#when Süleyman told him Ibrahim was like a brother to him that was actually a threat to Ibrahim tbh

[magnificentposting-fabrizioart]

I love how Mustafa is portrayed as genuinely sweet and affectionate towards his brothers, because apparently he's old enough to train in the army but not enough to be told what happens to all princes but one.

[ottomanladies]

I have seen in some sources that the year of Ahmed's birth is mentioned as 1588, on the other hand, somewhere it is said that Ahmed was one year older than Mahmoud. what is your opinion? Why did Ahmad reproduce so early despite Prince Mustafa? If Ahmed came to power at the age of 13, why did he not have children at an older age? A 13-year-old boy cannot have healthy children. I believe that Ahmed was more than 13 years old when he came to the throne.

Hi, yes. So far I have found this claim in Agostino Nani's report of his embassy in Istanbul.

Here is a problem, though. We don't have the actual relazione of Agostino Nani but just a summary written by his successor, Francesco Contarini. Another problem: we don't have Francesco Contarini's relazione.

I know.

In the summary Contarini writes of Nani's relazione, he says this about Mehmed III's sons:

"The eldest son is 15 years old and is named Achmat, he is as big as his father [...] and almost stupid; he lives among the women but it is not known if he has any inclination towards them, although it is difficult to know these things from the serraglio. [...] The second is 12 years of age, named Mahmud, he is witty and sometimes answers boldly to his father. In the first uprising of the Spahi he told him that it was necessary to cut the heads of 6 out of 8 chiefs, that everything would have calmed down that way and that he would have done that had anyone offended him."

(my translation)

Contarini was elected ambassador on 12 March 1602, meanwhile Nani's last dispaccio from Istanbul is dated 17 January 1603. Nani (or Contarini... I mean... you get it) is therefore talking about the last months of Mehmed III's reign.

As you can see, Mahmud's bold personality is highlighted but he is said to be Ahmed's younger brother. What's more, Nani says that:

"all of these [three sons and a daughter] are from the same mother, and the last one too, who is 3 or 4 years old, and is called Osmano"

.. but we know for sure that Mahmud was Halime's son, so this kind of casts some shadows on the whole thing.

If he was truly 15 years old at the time, Ahmed was supposedly born in 1585... but that's his elder brother Selim's year of birth and tbh to give birth to 2 children in the same year is an anomaly. According to Leonardo Donà, on the accession of Mehmed III,

Mehmed III had three sons (Selim, Ahmed and Süleyman) and two daughters, all by the same mother, i.e., Handan Sultan. [...] If we assume that Donà’s indirect remark about Handan Sultan’s status as the mother of three princes is valid, it would indicate that she was actually Mehmed III’s first haseki, well before Halime Sultan, but only for a brief period since Prince Selim died in 1597, as noted above, while Prince Süleyman seems to have passed away at a young age at around the same time. — Günhan Börekçi, Factions and Favorites at the Courts of Sultan Ahmed I and His Immediate Predecessors

On the other hand, we know that the Ottomans calculated age differently: if an Ottoman person told Nani that Ahmed was 15, then it's more likely that he was actually 14.

On the other hand [2], in the letter that the Ottoman court sent Venice on the occasion of Murad IV's accession, they said that he was 15 which... he truly wasn't.

Our present sultan is 15 years old, he is the reason of our joy, he has a beautiful character, is knowledgeable and understanding, he will bring us prosperity. — Özlem Kumrular, Kösem Sultan

Was Murad IV aged up to project power and strength all over Europe? I have no idea.

Back to Ahmed.

Günhan Börekçi wrote his PhD thesis about Ahmed I (Factions and Favorites at the Courts of Sultan Ahmed I and His Immediate Predecessors) and he takes 1590 as his date of birth. He's not alone in this, historiography seems to be quite sure that he was born on 18 April 1590.

Interestingly, Lorenzo Bernardo in 1590 says that Mehmed had two sons at the time: Selim, and... we don't know because something seems to have happened to the original document. The printed version says "sultan Selim and sultan [***]". Mahmud's canonical date of birth is 1587 so I'm pretty sure that it's him Bernardo was talking about.

But, Girolamo Cappello - Nani's predecessor - in 1600 says:

... the eldest son, named Acmat, who is now no more than 13 years old, would not be apt to rule for the reason that he has the same complexion and personality of his father but also because he seems to be duller than lively for his tender age. [...] But the second son, named Memet, aged 12, appears as lively as he is ill because of an ant bite in his right side [...]. Other than these two sons there is a third who was born last year, and they're all slaves' children, as was the eldest of these, named Selim, who died three years ago at the age of 13, and shortly after another one passed away at 18 months. In addition to these three sons, His Majesty has a daughter...

