The life of Şehzade Mustafa (Prince Mustafa) is one of the most narrated, most lamented and most disputed in Ottoman history. He was the eldest son of Süleyman the Magnificent and for many years was regarded as the strongest candidate for the throne. As sanjak governor (sanjak-bey) of Amasya he lived for nearly twelve years in the city on the banks of the Yeşilırmak, gathering poets, scholars and soldiers around him, and on 6 October 1553, at the age of thirty-eight, he was put to death in his father's tent at the camp near Konya Ereğlisi. Rumor abounds in this story and documents are few, which is why the points on which the sources part company are noted separately.

The Eldest Son Born in Manisa

Mustafa was born in Manisa in 1515 (H. 921). His father was then Şehzade Süleyman, governor of the sanjak of Saruhan, the future ruler who would come to be known as Kanuni, the Lawgiver. His mother was Mahidevran Hatun, remembered as Süleyman's first favorite. Some sources also give her the names Gülbahar or Bosfor, but Funda Demirtaş and Semra Güler point out that these are incorrect and that the official documents and the plaque on her sarcophagus in her tomb at Bursa read "Mahidevran, daughter of Abdullah." Busbecq describes his mother as a Crimean concubine. Some publications give Mustafa's birth year as 1516 or 1517, but 1515 is the usual date in the Turkish academic literature.

During his years as a prince Süleyman had two other sons besides Mustafa, Mahmud and Murad. Murad died at two and Mahmud at nine, one after the other in 1521; according to Güler, they died ten days apart on the return from the Belgrade campaign and were buried in the tomb of Selim I (Yavuz Sultan Selim). Mustafa thus became the eldest surviving son. During Süleyman's reign as sultan, Hürrem Sultan bore him Mehmed, Selim, Abdullah, Bayezid and Cihangir; Abdullah died young, in 1526. Mustafa's earliest childhood was spent in the palace at Manisa, and when his father ascended the throne in 1520, mother and son came to Istanbul. Mustafa was five at the time. Hürrem's rise in the palace, the new sons she gave the sultan and Mahidevran's loss of favor belong to the years that followed, and this change shook Mustafa's position. Even so, when he was only nine a Venetian ambassador had already described him as extremely gifted, a boy who would become a great warrior and who was much loved by the Janissaries.

Palace Education and the Circumcision Festival

Mustafa was raised with great care in the palace as the "great prince." According to accounts drawing on Mehmed Süreyyâ's Sicill-i Osmânî, he studied under Muhyiddin Mehmed Efendi and Sürûrî Mustafa Efendi. Güler writes that Sürûrî Mustafa Efendi of Gelibolu was appointed tutor to the prince by an imperial decree in 1548. Hüseyin Hüsameddin, for his part, records that when his teacher Muhyiddin Mehmed Efendi died in 947/1540, Hayreddin Hızır Efendi became the prince's instructor, and that in 1548 Sürûrî took the place of Hayreddin Efendi of Merzifon, who had died that year. Because the names and sequence of his teachers do not quite fit together in the sources, all three names are given here with their sources. He is said to have begun poetry in the company of boon companions such as Lâlî Çelebi of Üsküp.

The Frenchman Guillaume Postel describes him as "prudent and extremely well educated." The prince wrote poetry under the pen name Muhlisî; some sources also mention the pen name Ahdî. A manuscript of a Süleymânnâme in naskh script, now in Vienna, is recorded as being in his own hand. He is said to have resembled his grandfather Selim I in build and bearing, being tall, black-bearded and handsome. In 936/1530 he was circumcised in the Hippodrome (At Meydanı) in Istanbul together with his brothers Mehmed and Selim, at a festival attended by dignitaries of the state, the ulema and foreign ambassadors. The length of the festival is given differently in the sources: some say eighteen to twenty days, some about a month, and some three weeks. Celâlzâde Mustafa Çelebi's Tabakâtü'l-Memâlik is one of the works that describe this festival.

The Years in the Sanjak of Saruhan

It was an old Ottoman practice for princes to go out to a sanjak to learn the business of government. Mustafa was sent to Manisa, his birthplace, as governor of Saruhan. The sources disagree on the date of his appointment: relying on an account register, Güler gives 3 May 1533 (8 Şevval 939), while other sources take Şaban 940 (February 1534) as the basis. For this reason his Manisa period is sometimes given as seven years and sometimes as eight. For his salary Güler gives 400,000 akçe, whereas Hammer speaks of an allowance of forty thousand ducats. Before leaving for his sanjak he was received with ceremony at the divan (council); the viziers held his stirrup, and he was presented with a fur, a robe of honor and a sword. This appointment shows that at the outset he was considered the strongest candidate to succeed his father. In keeping with the custom for princes' mothers, his mother Mahidevran went with him to Manisa.

