Selim III
Encyclopedia
Selim III (December 24, 1761 – July 28/29, 1808) was the reform-minded Sultan
of the Ottoman Empire
from 1789 to 1807. The Janissaries (Janissaries) eventually deposed and imprisoned him, and placed his cousin Mustafa on the throne as Mustafa IV
. Selim was finally assassinated.
(1757–74) and succeeded his uncle Abdülhamid I (1774–89). He was born in Constantinople
. His mother was Valide Sultan
Mihr-i shah.
The talents and energy with which Selim III was endowed had endeared him to the people, and great hopes were founded on his accession. He had associated much with foreigners, and was thoroughly persuaded of the necessity of reforming his state.
However, Austria and Russia gave him no time for anything but defense, and it was not until the Peace of Iaşi (1792) that a breathing space was allowed him in Europe, while Napoleon
's invasion of Egypt and Syria soon called for Turkey's strongest efforts and for the time shattered the old-standing Franco-Ottoman alliance
.
Selim III profited by the respite to abolish the military tenure of fiefs; he introduced salutary reforms into the administration, especially in the fiscal department, sought by well-considered plans to extend the spread of education, and engaged foreign officers as instructors, by whom a small corps of new troops called nizam-i-jedid were collected and drilled.
So well were these troops organized that they were able to hold their own against rebellious Janissaries
in the Balkan provinces such as the Sanjak of Smederevo
against its appointed Vizier
Hadži Mustafa Pasha
, where disaffected governors made no scruple of attempting to make use of them against the reforming sultan.
Emboldened by this success, Selim III issued an order that in future picked men should be taken annually from the Janissaries to serve in their ranks.
, and due to their number, exceeding 10,000, and the violence of their opposition, it was decided that the reforms must be given up for now. Serbia
, Egypt and the principalities were successively the scene of hostilities in which the Ottomans gained no successes, and in 1807 a British fleet appeared at Constantinople, strangely, to insist on Turkey's yielding to Russia
's demands and that the Ottomans dismiss the ambassador of Napoleon
, Horace Sebastiani (see Dardanelles Operation
).
Selim III was, however, thoroughly under the influence of Sebastiani, and the fleet was compelled to retire without effecting its purpose. But the anarchy, manifest or latent, existing throughout the provinces proved too great for Selim III to cope with. The Janissaries rose once more in revolt, induced the Sheikh-ul-Islam
to grant a fetva against the reforms, dethroned and imprisoned Selim III, and placed his cousin Mustafa
on the throne, as Mustafa IV
(1807–08).
The pasha of Rustchuk
, Mustafa Bayrakdar, a strong partisan of the reforms, collected an army of 40,000 men and marched on Constantinople with the purpose of reinstating Selim III, but he came too late. The ill-fated reforming Sultan had been stabbed in the seraglio
by the Chief Black Eunuch and his men,. Upon his arrival in the capital, Bairakdar's only resource was to wreak his vengeance on Mustafa IV and to place on the throne Mahmud II
(1808–1839), the sole surviving member of the house of Osman.
Another version about his murder states that at the time of his deposition, Selim was staying at the Harem. The night of Thursday, July 28, 1808, he was with his favourite lady, Refet Kadın, and a slave girl or perhaps another favourite Pakize Kadın in attendance. Alemdar Mustafa Pasha
, a loyalist of Selim, was approaching the city with his army to reinstate Selim. Therefore Mustafa IV gave orders to murder him and his brother Prince Mahmud.
The assassins were apparently a group of men, including the Master of the Wardrobe called Fettah the Georgian, the Treasury steward Ebe Selim, and black eunuch named Nezir Ağa. Selim apparently knew his end was coming when he saw their swords drawn. Pakize Kadın threw herself between them and her lord, she was cut in her hand. Refet Kadın started screaming in terror, another slave girl who rushed in fainted when she saw what was about to happen. A struggle ensued and the former sultan was cut down and murdered, his last words apparently being "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great").
Refet Kadın threw herself on the body but was dragged away. The body was quickly wrapped in a quilt. The assassins moved on to find Prince Mahmud and attempt to murder him too, he was more fortunate though and later ordered the assassins to be executed. Selim III would be the only Ottoman sultan to be killed by the sword. He died in Constantinople.
