Ottoman Stagnation Period: Why It Began and Its Sultans (1579

In textbooks, the stagnation period is the hundred and twenty years from 1579, when Sokullu Mehmed Pasha was killed, to 1699, when the Treaty of Karlowitz was signed. During this time eleven sultans, from Murad III to Mustafa II, sat on the throne. Long wars, financial hardship and the Celali revolts put the state under strain; today, however, the label itself is debated.

Quick Summary

In the textbook periodization, the starting point is the death of Sokullu Mehmed Pasha on 12 October 1579.
Under the Peace of Zsitvatorok, signed with the Habsburgs in 1606, the emperor was treated as the sultan’s equal.
Eleven sultans, from Murad III to Mustafa II, sat on the throne.
The main causes were wars on two fronts, a changing army, financial crisis and the Celali revolts.
The stagnation period ends with the Treaty of Karlowitz, signed on 26 January 1699.
Historians today discuss this era less as one of stagnation than as a period of change and adaptation.

When and with what event did it begin?
The sultans of the stagnation period and their reigns
Why did it begin? Five main causes
Reform attempts and the Köprülüs
From Vienna to Karlowitz
Why is the concept debated?
Frequently asked questions

When Did the Stagnation Period Begin, and With What Event?

The periodization common in textbooks closes the rise period with the death of Sokullu Mehmed Pasha. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, it happened during the afternoon council (ikindi divanı) held at his mansion. A dervish approached the grand vizier as if to present a petition and stabbed him. Gravely wounded, Sokullu died on 12 October 1579. The stagnation period is considered to have begun with the death of this statesman, who had served three sultans as grand vizier. We described the preceding era in our article on the characteristics of the Ottoman rise period.

In fact, Sokullu’s power had been shaken before his death. According to the encyclopedia, Murad III was acting under the influence of the faction opposed to the grand vizier. Despite Sokullu’s objections, his rivals pushed the state into war with Iran in 1578. After his death he was succeeded by Semiz Ahmed Pasha, and a fierce struggle for power then broke out between Lala Mustafa Pasha and Koca Sinan Pasha.

With Which Treaty Did the Stagnation Period Begin?

In this periodization the starting point is not a treaty but an assassination. Still, if the beginning of the stagnation period had to be tied to a treaty, the Peace of Zsitvatorok comes to mind. In Turkish it is also written Zitvatoruk; the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam spells it Zitvatorok. The treaty ended the long Ottoman–Habsburg war that had begun in 1593. According to the encyclopedia, it was signed on 11 November 1606 at the confluence of the Zsitva and the Danube.

According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, a “father and son” relationship was established between the emperor and the sultan. Instead of “King of Vienna” (Beç kralı), the Ottomans would now use the title “kayzer” or “çasar”, meaning emperor. The Habsburgs would pay no annual tribute and would send a one-time gift worth 200,000 kuruş. According to the encyclopedia, this treaty put an end to Ottoman superiority in matters of diplomatic protocol. Feridun Emecen, who wrote the section on the classical period in the encyclopedia’s entry “Osmanlılar” (Ottomans), also regards the treaty as a turning point in the history of Ottoman diplomacy.

The video below, which summarizes the stagnation period for exam preparation, offers a short review of the topic.

Sultans of the Stagnation Period and Their Reigns

The sultans of the stagnation period begin with Murad III, who came to the throne in 1574. The list ends with Mustafa II, who was on the throne at the time of Karlowitz. The regnal years below follow the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam’s entries on the individual sultans. Because Mustafa I took the throne twice, he appears in the table with two date ranges.

