Suleiman II

Suleiman II was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1687 to 1691. The younger brother of Mehmed IV, Sulaiman had spent most of his life in the 'kafe' (cage), a kind of luxurious prison for prnces of the blood within the Topkapi Palace. When he was approached to accept the throne in 1687, Sulaiman assumed that the delegation had come to kill him and it was only with the greatest persuasion that he could be tempted out of the palace to be ceremonially girded with the sword of the Caliphs. Hardly able to take control of events himself, Sulaiman nevertheless made a shrewd choice by apponting Ahmed Faizil Koprulu as his Grand Vizier. Under Koprulu's leadership the Turks halted an Austrian advance into Serbia and crushed an uprising in Bulgaria. During a campaign to retake eastern Hungary, Koprulu was defeated and killed by Imperial troops led by Louis of Baden at Szlankamen (1690). The Sultan died a year later. ---