Edirne Incident
As a result of the Edirne Incident, Şeyhülislam Feyzullah Efendi was killed, and Sultan Mustafa II was ousted from power.
Three causes of the Edirne Incident were the Treaty of Karlowitz, the rise of Seyhulislam Feyzullah Efendi and the Ottoman practice of tax farming.
[1][page needed] The Ottomans had been desperate to end the war after “the army under the sultan was annihilated by Eugene of Savoy in open field confrontations” (Battle of Zenta).
Furthermore, he overstepped the boundaries of his position as head of the religious arm of the household, establishing corporate relationships traditionally the domain and prerogative of the vizierial and pasha households.”[2][page needed] Grand Vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha's 1695 economic reform led to the existence of lifetime tax farming.
“Very quickly, by 1703, these lifetime tax farms had spread and came into wide use in the Balkan, Anatolian, and Arab provinces alike” (Ottoman Empire 1700–1922, p. 48).
[3][page needed] The Ottoman Empire was backing a candidate to the throne during a civil war in the Kingdom of Imereti in Georgia.
However, the salaries of the army members had been delayed, and the subunit of the janissaries responsible for logistics, named Cebeci, revolted on 17 July 1703[citation needed] demanding full payment before the operation.
These groups were frustrated with the sultan's attempt to mask the loss political legitimacy and the rise of Seyhulislam Feyzullah Efendi.
[2][page needed] With the support of other army units as well as some Constantinople citizens and most ulema (religious leaders), the rebels plundered the houses of the senior government officers and began controlling the capital for several weeks.
"Military confrontation outside of Edirne was avoided as the imperial loyalists, mostly troops recruited from the Balkan countryside, deserted Mustafa and joined the ranks from Constantinople.
“The first concerned Mustafa II's neglect of his ‘trust’ in looking after his subjects, ‘allowing injustice and inequity to reign’ while he went hunting, wasting the public treasury.
At the head stood the seyhulislam (chief mufti) appointed by the sultan and paid a state salary like the rest of the ulema, who received a stream of requests from central government to certify (usually in the form of a written judgement or Fatwa) that proposed government action conformed to Sharia law.
The violence continued for three problematic reasons: “the lack of discipline and control over the disorder and destruction; the dissolution of rebel unity, amidst rivalries concerning the balance of power; and finally competition for the coronation accession gifts, the traditional reward for the janissary pledge of allegiance to a new sultan."
Sari Mehmed Pasha, chief financial officer six times between 1703 and 1716, was said to have melted the palace silver to make up the accession payment for Ahmet III.
[2][page needed] The defeat of Mustafa II in battle, the detrimental conditions of the Treaty of Karlowitz and his expulsion from power all contributed to the general decline of the sultanate as an institution.