Sultan	Reign	Key developments
Murad III	1574–1595	War with Iran (1578–1590), the kapıkulu (household troops) uprising of 1589, outbreak of the Habsburg war (1593)
Mehmed III	1595–1603	Went on campaign in person; conquest of Eger and victory at Mezőkeresztes, or Haçova (1596)
Ahmed I	1603–1617	Came to the throne at fourteen; Peace of Zsitvatorok (1606), suppression of the Celalis
Mustafa I	1617–1618, 1622–1623	First accession in which a brother rather than a son took the throne; deposed twice
Osman II	1618–1622	Khotyn campaign (1621); killed in the uprising of 1622
Murad IV	1623–1640	Campaigns of Yerevan (1635) and Baghdad (1638), Treaty of Zuhab, or Qasr-e Shirin (1639)
Ibrahim	1640–1648	Cretan campaign (1645); deposed in 1648
Mehmed IV	1648–1687	Köprülü era (from 1656), capture of Candia (1669), Siege of Vienna (1683)
Suleiman II	1687–1691	Loss of Belgrade (1688) and its recapture (1690)
Ahmed II	1691–1695	Defeat at Slankamen (1691)
Mustafa II	1695–1703	Defeat at Zenta (1697), Treaty of Karlowitz (1699)

Some of the sultans who came to the throne during the stagnation period were still children. According to the encyclopedia, Ahmed I and Osman II became sultan at fourteen, and Mehmed IV at seven. Murad IV, born in 1612, was eleven when he took the throne. This increased the weight of the valide sultans (queen mothers) and the palace circle in government.

Why Did the Stagnation Period Begin? Five Main Causes

The reform treatises of the stagnation period mostly blamed the deterioration on the mistakes of the sultans and the palace circle. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam’s entry on Murad III, however, notes that this picture was in fact the result of two great wars. The five headings below take up these interconnected causes one by one.

Long Wars on Two Fronts

According to the encyclopedia, the war with Iran that began in 1578 turned into a long and exhausting struggle and ended only in 1590. Three years later, in 1593, a new war was opened against the Habsburgs. Known in Western literature as the “Long War”, it shook the classical Ottoman order to its foundations. According to Emecen, war on two fronts, combined with economic and social causes, opened deep wounds in the system.

Firearms and a Changing Army

Despite the victory at Mezőkeresztes in 1596, the Habsburg war clearly exposed the technical shortcomings of the Ottoman military organization. The Ottomans now faced better-organized allied armies, and firearms were in widespread use. For this reason young Anatolian men skilled with the musket, the sekbans, were taken into the army. The importance of the timariot sipahis (cavalrymen supported by land grants called timars) declined. According to Emecen, this change set off a chain reaction that also transformed the bureaucracy and the financial system.

Financial Crisis and Debased Coinage

The financial effects of the wars shook Ottoman markets deeply. According to the encyclopedia, in 1589 the kapıkulu soldiers rose up in Istanbul over the problem of debased coin (züyuf akçe). Mehmed Pasha, the governor-general (beylerbeyi) of Rumelia, and the chief treasurer (başdefterdar) Mahmud Efendi, both of whom the rebels had demanded, were killed. Emecen notes that the economic crisis that gripped all of Europe after the Age of Discovery also strained the Ottoman system, which was going through a period of change.

The Celali Revolts

The revolts in Anatolia also grew during the war years. According to the encyclopedia, the first great Celali revolt was started by Karayazıcı Abdülhalim. The 30,000 timariot and kapıkulu soldiers who fled to Anatolia during the muster of 1596 swelled the numbers of the rebels. These years, when people abandoned their villages and took refuge in walled towns, are known in Ottoman sources as the “great flight” (büyük kaçgunluk).

The revolts were quelled by Kuyucu Murad Pasha’s harsh and bloody campaign of 1607–1608. The sources relate that he did away with as many as 60,000–70,000 Celalis. We explained the causes and leaders of the Celali revolts in detail in our article on rebellions in the Ottoman Empire and their causes.

A Changing Rule of Succession and the Palace

At the beginning of the 17th century the manner of succession to the throne also changed. According to the encyclopedia, after Ahmed I the tendency grew for the eldest member of the dynasty to take the throne while the others were kept under close watch. Thus the principle of seniority (ekberiyet) took root, and the dynasty came to share power with the valide sultans, the imperial sons-in-law (damads) and the viziers. One of the best-known figures of this structure was Kösem Sultan, the mother of Murad IV and Ibrahim. She kept her influence in the early years of the reign of her grandson Mehmed IV and was killed in the palace in 1651.