During his administration at Manisa he made a good impression on the people. The Venetian Michele Membré, who saw him there, writes that every Friday the prince went in procession to the Sultâniye Mosque and addressed the people. During his father's campaigns he was also charged with guarding the region, and in 1534 and 1538 the administration of Anatolia was left in his hands. Two heavy losses fell in these years. His paternal grandmother Hafsa Sultan, who evidently sheltered Mustafa and his mother, died in 1534 (Güler gives 1533). The grand vizier İbrahim Pasha, who was on good terms with Mustafa, was killed in 1536 on the return from the campaign against the two Iraqs (Irakeyn); Güler gives this death as 1538, but the date 942/1536 is more widely accepted. In a letter to the prince İbrahim Pasha is said to have called himself his "loyal friend" and to have hoped to meet him, and Mahidevran had also written a letter to İbrahim Pasha's wife Hatice Sultan. Demirtaş holds that these two deaths left Mustafa without his supporters in the palace, while Hürrem's sons came to the fore. A letter that Mustafa wrote addressed to İbrahim Pasha suggests that Süleyman was disturbed by this closeness, most likely again under Hürrem's influence.

Mustafa's wish to come to Istanbul to apologize to his father and to meet him was refused on the return from the Irakeyn campaign. Güler explains this by the custom that princes did not come to the capital unless it was necessary, while Demirtaş thinks that Mustafa believed he had done something that called for an apology. What it was is not known. In Manisa he had poets about him: Güler mentions the poets Şikârî and Senâyî and the private secretary Levhî, and it is also recorded that Şücâ'eddin İlyas of Saruhan wrote the mesnevi (narrative poem) Câmi'ü'l-esrâr in his name and presented it to him.

The Date of the Appointment to Amasya

On the question of when Mustafa was appointed to Amasya the sources give two different answers. Selim Özcan's article on the princes of Amasya, relying on Hüseyin Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi, on Uzunçarşılı and on Yücel and Sevim, gives the appointment as 1538; it states that Mustafa was twenty-four and that with this appointment Amasya separated from Sivas and became an independent province. Another view gives the date as 21 Safer 948, that is 16 June 1541, and Güler, Demirtaş and Zavotçu also use this date. In 1541 Hürrem's son Mehmed was sent to Manisa, and Mustafa's removal from Manisa and the installation of Mehmed in his place are told in connection with this date. It is also claimed that through Hürrem's intervention Mustafa was removed from this sanjak, which lay close to the capital.

The year 1541 is adopted here because most studies converge on this date and because it is directly tied to the prince's transfer from Manisa. The date 1538 appears in the city-centered literature that deals with Amasya's administrative status. Whether the two dates are two separate memories of the same event or a mistake in one source cannot be settled from the openly accessible sources; no definite document has been found. Whichever is correct, the appointment began a period of nearly twelve years in Amasya, lasting until his death in 1553.

The reason for the appointment has also been interpreted. Relying on an edict in the Topkapı Palace Archive, Güler reports that during the Hungarian campaign the sultan wanted his son to be at Amasya, near the frontier, as a security measure against an attack that might come from the direction of Iran, and that some Janissaries were sent to the region. According to the account, when the people and the soldiers reacted to this appointment, Süleyman declared that the prince had been sent for the security of the eastern lands and that his status as heir continued. Even so, contemporaries and later researchers read his removal from Manisa as a sign of fallen favor. Mustafa was greatly distressed by this transfer, and it is said that Sürûrî gave voice to this distress in a poem. In a report written in 1553 the ambassador Bernardo Navagero describes Mahidevran's efforts to protect her son and the prince's boundless love for his mother; both at Manisa and at Amasya his mother was always at his side. Some sources also write that after 1549 Mustafa became governor of Konya; Demirtaş and Güler, however, describe him as sanjak governor of Amasya until his death, setting out from Amasya in 1553. Amasya is adopted here.

Şehzade Mehmed, who had been sent to Manisa, died there suddenly in November 1543. This death revived Mustafa's hopes of the succession, but the sending of Hürrem's other son Selim to Manisa in 1544 was a clear sign that the throne was not intended for him. His steadily worsening relationship with his father and a number of initiatives he undertook formed the beginning of the events that would lead to his execution.

The Amasya Years

The place where princes resided in Amasya was a complex of buildings in the citadel, known in Ottoman sources as the "Palace of the Princes" and among the people as the "Palace of the Beys" or "Saraydüzü." In the excavations of the Kızlar Palace led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. E. Emine Dönmez of Istanbul University, the existence of the Ottoman palaces known from the sources has for the first time been demonstrated by architectural evidence and finds. Mustafa is said to have been one of the princes who stayed in these palaces. Yet when Dernschwam was in Amasya in April 1554 he wrote that the palace where the prince had lived was an extremely modest building. There is no definite document as to which part he occupied.

According to Güler's account, which rests on Hüsameddin, in 1548 the prince's staff included the chancellor Hamdî Hamdullah Çelebi, the treasurer Lutfullah Lutfî Bey and the divan secretary Fazlî Çelebi. The judge Kâmî Muhammed Efendi, Tabibzâde Lutfî Efendi, Seyrekzâde Edâyî Beğ, Zemânî Mahmud Çelebi and Emânî Muhammed Çelebi are named among his companions. His lala (tutor-guardian) was Cafer Pasha; in the campaign register of 1553, however, Sun'ullah Bey appears as his lala and Hamza Bey as his treasurer, so the staff changed over time. His teacher Sürûrî continued to remain with the prince.

