2019-08-08 Thu

One of the most notorious Ottoman Sultans, Ibrahim ruled the Ottoman Empire for 8years from 1640 to 8th August 1648. From his early youth, Ibrahim had been locked up in the cage, a large building without windows. Having spent his early life in confinement, Ibrahim was mentally unstable and later called as Ibrahim the Mad.

Kara Mustafa Pasha was Grand Vizier during the first four years of Ibrahim’s reign, keeping in the Empire stable. Under his guidance of Ibrahim established peaceful relation with Persia and Austria. He also stabilized the currency with coinage reform, sought to stabilize the economy with a new land-survey.

Today, on 8th August in the year 1648, Ibrahim was deposed by a Janissary uprising supporter by Ulma (religious notables) and was executed 10 days later. Ibrahim’s six year old son Mehmed was made sultan.

The above shown gold Sultani was issued under his reign from Misr (Egypt) mint. The obverse of a coin represents the Persian legend ‘Sultan al Barrain wa Khaqan al Bahrain; al-Sultan ibn al-Sultan’. The reverse of a coin has legend ‘Al-Sultan Ibrahim ibn Ahmed han Azze nasruhu Duriba bi Misr’.

Image Source: Heritage Auctions