Representative image for the article on the stagnation period: men in fezzes, porters and vendors in front of a sebil (public fountain) in old Istanbul — Daily life in front of a sebil in old Istanbul (representative image)

Reform Attempts: From Osman II to the Köprülüs

The stagnation period was also an age of attempts at reform. Osman II, who came to the throne in 1618 at the age of fourteen, prepared to go on the pilgrimage to Mecca after the Khotyn campaign. These preparations gave rise to exaggerated reports that he would raise troops in Anatolia and do away with the Janissaries. The ulema and the kapıkulu joined forces; in May 1622 the young sultan was deposed and strangled in Yedikule (the Fortress of the Seven Towers).

According to the encyclopedia, chronicles reflecting the views of his opponents also played a part in his reputation as a ruler who wanted sweeping reform in every field. His brother Murad IV, for his part, took full control of the government from May 1632 and eliminated the rebel strongmen (zorbas). He had the coffeehouses demolished and banned tobacco. After the Yerevan and Baghdad campaigns, the Treaty of Zuhab (Qasr-e Shirin), signed on 17 May 1639, put an end to the wars with Iran.

According to the encyclopedia, the recovery of the state, on the other hand, became possible with the grand vizierate of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha. When he was appointed grand vizier on 15 September 1656, Köprülü set certain conditions. He demanded that every memorandum (telhis) he submitted be carried out, that no one interfere in his appointments and that his powers not be restricted. Mehmed IV and the Valide Turhan Sultan accepted these conditions under oath.

In the Köprülü era the state embarked on conquests once again. According to Emecen, Érsekújvár (Uyvar) in Slovakia was taken in 1663, and the empire reached its widest borders in the west. According to the encyclopedia, the capture of Candia in 1669 also settled the twenty-five-year Cretan question. In 1672 Kamianets (Kamaniçe) was taken.

How Did the Stagnation Period End? From Vienna to Karlowitz

The advance of the Köprülü era reached its peak with the Siege of Vienna in 1683, but the siege failed. Emecen describes the siege and its aftermath as “a complete disaster” for the Ottomans. The grand vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha was executed in Belgrade; Érsekújvár was lost in 1685 and Buda in 1686. The war that had begun with Austria turned into a struggle on many fronts as Poland, Venice and Russia joined in.

After the defeat at Mohács in 1687, Mehmed IV was deposed under pressure from the army, which had risen in revolt. Then came the routs at Slankamen in 1691 and at Zenta in 1697; at Slankamen the grand vizier Fazıl Mustafa Pasha fell in battle. According to the encyclopedia, the defeat at Zenta, the Venetian push north from the Morea and Russia’s capture of Azov in 1696 forced the Ottomans to sue for peace again.

The Terms of the Treaty of Karlowitz

The peace talks were held at Karlowitz through the mediation of the English and Dutch envoys. At the head of the Ottoman delegation was the reisülküttab (chief of the scribes) Rami Mehmed Efendi. The treaty was signed on 26 January 1699. According to the encyclopedia, all of Hungary, including Transylvania, was ceded to Austria, with the exception of Temesvár (the Banat).

In the treaty with Poland the Ottomans agreed to evacuate Podolia, and it was decided that the fortress of Kamianets would also be evacuated and demolished. A separate peace of sixteen articles was signed with Venice. With Russia, only a two-year truce could be concluded; Azov was left to Russia by the treaty signed in Istanbul in 1700. The treaty with Austria was to remain in force for twenty-five years, and the principle of equality established at Zsitvatorok was accepted once again.

