanjak governor after 1435, and died there in 1438. Sometimes called "Ahmed the Elder," he belongs to a period a century and a half before our Ahmed, and the two names should not be confused.

His mother Bülbül Hatun stayed with her son in Amasya during his years as governor and left the city a neighbourhood that bears her name; this will be taken up again below. Since the sources give differing accounts of Bülbül Hatun's other children, only what is common to all of them is taken as the basis here, namely that she was Ahmed's mother.

Childhood and Education

No direct document has been found on Ahmed's childhood, his teachers or his early schooling. A study of his younger brother Mahmud, born in Amasya in 1475-76, writes that Mahmud spent his childhood in his father's governor's palace, and that the administrative, scholarly and literary accumulation of the city played a primary role in the good education of princes born in the palace milieu. The same environment applied to all of Bayezid's sons and must also hold true for Ahmed; but this is an inference and rests on no direct record.

Around 1480 Mehmed the Conqueror summoned his grandsons to Istanbul, showed them great attention and had them circumcised; Kemalpaşazâde names Ahmed, Korkut, Mahmud and Âlemşah among the brothers. Hoca Sadeddin, for his part, mentions the circumcision of Ahmed's son and of the sons of viziers at the lavish circumcision festivities held in Istanbul in 1490. No firm date is known for Ahmed's own circumcision, his wedding or his first marriage. Selim, too, was born in Amasya, and after his circumcision ceremony he returned to his father and stayed in the city for some time. It is possible that the two brothers lived in the same palace, but nothing is known of the relationship between them; the later enmity cannot be projected back onto their childhood.

Rise to the Sanjak of Amasya

On the death of Mehmed the Conqueror, Bayezid left Amasya for Istanbul and ascended the throne (1481). According to Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar, on leaving the sanjak he installed his eldest son Ahmed, born there, as governor in his place. The date 12 March 1481 is also given for the start of the governorship, yet Mehmed died on 3 May 1481, and this date does not square exactly with Ahmed's installation. Since no document has been seen, it is safer to give no precise day and say only 1481. A youth of about sixteen thus became governor of the Ottoman city of princes.

In the lists of Amasya's sanjak governors, Ahmed's tenure is given as 1481-1511, that is, thirty years. This is the longest among the princes who served as governor in the city; next come his father Bayezid with twenty-seven years and Mehmed I (Çelebi Mehmed) with twenty-four. Some sources give April 1512 as the end of his tenure. The gap may stem from the distance between Ahmed's actual departure from Amasya in 1511 and the formal end of his office, but this is not certain.

Faruk Söylemez takes Bayezid's appointment of Ahmed to Amasya, the princely sanjak closest to Istanbul, as a sign that he wished to see him succeed him on the throne, whereas Selim had been sent to Trabzon, far from the centre. The same article also reminds us that a sanjak alone was not enough: Mehmed the Conqueror had sent Cem to Konya and Bayezid to Amasya, and it was Bayezid who ascended the throne.

Thirty Years in Amasya: City and Court

His Lalas and Retinue

Among the surviving works of Amasya is the "Mosque of Vizier Mehmed Paşa, lala of Şehzade Ahmed." This complex, made up of a mosque, soup kitchen, tomb and madrasa, is dated either 1486 or 1495; there is agreement that it was built by Mehmed Paşa, one of the viziers of Bayezid II's reign. During the struggle for the throne two more lalas (tutor-guardians) of Ahmed appear. According to Söylemez, the lala he sent to Istanbul as a messenger was "Yularkıstı Sinan Paşa," while the lala who wrote letters to Istanbul while Ahmed was at Yenişehir was Kasım Bey. In the intelligence reports of 1512-13, Ahmed's lala is called "Yularkasdı Sinan Bey" and is said to have gathered ten to fifteen thousand Rumelian troops and come to Ankara. Whether these are one person or several, and in which years they served as lala, could not be established. Other names around him appear mostly in the war years: the chief steward İsak (çaşnigirbaşı) figures as "Ahmed's spy," caught through Selim's counter-espionage, and Selim's treasurer Kasım Çelebi was reported to be leaning toward Ahmed.