A great lover of music, Sultan Selim III was a composer and performer of significant talent. He created fourteen makam
-s (melodic types), three of which are in current use today. Sixty-four compositions by Selim III are known today, some of which are part of the regular repertory of Turkish classical music performerance. Aside from composing music, Selim III also performed on the ney
(reed flute) and tanbur
(long-necked, fretted lute).
Selim III's interest in music started in his days as a prince (shahzade) when he studied under Kırımlı Ahmet Kamil Efendi and Tanburi İzak Efendi. He was especially respectful of Tanburi İzak Efendi, and it is recounted that the Sultan rose in respect when Tanburi İzak Efendi entered the court.
As a patron of the arts, Selim III encouraged musicians of his day, including Dede Efendi
and Baba Hamparsum
. The Hamparsum notation system that Selim commissioned became the dominant notation for Turkish and Armenian music. His name is associated with a school in Classical Turkish Music due to the revival and re-birth of music at his court. Selim III was also interested in western music and in 1797 invited an opera
troupe for the first opera performance in the Ottoman Empire.
Writing under the nom de plume ″İlhami,″ Selim's poetry is collected in a divan
. Among regular attendees of his court were Şeyh Galip, one of the greatest Ottoman poets.
Selim III was a member of the Mevlevi Order of Sufi Whirling
Dervishes, and entered into the order at the Galata Mevlevihanesi under the name ″Selim Dede.″ He was a renowned composer, creating many musical compositions, including a Mevlevi ayin, a long and complex liturgical form performed during the semâ
(religious ceremonies) of the Mevlana (Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi) Tariqah
of Sufi Whirling
Mystics, in makam
Suzidilara.
He extended his patronage to Antoine Ignace Melling
, whom he appointed as the court architect in 1795. Melling constructed a number of palaces and other buildings for the Sultan and created engravings of contemporary Constantinople.
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
from 1789 to 1807. The Janissaries (Janissaries) eventually deposed and imprisoned him, and placed his cousin Mustafa on the throne as Mustafa IV
Mustafa IV
Mustafa IV was sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1807 to 1808.-Biography:...
. Selim was finally assassinated.
Reforms
He was a son of Mustafa IIIMustafa III
Mustafa III was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1757 to 1774. He was a son of Sultan Ahmed III and was succeeded by his brother Abdul Hamid I . He was born in Edirne...
(1757–74) and succeeded his uncle Abdülhamid I (1774–89). He was born in Constantinople
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. His mother was Valide Sultan
Valide Sultan
Valide Sultan was the title held by the mother of a ruling Sultan in the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish pronunciation of the word Valide is . The title is sometimes translated as Queen Mother, although the position of Valide Sultan was quite different.The position was perhaps the most important...
Mihr-i shah.
The talents and energy with which Selim III was endowed had endeared him to the people, and great hopes were founded on his accession. He had associated much with foreigners, and was thoroughly persuaded of the necessity of reforming his state.
However, Austria and Russia gave him no time for anything but defense, and it was not until the Peace of Iaşi (1792) that a breathing space was allowed him in Europe, while Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's invasion of Egypt and Syria soon called for Turkey's strongest efforts and for the time shattered the old-standing Franco-Ottoman alliance
Franco-Ottoman alliance
The Franco-Ottoman alliance, also Franco-Turkish alliance, was an alliance established in 1536 between the king of France Francis I and the Turkish ruler of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman the Magnificent. The alliance has been called "the first non-ideological diplomatic alliance of its kind between a...
.
Selim III profited by the respite to abolish the military tenure of fiefs; he introduced salutary reforms into the administration, especially in the fiscal department, sought by well-considered plans to extend the spread of education, and engaged foreign officers as instructors, by whom a small corps of new troops called nizam-i-jedid were collected and drilled.
So well were these troops organized that they were able to hold their own against rebellious Janissaries
Janissary
The Janissaries were infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops and bodyguards...
in the Balkan provinces such as the Sanjak of Smederevo
Sanjak of Smederevo
The Sanjak of Smederevo , also known as the Pashaluk of Belgrade , was an Ottoman administrative unit , that existed between the 15th and the outset of the 19th centuries...
against its appointed Vizier
Vizier
A vizier or in Arabic script ; ; sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir) is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in a Muslim government....
