Enlightenment · Middle East · Politics

1730

Tulip Era Ends in Revolt

September 28, 1730

An Albanian janissary named Patrona Halil led a mob through Istanbul that deposed Ahmed III and killed his grand vizier, Ibrahim Pasha. The new sultan, Mahmud I, burned the tulip gardens and closed the printing press. The Ottoman flirtation with Europe was over, for a while. The empire would flirt again, more cautiously.