Mustafa came to Amasya with his own circle of poets and scholars. Senâyî passed with him from Manisa to Amasya; in Amasya, poets such as Zârî, Zemânî of Edirne, Edâyî (d. 1574) and Kara Fazlî formed his literary circle. Kara Fazlî composed in Mustafa's name the mesnevi Gül ü Bülbül, which was very well known in its day, and the jurist Dede Cöngî dedicated his work Risâle fî emvâli beyti'l-mâl to him. Among the scholars, Koca Hüsameddin Hüseyin, Molla Bahçızâde Kemâleddin İbrahim Efendi, Köprücükzâde Sinaneddin Yusuf, Seyyid Muhyiddin, and the Efendis Muhammed, Cum'a and Cafer were among those the prince liked best and whose conversation he drew on. The chief of the palace gatekeepers, Gülâbî Hoca, and Gümüşlü Hoca Sülümüş Çelebi, from the people of the Cerbeze trade, are also named among those he consulted most. From the Sufi circle, Şücâ'eddin İlyas, known as Molla Şeyh, İmamzâde Hayreddin Hızır Efendi, nicknamed İcâdî, and Muhyiddin Muhammed Efendi, nicknamed "Yamak Şeyh," were also around him.

Small incidents illustrating life in Amasya are also recorded. According to Hüsameddin, in 1543 Şeyh Sinan Efendi, preacher of the Mehmed Pasha Mosque, objected to the prince's conduct, was forced to resign and withdrew to a spot above the Çeribaşı quarter; the quarter was therefore called "Şehre Küstü" (Sulking at the City). In 1545, when the mufti of Amasya, Sinan Efendi, died, Sa'dî Efendi of Akşehir, appointed in his place, was dismissed because he opposed everything, and Muhyiddin Muhammed Efendi, known as Molla Cürcan, was installed in his stead. Another incident shows Mustafa's forbearance: among the scholars in his retinue, Kemâleddin İbrahim criticized the prince's excessive spending in his Arabic work Mesârifü Beyti'l-Mâl, and Mustafa rewarded him instead of punishing him. The prince was himself a poet. The first couplet of a ghazal that Güler transmits runs as follows: "Rif'at istersen eğer mihr-i cihan-ârâ gibi / Sür yüzün her dem yere eyle tenezzül mâ gibi" (If you seek exaltation, like the world-adorning sun, / Press your face to the ground at every moment, and stoop low like water). It is also said that the poets of the day loved him as a colleague, and that his language was simple and fluent.

The love of the people and the army finds an echo among contemporary foreign observers as well. The Venetian ambassador Bernardo Navagero writes that Mustafa was much loved by his brothers, and that although the sultan and the grand vizier were not of the same mind, the Janissaries openly wanted him to be sultan. According to Navagero, there was no Janissary or servant of the sultan who passed through his sanjak without receiving a gift and leaving pleased with the warmth he met; the Janissaries turned to him for every need and, while in his province, did not so much as mention the Sublime Porte. Navagero also writes that it was astonishing that, despite this support, Mustafa did not move against his father (Albèri, I, 77-78). Dernschwam likewise reports that the people loved the prince greatly and called him "sultan." This sympathy rested on the prince's humility and generosity, on his good treatment of those about him and his lavish bounties.

The 1548 Persian Campaign and the Meeting at Sivas

Süleyman's second Persian campaign (1548) is a rare opportunity to observe the relationship between the prince and his father. The sultan set out from Istanbul on 29 March 1548. When he reached Konya he was met by Şehzade Bayezid, governor of Karaman, and when he reached Sivas by his eldest son Mustafa, governor of Amasya. According to a contemporary eyewitness, Mustafa was received with great ceremony by the viziers and by the whole army; the father showed his affection for his son, and Mustafa's "loyalty" and "good manners" drew the witness's attention; his relief and joy are also mentioned. The official Süleymânnâme stresses this meeting but does not touch on the coolness between them. According to Güler, a few days later Mustafa returned to Amasya with his father's permission. The sultan reached Tabriz by way of Adilcevaz and Hoy (27 July 1548), spent the winter in Aleppo and returned to Istanbul on 21 December 1549. No significant result came from this campaign; it became clear that the Safavids could not be eliminated.

The Erzurum Front and Requests for Aid

The sanjak of Amasya lay just behind the Persian frontier, and Mustafa's years were spent amid tension on the eastern border. In 956/1549 the Georgians, who attacked Erzurum at Iran's instigation, killed the beylerbey (governor-general) Musa Pasha; Mustafa reported the situation to Istanbul and asked for help. In 957-958/1550-1551, when the Safavids raided border villages and towns, he again asked for help. According to Demirtaş, Rüstem Pasha left all these petitions unanswered. Some sources write that Rüstem sent no aid because he feared the prestige Mustafa would gain against the Georgians. These are interpretations; what is documented is that the petitions had no result.

