Suleiman the Magnificent

"Suleiman I" redirects here. For the shah of Persia, see Suleiman I of Persia.

Suleiman the Magnificent
Caliph of Islam Amir al-Mu'minin Padişah Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
Suleiman in a portrait attributed to Titian c.1530
Caliph of the Ottoman Caliphate 10th Ottoman Sultan (Emperor)
Reign	30 September 1520 – 7 September 1566
Sword girding	30 September 1520
Predecessor	Selim I
Successor	Selim II
Born	(1494-02-06)6 February 1494 Trabzon, Ottoman Empire
Died	7 September 1566(1566-09-07) (aged 71) Szigetvár, Kingdom of Hungary
Burial	Süleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul
Consorts	Hürrem Sultan (Legal wife) Mahidevran Gülbahar Gülfem Hatun Fülane Hatun
Issue	Şehzade Mahmud Şehzade Mustafa Şehzade Murad Şehzade Mehmed Mihrimah Sultan Şehzade Abdullah Raziye Sultan Sultan Selim II Şehzade Bayezid Şehzade Cihangir
Dynasty	Osmanli (Ottoman)
Father	Selim I
Mother	Ayşe Hafsa Sultan
Religion	Sunni Islam
Tughra

Suleiman I (Ottoman Turkish: سلطان سليمان اول‎‎; Turkish: I. Süleyman, almost always Kanunî Sultan Süleyman; 6 February 1494 – 7 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and "Kanuni" (the Lawgiver) in the East, was the tenth and longest-reigning Great Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. Under his administration, the Ottoman State ruled over 20 to 30 million people.

Suleiman became a prominent monarch of 16th-century Europe, presiding over the apex of the Ottoman Empire's military, political and economic power. Suleiman personally led Ottoman armies in conquering the Christian strongholds of Belgrade and Rhodes as well as most of Hungary before his conquests were checked at the Siege of Vienna in 1529. He annexed much of the Middle East in his conflict with the Persian Safavids and large areas of North Africa as far west as Algeria. Under his rule, the Ottoman fleet dominated the seas from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and through the Persian Gulf.

At the helm of an expanding empire, Suleiman personally instituted major legislative changes relating to society, education, taxation and criminal law. His canonical law (or the Kanuns) fixed the form of the empire for centuries after his death. He was a distinguished poet and goldsmith; he also became a great patron of culture, overseeing the "Golden" age of the Ottoman Empire in its artistic, literary and architectural development.

Breaking with Ottoman tradition, Suleiman married Roxelana, a former Christian girl converted to Islam from his harem, who became subsequently known and influential as Hürrem Sultan. Their son Selim II succeeded Suleiman following his death in 1566 after 46 years of rule, thus beginning a long state of stagnation and decline during Selim II's reign. Suleiman's previous heir apparents Mehmed and Mustafa had died, the former from smallpox and the latter had been strangled to death 13 years previously at the sultan's order. His other son Bayezid had been killed by his support and Selim's order in 1561 with four of his sons.

Alternative names and titles

Suleiman the Magnificent (محتشم سليمان Muḥteşem Süleymān), as he was known in the West, was also called Suleiman the First (سلطان سليمان أول Sulṭān Süleymān-ı Evvel), and Suleiman the Lawgiver (قانونی سلطان سليمان Ḳānūnī Sulṭān Süleymān) for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system.

Early life

Suleiman was born in Trabzon along the east coast of the Black Sea, probably on 6 November 1494. His mother was Ayşe Hafsa Sultan (she was possibly the daughter of Meñli I Giray, a descendant of Genghis Khan, through Jochi); little is known of her other than that she died in 1534.

Education

At the age of seven, Suleiman was sent to study science, history, literature, theology and military tactics in the schools of the imperial Topkapı Palace in Constantinople (modern Istanbul). As a young man, he befriended Pargalı Ibrahim, a slave who later became one of his most trusted advisers.

Viceroy in Anatolia

From the age of seventeen, he was appointed as the governor of first Kaffa (Theodosia), then Sarukhan (Manisa) with a brief tenure at Adrianople (now Edirne).

Accession

Upon the death of his father, Selim I (1465–1520), Suleiman entered Constantinople and ascended to the throne as the tenth Ottoman Sultan. An early description of Suleiman, a few weeks following his accession, was provided by the Venetian envoy Bartolomeo Contarini: "He is twenty-six years of age, tall, but wiry, and of a delicate complexion. His neck is a little too long, his face thin, and his nose aquiline. He has a shade of a mustache and a small beard; nevertheless he has a pleasant mien, though his skin tends to be a light pallor. He is said to be a wise Lord, fond of study, and all men hope for good from his rule." Some historians claim that in his youth Suleiman had an admiration for Alexander the Great. He was influenced by Alexander's vision of building a world empire that would encompass the east and the west, and this created a drive for his subsequent military campaigns in Asia and in Africa, as well as in Europe.

Military campaigns

See also: List of campaigns of Suleiman the Magnificent

Conquests in Europe

See also: Ottoman wars in Europe and Islam and Protestantism

Suleiman during the Siege of Rhodes in 1522.

