Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I, called the Magnificent, (among Westerners) or Kanuni (among Turks), i.e. the Lawgiver (Modern Turkish: I. Süleyman; Ottoman Turkish: سليمان, Sulaymān; Trabzon, 6 November 1494 - Szigetvár, 6 November September 1566) was sultan and padishah of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until his death, and one of the most important monarchs of 16th-century Europe. He led the Ottoman Empire to its greatest heights. Under his administration the Ottoman state ruled at least 20-25 million people.
He succeeded his father, Sultan Selim I, in September 1520 and began his reign by waging a military campaign against the Christian powers in Central Europe and the Mediterranean. Belgrade fell in 1521; in 1522-1523 it was the turn of Rhodes, torn from the long rule of the Knights of Saint John. In the battle of Mohács, fought in August 1526, Suleiman destroyed the military force of Hungary and the Hungarian King Ludwig II himself lost his life. During his conflict with the Safavids, he also succeeded in annexing much of the Middle East, including Baghdad, and large parts of North Africa as far west as Algeria. Under his command, the Ottoman fleet ruled the seas from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, which ran through the Persian Gulf.
At the head of a sprawling empire, Suleiman promoted major legislative changes in the fields of society, education, taxation, and criminal law. His reforms, carried out in collaboration with the empire's chief judicial officer, Ebussuud Efendi, harmonized the relationship between the two forms of Ottoman law: state law (Kanun) and religious law (Shari'ah). Suleiman was also an excellent poet and goldsmith, as well as a great patron of culture. He oversaw the so-called "Golden Age" of the Ottoman Empire, and consequently encouraged its artistic, literary, and architectural development.
Breaking with Ottoman tradition, Suleiman married Hürrem Sultan, a woman in his harem, a Christian of Ruthenian descent who converted to Islam and was known in the West as Roxelana, presumably because of her red hair. Their son, Selim II, succeeded his father in 1566 on his death after a reign of forty-six years. The other potential heirs (Şehzade Mehmed and Şehzade Mustafa) had already died, the first from smallpox and the second from strangulation. Another son, Şehzade Bayezid, was executed, along with his four sons, in 1561, by order of the sultan himself, after a rebellion he organized. Suleiman's death was long believed to be followed by a period of decline for the empire. This view has since been abandoned, but the end of Suleiman's reign is still frequently seen as a turning point in Ottoman history. Indeed, in the decades following his death, the empire began to undergo major political, institutional, and economic changes, a phenomenon often referred to as the "Ottoman Empire transformation."
Biography
Childhood and rise to power
Little or nothing is known of Suleiman's early life; since at that time there were no concrete reasons to suppose that he would become sultan in the future, the chroniclers did not bother to record any concrete events of his childhood. It is assumed that he may have been born on 6 November 1494 in Trabzon, present-day Turkey, during the time his father Selim ruled that province. His mother, the 17-year-old Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, was probably of royal blood., possibly a daughter of the Crimean Khan Meñli I Giray. It is probable that his education began at the age of seven; he studied the Koran, arithmetic, music, writing, archery, and almost certainly learned the Persian and Arabic languages. As was the custom for sons of high dignitaries, around the age of eleven he was circumcised, left his mother, and went to live in his own residence. At the age of fifteen, his grandfather, Sultan Bayezid II, named him Governor of Karahisar and two years later Governor of Caffa (now Feodosia), a former Genoese colony and crossroads of trade between Iran, India and Europe. On August 6, 1509, Suleiman set out to reach the city and take possession.
In 1512, Selim forced his father, who was sultan, to abdicate while exterminating his brothers and other possible successors, a common practice in the Ottoman royal house, thus ending the civil war and becoming the new legitimate sultan. At this time Suleiman was 17 years old and, in addition to ruling Caffa, he performed other administrative duties on his father's behalf; he participated in a military campaign in Iran, ruled Edirne and fought bandits in Magnesia, where he would later stay from 1512 to take the reins. It was in Magnesia that he became close friends with Pargalı İbrahim Paşa, a slave who later he would become one of his closest advisors. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire, under the leadership of Selim, continued its expansion, defeating the rival Egyptian sultanate of the Circassian Mamluks of the Buryid dynasty. This led the Turks to annex Syria, Egypt, Palestine, and Arabia, which led to their gaining control of the three holy cities of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem.
