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Documents for "Turkish and Ottoman History: Biographies":
  • Çiller, Tansu 1946-, Turkish politician, first woman prime minister of Turkey (1993-96). She studied at the Univ. of the Bosporus, Istanbul (B.A.), Univ. of Connecticut (Ph.D.), and Yale, and was an economics...
  • Abd al-Aziz or Abdülaziz , 1830-76, Ottoman sultan (1861-76), brother and successor of Abd al-Majid. The economic and political reforms enacted under his rule could not outpace the decline of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). In...
  • Abd al-Hamid I or Abdülhamit , 1725-89, Ottoman sultan (1774-89), brother and successor of Mustafa III. His reign, one of decline for the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), saw the end of the war of 1768-74 and the beginning of the war...
  • Abd al-Hamid II 1842-1918, Ottoman sultan (1876-1909). His uncle, Abd al-Aziz, was deposed from the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) in 1876 by the Young Turks, a liberal reformist group. Abd al-Hamid's...
  • Abd al-Majid or Abdülmecit , 1823-61, Ottoman sultan (1839-61), son and successor of Mahmud II to the throne of the Ottoman Empire. The rebellion of Muhammad Ali was checked by the intervention (1840-41) of England, Russia, and Austria. Abd al-Majid was influenced by the British ambassador, Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe , who helped persuade the sultan to introduce Western reforms. Two decrees (1839, 1856) led to many changes but did not have permanent effect. Confident in British and French support, Abd al-Majid...
  • Ahmed I 1589-1617, Ottoman sultan (1603-17), son and successor of Muhammad III to the throne of the Ottoman Empire. The chief event of his reign was the Treaty of Zsitvatorok (1606), which supplemented...
  • Ahmed II 1642-95, Ottoman sultan (1691-95), brother and successor of Sulayman II to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). Soon after his reign began, the Turkish defeat at Slankamen, Serbia (1691),...
  • Ahmed III 1673-1736, Ottoman sultan (1703-30), brother and successor of Mustafa II to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). He gave asylum to Charles XII of Sweden and to Mazepa after Peter the Great of Russia had defeated (1709) them at Poltava. Charles's advice helped to bring about war between Turkey and Russia (1710-11). By the Treaty of the Pruth (1711), Turkey...
  • Ali Pasha 1744?-1822, Turkish pasha [military governor] of Yannina (now Ioánnina, Greece), a province of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). He was called the Arslan [lion] of Yannina. His father, governor at...
  • Atatürk, Kemal 1881-1938, Turkish leader, founder of modern Turkey. He took the name in 1934 in place of his earlier name, Mustafa Kemal, when he ordered all Turks to adopt a surname; it is made up of the...
  • Bayar, Celâl 1884-1986, Turkish statesman. The son of a religious leader and teacher, Bayar joined the nationalist movement after the Young Turk revolution. Kemal Atatürk's colleague after World War I, he held...
  • Beyazid 1612-1638?, Ottoman prince; brother of Sultan Murad IV. Considering Beyazid a dangerous rival, Murad ordered his execution. Beyazid's death is treated in Jean Racine 's tragedy, Bajazet (1672).
  • Beyazid I 1347-1403, Ottoman sultan (1389-1402), son and successor of Murad I. He besieged Byzantine Emperor Manuel II at Constantinople, then overcame the Turkish rulers in E Anatolia and defeated the army...
  • Beyazid II 1447-1513, Ottoman sultan (1481-1512), son and successor of Muhammad II to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). With the help of the corps of Janissaries he put down the revolt of his brother Jem. A peace-loving monarch, Beyazid did little to advance Ottoman power but much to further culture. He warred (1485-91) with the Mamluks of Egypt, to whom he...
  • Demirel, Süleyman 1924-, Turkish political leader, president of Turkey (1993-2000). A successful engineer, he became leader of the Justice party in 1964, deputy prime minister in Feb., 1965, and prime minister in...
  • Ecevit, Bülent 1925-, Turkish political leader and journalist. An editor for Ulus, the organ of the Republican People's party, he was elected to parliament (1957-60 and again from 1961) and served (1961-65) as minister of labor. He was the Republican People's party's...
  • Enver Pasha 1881-1922, Turkish general and political leader. He took a prominent part in the Young Turk revolution of 1908, which reestablished the liberal constitution of 1876. By a coup in 1913, Enver Pasha...
  • Erdoğan, Recep Tayyip 1954-, Turkish politician. He was educated at Marmara Univ., where he met Necmettin Erbakan, who went on to head the Islamist Welfare party and serve (1996-7) as prime minister. Active in the...
