List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
Osmanlı padişahı
Imperial
Imperial Coat of arms
Last to reign Mehmed VI 4 July 1918 – 1 November 1922
Details
Style	His Imperial Majesty
First monarch	Osman I (c. 1299–1323/4)
Last monarch	Mehmed VI (1918–1922)
Formation	c. 1299
Abolition	1 November 1922
Residence	Palaces in Istanbul: Eski Saray Topkapı (1460s–1853) Dolmabahçe (1853–1889; 1909–1922) Yıldız (1889–1909)
Appointer	Hereditary

Ottoman Imperial Standard

Family tree

Ottoman Empire in 1683, at the height of its territorial expansion in Europe.

The sultans of the Ottoman Empire (Turkish: Osmanlı padişahları), who were all members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its perceived inception in 1299 to its dissolution in 1922. At its height, the Ottoman Empire spanned an area from Hungary in the north to Yemen in the south and from Algeria in the west to Iraq in the east. Administered at first from the city of Söğüt since before 1280 and then from the city of Bursa since 1323 or 1324, the empire's capital was moved to Adrianople (now known as Edirne in English) in 1363 following its conquest by Murad I and then to Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) in 1453 following its conquest by Mehmed II.

The Ottoman Empire's early years have been the subject of varying narratives, due to the difficulty of discerning fact from legend. The empire came into existence at the end of the 13th century, and its first ruler (and the namesake of the Empire) was Osman I. According to later, often unreliable Ottoman tradition, Osman was a descendant of the Kayı tribe of the Oghuz Turks. The eponymous Ottoman dynasty he founded endured for six centuries through the reigns of 36 sultans. The Ottoman Empire disappeared as a result of the defeat of the Central Powers, with whom it had allied itself during World War I. The partitioning of the Empire by the victorious Allies and the ensuing Turkish War of Independence led to the abolition of the sultanate in 1922 and the birth of the modern Republic of Turkey in 1922.

Names

The sultan was also referred to as the padishah (Ottoman Turkish: پادشاه, romanized: pâdişâh, French: Padichah). In Ottoman usage the word "Padisha" was usually used except "sultan" was used when he was directly named. In several European languages, he was referred to as the Grand Turk, as the ruler of the Turks, or simply the "Great Lord" (il Gran Signore, le grand seigneur) especially in the 16th century.

Names of the sultan in languages used by ethnic minorities:

• Arabic: In some documents "padishah" was replaced by "malik" ("king")
• Bulgarian: In earlier periods Bulgarian people called him the "tsar". The translation of the Ottoman Constitution of 1876 instead used direct translations of "sultan" (Sultan) and "padishah" (Padišax)
• Greek: In earlier periods the Greeks used the Byzantine Empire-style name "basileus". The translation of the Ottoman Constitution of 1876 instead used a direct transliterations of "sultan" (Σουλτάνος Soultanos) and "padishah" (ΠΑΔΙΣΑΧ padisach).
• Judaeo-Spanish: Especially in older documents, El Rey ("the king") was used. In addition some Ladino documents used sultan (in Hebrew characters: שולטן and סולטן).

State organisation of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was an absolute monarchy during much of its existence. By the second half of the fifteenth century, the sultan sat at the apex of a hierarchical system and acted in political, military, judicial, social, and religious capacities under a variety of titles. He was theoretically responsible only to God and God's law (the Islamic شریعت şeriat, known in Arabic as شريعة sharia), of which he was the chief executor. His heavenly mandate (Kut) was reflected in Islamic titles such as "shadow of God on Earth" (ظل الله في العالم ẓıll Allāh fī'l-ʿalem) and "caliph of the face of the earth" (خلیفه روی زمین Ḫalife-i rū-yi zemīn). All offices were filled by his authority, and every law was issued by him in the form of a decree called firman (فرمان). He was the supreme military commander and had the official title to all land. Osman (died 1323–4) son of Ertuğrul was the first ruler of the Ottoman state, which during his reign constituted a small principality (beylik) in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire.

After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed II, Ottoman sultans came to regard themselves as the successors of the Roman Empire, hence their occasional use of the titles caesar (قیصر qayser) of Rûm, and emperor, as well as the caliph of Islam. Newly enthroned Ottoman rulers were girded with the Sword of Osman, an important ceremony that served as the equivalent of European monarchs' coronation. A non-girded sultan was not eligible to have his children included in the line of succession.