The Bayezid Complex

In memory of the year 1481, when Sultan Bayezid ascended the throne while still sanjak governor, his son Şehzade Ahmed laid the foundation of the Bayezid II Complex. Completed in 1486, the group of buildings stands in the Hacı İlyas Quarter and consists of a mosque, madrasa, primary school, soup kitchen and ablution fountain; apart from the school, all the units still stand. From the day it opened, the Sultan Bayezid Mosque became the city's Friday mosque. Bayezid is named as the complex's patron; Ahmed's role is recorded as that of the prince who laid the foundation and oversaw the construction.

Bülbül Hatun and the Hatuniye

The tie of Ahmed's mother Bülbül Hatun to Amasya can still be seen today. She is recorded as having built a soup kitchen in the Hatuniye Quarter in 1509; the Hatuniye Mosque dates from 1510, and the quarter takes its name from this lady. She also built a mosque and soup kitchen at Ladik and arranged her endowments by two deeds of foundation dated 1511 and 1513; for details, the site's article on Bülbül Hatun may be consulted. These buildings show that Ahmed's sanjak was not merely a military and administrative unit but had a court circle shaped also by his mother's charitable works.

Mihrî Hatun, Şahkulu and the Circle of Poets

The Amasya poet Mihrî Hatun entered the literary milieu that formed around the princely palace during the governorship of first Bayezid II and then his son Şehzade Ahmed, and drew attention with her poems. Sehî Bey says she presented many odes (qasidas) and ghazals to Selim the Grim and to Şehzade Ahmed, while Abdülkadir Karahan notes that nearly all the odes in her divan were presented to Ahmed, especially on the occasion of festival greetings. Mihrî also sent odes to Bayezid regularly, presented him her divan once it was complete, and in 1508 sent the divan and received a gift of 3000 akçe. The biographical dictionaries (tezkires) also allude to the affection between the poet and İskender Çelebi, son of Sinan Paşa, and Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Efendi; this suggests a lively literary life around Ahmed's palace. That Ahmed, like his father, opened his palace to poets and scholars is stated plainly in the sources. The date of Mihrî Hatun's death is uncertain: although 1506 is given, a record that she sent an ode to Bayezid on 16 March 1512 pushes the date later. She is buried in the graveyard of her grandfather Pîr İlyas's dervish lodge in Amasya.

There is one more record concerning the artistic circle. Âşık Çelebi writes that Şahkulu, the painter-illuminator (nakkaş) who became chief of the palace painting workshop in Süleyman's reign and the first representative of the saz yolu style, went from Tabriz to Amasya in the time of Bayezid II, stayed at Şehzade Ahmed's palace, and came to Istanbul under Selim the Grim after the prince's death. An archival document, on the other hand, lists Şahkulu among the scholars and artists deported from Tabriz to Istanbul by way of Amasya on 12 April 1515, after the victory over Shah Ismail. The two accounts do not fully agree, and how long the master stayed in Amasya is not known. This painter should not be confused with the rebel Şahkulu Baba Tekeli, who will be discussed below; they are two different people of the same name.

For Ahmed's own poems or divan we have no source. Publications that present him as a poet and scholar do not ground the claim in any record, so no verse has been quoted from him. There is only one detail, drawn from Kınalızâde: Korkut asked his brother Ahmed for the renowned kemençe master Zeynelâbidîn, who had come from Iran, and had him brought to his own court. This suggests that a well-known musician was present at Ahmed's palace.

The Citadel and the Vineyards

The Amasya Citadel and its walls were repaired in the age of the princes; one of these repairs was made in 1511, during Şehzade Ahmed's governorship. In records of 1576, vineyards and gardens around the Savadiye Quarter are mentioned under the name "the Vineyards of Şehzade Ahmed"; long after the prince had gone, these gardens were still called by his name.

His Father's Favourite

As Bayezid aged his health declined, and gout (nikris) left him able to attend to less and less. It is recorded that he wished to place on the throne his eldest son Ahmed, who resembled him in manner, and that this set off a very early struggle among his sons. The Venetian ambassador Andrea Gritti, who came to Istanbul in 1503, reported that, against the sultan's inclination, Korkut considered himself the prince most worthy of the sultanate, while Selim was known for the fame he had won against the Safavids.