On 19 Muharrem 958 (27 January 1551) Mustafa wrote his father a petition of lament (feryatnâme), once more wishing to meet him and to apologize; this request too received no favorable reply. According to Turan, all of these point to the prince having made some attempts that would offend his father. According to Hüsameddin, the feryatnâme had been written for him by his teacher Sürûrî. In an undated letter, Güler reports, Mustafa answered the sultan's edict to "investigate quietly and report if he is in revolt" by writing that the revolt of the person in question was "clear as day" and by asking permission to take action; who the letter concerns is not clear. According to the account based on Hüsameddin, Rüstem Pasha had Mustafa's lala summoned to Istanbul in order to have Mustafa watched, and sent Bosnian Ahmed Pasha to Amasya in his place. Ahmed Pasha, however, quickly won the prince's confidence and married his daughter Fatma Sultan (some sources give 1552). This kinship increased Rüstem Pasha's suspicion. Güler also reports that Mustafa's seal changed over time: his old seal read "Mustafa, who seeks the approval of the Chosen Prophet through being a servant of Sultan Süleyman," while the later seal read "Tevekkülî alâ Hâlikî" (My trust is in God who created me). Güler takes this change as a sign that the prince was aware of the situation he was in.

Intrigues Within the Palace

To attribute Mustafa's death solely to a palace intrigue would be incomplete, as Demirtaş also stresses. It is generally accepted that Hürrem Sultan wanted one of her own sons to take the throne and that her son-in-law Rüstem Pasha wanted the same outcome for the sake of his own position. Ottoman sources ascribe the affair to this intrigue; Şerafettin Turan, however, says that this account falls short of explaining the nature of the event and the reasons why the peasants who had abandoned their farms (çiftbozan reaya) and the timariot cavalrymen gathered around the prince. The loss of value of the akçe, the rising cost of living and the discontent of the cavalrymen had led peasants and cavalrymen to see Mustafa as a savior. The fact that the sultan, who in these years suffered from gout (nikris), did not go out on campaign also gave rise, among the army, to rumors that the sultan was growing old and should be deposed and sent to Dimetoka.

It appears that Mustafa too was not passive. An undated letter he wrote to Ayas Pasha, the beylerbey of Erzurum, has survived. In the letter Mustafa wishes his father a long life but reminds the pasha that in this transient world no one is eternal; he says that compared with "others who lay claim to the inheritance" his own "ability and aptitude" are well known, and, writing that one must not be heedless of claiming "the legitimate right" after his father's death, he asks for help and a pledge of allegiance (ahidnâme). He promises that if he comes to the throne, as his grandfather Selim did, he will content the viziers, emirs, cavalrymen and army with bounties and will govern the subjects with justice. Demirtaş reads this not as an attempt to depose his father but as an attempt to claim the throne after his death as a "legitimate right." Ayas Pasha's reply is a letter of support, saying that he finds Mustafa "the most worthy and the most rightful" and that he is ready to serve "a shining sun." The dates of the letters are not known; the late 1540s are conjectured for their composition, and it is also said that shortly before Mustafa's death he sent his envoy Nebi Bey to Venice. With these initiatives Mustafa had begun to prepare to secure the throne for himself, taking his grandfather Selim I as his example.

The claim that Rüstem Pasha had the prince's seal secretly engraved, had a letter written to Shah Tahmasb, and intercepted the reply on the road and presented it to the sultan is reported on the basis of Tayyib Gökbilgin's study Rüstem Paşa ve Hakkındaki İthamlar. According to a Venetian source, a poisoned robe of honor was also sent in his father's name; Mustafa first had a slave put it on, and when the slave died he understood; this is an account and is not documented. It is also said that on the advice of those close to him the prince let his beard grow and raised a tuğ (horsetail standard); this statement is unsourced and should not be regarded as certain information. Güler also reports that the news of the beard made the sultan suspicious. Zahit Atçıl's article of 2016, on the other hand, considers the event not merely as a palace plot but within the Ottoman system of succession and the sultan's problem of authority. According to Atçıl, Süleyman wished to reestablish the authority he had lost before the prince and to protect the dynasty from wars of succession. This is an interpretation that must be read together with the dominant account (the Hürrem-Rüstem alliance).

The Campaign of 1552-1553 and the Rumors

In 1551-1552, as Safavid attacks in the east increased, Süleyman decided on a new campaign. Rüstem Pasha crossed into Anatolia as commander-in-chief (serasker) at the end of September 1552. When he reached Aksaray, according to Mustafa Âlî's Künhü'l-Ahbâr, remarks of the kind "the old sultan can no longer go on campaign" were circulating in the army. Some soldiers sent word to Mustafa, wanting him to come to the army, to remove Rüstem Pasha and to send his father to Dimetoka. According to the account based on Atçıl, the Janissaries broke ranks and went to Amasya to declare their allegiance to Mustafa, then returned to the camp. It records that Süleyman at first regarded these reports as mischief, writing that his son would never show such audacity in his lifetime.

When Rüstem Pasha reached Konya he is said to have received letters from Istanbul saying that the sultan was gravely ill, and Mustafa is said to have taken precautions so as to act at once in the event of his father's death. Rüstem Pasha sent the chief of the cavalry, Şemsi Ahmed Agha, and the chief of the chavushes, Ali Agha, to Istanbul; Süleyman recalled him. In Güler's account Hürrem also intensified her incitements against Mustafa: it was alleged that he had won over the Janissaries with money he distributed and had reached an understanding with Shah Tahmasb. According to Demirtaş, the sultan obtained a fatwa from the shaykh al-Islam Ebussuud Efendi on the basis of an indirect case. In the "fabricated" incident of a rich merchant's slave who tried to kill his master's wife and children and seize his property, the mufti is said, in the form reported by Busbecq, to have said "he deserves death"; Ottoman sources make no mention of this fatwa. Süleyman resolved to have his eldest son put to death and obtained the necessary fatwa from Ebussuud.

