Everything about Suleiman I totally explained
Suleiman I (
Sulaymān, ; almost always
Kanuni Sultan Süleyman) (
November 6,
1494 –
September 5/
6,
1566), was the tenth and longest-reigning
Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in
the West as
Suleiman the Magnificent and in
the East, as
the Lawgiver (in Turkish
Kanuni;,
al‐Qānūnī), for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system. Suleiman became the pre-eminent monarch of 16th century Europe, presiding over the apex of the Ottoman Empire's military, political and economic power. Suleiman personally led Ottoman armies to conquer the Christian strongholds of
Belgrade,
Rhodes, and most of
Hungary before his conquests were checked at the
Siege of Vienna in 1529. He annexed most of the
Middle East in his conflict with the
Persians and large swaths of
North Africa as far west as
Algeria. Under his rule, the Ottoman fleet dominated the seas from the
Mediterranean to the
Red Sea and the
Persian Gulf.
At the helm of an expanding empire, Suleiman personally instituted legislative changes relating to society, education, taxation, and criminal law. His canonical law (or the
Kanuns) fixed the form of the empire for centuries after his death. Not only was Suleiman a distinguished poet and goldsmith in his own right; he also became a great patron of culture, overseeing the golden age of the Ottoman Empire's
artistic,
literary and
architectural development.
In a break with Ottoman tradition, Suleiman married a
harem girl
Roxelana, who became
Hürrem Sultan; her intrigues as queen in the court and power over the Sultan have become as famous as Suleiman himself. Their son,
Selim II, succeeded Suleiman following his death in 1566 after 46 years of rule.
Early life
Suleiman was born in
Trabzon along the coast of the
Black Sea, probably on
November 6 1494. At the age of seven, he was sent to study
science,
history,
literature,
theology, and
military tactics in the schools of the
Topkapı Palace in
Istanbul. As a young man, he befriended
Ibrahim, a slave who later became one of his most trusted advisers. From the age of seventeen, young Suleiman was appointed as the governor of first
Kaffa (Theodosia), then Sarukhan (
Manisa) with a brief tenure at
Edirne (Adrianople). Upon the death of his father,
Selim I (1465–1520), Suleiman entered Istanbul and acceded to the throne as the tenth Ottoman Sultan. An early description of Suleiman, a few weeks following his accession, was provided by the
Venetian envoy
Bartolomeo Contarini: "He is twenty-five years of age, tall, but wiry, and of a delicate complexion. His neck is a little too long, his face thin, and his nose aquiline. He has a shade of a moustache and a small beard; nevertheless he's a pleasant mien, though his skin tends to pallor. He is said to be a wise Lord, fond of study, and all men hope for good from his rule." Some historians claim that in his youth Suleiman had an admiration for
Alexander the Great. He was influenced by Alexander's vision of building a world empire that would encompass the east and the west, and this created a drive for his subsequent military campaigns in Asia and in Africa, as well as in Europe.
Military campaigns
Conquests in Europe
Upon succeeding his father, Suleiman began a series of military conquests, first putting down a revolt led by the Ottoman-appointed governor of
Damascus in 1521. Suleiman soon made preparations for the conquest of
Belgrade from the
Kingdom of Hungary—something his great-grandfather
Mehmed II had failed to achieve. Its capture was vital in eliminating the Hungarians who, following the defeats of the
Serbs,
Bulgarians and
Byzantines, remained the only formidable force who could block further Ottoman gains in Europe. Suleiman encircled
Belgrade and began a series of heavy bombardments from an island in the
Danube. With a garrison of only 700 men, and receiving no aid from Hungary, Belgrade fell in August 1521.
