Osman III or Othman III (Ottoman Turkish: عثمان ثالث ‘Osmān-i sālis) (2/3 January 1699 – 30 January/30 October 1757) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1754 to 1757.

Biography

The younger brother of Mahmud I (1730–54) and son of Mustafa II (1695–1703) and Valide Sultan Şehsuvar Sultan, he was born at Edirne Palace.

His brief reign saw rising intolerance of non-Muslims (Christians and Jews being required to wear distinctive clothes or badges) and is also notable for a fire in Constantinople. His mother was Şehsuvar Sultan, a Serbian valide sultan.

Audience of French ambassador Charles de Vergennes with Sultan Osman III in 1755.

Osman III lived most of his life as a prisoner in the palace, and as a consequence on becoming Sultan he had some behavioural peculiarities. Unlike previous Sultans, he hated music, and banished all musicians from the palace. Also while living in the "kafes", the palace prison in the "harem", the part of the palace containing the women's quarters, he developed a dislike for female company. He would wear iron shoes in order to avoid encountering any women — they could hear him approach and disperse. He died at the Topkapı Palace, Constantinople. His marriage to Layla was without issue.

Osman was responsible for a firman in 1757, that preserved the Status Quo of various Holy Land sites for Christians, Muslims, and Jews.