While the future sultan was in charge of the administration of the empire, his father Selim died while traveling from Constantinople to Edirne. He immediately preferred to keep this news a secret, pending the arrival of his son, to avoid possible uprisings in the ranks of the army. However, once Suleiman arrived at his father's bier, the janissaries, the army's elite foot troops, welcomed the succession and removed their mourning caps without any fuss, thanks in part to the gift of 5,000 aspers per head that the new sultan gave them to guarantee their loyalty. Returning to Constantinople at the head of the funeral procession, on November 1 Suleiman was able to receive the tribute of the high dignitaries, the ulema and the grand mufti, and consequently officially ascended the throne as the tenth Ottoman sultan. Among his first official acts, is the order to build the Yavuz Selim mosque and carry out the usual granting of benefits to members of the army. In addition, he decided to repeal some harsh regulations previously ordered by Selim and freed six hundred Egyptian notables to put an end to the ruthless regime waged by his father in the last years of his life.
However, the first concern for public order came from Syria, where a revolt was underway fomented by Janbirdi al-Ghazali, a high-ranking dignitary who had seized Damascus, Beirut and Tripoli. Suleiman responded quickly, sending a contingent under the command of Ferhad Pasha, who subdued the rebels and crushed the uprising. He had thus shown determination and administrative capacity, characteristics that made him, in the eyes of his subjects, worthy of reign. over an empire that was already vast at the time, dominating the entire Muslim world, and which he would continue to expand throughout his lifetime.
First expansions: Belgrade and Rhodes
.jpg)
Once his authority was established within the Ottoman borders, Suleiman was able to deal with foreign policy. At that time, Europe was experiencing a period of difficulties caused by continuous conflicts and violent internal divisions between Catholicism and Protestantism. To defend the borders of the Holy Roman Empire, Ferdinand of Habsburg, brother of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, stood to the east.
The peace of 1503, signed at the end of the Turkish-Venetian war, provided for the payment of an annual tribute to the Ottomans. The assassination of the envoy who had come to collect the money from the Hungarians was the casus belli for Suleiman to attack the Christians on the Danube with the aim of conquering Belgrade, a strategic city from which he could later advance towards Vienna and Budapest. Throughout the winter of 1520, the empire was busy preparing for the expedition, Suleiman's first. On February 6 of the following year, the army led by the sultan left Constantinople amid lavish celebrations.
After traveling for several months in three columns, the troops assembled under the gates of Belgrade, and consequently began the siege of the city on June 25; the sultan was assisted in directing the operations by his highest dignitaries, including pasha Pargalı İbrahim, grand vizier Piri Mehmed, and Mehmet Beg Mihaloglu, who later became the de facto governor of Wallachia. At first, the city's defense proved effective, but when religious divisions between the embattled Catholics and Orthodox made themselves felt, they paved the way for the Ottomans. Thus, after a long bombardment, Suleiman was able to enter the city on August 29, where he personally recited the Jumu'ah prayer on Friday.
Galvanized by his success in Belgrade, Suleiman resumed the plan drawn up by his father Selim to attack the Christian fortress of Rhodes, an initiative already attempted by Mehmed II without success in 1480. The island of Rhodes, at that time in the hands of the Knights of St. John, posed a real danger to the Ottomans, as it was a base for Christian corsairs who had long attacked Muslim pilgrims on their Hajj journey to Mecca and looted merchant ships. Aware that the Europeans would not intervene because they were busy with internal conflicts, the sultan was determined to put an end to it.
