Ibrahim I

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Ibrahim (in Arabic ابراهيم الأول) (November 5, 1615 – August 12, 1648) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1640 until 1648.

One of the most famous Ottoman Sultans, he succeeded his brother Murad IV (1623–40) in 1640 (Murad IV had himself succeeded their older brother Osman II in 1622). Inheriting all the cruelty and none of the ability of his brothers, Ibrahim brought the empire almost to collapse in a very short space of time — paralleled only perhaps, by the rule of Phocas (602–610) in the Byzantine Empire. He is claimed to have suffered from neurasthenia, and was also depressed after the death of his brother. His reign was essentially that of his mother, Kösem Sultana, who was no longer hindered in controlling the empire as she willed.

He is known to have had an obsession with obese women, urging his agents to find the fattest woman possible. A candidate was tracked down in Georgia or Armenia and Ibrahim was so pleased with her that he gave her a government pension and (allegedly) a governership.

Ibrahim at first stayed away from politics, but eventually he took to raising and executing a number of viziers. A war with Venice was fought, and in spite of the decline of La Serenissima, Venetian ships won victories throughout the Aegean, capturing Tenedos (1646), the gateway to the Dardanelles. Ibrahim's rule grew ever more unpredictable. Eventually, he killed almost all 280 members of his harem, by tying them in weighted sacks and throwing them in the river, after just one was seduced by an outsider (however, one managed to survive; her sack had not been weighted properly). This was the last straw; he was deposed and murdered (along with his mother, favorite lover, and Grand Vizier Hezarpare Ahmet Pasha) in a coup led by the Grand Mufti.