Hadži Mustafa Pasha
Hadži Mustafa Pasha
Hadži Mustafa Pasha, Hadži Mustafa Paşa, Hajji Mustafa Pasha nicknamed Mama Srpski , was a Serbian Muslim soldier and Vizier of Sanjak of Smederevo . Hadži Mustafa Pasha was known to have carried out a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, he was also a member of the Bektashi Order...
, where disaffected governors made no scruple of attempting to make use of them against the reforming sultan.
Emboldened by this success, Selim III issued an order that in future picked men should be taken annually from the Janissaries to serve in their ranks.
Janissary revolt
The Janissaries and others who opposed reforms rebelled at EdirneEdirne
Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...
, and due to their number, exceeding 10,000, and the violence of their opposition, it was decided that the reforms must be given up for now. Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Egypt and the principalities were successively the scene of hostilities in which the Ottomans gained no successes, and in 1807 a British fleet appeared at Constantinople, strangely, to insist on Turkey's yielding to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
's demands and that the Ottomans dismiss the ambassador of Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
, Horace Sebastiani (see Dardanelles Operation
Dardanelles Operation
The Dardanelles Operation was the Royal Navy's unsuccessful attempt to impose British demands on the Ottoman Empire as part of the Anglo-Turkish War ....
).
Downfall and assassination
Sheikh ul-Islam
Shaykh al-Islām is a title of superior authority in the issues of Islam....
to grant a fetva against the reforms, dethroned and imprisoned Selim III, and placed his cousin Mustafa
Mustafa IV
Mustafa IV was sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1807 to 1808.-Biography:...
on the throne, as Mustafa IV
Mustafa IV
Mustafa IV was sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1807 to 1808.-Biography:...
(1807–08).
The pasha of Rustchuk
Rousse
Ruse is the fifth-largest city in Bulgaria. Ruse is situated in the northeastern part of the country, on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Romanian city of Giurgiu, from the capital Sofia and from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast...
, Mustafa Bayrakdar, a strong partisan of the reforms, collected an army of 40,000 men and marched on Constantinople with the purpose of reinstating Selim III, but he came too late. The ill-fated reforming Sultan had been stabbed in the seraglio
Seraglio
A seraglio or serail is the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in a Turkish household. The word comes from an Italian variant of Turkish saray, from Persian sarai , meaning palace, or the enclosed courts for the wives and concubines of the harem of a house or palace...
by the Chief Black Eunuch and his men,. Upon his arrival in the capital, Bairakdar's only resource was to wreak his vengeance on Mustafa IV and to place on the throne Mahmud II
Mahmud II
Mahmud II was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. He was born in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, the son of Sultan Abdulhamid I...
(1808–1839), the sole surviving member of the house of Osman.
Another version about his murder states that at the time of his deposition, Selim was staying at the Harem. The night of Thursday, July 28, 1808, he was with his favourite lady, Refet Kadın, and a slave girl or perhaps another favourite Pakize Kadın in attendance. Alemdar Mustafa Pasha
Alemdar Mustafa Pasha
Alemdar Mustafa Pasha was an Ottoman military commander and a Grand Vizier born in Khotyn in Turkish-occupied Ukraine in 1765...
, a loyalist of Selim, was approaching the city with his army to reinstate Selim. Therefore Mustafa IV gave orders to murder him and his brother Prince Mahmud.
The assassins were apparently a group of men, including the Master of the Wardrobe called Fettah the Georgian, the Treasury steward Ebe Selim, and black eunuch named Nezir Ağa. Selim apparently knew his end was coming when he saw their swords drawn. Pakize Kadın threw herself between them and her lord, she was cut in her hand. Refet Kadın started screaming in terror, another slave girl who rushed in fainted when she saw what was about to happen. A struggle ensued and the former sultan was cut down and murdered, his last words apparently being "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great").
Refet Kadın threw herself on the body but was dragged away. The body was quickly wrapped in a quilt. The assassins moved on to find Prince Mahmud and attempt to murder him too, he was more fortunate though and later ordered the assassins to be executed. Selim III would be the only Ottoman sultan to be killed by the sword. He died in Constantinople.
Interest in poetry and arts
Makam
Makam In Turkish classical music, a system of melody types called makam provides a complex set of rules for composing and performance...
