Suleyman I Biography (Sultan) Birthplace: ? Best known as: The Ottoman empire's 16th century "Law Giver" Suleyman I (also Suleiman) was the greatest sultan of the Ottomans and one of the 16th century's most formidable conquerors. He succeeded his father, Selim I, as sultan in 1520 and soon began expanding the empire, conquering Belgrade (1521) and Rhodes (1522) before turning his attention to Persia in the 1530s. Suleyman also captured Baghdad (1534) and Tabriz (1535) and battled Emperor Charles V over Hungary and Austria in the 1540s. He also sent naval forces to North Africa and conquered Tripoli in 1551. Suleyman transformed Istanbul into a model of human achievement in architecture and the arts and reconstructed the Ottoman legal system, and he is considered one of Islam's great poets.

A brilliant strategist and administrator, he was known in Europe as "Suleyman the Magnificent" and to his subjects as "Suleyman the Law Giver." Copyright © 1998-2017 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved. Suleyman I Biography (Sultan) Birthplace: ? Best known as: The Ottoman empire's 16th century "Law Giver" Suleyman I (also Suleiman) was the greatest sultan of the Ottomans and one of the 16th century's most formidable conquerors. He succeeded his father, Selim I, as sultan in 1520 and soon began expanding the empire, conquering Belgrade (1521) and Rhodes (1522) before turning his attention to Persia in the 1530s. Suleyman also captured Baghdad (1534) and Tabriz (1535) and battled Emperor Charles V over Hungary and Austria in the 1540s. He also sent naval forces to North Africa and conquered Tripoli in 1551.

Suleyman transformed Istanbul into a model of human achievement in architecture and the arts and reconstructed the Ottoman legal system, and he is considered one of Islam's great poets. A brilliant strategist and administrator, he was known in Europe as "Suleyman the Magnificent" and to his subjects as "Suleyman the Law Giver." Copyright © 1998-2017 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved. Advertisement Advertisement BBC - Religions - Islam: Ottoman Empire (1301-1922) Ottoman Empire (1301-1922) The Ottoman Empire was an empire inspired and sustained by Islam. On this page The Great Mosque in Damascus, Syria © The Ottoman Empire was the one of the largest and longest lasting Empires in history. It was an empire inspired and sustained by Islam, and Islamic institutions. It replaced the Byzantine Empire as the major power in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Ottoman Empire reached its height under Suleiman the Magnificent (reigned 1520-66), when it expanded to cover the Balkans and Hungary, and reached the gates of Vienna.

The Empire began to decline after being defeated at the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and losing almost its entire navy. It declined further during the next centuries, and was effectively finished off by the First World War and the Balkan Wars. One legacy of the Islamic Ottoman Empire is the robust secularism of modern Turkey. At its peak it included: Turkey Why was the Empire successful? The recipe for success There were many reasons why the Ottoman Empire was so successful: Highly centralised Power was always transferred to a single person, and not split between rival princes The Ottoman Empire was successfully ruled by a single family for 7 centuries. State-run education system Religion was incorporated in the state structure, and the Sultan was regarded as "the protector of Islam".

State-run judicial system Ruthless in dealing with local leaders Promotion to positions of power largely depended on merit Created alliances across political and racial groups United by Islamic ideology United by Islamic warrior code with ideal of increasing Muslim territory through Jihad United by Islamic organisational and administrative structures Highly pragmatic, taking the best ideas from other cultures and making them their own Encouraged loyalty from other faith groups Private power and wealth were controlled Very strong military Expert in developing gunpowder as a military tool Military ethos pervaded whole administration Origin After Baghdad fell to the Mongols, the Seljuks declared an independent Sultanate in east and central Asia Minor. In 1301, Uthman, an Uzbek of the Ottoman clan, overthrew the Seljuk aristocracy and proclaimed himself the Sultan of Asia Minor. Rule of force At first the rule of the Ottoman Sultans was insecure. To consolidate their Empire the Ottoman Sultans formed groups of fanatical fighters - the orders of the Janissaries, a crack infantry group of slaves and Christian converts to Islam. The Ottomans inflicted a series of defeats on the declining Christian Byzantine Empire and then quickly expanded westward. Constantinople Constantinople Constantinople was the heart of the Byzantine Empire.

It became the capital of the Ottoman Empire when it was conquered in 1453 by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II. Sultan Suleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey © Mehmet slaughtered many of the population and forced the rest into exile, later repopulating the city by importing people from elsewhere in Ottoman territory. Mehmet renamed Constantinople Istanbul – the 'city of Islam' - and set about rebuilding it, both physically and politically, as his capital. Economics Istanbul became not only a political and military capital, but because of its position at the junction of Europe, Africa, and Asia, one of the great trade centres of the world. Another important city was Bursa, which was a centre of the silk trade. Some of the later Ottoman conquests were clearly intended to give them control of other trade routes. Among the goods traded were: Silk and other cloth The millet system Churches were converted into mosques © Non-Muslim communities were organised according to the millet system, which gave minority religious/ethnic/geographical communities a limited amount of power to regulate their own affairs - under the overall supremacy of the Ottoman administration. The first Orthodox Christian millet was established in 1454.

