Osman III

Osman III عثمان ثالث
Caliph of Islam Amir al-Mu'minin Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
17th Caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate 25th Ottoman Sultan (Emperor)
Reign	13 December 1754 – 30 October 1757
Predecessor	Mahmud I
Successor	Mustafa III
Consorts	Leyla Kadınefendi Zevki Kadınefendi Ferhunde Emine Kadınefendi
Dynasty	Osmanli (Ottoman)
Father	Mustafa II
Mother	Şehsuvar Sultan
Religion	Sunni Islam
Tughra

Osman III (Ottoman Turkish: عثمان ثالث‎ ‘Osmān-i sālis;‎ 2/3 January 1699 – 30 October 1757) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1754 to 1757.^[1]

Biography

The younger brother of Mahmud I (1730–54) and son of Mustafa II (1695–1703) and Valide Şehsuvar Sultan, he was born at Edirne Palace.

His brief reign saw rising intolerance of non-Muslims (Christians and Jews being required to wear distinctive clothes or badges) and is also notable for a fire in Constantinople.^[2][3] His mother was Şehsuvar Sultan, a Serbian valide sultan.

Audience of French ambassador Charles de Vergennes with Sultan Osman III in 1755.

Osman III lived most of his life as a prisoner in the palace, and as a consequence on becoming Sultan he had some behavioural peculiarities. Unlike previous Sultans, he hated music, and banished all musicians from the palace. Also while living in the "kafes", the palace prison in the "harem", the part of the palace containing the women's quarters, he developed a dislike for female company. He would wear iron shoes in order to avoid encountering any women — they could hear him approach and disperse. He died at the Topkapı Palace, Constantinople.

Osman was responsible for a firman in 1757, that preserved the Status Quo of various Holy Land sites for Christians, Muslims, and Jews.^[4]

References

1. Upham, Edward (1829). "Chapter XV: OTHMAN III Twenty Fifth Reign H 1168 A.D. 1754". History of the Ottoman Empire from its Establishment till the Year 1828. Constable's Miscellany XL. Original from Oxford University: Constable and Co. p. 260.
2. The Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol.7, Edited by Hugh Chisholm, (1911), 3; Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish Empire...
3. Britannica, Istanbul:When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved to Ankara, and Constantinople was officially renamed Istanbul in 1930.
4. Michael R. T. Dumper; Bruce E. Stanley (2007). Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 209. ISBN 978-1-57607-919-5. Retrieved 29 November 2012.

External links

Media related to Osman III at Wikimedia Commons