The circumcision parade: Princes Mehmed and Mustafa

 

170a

 

169b

The six horses drawing the carriage in which the princes are riding appear in the middle of (169b) flanked on either side by guards and attendants. In the center of (170a) Prince Mehmed and Prince Mustafa appear both dressed in green kaftans with gold frogs. The horsemen dressed in heavily embroidered red garments and red caps behind the carriage are the sword-bearer and footman.

Notes

1. Prince Mehmed: Born on 2 January 1717, Mehmed was approaching his fourth birthday at the time the festival was held. He, like Süleyman and his father, also lived out his life in the confines of Topkapı Harem, where he died on 22 December 1756.

2. Prince Mustafa: Mustafa was born (of a different mother) on 28 January 1717, less than a month after Mehmed. Like the other two princes, he also grew up in the Harem, isolated from the world. Unlike them, he ascended the throne, on 30 October 1757, as Mustafa III. An active sultan and something of a reformer, his aspirations to revitalize the empire were thwarted by reactionary opposition and by a lack of material resources. His reign was marked by repeated military and diplomatic humiliations. He died on 21 January 1774 and was succeeded by Abdülhamid I, yet another son of Ahmed III, who was born in 1725.


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