Murad IV

Murad IV in his young age

Ottoman miniature painting depicting Murad IV during dinner

Murad IV was for a long time under the control of his relatives and during his early years as Sultan, his mother, Kösem Sultan, essentially ruled through him. The Empire fell into anarchy; the Safavid Empire invaded Iraq almost immediately, Northern Anatolia erupted in revolts, and in 1631 the Janissaries stormed the palace and killed the Grand Vizier, among others. Murad IV feared suffering the fate of his elder brother, Osman II (1618–22), and decided to assert his power.

At the age of 16 in 1628, he had his brother-in-law (his sister Gevherhan Sultan's husband, who was also the former governor of Egypt), Kara Mustafa Pasha, executed for a claimed action "against the law of God".[4]

After the death of the Grand Vizier Çerkes Mehmed Pasha in the winter of Tokat, Diyarbekir Beylerbeyi Hafez Ahmed Pasha became a vizier and an emperor on 8 February 1625.[5]

The epidemic, which started in the summer of 1625 and called the plague of Bayrampaşa, spread to a threat to the population of Istanbul. On average, a thousand people died every day. The people went to the Okmeydanı, to regent themselves from this plague. The situation was worse in the countryside, but there is no one who sees what looks out of Istanbul.[5]

Murad IV tried to quell the corruption that had grown during the reigns of previous Sultans, and that had not been checked while his mother was ruling through proxy.

Executions were issued to the states, and those who came to Istanbul were executed as Jelali, Jelali being followers of Celali, the leader of the revolt in 1519 in Tokat who lead peasants acting against feudal exploitation. Murad IV shivering and brutal sultan started with this shaking.[6]

Ilyas Pasha, who took advantage of the confusion in Istanbul and dominated the Manisa and Balikesir sides, who was taught Şehname, Timurname at night and was caught in the sultan's dreams, was finally caught and brought to Istanbul and executed in front of the Sultan.[6]

Murad IV banned alcohol, tobacco, and coffee in Constantinople.[7] He ordered execution for breaking this ban.[8] He would reportedly patrol the streets and the lowest taverns of Constantinople in civilian clothes at night, policing the enforcement of his command by casting off his disguise on the spot and beheading the offender with his own hands.[9] Rivaling the exploits of Selim the Grim, he would sit in a kiosk by the water near his Seraglio Palace[9] and shoot arrows at any passerby or boatman who rowed too close to his imperial compound, seemingly for sport.[10] He restored the judicial regulations by very strict punishments, including execution, he once strangled a grand vizier for the reason that the official had beaten his mother-in-law.[9][11][12]

On 2 September 1633,[6] the big Cibali fire broke out, burning a fifth of the city. The fire started during the day when a caulker burned the shrub and the ship caulked into the walls. The fire, which spread from three branches to the city. One arm lowered towards the sea.[6] He returned from Zeyrek and walked to Atpazan. Other kollan Büyükkaraman, Küçükkaraman, Sultanmehmet (Fatih), Saraçhane, Sangürz (Sangüzel) districts were ruined. The sultan could not do anything other than watching sentence viziers, Bostancı and Yeniçeri. The most beautiful districts of Istanbul were ruined, from the Yeniodas, Mollagürani districts, Fener gate to Sultanselim, Mesihpaşa, Bali Pasha and Lutfi Pasha mosques, Şahı buhan Palace, Unkapam to Atpazarı, Bostanzade houses, Sofular Bazaar. The fire that lasted for 30 hours was only extinguished after the wind stopped. [6]

Murad IV's reign is most notable for the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–39) against Persia (today Iran) in which Ottoman forces managed to conquer Azerbaijan, occupying Tabriz, Hamadan, and capturing Baghdad in 1638. The Treaty of Zuhab that followed the war generally reconfirmed the borders as agreed by the Peace of Amasya, with Eastern Armenia, Eastern Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Dagestan staying Persian, while Western Armenia, and Western Georgia stayed Ottoman.[13] Mesopotamia was irrevocably lost for the Persians.[14] The borders fixed as a result of the war, are more or less the same as the present border line between Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

During the siege of Baghdad in 1638, the city held out for forty days but was compelled to surrender.

Murad IV himself commanded the Ottoman army in the last years of the war.

While he was encamped in Baghdad, Murad IV is known to have met ambassadors of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, Mir Zarif and Mir Baraka, who presented 1000 pieces of finely embroidered cloth and even armor. Murad IV gave them the finest weapons, saddles and Kaftans and ordered his forces to accompany the Mughals to the port of Basra, where they set sail to Thatta and finally Surat.[15]

• Roemer, H. R. (1986). "The Safavid Period". The Cambridge History of Iran: The Timurid and Safavid Periods. VI. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 189–350. ISBN 0521200946.
• Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2008). Bu mülkün kadın sultanları: Vâlide sultanlar, hâtunlar, hasekiler, kadınefendiler, sultanefendiler. Oğlak Yayıncılık. p. 303.
• Sakaoğlu, Necdet (2015). Bu Mülkün Sultanları. Alfa Yayıncılık. ISBN 978-6-051-71080-8.