Ibrahim The Mad Was History’s Most Deranged Ruler S
Mad kings and their deranged follyies litter European history. But what about a mad sultan? Ibrahim of the Ottoman Empire grew up in a gilded cage and it broke his mind. Though the son of Sultan Ahmed I, no one expected Ibrahim to become Sultan himself. He was Ahmed’s eighth son and thus very unlikely to ever inherit the throne.
However, Ibrahim had a secret weapon. Kidnapped in Greece as a teenager and sold into slavery, Kosam rose through the Ottoman court to become Ahmed’s favorite concubine and the most powerful woman in the empire. She was going to have her work cut out for her. From the moment he was born, Ibraim was in terrible danger.
Ottoman princes weren’t very big on wait your turn. They were more than willing to eliminate their own kin to ensure their place on the throne. The Ottoman throne was a little like the iron throne. Sitting in it could be a dangerous business. When Ibraim was just two, his father bit the bullet. So, beginning a bloody game of musical chairs that saw the deposition of one Sultan and the execution of another.
Finally, Miad IV took the throne and brought some semblance of stability. But Ibrahim didn’t get to enjoy it because his life was about to become an utter nightmare. Istanbul was no city of brotherly love in those days. Sultans kept large herums of concubines and had children by many different women.
That meant most princes had different mothers and thus there was little love lost between them. So how did Mir IV celebrate his ascension to the throne? By throwing all of his brothers into a cage. Ibrahim grew up in a cage. This special section of the imperial harum was a glorified prison for heirs to the throne.
Here Ottoman princes were kept under constant surveillance and never allowed to leave. When Ibraim was still in diapers, his older brother, Murad, tossed him in there and threw away the key. The boy wouldn’t taste freedom again for another 16 years. But his prison was even worse than it appeared. Ibrahim wasn’t alone in the cages.
Miad threw his three halfb brothers in there with him, only one by one, they started getting picked off. Mirad IV was a paranoid ruler, and he didn’t trust his brothers not to rise up against him. During his 16-year reign, he had them executed one after the other until only little Ibraham was left.
The boy lived in constant fear that his head would be the next one on the chopping block. So why did I survive when his older brothers weren’t so lucky? It would appear that growing up in a cage isn’t good for you. Ibrahim was a feeble child who suffered from severe mental health issues.
Though Murad didn’t hesitate to off the other brothers, he evidently didn’t consider Ibrahim a threat. So he just left the boy to rot. So there Ibrahim remained confined to the cages, growing more and more unhinged with each passing day. Then finally after 16 years, his imprisonment came to an end and the empire was in trouble.
Meera IVth ruled for 16 years, but Cerosis ended up claiming his life in 1640 when he was just 27 years old. However, before he went, he made a disturbing final request. From his deathbed, Miad ordered Ibrahim’s execution. He knew about his brother’s instability and told his advisers that he didn’t want a lunatic assultan.
Had his wish been granted, the empire would have avoided the catastrophe that followed. But Murad didn’t count on one thing. Ibrahim’s mother wasn’t about to sit by and watch her son’s execution. She intervened and denied Miad’s wishes, saving Ibrahim’s life. When Miad finally gave his last breath days later, Ibrahim took the throne. But it wasn’t quite that simple.
Ibraham had spent years dreaming of the world beyond his cage. But when his chance at freedom finally came, he couldn’t believe it. When a crowd came to the cages to free him and proclaim him Sultan, the terrified Ibrahim blocked the door and wouldn’t let anyone inside.
Ibrahim was mad, but he wasn’t stupid. He’d seen each of his brothers leave the cage and never return. He wasn’t about to make the same mistake. The crowd pleaded, but Ibrahim wouldn’t budge. So his mother came up with a grotesque way to get through to him. She ordered Murad’s remains brought to the cage to prove Ibrahim that he was really free to leave.
Ibrahim saw his brother’s body, yet still refused to budge. Though he chafed in his prison, it was the only world he knew, and the thought to becoming Sultan. terrified him. But Kosam Sultan hadn’t saved his life just so he could continue wasting away in the cage. It was time to get serious. Ibraham didn’t quite understand what was happening.
If he refused the throne, did he think he could just continue to live out his life in the cage on the empire’s dime? His mother reminded him that he would likely face execution if he refused the throne. At last, between that grim threat and his brother’s body, Ibraham opened the door and stepped out of the cage for the first time in 16 years. It finally dawned on him.