The Tent at Ereğli: 6 October 1553

Süleyman set out from Üsküdar on 18 Ramazan 960 (28 August 1553). He sent Bayezid to Edirne to guard Rumelia, and took his sickly son Cihangir and Selim with him. He pitched camp at Aktepe (Akhüyük) near Konya Ereğlisi; the day of Mustafa's arrival at the camp is given in some sources as 4 October and in others as 5 October. At the point where the road to Amasya branches off, the sultan sent several chavushes to summon Mustafa to the camp on the pretext of preventing an attack by the Shah of Iran in the direction of Erzurum. Mustafa showed the letter to his trusted intimates and to his mother Mahidevran and consulted them; they advised him not to go. It is also said that his friend, the second vizier Ahmed Pasha, warned him. Mustafa reasoned that if he did not go he would be confirming the allegations against him. In the account of Güler, which rests on Renzo Sertoli Salis, Mustafa consulted a mufti, who replied to him that "a precious life may be preferred to the empire of a world"; this too is a rumor told in Western sources that is hard to verify.

Mustafa set out from Amasya with a very well equipped force of about 5,000 men, reached the camp the same day and had his tent pitched near his father's. On the day after his arrival he received the customary visits of the viziers and dignitaries of the state, all of whom were honored with robes. At this point it is said that a note was shot toward him by an arrow from among the soldiers, warning that his father would kill him and that he should not go into his presence; Mustafa took it for Rüstem Pasha's trick and did not take it seriously. Those close to him had suggested that he speak with his father in the open field, on horseback, where everyone could see, and had reminded him that if he entered the tent his own men would be unable to help him. Mustafa did not accept this; it is reported that he believed he had no fault toward his father that would justify having him killed. In Western sources the words "If it is really true that my father wishes to end my life, I will end the life he gave me, again at his desire" are attributed to him; the authenticity of the saying cannot be documented, but it is notable for conveying the prince's resignation to fate.

On 6 October 1553 (27 Şevval 960, a Friday) Mustafa rode toward the tent amid the applause of the soldiers. According to the account based on Salis and Dernschwam, he was wearing a white silk robe, with red boots on his feet and a white crane feather in his turban (kavuk). He had sent his father horses and precious objects as gifts. In front of the tent he dismounted; at the request of one of the chavushes he handed over his sword and dagger and went inside. Seven mute executioners were waiting within. Mustafa resisted for a time and, slipping from their hands, lunged toward his father. In the end he was killed with the noose of Mahmud Agha, who because of his skill in this work would later be known by the nickname "Zal." Güler writes that this man was the Zal Mahmud Pasha who later became a vizier and a son-in-law of the Ottoman dynasty and who had a mosque and a soup kitchen built at Eyüp. In some sources it is said that Kanuni watched the execution from behind a curtain and even that the prince greeted his father and heard harsh words in reply; the truth of this is doubtful. In an account that Zavotçu relays from Mehmet Çavuşoğlu, Kanuni is also said to have declared, "O dog, do you still have the courage to greet me?"; the source value of this remark is disputed, and no definite document has been found.

According to contemporary Italian sources, his body was laid on a Persian carpet and displayed before the tent to show that he had been in league with the shah. His treasure, goods, tents and animals in the camp were confiscated; in the campaign register, over the entries of gifts and robes prepared for Mustafa, was written "the treasury remains," and two days later the offerings he had brought were entered in the register with the note "the late Sultan Mustafa." His master of the horse and some of his intimates were killed; Hüsameddin writes that his son-in-law Ahmed Pasha was also put to death immediately, but Güler treats this information with caution, noting that it appears in no other source. Most of his other men who were in the camp were granted timars and ze'amets. The funeral prayer was performed at Ereğli, and his body was taken to Bursa and buried.

Mourning in the Army and Among the People

The news shook the army. According to Busbecq, the Janissaries withdrew to their tents "with heads bowed and eyes full of tears," muttered "the old dotard" against the sultan, cursed Hürrem and Rüstem, and did not put a morsel in their mouths that day. According to Demirtaş, the Janissaries spoke openly about Hürrem, Rüstem, Zal Mahmud and even Süleyman. Some sources say the Janissaries attacked Rüstem Pasha's tent and did not find him, while Güler writes that Rüstem secretly returned to Istanbul. It is also told that Süleyman's foster brother Mehmed Çelebi spoke harsh words to the sultan and that a rift opened between them.

The accusations concentrated so heavily on Rüstem Pasha that the event came to be known by the chronogram "mekr-i Rüstem" (Rüstem's trick, 960). Understanding that the reactions would fall on Rüstem Pasha more than on himself, Kanuni dismissed him from the grand vizierate immediately after the execution; the second vizier Kara Ahmed Pasha was installed in his place. Rüstem Pasha became grand vizier again later, on 29 September 1555, after the execution of Kara Ahmed Pasha, and remained in office until his death (1561). In the letters of complaint the Janissaries wrote to the sultan during Rüstem's second term it can be seen that they were still attached to Mustafa: reproaches such as "Had Sultan Mustafa been alive, things would have been otherwise" appear in these letters (documents published by Uzunçarşılı).