After sending a letter on June 1, 1522, to Grand Master of the Knights Philippe Villiers de l'Isle-Adam demanding the surrender of the island, Suleiman ordered expedition leader Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha to have the Ottoman army abandon the port of Constantinople and sailed with his three hundred ships to Rhodes. A few days later, on June 18, the sultan himself set out overland with a retinue of one hundred thousand men from Üsküdar to make war on the horsemen. Arriving at Kütahya on 2 July, he joined the other forces provided by the beylerbey (governor) of Rumelia and Anatolia. The Ottoman army reached Marmaris on July 28. Saluted by the firing of more than a hundred cannons, the sultan began the siege of Rhodes.
Although Isle-Adam had a small force to defend the city, consisting of about seven thousand soldiers and seven hundred knights, it was well motivated. However, it became clear to the Grand Master that the only possible strategy to stop the two hundred thousand Ottomans was to wait for a rapid intervention by the other Christian forces in Europe. Concerned about the prolongation of the siege, on September 23 Suleiman ordered an assault on the walls of Rhodes, which nevertheless broke the strenuous defense of the knights and cost both sides heavy losses. A new assault attempt on September 12 The following also ended in failure after wounding the ağa (commander) of the Janissaries. On December 10, having lost more than 3,000 soldiers in a single attack a few days earlier, Suleiman offered the Christians to negotiate a surrender. After more thought, Isle-Adam finally realized that it would never receive the help it expected from the Western Christians and that it would not be able to hold the siege much longer. So a surrender agreement was reached allowing the knights to leave the island safely and the remaining inhabitants to be exempted from taxes and devşirme for five years; however, the commanders were unable to stop the Janissaries, who looted the city and desecrated the holy places.
Suleiman personally received the Grand Master before he left the city, treating him friendly and consoling him; the sultan is said to have confided to the 'grand vizier' that he was 'truly sorry to have driven this old man out of his palace'. On January 1, 1523, the surviving knights left the island for Messina in exile (from where, a few years later, they would settle in Malta); Suleiman had triumphed, not without difficulty, once again, and consequently, he sowed terror in the Christian population of Europe.
Internal Affairs
Upon his return to Constantinople, Suleiman appointed his old friend Pargalı İbrahim Paşa grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire and commander of the entire army except for the janissaries, as was customary. The relationship of great friendship and trust between the Sultan and İbrahim has always greatly interested historians and scandalized contemporaries; Born a Christian in 1494 probably in Parga, a former Venetian possession in Epirus, İbrahim was taken prisoner and later offered to Suleiman. Right away he stood out for his intelligence and learning ability, and it was decided that he should receive a proper education. When Suleiman became sultan, İbrahim was given the opportunity to rise rapidly in the hierarchy of the empire, thus quickly becoming the "grand vizier" in June 1523. However, it seems that İbrahim himself, concerned about his own security, he had asked his friend the sultan not to be considered for such a prestigious and risky position, but Suleiman refused to accede to his request, assuring him of his unconditional protection.
On May 18, 1524, Suleiman's haseki (favorite concubine) and wife, Hürrem Sultan (1502-1558), gave birth to their son Selim. Little is known of the origins of Hürrem, known in the West as Roxelana, she was probably a Tartar slave given to the imperial harem. In any case, she soon became the favorite of Suleiman, who for her abandoned the first haseki Mahidevran Gülbahar, who had given him their firstborn Şehzade Mustafa in 1515, when he was still governor of Manisa.. Before Selim, Hürrem had had two other children by the sultan, Şehzade Mehmed, born in 1521, and Şehzade Abdullah, born in 1522, who died only three years later. Much has been said about Roxelana; Able to go from a harem slave to a concubine and finally to a legal wife in a short time, contravening Ottoman customs, she had a great influence on the sultan, to the point that some historians consider her the weaver of plots that ended up conditioning all politics. of the empire and in particular the succession to the sultanate, seeing her as the initiator of the so-called 'sultanate of women'.