The idea that Ahmed was the foremost candidate for the throne was not merely the Venetian envoy's observation. Selim, looking from Trabzon, had also noticed that his elder brother Ahmed, based in Amasya, stood out as the strongest candidate. Ahmed, though not officially so, was widely regarded as heir apparent, with the grand vizier Hadım Ali Paşa behind him. According to an account drawing on Uzunçarşılı, Ali Paşa promised Ahmed the sultanate once the Şahkulu rebellion had been suppressed, and Ahmed, trusting in this, handed out gifts to soldiers and commanders.

The Question of the Sanjaks: Süleyman, Selim and Korkut

Ahmed's interference in sanjak appointments is reported as one of the things that angered Selim most. In Söylemez's account, when it was time to appoint Selim's son Süleyman to a sanjak, first the very remote Sultanönü and then the mountainous, barren district of Giresun, Kürtün and Şiran were offered, and it was said that these were really the work of statesmen sympathetic to Ahmed. Süleyman was then given Şebinkarahisar and afterwards Bolu, but "Ahmed objected strongly," because Bolu was closer to Istanbul than Amasya. In the end Süleyman was appointed to Kefe in 1509; the date is given as 6 July or 6 August. This stance is interpreted as Ahmed's concern to keep his advantage of proximity to Istanbul.

What befell Korkut paints a similar picture. When Korkut fell out with the grand vizier Ali Paşa and was transferred from Manisa to Antalya, Ahmed's anxiety over his activity and his pressure on their father played a part. Korkut then went to Egypt in 1509. Thus the three brothers came to stand in positions where each watched the others' moves: Korkut in Antalya, Selim in Trabzon, Ahmed in Amasya. The dispute between Selim and Ahmed reached its height, and by report the two even began preparing for war against each other. Söylemez also relates that a letter Selim wrote to his father contained the rumour that Bayezid was thinking of putting Ahmed on the throne and eliminating his other sons. This is a rumour, and there is no document showing that Bayezid held such an intention.

The Qizilbash Question and the Şahkulu Rebellion

In the spring of 1511 a new storm broke in Anatolia. In the Antalya region a Turkmen baba (dervish leader) named Şahkulu Baba Tekeli rose in revolt together with followers drawn from pro-Safavid circles. Every phase of the rebellion can be followed in detail from the reports and documents in the Topkapı Palace Museum Archive. Şahkulu had gathered pro-Safavid people around him, built a lodge, a soup kitchen and houses for his disciples, and begun to preach and spread propaganda; the subaşı sent by the Antalya officials managed to arrest about twenty of his men but could not seize him. The movement became visible in March 1511, when he attacked Korkut's tents and his treasurer outside Antalya, and it spread into the interior of Anatolia. Anatolia was stained with blood from end to end, and in Tokat the sermon was read in the name of Shah Ismail. Şahkulu's real aim is not fully understood: he may have wished to cut off Korkut, whom he regarded as the strongest candidate for the Ottoman throne, while the Ottoman sources attribute his turning back from the direction of Bursa to learning that the sultan was alive.

The Amasya region was caught in this turmoil too. Söylemez relates that in the edict Bayezid sent to Ahmed he noted that the majority of the Amasya region was made up of Qizilbash Turkmen, and that if Ahmed left it, revolts would be hard to suppress. Ahmed's sanjak was one of the border districts most open to Safavid influence; Shah Ismail's propaganda, his deputies (caliphs), the Turkmen clans, and the delicate balance maintained against them form the background to all thirty years in Amasya.

From Altıntaş to Kızılkaya

Bayezid entrusted the suppression of the rebellion to Hadım Ali Paşa and Ahmed. Ali Paşa marched against Şahkulu with 4000 janissaries and 4000 men of the Porte, met Şehzade Ahmed at Altıntaş, and sent orders to Haydar Paşa, beylerbey of Karaman, to cut off the roads by which Şahkulu might flee. The two reached Kızılkaya on 15 June 1511. According to Söylemez, Ali Paşa received Ahmed with great ceremony, and Ahmed was very generous to the troops.

