15. The Ottoman Turks’ Extreme, Yet Effective, Solution to the Problem of Fratricidal Civil Wars
Many realms came to grief not at the hands of foreign enemies, but because of domestic strife and civil wars between members of the ruling family. In states where the rules and lines of succession were not well-established and clearly defined, a ruler’s death often triggered a scramble between his sons for power. When one of them finally wrested the crown, it frequently rested uneasily on his head, while rival siblings schemed and plotted to unseat and replace him on the throne.
The results were often civil wars that weakened the state and left it vulnerable. The Ottoman Turks came up with an extreme – yet ruthlessly effective – solution to the problem: no siblings, no rivalry. When a new Ottoman Sultan ascended the throne, he immediately executed all his brothers. The chances of deadly rivalries and civil wars were thus eliminated by eliminating all potential rivals. It began in 1389 when Sultan Bayezid I ascended the throne, and immediately had his younger brother strangled to death in order to nip a plot in the bud.