That Süleyman later grieved over this event and felt remorse is noted in both Ottoman and Western sources; this is stated plainly in the sources. There are also accounts in the hagiographic works (menâkıbnâme) that his childhood friend Beşiktaşlı Yahyâ Efendi would not speak with him on this account. Güler, on the other hand, concludes from Süleyman's not having a tomb built for Mustafa that his belief in the prince's treason had not changed. Süleyman was shaken that same year by another sorrow: his sick son Cihangir died on 27 November 1553 at Aleppo, which they had reached on 8 November. Güler writes that Cihangir was deeply affected by his brother's death and fell ill; this is an interpretation recounted in the sources. The sultan nevertheless continued to march against the Safavids; the surroundings of Revan and Nakhchivan were laid waste.

Süleyman's Winter in Amasya and the Peace of Amasya

Süleyman returned to Amasya on 30 October 1554 and spent the winter there. His choice of Amasya cannot be considered apart from its being the seat of his executed son Mustafa; it carries a symbolic meaning. According to Güler, the sultan stayed here more than six months; he flattered and gave gifts to the scholars who had gathered around the prince and to the notables of the city, and distributed large sums of money to the soldiers. Dernschwam writes that the sultan stayed a long time to inspect conditions in Anatolia and to have those who caused unrest arrested and put to death. He also writes that the people he saw along the road near Amasya were sad and angry, that everyone praised Mustafa, that it was feared unrest would increase when the sultan left the throne, and that it was believed the two princes remaining would not be like their father.

This winter was also important for Ottoman diplomacy. The French ambassador came for a joint naval operation; Kemâleddin Ferruhzâd Bey, envoy of Shah Tahmasb, held peace talks, and the Peace of Amasya was signed on 11 Receb 962 (1 June 1555) (Özcan gives 29 May). Busbecq also came to Amasya with a delegation and was received by the sultan; he wrote that he found the sultan stern-faced but majestic and that he was suffering from gout. According to Busbecq, Süleyman, because of his excessive devotion to Hürrem, had put Mustafa to death somewhat hastily. The sultan returned to Istanbul on 31 July 1555.

The Düzme Mustafa Affair (1555)

The discontent produced by Mustafa's death exploded in Rumelia a year later. The greatest reaction emerged in the Düzme Mustafa (False Mustafa) uprising begun in Rumelia by those who rallied around his name. When Süleyman returned to Istanbul, he had a man who presented himself as Şehzade Mustafa in the vicinity of Salonica seized and executed in Istanbul. Güler's account is more detailed: this man, who physically resembled Mustafa very closely, gathered followers by saying that the prince had not been killed and was alive; in the districts of Salonica and Yenişehir he raised more than 10,000 men, by some sources close to 40,000, and began to advance on Edirne. Şehzade Bayezid, who was in Edirne as guardian of the throne, informed the sultan; Dulkadırlı Mehmed (Pasha), sanjak governor of Nikopol, was charged with suppressing the affair. When the pretender's vizier Üveyl Tuğca realized the man's fraud, he handed him over; Düzme Mustafa was delivered to Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, interrogated in Istanbul and executed on 18 August 1555 by being hung on a hook. The money and goods he had collected from the people were taken into the treasury, and Üveyl Tuğca was granted a ze'amet. The weariness caused by Süleyman's long reign and the expectation of a new beginning showed themselves in this affair after Mustafa's death. The similarly named Düzme Mustafa Çelebi, who died in 1422, is a separate person.

The Elegies and Taşlıcalı Yahya

The number of elegies (mersiye) written for Mustafa is cited as the greatest number of elegies written for any one person in Turkish literature; according to the findings of Mustafa İsen they number fifteen or sixteen, and Mehmed Çavuşoğlu's study Şehzâde Mustafa Mersiyeleri brings these texts together. Güler reports that until then no elegies had been written for princes who died in struggles over the throne, because poets shrank from defying the sultan's command, whereas for Mustafa many poets expressed their feelings without fear. Yahya Bey, Rahmî, Nazmî of Edirne, Sâmî, Fünûnî, Kara Fazlî, Müdâmî, Mu'înî, Nisâyî (two elegies), Selîmî, Kâdirî, Şeyh Ahmed Hayâlî Efendi and others are among these poets. The elegy that made the greatest stir and was the boldest is that of Taşlıcalı Yahya; it is written as a seven-stanza terkib-i bend and passed from hand to hand among the Janissaries.