-s (melodic types), three of which are in current use today. Sixty-four compositions by Selim III are known today, some of which are part of the regular repertory of Turkish classical music performerance. Aside from composing music, Selim III also performed on the ney
Ney
The ney is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Middle Eastern music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. It is a very ancient instrument, with depictions of ney players appearing in wall paintings in the Egyptian pyramids and actual neys being found...
(reed flute) and tanbur
Tanbur
The term tanbūr can refer to various long-necked, fretted lutes originating in the Middle East or Central Asia. According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "terminology presents a complicated situation. Nowadays the term tanbur is applied to a variety of distinct and related...
(long-necked, fretted lute).
Selim III's interest in music started in his days as a prince (shahzade) when he studied under Kırımlı Ahmet Kamil Efendi and Tanburi İzak Efendi. He was especially respectful of Tanburi İzak Efendi, and it is recounted that the Sultan rose in respect when Tanburi İzak Efendi entered the court.
As a patron of the arts, Selim III encouraged musicians of his day, including Dede Efendi
Dede Efendi
Hammamizade İsmail Dede Efendi was a composer of Turkish classical music. He was born on 9 January 1778, in Istanbul, Şehzadebaşı. He started studying music with Mehmed Emin Efendi, at the age of eight. He attended rituals at Yenikapı Mevlevihanesi, a place of Mevlevi gathering. He studied with...
and Baba Hamparsum
Hamparsum Limonciyan
Hampartsoum Limondjian was an Ottoman Armenian composer of Armenian church music and Turkish classical music and musical theorist who developed the Hampartsoum notation system...
. The Hamparsum notation system that Selim commissioned became the dominant notation for Turkish and Armenian music. His name is associated with a school in Classical Turkish Music due to the revival and re-birth of music at his court. Selim III was also interested in western music and in 1797 invited an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
troupe for the first opera performance in the Ottoman Empire.
Writing under the nom de plume ″İlhami,″ Selim's poetry is collected in a divan
Diwan (poetry)
-Etymology:The English usage of the phrase Diwan Poetry comes from the Arabic word diwan , which is loaned from Persian means designated a list or register. The Persian word derived from the Persian dibir meaning writer or scribe...
. Among regular attendees of his court were Şeyh Galip, one of the greatest Ottoman poets.
Selim III was a member of the Mevlevi Order of Sufi Whirling
Sufi whirling
Sufi whirling , is a form of Sama or physicaly active meditation which orginated among Sufis, and which is still practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. It is a customary dance performed within the Sema, or worship ceremony, through which dervishes aim to reach the source of all...
Dervishes, and entered into the order at the Galata Mevlevihanesi under the name ″Selim Dede.″ He was a renowned composer, creating many musical compositions, including a Mevlevi ayin, a long and complex liturgical form performed during the semâ
Sema
Sama is a Sufi ceremony performed as dhikr. Sama means "listening", while dhikr means "remembrance". These rituals often includes singing, playing instruments, dancing, recitation of poetry and prayers, wearing symbolic attire, and other rituals...
(religious ceremonies) of the Mevlana (Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi) Tariqah
Tariqah
A tariqa is an Islamic religious order. In Sufism one starts with Islamic law, the exoteric or mundane practice of Islam and then is initiated onto the mystical path of a tariqa. Through spiritual practices and guidance of a tariqa the aspirant seeks ḥaqīqah - ultimate truth.-Meaning:A tariqa is a...
of Sufi Whirling
Sufi whirling
Sufi whirling , is a form of Sama or physicaly active meditation which orginated among Sufis, and which is still practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. It is a customary dance performed within the Sema, or worship ceremony, through which dervishes aim to reach the source of all...
Mystics, in makam
Makam
Makam In Turkish classical music, a system of melody types called makam provides a complex set of rules for composing and performance...
Suzidilara.
He extended his patronage to Antoine Ignace Melling
Antoine Ignace Melling
Antoine Ignace Melling was a painter, architect and voyager who is counted among the “Levantine Artists”. He is famous for his vedute of Constantinople, a town where he lived for 18 years. He was imperial architect to Sultan Selim III and Hatice Sultan and later landscape painter to the Empress...
, whom he appointed as the court architect in 1795. Melling constructed a number of palaces and other buildings for the Sultan and created engravings of contemporary Constantinople.
Further reading
- Shaw, Stanford. Between Old and New: The Ottoman Empire under Selim III, 1789-1807.