Upon succeeding his father, Suleiman began a series of military conquests, eventually suppressing a revolt led by the Ottoman-appointed governor of Damascus in 1521. Suleiman soon made preparations for the conquest of Belgrade from the Kingdom of Hungary—something his great-grandfather Mehmed II had failed to achieve because of John Hunyadi's strong defense in the region. Its capture was vital in removing the Hungarians and Croats who, following the defeats of the Serbs, Bulgarians, Albanians and the Byzantines, remained the only formidable force who could block further Ottoman gains in Europe. Suleiman encircled Belgrade and began a series of heavy bombardments from an island in the Danube. Belgrade, with a garrison of only 700 men, and receiving no aid from Hungary, fell in August 1521.

The fall of Christendom's major strongholds spread fear across Europe. As the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire to Constantinople was to note, "The capture of Belgrade was at the origin of the dramatic events which engulfed Hungary. It led to the death of King Louis, the capture of Buda, the occupation of Transylvania, the ruin of a flourishing kingdom and the fear of neighboring nations that they would suffer the same fate ..."

Suleiman as a young man

The road to Hungary and Austria lay open, but Suleiman turned his attention instead to the Eastern Mediterranean island of Rhodes, the home base of the Knights Hospitaller. In the summer of 1522, taking advantage of the large navy he inherited from his father, Suleiman dispatched an armada of some 400 ships towards Rhodes, while personally leading an army of 100,000 across Asia Minor to a point opposite the island itself. Here Suleiman built a large fortification, Marmaris Castle, that served as a base for the Ottoman Navy. Following the brutal five-month Siege of Rhodes (1522), Rhodes capitulated and Suleiman allowed the Knights of Rhodes to depart. (The Knights of Rhodes eventually formed a new base in Malta, becoming known as Knights of Malta, even now.)

As relations between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire deteriorated, Suleiman resumed his campaign in Central Europe and on 29 August 1526, he defeated Louis II of Hungary (1506–26) at the Battle of Mohács. In its wake, Hungarian resistance collapsed and the Ottoman Empire became the preeminent power in Central Europe. Upon encountering the lifeless body of King Louis, Suleiman is said to have lamented: "I came indeed in arms against him; but it was not my wish that he should be thus cut off before he scarcely tasted the sweets of life and royalty." While Suleiman was campaigning in Hungary, Turkmen tribes in central Anatolia revolted under the leadership of Kalender Çelebi.

Some Hungarian nobles proposed that Ferdinand, who was ruler of neighboring Austria and tied to Louis II's family by marriage, be King of Hungary, citing previous agreements that the Habsburgs would take the Hungarian throne if Louis died without heirs. However, other nobles turned to the nobleman John Zápolya, who was being supported by Suleiman. Under Charles V and his brother Ferdinand I, the Habsburgs reoccupied Buda and took possession of Hungary. Reacting in 1529, Suleiman marched through the valley of the Danube and regained control of Buda; in the following autumn his forces laid siege to Vienna. This was to be the Ottoman Empire's most ambitious expedition and the apogee of its drive to the West. With a reinforced garrison of 16,000  men, the Austrians inflicted the first defeat on Suleiman, sowing the seeds of a bitter Ottoman-Habsburg rivalry, which lasted until the 20th century. His second attempt to conquer Vienna failed in 1532, with Ottoman forces delayed by the siege of Güns, failing to reach Vienna. In both cases, the Ottoman army was plagued by bad weather (forcing them to leave behind essential siege equipment) and was hobbled by overstretched supply lines.

King John Sigismund of Hungary with Suleiman in 1556.

By the 1540s a renewal of the conflict in Hungary presented Suleiman with the opportunity to avenge the defeat suffered at Vienna.

Ottoman Siege of Esztergom (1543).

In 1541 the Habsburgs once again engaged in conflict with the Ottomans, by attempting to lay siege to Buda. With their efforts repulsed and more Habsburg fortresses captured by the Ottomans in two consecutive campaigns in 1541 and in 1544 as a result, Ferdinand and his brother Charles V were forced to conclude a humiliating five-year treaty with Suleiman. Ferdinand renounced his claim to the Kingdom of Hungary and was forced to pay a fixed yearly sum to the Sultan for the Hungarian lands he continued to control. Of more symbolic importance, the treaty referred to Charles V not as 'Emperor', but as the 'King of Spain', leading Suleiman to identify as the true 'Caesar'.

With his main European rivals subdued, Suleiman ensured that the Ottoman Empire had a powerful role in the political landscape of Europe for some years to come.

Ottoman–Safavid War

Main article: Ottoman–Safavid War (1532–1555)

Miniature depicting Suleiman marching with an army in Nakhchivan, summer 1554

As Suleiman stabilized his European frontiers, he now turned his attention to the ever present threat posed by the Shi'a Safavid dynasty of Persia. Two events in particular were to precipitate a recurrence of tensions. First, Shah Tahmasp had the Baghdad governor loyal to Suleiman killed and replaced with an adherent of the Shah, and second, the governor of Bitlis had defected and sworn allegiance to the Safavids. As a result, in 1533, Suleiman ordered his Grand Vizier Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha to lead an army into eastern Asia Minor where he retook Bitlis and occupied Tabriz without resistance. Having joined Ibrahim in 1534, Suleiman made a push towards Persia, only to find the Shah sacrificing territory instead of facing a pitched battle, resorting to harassment of the Ottoman army as it proceeded along the harsh interior. When in the following year Suleiman and Ibrahim made a grand entrance into Baghdad, its commander surrendered the city, thereby confirming Suleiman as the leader of the Sunni Islamic world and the legitimate successor to the Sunni Abbasid Caliphs. Moreover, the fact Suleiman restored the grave of Sunni imam Abu Hanifa also strengthened his credentials and claim to the caliphate.