News of the conquest of one of Christendom's major strongholds spread fear across Europe. As the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire to Istanbul was to note, "The capture of Belgrade was at the origin of the dramatic events which engulfed Hungary. It led to the death of
King Louis, the capture of
Buda, the occupation of
Transylvania, the ruin of a flourishing kingdom and the fear of neighbouring nations that they'd suffer the same fate…"
The road to Hungary and
Austria lay open, but Suleiman diverted his attention to the Eastern
Mediterranean island of
Rhodes whose proximity to
Asia Minor and the
Levant had posed a perennial problem to Ottoman interests. In the summer of 1522, taking advantage of the navy he inherited from his father, Suleiman dispatched an armada of some 400 ships whilst personally leading an army of 100,000 across Asia Minor to a point opposite the island. Following a
siege of five months with brutal encounters, Rhodes capitulated and Suleiman allowed the
Knights of Rhodes to depart and form their new base in Malta.
As relations between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire deteriorated, Suleiman resumed his campaign in Eastern Europe and on
August 29,
1526, he defeated
Louis II of Hungary (1506–26) at the
Battle of Mohács. In its wake, Hungarian resistance collapsed and the Ottoman Empire became the pre-eminent power in Eastern Europe. Upon encountering the lifeless body of King Louis, Suleiman is said to have lamented: "I came indeed in arms against him; but it wasn't my wish that he should be thus cut off while he scarcely tasted the sweets of life and royalty."
Under
Charles V and his brother Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, the
Habsburgs reoccupied Buda and took Hungary. As a result, in 1529, Suleiman once again marched through the valley of the Danube and regained control of Buda and in the following autumn laid
siege to Vienna. It was to be the Ottoman Empire's most ambitious expedition and the apogee of its drive towards the West. With a reinforced garrison of 16,000 men, the Austrians inflicted upon Suleiman his first defeat, sowing the seeds of a bitter Ottoman-Habsburg rivalry which lasted until the 20th century. A second attempt to conquer Vienna failed in 1532, with Suleiman retreating before reaching the city. In both cases, the Ottoman army was plagued by bad weather (forcing them to leave behind essential siege equipment) and was hobbled by overstretched supply lines.
By the 1540s a renewal of the conflict in Hungary presented Suleiman with the opportunity to avenge the defeat suffered at Vienna. Some Hungarian nobles proposed that
Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (1519–64), who was ruler of neighbouring
Austria and tied to Louis II's family by marriage, be King of Hungary, citing previous agreements that the
Habsburgs would take the Hungarian throne if Louis died without heirs. However, other nobles turned to the nobleman
John Zápolya who, being supported by Suleiman, remained unrecognized by the Christian powers of Europe. In 1541 the Habsburgs once again engaged in conflict with the Ottomans, attempting to lay siege to Buda. With their efforts repulsed, and more Habsburg fortresses captured as a result, Ferdinand and his brother Charles V were forced to conclude a humiliating five-year treaty with Suleiman. Ferdinand renounced his claim to the Kingdom of Hungary and was forced to pay a fixed yearly sum to the Sultan for the Hungarian lands he continued to control. Of more symbolic importance, the treaty referred to Charles V not as 'Emperor', but in rather plainer terms as the 'King of Spain', leading Suleiman to consider himself the true 'Caesar'.
With his main European rivals subdued, Suleiman had assured the Ottoman Empire a powerful role in the political landscape of Europe.
Conquests in Asia
As Suleiman stabilized his European frontiers, he now turned his attention to the ever present threat posed by the
Shi'a Safavid dynasty of
Persia (
Iran). Two events in particular were to precipitate a recurrence of tensions. First,
Shah Tahmasp had the
Baghdad governor loyal to Suleiman killed and replaced with an adherent of the Shah, and second, the governor of Bitlis had defected and sworn allegiance to the Safavids. As a result, in 1533, Suleiman ordered his Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha to lead an army into Asia where he retook
Bitlis and occupied
Tabriz without resistance. Having joined Ibrahim in 1534, Suleiman made a push towards Persia, only to find the Shah sacrificing territory instead of facing a pitched battle, resorting to harassment of the Ottoman army as it proceeded along the harsh interior. When in the following year Suleiman and Ibrahim made a grand entrance into
Baghdad, its commander surrendered the city, thereby confirming Suleiman as the leader of the Islamic world and the legitimate successor to the
Abbasid Caliphs.
