Ranking Every Ottoman Sultan from Worst to Best 

RIP Pronounciation of Turkish names. Sorry if the audio seems a bit off for this video, the original recording had constant peaking, which led to me re-recording the whole thing again, and in the end I ended up combining both audio files. Also, I did consider saying the time periods of each reign, but chose not to, as I felt it would break the "pace" of the video. Hope you enjoy it!

Whether you think the Ottoman Empire should or shouldn't be compared to Rome we can all agree creating a private military force meant to protect the absolute ruler of the state has never worked even once in history.

The ottoman and Roman empires are very similar. in one point you got the first 10 rulers being absolute chads while the rest caused the collapse of the empire, both empires fought the persians 24/7 in the east and Germans in the north, and you have the personal guards being the catalyst for most rulers being ki11ed/disposed

Nice video but as a Turkish person I'd rank Mehmed II the best Ottoman sultan of all. Suleyman's reign was the height of Ottoman power that's true but, he only reaped the fruits of his father Selim I's and his great-grandfather Mehmet II's reigns, imo. Mehmet was the best of the trio because of his vision, his intellectual nature and his statesmanship. Suleyman's 46 six year reign also marks the beginning of corruption in Ottoman State. His execution of his closest companion, grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha and his son Sehzade Mustafa is pivotal, those two were incredibly talented individuals. Especially Mustafa had a deeper understanding of geo-politics than his father and his brothers as he wanted wanted to expand the navy, colonize Americas and beyond, dominate the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean and adapt to the changing of the global trade routes. Suleyman's successor instead of Mustafa, Selim II the Drunk was the one lost at Lepanto and that made Ottomans an increasingly land force over the centuries. They rebuilt their navy that they lost in Lepanto but the experienced marines and seaman and their tradition to some extent that were lost did not come back. Suleyman does seem nice from afar but he is not that good in my honest opinion. His clinging to power and breaking Ottoman tradition of not having multiple sons from a single mother as to not produce political instability, may have cost the Ottomans their future. I'm not saying he was disastrous or not good but I would never put him #1.

I'd definetely put Mehmet II over Suleiman I. Mehmet II wasn't just an emperor, but also a BIG part of the actual Renaissance happening at that time. The languages he could speak, his literature and poetic skills, his obsession with science, literal genius in battle tactics, maybe the first Muslim emperor to encourage scupltures and paintings and many more traits...

Osman the Second could have been a great leader though, he had big ambitions, most of them actually useful, but his plan on getting rid of the Janissaries was discovered and he was brutally tortured and killed by the Janissaries because of that.

About Beyazıd the Thunderbolt I will say that his failure at conquering Constantinople and his defeat against Timur rather than being two seperate events were really just a singular event, as the siege of Constantinople was lifted specifically because of Timur's invasion. Thus I feel like they shouldnt be counted as two points against the quality of his reign rather just one

Based + Spectrum + Portuguese + Great effort + History enthusiast

I would list Selim I. as the best. He weakened the Safevids, crushed the Mamlukes, and left a sustainable system and a huge treasury to Suleiman the Magnificient, within 8 years. Without his achievement Sultan Suleiman could never expand like that.

About Lepanto though: I’m not well read on the battle, but it’s important to remember that naval losses aren’t recouped by just building new ships. The loss of experienced men and captains can often hurt worse, and I think does play a factor into the importance of the battle

Amazing that the worst Sultan (Mustafa IV) was succeed by his brother who is the 4th best (Mahmud II).

Oh! Finally! I've been waiting for this ranking! Despite being Portuguese the Ottoman Empire is my favorite Empire. Great one!

The fact that Ibraham, who was literally not mentally capable of ruling, did a better job than some of these people is... impressive. I also can't believe you didn't mention that Ibraham was assassinated on the orders _of his mother, Kosem Sultan_ . She did, however, kill at least two Sultans and depose a third (twice), so she was basically the Sultan in her own right for 5 different reigns.

You have no idea how long I was hoping for you to make this video. You made my day much better than it already was. Keep up the great work!

Man as a turk myself i am always confused and overwhelmed about how complicated and full of intrigues the lives of ottoman sultans were. I think Netflix should cover some storys as series - that would let Game of Thrones look like a muppet show 😄

About Bayezid the Thunderbolt, his cool nickname actually foreshadowed his downfall. He got it on account of how quickly he went from one front to the other, which, while cool, wasn't a sustainable state of affairs as most of his reign was spent fighting a war on multiple fronts, much of it being against the other Anatolian beyliks, whom he continually failed to make lasting peace with and who eventually sided with Timur over him.

Pretty good list but Mehmet the Conqueror should be first. Other than conquering a lot of territory, he set the standard for other Sultans which made the Ottomans a true Empire. Süleyman is a great ruler, but he had greatly benefitted from what his predeccessors left him with. While Mehmed transformed the Ottoman State into a true empire. Also, you know he conquered some city called Constantinople. Your pronounciations were also pretty good.