This brought Orthodox Christians into a single community under the leadership of the Patriarch who had considerable authority given to him by the Sultan. Armenian Christian, Jewish and other millets followed in due course. Some millets paid tax to the state as dhimmis, while others were exempted because they were seen to be performing services of value to the state. The devshirme system Non-Muslims in parts of the empire had to hand over some of their children as a tax under the devshirme ('gathering') system introduced in the 14th century. Conquered Christian communities, especially in the Balkans, had to surrender twenty percent of their male children to the state. To the horror of their parents, and Western commentators, these children were converted to Islam and served as slaves . Although the forced removal from their families and conversion was certainly traumatic and out of line with modern ideas of human rights, the devshirme system was a rather privileged form of slavery for some (although others were undoubtedly ill-used). Some of the youngsters were trained for government service, where they were able to reach very high ranks, even that of Grand Vezir.

Many of the others served in the elite military corps of the Ottoman Empire, called the Janissaries, which was almost exclusively made up of forced converts from Christianity. The devshirme played a key role in Mehmet's conquest of Constantinople, and from then on regularly held very senior posts in the imperial administration. Although members of the devshirme class were technically slaves, they were of great importance to the Sultan because they owed him their absolute loyalty and became vital to his power. This status enabled some of the 'slaves' to become both powerful and wealthy. Their status remained restricted, and their children were not permitted to inherit their wealth or follow in their footsteps. The devshirme system continued until the end of the seventeenth century. Life under Mehmet After battles between Muslims and Christians, churches were converted into mosques and mosques into churches according to who was the winner. Although Mehmet converted many churches into mosques, he did not suppress the Christian faith itself.

There were practical reasons for this: Christians were the largest group of the population and coexistence was likely to be more efficient than conflict The institutions of the church provided a machine for implementing Mehmet's rule But Mehmet was also influenced by the Islamic rule that Muslims should show respect to all religions. Mehmet not only tolerated the Christians, he made special efforts to attract Jews to Istanbul. This was attractive to the Jews, who had previously been persecuted by the Orthodox Christian Church. The non-Muslim communities (millets) were controlled by the Sultan acting through their religious leaders. These communities were given their own parts of towns in which to live and worship. They were given a great deal of freedom to lead their lives according to their particular faiths, and so were largely supportive of their Muslim overlords. After Mehmet Mehmet II died in 1481, and he nominated his eldest son Bayezid as the new Sultan. The Shi'a Muslims in the Ottoman Empire revolted in favour of Bayezid's brother Jem. The Janissaries suppressed the revolt and from then on became very important in Ottoman politics.

With Janissary support Bayezid's son Selim laid the foundations for a world Ottoman Empire based entirely on the despotism of the Sultan. The Shi'as were ruthlessly suppressed and they retreated to Persia, joining with the local groups of Shi'a and eventually forming their own state under the Safavid Shahs. Fratricide Sultan Selim introduced the policy of fratricide (the murder of brothers). Under this system whenever a new Sultan ascended to the throne his brothers would be locked up. As soon as the Sultan had produced his first son the brothers (and their sons) would be killed. The new Sultan's sons would be then confined until their father's death and the whole system would start again. This often meant that dozens of sons would be killed while only one would become Sultan. In the later centuries of Ottoman rule, the brothers were imprisoned rather than executed. Main entrance to the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, Turkey © The Sultans lived in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The Sultan's life was run by rituals copied from the Byzantine court. For example, the Sultan wore his silk robes once and then they were discarded.

(Many now are preserved in the Topkapi Musuem.) The Topkapi Palace held many objects which were used to give legitimacy to the Ottomans and reinforce the Sultan's claim to be leader of all Muslims. The most important of these was the mantle of the Prophet Muhammad and his standard and footprint. These were brought from Egypt when Cairo fell to the Ottomans. It was in the Harem that the Sultan spent his life. Every inhabitant of the 230 small dark rooms in the Topkapi palace was his to command. The number of concubines often exceeded a thousand and came from all over the world. The only permanent male staff consisted of eunuchs. Access to the Sultan meant power. But no one was to be trusted. The Sultan moved every night to avoid assassination. Favoured males were promoted to rule places far away like Syria; males not in favour could be locked up inside the palace. The harem was a paradox, since it was a feature of the Ottoman Empire (and other Islamic states) yet contained much that was not permissible in Islam. The harem was extravagant, decadent, and vulgar.

