Mustafa I called Mustafa the Saint (Veli Mustafa) during his second reign and often called Mustafa the Mad (Deli Mustafa) by modern historians, was the son of Mehmed III and was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1617 to 1618 and from 1622 to 1623.He was born in the Manisa Palace, as the younger brother of Ahmed I (1603-17).
His mother was Halime Sultan, an Abkhazian lady. Before 1603 it was customary for an Ottoman Sultan to have his brothers executed shortly after he gained the throne (Mustafa's father Mehmed III had executed 19 of his own brothers). But when the thirteen-year-old Ahmed I was enthroned in 1603, he spared the life of the twelve-year-old Mustafa.
Mustafa might have been left alive because Ahmed had not yet produced any sons, so at the time Mustafa was his only heir. Though Ahmed went on to father several sons, he did not execute Mustafa, perhaps because of his brother's apparent mental problems. Another factor in Mustafa's survival is the influence of Kösem Sultan (Ahmed's favorite consort), who may have wished to preempt the succession of Osman, Ahmed's first-born son from another concubine.
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