What Ahmed was focused on at this time is assessed differently in the sources. According to Söylemez, instead of working together Ahmed discussed the sultanate with Ali Paşa. The siege of Kızılkaya lasted thirty-eight days; Ahmed asked the timariot cavalry (sipahi) and the janissaries to swear allegiance to him, and the soldiers refused, saying "While our sultan lives we will not pledge allegiance to any prince"; in the account drawing on Uzunçarşılı the same remark appears as "As long as our sultan lives we will recognize no one as ruler." While this dispute went on, Şahkulu's followers fell upon the side besieged by Haydar Bey, lala of Şehinşah, and killed him, and Şahkulu fled in the direction of Sivas.

In the other account, Ahmed's mistake lay less in the matter of allegiance than in leaving the pursuit to Ali Paşa. Ali Paşa mounted some 500 janissary musketeers he could find on horses and set off swiftly after Şahkulu, leaving Ahmed and the main forces behind. After a rapid pursuit of fourteen days, Şahkulu was overtaken near Sivas at the place called Çubuk (Gökçay in some sources), and in the battle of 2 July 1511 Ali Paşa and 170 musketeer janissaries lost their lives; the report Şehzade Ahmed sent to the capital gives this date. Şahkulu had had a ditch dug around his camp, built a barricade of camels, and made gates to ease attacking and withdrawing. Most of the roughly 2000 men with Ali Paşa were exhausted, and the advice to rest and wait for help went unheeded. The sipahis of the Amasya-Tokat region also kept away from the battle. Şahkulu's fate is uncertain: Ahmed's report says it could not be made out whether he died on the battlefield, another document speaks of a rumour that he was killed by a musket ball, and Kemalpaşazâde says "whether the earth was pierced and he entered it, or he rose to the sky, no one knew."

Selim Özcan writes that Ahmed intervened in the rebellion with his forces and, defeated, had to withdraw. According to another account, instead of suppressing the rebellion Ahmed tried to win the rebel soldiers to his own cause and abandoned the field. Ahmed's failure further improved Selim's chances. That there was defeat and loss of prestige is accepted by almost everyone; where exactly the fault lay is disputed.

Ali Paşa's death meant the withdrawal of Ahmed's strongest supporter from the stage. In the same days Şehinşah, governor of Karaman, also died. When the two reports reached Istanbul together, Bayezid, already ill, was badly shaken and said he would give up the throne and withdraw to a corner.

Leaving Amasya

The year Ahmed left his sanjak is 1511. According to Söylemez's account drawing on Matrakçı Nasuh, Ahmed gathered the senior men with him and discussed the sultanate; saying that Korkut had won support from the Sultan of Egypt, that Selim had crossed into Rumelia and that the sultan was unaware of it, he declared his plan to chastise Korkut with the Anatolian troops and then cross to Rumelia and become sultan. The next morning he went to Ankara and sent a letter to Istanbul stating that he would march against his brothers, who had abandoned their sanjaks, to return them to their former places.

Bayezid was hurt by this move and ordered Ahmed to return to his own sanjak, because the majority of the region was Qizilbash Turkmen and, if Ahmed left it, suppressing a revolt there would become difficult. Ahmed wrote from Ankara that returning to his sanjak was not appropriate while the Qizilbash danger existed and that he wished to take part in eliminating the Şahkulu bandits. Bayezid welcomed this request and gave him the task. In this account Ahmed's leaving the sanjak appears first as an unauthorized move and then as a campaign approved by the sultan.

His eldest son Murad was left in Amasya as deputy: Ahmed, on an invitation to the throne from statesmen, had left Murad in the sanjak governorship of Amasya and gone to Istanbul. According to Özcan, at this time the Safavid caliphs took control of Tokat, besieged Sivas, and Murad joined the caliph Nur Ali with ten thousand men, which produced a new crisis; this ended when Yahşi Beyzade Ahmed Paşa drove the rebels out of Amasya. Murad then left Amasya and turned to the dervish lodge of Shah Ismail, and died after serving as an administrator in Iran for some three or four years. The appointment of a grandson, Ahmed's son Murad, to a sanjak to which the sons of sultans were appointed is also a notable exception among the governors of Amasya.