The concentration of wealth, suffering and injustice toward women was far from the ideals of marriage and married life in Islam. Despite this, the harem could bring benefits to a family who had a woman in the harem. It meant patronage, wealth and power; it meant access to the most powerful man in the Empire - the Sultan. Influences and Structure Although the Ottoman Empire was widely influenced by the faiths and customs of the peoples it incorporated, the most significant influences came from Islam. The ruling elite worked their way up the hierarchy of the state madrassahs (religious schools) and the palace schools. They were trained to be concerned with the needs of government and to be mindful of the restrictions of Islamic law. In its structure the ruling elite reflected a world of order and hierarchy in which promotion and status were rewarded on merit. Thus birth and genealogy, aristocracy or tribe became almost irrelevant to success in the system. Only one post, that of the Sultan, was determined by birth.

Suleiman - a golden age The Golden Age of Suleiman The Ottoman Empire reached the peak of its power during the rule of Selim's son, Suleiman the Magnificent (ruled 1520 -66) and his grandson Selim II (1566 - 74). Suleiman came to the throne as one of the wealthiest rulers in the world. His strength owed much to the work his father Selim had done in stabilising government, removing opposition, frightening (but not succesfully conquering) the Safavid Empire of Iran into adopting a non-aggression policy, and conquering the Mamluk empire of Egypt and Syria. These conquests, which united the lands of Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean under a single ruler, brought a time of peace and stability, under which the Empire flourished. Suleiman had no internal rivals for power. His father had seen to that by executing his own brothers and their sons, and all 4 of Suleiman's brothers.

The Ottoman Empire now included so much of the territory where Islam was practiced, and so many of the Islamic holy places, that Suleiman was widely regarded as the religious leader of Islam, as well as the earthly ruler of most Muslims. The Empire attracted Muslim artists and craftsmen © The wealth and stability of the Empire at this time attracted the top Muslim brains of the period, and craftsmen, artists, intellectuals and writers were eager to move to Istanbul. Suleiman was named 'The Magnificent' by the Europeans, but his own people called him 'The Lawgiver'. Short-termism Ottoman rulers had a very short-term policy. They rejected the idea of developing territory and investing in it for gain at some time in the future; land and peoples were exploited to the point of exhaustion and then more or less abandoned in favour of new ground. This policy meant that the Ottoman Empire relied on continuous expansion for stability. If it did not grow, it was likely to collapse.

Competition from trade from the Americas Competition from cheap products from India and the Far East Development of other trade routes Rising unemployment within the Empire Ottoman Empire became less centralised, and central control weakened Sultans being less severe in maintaining rigorous standards of integrity in the adminstration of the Empire Sultans becoming less sensitive to public opinion The low quality Sultans of the 17th and 18th centuries The ending of the execution of Sultan's sons and brothers, imprisoning them instead This apparently humane process led to men becoming Sultan after spending years in prison - not the best training for absolute power Kemal Ataturk created a new modern identity © Soon the very word Turk became synonymous with treachery and cruelty. This led Turks like Kemal Ataturk, who was born late in the nineteenth century, to be repelled by the Ottoman Turkish political system and the culture it had evolved. Seeing little but decay and corruption, he led the Turks to create a new modern identity. The empire officially ended on the 1st November 1922, when the Ottoman sultanate was abolished and Turkey was declared a republic.

The Ottoman caliphate continued as an institution, with greatly reduced authority, until it too was abolished on the 3rd March 1924. Suleiman the Magnificent Biography Born: November 6, 1494 at Trabzon, on the Turkish coast of the Black Sea. Reign: Sultan of the Ottoman Empire , 1520 to 1566, the "Golden Age" of the Empire. Died: September 7, 1566, at Szigetvar, Hungary. Succeeded by: Selim II, also known as "Selim the Drunkard." Suleiman's Early Life: Suleiman was born to Sultan Selim I of the Ottoman Empire and Aishe Hafsa Sultan of the Crimean Khanate . He was the sultan's only surviving son. As a child, he studied at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, where he learned theology, literature, science, history, and warfare. He became fluent in six languages: Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, Serbian, Chagatai Turkish (similar to Uighur ), Farsi, and Urdu.

Suleiman's tutors noted both his studious nature and his bravery from an early age. As a youth, Suleiman was fascinated by Alexander the Great . His later program of military expansion may have been inspired in part by Alexander's conquests. As sultan, Suleiman would lead 13 major military expeditions, and he spent more than 10 years of his 46-year reign out on campaign. continue reading below our video Test Your General Science Knowledge Sultan Selim I ruled very successfully, and left his son in a remarkably secure position. The Janissaries were at the height of their usefulness; the Mamluks were defeated; and the great maritime power of Venice as well as the Persian Safavid Empire had been humbled by the Ottomans. Selim also left his son a powerful navy, a first for a Turkic ruler. Ascent to the Throne: Suleiman's father entrusted his son with the governorships of different regions within the Ottoman Empire from the age of seventeen. When Suleiman was twenty-six, in 1520, Selim I died and Suleiman ascended the throne. Although he was of age, his mother served as co-regent.