Attempting to defeat the Shah once and for all, Suleiman embarked upon a second campaign in 1548–1549. As in the previous attempt, Tahmasp avoided confrontation with the Ottoman army and instead chose to retreat, torching
Azerbaijan in the process and exposing the Ottoman army to the harsh winter of the
Caucasus.
In 1553 Suleiman began his third and final campaign against the Shah. Having initially lost territories in
Erzurum to the Shah's son, Suleiman retaliated by recapturing Erzurum, crossing the Upper
Euphrates and laying waste to parts of Persia. The Shah's army continued its strategy of avoiding the Ottomans, leading to a stalemate from which neither army made any significant gain. In 1554, a settlement was signed which was to conclude Suleiman's Asiatic campaigns. It included the return of Tabriz, but secured Baghdad, lower
Mesopotamia, the mouths of the river Euphrates and
Tigris, as well as part of the
Persian Gulf. The Shah also promised to cease all raids into Ottoman territory.
Mediterranean and North Africa
Having consolidated his conquests on land, Suleiman was greeted with the news that the fortress of
Koroni in
Morea (the modern
Peloponnese) had been lost to
Charles V's admiral,
Andrea Doria. The presence of the Spanish in the Eastern Mediterranean concerned Suleiman, who saw it as an early indication of Charles V's intention to rival Ottoman dominance in the region. Recognizing the need to reassert the navy's preeminence in the
Mediterranean, Suleiman appointed an exceptional naval commander in the form of
Khair ad Din, known to Europeans as
Barbarossa. Once appointed admiral-in-chief, Barbarossa was charged with rebuilding the Ottoman fleet, to such an extent that the Ottoman navy equalled in number those of all other Mediterranean countries put together. In 1535 Charles V won an important victory against the Ottomans at
Tunis, which together with the war against
Venice the following year, led Suleiman to accept proposals from
Francis I of France to form an alliance against Charles. The piracy carried on thereafter by the
Barbary pirates of North Africa can be seen in the context of the wars against Spain. For a short period Ottoman expansion secured naval dominance in the Mediterranean. Ottoman navies also controlled the
Red Sea, and held the
Persian Gulf until 1554, when their ships were defeated by the navy of the
Portuguese Empire. The Portuguese had taken
Ormus (in the
Strait of Hormuz) in 1515 and would continue to vie with Suleiman's forces for control of
Aden, in present-day
Yemen.
In 1542, facing a common Hapsburg enemy, Francis I sought to renew the Franco-Ottoman alliance. As a result, Suleiman dispatched 100 galleys under Barbarossa to assist the French in the western Mediterranean. Barbarossa pillaged the coast of
Naples and
Sicily before reaching France where Francis made
Toulon the Ottoman admirals naval headquarters. The same campaign had seen Barbarossa attack and capture
Nice in 1543. By 1544, a peace between Francis I and Charles V had put a temporary end to the alliance between France and the Ottoman Empire.
Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, when the Knights Hospitallers were re-established as the
Knights of Malta in 1530, their actions against Muslim navies quickly drew the ire of the Ottomans who assembled another massive army in order to dislodge the Knights from Malta. The Ottomans invaded in 1565, undertaking the
Great Siege of Malta, which began on
May 18 and lasted until
September 8, and is portrayed vividly in the frescoes of
Matteo Perez d'Aleccio in the Hall of St. Michael and St. George. At first it seemed that this would be a repeat of the battle on
Rhodes, with most of Malta's cities destroyed and half the Knights killed in battle; but a relief force from
Spain entered the battle, resulting in the loss of 30,000 Ottoman troops.
