Mehmed IV

Biography

Mehmed IV became sultan at the age of six after his father Ibrahim was deposed and strangled. His early reign was dominated by court intrigue and near-collapse — the empire was bankrupt, the provinces were in revolt, and the Venetians were attacking Crete. He was saved by the Köprülü family of grand viziers, who restored order with brutal efficiency and put the Ottoman military machine back in working condition. Mehmed IV's own interests were predominantly in hunting — he was nicknamed 'the Hunter' and spent enormous amounts of time and money on elaborate hunts in Thrace and Anatolia. He delegated the business of war almost entirely to his grand viziers, first the Köprülüs and then Kara Mustafa Pasha. It was Kara Mustafa's ambition, backed by Mehmed's passive assent, that launched the campaign against Vienna in 1683. The catastrophe at Vienna was followed by the loss of Buda, the humiliation at Mohács, and the progressive unraveling of Ottoman control over Hungary. The military mutinied in 1687 after the Second Battle of Mohács and deposed Mehmed, installing his brother Suleiman II. Mehmed spent his remaining years in confinement in the old palace at Edirne, reportedly still obsessed with hunting. He died in 1693, having reigned for thirty-nine years and overseen both the Ottoman Empire's last great expansion and the beginning of its long retreat.

Key Battles