The best-known opening lines of the elegy, as Özcan and Güler transmit them, are as follows: "Meded meded bu cihânın yıkıldı bir yanı / Ecel celâlileri aldı Mustafa Han'ı" (Help, help, one side of this world has collapsed; / Death's rebels have taken Mustafa Khan). In some publications the first line is also seen with "a pillar" in place of "a side." The following couplet from the elegy is also known: "Bunun gibi işi kim gördü kim işitti aceb / Ki oğluna kıya server-i Ömer-meşreb" (Who has ever seen or heard of such a deed, how strange, / That the lord of Omar-like temper should lay hands on his own son). By saying "the cruelty of Rüstem," Yahya pointed openly to the one responsible for the death; according to Zavotçu, this was something that until then had not been said in an elegy. Sâmî too had asked: "Yok yere kan edesin ya'ni hilâfet bu mudur / Mustafâ n'oldı kanı n'eyledin ey padişehim" (Would you shed blood for nothing, is this the caliphate? / What became of Mustafa, what did you do with him, my sultan?). In Zavotçu's account the stanzas of the elegy are summarized thus: the first stanza describes the prince's killing and his falling victim to a plot; the second, the sultan's going to his tent to kiss his hand and not returning; the third, the echoes of the death and the prince's innocence; the fourth, his being killed through Rüstem Pasha's cruelty and the demand that the guilty be punished; the fifth, that everyone will die one day but that this death was untimely; the sixth, the prince's beloved and precious character; and the seventh, the poet's prayers and wishes.

On the circumstances in which the elegy was written there is an account by Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî: Âlî met Yahya Bey on the Bosnian frontier in 1574 and asked how he had dared, without fearing the sultan's wrath; Yahya replied that grief for the prince had forced him to write, and that whatever might come from the sultan and from Rüstem Pasha, who was clearly about to return to the grand vizierate, so be it. According to another account, he wrote the elegy so that it would come out after his death, and a friend made a copy and circulated it. Güler draws attention to the contradiction between these two accounts.

Yahya's fate is also known. Rüstem Pasha asked for Yahya to be put to death for the sake of the order of the world (nizam-ı âlem), but Kanuni, himself a poet, did not agree. Rüstem Pasha dismissed him from the administration of the Bayezid endowments, buried him in inspections and interrogations; Yahya was cleared, but the administrative posts were not restored. After Rüstem's second grand vizierate Yahya was banished from Istanbul, with a ze'amet, to the sanjak of Zvornik (İzvornik). According to some sources this ze'amet was worth 27,000 akçe, according to others 30,000. When Rüstem died in 1561 Yahya satirized him by writing an elegy. Yahya died in 1582. In some accounts it is said that Kanuni forgave the poet because of the remorse he felt over his son's death; this remains an interpretation and does not rest on any document.

His Mother, His Son and His Family

After Mustafa's death his mother Mahidevran was sent to Bursa in the month of Receb 960 (1553) with a retinue of eight or ten people. Mustafa's small son Mehmed, who was with her, was also strangled. According to some sources Mehmed was born in Amasya in 1546, was strangled in Bursa in May 1554 and buried beside his father; others say the child was seven years old. Busbecq tells in a detailed story how this child was strangled in Bursa by a pasha named İbrahim, his mother having been deceived, and holds Hürrem responsible. Güler recalls that the killing of the male children of an executed prince had become a custom at that time. Hüsameddin, on the other hand, writes that in the Tomb of the Princes (Şehzadegân Türbesi) in Amasya there is a sarcophagus belonging to "Süleyman Çelebi," a son of Mustafa, and that this prince was strangled in Amasya; Güler and Demirtaş treat this with caution, because the child's name in the Bursa mühimme (register of important affairs) entry is Mehmed. The sources are therefore contradictory about the names of the children and the place of their death. The fate of the other sons (Ahmed, Orhan) is mentioned only in some sources and remains uncertain.

Mahidevran passed difficult days in Bursa. The mühimme registers and the Bursa Islamic court registers record orders concerning her and her relatives, such as seeing to it that necessities like meat and bread were sold to them, that tradesmen did not show disrespect, that rents were paid and that a new house was bought in the İmâret-i İsa Bey quarter (documents dated 1562-1564). Mahidevran later, with the support of Selim II, devoted herself to charitable works, founded endowments in 1574-1575, and died in Zilhicce 987 (January/February 1580); she was buried in her son's tomb. Among Mustafa's daughters are counted Fatma Sultan (who married Bosnian Ahmed Pasha), Nergisşah Sultan (1536, Manisa-1592; married in 1554, after her father's death, to Cenâbî Ahmed Pasha) and Şah Sultan (c. 1547, Amasya-1577; married to the Janissary agha Abdülkerim Agha). While his male line thus came to an end, his daughters survived.

The Tomb in Bursa

Mustafa was laid to rest in the Muradiye Complex (külliye) in Bursa, beside the Tomb of Murad II. After Selim II's accession a tomb was built over him; Güler also writes that his mother Mahidevran's wish was carried out by Selim II. To distinguish it from the tomb of Mehmed the Conqueror's son Şehzade Mustafa, it is called "Mustafa-i Cedid" (the New Mustafa). In the tomb are the sarcophagi of Mustafa and his mother, and also sarcophagi belonging to a son of Bayezid and to a child of unidentified identity; it is also suggested that this child may be Mustafa's son Mehmed. The inscription carries the chronogram lines of Edâyî: "Dedi tarihin Edâyî bendesi merkad-i gülzâr-ı Sultan Mustafa" (Edâyî, his servant, gave its date: the rose-garden resting place of Sultan Mustafa). Although some publications write that the tomb was built in 1555-1556, this date conflicts with Selim II's having come to the throne in 1566.