He was free. If only anyone realized what they had unleashed. Ibrahim’s doubts evaporated the instant he left the cage. He allegedly began dancing through the herum, shrieking, “The butcher of the empire is dead.” In truth, the butcher had only been replaced with another. Believe it or not, Ibrahim’s reign actually got off to a pretty good start.
His brother’s old grand vazier was a very capable administrator and he kept things running smoothly during that transition from one sultan to another. Now all anyone could do was wait and see what kind of sultan Ibrahim would be. And at first people were pleasantly surprised.
It’s hard to know what to expect out of a guy who grew up in a cage, but Ibrahim seemed to be reasonably well adjusted. He communicated with the Grand Vizier frequently and showed genuine concern with ruling the Ottoman Empire. He even went out into the city to see his dominion for himself, putting on a disguise and inspecting the local markets.
All in all, things were going pretty well, but there were signs that something was seriously wrong in the new Sultan. Ibraham tried his best to rule, but a plethora of ailments haunted him. He suffered from excruciating headaches and attacks of physical weakness. Most modern scholars agree that the trauma of his upbringing caused these symptoms.
And as the years began to pass, the good Sultan Ibrahim began to grow more and more unstable. He was heading down a dark path, and his mother knew it. Ibrahim’s erratic behavior was becoming a liability. So Kosam Sultan encouraged him to distract himself with his herum. After all, a Sultan needed heirs to carry on his line.
Pretty soon, Ibrahim had fathered three sons by three different concubines. But he didn’t stop there. It turns out Ibrahim had an insatiable appetite for women and his mother struggled to keep him occupied, though she certainly tried. Kosam personally went to the market to make sure that her son had a constant stream of slave girls to keep him busy.
She knew exactly what kind of women her son liked and handpicked the ones she thought would keep his attention. However, she quickly learned that her son’s appetites were even more disturbing than they’d seemed at first. [Music] Ibraham was a predator in every sense of the word.
He kept his herum filled with hundreds of concubines, slaves who had no choice in the matter. Even more twisted, Ibrahim preferred women that he couldn’t have. His girls who weren’t in a position to refuse him didn’t interest him as much as women he had to coersse. Surprise, surprise. The boy who grew up in captivity became a horribly damaged monster, and he didn’t take kindly to hearing the word no.
Ibrahim always got what he wanted. According to one story, he became infatuated with the Grand Muy’s beautiful daughter. Ibrahim asked the religious leader for her hand in marriage, but the Grand Muy knew what kind of man I was. He’d heard stories of what went on behind the walls of Ibrahim’s herum, and he didn’t want his daughter to have any part of that.
He refused the proposal to protect his daughter, but he underestimated just how cruel Iraham was. Ibraham didn’t take rejection well. In his rage, he ordered his guards to follow the Grand Muy’s daughter. They captured her and dragged her back to the herum, where Ibrahim had his way with her for days before sending her back to her father and carrying on with his usual concubines.
As long as I was distracted with his herum, his mother could essentially rule the empire in hisstead. So she was willing to do anything to keep him occupied. Kosum knew that her son was frequently impotent. So she scoured the city for the best aphrodesiacs money could buy. She supplied these ointments to her son so he could continue in his twisted fantasies.
And yes, they were every bit as messed up as you’d imagine. According to one report, Ibraham frequently liked to assemble all of the virgins in his herum. He would order them each to strip. Then he would run alongside them, naying like a horse, ravishing one after the other. Even more deranged, he would order them to kick and struggle against him.
The herm was a true nightmare for any woman unlucky enough to find herself there. And the large ones had it worst of all. He’d send men out to find the fattest women in the empire to bring back to the capital and join his herum. Ibraham’s obsession with his herm consumed nearly his entire life. He collected a vast library of books describing different bedroom positions and allegedly invented several new ones himself.
But it wasn’t all sex all the time. Ibrahim found plenty of other questionable ways to keep himself occupied in his herum. Since his herum was all he really cared about, should you be surprised that Ibrahim almost bankrupt the entire empire, decking it out? During his reign, the imperial harum reached untold heights of luxury. Ibrahim brought in the finest perfumes and jewelry for his concubines, a small consolation prize for the nightmare they endured.
But above all else, Ibraham loved furs. as in he really really loved furs. Ibrahim’s obsession with furs earned him the nickname the fool of furs. He only wanted to sleep with women on extravagant furs. And he even had an entire room lined with lynx and sable just because he could. When you’re a mad sultan, you’ve got to look the part.