Although absolute in theory and in principle, the sultan's powers were limited in practice. Political decisions had to take into account the opinions and attitudes of important members of the dynasty, the bureaucratic and military establishments, as well as religious leaders. Beginning in the last decades of the sixteenth century, the role of the Ottoman sultans in the government of the empire began to decrease, in a period known as the Transformation of the Ottoman Empire. Despite being barred from inheriting the throne, women of the imperial harem—especially the reigning sultan's mother, known as the valide sultan—also played an important behind-the-scenes political role, effectively ruling the empire during the period known as the Sultanate of Women.

Constitutionalism was established during the reign Abdul Hamid II, who thus became the empire's last absolute ruler and its reluctant first constitutional monarch. Although Abdul Hamid II abolished the parliament and the constitution to return to personal rule in 1878, he was again forced in 1908 to reinstall constitutionalism and was deposed. Since 2021, the head of the House of Osman has been Harun Osman, a great-grandson of Abdul Hamid II.

List of sultans

Poster showing Sultans of the Ottoman Dynasty, from Osman I (upper left corner) to Mehmed V (large portrait in the center)

The table below lists Ottoman sultans, as well as the last Ottoman caliph, in chronological order. The tughras were the calligraphic seals or signatures used by Ottoman sultans. They were displayed on all official documents as well as on coins, and were far more important in identifying a sultan than his portrait. The "Notes" column contains information on each sultan's parentage and fate. Early Ottomans practiced what historian Quataert has described as "survival of the fittest, not eldest, son": when a sultan died, his sons had to fight each other for the throne until a victor emerged. Because of the infighting and numerous fratricides that occurred, there was often a time gap between a sultan's death date and the accession date of his successor. In 1617, the law of succession changed from survival of the fittest to a system based on agnatic seniority (اکبریت ekberiyet), whereby the throne went to the oldest male of the family. This in turn explains why from the 17th century onwards a deceased sultan was rarely succeeded by his own son, but usually by an uncle or brother. Agnatic seniority was retained until the abolition of the sultanate, despite unsuccessful attempts in the 19th century to replace it with primogeniture. Note that pretenders and co-claimants during the Ottoman Interregnum are also listed here, but they are not included in the formal numbering of sultans.