Suleiman the Magnificent receives an ambassador (painting by Matrakçı Nasuh).

Attempting to defeat the Shah once and for all, Suleiman embarked upon a second campaign in 1548–1549. As in the previous attempt, Tahmasp avoided confrontation with the Ottoman army and instead chose to retreat, using scorched earth tactics in the process and exposing the Ottoman army to the harsh winter of the Caucasus. Suleiman abandoned the campaign with temporary Ottoman gains in Tabriz and the Urmia region, a lasting presence in the province of Van, control of the western half of Azerbaijan and some forts in Georgia.

In 1553 Suleiman began his third and final campaign against the Shah. Having initially lost territories in Erzurum to the Shah's son, Suleiman retaliated by recapturing Erzurum, crossing the Upper Euphrates and laying waste to parts of Persia. The Shah's army continued its strategy of avoiding the Ottomans, leading to a stalemate from which neither army made any significant gain. In 1554, a settlement was signed which was to conclude Suleiman's Asian campaigns. Part of the treaty included and confirmed the return of Tabriz, but secured Baghdad, lower Mesopotamia, the mouths of the river Euphrates and Tigris, as well as part of the Persian Gulf. The Shah also promised to cease all raids into Ottoman territory.

Campaigns in the Indian Ocean

Main articles: Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts, Capture of Aden (1548), Ottoman expedition to Aceh and Indian Ocean campaigns

Ottoman fleet in the Indian Ocean in the 16th century.

Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha defeats the Holy League under the command of Andrea Doria at the Battle of Preveza in 1538

Francis I (left) and Suleiman the Magnificent (right) initiated a Franco-Ottoman alliance from the 1530s.

Ottoman ships had been sailing in the Indian Ocean since the year 1518. Ottoman Admirals such as Hadim Suleiman Pasha, Seydi Ali Reis and Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis are known to have voyaged to the Mughal imperial ports of Thatta, Surat and Janjira. The Mughal Emperor Akbar himself is known to have exchanged six documents with Suleiman the Magnificent.

In the Indian Ocean, Suleiman led several naval campaigns against the Portuguese in an attempt to remove them and reestablish trade with India. Aden in Yemen was captured by the Ottomans in 1538, in order to provide an Ottoman base for raids against Portuguese possessions on the western coast of modern India and Pakistan. Sailing on to India, the Ottomans failed against the Portuguese at the Siege of Diu in September 1538, but then returned to Aden, where they fortified the city with 100 pieces of artillery. From this base, Sulayman Pasha managed to take control of the whole country of Yemen, also taking Sana'a. Aden rose against the Ottomans however and invited the Portuguese instead, so that the Portuguese were in control of the city until its seizure by Piri Reis in the Capture of Aden (1548).

With its strong control of the Red Sea, Suleiman successfully managed to dispute control of the Indian trade routes to the Portuguese and maintained a significant level of trade with the Mughal Empire of South Asia throughout the 16th century. His admiral Piri Reis led an Ottoman fleet in the Indian Ocean, achieving the Capture of Muscat in 1552.

From 1526 till 1543, Suileman stationed over 900 Turkish soldiers to fight alongside the Somali Adal Sultanate led by Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi during the Conquest of Abyssinia. After the first Ajuran-Portuguese war, the Ottoman Empire would in 1559 absorb the weakened Adal Sultanate into its domain. This expansion fathered Ottoman rule in Somalia and the Horn of Africa. This also increased its influence in the Indian Ocean to compete with the Portuguese Empire with its close ally the Ajuran Empire.

In 1564, Suleiman received an embassy from Aceh (a sultanate on Sumatra, in modern Indonesia), requesting Ottoman support against the Portuguese. As a result, an Ottoman expedition to Aceh was launched, which was able to provide extensive military support to the Acehnese.

The discovery of new maritime trade routes by Western European states allowed them to avoid the Ottoman trade monopoly. The Portuguese discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 initiated a series of Ottoman-Portuguese naval wars in the Indian Ocean throughout the 16th century. The Ajuran Sultanate allied with the Ottomans defied the Portuguese economic monopoly in the Indian Ocean by employing a new coinage which followed the Ottoman pattern, thus proclaiming an attitude of economic independence in regard to the Portuguese.