Administrative reforms
Whilst Sultan Suleiman was known as "the Magnificent" in the West, he was always
Kanuni Suleiman or "The Lawgiver" to his own Ottoman subjects. As the historian
Lord Kinross notes, "Not only was he a great military campaigner, a man of the sword, as his father and great-grandfather had been before him. He differed from them in the extent to which he was also a man of the pen. He was a great legislator, standing out in the eyes of his people as a high-minded sovereign and a magnanimous exponent of justice". The overriding law of the empire was the
Shari'ah, or Sacred Law, which as the divine law of
Islam was outside of the Sultan's powers to change. Yet an area of distinct law known as the
Kanuns (canonical legislation) was dependent on Suleiman's will alone, covering areas such as criminal law, land tenure and taxation. He collected all the judgments that had been issued by the nine Ottoman Sultans who preceded him. After eliminating duplications and choosing between contradictory statements, he issued a single legal code, all the while being careful not to violate the basic laws of Islam. It was within this framework that Suleiman sought to reform the legislation to adapt to a rapidly changing empire. When the Kanun laws attained their final form, the code of laws became known as the
kanun‐i Osmani, or the "Ottoman laws". Suleiman's legal code was to last more than three hundred years.
Suleiman gave particular attention to the plight of the
rayas, Christian subjects who worked the land of the
Sipahis. His Kanune Raya, or "Code of the Rayas", reformed the law governing levies and taxes to be paid by the rayas, raising their status above serfdom to the extent that Christian
serfs would migrate to Turkish territories to benefit from the reforms. The Sultan also played a role in protecting the Jewish subjects of his empire for centuries to come. In late 1553 or 1554, on the suggestion of his favorite doctor and dentist, the Spanish Jew
Moses Hamon, the Sultan issued a
firman formally denouncing
blood libels against the Jews. Furthermore, Suleiman enacted new criminal and police legislation, prescribing a set of fines for specific offences, as well as reducing the instances requiring death or mutilation. In the area of taxation, taxes were levied on various goods and produce, including animals, mines, profits of trade, and import-export duties. In addition to taxes, officials who had fallen into disrepute were likely to have their land and property confiscated by the Sultan.
Education was another important area for the Sultan. Schools attached to mosques and funded by religious foundations provided a largely free education to Muslim boys in advance of the Christian countries of the time. In his capital, Suleiman increased the number of
mektebs (primary schools) to fourteen, teaching children to read and write as well as the principles of Islam. Children wishing further education could proceed to one of eight
medreses (colleges), whose studies included grammar, metaphysics, philosophy, astronomy, and astrology. Artisans in service of the court included painters, book binders, furriers, jewellers and goldsmiths. Whereas previous rulers had been influenced by
Persian culture (Suleiman's father, Selim I, wrote poetry in Persian), Suleiman's patronage of the arts had seen the Ottoman Empire assert its own artistic legacy.
Suleiman himself was an accomplished poet, writing in Persian and Turkish under the
nom de plume Muhibbi (Lover). Some of Suleiman's verses have become Turkish proverbs, such as the well-known
Everyone aims at the same meaning, but many are the versions of the story. When his young son Mehmed died in 1543, he composed a moving
chronogram to commemorate the year:
Peerless among princes, my Sultan Mehmed. In addition to Suleiman's own work, many great talents enlivened the literary world during Suleiman's rule, including
Fuzuli and
Baki. The literary historian E. J. W. Gibb observed that "at no time, even in Turkey, was greater encouragement given to poetry than during the reign of this Sultan".}}
Suleiman also became renowned for sponsoring a series of monumental
architectural developments within his empire. The Sultan sought to turn Istanbul into the center of Islamic civilization by a series of projects, including bridges, mosques, palaces and various charitable and social establishments. The greatest of these were built by the Sultan's chief architect,
Mimar Sinan, under whom Ottoman architecture reached its zenith. Sinan became responsible for over three hundred monuments throughout the empire, including his two masterpieces, the
Süleymaniye and
Selimiye mosques—the latter built in
Edirne in the reign of Suleiman's son
Selim II. Suleiman also restored the
Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Jerusalem city walls (which are the current walls of the
Old City of Jerusalem), renovated the
Kaaba in
Mecca, and constructed a complex in Damascus.