No.	Sultan	Portrait	Reign	Tughra	Notes	Coinage
Rise of the Ottoman Empire (1299 – 1453)
1	Osman I		c. 1299 – c. 1324 (25 years~)	N/A	Son of Ertuğrul Bey and an unknown woman. Reigned until his death.
2	Orhan		c. 1324 – March 1362 (38 years~)		Son of Osman I and Malhun Hatun (unclear). Reigned until his death.
3	Murad I		March 1362 – 15 June 1389 (27 years, 3 months)		Son of Orhan and Nilüfer Hatun. Reigned until his death. Killed on the battlefield at the Battle of Kosovo on June 15, 1389.
4	Bayezid I		15 June 1389 – 20 July 1402 (13 years, 35 days)		Son of Murad I and Gülçiçek Hatun. Captured on the battlefield at the Battle of Ankara against Timur. Died in captivity in Akşehir on 8 March 1403.
Ottoman Interregnum (20 July 1402 – 5 July 1413)
—	İsa Çelebi		January – March/May 1403 (3–5 months)	N/A	Co-sultan of Anatolia After the Battle of Ankara, İsa Çelebi defeated Musa Çelebi and took the western Anatolian territories for approximately two years. Defeated by Mehmed Çelebi in the Battle of Ulubad in March or May 1403. Murdered in September 1403.	N/A
—	Süleyman Çelebi		20 July 1402 – 17 February 1411 (8 years, 212 days)		Acquired the title of The Sultan of Rumelia for the European portion of the empire, a short period after the Ottoman defeat at Ankara. Murdered on 17 February 1411.
—	Musa Çelebi		18 February 1411 – 5 July 1413 (2 years, 137 days)	N/A	Acquired the title of The Sultan of Rumelia for the European portion of the empire on 18 February 1411, just after the death of Süleyman Çelebi. Killed on 5 July 1413 by Mehmed Çelebi's forces in the battle of Çamurlu Derbent near Samokov in Bulgaria.
—	Mehmed Çelebi		1403 – 5 July 1413 (10 years)	N/A	Acquired the control of Eastern Anatolia as co-Sultan after the Battle of Ankara. Defeated İsa Çelebi in the battle of Ulubat in 1405. Became the sole ruler of Anatolia upon İsa's death in 1406. Acquired the title of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed I Khan upon Musa's death.
Sultanate resumed
5	Mehmed I		5 July 1413 – 26 May 1421 (7 years, 325 days)		Son of Bayezid I and Devlet Hatun. Reigned until his death.	N/A
—	Mustafa Çelebi	N/A	January 1419 – May 1422 (3 years, 4 months)	N/A	Sultan of Rumelia Son of Bayezid I Executed by Murad II
6	Murad II		25 June 1421 – August 1444 (23 years, 2 months)		Son of Mehmed I and Emine Hatun. Abdicated of his own free will in favour of his son Mehmed II.
7	Mehmed II		August 1444 – September 1446 (2 years, 1 month)		First reign Son of Murad II and Hüma Hatun. Surrendered the throne to his father after having asked him to return to power, along with rising threats from Janissaries.
(6)	Murad II		September 1446 – 3 February 1451 (4 years, 5 months)		Second reign Forced to return to the throne following a Janissary insurgence. Reigned until his death.	N/A
Growth of the Ottoman Empire (1453–1550)
(7)	Mehmed II		3 February 1451 – 3 May 1481 (30 years, 89 days)		Second reign Conquered Constantinople in 1453. Reigned until his death.
8	Bayezid II		19 May 1481 – 25 April 1512 (30 years, 342 days)		Son of Mehmed II and Gülbahar Sultan. Abdicated. Died near Didymoteicho on 26 May 1512.
—	Cem Sultan		28 May – 20 June 1481 (23 days)		Son of Mehmed II Acquired the title Cem bin Mehmed Han. Died in exile
9	Selim I		25 April 1512 – 21 September 1520 (8 years, 149 days)		Conquered Mamluks in 1516–1517. First Ottoman Caliph. Son of Bayezid II and Gülbahar Hatun. Reigned until his death.
10	Suleiman I		30 September 1520 – 6 September 1566 (45 years, 341 days)		Son of Selim I and Hafsa Sultan. Died of natural causes in his tent during the Siege of Szigetvár in 1566.
Transformation of the Ottoman Empire (1550–1700)
11	Selim II		29 September 1566 – 15 December 1574 (8 years, 77 days)		Son of Suleiman I and Hürrem Sultan. Reigned until his death.
12	Murad III		27 December 1574 – 16 January 1595 (20 years, 20 days)		Son of Selim II and Nurbanu Sultan. Reigned until his death.
13	Mehmed III		16 January 1595 – 22 December 1603 (8 years, 340 days)		Son of Murad III and Safiye Sultan. Reigned until his death
14	Ahmed I		22 December 1603 – 22 November 1617 (13 years, 335 days)		Son of Mehmed III and Handan Sultan. Reigned until his death.
15	Mustafa I		22 November 1617 – 26 February 1618 (96 days)		Son of Mehmed III and Halime Sultan. Deposed due to his mental instability in favour of his young nephew Osman II.	N/A
16	Osman II		26 February 1618 – 19 May 1622 (4 years, 82 days)		Son of Ahmed I and Mahfiruz Hatun. Deposed in a Janissary riot on 19 May 1622. Murdered on 20 May 1622 by the Grand Vizier Kara Davud Pasha.
(15)	Mustafa I		20 May 1622 – 10 September 1623 (1 year, 113 days)		Second reign. Returned to the throne after the assassination of his nephew Osman II. Deposed due to his poor mental health and confined until his death in Istanbul on 20 January 1639.	N/A
17	Murad IV		10 September 1623 – 8 February 1640 (16 years, 151 days)		Son of Ahmed I and Kösem Sultan. Ruled under the regency of his mother Kösem Sultan until 1632. Reigned until his death.	N/A