The new sultan immediately launched his program of military conquest and imperial expansion. In 1521, he put down a revolt by the governor of Damascus, Canberdi Gazali. Suleiman's father had conquered the area that is now Syria in 1516, using it as a wedge between the Mamluk sultanate and the Safavid Empire, and had appointed Gazali as the governor. On January 27, 1521, Suleiman defeated Gazali, who died in battle. In July of the same year, the sultan laid siege to Belgrade, a fortified city on the Danube River. He used both a land-based army and a flotilla of ships to blockade the city and prevent reinforcement. Now in Serbia, at that time Belgrade belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary. It fell to Suleiman's forces on August 29, 1521, removing the last obstacle to an Ottoman advance into Central Europe. Before he launched his major assault on Europe, however, Suleiman wanted to take care of an annoying gadfly in the Mediterranean.

Christian hold-overs from the Crusades , the Knights Hospitallers based on the island of Rhodes had been capturing Ottoman and other Muslim nations' ships, stealing their cargoes of grain and gold, and enslaving their crews. Their piracy even imperiled Muslims who set sail to make the haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that is one of the Five Pillars of Islam . Selim I had attacked and tried to dislodge the knights in 1480, but had not succeeded. In the intervening decades, the knights used Muslim slave labor to strengthen and reinforce their fortresses on the island, in anticipation of another Ottoman siege. Suleiman sent out an armada of 400 ships carrying at least 100,000 troops to Rhodes. They landed on June 26, 1522 and laid siege to the bastions full of 60,000 defenders representing various western European countries: England, Spain, Italy, Provence, and Germany. Meanwhile, Suleiman himself led an army of reinforcements on a march to the coast, reaching Rhodes in late July. It took nearly half a year of artillery bombardment and detonating mines under the triple-layer stone walls.

Finally, on December 22, 1522, the Turks forced all of the Christian knights and the civilian inhabitants of Rhodes to surrender. Suleiman gave the knights twelve days to gather their belongings, including weapons and religious icons, and leave the island on 50 ships provided by the Ottomans. Most of the knights went to Sicily. The local people of Rhodes also received generous terms. They had three years to decide whether they wanted to remain on Rhodes under Ottoman rule, or move elsewhere. They would pay no taxes for the first five years, and Suleiman promised that none of their churches would be converted into mosques. Most of them decided to stay. The Ottoman Empire now had nearly complete control of the eastern Mediterranean. Into Europe's Heartland: Suleiman faced several additional crises before he was able to launch his attack into Hungary. Unrest among the Janissaries, and a 1523 revolt by the Mamluks in Egypt were only temporary distractions, however. In April 1526, Suleiman began the march to the Danube. On August 29, 1526, Suleiman defeated King Louis II of Hungary in the Battle of Mohacs.

Suleiman lamented the 20-year-old Hungarian king's death in the battle, saying, "It was not my wish that he should be thus cut off before he had scarcely tasted the sweetness of life." Suleiman supported the nobleman John Zapolya as the next king of Hungary, but the Hapsburgs in Austria put forward one of their own princes, Louis II's brother-in-law, Ferdinand. The Hapsburgs marched into Hungary and took Buda, placing Ferdinand on the throne, and sparking a decades-long feud with Suleiman and the Ottoman Empire. In 1529, Suleiman marched on Hungary once more, taking Buda from the Hapsburgs, and then continuing on to besiege the Hapsburg capital at Vienna. Suleiman's army of perhaps 120,000 reached Vienna in late September, damp and sickly after marching through an unusually rainy spring and summer in Europe. The Ottomans had been forced to abandon most of their heavy artillery and siege machines, which got mired in thick mud along the way, so they had only 300 light cannons with which to try to bring down Vienna's walls.

When the light artillery proved ineffectual, Turkish sappers began to tunnel under the walls and plant mines. On October 11, 1529, rain began to fall with renewed fervor, dampening the explosives before the Ottomans had made any significant breaches in the city walls. The next day, Suleiman and his council decided to make one last-ditch effort to take Vienna. The 16,000 Viennese defenders managed to hold them off once more, however, so the Turkish forces began to withdraw. As they moved back south and east, the rain turned to snow, adding to the misery of Suleiman's first military defeat. The Ottoman sultan did not give up on the idea of taking Vienna. His second attempt, in 1532, was similarly hampered by rain and mud, and the army never even reached the Hapsburg capital. In 1541, the two empires went to war again when the Hapsburgs laid siege to Buda, trying to remove Suleiman's ally from the Hungarian throne.