Söylemez writes that Nur Ali attacked Amasya with twenty thousand men from the Karahisar and Niksar side, that Ahmed was no more successful against Nur Ali than he had been in the Şahkulu affair, and that this played a part in Bayezid's cooling toward Ahmed. It is noted that in 1512 Murad joined caliph Nur Ali's Anatolian campaign and "put on the Qizilbash crown." A 2024 article, drawing on Selim's spy reports, writes that rice levies were taken from the people in Amasya, Kargı and Tosya to distribute stipends to the troops, and that the forces led by Murad oppressed the people. These are reports based on Selim's intelligence and written against Ahmed and his family, and they may not be an impartial observation.

At the Gate of the Throne: Toward Istanbul

In the summer of 1511 Selim fought Bayezid's army in Rumelia and, defeated near Uğraş, withdrew to Kefe on 3 August 1511. This defeat seemed to clear Ahmed's way. Bayezid ordered the necessary preparations for Ahmed's accession, and the viziers obtained a pledge from the Rumelian beys for Ahmed's sultanate. At this time Ahmed was first at Afyon and then at Yenişehir. In a letter he wrote from Afyon to the new grand vizier Hersekzâde Ahmed Paşa, he reacted strongly to the granting of the sanjak of Semendire to Selim, asked permission to fight Selim, and declared that if it were not given he would himself rebel. The viziers, for their part, said that Ahmed should return to Amasya and that, if he resisted, Karaman might be given to him.

In the end Bayezid permitted Ahmed to come to Istanbul on the pretext of kissing his hand. Ahmed came to Gebze and from there to Üsküdar. His summons to Istanbul stirred up the janissaries, who did not want him; this took place on 21 September 1511. According to Söylemez, that night the janissaries gathered and, recalling Ahmed's conduct in the Şahkulu campaign, judged him unworthy of the sultanate: "How could one who fled from a few marauders be worthy of the sultanate?" Dividing into four columns, they stormed and plundered the houses of the viziers who favoured Ahmed. The next morning they came to the Imperial Gate (Bâb-ı Hümayun) and demanded that several viziers and officials be expelled from the city and that Ahmed go back to where he had come from. As the rebels searched for Ahmed's lala Sinan Paşa, he mounted a horse and fled toward the sea. Ahmed, waiting at Üsküdar for a ship to carry him, saw his lala before him and understood the situation, and withdrew to Gebze. In some accounts the event takes place at Maltepe, and it is written that Ahmed asked permission to enter Istanbul and returned to Anatolia when the janissaries showed loyalty to Selim; the difference in place names may arise from the sources mentioning the same event from different points. In either case the gate had closed on Ahmed, and the army's heart was with Selim. From this point Söylemez writes that Ahmed lost the throne; Ahmed himself did not see the matter this way.

Ruling Like a Sultan at Konya

Ahmed understood that the janissaries loathed him for his faulty conduct in the Şahkulu affair. According to Söylemez, he hoped to take Anatolia and, in time, to win over the hearts of the kul class and so ascend the throne. He asked Bayezid to give him the province of Karaman and declared that, if refused, he would attack it; Bayezid did not consent. The aim was to seize Karaman and, after bringing under his authority his nephew Şehzade Mehmed (son of Şehinşah), who was governor there, to hold the whole of Anatolia. Mehmed defended Konya for a time, but in the end surrendered to Ahmed.

Returning, Ahmed took Konya, settled there and began to behave like a sovereign. He sent orders in all directions, tried to gather troops and set about serious preparations against Selim. Some sources write that at this stage he proclaimed himself sultan of Anatolia and, despite being told to return to his father's sanjak, insisted on staying in Konya. Names and places abound for this period, but the reliable sources often rest solely on Selim's spy reports. According to the reports, Ahmed was behaving like a sovereign based at Konya, collecting money and troops; the levy sent out to Ankara is reported as 10-12 times 100,000 akçe; he was collecting tribute at Beyşehir and sending couriers to the beys of Taşeli and Karaman; and it was alleged that around Samsun and Trabzon he was acting together with the Qizilbash. All of these are intelligence texts written by Selim or submitted to him, and the accuracy of the facts has not been confirmed by any independent document.

