Editing Mustafa I (section)

== Early life ==
Mustafa was born around 1600/1602<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> in the [[Topkapı Palace|Topkapi Palace]]. He was son of Sultan [[Mehmed III]] and [[Halime Sultan|Halime Hatun]], an Abkhazian concubine.<ref name=":1">Börekçi, Günhan. "Mustafa I." ''Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire''. Ed. Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters. New York: Facts on File, 2009. p. 409.</ref>

Before 1603 it was customary for an Ottoman Sultan to have his brothers executed shortly after ascending the throne, (Mustafa's father [[Mehmed III]] had executed his nineteen half-brothers). But when the thirteen-year-old [[Ahmed I]], Mustafa's older half-brother, was enthroned in 1603, he spared the life of Mustafa.<ref>Piterberg, Gabriel. "[http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/ahmed-i-COM_22989 Ahmed I]" ''Encyclopaedia of Islam, Third Edition''. Edited by: Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson. Brill Online, 2012. Accessed 10 July 2012</ref> [[Handan Sultan]], mother of Ahmed I, was crucial to Mustafa's survival, as she convinced her son to spare his life.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty|first = Anthony Dolphin | last = Alderson|date=1956|p=10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Sultan's Seraglio|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-M44AQAAMAAJ&q=handan+valide+sultan|author=Ottaviano Bon|year=1996| publisher=Saqi Books |isbn=978-0863562150}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=Enver Behnan Şapolyo|title=Osmanlı Sultanları Tarihi|year=1961|language=tr}}</ref>

A factor in Mustafa's survival is the influence of [[Kösem Sultan]] (Ahmed's favorite consort), who may have wished to preempt the succession of Sultan [[Osman II]], Ahmed's first-born son from another concubine. If Osman became Sultan, he would likely try to execute his half-brothers, the sons of Ahmed and Kösem. (This scenario later became a reality when [[Osman II]] executed his half-brother [[Şehzade Mehmed (son of Ahmed I)|Mehmed]], the oldest son of Ahmed and Kösem, in 1621.<ref name="Börekçi, Mustafa I, p.409">Börekçi, "Mustafa I," p. 409.</ref>) Furthermore, when Ahmed ascended the throne, Mustafa was the only possible heir. Had Ahmed executed him and then died sonless, the dynasty would have died out.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Peirce |first=Leslie P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L6-VRgVzRcUC |title=The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire |date=1993 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-508677-5 |pages=127–129, 145, 231–232 |language=en}}</ref> However, the reports of foreign ambassadors suggest that Ahmed actually liked his half-brother: he had been on good terms with his older half-brother [[Şehzade Mahmud (son of Mehmed III)|Şehzade Mahmud]] (full brother of Mustafa, executed by his father Mehmed III and his grandmother [[Safiye Sultan (mother of Mehmed III)|Safiye Sultan]]) and was shocked by his death, and also felt sympathy for Mustafa's very young age.<ref>{{cite book|first=Baki|last=Tezcan|title=Searching For Osman: A Reassessment Of The Deposition Of Ottoman Sultan Osman II (1618–1622)|page=339 n. 89}}</ref>

Mustafa lived at first in the Old Palace, along with his mother, and grandmother [[Safiye Sultan (wife of Murad III)|Safiye Sultan]] and later in the [[Kafes]] until Ahmed's death in 1617.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Stanford J.|last1=Shaw|first2=Ezel Kural|last2=Shaw|title=History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume 1, Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1280-1808|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=29 October 1976|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofottoman00stan/page/186 186]|isbn=978-0-521-29163-7|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofottoman00stan/page/186}}</ref>