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Accession of Mehmed III

Type Event Region Western Asia Time 1595

On 16 January 1595, Sultan Murad III died and his son Mehmed III acceded the same day, ordering the fratricide law's executions amid the ongoing Fift…

Timeline

  1. 1595Topkapı Palace · Ottoman EmpireSultan Murad III, who had reigned for over twenty years, died at Topkapı Palace, and the empire entered the succession process. His mother Safiye Sultan and court officials immediately convened the imperial council to prepare the enthronement of the new ruler.
  2. 1595Topkapı Palace · Ottoman EmpireTwenty-eight-year-old Mehmed III took the sultan's throne before the imperial council, becoming the twelfth sultan and caliph of the Ottoman Empire. Once the enthronement ceremony was complete, the court moved to eliminate potential rivals to the throne.
  3. 1595Topkapı Palace · Ottoman EmpireIn accordance with the Fratricide Law (Kanun-i Cedid), Mehmed III ordered nineteen living half-brothers strangled with silk cords and seven pregnant concubines drowned, to prevent struggles over the throne. This was the last large-scale execution of the Ottoman fratricide tradition; his successor Ahmed I would abolish the practice.

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