|} Mehmed III (Ottoman Turkish: محمد ثالث Meḥmed-i sālis, [Turkish:III.Mehmet) (May 26, 1566 – December 22, 1603) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1595 until his death. Mehmed III remains notorious even in Ottoman history for having his sixteen brothers strangled upon his succession. Mehmed III was an idle ruler, leaving government to his mother Safiye Sultan, the valide sultan. The major event of his reign was the Austro-Ottoman War in Hungary (1596–1605). Mehmed III's reign saw no major setbacks for the supposedly declining Ottoman Empire.