The Hungarians and Ottomans defeated the Austrians, and captured additional Hapsburg holdings in 1541 and again in 1544. Ferdinand was forced to renounce his claim to be king of Hungary, and had to pay tribute to Suleiman. Even as all of these events happened to the north and west of Turkey, Suleiman also had to keep an eye on his eastern border with Persia. War with the Safavids: The Safavid Persian Empire was one of the Ottomans' great rivals, and a fellow " gunpowder empire ." Its ruler, Shah Tahmasp, sought to extend Persian influence by assassinating the Ottoman governor of Baghdad and replacing him with a Persian puppet, and by convincing the governor of Bitlis, in eastern Turkey, to swear allegiance to the Safavid throne. Suleiman, busy in Hungary and Austria, sent his grand vizier with a second army to retake Bitlis in 1533. The second Ottoman force also seized Tabriz, now in northeastern Iran , from the Persians.

Suleiman himself returned from his second invasion of Austria and marched into Persia in 1534, but the Shah refused to meet the Ottomans in open battle, withdrawing into the Persian desert and using guerrilla hits against the Turks instead. Suleiman retook Baghdad and was reconfirmed as the true caliph of the Islamic world. In 1548-49, Suleiman decided to overthrow his Persian gadfly for good, and launched a second invasion of the Safavid Empire. Once more, Tahmasp refused to participate in pitched battle, this time leading the Ottoman army up into the snowy, rugged terrain of the Caucasus Mountains. The Ottoman sultan gained territory in Georgia and the Kurdish borderlands between Turkey and Persia, but was unable to come to grips with the Shah. The third and final confrontation between Suleiman and Tahmasp took place in 1553-54. As always, the Shah avoided open battle, but Suleiman marched into the Persian heartland and laid it waste.

Shah Tahmasp finally agreed to sign a treaty with the Ottoman sultan, in which he got control of Tabriz in exchange for promising to cease border raids on Turkey, and to permanently relinquish his claims to Baghdad and the rest of Mesopotamia . Maritime Expansion: Descendants of Central Asian nomads , the Ottoman Turks did not have a historical tradition as a naval power. Nonetheless, Suleiman's father established an Ottoman seafaring legacy, in the Mediterranean Sea , the Red Sea, and even the Indian Ocean beginning in 1518. During Suleiman's reign, Ottoman ships traveled to Mughal India's trading ports, and the sultan exchanged letters with the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great . The sultan's Mediterranean fleet patrolled the sea under the command of the famous Admiral Heyreddin Pasha, known in the west as Barbarossa. Suleiman's navy also managed to drive troublesome newcomers to the Indian Ocean system , the Portuguese, out of a key base at Aden on the coast of Yemen in 1538. However, the Turks were unable to dislodge the Portuguese from their toeholds along the west coasts of India and Pakistan.

Suleiman the Law-giver: Suleiman the Magnificent is remembered in Turkey as Kanuni, the Law-Giver. He completely overhauled the formerly piecemeal Ottoman legal system. One of his first acts was to lift the embargo on trade with the Safavid Empire, which hurt Turkish traders as least as much as it did Persian ones. He decreed that all Ottoman soldiers would pay for any food or other property they took as provisions while on campaign, even while in enemy territory. Suleiman also reformed the tax system, dropping extra taxes imposed by his father, and establishing a transparent tax rate system that varied according to people's income. Hiring and firing within the bureaucracy would be based on merit, rather than on the whims of higher officials or on family connections. All Ottoman citizens, even the highest, were subject to the law. Suleiman's reforms gave the Ottoman Empire a recognizably modern administration and legal system, more than 450 years ago. He instituted protections for Christian and Jewish citizens of the Ottoman Empire, denouncing blood libels against the Jews in 1553, and freeing Christian farm laborers from serfdom.

Succession and Death: Suleiman the Magnificent had two official wives and an unknown number of additional concubines. His first wife, Mahidevran Sultan, bore him his eldest son, an intelligent and talented boy named Mustafa. The second wife, a Ukrainian former concubine named Hurrem Sultan, was the love of Suleiman's life, and gave him seven younger sons. Hurrem Sultan knew that according to the rules of the harem, if Mustafa became sultan, he would have all of her sons killed to prevent them from trying to overthrow him. She started a rumor that Mustafa was interested in ousting his father from the throne, so in 1553, Suleiman summoned his eldest son to his tent in an army camp, and had the 38-year-old strangled to death. This left the path clear for Hurrem Sultan's first son, Selim, to come to the throne.

