page_title: Murad III
section_title: Murad and the arts
hierarchical_section_title: Murad III / Murad and the arts
caption_attribution_description: Miniature: parade of two riding Gazi (veterans from Rumelia) in front of Sultan Murat III.
context_page_description: Murad III was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595.
context_section_description: Murad took great interest in the arts, particularly miniatures and books. He actively supported the court Society of Miniaturists, commissioning several volumes including the Siyer-i Nebi, the most heavily illustrated biographical work on the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the Book of Skills, the Book of Festivities and the Book of Victories. He had two large alabaster urns transported from Pergamon and placed on two sides of the nave in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and a large wax candle dressed in tin which was donated by him to the Rila monastery in Bulgaria is on display in the monastery museum.
  Murad also furnished the content of Kitabü’l-Menamat (The Book of Dreams), addressed to Murad's spiritual advisor, Şüca Dede. A collection of first person accounts, it tells of Murad's spiritual experiences as a Sufi disciple. Compiled from thousands of letters Murad wrote describing his dream visions, it presents a hagiographic self-portrait. Murad dreams of various activities, including being stripped naked by his father and having to sit on his lap, single-handedly killing 12,000 infidels in battle, walking on water, ascending to heaven, and producing milk from his fingers.  He frequently encounters the Prophet Muhammed, and in one dream sits in the Prophet's lap and kisses his mouth.
  In another letter addressed to Şüca Dede, Murad wrote "I wish that God, may He be glorified and exalted, had not created this poor servant as the descendant of the Ottomans so that I would not hear this and that, and would not worry. I wish I were of unknown pedigree. Then, I would have one single task, and could ignore the whole world."
  The diplomatic edition of these dream letters have been recently published by Ozgen Felek in Turkish.
caption: Miniature painting of a parade of two riding Gazi (veterans from Rumelia) in front of Sultan Murat III (from the Surname-i hümayun, 16th century)
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