Mediterranean and North Africa

See also: Franco-Ottoman alliance, Hayreddin Barbarossa, Italian War of 1542–46 and Great Siege of Malta

Having consolidated his conquests on land, Suleiman was greeted with the news that the fortress of Koroni in Morea (the modern Peloponnese, peninsular Greece) had been lost to Charles V's admiral, Andrea Doria. The presence of the Spanish in the Eastern Mediterranean concerned Suleiman, who saw it as an early indication of Charles V's intention to rival Ottoman dominance in the region. Recognizing the need to reassert naval preeminence in the Mediterranean, Suleiman appointed an exceptional naval commander in the form of Khair ad Din, known to Europeans as Barbarossa. Once appointed admiral-in-chief, Barbarossa was charged with rebuilding the Ottoman fleet, to such an extent that the Ottoman navy equaled in number those of all other Mediterranean countries put together.

In 1535, Charles V won an important victory against the Ottomans at Tunis, which together with the war against Venice the following year, led Suleiman to accept proposals from Francis I of France to form an alliance against Charles. In 1538, the Spanish fleet was defeated by Barbarossa at the Battle of Preveza, securing the eastern Mediterranean for the Turks for 33 years, until the defeat at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

East of Morocco, huge Muslim territories in North Africa were annexed. The Barbary States of Tripolitania, Tunisia and Algeria became autonomous provinces of the Empire, serving as the leading edge of Suleiman's conflict with Charles V, whose attempt to drive out the Turks failed in 1541. The piracy carried on thereafter by the Barbary pirates of North Africa can be seen in the context of the wars against Spain. For a short period Ottoman expansion secured naval dominance in the Mediterranean.

The Siege of Malta in 1565: Arrival of the Turkish fleet, by Matteo Perez d'Aleccio

In 1542, facing a common Habsburg enemy, Francis I sought to renew the Franco-Ottoman alliance. As a result, Suleiman dispatched 100 galleys under Barbarossa to assist the French in the western Mediterranean. Barbarossa pillaged the coast of Naples and Sicily before reaching France, where Francis made Toulon the Ottoman admiral's naval headquarters. The same campaign saw Barbarossa attack and capture Nice in 1543. By 1544, a peace between Francis I and Charles V had put a temporary end to the alliance between France and the Ottoman Empire.

Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, when the Knights Hospitallers were re-established as the Knights of Malta in 1530, their actions against Muslim navies quickly drew the ire of the Ottomans, who assembled another massive army in order to dislodge the Knights from Malta. The Ottomans invaded Malta in 1565, undertaking the Great Siege of Malta, which began on 18 May and lasted until 8 September, and is portrayed vividly in the frescoes of Matteo Perez d'Aleccio in the Hall of St. Michael and St. George. At first it seemed that this would be a repeat of the battle on Rhodes, with most of Malta's cities destroyed and half the Knights killed in battle; but a relief force from Spain entered the battle, resulting in the loss of 10,000 Ottoman troops and the victory of the local Maltese citizenry.

Administrative reforms

While Sultan Suleiman was known as "the Magnificent" in the West, he was always Kanuni Suleiman or "The Lawgiver" (قانونی) to his own Ottoman subjects. As the historian Lord Kinross notes, "Not only was he a great military campaigner, a man of the sword, as his father and great-grandfather had been before him. He differed from them in the extent to which he was also a man of the pen. He was a great legislator, standing out in the eyes of his people as a high-minded sovereign and a magnanimous exponent of justice". The overriding law of the empire was the Shari'ah, or Sacred Law, which as the divine law of Islam was outside of the Sultan's powers to change. Yet an area of distinct law known as the Kanuns (قانون, canonical legislation) was dependent on Suleiman's will alone, covering areas such as criminal law, land tenure and taxation. He collected all the judgments that had been issued by the nine Ottoman Sultans who preceded him. After eliminating duplications and choosing between contradictory statements, he issued a single legal code, all the while being careful not to violate the basic laws of Islam. It was within this framework that Suleiman, supported by his Grand Mufti Ebussuud, sought to reform the legislation to adapt to a rapidly changing empire. When the Kanun laws attained their final form, the code of laws became known as the kanun‐i Osmani (قانون عثمانی), or the "Ottoman laws". Suleiman's legal code was to last more than three hundred years.

Suleiman gave particular attention to the plight of the rayas, Christian subjects who worked the land of the Sipahis. His Kanune Raya, or "Code of the Rayas", reformed the law governing levies and taxes to be paid by the rayas, raising their status above serfdom to the extent that Christian serfs would migrate to Turkish territories to benefit from the reforms. The Sultan also played a role in protecting the Jewish subjects of his empire for centuries to come. In late 1553 or 1554, on the suggestion of his favorite doctor and dentist, the Spanish Jew Moses Hamon, the Sultan issued a firman (فرمان) formally denouncing blood libels against the Jews. Furthermore, Suleiman enacted new criminal and police legislation, prescribing a set of fines for specific offenses, as well as reducing the instances requiring death or mutilation. In the area of taxation, taxes were levied on various goods and produce, including animals, mines, profits of trade, and import-export duties. In addition to taxes, officials who had fallen into disrepute were likely to have their land and property confiscated by the Sultan.