Personal life
Hurrem Sultan
Suleiman was infatuated with
Hurrem Sultan, a
harem girl of
Ruthenian origin. In the West foreign diplomats, taking notice of the palace gossip about her, called her "Russelazie" or "Roxolana", referring to her Slavic origins. The daughter of an
Orthodox Ukrainian priest, a former concubine had thus become the legal wife of the Sultan, much to the astonishment of observers in the palace and the city. He also allowed Hurrem Sultan to remain with him at court for the rest of her life, breaking another tradition—that when imperial heirs came of age, they'd be sent along with the imperial concubine who bore them to govern remote provinces of the Empire, never to return unless their progeny succeeded to the throne.
Under his pen name, Muhibbi, Suleiman composed this poem for Roxolana:
"Throne of my lonely niche, my wealth, my love, my moonlight.
My most sincere friend, my confidant, my very existence, my Sultan, my one and only love.
The most beautiful among the beautiful…
My springtime, my merry faced love, my daytime, my sweetheart, laughing leaf…
My plants, my sweet, my rose, the one only who doesn't distress me in this world…
My Istanbul, my Caraman, the earth of my Anatolia
My Badakhshan, my Baghdad and Khorasan
My woman of the beautiful hair, my love of the slanted brow, my love of eyes full of mischief…
I'll sing your praises always
I, lover of the tormented heart, Muhibbi of the eyes full of tears, I'm happy."
Ibrahim Pasha
Pargalı İbrahim Pasha was the boyhood friend of Suleiman. Ibrahim was originally
Greek Orthodox and when young was educated at the
Palace School under the
devshirme system. Suleiman made him the royal
falconer, then promoted him to first officer of the Royal Bedchamber. Ibrahim Pasha rose to
Grand Vizier in 1523 and commander-in-chief of all the armies. Suleiman also conferred upon Ibrahim Pasha the honor of
beylerbey of
Rumelia, granting Ibrahim authority over all Turkish territories in Europe, as well as command of troops residing within them in times of war. According to a 17th century chronicler, Ibrahim had asked Suleiman not to promote him to such high positions, fearing for his safety; to which Suleiman replied that under his reign no matter what the circumstance, Ibrahim would never be put to death.
Yet Ibrahim eventually fell from grace with the Sultan. During his thirteen years as Grand Vizier, his rapid rise to power and vast accumulation of wealth had made Ibrahim many enemies among the Sultan's court. Reports had reached the Sultan of Ibrahim's impudence during a campaign against the Persian Safavid empire: in particular his adoption of the title
serasker sultan was seen as a grave affront to Suleiman.
Suleiman's suspicion of Ibrahim was worsened by a quarrel between the latter and the Minister of Finance Iskender Chelebi. The dispute ended in the disgrace of Chelebi on charges of intrigue, with Ibrahim convincing Suleiman to sentence the Minister to death. Before his death however, Chelebi's last words were to accuse Ibrahim of conspiracy against the Sultan.
Hurrem is usually held at least partly responsible for the intrigues in nominating a successor. Although she was Suleiman's wife, she exercised no official public role as her contemporary in England,
Anne Boleyn, had done. This did not, however, prevent Hurrem from wielding powerful political influence. Since the Empire lacked any formal means of nominating a successor, succession usually involved the death of competing princes in order to avert civil unrest and rebellions. In attempting to avoid the execution of her sons, Hurrem used her influence to eliminate those who supported Mustafa's accession to the throne.