Bayezid I the Thunderbolt should be way higher. The way he conquered and defeated the crusader armies is incredible. The nickname alone is fantastic.

To be honest some families actually bribed officials to make sure their son becomes a janissary as it was seen as a position with great potential for upward mobility. But yeah many others were probably just sad that one of their sons was taken.

Suleiman had his problems, like killing his most promising son Mustapha because he was jealous of him, ordering the murder of his own grandson and leaving the empire in the hands of Selim the Sot. If Mustapha had lived to succeed him the empire could have risen even higher

I thin Selim the Drunk is m favorite Sultan, if only because we get the hilarious transition of nicknames from Suleiman The Magnificent to Selim The Drunk.

LOVE THE VIDEOS NEED MORE OF THE LONGER DOCUMENTARY VERSIONS !!!

This is always a strange thing but I've always had a lot of respect for rules who abdicated willingly when failing health and mental issues begin.

As a Turk all i can say is putting Suleiman in front of Mehmed II the Conqueror or Selim I or maybe even Murad II (my personal favorite thx to Battle of Varna) is insane to me.

That’s amazing! I love your videos! Always fun to watch ❤❤

Wow, this was a great video! Thank you!

I love these, I listen/put them in the background while playing, keep them coming and I'll keep watching PS don't worry about running out of ideas, I'll still watch and love you, no homo

New spectrum drop hell ya 🔥🔥

This is actually a really good list. I thought for sure you were gonna miss a lot of things because generally westerns don't care that much about Ottomans but that was quite surprising. Your list was pretty objective and informative.

I bet you get these comments all the time, but I really enjoy your videos because you made learning history not boring

It makes my day when I see a spectrum post

spectrum idk if u can see this but ur videos actually helped me get mad game....thanks 4 this king

Great vid as always. Can't wait for the Polish Monarch Ranking! Yes. Still waiting.

I like how the founder of the Jannisaries and the one who ended them are beside each other

Much love from Turkey. Thanks for this video!!

Fantastic video, as always.

Man I have to give it to you. This ranking must have at least took you a month of pure research

As a Turk, I was waiting for this after seeing your other rank videos

I've been waiting for this.

This video and this comment section was my entire evening thank you! İ loved hearing your opinions and İ hope you will make more videos like this about my people:

Great video! Could you rank the Kings of Hungary next?

Very good list Spectrum, discovered your channel only a few months ago. Do you plan to get back to Greco-Roman history or continuously branching out into many other historical topics?

Fantastic video keep it up your doing amazing job

Well-made and mostly accurate video! Though i think Murad I and Murad II deserves some attention

Amazing video, would have liked to see a mention of some of the great female consorts as well. Like Hurrem and the period during the Sultanate of women.

These videos put me to sleep instantly without fail. They’re not boring or anything I love watching them. I just always fall asleep in seconds if I put these videos on as background noise, especially the English kings one.

I've been looking forward to this.

Alright, next do a tierlist on the 170 pharaohs of ancient Egypt.

Respect for ranking the Sultans of the Tanzimat period so high, like you said in the later stages of the empire, the sultans didnt really have much controll anymore and are not fully to blame. The sultans of that period at least tried to do the right things, even if they succeeded too late

Again, maybe something short like Belgian kings or Prussian kings/German emperors next? Also, how about top 20 (or so) rulers with coolest nicknames?

Hey you did very well at pronouncing names

Great. This kind of video is only someone on the Spectrum would do

Swedish king next please. Keep up the great work!💪

Great video! You should rank the Mongol Khans, they’re generally very underrated after Genghis.

Great informative video! Well done Spectrum!

I disagree with your assessment regarding the decline of the Ottoman Empire. There was clearly a trend of poor policy, lack of interest and implementation of policies that would aid in industrialization, and otherwise other internal stability factors. Sure, outside powers adapting over time did make for a huge contributing factor, but other than a limited success in Egypt, the Ottomans utterly failed to industrialize and their internal policies laid the seeds of revolt and tension on religious, ethnic, and cultural grounds.

Speaking of monarchs with the epithet “thunderbolt”, the current King of Thailand, Maha Vajiralongkorn (Rama X), his name actually means “adorned with jewels or thunderbolt”, anyhow

Babe wake up spectrum dropped another ranking video

Nice video and a good ranking but I'd replace Mehmed II and Suleiman I. Turks usually consider them and Selim I as the three prominent sultans but the difference between Suleiman and Mehmed&Selim is that Mehmed and Selim made many conquests so they could add riches to their country, Selim I even built a treasury room in Topkapı Palace and filled half of his gains(VOC levels of gold) and said: "Everyone else after me shall fill the other half". What Suleiman did wasn't fill the other half but spend recklessly for conquests, turning Selim's half into a quarter. He also got his super-competent and genius son Mustafa murdered only so the next sultan is from his favourite wife, Hürrem. That sultan in line was Selim II the Drunkard. Just like you said, these didn't turn the country around but two strikes are worse than Mehmet II's none, Mehmed actually ran a perfect reign on almost every aspect of the country and raised a good son(Bayezid II) to be the next sultan.

