Eleventh Sultan Of The Ottoman Empire Sultan Selim II - YouTube Eleventh Sultan Of The Ottoman Empire Sultan Selim II Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jan 4, 2014 Selim II (Ottoman Turkish: سليم ثانى Selīm-i sānī, Turkish:II.Selim; 28 May 1524 -- 12 December/15 December 1574), also known as "Selim the Sot (Mest)" and as "Sarı Selim" (Selim the Blond), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1566 until his death in 1574. He was born in Constantinople a son of Suleiman the Magnificent and his favourite Ukrainian wife, Hürrem Sultan.

In 1545, at Konya, he married Nurbanu Sultan, originally named Rachel Nasi (or Kale Katenou), mother of Murad III, who later became the first Valide Sultan who acted as co-regent with the sultan in the Sultanate of Women. After gaining the throne after palace intrigue and fraternal dispute, he succeeded as Sultan on 7 September 1566, According to one source Selim II became the first Sultan devoid of active military interest and willing to abandon power to his ministers, provided he was left free to pursue his orgies and debauches. Therefore, he became known as Selim the Drunkard. His Grand Vizier, Mehmed Sokollu, from what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, controlled much of state affairs, and two years after Selim's accession succeeded in concluding at Constantinople an honourable treaty (17 February 1568) with the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian II, whereby the Emperor agreed to pay an annual "present" of 30,000 ducats and essentially granted the Ottomans authority in Moldavia and Walachia.

Against Russia Selim was less fortunate, and the first encounter between the Ottoman Empire and her future northern rival gave presage of disaster to come. A plan had been prepared in Constantinople for uniting the Volga and Don by a canal, and in the summer of 1569 a large force of Janissaries and cavalry were sent to lay siege to Astrakhan and begin the canal works, while an Ottoman fleet besieged Azov. But a sortie of the garrison of Astrakhan drove back the besiegers; a Russian relief army of 15,000 attacked and scattered the workmen and the Tatar force sent for their protection; and finally, the Ottoman fleet was destroyed by a storm. Early in 1570 the ambassadors of Ivan IV of Russia concluded at Constantinople a treaty which restored friendly relations between the Sultan and the Tsar. Expeditions in the Hejaz and Yemen were more successful, but the conquest of Cyprus in 1571, which provided Selim with his favourite vintage, led to the calamitous naval defeat against Spain and Italian states in the Battle of Lepanto in the same year, freeing the Mediterranean Sea from corsairs.

The Empire's shattered fleets were soon restored (in just six months; it consisted of about 150 galleys and 8 galleasses) and the Ottomans maintained control of the Mediterranean (1573). In August 1574, months before Selim's death, the Ottomans regained control of Tunisia from Spain who had controlled it since 1572. Marks of decay Scottish historian Lord Kinross, in his The Seeds of Decline, sees the massive outlay for the fleet-rebuilding following the Battle of Lepanto as the start of the Empire's slow decay. Kinross also says that Selim's reputation for drunkenness was solidified in his decision to invade Cyprus rather than supporting the Morisco Revolt (1568--1571) in Granada as well as in the manner of his death; Selim died in the Topkapı Palace after a period of fever brought on when he drunkenly slipped over on the wet floor of an unfinished bath-house, getting a head injury. Category 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. Suleiman the Magnificent, Topkapi Palace and the Ottomans Sultan Mehmet II ï¿½The Conquerorï¿½ (1429 - 1451 - 1481 (52)) Reigned from 1451 to 1481 as the seventh in the line of ten outstandingly talented Ottoman rulers, starting with Osman (1259-1326 (67)), who set up the Ottoman Empire. He captured Constantinople in 1453, bringing to an end the 1,100 year Eastern Roman Empire (known to history but not to its participants as the Byzantine Empire), established there by Constantine in the year 324. The city was rebuilt as the capital of an empire which lasted for nearly another 500 years until 1922.

