You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Before his accession to the throne, Sultan Murad III has a dream. Of the many dream interpreters, only Sheikh Shuca Dede can interpret it correctly. When he becomes sultan, he recognizes Sheikh Dede as his sheik and informs him of his dreams and state of mind through letters. These letters were bound into a book during Murad III's lifetime. These letters, which also contain his dream experiences, were translated into today's alphabet and published by Özgen Felek in 2014.
This article follows some traces of Murad III's spiritual life by focusing on these dreams. These letters offer insights into the inner world of the sultan who ruled for 21 years during the period of the greatest territorial expansion of the Ottoman Empire. They also provide important insights into the dream theories of the time. Murad III, who had consented to the deaths of his brothers on his accession to the throne following ‘Fatih's Code of Laws’, was also unable to prevent his 19 princes from being strangled after his death. In his dreams, on the one hand, the theme of being the chosen one comes to the fore, while, in the background, a disrupted mourning process and insecurity are also perceived. The letters also provide many insights into the problems of boundaries in his relationship with his sheik. One of the reasons for the Sultan's attention to his dreams is his trust in the science of dream interpretation. In order to give an idea of the background to dream interpretation at the time, the theory of dream interpretation by Alaaddin al-Kirmani, known for his books on the science of dream interpretation, is summarized, together with a brief history of dream interpretation.
Although Murad III was a sultan who listened to his own dreams and tried to progress on the path of Sufism, it is discussed that he could not observe his life and the right to life, that he could not pass from tyranny to the law of brotherhood. The pressure of uniqueness and primacy that haunts him in all his dreams is closely related to the dynastic order in which only the chosen one of the brothers can survive and that being the second one is incompatible with life. It is clear that man, as a social being, has a need for a superego to avoid tyranny, and for the development of this superego, there is a need for inclusion in the law of brotherhood. Although Murad tries to re-establish the sociality he has fallen out of through his relationship with his sheik and his Sufi aspirations, he seems to have failed.