Mustafa IV

Mustafa IV (born Sept. 8, 1779, Constantinople—died Nov. 17, 1808, Constantinople) was an Ottoman sultan from 1807 to 1808 who participated in the reactionary conservative coalition that overthrew his reforming cousin, the sultan Selim III.

A fanatical and ambitious man of low intelligence, Mustafa, under the influence of the shaykh al-islām (head of the Muslim religious hierarchy) and the Janissaries, ended Selim’s reforms and killed most of the reformers. Meanwhile Bayrakdar Mustafa Paşa of Rusçuk (modern Ruse, Bulg.), a reformist supporter, marched to Constantinople to restore Selim III. Mustafa, informed of Bayrakdar’s intentions, killed Selim. He himself was immediately deposed (July 28, 1808) and lived in confinement until he was strangled on orders from his brother, who succeeded him as Mahmud II.