The
sultans of the
Ottoman Dynasty ruled over a vast transcontinental empire from 1299 to 1922. At its height, the
Ottoman Empire spanned from
Hungary in the north to
Somalia in the south, and from
Algeria in the west to
Iraq in the east. Administered at first from the city of
Bursa in
Anatolia, the empire's capital was moved to
Edirne in 1366 and then to
Constantinople (currently known as
Istanbul) in 1453 following its
capture from the
Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Empire's
early years have been the subject of varying narratives due to the difficulty of discerning fact from legend; nevertheless, most modern scholars agree that the empire came into existence around 1299 and that its first ruler was
Osman I,
khan (leader) of the
Kayı tribe of the
Oghuz Turks. The Ottoman Dynasty he founded was to endure for six centuries through the reigns of 36 sultans. The Ottoman Empire disappeared as a result of the defeat of the
Central Powers with whom it had allied itself during
World War I. The
partitioning of the empire by the victorious
Allies and the ensuing
Turkish War of Independence led to the birth of the modern
Republic of Turkey.
The Ottoman State was an
absolute monarchy during much of its existence. The sultan was at the apex of the hierarchical Ottoman system and acted in political, military, judicial, social, and religious capacities under a variety of titles. He was theoretically responsible only to God and God's law (the Islamic
şeriat, known in Arabic as
sharia), of which he was the chief executor. His
heavenly mandate was reflected in Irano-Islamic titles such as "shadow of God on Earth" (
zill Allah fi'l-alem) and "caliph of the face of the earth" (
halife-i ru-yi zemin).
[Findley 2005, p. 115] All offices were filled by his authority, and every law was issued by him in the form of a decree called
firman. He was the supreme military commander and had the official title to all land.
After the
fall of Constantinople in 1453, Ottoman sultans came to regard themselves as the successors of the Roman Empire, hence their occasional use of the titles
Caesar (
kaysar) and
Emperor.
Following the
conquest of Egypt in 1517,
Selim I also adopted the title of
caliph, thus claiming to be the universal Muslim ruler. Newly enthroned Ottoman rulers were girded with the
Sword of Osman, an important ceremony that served as the equivalent of European monarchs' coronation. A non-girded sultan was not eligible to have his children included in the line of succession.
Although theocratic and absolute in theory and in principle, the sultan's powers were limited in practice. Political decisions had to take into account the opinions and attitudes of important members of the dynasty, the bureaucratic and military establishments, as well as religious leaders.
[Glazer 1996, "Ottoman Institutions"] From the 17th century onwards, the empire entered into a long-term
period of stagnation, during which the sultans were much enfeebled. Many of them ended up being deposed by the powerful
Janissary corps. Despite being barred from inheriting the throne, women of the
Imperial Harem—especially the reigning sultan's mother, known as the
Valide Sultan—also played an important behind-the-scenes political role, effectively ruling the empire during the period known as the
sultanate of women.
The declining powers of the sultans are evidenced by the difference in reign lengths between early sultans and later ones.
Suleiman I, who ruled the empire when it was at its zenith in the 16th century, had a reign of 46 years, the longest in Ottoman history.
Murad V, who ruled in the late 19th-century period of decline, had the shortest reign on record: he was in power for just 93 days before being deposed.
Constitutionalism was only
established during the reign of Murad V's successor,
Abdülhamid II, who thus became the empire's last absolute ruler and its first constitutional monarch. Abdülhamid II's grandson, Prince
Ertuğrul Osman, who has been living in exile in
New York City since 1939, is the current head of the Ottoman Dynasty and
pretender to the defunct Ottoman throne.
List of sultans
The table below lists Ottoman sultans, as well as the last Ottoman caliph, in chronological order. The
tughras were the calligraphic seals or signatures used by Ottoman sultans. They were displayed on all official documents as well as on coins, and were far more important in identifying a sultan than his portrait. The "Notes" column contains information on each sultan's parentage and fate. When a sultan's reign did not end through a natural death, the reason is indicated in bold. For earlier rulers, there is usually a time gap between the moment a sultan's reign ended and the moment his successor was enthroned. This is because the Ottomans in that era practiced what historian Quataert has described as "
survival of the fittest, not eldest, son": when a sultan died, his sons had to fight each other for the throne until a victor emerged. Because of the infighting and numerous
fratricides that occurred, a sultan's death date therefore did not always coincide with the accession date of his successor. In 1617, the
law of succession changed from survival of the fittest to a system based on
agnatic seniority (
ekberiyet), whereby the throne went to the oldest male of the family. This in turn explains why from the 17th century onwards a deceased sultan was rarely succeeded by his own son, but usually by an uncle or brother. Agnatic seniority was retained until the abolition of the sultanate, despite unsuccessful attempts in the 19th century to replace it with
primogeniture.
Deposed (bold font) → Sultan's reign did not end through a natural death
See also