Fist of God damnit bro were the hell have you been like I've been!?? dying for a new video from you like I got stranded in the bloody Sahara desert *No Homo!!! Second thank you so much for doing this request because I love the sultuanet of the ottomans especially since I'm related to them buy Selim III younger brother and Third great video and fourth and final could you do one on the Chinese empire followed by Japanese the Korean and the Switzerland...for now!!😄 #SpetrumTheGreat

Have you ever considered ranking every Brazilian Emperor?

Thank you for video

I'd love to see a sort of filler episode where you discuss the placement of people who couldn't make it in just because they never officially held the title that you're ranking, like Casear, Charles Martel, Ivan III.....

Ranking every Swedish rulers next for hardest of challenges

When I heard Abdulaziz's name on the 35th place out of 36, I laughed and closed the video's tab, then after I closed it, I made ctrl+shift+tab, then made this comment. "Understandable, have a great day" video :)

Thanks bro!

Nice job

Selim the Resolute better known by others as Selim the Grim XD Also yea dont feel sorry about the names haha, you pronounced them beautifully, no "k" at c or "j" at "ch" clearly you did research how to pronounce these names. And nice tier list. Although I would perhaps put Mehmed II ahead of Suleiman; purely because while the west knows Mehmed through his conquest, he was what you could call a Renaissance ruler through and through, knew over 6 languages, read Persian, Greek, Roman, Arabic and Indian Classics, held court with Byzantine philosophers and had them on Imperial pay, something later Emperors did not do, as well as many other aspects. I would say it was during Mehmed II's time that Ottomans went from being a beylik to being an Empire.

Good list, will you be covering any East Asian history on this channel?

Can you try to do Chinese Three Kingdoms Warlords, American Presidents, and Sengoku Judaism Warlords? Could be interesting twist of the typical list. It's not getting old any time soon, just it'd be a cool twist, ranking competing rulers. Or Ethiopian or Mesopotamian Kings.

An amazing video, the only one I didn't agree with was Ahmed I, I really think he could have been a great sultan if he had lived longer... ( given that he died before the age of 30 ) not to mention he was the first Ottoman sultan to break the tradition of Fratricide and refused to kill his brothers, something his sons would end up continuing... I think the next ranking video should be one of the three... 1 - Poland 2 - Hungary 3 - Holy Roman Empire

It’s too weird to see Mehmed IV that high and Bayezid I that low on the tier list Also Abdulaziz and Abdulhamid II were compenent leaders but at the worst time of the empire I’d just change places of Mehmed II and Suleiman I and besides these the tier list is correct

Im not sure if youre planning on ranking any more sets of Monarchs, although if you are it would be awesome if you ranked the Scottish Monarchs (Kennith I up to Queen Anne when the Act of Union was passed) one day

I really enjoyed your video, but within the field of Ottoman studies some of the terms you used (primarily “decline” and “modernization”) have some nasty repercussions that have caused them to be phased out. For instance, saying the Ottoman entered a period of “decline” discounts the innumerable self-strengthening reforms of the 19th and 20th centuries, which revitalized the state’s institutions. Furthermore, Ottoman “decline” is often used in relation to European powers’ military successes, but it fails to account for many of the Ottomans’ military successes up-to the conclusion of WWI. Likewise, “modernization” is a tricky term that equates certain technological, governmental, and societal standards (emblematic of Euro-American society) with modernity, largely depriving the Ottomans of their historical agency in drawing from numerous socio-cultural models of reform. I hope this proves informative!

You can also group Brazilian and Mexican monarchs into American monarchs list.

I agree with you for the most part. But Vahidettin Mehmed VI should be WAAY lower. Osman II had his reforms etc. Selim II at least kept the most skilled grand vizier the Ottomans ever saw. But Mehmed VI, he was so easy to manipulate. During his trip with Mustafa Kemal Pasha to Germany, Kemal Pasha almost managed to get him to his side, then somehow despite hating him Mehmed VI done what Enver Pasha told him to do once he got the throne. And then his groom and the British. He was a pushover. Also according to many Murad I was the one who formed the Jannisaries

Excuse me, Spectrum good sir, would you be interested in making a rank list of all the Serbian Kings/Emperors through history, starting in the middle ages and ending with establishment of the Tito's Yugoslavia?

