Editing Murad III (section)

==Personal life==
===Palace life===
Following the example of his father Selim II, Murad was the second Ottoman sultan who never went on campaign during his reign, instead spending it entirely in Constantinople. During the final years of his reign, he did not even leave [[Topkapı Palace]]. For two consecutive years, he did not attend the Friday procession to the imperial mosque—an unprecedented breaking of custom. The Ottoman historian [[Mustafa Selaniki]] wrote that whenever Murad planned to go out to Friday prayer, he changed his mind after hearing of alleged plots by the [[Janissaries]] to dethrone him once he left the palace.<ref>Karateke, Hakan T. "On the Tranquility and Repose of the Sultan." ''The Ottoman World''. Ed. Christine Woodhead. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2011. p. 118.</ref> Murad withdrew from his subjects and spent the majority of his reign keeping to the company of few people and abiding by a daily routine structured by the five daily Islamic prayers. Murad's personal physician Domenico Hierosolimitano described a typical day in the life of the sultan:

{{Blockquote|''In the morning he rises at dawn to say his prayer for half an hour, then for another half-hour he writes. Then he is given something pleasant as a collation, and afterwards sets himself to read for another hour. Then he begins to give audience to the members of the Divan on the four days of the week that this occurs, as had been said above. Then he goes for a walk through the garden, taking pleasure in the delight of fountains and animals for another hour, taking with him the dwarves, buffoons and others to entertain him. Then he goes back once again to studying until he considers the time for lunch has arrived. He stays at table only half an hour, and rises (to go) once again into the garden for as long as he pleases. Then he goes to say his midday prayer. Then he stops to pass the time and amuse himself with the women, and he will stay one or two hours with them, when it is time to say the evening prayer. Then he returns to his apartments or, if it pleases him more, he stays in the garden reading or passing the time until evening with the dwarfs and buffoons, and then he returns to say his prayers, that is at nightfall. Then he dines and takes more time over dinner than over lunch, making conversation until two hours after dark, until it is time for prayer [...] He never fails to observe this schedule every day.<ref name=felek />{{rp|29–30}}''}}

Özgen Felek argues that Murad's sedentary lifestyle and lack of participation in military campaigns earned him the disapproval of [[Mustafa Âlî]] and [[Mustafa Selaniki]], the major Ottoman historians who lived during his reign. Their negative portrayals of Murad influenced later historians.<ref name=felek />{{rp|17–19}}

===Children===
Before becoming sultan, Murad had been loyal to [[Safiye Sultan (mother of Mehmed III)|Safiye Sultan]], his Albanian concubine. His monogamy was disapproved of by Nurbanu Sultan, who worried that Murad needed more sons to succeed him in case Mehmed died young. She also worried about Safiye's influence over her son and the Ottoman dynasty. Five or six years after his accession to the throne, Murad was given a pair of concubines by his sister Ismihan. Upon attempting sexual intercourse with them, he proved impotent. "The arrow [of Murad], [despite] keeping with his created nature, for many times [and] for many days has been unable to reach at the target of union and pleasure," wrote Mustafa Ali. Nurbanu accused Safiye and her retainers of causing Murad's impotence with witchcraft. Several of Safiye's servants were tortured by eunuchs in order to discover a culprit. Court physicians, working under Nurbanu's orders, eventually prepared a successful cure, but a side effect was a drastic increase in sexual appetite; by the time Murad died, he was said to have fathered over a hundred children.<ref name="felek" />{{rp|31–32}} Nineteen of these were executed by Mehmed III when he became sultan.

===Women at court===
Influential ladies of his court included his mother Nurbanu Sultan, his sister [[Ismihan Sultan]], wife of grand vizier [[Sokollu Mehmed Pasha]], and musahibes (favourites) mistress of the housekeeper [[Canfeda Hatun]], mistress of financial affairs [[Raziye Hatun]], and the poet [[Hubbi Hatun]], Finally, after the death of his mother and older sister, Safiye Sultan was the only influential woman in the court.<ref>{{cite book|author=Maria Pia Pedani Fabris, Alessio Bombaci|title=Inventory of the Lettere E Scritture Turchesche in the Venetian State Archives|pages=26|publisher=BRILL|year=2010|isbn=978-90-04-17918-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Attilio|last=Petruccioli|title=Gardens in the Time of the Great Muslim Empires: Theory and Design|publisher=E. J. Brill|year=1997|pages=50|isbn=978-90-04-10723-6}}</ref>

===Eunuchs at court===
Before Murad, the palace [[eunuch]]s had been mostly white, especially [[Circassians]] or [[Syrians]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Von Schierbrand |first1=Wolf |title=Salve Sold to the Turk |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1886/03/28/106300694.pdf |access-date=January 19, 2011 |agency=The New York Times |date=March 28, 1886}}</ref> This began to change in 1582 when Murad gave an important position to a black eunuch.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/the-black-eunuchs-and-the-ottoman-dynasty-47541|title=The black eunuchs and the Ottoman dynasty|last=Gamm|first=Niki|date=25 May 2013|website=Hürriyet Daily News|language=en|access-date=2020-03-19}}</ref> Before, the eunuchs' roles in the palace were racially determined: black eunuchs guarded the harem and the princesses, and white eunuchs guarded the Sultan and male pages in another part of the palace.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Booth|first=Marilyn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZqdbdFnRv_kC&pg=PA143|title=Harem Histories: Envisioning Places and Living Spaces|date=2010|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-4869-6|pages=143|language=en}}</ref> The chief black eunuch was known as the [[Kizlar Agha]], and the chief white eunuch was known as the [[Kapi Agha]].