Murad III

Murad III took the throne in 1574 and immediately faced war on two fronts: the Habsburgs in the west, the Safavids in a grinding eastern campaign. He briefly forced Morocco into vassalage, only to lose it four years later in 1582, and pushed Ottoman sway down Africa's eastern coast. But silver flooding in from the New World triggered inflation that his administration couldn't control; corruption spread, the Janissaries grew restive, commoners rioted. He found an ally in Elizabethan England - both faced Spain - and spent lavishly on art, commissioning the Siyer-i-Nebi and other illuminated works. He died in 1595, leaving an empire larger but visibly fraying.