Ranking Every Ottoman Sultan from Worst to Best

RIP Pronounciation of Turkish names.

It took a while, but here's the ranking of the Ottoman Sultans, from Osman to Mehmed VI.

Soundtrack:
"Spirit of the Girl" by Kevin MacLeod
"Moorland" by Kevin MacLeod
"Lotus" by Kevin MacLeod
"Crusade - Heavy Industry" by Kevin MacLeod
"Colossus" by Kevin MacLeod
"Chill Wave" by Kevin MacLeod

[spectrum]

RIP Pronounciation of Turkish names. Sorry if the audio seems a bit off for this video, the original recording had constant peaking, which led to me re-recording the whole thing again, and in the end I ended up combining both audio files. Also, I did consider saying the time periods of each reign, but chose not to, as I felt it would break the "pace" of the video.

Hope you enjoy it!

[ScorpoYT]

The ottoman and Roman empires are very similar.
in one point you got the first 10 rulers being absolute chads while the rest caused the collapse of the empire, both empires fought the persians 24/7 in the east and Germans in the north, and you have the personal guards being the catalyst for most rulers being ki11ed/disposed

[embracedsilence]

Whether you think the Ottoman Empire should or shouldn't be compared to Rome we can all agree creating a private military force meant to protect the absolute ruler of the state has never worked even once in history.

[hazorg]

Nice video but as a Turkish person I'd rank Mehmed II the best Ottoman sultan of all. Suleyman's reign was the height of Ottoman power that's true but, he only reaped the fruits of his father Selim I's and his great-grandfather Mehmet II's reigns, imo. Mehmet was the best of the trio because of his vision, his intellectual nature and his statesmanship. Suleyman's 46 six year reign also marks the beginning of corruption in Ottoman State. His execution of his closest companion, grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha and his son Sehzade Mustafa is pivotal, those two were incredibly talented individuals. Especially Mustafa had a deeper understanding of geo-politics than his father and his brothers as he wanted wanted to expand the navy, colonize Americas and beyond, dominate the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean and adapt to the changing of the global trade routes. Suleyman's successor instead of Mustafa, Selim II the Drunk was the one lost at Lepanto and that made Ottomans an increasingly land force over the centuries. They rebuilt their navy that they lost in Lepanto but the experienced marines and seaman and their tradition to some extent that were lost did not come back.

Suleyman does seem nice from afar but he is not that good in my honest opinion. His clinging to power and breaking Ottoman tradition of not having multiple sons from a single mother as to not produce political instability, may have cost the Ottomans their future. I'm not saying he was disastrous or not good but I would never put him #1.

[denizgokayozkir]

I'd definetely put Mehmet II over Suleiman I. Mehmet II wasn't just an emperor, but also a BIG part of the actual Renaissance happening at that time. The languages he could speak, his literature and poetic skills, his obsession with science, literal genius in battle tactics, maybe the first Muslim emperor to encourage scupltures and paintings and many more traits...

[wabi-sabi]

Oh! Finally! I've been waiting for this ranking!
Despite being Portuguese the Ottoman Empire is my favorite Empire.
Great one!

[thealmightycommanderemu]

Osman the Second could have been a great leader though, he had big ambitions, most of them actually useful, but his plan on getting rid of the Janissaries was discovered and he was brutally tortured and killed by the Janissaries because of that.

[harmonialink]

Based + Spectrum + Portuguese + Great effort + History enthusiast

[TheEnginator]

I would list Selim I. as the best. He weakened the Safevids, crushed the Mamlukes, and left a sustainable system and a huge treasury to Suleiman the Magnificient, within 8 years. Without his achievement Sultan Suleiman could never expand like that.

[zgramzhnisk]

About Beyazıd the Thunderbolt I will say that his failure at conquering Constantinople and his defeat against Timur rather than being two seperate events were really just a singular event, as the siege of Constantinople was lifted specifically because of Timur's invasion. Thus I feel like they shouldnt be counted as two points against the quality of his reign rather just one

[DamianMaisano]

About Lepanto though: I’m not well read on the battle, but it’s important to remember that naval losses aren’t recouped by just building new ships. The loss of experienced men and captains can often hurt worse, and I think does play a factor into the importance of the battle

[darthralin]

About Bayezid the Thunderbolt, his cool nickname actually foreshadowed his downfall. He got it on account of how quickly he went from one front to the other, which, while cool, wasn't a sustainable state of affairs as most of his reign was spent fighting a war on multiple fronts, much of it being against the other Anatolian beyliks, whom he continually failed to make lasting peace with and who eventually sided with Timur over him.

[jallade]

You have no idea how long I was hoping for you to make this video. You made my day much better than it already was. Keep up the great work!

[dyingearth]

Amazing that the worst Sultan (Mustafa IV) was succeed by his brother who is the 4th best (Mahmud II).

[talhakarsloglu]

Pretty good list but Mehmet the Conqueror should be first. Other than conquering a lot of territory, he set the standard for other Sultans which made the Ottomans a true Empire. Süleyman is a great ruler, but he had greatly benefitted from what his predeccessors left him with. While Mehmed transformed the Ottoman State into a true empire. Also, you know he conquered some city called Constantinople. Your pronounciations were also pretty good.

[richeybaumann]

The fact that Ibraham, who was literally not mentally capable of ruling, did a better job than some of these people is... impressive.

I also can't believe you didn't mention that Ibraham was assassinated on the orders _of his mother, Kosem Sultan_ . She did, however, kill at least two Sultans and depose a third (twice), so she was basically the Sultan in her own right for 5 different reigns.

[KubiIay]

Bayezid I the Thunderbolt should be way higher. The way he conquered and defeated the crusader armies is incredible. The nickname alone is fantastic.

[roach]

To be honest some families actually bribed officials to make sure their son becomes a janissary as it was seen as a position with great potential for upward mobility. But yeah many others were probably just sad that one of their sons was taken.

[emreerencelik]

As a Turk all i can say is putting Suleiman in front of Mehmed II the Conqueror or Selim I or maybe even Murad II (my personal favorite thx to Battle of Varna) is insane to me.

[ferhatozturk]

Man as a turk myself i am always confused and overwhelmed about how complicated and full of intrigues the lives of ottoman sultans were. I think Netflix should cover some storys as series - that would let Game of Thrones look like a muppet show 😄