  • Gürsel, Cemal 1895-1966, Turkish army officer and political leader. He fought in World War I and in most of the military campaigns during the war of independence (1920-23). Gürsel remained in the army and in...
  • Inönü, Ismet 1884-1973, Turkish statesman and soldier, president of Turkey (1938-50). He served in the Balkan Wars and World War I and became (1920) chief of staff to Mustafa Kemal, later known as Kemal Atatürk. He played an important part in the establishment of the Turkish republic and in Kemal's victory over the Greeks, and he represented Turkey at the Conference of Lausanne (see Lausanne, Treaty of , 1922-23). As prime minister (1923-24, 1925-37) he ably seconded the reforms of Atatürk, whom he succeeded (1938) as president of the republic. Inönü instituted free general elections for the first...
  • Köprülü family of humble Albanian origin, several members of which served as grand vizier (chief executive officer) in the Ottoman Empire. The name is also spelled Kiuprili, Koprili, and Kuprili. Mehmed Köprülü, 1583-1661, became grand vizier of Muhammad IV in 1656. He reorganized the Ottoman fleet, conquered (1658) Transylvania, restored internal order (by executing dissidents), reformed the finances, and built forts along the Don and Dnieper rivers...
  • Mahmud I 1696-1754, Ottoman sultan (1730-54), son of Mustafa II, nephew and successor of Ahmed III. A revolt of the Janissaries put him on the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). Affairs of state were largely in the capable hands of the Nubian agha [officer], Beshir (1653-1746), who was the power behind a number of...
  • Mahmud II 1784-1839, Ottoman sultan (1808-39), younger son of Abd al-Hamid I. He was raised to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) upon the deposition of his brother, Mustafa IV , and continued the reforms of his cousin, Selim III. During his reign, the Eastern Question assumed increasing importance. Mahmud inherited the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-12, which ended with Turkey's loss of Bessarabia. However, Russia was obliged to end its support of the Serbian rebels...
  • Menderes, Adnan 1899-1961, Turkish prime minister (1950-60). In Jan., 1946, he formed the Democratic party, the first legal opposition party in Turkey. When the party came to power (1950), Menderes became prime...
  • Midhat Pasha 1822-83, Turkish politician. As governor of Bulgaria he succeeded within the few years of his tenure (1864-69) in raising the country from misery to relative prosperity. Schools, roads, and...
  • Muhammad I or Mehmet I (Muhammad the Restorer), 1389?-1421, Ottoman sultan (1413-21), son of Beyazid I. By defeating his brothers he reunited most of his father's empire. He consolidated his authority and thus renewed...
  • Muhammad II or Mehmet II (Muhammad the Conqueror), 1429-81, Ottoman sultan (1451-81), son and successor of Murad II. He is considered the true founder of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). He completed the conquest of the...
  • Muhammad III or Mehmet III, 1567-1603, Ottoman sultan (1595-1603), son and successor of Murad III to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). Muhammad, who was a provisional governor under his father, was the last sultan to...
  • Muhammad IV or Mehmet IV, 1641-92, Ottoman sultan (1648-87). He was proclaimed sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) by the corps of Janissaries after the deposition and murder of his father, Sultan Ibrahim. Disorder and corruption continued until the Köprülü family obtained (1656) the office of grand vizier (chief executive officer) and restored order. However, the empire suffered severe setbacks. Algiers freed itself (1669) from Ottoman suzerainty. In...
  • Muhammad V or Mehmet V, 1844-1918, Ottoman sultan (1909-18). He succeeded to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) when the liberal Young Turk revolution of 1909 deposed his brother, Abd al-Hamid II. He exercised no...
  • Muhammad VI or Mehmet VI, 1861-1926, last Ottoman sultan (1918-22), brother and successor of Muhammad V. He became sultan of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) near the end of World War I and soon capitulated to the Allies, who...
  • Murad I 1326?-1389, Ottoman sultan (1362?-1389), son and successor of Orkhan to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). Murad widened the Ottoman hold on European territory, conquering Macedonia and...
  • Murad II 1403-51, Ottoman sultan (1421-51), son and successor of Muhammad I to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). He was opposed at his accession by a pretender, Mustafa, who rapidly gained control...
  • Murad III 1546-95, Ottoman sultan (1574-95), son and successor of Selim II. He was dominated by his harem, and although his generals were successful against Persia, his reign marked the beginning of the...
  • Murad IV 1612?-1640, Ottoman sultan (1623-40), nephew and successor of Mustafa I. He recovered (1638) Baghdad, which Shah Abbas I of Persia had seized. On his victory he sent an order to murder his brother...