Ibrahim wore the finest clothes money could buy, but his ridiculous expenditures went beyond even what you’re imagining. Being one of Ibraham’s concubines was a true horror, unless he happened to be one of his favorites. Then he stood to receive the finest gifts imaginable. How fine were these gifts, you ask? Well, Ibraham once gifted two of his favorite concubines the entire treasury of Egypt.
However, there were hundreds of women in Ibrahim’s herum, and they didn’t all get treasuries. For the rest, life in Ibrahim’s her beyond miserable, but at least they had one person looking out for them. Kosam Sultan used the herm to distract her son and take power for herself, but she wasn’t completely heartless.
When Ibraim tried to force himself on one of his concubines, she pulled the dag and threatened to stab him, telling off her deranged son and allowing the concubine to escape the herum. She was playing a dangerous game, but she couldn’t control Ibrahim forever. Something was going to give. Ibrahim’s mother put up with his demented games because it got her the power she craved, but he was bound to cross the line eventually.
He utterly humiliated his sisters by making his own concubines more powerful than them. He also gave away his sister’s land and jewels to his favorites. They were princesses of the Ottoman Empire. Yet Ibrahim left them with nothing. Kosam Sultan was absolutely furious. She’d given Ibrahim everything only for him to betray his own family like that.
A feud was brewing and there would be bloodshed before it was done. Ibrahim the Mad invented new ways to be totally nuts. There was a shrine in Medina where previous sultans customarily left gifts. Ibrahim demanded his grand vazier reclaim those gifts for him. The vazier refused that bonker’s request.
Ibraham made one of the craziest threats in history. He threatened to stuff the vazier with straw. This was not the kind of guy you wanted ruling one of the most powerful empires on earth. And the dark voices whispering in his ears didn’t help matters. If you could get on Ibrahim’s good side, untold riches awaited you.
Unfortunately, being sensible wasn’t one of the things that would endear you to him. Horribly inept, selfish, and arrogant people gained Ibrahim’s trust, such as the mistress of the imperial herum. Anyone who could give Ibrahim what he wanted stood to gain immense wealth and power, and that paved the way for all kinds of shady characters.
Before Ras Putin, there was Chini Hoka, who claimed he had the ability to cure any illness. He cured Ibrahim’s ailments and the Sultan rewarded him with untold riches. We all know what happened when Rasputin infiltrated the Russian court. So, do you think things went any better in Istanbul? With Kosam and Ibrahim at odds, the only person who could resist the Sultan’s cronies was the Grand Vazier, and he ended up 6 feet under because of it.
The Grand Vazier knew that people like Hoka could threaten the empire. So, he tried to keep them in check. But under Ibrahim’s protection, Hoka and his allies grew too powerful for even the Vazier to contain. Hoka eventually grew influential enough that he managed to secure the vazier’s execution.
The foxes were officially running the hen house, and all the while, Ibrahim’s descent into madness continued. Ibraim was happy to let people like Hoka run the empire into the ground as long as he could keep playing host with his concubines. As you can imagine, the empire suffered greatly for it. Once a stable, powerful political entity, the foundations of the empire grew shakier and shakier with each passing year.
It would only take a shove for everything to fall apart. And that shove came in the form of a war. In 1644, Maltise Corsa captured a ship carrying several highranking Muslim pilgrims on their way to Mecca. Ibraham’s advisers convinced him to invade the island. So began a disastrous war with another powerful Mediterranean power, Venice.
Such an undertaking would be hard for even the most effective Sultan. All the Ottomans had was Ibrahim. This was not going to go well. Venice blockaded the Dardinels, cutting off Istanzible only connection to the Mediterranean and causing massive shortages of food and supplies. And what was Irabbim up to while his people starved? He continued to levy brutal taxes to pay for the extravagances of his herum.
It was not a good luck and it very nearly spelled the end for the mad sultan. In 1647, after three miserable years of conflict, a plot against Ibrahim began brewing. The latest Grand Vizier teamed up with none other than Kosam Sultan to despise Ibrahim and the right ship. Finally, somebody was going to do something about Ibrahim.
Well, things didn’t really go as planned. The plot to dispose Ibrahim fell apart before it even got off the ground. Ibrahim had the Grand Vazier executed and exiled his own mother from the herum. With that taken care of, he was free to deate himself with his concubines as the disastrous war with Venice continued unabated.
