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Mehmed III (May 26, 1566 – December 22, 1603) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1595 until his death.
He remains notorious even in Ottoman history for having his sixteen brothers strangled upon his succession. Mehmed was an idle ruler, leaving government to his mother (the Sultana Valide). The major event of his reign was the Austro-Ottoman War in Hungary (1596–1605).
Mehmed's armies conquered Erlau (1596) and defeated the Habsburg and Transylvanian forces at the Battle of Mezokeresztes during which the Sultan had to be dissuaded from fleeing the field halfway through the battle. Mehmed's reign saw no major setbacks for the supposedly declining Ottoman Empire, but none of this can be attributed to the ruler himself.
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