Education was another important area for the Sultan. Schools attached to mosques and funded by religious foundations provided a largely free education to Muslim boys in advance of the Christian countries of the time. In his capital, Suleiman increased the number of mektebs (مكتب, primary schools) to fourteen, teaching boys to read and write as well as the principles of Islam. Young men wishing further education could proceed to one of eight medreses (مدرسه, colleges), whose studies included grammar, metaphysics, philosophy, astronomy and astrology. Higher medreses provided education of university status, whose graduates became imams (امام) or teachers. Educational centers were often one of many buildings surrounding the courtyards of mosques, others included libraries, refectories, fountains, soup kitchens and hospitals for the benefit of the public.

Ottoman miniature depicting the execution of Serbian rebels in Belgrade (from the: Süleymannâme.

Cultural achievements

Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent.

Under Suleiman's patronage, the Ottoman Empire entered the golden age of its cultural development. Hundreds of imperial artistic societies (called the اهل حرف Ehl-i Hiref, "Community of the Talented") were administered at the Imperial seat, the Topkapı Palace. After an apprenticeship, artists and craftsmen could advance in rank within their field and were paid commensurate wages in quarterly annual installments. Payroll registers that survive testify to the breadth of Suleiman's patronage of the arts, the earliest of documents dating from 1526 list 40 societies with over 600 members. The Ehl-i Hiref attracted the empire's most talented artisans to the Sultan's court, both from the Islamic world and from the recently conquered territories in Europe, resulting in a blend of Arabic, Turkish and European cultures. Artisans in service of the court included painters, book binders, furriers, jewellers and goldsmiths. Whereas previous rulers had been influenced by Persian culture (Suleiman's father, Selim I, wrote poetry in Persian), Suleiman's patronage of the arts saw the Ottoman Empire assert its own artistic legacy.

Suleiman himself was an accomplished poet, writing in Persian and Turkish under the takhallus (nom de plume) Muhibbi (محبی, "Lover"). Some of Suleiman's verses have become Turkish proverbs, such as the well-known Everyone aims at the same meaning, but many are the versions of the story. When his young son Mehmed died in 1543, he composed a moving chronogram to commemorate the year: Peerless among princes, my Sultan Mehmed. In addition to Suleiman's own work, many great talents enlivened the literary world during Suleiman's rule, including Fuzuli and Baki. The literary historian E. J. W. Gibb observed that "at no time, even in Turkey, was greater encouragement given to poetry than during the reign of this Sultan". Suleiman's most famous verse is:

Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, built by Mimar Sinan, Suleiman's chief architect.

The people think of wealth and power as the greatest fate,

But in this world a spell of health is the best state.
What men call sovereignty is a worldly strife and constant war;
Worship of God is the highest throne, the happiest of all estates.

Suleiman also became renowned for sponsoring a series of monumental architectural developments within his empire. The Sultan sought to turn Constantinople into the center of Islamic civilization by a series of projects, including bridges, mosques, palaces and various charitable and social establishments. The greatest of these were built by the Sultan's chief architect, Mimar Sinan, under whom Ottoman architecture reached its zenith. Sinan became responsible for over three hundred monuments throughout the empire, including his two masterpieces, the Süleymaniye and Selimiye mosques—the latter built in Adrianople (now Edirne) in the reign of Suleiman's son Selim II. Suleiman also restored the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Jerusalem city walls (which are the current walls of the Old City of Jerusalem), renovated the Kaaba in Mecca, and constructed a complex in Damascus.

Personal life

Consorts and progeny

Suleiman had four known consorts:

• Fülane Hatun, mother of Şehzade Mahmud and Fatma Nur Sultan
• Gülfem Hatun, mother of Şehzade Murad (the fact that she really was a consort is disputed)
• Mahidevran Gülbahar, a Circassian or Albanian
• Haseki Hürrem Sultan (also known as Roxelana) (m. 1531), Suleiman's concubine and later legal wife and first Haseki Sultan, possibly a daughter of the Ukrainian Orthodox priest.

Suleiman had some children with his four consorts:

• Şehzade Mahmud – son with Fülane, born 1512 (died in 1521)
• Şehzade Mustafa – son with Mahidevran, born 1515 (killed in 1553 on the Sultan's orders)
• Fatma Nur Sultan – daughter with Fülane, born 1515 (died in 1562)
• Şehzade Murad – son with Gülfem, born 1519 (died in 1521)
• Şehzade Mehmed – son with Hürrem, born 1521 (died in 1543)
• Mihrimah Sultan – daughter with Hürrem, born 1522 (died in 1578)
• Şehzade Abdullah – son with Hürrem, born 1523 (died in 1525)
• Sultan Selim II – son with Hürrem, born 1524 (died in 1574)
• Raziye Sultan – daughter with Mahidevran, born 1524 (died 1571)
• Şehzade Bayezid – son with Hürrem, born 1525 (killed by his brother Selim with the support of his father in 1561)
• Şehzade Cihangir – son with Hürrem, born 1531 (died in 1553)

Relationship with Hürrem Sultan

16th-century oil painting of Hürrem Sultan

Suleiman was infatuated with Hürrem Sultan, a harem girl from Ruthenia, then part of Poland. Western diplomats, taking notice of the palace gossip about her, called her "Russelazie" or "Roxelana", referring to her Ruthenian (Ukrainian) origins. The daughter of an Orthodox priest, she was captured by Tatars from Crimea, sold as a slave in Constantinople, and eventually rose through the ranks of the Harem to become Suleiman's favorite. Breaking with two centuries of Ottoman tradition, a former concubine had thus become the legal wife of the Sultan, much to the astonishment of the observers in the palace and the city. He also allowed Hürrem Sultan to remain with him at court for the rest of her life, breaking another tradition—that when imperial heirs came of age, they would be sent along with the imperial concubine who bore them to govern remote provinces of the Empire, never to return unless their progeny succeeded to the throne.