He also appointed a new corrupt grand vazier who would let him do whatever he wanted. But if Ibraim thought no one else would come for him, he was sorely mistaken. Just a year later, Ibrahim’s number finally came up. You can’t bankrupt an empire and run it into the ground without someone putting a stop to you eventually.
the Janiseries, the Ottomans elite infantry force revolted. With the military against him, Ibrahim and his cronies no longer stood a chance. The first to go was Ibrahim’s new Grand Vazier, and his end was absolutely brutal. The people of Istanbul had long since grown fed up with their mad sultan and his corrupt advisers.
On August 8, 1648, an angry mob got their hands on the Grand Vazier, and it wasn’t pretty. The mob tore him to shreds, gaining him the gruesome moniker, Thousand Pieces. Next, the mob was going to come for Ibraham. And did the mad sultan face his end with dignity? What do you think? With the walls closing in around him, Ibraham ran straight into his mother’s arms.
He’d exiled her before, but she was the only person who’d ever truly looked out for him. He begged Mommy to protect him, and Kosam Sultan gave him an ultimatum. Abdicate or face the mob. That same day, guards seized Ibrahim and imprisoned him. Once again, he found himself in a cage. But this time, he wouldn’t leave alive.
For now, all he could do was sit and await his fate. His one soulless was that he knew his mother was out there working to protect him. If only he knew the truth. Kosam Sultan had sheltered her son for his entire life, even when he betrayed her. That time was over. She saw what her son had become and she knew that he had to go.
Writing, “In the end, he will leave neither you nor me alive. We will lose control of the government. The whole society is in ruins. Have him removed from the throne immediately.” And that’s exactly what happened. A coalition disposed Ibrahim of mad and made a six-year-old son the new Sultan.
But no one felt safe with Ibrahim still alive, even if he was locked in a cage once more. The new Grand Vazier sought out a fatwa from religious leaders to sanction Ibrahim’s execution. The only person left now who could save Ibrahim’s life was Kosam Sultan, but she wouldn’t do that. Ibrahim had beaten all of the motherly love out of Kosam.
She consented to the execution and the grand vizier quickly sent for two executioners. In a morbid twist, one of them was the same executioner whom Ibraim himself had commanded for years. But if you’re picturing a quick beheading or hanging, think again. The end of Ibrahim the Mad was far slower than that. As officials watched from an overlooking window, the executioners trudged into Ibrahim’s cell and strangled him to death.
But before their hands wrapped around his neck, Ibrahim managed to croak out one final plea for mercy. According to contemporary reports, Ibrahim the Mad’s final words were, “Is there no one among those who have eaten my bread who will take pity on me and protect me?” These cruel men have come to kill me.
Mercy, mercy. No one had a shred of pity left for the mad sultan. Not even his favorite concubines. Perhaps the most infamous story about Ibrahim the mad began with Civcar Sultan. She allegedly told him that one of his concubines had been compromised by an outsider, but claimed to know no further detail.
I bet you can imagine how a paranoid lunatic like Ibrahim reacted. He raged for days demanding information on this mysterious traitor. However, no amount of interrogation uncovered a name. So, Ibraham ordered one of the most disturbing acts in history. When no traitor came forward, Ibrahim instead allegedly ordered his entire herum to be tied up in weighted sacks and thrown into the Bosphorus.
That’s 280 women drowned like cats. All over an unsubstantiated claim of treachery. Strangulation was too good of an end for a man like that. But at least the ruthless Civcar got what was coming to her, too. Ibrahim couldn’t deny Civcar anything, and she quickly became a little too powerful for her own good. Soon, she threatened Kosam Sultan’s place in the herum, and that cost her her life.
Kosam invited Ibrahim’s lover to dinner. only to have her poisoned or perhaps strangled. She told Ibraham that she had suddenly fallen victim to a mysterious sickness and no one could save her. Ibrahim the Mad’s reign serves as the cautionary tale of the dangers of unchecked power and the consequences of a ruler’s mental instability.
Despite initial promise, his descent into madness and tyranny nearly destroyed the Ottoman Empire. His eventual deposition and execution marked the end of a dark chapter in Ottoman history. The story of Ibraham the Mad remains a fascinating and sobering example of the human cost of absolute power. Thanks for watching History Expose.
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