According to Abdülkadir Özcan, who wrote the encyclopedia’s entry on Karlowitz, the treaty is regarded as a turning point in Ottoman history. Emecen likewise writes that the treaty resulted in the loss of frontier regions that had been expanded through struggle since 1526. That is why textbooks close the stagnation period with Karlowitz and describe the following era as the period of decline. Even so, Özcan stresses that the Ottoman delegation showed no weakness at the negotiating table and held on to a strategy of recovering its losses.

Why Is the Concept of a Stagnation Period Debated?

The idea of a stagnation period goes back to the authors of the period itself. In the 17th century, writers such as Koçi Bey, Katib Çelebi and Hezarfen Hüseyin Efendi wrote works of advice (nasihatname) describing the failings in the affairs of state. According to the encyclopedia, these writers argued that the old order known as the “ancient law” (kanun-ı kadim) had broken down. Koçi Bey often traces the beginning of this deterioration to the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, and especially to the last years of the reign of Murad III.

The issue Koçi Bey dwelt on most was the breakdown of the timar and zeamet system of military land grants. According to the encyclopedia, writers such as Hammer and Ahmed Vefik Pasha accept that the treatise he presented to Murad IV influenced the sultan’s measures after 1632. Hammer calls Koçi Bey the “Turkish Montesquieu”. According to Emecen, the views of these reform writers were later reflected in modern assessments as well.

Present-day historiography, by contrast, approaches this view with caution. According to the encyclopedia, historians today regard Koçi Bey’s hope of salvation through a return to the old order as a romantic longing for a golden age in the past. The same entry, drawing on Halil İnalcık, points out that the timariot sipahi had lost his former value in the face of firearms. It adds that Koçi Bey and the reform writers of his time had not yet realized this.

Emecen makes a similar assessment. In his view, the reform writers, largely unaware of the change under way, saw the solution in a return to the old law. The viziers and bureaucrats who were actually involved in affairs, however, saw clearly that this could not be a solution. Their pragmatic measures brought relief in the long run, despite events such as the overthrow of Osman II in a bloody uprising. The encyclopedia’s entry “Osmanlılar” likewise treats the years 1300–1774 under a single heading, the “classical period”.

This debate does not mean that the stagnation period was free of serious problems. At Zsitvatorok, diplomatic superiority over the Habsburgs was lost, and after 1683 there were heavy territorial losses. Yet in the same century Crete was taken and the empire reached its widest borders in the west. That is why it is more illuminating to read the stagnation period not as a “standstill” but as a difficult process of change and adaptation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What event marks the beginning of the stagnation period?

In the textbook periodization, the starting point is the death of Sokullu Mehmed Pasha on 12 October 1579, the result of an assassination.

Who were the sultans of the stagnation period?

There were eleven sultans of the stagnation period. In order, they were Murad III, Mehmed III, Ahmed I, Mustafa I, Osman II, Murad IV, Ibrahim, Mehmed IV, Suleiman II, Ahmed II and Mustafa II.

When did the stagnation period end?

The stagnation period ends with the Treaty of Karlowitz, signed on 26 January 1699.

Why is the Peace of Zsitvatorok important?

Under the treaty, the Habsburg emperor was treated as the sultan’s equal. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, this treaty brought Ottoman diplomatic superiority to an end.

Why is the Köprülü era important?

Köprülü Mehmed Pasha became grand vizier on his own conditions in 1656. Under him and his son Fazıl Ahmed Pasha the state recovered, Crete was taken and the empire reached its widest borders in the west.

Conclusion

In the framework used in textbooks, the stagnation period begins with the death of Sokullu Mehmed Pasha in 1579 and ends with the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. In these hundred and twenty years eleven sultans sat on the throne. Wars on two fronts, the transformation of the army, financial crisis and the Celali revolts put the state under strain. In the Köprülü era, however, the state recovered and reached its widest borders in the west.

For this reason the stagnation period is read today less as a time of stagnation than as a difficult age of transformation. The roots of the concept, meanwhile, go back to the reform writers of the time, who longed for the old order.