Its name was only changed officially to Istanbul in 1930, although unofficially it had been known as Istanbul by the Turks since before the times of Mehmet. This 1480 painting is by the Venetian painter Gentile Bellini (1429 - 1507) (brother of Giovanni , who was more into Madonnas). Unlike Titian, Bellini actually did visit the Court of the Sultan in Constantinople. However, the provenance of this little National Gallery (London) painting is not clear, especially considering the fact that it has been completely repainted. Buy from Amazon UK The portrait of Mehmet II on the left comes from this amazing high quality good value 35x28cm book of Islamic narrative art, one of our treasures. The painting is attributed to Siblizade Ahmed and can be found in the Topkapi Museum. Barbarossa (c1465 - 1546 (81)) Mehmet forged a relationship with Barbarossa (c1465 - 1546 (81)), a Greek who had converted to Islam with the name Khair ad-Din, to cement Ottoman control of the Southern Mediterranean.

Barbarossa, a military genius comparable to the best that history has produced, went on to consolidate control of the entire Mediterranean for Mehmet's successors Beyazit II, Selim I and Suleiman I. Amongst many other conquests, he took the Puglian port of Otranto in 1537. This miniature painting is from the official archives of the Suleiman reign, and shows the Sultan receiving Barbarossa. The Turkish dominance set up by Barbarossa did not outlast him by many years - on 7 October 1571 the Turkish fleet was soundly and permanently beaten by the combined forces of Venice, the Pope and Spain at the Battle of Lepanto - the last major naval battle between oared vessels. Admiral Piri Re'is (Piri Ibn Haji Memmed, c1470 - 1554 (84)) It was another Turkish Admiral and cartographic buff, Piri Re'is (Piri Ibn Haji Memmed, c1470 - 1554), who produced one of the most extraordinary documents known today.

It is half of a world map (the other half being missing) with annotated comments, dated 1513 and drawn on a gazelle hide (large sheets of paper were not around then), that was discovered during restoration work on the Topkapi Palace in 1929. The comments indicate that the map is a synthesis of a number of source maps held in the old Imperial Library of Constantinople, some possibly from the famous ancient Library of Alexandria and dating back to the three hundreds BC or earlier. The "Piri Re'is" map shows the West coast of Africa, the East coast of South America, and (it is claimed) the North (land) coast of Antarctica, all in amazingly accurate detail. It is the last of these which if true is the most extraordinary, because the last time the Antarctic coastline was visible (i.e. before it got covered by ice and snow) was before 4000BC. It took the modern sonar resources of the US military to confirm that the map does indeed seem to follow the underlying land coastline.

The mystery does not end there, because it is claimed that the accuracy of the map and its projection (centring on Alexandria) means that the ancient mapmakers must have known a lot of maths, and been able to calculate longitude (East-West position) accurately. This was a skill unknown to the classic and medieval worlds - in fact it was thought to have been made possible only after the second half of the seventeen hundreds when the Englishman John Harrison made a sufficiently accurate maritime clock. As you might expect the above interpretations have been been both disputed and also augmented with a lot of "lost civilization" speculation (one of the the main drivers of this being Charles Hapgood and his book "Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings" ). It could also be linked to the claimed Chinese explorations of the early fourteen hundreds (see Gavin Menzies' book "1421" ). The Sultanhamet area of Istanbul - The Blue Mosque is in the foreground, and behind is is Justinian's "Greatest Church in Christendom" - Santa Sophia. The Topkapi Palace occupies the rest of the peninsular - a sprawling complex built over the centuries around a series of large courtyards.

Nothing remains of the Byzantine Imperial Palace, which was located around the area of the Blue Mosque, except for some mosaic flooring that has been uncovered near the long shed structure right of centre at the bottom of the photo. The waterway to the left is the Golden Horn, and at the top is the start of the Bosphorus. 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 Ottoman 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 (this practice was legally recognized in the Ottoman Empire). 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 a contemporary artist's workshop copy of one (now vanished) painted by another Venetian artist Titian (1487 - 1576), sometime between 1530 and 1550.

LINK TO MORE PORTRAITS Roxelana (aka Hurrem) (1500 - 1558 (58)) rose from being a concubine in the imperial harem to Suleiman's very powerful chief wife. Thought to be of Russian origin, she was also the first consort permitted to live within the walls of the Topkapi Palace. (She moved there 'temporarily' whilst the old Harem was being renovated, and then refused to move back). Roxelana stopped at nothing to get her own way. When Suleiman's Grand Vizier and friend from youth, Ibrahim Pasa, became a threat to her position, she persuaded the sultan to have him strangled. Later, Roxelana performed her coup de grace. In 1553 she persuaded Suleiman to have his handsome and popular son and heir, Mustafa, murdered by deaf mutes to clear the way for her own son Selim to inherit the throne. like a Venetian woodcut of Roxelana , it is certain to be apocryphal.

