MUSTAFA III

Born Istanbul 1717.
Died Istanbul 1774.

Ottoman sultan 1757-74 who attempted governmental and military reforms to halt the empire´s decline and who declared a war on Russia that (after his death) culminated in a disastrous defeat.

Though Mustafa and his able grand vizier Ragib Mehmed Pasa understood the necessity for reform, their efforts were directed toward the results, not the causes, of the Ottoman decline.

They were unable to curb tax abuses, hence their fiscal reforms proved ineffective. Administrative reforms foundered on the central government´s inability to extend its authority over the local rulers (ayans) of its provinces in Europe and Asia. Assisted by Baron François de Tott, a French artillery officer of Hungarian origin, they were more successfull in their military reforms: the artillery corps was reorganized, an engineering school closed by the Janissaries in 1747 was reopened and a school of mathematics for the navy was founded (1773).

In his foreign policy Mustafa III was determined to maintain the peace established by the Treaty of Belgrade (1739). In spie of urgins by the French and by Frederick the Great of Prussia the Ottomans were reluctant to join the European scheme of alliances and counteralliances.

Later, Russian ambitions in Poland and in the Crimea compelled Mustafa to declare war on Russia (1768). Following a few initial unimportant successes the Ottomans suffered a series of defeats on the Danube and in the Crimea that culminated in the destruction of the Ottoman fleet at Cesme (1770) in the Aegean.

A poet and scholar, Mustafa, during the years of his seclusion before his accession, had studied astrology, literature and medicine. As a sultan who struggled to revive the empire and failed he placed his sole hope with his son Selim (later Selim III) whom he educated with utmost care but who did not become sultan until 1789.