18	Ibrahim		9 February 1640 – 8 August 1648 (8 years, 181 days)		Son of Ahmed I and Kösem Sultan. Deposed on 8 August 1648 in a coup led by the Sheikh ul-Islam. Murdered in Istanbul on 18 August 1648 at the behest of the Grand Vizier Mevlevî Mehmed Paşa (Sofu Mehmed Pasha).	N/A
19	Mehmed IV		8 August 1648 – 8 November 1687 (39 years, 92 days)		Son of Ibrahim and Turhan Sultan. Ruled under the regency of his grandmother Kösem Sultan until 1651. Ruled under the regency of his mother Turhan Sultan from 1651 until 1656. Deposed on 8 November 1687 following the Ottoman defeat at the Second Battle of Mohács. Died in Edirne on 6 January 1693.	N/A
20	Suleiman II		8 November 1687 – 22 June 1691 (3 years, 226 days)		Son of Ibrahim and Aşub Sultan. Reigned until his death.
21	Ahmed II		22 June 1691 – 6 February 1695 (3 years, 229 days)		Son of Ibrahim and Muazzez Sultan. Reigned until his death.	N/A
22	Mustafa II		6 February 1695 – 22 August 1703 (8 years, 197 days)		Son of Mehmed IV and Gülnuş Sultan. Deposed on 22 August 1703 by a Janissary uprising known as the Edirne Event. Died in Istanbul on 8 January 1704.
Stagnation and reform of the Ottoman Empire (1700–1827)
23	Ahmed III		22 August 1703 – 1 October 1730 (27 years, 40 days)		Son of Mehmed IV and Gülnuş Sultan. Deposed in consequence of the Janissary rebellion led by Patrona Halil. Died on 1 July 1736.
24	Mahmud I		2 October 1730 – 13 December 1754 (24 years, 72 days)		Son of Mustafa II and Saliha Sultan. Reigned until his death.
25	Osman III		13 December 1754 – 30 October 1757 (2 years, 321 days)		Son of Mustafa II and Şehsuvar Sultan. Reigned until his death.
26	Mustafa III		30 October 1757 – 21 January 1774 (16 years, 83 days)		Son of Ahmed III and Mihrişah Kadın. Reigned until his death.
27	Abdul Hamid I		21 January 1774 – 7 April 1789 (15 years, 76 days)		Son of Ahmed III and Şermi Kadın. Reigned until his death.
28	Selim III		7 April 1789 – 29 May 1807 (18 years, 52 days)		Son of Mustafa III and Mihrişah Sultan. Deposed as a result of the Janissary revolt led by Kabakçı Mustafa against his reforms. Assassinated in Istanbul on 28 July 1808 at the behest of Ottoman Sultan Mustafa IV.
29	Mustafa IV		29 May 1807 – 28 July 1808 (1 year, 60 days)		Son of Abdul Hamid I and Sineperver Sultan. Deposed in an insurrection led by Alemdar Mustafa Pasha. Executed in Istanbul on 17 November 1808 by order of Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II.	N/A
Modernization of the Ottoman Empire (1827–1908)
30	Mahmud II		28 July 1808 – 1 July 1839 (30 years, 338 days)		Son of Abdul Hamid I and Nakşidil Sultan. Disbanded the Janissaries in consequence of the Auspicious Incident in 1826. Reigned until his death.
31	Abdulmejid I		1 July 1839 – 25 June 1861 (21 years, 359 days)		Son of Mahmud II and Bezmiâlem Sultan. Proclaimed the Imperial Edict of Gülhane (Tanzimât Fermânı) that launched the Tanzimat period of reforms and reorganization on 3 November 1839 at the behest of reformist Grand vizier Mustafa Reşid Pasha. Accepted the Islâhat Hatt-ı Hümayun (Imperial Reform Edict) (Islâhat Fermânı) on 18 February 1856; Reigned until his death.
32	Abdulaziz		25 June 1861 – 30 May 1876 (14 years, 340 days)		Son of Mahmud II and Pertevniyal Sultan. Deposed by his ministers. Found dead five days later.
33	Murad V		30 May – 31 August 1876 (93 days)		Son of Abdulmejid I and Şevkefza Kadın. Deposed due to his ill mental health Ordered to reside in Çırağan Palace where he died on 29 August 1904.	N/A
34	Abdul Hamid II		31 August 1876 – 27 April 1909 (32 years, 239 days)		Son of Abdulmejid I and Tirimüjgan Kadın (later became the adoptive son of Perestu Kadın). Reluctantly allowed the First Constitutional Era on 23 November 1876 and then suspended it on 13 February 1878. Forced to restore the Second Constitutional Era on 3 July 1908; Deposed after the 31 March Incident. Confined to Beylerbeyi Palace where he died on 10 February 1918.
35	Mehmed V		27 April 1909 – 3 July 1918 (9 years, 67 days)		Son of Abdulmejid I and Gülcemal Kadın. Reigned as a figurehead of Mehmed Talat, İsmail Enver, and Ahmed Cemal Pashas Reigned until his death.
36	Mehmed VI		4 July 1918 – 1 November 1922 (4 years, 120 days)		Son of Abdulmejid I and Gülüstü Hanım. Sultanate abolished. Left Istanbul on 17 November 1922. Died in exile in Sanremo, Italy on 16 May 1926.
Caliph under the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (1 November 1922 – 3 March 1924)
—	Abdulmejid II		19 November 1922 – 3 March 1924 (1 year, 106 days)	—	Son of Abdulaziz and Hayranidil Kadın; Exiled after the abolition of the Caliphate; Died in Paris, France on 23 August 1944.	—

See also

• Line of succession to the Ottoman throne
• Ottoman Sultan family tree
• Ottoman family tree (more detailed)
• List of valide sultans
• List of Ottoman grand viziers
• List of admirals in the Ottoman Empire
• List of Kapudan Pashas