Could you make tier list about habsburgs emperors (Austria)? It would be great😁

As a Turk we ranked mostly Mehmed II best sultan in Ottoman. Because he Conqueror Constantinopole, Strengthened the military, improved technology, improved science and most importantly carried Ottoman it far beyond the era. So Suleiman He was able to do this thanks to his grandfather.

There are few placements I disagree with, but one thing in particular bothers me because of the frequency - what is it with people constantly placing Bayezid II so low ?? Having studied him and his reign, he strikes me as someone who was even more pivotal for the Ottoman golden age during Selim and Suleiman than his father who, while grandiose, capable and ambitious, left the state nearly broke and by the end of his reign was trying to conquer Italy - a venture that was almost certain to end in defeat, no matter how much soldiers he brought. And even if successful, in the long run it would've been the equivalent of Rome conquering Germania, Caledonia and Mesopotamia at the same time - great on the map, but incredibly wasteful. Bayezid was bookish, peaceful and for consolidation, even if it was somewhat by happen-stance (read: Cem Sultan). His 31-year reign brought much needed stability and economic growth. Also, his help for the Jews in Spain and their re-population in the empire was one of the best moves ever made by a head of state, in any period. Yeah, I agree that his lack of authority over his sons in the last years of his reign brings him down a bit, but seriously, the view that he was bad compared to the other pre-Suleiman sultans just because he didn't care for the jihad-style conquests that many people have is really braindead to me.

Nice!

Can you do a video on all viking kings? - Of all 3 nordic countries, Denmark, Norway and Sweden :)

Great video! Would you ever consider ranking the holy roman emperors, in effect completing the "third Rome trilogy "?

great video! will you ever do a ranking of the Polish Monarchs of the Kingdom of Poland/Polish-lithuanian commonwealth

When Selim the resolute return from egypt conquest, he and his army waited in the borders of Istanbul for the day to turn night, so that the people would not have the chance to put a festival for the Egypt conquest. He was that humble...

Next so a Tierlist for Holy Roman Emperors pls

As a Turkish person who is deeply interested in Ottoman history, I would say that no other Ottoman ruler can even come close to Mehmed the Conqueror. His accomplishments were beyond any other Sultan's dreams and his intellectual personality is what differs from his ancestors and grandsons. Do not get me wrong, all Ottoman princes are raised to be a intellectual person and they were. However Mehmet was something else. Even majority of the Turkish historians will point to Mehmet if you ask them who was the greatest Ottoman ruler. As for the Suleyman the Magnificent, he was a GREAT ruler too. But not as much as Mehmet.

You should make one on the kings of Sweden

Great video, thank you for taking an interest into our history. A few things though ... It is understandable why in the west, Suleiman the Magnificent is considered the best, but in Turkey Mehmet the Conqueror is always regarded as the the pinnacle of statesmanship almost en par to Atatürk himself. Suleiman (or actually Süleyman) is second along with Yavuz Sultan Selim, by a long shot. Another thing is, I don't understand why Süleyman's nickname became "the Magnificent", he is actually "Kanuni Sultan Süleyman", or simply "Kanuni" or "the Lawgiver". This is probably because of this orientalism thing in the west that is still going on after 200 years. One last thing the actual title of the office is "Padishah", just as the title of Ramesses II is "Pharaoh", or Peter the Great being the "Czar" ... not emperor. It's like calling King Charles Sultan Charles or Pharaoh Charles. It isn't correct.

Turks indeed had a decisive role in triggering historical major events like the Migration Period, Crusades, Age of Discovery as well as ending the Middle Ages with the conquest of Constantinople, fall of the Roman Empire.

These something important to remember though. Different Sultan's ruled at different times with different threats to the empire. Someone who didn't do too well in the modern era against powerful modern countries with all the modern mindsets might've done allot better in the distant barbaric past where they could attack weaker nations, commit genocides and warcrimes without any worry because the world back then was used to it.

Rank every holy Roman emperor 😏😏

Make a video ranking the top 10 historical cognomens

Other Empires/Kingdoms to consider (not all of them, but some maybe, in the upcoming years): -Caliphs (631 to 945, when the Buyids took over, and 1136 to 1258, with... the Mongols) -Mongol Emperors (and maybe major interlude regents like Tolui Khan) to 1294, and the Great Yuan Emperors to 1368 -Sassanid Emperors -Achaemenid Emperors -Kings of Poland -Kings of Hungary -Tsars of Bulgaria -Mamluk Sultans (Egypt) -Mughal Emperors (only 20, so there's that)

Mehmed The Conqueror > Selim The Grim > Suleiman The Magnificient

will you rank holy roman emperors

will you make ranking of holy roman emperors? to end the roman ranking

HE RETURNS. THE KING RETURNS

Honestly, better than I could expect for an empire of stuffed footstools.

Do Chinese emperors list from the first emperor to the last Qing emperor