His Legacy and His Memory in Amasya

Mustafa's death became the symbol of the question of conscience raised by the killing of princes in Ottoman history. Mustafa did not come to the throne; he is remembered as one of the five princes who governed Amasya and could not ascend the throne. His death resonated in Europe as well. Gabriel Bounin's French tragedy La Soltane of 1561 is counted as the first appearance of the Ottomans on the French stage. Among the works cited by Metin And are the tragedies Il Solimano of Bonarelli and of Tasso, Mairet's Le grand et dernier Solyman ou la mort de Mustapha, the opera Solimano by Ambrogio and Valentini, and Mallet's Mustapha: A Tragedy.

Five years after his death, in 1558, his brother Bayezid became governor of Amasya; he would contend with Selim, be defeated in 1559 and take refuge in Iran. Amasya's remaining in memory as a city of princes is also bound up with this bitter story. Today in the Museum of Princes in Amasya, in a two-story timber building on the old city wall on the bank of the Yeşilırmak, Şehzade Mustafa and Şehzade Bayezid are among the statues of the five princes who served as princes in Amasya and did not reach the throne. In 2005 the Governor's Office of Amasya had a wax statue of Mustafa made, inspired by miniatures.

Chronology

1515: Born in Manisa (1516/1517 in some publications).

1520: His father ascends the throne; Mustafa and his mother come to Istanbul.

1530: Circumcised at a festival in the Hippodrome.

3 May 1533 / February 1534: Becomes governor of the sanjak of Saruhan (Manisa) (the sources differ).

1534: His paternal grandmother Hafsa Sultan dies (Güler gives 1533).

1536: The grand vizier İbrahim Pasha is killed.

1538 or 16 June 1541: Appointed to the governorship of Amasya (the sources differ).

November 1543: His brother Mehmed, governor of Manisa, dies.

1544: Selim is sent to Manisa; Rüstem Pasha becomes grand vizier.

1546: His son Mehmed is born (according to some sources).

1548: Meets his father at Sivas; the sultan is on the Persian campaign.

1549: The Georgians kill the beylerbey Musa Pasha at Erzurum; Mustafa asks for help.

27 January 1551: Writes his last feryatnâme to his father (19 Muharrem 958).

28 August 1553: Kanuni leaves Istanbul for the Nakhchivan campaign.

4/5 October 1553: The sultan and the prince meet at the camp of Aktepe (Ereğli).

6 October 1553: Şehzade Mustafa is killed in the tent; Rüstem Pasha is removed from the grand vizierate.

27 November 1553: Cihangir dies in Aleppo.

30 October 1554: Kanuni comes to Amasya and spends the winter there.

1 June 1555: The Peace of Amasya is signed.

18 August 1555: Düzme Mustafa is executed.

1558: Bayezid becomes governor of Amasya.

Sources

Primary sources

  • Topkapı Palace Archive, documents numbered E. 5036 and E. 11995; Bayezid State Library, Veliyyüddin Efendi 2735, Dizfûlî Münşeâtı (via the citations in the TDV).
  • Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, III (information relayed through the studies above).

Academic studies

  • Şerafettin Turan, "Mustafa Çelebi", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, c. 31, 2020, s. 290-292 (islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mustafa-celebi). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Semra Güler, Şehzade Mustafa'nın Hayatı (1515-1553) ve Türbesi, Uludağ University, master's thesis, 2011. acikerisim.uludag.edu.tr
  • Selim Özcan, "Amasya'da Sancak Beyliği Yapan Şehzadeler Döneminde Amasya Şehri", Amasya Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, sayı 5.
  • Gencay Zavotçu, "Bir Ölümün Yankıları ve Yahyâ Bey Mersiyesi", Atatürk Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları Enstitüsü Dergisi, sayı 33, Erzurum 2007, s. 69-80.
  • Zahit Atçıl, "Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Oğlu Şehzade Mustafa'yı 1553'te Neden Boğdurttu?", Osmanlı Araştırmaları / The Journal of Ottoman Studies, sayı 48, 2016, s. 67-103 (abstract).
  • Tayyib Gökbilgin, "Rüstem Paşa ve Hakkındaki İthamlar", Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Dergisi, sy. 11-12 (1955), s. 11-50.
  • Mehmed Çavuşoğlu, "Şehzâde Mustafa Mersiyeleri", Türk Edebiyatı Dergisi, sy. 12 (1982), s. 641-686.

Official sources

  • Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Culture Portal, "Şehzadeler Müzesi".

Books

  • Funda Demirtaş, "Şehzade Mustafa'nın Öldürülmesi: Tahlilî Bir Yaklaşım", Bilimname XVIII, 2010/1, s. 205-227.

Other sources

  • Feridun M. Emecen and others, "Süleyman I", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (sections on Şehzade Mustafa, the Düzme Mustafa affair and the campaigns of 1548-1555). islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • Vikipedi, "Şehzade Mustafa" (Turkish) and "Şehzade Mustafa (son of Suleiman the Magnificent)" (English). en.wikipedia.org
  • Amasya Haberleri (Milliyet), "Şehzade Mustafa'nın Sarayını Buldular", 25 August 2016.

Online sources