Mustafa II

Biography

Mustafa II came to the Ottoman throne in 1695 determined to reverse the catastrophic losses his predecessors had suffered since Vienna. Unlike his uncle Mehmed IV, who had been content to hunt while his viziers fought, Mustafa declared he would lead the army in person — the first sultan to take the field in decades. He was earnest, devout, and brave, qualities that made him admirable but not necessarily effective against a general like Eugene of Savoy. His first campaign in 1695 produced a genuine victory at Lugos, where his army overran General Veterani's outnumbered force. It was enough to convince Mustafa that his personal leadership could turn the war around. In 1697 he led a larger army into the Balkans, aiming to recapture lost territory in Hungary. On September 11, his army was caught crossing the Tisza River at Zenta by Eugene of Savoy, who attacked without waiting for orders. The result was annihilation — perhaps 30,000 Ottomans killed, the Grand Vizier dead, and Mustafa barely escaped across the river. Zenta ended the war and Mustafa's ambitions. He signed the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699, ceding Hungary, Transylvania, and Slavonia — the greatest territorial loss in Ottoman history. He was deposed by a palace revolt in 1703 and died the same year, aged thirty-nine, the last Ottoman sultan to lead an army in the field.

Key Battles