Şehzade Ahmet شہزادہ احمد |
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Born |
c. 1466 Amasya, Ottoman Empire |
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Died | 24 April 1513 Yenişehir, Bursa, Ottoman Empire |
(aged 56–57)||||
Burial | Muradiye Complex, Bursa | ||||
Spouse | Nergisşah Hatun Şah Hatun Gülçiçek Hatun |
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House | House of Osman | ||||
Father | Bayezid II | ||||
Mother | Bülbül Hatun | ||||
Religion | Sunni Islam |
Full name | |
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Turkish: Şehzade Ahmet English: Shahzada Ahmad Ottoman Turkish: شہزادہ احمد |
Şehzade Ahmet (Ottoman Turkish: شہزادہ احمد; c. 1466 - 24 April 1513) was an Ottoman prince who fought to gain the throne of the Ottoman Empire in 1512–13. (Şehzade means prince in Turkish and Persian)
Ahmet was the oldest living son of Beyazıt II; his mother was Bülbül Hatun. In Ottoman tradition, all princes (Turkish: şehzade) were required to serve as provincial (sanjak) governors in Anatolia (Asiatic part of modern Turkey) as a part of their training. Ahmet was the governor of Amasya, an important Anatolian city. Although the status was not official, he was usually considered as the crown prince during the last years of his father's reign, in part because of the support of the grand vizier, Hadim Ali Pasha.
Ahmet had two living brothers. Of the two, Korkut was governing in Antalya and Selim (future sultan Selim I) in Trabzon. Custom dictated that whoever first reached Istanbul after the death of the previous sultan had the right to ascend to throne (although disagreements over who had arrived first very often led to civil wars between the brothers, most prominently displayed in the Ottoman Interregnum), so the distances from the sanjaks to Istanbul more or less determined the succession and usually whoever the previous sultan favored the most as his successor. In this respect, Ahmet was the most fortunate because his sanjak was the closest to Istanbul.
Although Selim's son Süleyman had been assigned to Bolu, a small sanjak closer to Istanbul, upon Ahmet's objection, he was relocated to Caffe in Crimea. Selim saw this as an unofficial display of support for his older brother and asked for a sanjak in Rumeli (the European portion of the empire). Although he was initially refused on the ground that Rumeli sanjaks were not offered to princes, with the support of the vassal Crimean khan Meñli I Giray (who was his father-in-law), he was able to receive the sanjak of Semendire (modern Smederevo in Serbia), which, although it was technically in Rumeli, was quite far from Istanbul nevertheless. Consequently, Selim chose to stay close to Istanbul instead of going to his new sanjak. His father Beyazıt thought this disobedience insurrectionist; he defeated Selim's forces in battle in August 1511, and Selim escaped to Crimea.