  • Murad V 1840-1904, Ottoman sultan (1876), son of Abd al-Majid. He came to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) when his uncle, Abd al-Aziz , was deposed, but he was soon declared insane and was succeeded...
  • Mustafa or Kara Mustafa [Turk. kara =black], d. 1683, Turkish grand vizier (chief executive officer) under Sultan Muhammad IV of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). He succeeded his brother-in-law, Ahmed Köprülü. Ambitious and belligerent, he allied himself with the Hungarian rebels under Thököly against Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and led the siege of Vienna in 1683. His military incompetence facilitated the relief of Vienna by King John III of Poland, and the besieging army, including Mustafa, fled in panic. Mustafa suffered several routs during his...
  • Mustafa I 1591-1639?, Ottoman sultan (1617-18, 1622-23), brother and successor of Ahmed I to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). Set aside for incompetence, he was succeeded in 1618 by his nephew...
  • Mustafa II 1664-1703, Ottoman sultan (1695-1703), nephew and successor of Ahmed II. The grand vizier (chief executive officer) of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), Husayn Köprülü , exercised the actual...
  • Mustafa III 1717-73, Ottoman sultan (1757-73), son of Ahmed III. He succeeded his cousin Osman III to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). The chief event of his reign was the war of 1768-74 with Russia...
  • Mustafa IV 1778-1808, Ottoman sultan (1807-8), son of Abd al-Hamid I. He was raised to the throne by the reactionary Janissaries who had deposed Mustafa's cousin, Selim III , because they opposed his attempted reforms. When a Turkish army marched on the capital to restore Selim, Mustafa had him murdered, but the rebels killed Mustafa and placed his brother, Mahmud II,...
  • Orkhan 1288?-1362?, Ottoman sultan (1326-1362?), son and successor of Osman I as leader of the Ottoman Turks. He defeated Byzantine Emperor Andronicus III and conquered large parts of Asia Minor, including Nicaea and Izmit. In 1345 the Ottomans first crossed into Europe to...
  • Osman Nuri Pasha 1837-1900, Turkish general. He fought in the Crimean War of 1854-56 and in Lebanon, Crete, and Arabia in the 1860s and 70s. He was made muşir [marshal] for his successes (1876) in Serbia. In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 he gallantly defended Pleven in Bulgaria but was ultimately forced to surrender to the Russians. He served almost...
  • Saracoğlu, Şükrü c.1890-1953, Turkish prime minister (1942-46). A lawyer, he became a political protégé of Kemal Atatürk and held many ministerial posts, including those of justice (1932-38) and foreign affairs (1938-42). As prime minister, his skillful diplomacy kept Turkey out of World War II until Feb., 1945, when...
  • Selim I (Selim the Grim) , 1467-1520, Ottoman sultan (1512-20). He ascended the throne of the Ottoman Empire by forcing the abdication of his father, Beyazid II , and by killing his brothers. A religious controversy (see Sunni and Shiites ) and Persian support for his brother Ahmed led Selim, a Sunni, to attack Persia. In 1514 he defeated the Shiite conqueror of Persia, Shah Ismail, annexing Diyarbekir and Kurdistan. This began the...
  • Selim II (Selim the Drunkard), c.1524-1574, Ottoman sultan (1566-74), son and successor of Sulayman I. During his reign the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) was dominated by Sokolli, his grand vizier (chief executive officer). Although the Turks conquered Cyprus from Venice and recovered Tunis from Spain,...
  • Selim III 1761-1808, Ottoman sultan (1789-1807), nephew and successor of Abd al-Hamid I to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). He suffered severe defeats in the second of the Russo-Turkish Wars with Catherine II, but suffered no major territorial losses when peace was made at Jassy in 1792. An ardent reformer, Selim set out to rebuild the Turkish navy on European lines, to reform the...
  • Sulayman I or Sulayman the Magnificent, 1494-1566, Ottoman sultan (1520-66), son and successor of Selim I. He is known as Sulayman II when considered as a successor of King Solomon of the Bible and Qur'an. Under him the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) reached the height of its power and prestige. He continued his father's conquests in the Balkans and the Mediterranean, conquering...
  • Sulayman II 1642-91, Ottoman sultan (1687-91), brother and successor of Muhammad IV to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). His grand vizier (chief executive officer), Mustafa Köprülü , was at first successful in taking the offensive against the Austrians, but Köprülü was killed shortly after Sulayman's death, in the battle of Slankamen (1691). Sulayman was succeeded by his...
  • Sunay, Cevdet 1900-1973, Turkish political leader and army officer, president of Turkey (1966-73). Educated at military schools, he served in World War I and the subsequent nationalist revolt. Rising through...
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