Mehmed IV was the nineteenth sultan of the Ottoman dynasty. Officially, he ruled for thirty-nine years. He is considered the last ruler in which the state posed a real threat to Europe. The defeat of the Turkish army during the campaigns gave rise to overthrow the unfortunate ruler.
Parents
Mehmed IV, whose history is connected with events in Europe, was the son of Ibrahim the First. Father became a sultan as a result of the fact that he remained the last living representative of a kind. From childhood he was considered crazy and kept in prison. Saved from death and brought to power by Kesem Sultan, who was his mother.
The real power in the empire belonged to Kesem and the vizier. And Ibrahim was most concerned about his own harem. Mehmed became his firstborn, but his father did not have special feelings for the boy. Confirmation of this is the case when, in a fit of rage, the sultan grabbed the little Mehmed from his mother’s hands and threw him into the reservoir. The boy was pulled out of the water on time, but when he fell, he cut his forehead. The scar on his forehead remained until the end of his life. The sultan was deprived of power in 1648, forcibly abdicated the throne in favor of his son, and in the same year he was executed by strangulation.
The mother of the nineteenth sultan was Turhan Hatice. It is believed that she came from Slavic lands (the territory of modern Ukraine). Before the capture by the Turks at the age of twelve, her name was Nadia. She became a concubine of the Sultan at the age of fifteen. For a long time she was a valid regent with her young son. For this title she had to compete with Kesem Sultan.
Reign
Mehmed IV Ahmed-oglu was born on the second of January 1642. Six years later, he ascended the throne. The period of his infancy was replete with intrigues that his mother and grandmother wove. The sultan was firmly entrenched with the nickname Avji, which from Turkish translates as "hunter." This was the ruler’s favorite pastime.
During his almost forty-year tenure on the throne, Mehmed IV was involved in many events that took place in world politics.
The main events in history that were directly related to the Ottoman Empire :
- war with the Venetians;
- unsuccessful war with Austria;
- the war with Poland (the sultan personally commanded) and the conclusion of the Jurave peace of 1676;
- unprofitable war with Russia;
- siege of Vienna and the defeat of the Ottoman army.
After the defeat near Vienna in 1683, the Ottoman army was waiting for a number of equally significant disasters. The Ottomans lost the Ionian Islands, Morea, Moldova, Wallachia, Hungary. Belgrade even came under Christian control. Thus, the Ottoman Empire significantly reduced its territory.
Attitude to Ukrainian Cossacks
Mehmed IV was born in the same year when he began his uprising, which grew into a national liberation war,
Bogdan Khmelnitsky. His mother was Ukrainian by birth. There is even a version that the mother tried to teach her son her native language, but stopped trying after Ibrahim the First learned about it.
Sultan Mehmed IV ruled in his empire when the ruins were in the Ukrainian lands. Both Bogdan Khmelnitsky and Yuri Khmelnitsky made an alliance with him . His patronage was requested by such hetmans as Ivan Vygovsky, Pavel Teterya, Ivan Bryukhovetsky.
According to one version, it was Mehmed the Fourth who wrote the famous letter to the Cossacks led by Ivan Sirk. Although the chieftain himself even managed to swear allegiance to the Turkish sultan.
The representative of the Osman dynasty personally visited the Ukrainian lands. He led the campaign to Podillia. Under his command, on August 27, 1672, the fortress in Kamenets fell. As a result of this campaign, Podillia and part of Galicia fell under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. But this was the last successful conquest of the Sultan.
End of board
Mehmed IV was not a strong ruler. For a long time, valid and viziers ruled for him. Their activities led to a series of defeats on the world stage and the weakening of the Ottoman Empire. Like his father, the nineteenth sultan was ousted from the throne by the uprising of the Janissaries. It happened in 1687. Mehmed died in prison five years after that, namely 06/01/1693.
After being removed from the throne, Suleiman II, who was the younger brother of his predecessor, became the Sultan. He did not deal with the affairs of the empire, entrusting everything to his viziers.