Murad III became sultan following his father, Selim II's death in 1574. He was a avaricious person and he was quick to kill all of his political enemies including his seven brothers. He was also a nymphomaniac; he had many sexual partners and he fathered over 100 children. After he became sultan, he severely limited his grand vizier, Sokollu Mehmed's, powers and ruled as a despot. In 1578, Sokollu was assassinated by a political enemy at Murad's court. This left Murad to rule completely on his own. Shortly after Sokollu's death, he ordered his army to go to war with Persia. This war would last for the next twelve years. It yielded on slight territorial gains and exhausted the Ottoman treasury. To compensate for his war expenditures, Murad's government further debased the currency. The elite Janissaries were greatly alarmed by the debasement of their salaries and in 1589 they revolted. They did so again in 1591 and 1592. In 1593, the sultan's own cavalry guards, the sipahis rebelled. Murad successfully quelled all of these rebellions, although not without making serious concessions to the Janissaries and weakening his power base. Following the sipahi revolt in 1593, the war hungry sultan sent his armies into Europe against the forces of the Austrian Empire. Murad III died in 1595 of an unknown stomach ailment.