Mehmed III
1566 – 1603 · 37 years · Istanbul · Middle East
Reign: 1595 – 1603 (Ottoman Empire)
On his accession in 1595 he had his 19 brothers put to death. He led the campaign in Hungary in person and defeated the imperial army at Keresztes in 1596.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Cristofano dell'Altissimo · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 33 years older
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 19 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 2 years older
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 2 years older
- Rudolf II — patron emperor who gathered Kepler, Brahe and Arcimboldo in Prague, 14 years older
- Henry IV — first Bourbon king, who issued the Edict of Nantes, 13 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 36 years older
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 15 years younger
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 34 years older
- Boris Godunov — Tsar of Russia, 14 years older
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 14 years older
- Feodor I — last Rurikid tsar, under whom the Moscow Patriarchate was founded, 9 years older
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 5 years younger
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 20 years older
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 40 years older
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 23 years younger
- Ahmed I — sultan who built the Blue Mosque, 24 years younger
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 17 years younger
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 17 years older
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 10 years older
Asia
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 24 years older
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 23 years older
- Matteo Ricci — Jesuit missionary in China, 14 years older
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi — unifier of Japan, 29 years older
- Yi Sun-sin — Korean admiral, 21 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshiaki — last Ashikaga shogun, expelled by Nobunaga, 29 years older
Americas
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 27 years older
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 1 year younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1569 Union of Lublin — aged 3, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1571 Battle of Lepanto — aged 5, Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — aged 6, Europe
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — aged 16, Europe
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — aged 16, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 22, Europe
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — aged 25, Africa
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — aged 26, Asia
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 32, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 32, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 34, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 34, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 34, Europe