Lonely Planet İstanbul Guide

the 18th century. This houses an exhibition of Ottoman calligraphy by Kazasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi (1801–76).

LIFE IN THE CAGE

In the early centuries of the empire, Ottoman princes were schooled as youths in combat and statecraft by direct experience. But as the Ottoman dynasty did not observe primogeniture (succession of the firstborn), the death of the sultan regularly resulted in a fratricidal bloodbath as his sons – often from different mothers – battled among themselves for the throne. This changed when Sultan Ahmet I (r 1603–20) couldn’t bring himself to murder his brother Mustafa and decided instead to keep him imprisoned in Topkapı’s Harem, so beginning the tradition of kafes hayatı (cage life). This house arrest, adopted in place of fratricide by succeeding sultans, meant the pampered princes were kept ignorant of war and statecraft and usually rendered unfit to rule if the occasion arose. The practice contributed to the decline of the empire’s power and that of succeeding sultans, even though in later years the dynasty observed the custom of primogeniture.

Sultan Murat III (r 1574–95) had 112 children.