Under his pen name, Muhibbi, Sultan Suleiman composed this poem for Hürrem Sultan:

"Throne of my lonely niche, my wealth, my love, my moonlight.

My most sincere friend, my confidant, my very existence, my Sultan, my one and only love.
The most beautiful among the beautiful ...
My springtime, my merry faced love, my daytime, my sweetheart, laughing leaf ...
My plants, my sweet, my rose, the one only who does not distress me in this room ...
My Istanbul, my Caraman, the earth of my Anatolia
My Badakhshan, my Baghdad and Khorasan
My woman of the beautiful hair, my love of the slanted brow, my love of eyes full of misery ...
I'll sing your praises always

I, lover of the tormented heart, Muhibbi of the eyes full of tears, I am happy."

Grand Vizier Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha

The Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, awaits the arrival of his Grand Vizier Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha at Buda, in the year 1529.

Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha was the boyhood friend of Suleiman. Ibrahim was originally a Christian from Parga (in Epirus), and when he was young was educated at the Palace School under the devshirme system. Suleiman made him the royal falconer, then promoted him to first officer of the Royal Bedchamber. Ibrahim Pasha rose to Grand Vizier in 1523 and commander-in-chief of all the armies. Suleiman also conferred upon Ibrahim Pasha the honor of beylerbey of Rumelia (first-ranking military governor-general), granting Ibrahim authority over all Turkish territories in Europe, as well as command of troops residing within them in times of war. According to a 17th-century chronicler, Ibrahim had asked Suleiman not to promote him to such high positions, fearing for his safety; to which Suleiman replied that under his reign, no matter what the circumstance, Ibrahim would never be put to death.

Yet Ibrahim eventually fell from grace with the Sultan. During his thirteen years as Grand Vizier, his rapid rise to power and vast accumulation of wealth had made Ibrahim many enemies at the Sultan's court. Reports had reached the Sultan of Ibrahim's impudence during a campaign against the Persian Safavid empire: in particular his adoption of the title serasker sultan (سرعسكر سلطان) was seen as a grave affront to Suleiman.

Suleiman's suspicion of Ibrahim was worsened by a quarrel between the latter and the finance secretary (defterdar) Iskender Çelebi. The dispute ended in the disgrace of Çelebi on charges of intrigue, with Ibrahim convincing Suleiman to sentence the defterdar to death. Before his death however, Çelebi's last words were to accuse Ibrahim of conspiracy against the Sultan. These dying words convinced Suleiman of Ibrahim's disloyalty, and on 15 March 1536 Ibrahim was executed.

Succession

Sultan Suleiman's two wives (Hürrem and Mahidevran) had borne him six sons, four of whom survived past the 1550s. They were Mustafa, Selim, Bayezid, and Cihangir. Of these, only Mustafa, the eldest, was not Hürrem Sultan's son, but rather Mahidevran Sultan's, and therefore preceded Hürrem's children in the order of succession. Hürrem was aware that should Mustafa become Sultan her own children would be strangled. Yet Mustafa was recognized as the most talented of all the brothers and was supported by Pargalı İbrahim Pasha, who was by this time Suleiman's Grand Vizier. The Austrian ambassador Busbecq would note "Suleiman has among his children a son called Mustafa, marvelously well educated and prudent and of an age to rule, since he is 24 or 25 years old; may God never allow a Barbary of such strength to come near us", going on to talk of Mustafa's "remarkable natural gifts". Hürrem is usually held at least partly responsible for the intrigues in nominating a successor. Although she was Suleiman's wife, she exercised no official public role. This did not, however, prevent Hürrem from wielding powerful political influence. Since the Empire lacked, until the reign of Ahmed I, any formal means of nominating a successor, successions usually involved the death of competing princes in order to avert civil unrest and rebellions. In attempting to avoid the execution of her sons, Hürrem used her influence to eliminate those who supported Mustafa's accession to the throne.

Ottoman sequin manufactured during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent.

Thus in power struggles apparently instigated by Hürrem, Suleiman had Ibrahim murdered and replaced with her sympathetic son-in-law, Rüstem Pasha. By 1552, when the campaign against Persia had begun with Rüstem appointed commander-in-chief of the expedition, intrigues against Mustafa began. Rüstem sent one of Suleiman's most trusted men to report that since Suleiman was not at the head of the army, the soldiers thought the time had come to put a younger prince on the throne; at the same time he spread rumors that Mustafa had proved receptive to the idea. Angered by what he came to believe were Mustafa's plans to claim the throne, the following summer upon return from his campaign in Persia, Suleiman summoned him to his tent in the Ereğli valley, stating he would "be able to clear himself of the crimes he was accused of and would have nothing to fear if he came".

