Mehmed IV
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Image:Mehmed IV.jpg Mehmed IV (also known as Dördüncü, "fourth", and Avcı, "hunter") (January 2, 1642–1693) or Mohammed IV (Arabic: محمد الرابع) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1648 to 1687.
Early life
He was the son of Sultan Ibrahim (1640–48) by a concubine, Turhan Hadice. Soon after his birth, his father and mother quarrelled and Ibrahim was so enraged that he tore Mehmed from his mother's arms and flung the infant into a pool. Fortunately, Mehmed was rescued.
Accomplishments
Sultan Mehmed IV was known as Avcı, "the hunter", as this outdoor exercise took up much of his time.
His reign is notable for a brief revival of Ottoman fortunes led by the infamous Grand Vizier, Mehmed Köprülü. Köprülü regained the Aegean islands from Venice and fought successful campaigns against Transylvania (1664) and Poland (1670–1674). At one point, when Mehmed IV allied himself with Petro Doroshenko, Ottoman rule was close to extending into Podolia and Ukraine. See Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks for his correspondance with the Cossacks.
A later vizier, Kara Mustafa was less able. Supporting the 1683 Hungarian uprising of Imre Thököly against Austrian rule, Kara Mustafa marched a vast army through Hungary and besieged Vienna at the Battle of Vienna. On the Kahlenberg Heights, the Ottomans were utterly routed by the Imperial army (under Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine) and the vengeful Poles led by their King, John III Sobieski (1674–96).
Kara Mustafa was strangled in Belgrade on Mehmed IV's orders and his head was placed on a column just outside the former palace in Edirne, but it was not enough to save the throne for the Sultan who was deposed (1687) and imprisoned at Edirne near his favourite hunting grounds.
Mehmed IV's reign is notable in that it formally ended the era of Ottoman sultans as true rulers of the empire; in 1656 he signed away his executive powers to Mehmed Köprülü, thus ushering in the era of Grand Viziers as the real power behind the throne in Istanbul.
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