Şehzade Mehmed

Biography

Mehmed's birth changed the status of the harem, marked the beginning of Hürrem's rising in the palace. Historians say that Mehmed was very much like his older half-brother, Mustafa and that he looked up to him as his role model, and had a good relationship with him since their childhood. Evliya Çelebi describes Mehmed as a "prince of more exquisite qualities than even Mustafa. He had a piercing intellect and a subtle judgment" and that Suleiman had intended that he would be his successor had he not died. Mehmed participated in the successful Siege of Esztergom along his father. When Suleiman assigned Mustafa to rule Amasya, his place as ruler of Manisa had been taken by Mehmed.

Mehmed's only child was Hümaşah Sultan.

Death

There are different opinions surrounding Mehmed's death. According to some historians, he died from smallpox. According to another opinion, he died a natural death. There are also speculations that, as being constantly favored by the sultan over his brother Mustafa, Mahidevran planned his death. It is worth noting that Mehmed died the same year he went to battle along his father at the Siege of Esztergom.

After his son's death, Suleiman the Magnificent had the famed imperial architect Mimar Sinan build the Şehzade Mosque in Istanbul to commemorate Mehmed. Also, Suleiman composed an elegy for his beloved son Mehmed who died in 1543 and ended the poem with the line "Most distinguished of the princes, my Sultan Mehmed" in which the total numerical value is the year of his son’s death. The fact that Mehmed's death offered Suleiman his first major opportunity to serve as an architectural patron may also have given later Ottomans reason to believe that Mehmed was the favored one. The fact that Suleiman had not only commissioned a mosque for Mehmed, but have it built in Istanbul as if he were a sultan (given that şehzade were buried in Bursa according to the custom) reflected how much the sultan loved his son.