Distribution of rewards after the siege of Szigetvár

Mustafa was confronted with a choice: either he appeared before his father at the risk of being killed; or, if he refused to attend, he would be accused of betrayal. In the end, Mustafa chose to enter his father's tent, confident that the support of the army would protect him. Busbecq, who claims to have received an account from an eyewitness, describes Mustafa's final moments. As Mustafa entered his father's tent, Suleiman's eunuchs attacked Mustafa, with the young prince putting up a brave defence. Suleiman, separated from the struggle only by the linen hangings of the tent, peered through the chamber of his tent and "directed fierce and threatening glances upon the mutes, and by menacing gestures sternly rebuked their hesitation. Thereupon, the mutes in their alarm, redoubling their efforts, hurled Mustafa to the ground and, throwing the bowstring round his neck, strangled him."

Cihangir is said to have died of grief a few months after the news of his half-brother's murder. The two surviving brothers, Selim and Bayezid, were given command in different parts of the empire. Within a few years, however, civil war broke out between the brothers, each supported by his loyal forces. With the aid of his father's army, Selim defeated Bayezid in Konya in 1559, leading the latter to seek refuge with the Safavids along with his four sons. Following diplomatic exchanges, the Sultan demanded from the Safavid Shah that Bayezid be either extradited or executed. In return for large amounts of gold, the Shah allowed a Turkish executioner to strangle Bayezid and his four sons in 1561, clearing the path for Selim's succession to the throne seven years later.

Death

On 5 September 1566, Suleiman, who had set out from Constantinople to command an expedition to Hungary, died before an Ottoman victory at the Battle of Szigetvár in Hungary and the Grand Vizier kept his death secret during the retreat for the intronisation of Selim II.

Legacy

Suleiman I's conquests were followed by continuous territorial expansion until the Empire's peak.

At the time of Suleiman's death, the Ottoman Empire was one of the world's foremost powers. Suleiman's conquests had brought under the control of the Empire the major Muslim cities (Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad), many Balkan provinces (reaching present day Croatia and Austria), and most of North Africa. His expansion into Europe had given the Ottoman Turks a powerful presence in the European balance of power. Indeed, such was the perceived threat of the Ottoman Empire under the reign of Suleiman that Austria's ambassador Busbecq warned of Europe's imminent conquest: "On [the Turks'] side are the resources of a mighty empire, strength unimpaired, habituation to victory, endurance of toil, unity, discipline, frugality and watchfulness ... Can we doubt what the result will be? ... When the Turks have settled with Persia, they will fly at our throats supported by the might of the whole East; how unprepared we are I dare not say."

Türbe (tomb) of Sultan Suleiman at Süleymaniye Mosque

Even thirty years after his death, "Sultan Solyman" was quoted by the English playwright William Shakespeare as a military prodigy in The Merchant of Venice, where the Prince of Morocco boasts about his prowess by saying that he defeated Suleiman in three battles (Act 2, Scene 1).

Suleiman's legacy was not, however, merely in the military field. The French traveler Jean de Thévenot bears witness a century later to the "strong agricultural base of the country, the well being of the peasantry, the abundance of staple foods and the pre-eminence of organization in Suleiman's government". The administrative and legal reforms which earned him the name Law Giver ensured the Empire's survival long after his death, an achievement which "took many generations of decadent heirs to undo".

Funeral of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent

Through his personal patronage, Suleiman also presided over the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire, representing the pinnacle of the Ottoman Turks' cultural achievement in the realm of architecture, literature, art, theology and philosophy. Today the skyline of the Bosphorus and of many cities in modern Turkey and the former Ottoman provinces, are still adorned with the architectural works of Mimar Sinan. One of these, the Süleymaniye Mosque, is the final resting place of Suleiman and Hürrem Sultan: they are buried in separate domed mausoleums attached to the mosque.

However, after his death, the Ottoman Empire entered into a state of decline and stagnation during the reign of Sultan Selim II and later (not so great) sultans. The Ottoman conquests of Europe were ended permanently by major defeats such as the Battle of Lepanto and the Battle of Vienna. As the years passed, the Ottoman Empire slowly turned into a shadow of its former glory, becoming known as the "sick man of Europe", where the Christian powers gradually regained their might, gaining new technologies and weapons for their armies until the Empire's dissolution by the reign of Mehmed VI, the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who was removed after World War I, which allowed the empire's total dismemberment as even the Muslim provinces became independent or part of colonial empires and Atatürk opted for a republican Turkish nation state.

Popular culture

• Suleiman the Magnificent appears as the lead character of the 2011-14 Turkish TV series Muhtesem Yuzyil and occurs in TV series "Hürrem Sultan" (2003).
• Suleiman I also features in the movies Les trois sultanes (1912) and Egri csillagok aka "Stars of Eger" (1968)
• Suleiman the Magnificent appears as the leader of the Ottomans in the computer strategy games, Age of Empires III, Civilization IV and Civilization V.
• Suleiman the Magnificent sometimes appears in the loading screen in the computer strategy game, Europa Universalis IV.
• Suleiman the Magnificent appears as an important character in the action-adventure video game, Assassin's Creed: Revelations.

