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Operation Nemesis and Other Historic Paybacks

Khalid Elhassan November 17, 2019 32 min

Armenian Genocide - 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

19. Turkey’s Craziest Ruler

Ottoman sultan Ibrahim I (1615 – 1648), also known as the Mad Sultan and Ibrahim the Mad, ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1640 to 1648. He might have been more crazy than evil, but put a nut in a position of power, and bad stuff is bound to happen, regardless of – or especially if – the powerful loon is unable to tell right from wrong.

When his older brother Murad IV ascended the throne, he had the then-8-year-old Ibrahim confined to the Kafes, or “Cage” – a secluded part of the Harem where possible successors to the throne were kept under house arrest, watched by palace guards and isolated from the outside world to prevent intrigues and plots. Murad, executed his other brothers, one by one, until Ibrahim was the only one left, quaking in fear that he might be next.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.