Thus in power struggles apparently instigated by Hurrem, Suleiman had Ibrahim murdered and replaced with her sympathetic son-in-law, Rustem Pasha. By 1552, when the campaign against Persia had begun with Rustem appointed commander-in-chief of the expedition, intrigues against Mustafa began. Rustem sent one of Suleiman's most trusted men to report that since Suleiman wasn't at the head of the army, the soldiers thought the time had come to put a younger prince on the throne; at the same time he spread rumors that Mustafa had proved receptive to the idea. Angered by what he came to believe were Mustafa's plans to claim the throne, the following summer Suleiman summoned him to his tent, stating he'd "be able to clear himself of the crimes he was accused of and would have nothing to fear if he came".
Mustafa was confronted with a choice: either he appeared before his father at the risk of being killed; or, if he refused to attend, he'd be accused of betrayal. In the end, Mustafa chose to enter his father's tent, confident that the support of the army would protect him. Busbecq, who claims to have received an account from an eyewitness, describes Mustafa's final moments. As Mustafa entered his father's tent, Suleiman's
Eunuchs attacked Mustafa, with the young prince putting up a brave defence. Suleiman, separated from the struggle only by the linen hangings of the tent, peered through the chamber of his tent and "directed fierce and threatening glances upon the mutes, and by menacing gestures sternly rebuked their hesitation. Thereupon, the mutes in their alarm, redoubling their efforts, hurled the unhappy Mustafa to the ground and, throwing the bowstring round his neck, strangled him."
Jihangir is said to have died of grief a few months after the news of his half-brother's murder. The two surviving brothers, Bayezid and Selim, were given command in different parts of the empire. Within a few years, however, civil war broke out between the brothers, each supported by his loyal forces. With the aid of his father's army, Selim defeated Bayezid in
Konya in 1559, leading the latter to seek refuge with the Persians along with his four sons. Following diplomatic exchanges, the Sultan demanded from the Persian Shah that Bayezid be either extradited or executed. In return for large amounts of gold, the Shah allowed a Turkish executioner to strangle Bayezid and his four sons, Suleiman, who had set out from Istanbul to command an expedition to Hungary, died before an Ottoman victory at the
Battle of Szigetvár in Hungary.
Legacy
At the time of Suleiman's death the Ottoman Empire, with its unrivaled military strength, economic riches and territorial extent, was the world's foremost power. Suleiman's conquests had brought under the control of the Empire the major
Muslim cities (
Mecca,
Medina,
Jerusalem,
Damascus, and
Baghdad), many
Balkan provinces (reaching present day
Croatia and
Austria), and most of
North Africa. His expansion into Europe had given the Ottoman Turks a powerful presence in the European balance of power. Indeed, such was the perceived threat of the Ottoman Empire under the reign of Suleiman that ambassador
Busbecq warned of Europe's imminent conquest: "On [theTurks'] side are the resources of a mighty empire, strength unimpaired, habituation to victory, endurance of toil, unity, discipline, frugality and watchfulness... Can we doubt what the result will be?...When the Turks have settled with Persia, that'll fly at our throats supported by the might of the whole East; how unprepared we're I dare not say."
Suleiman's legacy was not, however, merely in the military field. The French traveler
Jean de Thévenot a century later bears witness to the "strong agricultural base of the country, the well being of the peasantry, the abundance of staple foods, and the pre-eminence of organization in Suleiman's government". The administrative and legal reforms which earned him the name Law Giver ensured the Empire's survival long after his death, an achievement which "took many generations of decadent heirs to undo".
Through his personal patronage, Suleiman also presided over the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire, representing the pinnacle of the Ottoman Turks' cultural achievement in the realm of architecture, literature, art, theology and philosophy. Today the skyline of the
Bosphorus, and of many cities in modern Turkey and the former Ottoman provinces, are still adorned with the architectural works of
Mimar Sinan. One of these, the
Süleymaniye Mosque, is the final resting place of Suleiman and Hurrem Sultan: they're buried in separate domed mausoleums attached to the mosque.
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