Despite the firm rule of the empire, rebellions were quite frequent. Possibly due to discontent with the appointment of İbrahim Paşa as grand vizier, his competitor Ahmed Paşa, newly appointed governor of Egypt, organized an insurrection, and consequently initially gained the support of Mamluk dignitaries, the Master of the Knights Hospitaller of Jerusalem, Shah Ismail I of Persia and even the Pope. However, when the Mamluks abandoned him, he was soon assassinated and the revolt put down. Aware that Egypt was fertile ground for insurrection, Suleiman decided to send İbrahim, the only person he could fully trust, on a mission. Within a year, the loyal grand vizier subdued the rebels, enacted laws, and reorganized the administration of power; The success of it was so great that there were no more revolts in the area for more than three centuries.
Hungary: The Battle of Mohács
Following the victories on the Danube and Rhodes, the empire enjoyed a period of peace, but this situation was not welcome, as the Ottoman warrior tradition wanted the sultan to be constantly fighting to expand the imperial borders and extend the Islam all over the world. When the janissaries realized that there were no plans for further military campaigns, they took advantage of the absence of the sultan, who had gone to Edirne for the hunt, and caused riots in the capital, forcing the latter to return immediately. Quickly regaining control, either by executing some rioters himself or distributing money to the soldiers to calm them down, it became clear to Suleiman that a military expedition had to be planned as soon as possible.
Thus, at the beginning of the winter of 1525, the sultan ordered to prepare a military campaign without having decided on the objective. Only in the first months of 1526, also at the invitation of Francis I of France with whom the empire had begun to forge the first contacts (which would soon give rise to an anti-Habsburg alliance), did he choose to attack the Christian borders again; the expedition would therefore head towards Hungary. Diplomatic preparations were feverish: the neutrality of the Republic of Venice was ensured through the granting of certain privileges, while it was clear that Emperor Charles V would not intervene because he was busy in the war. War of the League of Cognac against Francis I. In addition, Suleiman considered that the eastern borders with Shah Tahmasp I's Persia were secure and that his intervention there could be postponed.
On April 21, 1526, Suleiman left the capital at the head of an army with one hundred thousand men and three hundred cannons. With him marched the grand vizier İbrahim, some visirs, the dragoman of the Sublime Porte and other dignitaries. The expedition reached, not without difficulty, Sofia where it divided: the sultan headed for Belgrade from where he would continue to Buda (present-day Budapest), while the grand vizier headed for Petrovaradin, which he took after a brief siege that cost only twenty-five men. On the march, the cities of Ilok and Osijek were subdued, and a 332-meter-long bridge over the Drava was built in just five days, which was immediately destroyed once the army had crossed it to eliminate any possibility of retreat. The Ottomans then reached the Mohács plain where King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia awaited them to prevent them from continuing to Buda.
The battle of Mohács took place on August 29 and began favorably for the Christian troops, despite their numerical inferiority, also because Louis's requests for help to the West had been neglected. The great courage of the Hungarian cavalry came to light, to the point that thirty-two horsemen came to seriously endanger the life of Suleiman himself, who was saved thanks to his armor and the sacrifice of his bodyguards and the janissaries who they came to his defense. However, the clear superiority of the Ottoman artillery made the difference, and by sunset the Christian army was defeated; In the withdrawal, King Luis fell dead in a river, which added him to the thirty thousand dead in the Christian ranks. Suleiman had triumphed once more, the way was open for a triumphal entry into Buda.
Returning to Constantinople at the end of the campaign, the sultan could consider himself master of the fate of Hungary. The death of King Louis collapsed the Hungarian central authority and a power struggle ensued. Some nobles offered the crown of Hungary to the Archduke of Austria Ferdinand I of Habsburg, related to the Hungarian royal family. Other nobles, however, favored John Zápolya, who had Suleiman's support but was not recognized by the powers of Christian Europe.
Hungary was divided into three parts: most of present-day Hungary was claimed by Suleiman, the vassal state of Transylvania was created and given to the Zápolya family, and Ferdinand I got Royal Hungary. Thus, the border between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire was temporarily fixed.