Selim II ï¿½The Sotï¿½, who reigned from 1566 to 1574, was Roxelanaï¿½s son and Suleimanï¿½s successor (after she had organized the murder of the popular and talented Mustafa, his oldest son but by another wife). Unlike his predecessors, Selim was neither general nor statesman, preferring drinking and harem life to the affairs of state. Into this power vacuum stepped his principal wife Nur Banu (actually an Italian from Venice - really!), who took over effective power as the first of three chief wives / regent mothers in the so called ï¿½Sultanate of Womenï¿½ which lasted for several decades - the others being Kï¿½sem and her daughter in law and murderer Turhan. Corruption and intrigue became endemic, and after Selimï¿½s death Nur Banu is said to have kept her son, Murat III (reigned 1574-1595), distracted by the women of the harem so that she could maintain her control over imperial affairs.

Selim II "The Sot" - portrait by "Nigari" in the Topkapi Museum and the Masterpieces Book above . The Blue Mosque (at dawn) - called blue because of the blue Iznik tilework which dominates its interior. Built on the site of the earlier Byzantine Palace to the design of Imperial Architect Mehmet Aga in 1609 -16, after which several of the stonemasons moved off to Agra in India to help with the Taj Mahal . The Sï¿½leymaniye Mosque, built between 1550-57 to the design of the great architect Sinan, and the final resting place of Suleiman the Magnificent. The Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent Tughras - 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 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. And then there are the tiled and gilt finishes of the legendary Topkapi Palace itself, and the views ...... Turkish miniature painting is amongst the most detailed of the eastern miniature traditions, with plenty of gold leaf for scenes involving Sultans! The three miniatures shown below are in the Topkapi Palace Museum. "Suleiman the Magnificent hunting with Foreign Envoys". Taken from Lokman's "Hunername" (book of accomplishments) 1584 - 1588.

"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 whilst besieging Sziget in Hungary. "Sultan Selim - riding between Kutahya and Belgrade, en route to join the Imperial Army (1568-69)". This painting is from Ahmet Feridun Pasaï¿½s ï¿½an account of secret events on the campaign of Szigetvarï¿½ dated 1568-69. And, of course, no visit to the Topkapi Palace would be complete without sighting the famous jewelled dagger - dangling from a gold chain behind chunky sheets of armoured glass. On the right, some turban accessories.

Selim II (1524 - 1574) - Genealogy Genealogy Join the world's largest family tree Gender Selim II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire public profile Share your family tree and photos with the people you know and love Build your family tree online Share photos and videos Lithuanian: Selimas II, Otomanų imperijos Sultonas Birthdate: Selim II Sarkhosh (Ottoman Turkish: سليم ثانى Selīm-i sānī, Turkish:II.Selim) (Manisa or Constantinople, 28 May 1524 – Topkapi Palace, Contantinople,[1] 12 December/15 December 1574), also known as "Selim the Sot (Mest)" or "Selim the Drunkard", was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1566 until his death. He was a son of Suleiman the Magnificent and his fourth and favourite wife Hürrem Sultan, originally named Roxelana, a Ruthenian.

Marriage In 1545, at Konya, he married Nurbanu Sultan, originally named Cecilia Venier-Baffo, a Venetian noblewoman, and mother of Murad III, who later became the first Valide Sultan who acted as co-regent with the sultan in the Sultanate of Women. Accession After gaining the throne after palace intrigue and fraternal dispute, succeeded as Sultan on 7 September 1566, Selim II became the first Sultan devoid of active military interest and willing to abandon power to his ministers, provided he was left free to pursue his orgies and debauches.

Therefore, he became known as Selim the Drunkard or Selim the Sot (Turkish:Sarhoş Selim).[2] His Grand Vizier, Mehmed Sokollu, a Serbian devsirme from what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, controlled much of state affairs, and two years after Selim's accession succeeded in concluding at Constantinople an honourable treaty (17 February 1568) with the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian II, whereby the Emperor agreed to pay an annual "present" of 30,000 ducats and essentially granted the Ottomans authority in Moldavia and Walachia. Sultan Selim II receiving the Safavid ambassador in the palace at Edirne in 1567.Against Russia Selim was less fortunate, and the first encounter between the Ottoman Empire and her future northern rival gave presage of disaster to come.