Unfortunately, Selim had none of the good qualities of his half-brother, and is remembered in history as "Selim the Drunkard." In 1566, the 71-year-old Suleiman the Magnificent led his army on a final expedition against the Hapsburgs in Hungary. The Ottomans won the Battle of Szigetvar on September 8, 1566, but Suleiman died of a heart attack the previous day. His officials did not want word of his death to distract and discomfit his troops, so they kept it a secret for a month and a half while the Turkish troops finalized their control of the area. Suleiman's body was prepared for transport back to Constantinople; to keep it from putrefying, the heart and intestines were removed and buried in Hungary. Today, a Christian church and a fruit orchard stand in the area where Suleiman the Magnificent, greatest of the Ottoman sultans , left his heart on the battlefield. Sources: Parry, V.J. A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730, CUP Archive, 1976. Shaw, Stanford J.

History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume 1, Empire of the Gazis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976. Turnbull, Stephen. The Ottoman Empire, 1326 - 1699, London: Osprey Publishing, 2012. Saudi Aramco World : "Suleiman The Lawgiver" Volume 15, Number 2March/April 1964 Send this article to a friend. "Suleiman The Lawgiver" Unity was the prize that a great sultan won in conquests from Budapest to Baghdad. Written by The Editors In the year 1690, a Turkish visitor to Versailles wrote down these words in his travel diary: "The King of France is the Sultan Suleiman of our time." This is a startling observation in view of the fact that Louis XIV of France was himself usually the standard by which the crowned heads of Europe were measured. Versailles, the Sun King, the Royal Court, French rule across much of Europe—such are the distinguishing marks of Louis' great reign during the seventeenth century.

Who was this man Suleiman to whom the mighty Louis was compared, this man who ruled from the banks of the Bosphorus long before Louis was born? With Suleiman's name go the words Constantinople, the Grand Turk, the Imperial Divan, as well as his sovereignty from Budapest to Baghdad, from Mesopotamia to Morocco. Suleiman the Magnificent beat Louis XIV by more than a century in creating a personal and political supremacy that others imitated as a model but could never hope to equal. Europeans who saw him at the height of his power left no doubt of his effect on them. This passage is from a report by the Venetian Ambassador, Bernardo Navagero, writing in the year 1553. "The Turkish Court is a superb sight, and most superb is the Sultan himself. One's eyes are dazzled by the gleam of gold and jewelry. Silk and brocade shimmer in flashing rays. What strikes one about Suleiman the Magnificent is not his flowing robes or his high turban.

He is unique among the throng because his demeanor is that of a truly great emperor." Similar reports flowing from Constantinople back to the capitals of Europe caused the Turkish Sultan to be known as "Suleiman the Magnificent." Within the borders of his own empire a nobler title was heard. His subjects called him "Suleiman the Lawgiver." Born shortly after Columbus discovered America, he grew up in the midst of historical developments almost as revolutionary as those that were transforming the West. His greatgrandfather, Mohammed II, had shaken the world by capturing Constantinople in 1453. The Ottoman Turks vaulted the Bosphorus, established themselves firmly in the Balkans, and gained control of the Dardanelles. Mohammed's grandson, Selim I, conquered Persia and Egypt. Selim's son thus inherited an imposing empire around the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. Suleiman the Magnificent extended the borders of his domain on all sides. He possessed the wherewithal to do this. The flower of his troops was the celebrated Janissaries, the world's most disciplined infantry.

His cavalry was unmatched because the Turks had been expert horsemen ever since the days when they rode into the Middle East from the steppes of Central Asia. His artillery was better than any guns his armies faced. Europe would learn to make accurate guns from those they captured from Suleiman. At sea, he had swift galleys commanded by bold admirals like Dragut, the "Drawn Sword of Islam," who swept the Mediterranean with his warships. Under Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman power reached the western Carpathians and the Persian Gulf; it almost reached the Caspian Sea and the Straits of Gibraltar. The military masterpiece of these campaigns was the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. The Sultan pushed up through the Balkans into Hungary. The King of Hungary moved south to meet him. The decisive conflict took place on the plain of Mohacs along the Danube; it was decided by the Turkish tactics of luring the enemy forward into a deliberately weakened center and then attacking them with massed reserves on both flanks.

The outcome of the Battle of Mohacs is described in a single sentence that Suleiman wrote that night: "We are resting at Mohacs where we have buried 20,000 Hungarian infantry and 4,000 of their cavalry." Hungary was his. He intended to take Austria as well, but the length of his supply lines forced him back from the gates of Vienna. The Sultan's conquests made him the leading sovereign of the sixteenth century, a time of worthy contemporaries—Charles V of Spain, Francis I of France, and Henry VIII of England. Francis, indeed, asked and got an alliance with Suleiman during the wars between France and Spain. One result of the alliance was the fierce sea duel between Dragut and Andrea Doria—the stand-off that left the northern Mediterranean European, the southern Mediterranean in Islamic hands. Now Constantinople became the glorious metropolis of the Ottoman Empire, a worthy capital for Suleiman the Magnificent. The reign achieved an architectural importance because the Sultan was a builder on the grand scale. Many art historians consider the Mosque of Suleiman to be the most beautiful of Ottoman buildings.