(my translation)

Now, let's try to untangle everything:

Ahmed seems to have been born at least in 1587 but may be younger. Cappello doesn't know his exact age

I think Mehmed is supposed to be Mahmud, and this would make him born in 1588

there's a baby son born in 1599. I think this is the Osman that Nani talks about in 1603, because he says that he's 3 or 4

Selim died in 1597 (true) and since he was 13 at the time of his death, this would make him born in 1584.

But if we take the Ottoman way of calculating age (ie. adding one year) into consideration, Ahmed seems to have been born in 1588, Mahmud in 1589 and Selim in 1585 (his actual date of birth)

Therefore, Selim's dates of birth and death seem accurate. Ahmed's and Mahmud's are weird.

My opinion about this... I don't know. Honestly, Venetian ambassadors make so many mistakes, especially about things like numbers or names so I don't know. I guess that those who claim that Ahmed was born on 18 April 1590 also have a primary source to confirm this (the announcement in harem records?)

Now, onto the latter part of your ask:

Ahmed needed to reproduce fast because Mustafa was 3 or 4 years old at the time of his accession, so virtually there was no one after him should he die.

About his young age... I'm not sure I agree with your assertion that a 13yo could not father healthy children. It's the mother's age that influences the baby's health. The father's doesn't. Moreover, the dynasty needed to project strength and prosperity. A dynasty composed of a 13-year-old boy and a small child does not project much strength tbh. This is the same reason why, when Ibrahim succeeds Murad IV, Kösem is so worried about heirs that she starts spreading rumours that the sultan has "several" concubines pregnant already. Of course, this doesn't work and the Venetian ambassador immediately reports that it's not true.

I’m so sorry this was so long. I tried to give you a proper answer but failed LOL

[ottomanladies]

Why did Murad IV execute his brothers ? He also tried to kill Ibrahim even though he did nothing wrong ? Btw Kosem saved Ibrahim right ?

They were a thorn in his side, politically speaking. 

When talking about Murad IV and his biggest acts of violence, fratricide in this case, we have to take into consideration the context in which he lived and reigned (I mean, we should do this for any historical figure but... you get me):

Murad IV came to the throne at the age of eleven after six turbolent years in which the empire had seen a mad sultan, an underage sultan who was ultimately assassinated and basically three depositions (two for Mustafa I and Osman II’s). While we have no proof that Murad IV physically witnessed any of these events (he was probably closed in the kafes), he surely knew that his elder brother Mehmed had been executed (he could have also seen him being dragged away by the guards) and that his other elder brother Osman had been assassinated even though he was “God’s shadow on Earth”. He also spent six years without his mother, his only parent left. For a child that small, it was very traumatising.

Moreover, his reign started with turmoil which culminated into the 1632 revolts when he was demanded to hand over seventeen of his favourites or abdicate. With the executions of his favourites, Murad IV thought that the ordeal was over but NOPE! After he had his rebellious former Grand Vizier executed, he was also asked to produce his brothers and to give them to the chiefs of the revolts because they did not trust him. Like, they literally told him “we don’t trust you to keep your promise”. As we can imagine, they did not want to get a hold of the princes because they loved them, they wanted to get the upperhand on the sultan and threaten him with his own brothers whenever they were not pleased with him. 

Now, the 1632 revolts is something that Murad IV never forgot: he was humiliated, he was forced to meet the revolters' demands, he lost Musa Celebi (and 16 other favourites), he actually pleaded with his own subjects but to no avail. On top of this, the janissaries considered dethroning him for one of his brothers. 

You know I am a lover of parallels. Well. This reminds me of Louis XIV’s attitude towards the nobles who had participated in the fronde; he never forgot that he had been forced to flee Paris, he never forgot who exactly took part in the fronde. Similarly, Peter the Great - at the age of 9 - had to witness the hacking to pieces of one of his mother’s favourites, Artamon Matveyev, and it is said that the event scarred him for life and probably caused his taste for violence.

Knowing all of this, I’m not at all surprised by his decision to execute his brothers or by his violent behaviour. Naturally, Murad IV did not know that he would die at the age of 27 so he probably imagined he would be blackmailed with his brothers all his life. After his first military victory, he did away with his half-brothers Bayezid and Süleyman; after his second - and more important - military victory he felt his position stable enough to do away with at least one of his actual brothers: Kasim. I don’t know if it’s true that Kösem pleaded with him on behalf of Ibrahim or if Murad would have spared him either way, but if his intention was to kill all his brothers, I imagine that he had a heir at the time. Contrary to popular belief, Murad IV was not mad and he would have never left the empire to the Crimeans.