SULEYMAN (IBRAHIM) II

born April 15, 1642, Constantinople [Istanbul, Tur.] died June 23, 1691, Edirne, Ottoman Empire [now in Turkey] Ottoman sultan (168791) who, despite his short reign and 46 years of enforced confinement before he succeeded his brother Mehmed IV, was able to strengthen the Ottoman state through internal reforms and reconquests of territory. The army mutiny that had brought Sleyman to the throne and deposed his brother continued violently through the early part of his reign, and the Ottomans suffered a series of military defeats in the Balkans. In 1689, however, a member of the Kprl family, which earlier in the century had given Turkey two outstanding viziers (ministers), came to power; Fazil Mustafa Pasa became grand vizier, reestablished order, drove the Austrians out of Bulgaria and Transylvania, and retook Belgrade and Ni in 1690. Sleyman, allowing Fazil Mustafa Pasa a free hand in the government, succeeded in introducing reforms to lighten the tax burden and to improve the condition of his Christian subjects.