Selim's Accession

Meanwhile the picture was changing rapidly. In March 1512 Bayezid summoned Selim to Istanbul and appointed him commander-in-chief (serdar). Selim's arrival in Istanbul was welcomed, and Korkut too had presented himself to Selim and abandoned his claim to the throne. In the end Bayezid, under heavy pressure, abdicated in Selim's favour, and Selim ascended the throne on 24 April 1512. Bayezid left Istanbul with four loads of akçe to go to Dimetoka, fell ill on the way and died in the village of Abalar; the date of death is given as 26 May, 2 June or 10 June 1512. Their father's death hardened the struggle between the brothers.

Ahmed was preparing to resist Selim to the end and was trying to seize Bursa by sending his son Alâeddin there. The people of Bursa asked the new sultan for help on 19 June 1512. Alaeddin took Bursa and had the sermon read in his father's name; when Selim sent forces against him, he fled the city and took refuge with the Mamluks. Selim summoned his son Süleyman from Kefe, entrusted Istanbul's defence to him, and crossed to Anatolia on 18 July 1512. Ahmed, who was at Afyon, withdrew to Ankara; unable to hold there either, he went to Amasya and then to Darende. According to another account, when Malkoçoğlu Turali Bey attacked he withdrew from Ankara to Malatya and sent his two sons to Shah Ismail to ask for help.

Selim spent the winter in Bursa, where he set about settling accounts with the rest of the dynasty. On the ground that he had corresponded with his elder brother Ahmed, he had the grand vizier Koca Mustafa Paşa executed; he did away with the sons of Şehzade Mahmud, Âlemşah and Şehinşah, and then had Korkut seized and put to death; Korkut's death falls around 13 March 1513. Now only Ahmed and his sons remained before him.

The Road to Yenişehir

Ahmed had by this time brought Amasya back under his control. Selim had false letters written to Ahmed in the names of certain statesmen, promising in them that they would go over to Ahmed's side in battle. Believing them, Ahmed marched on Bursa with the force he had gathered. An encyclopedia entry gives the date of this move as "the end of January 1512"; the course of events suggests that it was January 1513, but because this is what the source says, it is reported without being made definite.

Selim's intelligence followed Ahmed's every step. According to the reports, Ahmed was following the route by way of Ankara, Eskişehir, Seyitgazi and İnönü, and about 6,000 troops from Karahisar and Qizilbash from Amasya were joining him; it was reported that the people of Yenişehir wanted Selim and did not lean toward Ahmed. Selim's vanguard was defeated by Ahmed, whereupon Selim sent forward his whole army.

The Battle of Yenişehir

The two armies met on the plain of Yenişehir near Bursa. The date of the battle differs in the sources: some give 15 April 1513 (8 Safar 919), while many publications say 24 April 1513. A study of the sanjak governors of Amasya dates the battle to 1514. Considering that Bayezid abdicated on 24 April 1512, it is possible that the 24 April in the date of the battle has been confused with that one, but this is a guess. For this reason both 15 and 24 April are given.

The sources do not agree on the size of the armies either. According to one account, Selim's army was 8,000-10,000 and Ahmed's 20,000-30,000, and Ahmed's large, irregular host suffered heavy losses against a regular army of high firepower. Another gives about 5,000 troops for Ahmed and about 30,000 for Selim; a 2024 article writes that Selim crossed into Anatolia with an army of 70,000. These figures cannot be reconciled; only Selim's superiority in firearms and regular troops is common to every source.

The battle was bloody. When Ahmed realized that the letters were false he tried to withdraw, but it was too late; he made his last stand and was defeated. According to the article by İkram Ertaş, while trying to flee the field toward İzmit, just as he was about to leave Ottoman lands, he was caught on a villager's tip-off. Despite all his insistence on meeting Selim, his request was refused, and he was strangled to death by the hand of the chief gatekeeper (kapıcıbaşı) Sinan Ağa, who had also killed Korkut. His body was buried at Bursa. Yenişehir and its surroundings are given as the place of death; the age at which he died is calculated as 47 or 48, depending on the year of birth.

