21. A Brutal and Sadistic Sultan
Unlike many of his predecessors, Ottoman Sultan Murad IV (reigned 1623 – 1640) did not do away with his brothers when he ascended the throne. Instead, he locked them up inside his Harem in the Kafes, or “Cage”. The Kafes system was set up as a more merciful alternative to how prior generations of Ottoman sultans had dealt with their brothers. However, it might not have been much mercy in Murad’s case. All things considered, many of his imprisoned siblings might have wished that Murad had simply gone ahead and executed them at the start of his reign. For Murad IV was a brutal figure who combined paranoia with sadism.
He constantly suspected his captive brothers of plotting against him, and constantly tried to entrap them into saying any careless old thing that could validate his suspicions. Murad sent seemingly sympathetic guards or servants to try and draw out this or that imprisoned brother into uttering anything that could even remotely be interpreted as treasonous. Any slip of the tongue could result in an imprisoned sibling getting accused of plotting against the Sultan, who was just itching for an excuse to execute his brothers. That eagerness to shed blood was no surprise, considering that Murad’s “entertainment” included shooting arrows to take care of any unwary fishermen whose boats drifted to close to his seaside palace.