A plan had been prepared in Istanbul for uniting the Volga and Don by a canal, and in the summer of 1569 a large force of Janissaries and cavalry were sent to lay siege to Astrakhan and begin the canal works, while an Ottoman fleet besieged Azov. But a sortie of the garrison of Astrakhan drove back the besiegers; a Russian relief army of 15,000 attacked and scattered the workmen and the Tatar force sent for their protection; and finally, the Ottoman fleet was destroyed by a storm. Early in 1570 the ambassadors of Ivan IV of Russia concluded at Constantinople a treaty which restored friendly relations between the Sultan and the Tsar. 16th century copy of the 1569 Capitulations between Charles IX and Selim II.Expeditions in the Hejaz and Yemen were more successful, but the conquest of Cyprus in 1571, which provided Selim with his favourite vintage, led to the calamitous naval defeat against Spain and Italian states at Lepanto in the same year, freeing the Mediterranean Sea from corsairs.

The Empire's shattered fleets were soon restored (in just six months; it consisted of about 150 galleys and 8 galleasses) and the Ottomans maintained control of the Mediterranean (1573). In August 1574, months before Selim's death, the Ottomans regained control of Tunisia from Spain who had controlled it since 1572. Marks of decay Lord Patrick Kinross' account of Selim's reign is how he starts a chapter of his book called "The Seeds of Decline". He sees the massive outlay for the fleet-rebuilding following the Battle of Lepanto as the start of the Empire's slow decay. Kinross also says that Selim's reputation for drunkenness was solidified in his decision to invade Cyprus rather than supporting the Morisco Revolt in Granada as well as in the manner of his death; Selim died after a period of fever brought on when he drunkenly slipped over on the wet floor of an unfinished bath-house (Kinross 1977, p. 273).

Notes 1.^ Finkel, Caroline, Osman's Dream, (Basic Books, 2005), 57;"Istanbul was only adopted as the city's official name in 1930.." 2.^ New international encyclopedia, Vol.20, (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1916), 684. References ■Finkel, Caroline, Osman's Dream, Basic Books, 2005. ■New International Encyclopedia, Vol.20, Dodd, Mead and Company, 1916.

Further Reading ■Ancestry of Sultana Nur-Banu (Cecilia Venier-Baffo) ( ) ■Patrick Balfour Kinross, Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire (1977), ISBN 0-688-08093-6 ■John Julius Norwich, A History of Venice (1989), ISBN 0679721975 ■John Julius Norwich, A History of Venice (1989), ISBN 0679721975 He was born in Constantinople[1][2] a son of Suleiman the Magnificent and his legal Ukrainian wife, Hürrem Sultan.[3] In 1545, at Konya, he married Nurbanu Sultan whose background is disputed. It is said that she was originally named Cecelia Venier Baffo, or Rachel, (or Kale Katenou). She was the mother of Murad III .

She later became the first Valide Sultan who acted as co-regent with the sultan in the Sultanate of Women.[4] After gaining the throne after palace intrigue and fraternal dispute, he succeeded as Sultan on 7 September 1566, According to one source Selim II became the first Sultan devoid of active military interest and willing to abandon power to his ministers, provided he was left free to pursue his orgies and debauches. His Grand Vizier, Mehmed Sokollu, from what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, controlled much of state affairs, and two years after Selim's accession succeeded in concluding at Constantinople an honourable treaty (17 February 1568) with the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian II, whereby the Emperor agreed to pay an annual "present" of 30,000 ducats and essentially granted the Ottomans authority in Moldavia and Walachia. Against Russia Selim was less fortunate, and the first encounter between the Ottoman Empire and her future northern rival gave presage of disaster to come.

A plan had been prepared in Constantinople for uniting the Volga and Don by a canal, and in the summer of 1569 a large force of Janissaries and cavalry were sent to lay siege to Astrakhan and begin the canal works, while an Ottoman fleet besieged Azov. But a sortie of the garrison of Astrakhan drove back the besiegers; a Russian relief army of 15,000 attacked and scattered the workmen and the Tatar force sent for their protection; and finally, the Ottoman fleet was destroyed by a storm. Early in 1570 the ambassadors of Ivan IV of Russia concluded at Constantinople a treaty which restored friendly relations between the Sultan and the Tsar. Expeditions in the Hejaz and Yemen were more successful, but the conquest of Cyprus in 1571, which provided Selim with his favourite vintage, led to the calamitous naval defeat against Spain and Italian states in the Battle of Lepanto in the same year, freeing the Mediterranean Sea from corsairs.