Those Left Behind in Amasya

The fate of his son Osman differs in the sources. According to one account, Osman was seized together with his father and strangled by Sinan Ağa. The article by Ertaş and other publications paint a different picture: Osman was in the city as his father's deputy in Amasya and was killed on Selim's order; the date is given as 14 April 1513, and it is written that Osman was buried in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque in Amasya. The contradiction could not be resolved, but Osman's tie to Amasya, as both administrator and burial, is the same in all sources. Murad's sons Mustafa and Mehmed were also killed in Amasya, Mehmed in September-October 1512 and Mustafa on 14 May 1513. This information rests on Yelçe's study and could not be verified by an independent source.

Ahmed's body was carried to Bursa and buried in the Muradiye Complex. The tomb, built by a decree of Selim in 1513, was designed by the architect Alâaddin; his mother Bülbül Hatun was also buried there when she died in 1515. The prince's grave is in Bursa.

His Children

The fate of Ahmed's children shows the price of their father's defeat. At least seven sons and four daughters are mentioned; the details vary from source to source.

  • Osman: His mother was Sittişah Hatun. He was in the sanjak of Osmancık from 1509 to 1513; as described above, he was killed in 1513 at Amasya or at Yenişehir.
  • Murad: Born in Amasya in 1495. He was his father's deputy in Amasya. He acted together with the forces of Nur Ali; according to Selim's spies, Shah Ismail was considering putting him forward as a candidate for the Ottoman throne. When Safavid support failed to materialize, he took refuge in Iran. It is written that he died a natural death at Kashan or Isfahan on 16 October 1519; some sources say he was killed by Shah Ismail. Murad's Safavid backing is counted among the reasons leading to Selim's Çaldıran campaign.
  • Alaeddin and Süleyman: They took refuge in Egypt; it is written that they died in a plague epidemic in Cairo (the dates are given as April-May 1513).
  • Kasım: He fled to Egypt when Selim came to Konya. According to some sources he was killed in Cairo on 30 January 1518; this date has been seen in a single source.
  • Ali and Mehmed: It is written that both were killed by Selim in 1513; this could not be verified.

Among his daughters, the sultanas Kamerşah, Fatma, Fahrihan and Hanzade are named. The first three were married in 1508; Fatma Sultan lost her husband in 1511 and in 1512 followed her brother Murad to Iran. Among his wives the names Sittişah Hatun, Gülçiçek Hatun, Bülbül Hatun and Feraşad Hatun appear; it is written that Gülçiçek Hatun was buried in Amasya, but this could not be verified.

Şehzade Ahmed in the Memory of Amasya

Ahmed's thirty-year governorship is one of the longest links in the identity of Amasya as the "city of princes." From Mehmed I (Çelebi Mehmed) onward, Murad II, Mehmed the Conqueror and Bayezid II served as sanjak governors here, and Ahmed governed the city as a prince who "saw himself as a strong heir to the throne." Selim Özcan's study names twelve princes who served as governors of Amasya; six of them later became sultan, while six remained sanjak governors. Ahmed belongs to the second group. The same study records that these princes continued their struggles for the throne while serving as governors, and that among those who failed to prevail for themselves, Ahmed's son Murad and Süleyman the Magnificent's son Bayezid took refuge in Iran (with the Safavids).

Ahmed's traces in the city continue in the following places: the Bayezid Complex whose foundation he laid, the Hatuniye named for his mother, the Mehmed Paşa Mosque bearing the name of his lala, the odes Mihrî Hatun presented to him, the "Vineyards of Şehzade Ahmed" in the records of 1576, the citadel repaired in 1511, and the Sultan Bayezid Mosque where his son is buried. The Amasya Princes Museum also holds a wax figure of Ahmed. The beylerbey Mustafa Paşa, whom Selim appointed to Amasya, restored the calm disturbed by Ahmed's departure; and Selim, returning from the Çaldıran campaign, spent the winter in Amasya.

