Description

Ahmed II (1642–1695) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1691 to 1695.

Soon after his accession to the throne, Ahmed’s forces were defeated by the Austrians at Slankamen, Hung. The able grand vizier (chief minister) Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Paşa died in the battle, and the Ottomans suffered substantial territorial losses in Hungary. In 1692 the Venetians attacked Crete and in 1694 captured Chios. In addition, Ahmed faced unrest in his Arab provinces of Syria, Hejaz, and Iraq. To find land for the nomadic Turkmen tribes, Ahmed encouraged tribal settlement in Anatolia and Syria and put an end to certain abuses in the Ottoman land administration system. Generally, however, Ahmed, who had been imprisoned in the palace before his accession, was unable to show any independence and remained under the influence of his courtiers.

The Eyalet of Egypt operated as an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire from 1517 to 1867. It originated as a result of the conquest of Mamluk Egypt by the Ottomans in 1517, following the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17) and the absorption of Syria into the Empire in 1516. Egypt always proved a difficult province for the Ottoman Sultans to control, due in part to the continuing power and influence of the Mamluks, the Egyptian military caste who had ruled the country for centuries.