Finished in 1556, it shows Byzantine influence in its basilica architecture, but the balconies and tall minarets are distinctly Islamic. Besides many other mosques, Suleiman concentrated on schools and municipal improvements. The Aqueduct of the Forty Arches brought fresh water from the hills into the city. Suleiman was directly responsible for Constantinople's "face lifting." He gave orders to his builders just as he did to his generals on the battlefield. The people lived in a well-ordered city. It was divided into four quarters for administrative purposes, and the officials, judges and patrols of the Sultan enforced respect for law and order. They collected taxes; they supervised commerce; they kept the thronged streets of Constantinople free of thieves. The Ottoman Empire was less easy to regulate. Stretching from Budapest to Baghdad, it comprised provinces and peoples entirely different in their beliefs, habits, customs, traditions and aspirations. Unity demanded that their laws be synchronized, at least on fundamentals. The Sultan accomplished this task by leaving localities to their own practices as far as was consistent with imperial needs.

Thus, while he made no attempt to impose the conditions of Turkish bazaars on Hungarian markets, or Turkish land ownership on Morocco, he did impose everywhere his rules concerning commercial honesty and equitable taxation. He caused the codification of laws to be promulgated throughout his territories. They worked so well that Suleiman revived memories of a predecessor in Constantinople, the illustrious Byzantine Emperor, Justinian. Another lawgiver had appeared—Suleiman the Lawgiver. The Sultan was the undisputed head of the government. He was not, at the same time, an arbitrary despot. He observed the Law of Islam and the laws that he himself had issued to his subjects. He allowed his subordinates proper latitude in carrying out their assignments, and he chose them for their ability. The Austrian Ambassador, Ghiselain de Busbecq, testifies to the democracy of the system.

"In making his appointments, the Sultan pays no regard to any pretensions on the score of wealth or rank, nor does he take into consideration recommendations or popularity; he considers each case on its own merits, and examines carefully into the character, ability and disposition of the man whose promotion is in question." So were filled the government posts, the highest of which belonged to the Divan, the Council of State, which met in the Hall of Audiences at the Palace. Here major affairs of domestic and foreign policy were decided. Here arriving ambassadors walked into the splendor of the regime as they moved between glittering ranks of courtiers to the throne on which the Sultan sat. Envoys from friendly states received invitations to visit the royal apartments. They dined with the Sultan on golden plates. They answered his astute questions about conditions in Europe or Africa. They listened to him as he talked with poets and historians or examined the polished work of his jewelers. It was always a treat for them when they were invited to sail across the Bosphorus aboard the royal barge and to stroll with him through the court gardens on the opposite shore. They found their host a cultured man.

Often enough he could speak to them in their own languages, for he had become a proficient linguist in order to converse with his officers who came from his border provinces. He not only loved literature but wrote verses of his own. He was merciful by temperament and by philosophy. "I amnesty prisoners," he said, "to make useful citizens of them." His piety was so marked a trait of his character that he prized the title "Commander of the Faithful" above all others. He took his duties so seriously and performed them so ably that he left an imperial heritage to his successor on his death in 1566. He bequeathed to posterity the memory of a golden epoch above Constantinople's Golden Horn—the epoch of Suleiman the Magnificent. This article appeared on pages 8-10 of the March/April 1964 print edition of Saudi Aramco World. Suleyman I biography, birth date, birth place and pictures Email Print Suleyman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566.

Suleyman I (also Suleiman the Magnificent) was the greatest sultan of the Ottomans and one of the 16th century's most formidable conquerors. He succeeded his father, Selim I, as sultan in 1520 and soon began expanding the empire, conquering Belgrade (1521) and Rhodes (1522) before turning his attention to Persia in the 1530s. Suleyman also captured Baghdad (1534) and Tabriz (1535) and battled Emperor Charles V over Hungary and Austria in the 1540s. He also sent naval forces to North Africa and conquered Tripoli in 1551. Suleyman transformed Istanbul into a model of human achievement in architecture and the arts and reconstructed the Ottoman legal system, and he is considered one of Islam's great poets.

