Osman II

Osman II was the 17th sultan of the Ottoman Empire who ruled from 1618 to 1622. He was the son of Ahmed I and Mahfiruz Hatun, and the grandson of Mehmed III. He was a cultured and ambitious ruler who sought to reform the empire and expand its borders. He personally led a campaign against Poland in the Moldavian Magnate Wars, but was forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty after the Battle of Khotyn. He also signed a peace treaty with Safavid Persia, securing the eastern border of the empire. He attempted to modernize the army and the bureaucracy, but faced resistance from the Janissaries and the ulema. He planned to abolish the Janissary corps and replace them with a new force of Anatolian troops, but his plot was discovered and he was deposed by a rebellion. He was imprisoned in Yedikule Fortress, where he was strangled by the Janissaries on 20 May 1622. He was buried in the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, which was built by his grandfather Ahmed I. He was also a poet who wrote in Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. He was known as Osman the Young or Genç Osman in Turkish, and as ‘Osmān-i sānī in Ottoman Turkish.