To the question of why Ahmed could not ascend the throne, the sources approach from different sides. Faruk Söylemez attributes the outcome to Ahmed's own conduct: his behaviour in the Şahkulu affair, his demand that the soldiers swear allegiance to him and his refusal to come to terms with Selim damaged his standing with the janissaries. İkram Ertaş, on the other hand, dwells on Selim's military successes and his intelligence network. What both accounts share is that the door of the throne was opened by the support of the janissaries and by prestige won on the battlefield. A father's affection, the support of viziers and a sanjak close to Istanbul were not enough to give Ahmed that support.

Chronology

1465: Believed to have been born in Amasya (some sources say around 1466).

Around 1480: Named among Bayezid's sons present in Istanbul at the Conqueror's summons.

1481: The Conqueror dies; Bayezid ascends the throne; Ahmed is left as governor in Amasya.

1481-1486: Bayezid II Complex; Ahmed lays its foundation, and it is completed in 1486.

1486 or 1495: The complex of his lala, Vizier Mehmed Paşa.

1503: The Venetian ambassador Gritti reports that Bayezid wishes to place Ahmed on the throne.

1509: Appointment of Selim's son Süleyman to the sanjak of Kefe (6 July or 6 August).

1509-1510: His mother Bülbül Hatun's Hatuniye soup kitchen and mosque.

March 1511: The Şahkulu rebellion breaks out.

15 June 1511: Ahmed and Hadım Ali Paşa reach Kızılkaya.

2 July 1511: Ali Paşa dies near Sivas.

1511: Repairs at Amasya Citadel; Ahmed leaves Amasya.

3 August 1511: Selim, defeated by his father's army, returns to Kefe.

21 September 1511: The janissaries prevent Ahmed from entering Istanbul.

Autumn 1511: Ahmed takes Konya.

24 April 1512: Bayezid abdicates and Selim becomes sultan.

June 1512: Bayezid dies; the people of Bursa ask Selim for help against the occupation by Ahmed's son Alaeddin (19 June).

July-November 1512: Selim crosses into Anatolia; Ahmed falls back among Afyon, Ankara, Amasya and Darende/Malatya.

March 1513: Korkut is put to death (about 13 March).

14 April 1513: Osman is written to have been killed in Amasya.

15 April 1513 or 24 April 1513: The Battle of Yenişehir; Ahmed is captured and strangled.

1515: His mother Bülbül Hatun dies in Bursa and is buried in Ahmed's tomb.

Sources

Academic studies

  • Selim Özcan, "Amasya'da Sancak Beyliği Yapan Şehzadeler Döneminde Amasya Şehri", Amasya Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, no. 5 (with references to Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi; Mehmed Arslan, Mihri Hatun Divanı; Uzunçarşılı and Hoca Sadeddin).
  • Faruk Söylemez, "Yavuz Sultan Selim'in Taht Mücadelesi", Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, no. 33, 2012, pp. 63-86 (with references to Matrakçı Nasuh, Celalzade Mustafa, Hoca Sadeddin and Uluçay).
  • İkram Ertaş, "I. Selim'in Taht Mücadelesinde İstihbaratın Rolü", Akademik Tarih ve Düşünce Dergisi, 11/2, 2024.
  • Cevdet Yakupoğlu, "II. Bayezid'in Oğlu Şehzade Mahmud'un Hayatı ve Faaliyetleri", DergiPark.

Other sources

  • TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, entries "Bayezid II", "Selim I", "Şahkulu Baba Tekeli", "Şahkulu", "Korkut, Şehzade", "Mihrî Hatun" and "Amasya". islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Vikipedi (Turkish), entries "Şehzade Ahmed", "Yenişehir Muharebesi (1513)" and "Amasya Sancağı".
  • Wikipedia (English), entries "Şehzade Ahmed (son of Bayezid II)" and "Şehzade Murad (son of Şehzade Ahmed)".
  • The article "Bülbül Hatun" on this site (for the Hatuniye, the deeds of foundation and the Muradiye tomb).

Online sources