See also

• The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors

References

Printed Sources

• Ahmed, Syed Z (2001). The Zenith of an Empire : The Glory of the Suleiman the Magnificent and the Law Giver. A.E.R. Publications. ISBN 978-0-9715873-0-4. 
• Atıl, Esin (1987). The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art. ISBN 978-0-89468-098-4. 
• Atıl, Esin (July–August 1987). "The Golden Age of Ottoman Art". Saudi Aramco World (Houston, Texas: Aramco Services Co) 38 (4): 24–33. ISSN 1530-5821. Retrieved 18 April 2007. 
• Barber, Noel (1976). Lords of the Golden Horn : From Suleiman the Magnificent to Kamal Ataturk. London: Pan Books. ISBN 978-0-330-24735-1. 
• Clot, André (1992). Suleiman the Magnificent : The Man, His Life, His Epoch. London: Saqi Books. ISBN 978-0-86356-126-9. 
• Garnier, Edith L'Alliance Impie Editions du Felin, 2008, Paris ISBN 978-2-86645-678-8 Interview
• Greenblatt, Miriam (2003). Süleyman the Magnificent and the Ottoman Empire. New York: Benchmark Books. ISBN 978-0-7614-1489-6. 
• Imber, Colin (2002). The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650 : The Structure of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-61386-3. 
• Kinross, Patrick (1979). The Ottoman centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. New York: Morrow. ISBN 978-0-688-08093-8. 
• Labib, Subhi (November 1979). "The Era of Suleyman the Magnificent: Crisis of Orientation". International journal of Middle East studies (London: Cambridge University Press) 10 (4): 435–451. ISSN 0020-7438. 
• Lamb, Harold (1951). Suleiman, the Magnificent, Sultan of the East. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. ISBN 1-4067-7271-2. OCLC 397000. 
• Levey, Michael (1975). The World of Ottoman Art. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27065-1. 
• Lewis, Bernard (2002). What Went Wrong? : Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response. London: Phoenix. ISBN 978-0-7538-1675-2. 
• Mansel, Phillip (1998). Constantinople : City of the World's Desire, 1453–1924. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-18708-8. 
• Merriman, Roger Bigelow (1944). Suleiman the Magnificent, 1520–1566. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 1-4067-7272-0. OCLC 784228. 
• Severy, Merle (November 1987). "The World of Süleyman the Magnificent". National geographic (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society) 172 (5): 552–601. ISSN 0027-9358. 
• Sicker, Martin (2000). The Islamic World In Ascendancy : From the Arab Conquests to the Siege of Vienna. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-96892-2. 
• "Suleiman The Lawgiver". Saudi Aramco World (Houston, Texas: Aramco Services Co) 15 (2): 8–10. March–April 1964. ISSN 1530-5821. Retrieved 18 April 2007. 

On-line sources

• "1548–49". The Encyclopedia of World History. 2001. Retrieved 18 April 2007. 
• "1553–55". The Encyclopedia of World History. 2001. Retrieved 18 April 2007. 
• "A 400 Year Old Love Poem". Women in World History Curriculum Showcase. Retrieved 18 April 2007. 
• Embree, Mark (2004). "Suleiman The Magnificent". Archived from the original on 30 September 2006. Retrieved 18 April 2007. 
• Halman, Talat (1988). "Suleyman the Magnificent Poet". Archived from the original on 9 March 2006. Retrieved 18 April 2007. 
• "The History of Malta". 2007. Archived from the original on 1 May 2007. Retrieved 27 April 2007. 
• "Muhibbî (Kanunî Sultan Süleyman)". Türkçe Bilgi—Kim kimdir? (in Turkish). Retrieved 13 January 2008. 
• Russell, John (26 January 2007). "The Age of Sultan Suleyman". New York Times. Retrieved 9 August 2007. 
• Yapp, Malcolm Edward (2007). "Suleiman I". Microsoft Encarta. Retrieved 17 April 2008. 

Further reading

• Alum Bati, "Harem Secrets", Trafford, 2008, ISBN 1-4251-5750-5
• Bridge, Anthony (1983). Suleiman the Magnificent, Scourge of Heaven. New York: F. Watts. ISBN 0-88029-169-9. OCLC 9853956. 
• Downey, Fairfax Davis. The Grand Turke, Suleyman the Magnificent, sultan of the Ottomans. New York: Minton, Balch & Company. OCLC 25776191. 
• Lybyer, Albert Howe (1913). The government of the Ottoman empire in the time of Suleiman the Magnificent. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-404-14681-3. OCLC 1562148. 
• André Clot Soliman Le Magnifique, Fayard, Paris, 1983, 469 p. ISBN 2-213-01260-1

External links

• Sultan Suleyman Tomb
• Portraits and Tughra of Suleiman
• IMDb character

Suleiman the Magnificent House of Osman Born: 6 November 1494 Died: c. 5 September 1566
Regnal titles
Preceded by Selim I	Sultan of the Ottoman Empire 22 Sep 1520 – c. 5 Sep 1566	Succeeded by Selim II
Sunni Islam titles
Preceded by Selim I	Caliph of Islam 22 Sep 1520 – c. 5 Sep 1566	Succeeded by Selim II