The Empire's shattered fleets were soon restored (in just six months; it consisted of about 150 galleys and 8 galleasses) and the Ottomans maintained control of the Mediterranean (1573). In August 1574, months before Selim's death, the Ottomans regained control of Tunisia from Spain who had controlled it since 1572.

Children[edit] Boys Şehzade Abdullah (b.1543, Manisa.-d.1568, murdered), son of Selimiye Sultan Murad III (b.1546, Manisa.-d.1595, Istanbul), son of Nurbanu Sultan Girls Esmehan Sultan (b.1544, Manisa.-d.1585, Istanbul), daughter of Nurbanu Sultan Gevherhan Sultan (b.1544, Manisa.-d.1580, Istanbul), daughter of Selimiye Sultan Şah Sultan (b.1548, Manisa.-d.1602, Istanbul), daughter of Nurbanu Sultan Fatma Sultan (b.1549, Manisa.-d.1580. Istanbul), daughter of Nurbanu Sultan Selim II between reality and myths[edit] The discussion about the personality of Sultan Selim II goes back centuries, he was most likely the center of discussion even in the period of time in which he lived.

This would be understandable, as his father, Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, would be difficult to surpass in greatness.[5] Actual imperial orders from the Sultan seem hardly able to fit within the uncited fictional character seeking to escape Islam’s commandments to pursue Western frivolities. On the contrary, imperial orders show firm resolve to ease the burden of those engaging in the strenuous Hajj pilgrimage, and special consideration for Muslims living under the subjugation of intolerant colonialists. An excerpt of an imperial order from the Sultan: "..because the accursed Portuguese are everywhere owing to their hostilities against India, and the routes by which Muslims come to the Holy Places are obstructed and moreover, it is not considered lawful for the people of Islam to live under the power of miserable infidels … you are to gather together all the expert architects and engineers of that place and investigate the land between the Mediterranean and the Red Seas and report where it is possible to make a canal in that desert place and how long it would be and how many boats could pass side by side."[6] Many Western sources created the common story that Sultan Selim II was actually controlled by his Grand Vizir.

This theory has left out important information contained within Ottoman Archives where Sultan Selim II was often deciding between various Vezirs and creating his own hierarchies of authority: "In 1568 a strong expedition was sent to pacify the province under the command of Sultan Selim’s former tutor and confidant Lala Mustafa Pasha, a choice which showed that Selim was not entirely the pawn of his grand vezir, for Sokullu Mehmed resented Lala Mustafa’s place in the Sultan’s affections. To put down the uprising in Yemen Lala Mustafa needed men and supplies from Egypt but the provincial governor, another rival Koca Sinan Pasha, refused his requests and made it impossible for him to pursue the campaign. In a spate of petitions to the Sultan the two defended their respective positions. Koca Sinan proved the stronger and Lala Mustafa was dismissed from command of the Yemen campaign. To mark his continuing favour, however, Selim created for him the position of sixth vezir of the governing council of the empire.

-Osman’s Dream by Caroline Finkel".[7] Marks of decay[edit] Scottish historian Lord Kinross, in his The Seeds of Decline, sees the massive outlay for the fleet-rebuilding following the Battle of Lepanto as the start of the Empire's slow decay, although many historians confirm the Empire's decay started with Murad III his son. Sultan Selim II died in Topkapi Palace after a period of fever brought on when he slipped over on the wet floor of an unfinished bath-house, getting a head injury.[8] О Selim II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (русский) Селим II, наричан по прякор Пияницата, е 11-ият султан на Османската империя. Завзел е Йемен и о-в Крит. По негово време флотът претърпява поражение в битката при Лепанто.Той е син на Сюлейман Великолепни или Сюлейман Законодател (на турски Кануни).

През 1545 година в Кония се жени за Nurbanu Sultan (Cecilia Venier-Baffo). Най-любимата му съпруга била четвъртата Hurrem Sultan (сменила името си на Рокселана). Selim II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire's Timeline 1524 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.

Question: In which palace is the throne of Ottoman Emperor Selim 1st?
Answer: Topkapi