A brilliant strategist and administrator, he was known in Europe as "Suleyman the Magnificent" and to his subjects as "Suleyman the Law Giver." Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent Sultan Suleiman I (1494 - 1520 - 1566 (72)) ï¿½The Magnificentï¿½ and ï¿½The Law Giverï¿½ reigned for 46 years from 1520 as the tenth and greatest ruler of the Ottoman Empire. His father, Selim I ("the Grim"), who ruled from 1512 to 1520, had conquered Egypt and become the first Sultan to also take the title of Caliph. Selim had all of Suleimanï¿½s brothers and close male relatives put to death, thus ensuring a smooth succession. Luckily, he chose the right guy to keep alive. During Suleimanï¿½s long rule (which was also the time in which the Nation State structure of Europe was firming up) the geographic bounds of the Ottoman Empire reached what proved to be their maximum extent.

The Ottomans controlled the Mediterranean and in the North their armies knocked on the gates of Vienna (but did not get in) after overrunning Hungary, and Habsburg Emperor Charles V was humiliated into signing the Treaty of Constantinople. In the East he reached Tabriz and conquered Baghdad in 1534 - the Baghdad Pavilion in the Topkapi Palace was built to celebrate this victory. Outside of hands-on generalship, Suleiman "The Law Giver" drove the development of a legal system which codified the rights and duties of all the citizens of his huge domains. He promoted art and architecture, and was himself no mean poet, often writing of his love for his chief wife - Roxelana. This arresting portrait is the sole survivor of a series of artist's workshop copies made of an original painted by the Venetian artist Titian (1487 - 1576 (89)). It was common in this era for several workshop copies of originals to be made.

The original was done for Federico Gonzaga around 1538, and subsequently disappeared around the time that many other Gonzaga paintings were bought by King Charles I of England, whose promising career as an art collector was brought to an abrupt halt by Ollie Cromwell. We stood for some time in front of this painting (which is quite cracked up when seen face to face) when it was was exhibited in the 2002 blockbuster Gonzaga exhibition in Mantova . It's is usually on show in Vienna in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Schloss Ambras. Despite its appearance, neither Titian nor, as far as is known, any other western artist ever actually came face to face with Suleiman, and it must have been a bit of a challenge finding images (probably from coins / medals) to work from. The Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent The Ottoman Imperial Chancellery in Istanbul issued some of the most magnificent official documents ever produced by any civil service. Important documents were surmounted with the Sultanï¿½s Tughra - his official monogram, always elaborately and intricately decorated.

The Tughra consisted of the Sultanï¿½s name and that of his father (here Suleiman and Selim Shah) and usually the attribute ï¿½al-muzaffar daï¿½imanï¿½ - ï¿½ever victoriousï¿½. Only the ï¿½Sï¿½ shaped lines at the top, on the so-called ï¿½tighï¿½ are purely decorative, the remaining strokes being part of the name and attribute. A wooden block stamp ("chop" in the Japanese tradition) would often be used for less important everyday documents. Wonderful representations of Tughras are to be seen on many of the walls and portals in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Left: "Suleiman the Magnificent, taken ill during the Szigetvar Campaign, is helped by his Grand Vizier to dismount his horse and go into his carriage". Suleiman died on 7 September 1566 aged 72 whilst besieging Sziget in Hungary. The three images below are taken from the catalogue for the British Museum Suleiman exhibition staged in 1988.

The Zenith of an Empire: The Glory of the Suleiman the Magnificent and the ... - Syed Z. Ahmed - Google Books 0 Reviews This is the biography of one of the greatest and most formidable rulers of the world. Known to the Europeans as Suleiman the Magnificent and by the Turks as the Lawgiver, he was a giant figure on the stage of Reformation Europe, while his rule during the sixteenth century was an amazingly creative and dynamic period for the Turkish Empire in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Regarded as perhaps the greatest Turk ever born, Suleiman took the Ottoman Empire to the zenith of its military might and cultural flowering. From inside the book What people are saying - Write a review We haven't found any reviews in the usual places. Contents Suleyman I biography | birthday, trivia | Sultan | Who2 Suleyman I Biography Sultan Suleyman I (also Suleiman) was the greatest sultan of the Ottomans and one of the 16th century’s most formidable conquerors.

He succeeded his father, Selim I, as sultan in 1520 and soon began expanding the empire, conquering Belgrade (1521) and Rhodes (1522) before turning his attention to Persia in the 1530s. Suleyman also captured Baghdad (1534) and Tabriz (1535) and battled Emperor Charles V over Hungary and Austria in the 1540s. He also sent naval forces to North Africa and conquered Tripoli in 1551. Suleyman transformed Istanbul into a model of human achievement in architecture and the arts and reconstructed the Ottoman legal system, and he is considered one of Islam’s great poets. A brilliant strategist and administrator, he was known in Europe as “Suleyman the Magnificent” and to his subjects as “Suleyman the Law Giver.”

Question: Which Emperor of the Ottoman Empire was known as 'The Magnificent' or 'The Law Giver'?
Answer: Suleiman