The Siege of Vienna
With Hungary already subdued, Suleiman was able to turn his gaze to one of his greatest ambitions: Vienna. Thus, on May 10, 1529, with the usual ceremonies with great pomp, he left the capital and returned to Mohács, where he met Zápolya, who, in the course of a solemn audience, was recognized as King of Hungary and, in consequently, as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. A miniature preserved in the Topkapı Palace recalls the event, showing the moment when the sultan hands Zápolya the crown, dressed in a caftan of honour. Abandoning the site of what had been one of his most important victories, Suleiman reached Buda in just three days, reoccupied by Christian troops. After a brief siege, the city was taken and its inhabitants enslaved, but unlike from the previous time, the janissaries were prohibited from looting. A few days later, Zápolya was officially crowned king; Suleiman did not attend the ceremony, probably to avoid giving too much importance to what he considered only a minor vassal; furthermore, autumn was approaching and, therefore, it was necessary to go to Vienna as soon as possible.
The siege of Vienna began on September 27, 1529 and involved a confrontation between the Ottoman army of Suleiman, with one hundred and twenty thousand men, twenty-eight thousand camels and three hundred pieces of artillery, against the Christian defenders, who had about twenty thousand fighters and seventy-two guns under the command of Philip of Palatinate-Neuburg.
Operations proved more difficult than expected for the Ottomans. Although incessant artillery fire had managed to breach the city walls, the attackers inexplicably did not take advantage of this to try to break in. Frustration over the continuation of the siege beyond expectations and concern over the approach of winter they led Suleiman to order an assault on the Carinthian Gate on October 14. However, the result was inconclusive and the great sultan had no choice but to abandon the objective and return to Constantinople, but not before celebrating the military campaign as a success and denying that the objective was to conquer Vienna. The return journey took approximately two months, during which the Ottoman army lost many men to disease and bad weather.
Back in Hungary
Despite his overwhelming victories in Hungary, Suleiman had not yet fully established his authority in the region. Thus, on April 22, 1532, he again left the capital at the head of more than one hundred thousand men whose ranks included twelve thousand Janissaries, thirty thousand Anatolian soldiers, sixteen thousand Rumelia and twenty thousand spahi to which was added an artillery force of three hundred guns.
Arriving in Belgrade and receiving new reinforcements from the Tatars of Sahib I Giray, Suleiman was ready to confront Emperor Charles V definitively. However, his ambition could not be fulfilled: the Christians did not feel at all prepared to face the such a determined and numerous enemy, so Fernando de Habsburgo preferred to send two ambassadors to the sultan to offer him a tribute of one hundred thousand ducats in exchange for peace and his recognition as King of Hungary. Meanwhile, Suleiman received another diplomatic proposal: the King of France offered to invade Italy to fight Charles there. The sultan refused both offers, but as for the latter, he promised to help the French conquer Genoa and Milan, one of the first substantial acts of the Franco-Ottoman alliance.
When diplomatic efforts to stop the Ottoman advance failed, Christians had to go on the defensive. Suleiman's army, after numerous successes, was paralyzed during the siege of Güns, a city located just one hundred kilometers from Vienna and defended by only eight hundred men under the command of Nikola Jurišić, which lasted throughout the month of August, making it which cost the Ottomans valuable time. After painstakingly conquering the city, Suleiman preferred to head west towards Styria rather than aim directly at Vienna, probably because he had counted on expelling Charles V from the city and thus engaging him in the open field, but the Habsburg emperor preferred to avoid contact and remained within the walls.
In Styria, Suleiman conquered several cities, but had to give up taking Graz and Maribor, which did not cede to the Ottoman force. The time lost at Güns did not allow him to continue operations for long, and he returned to Constantinople on November 18, 1532. The result of this campaign was also solemnly celebrated: it is said that there were five days of ceremonies in the capital, but the sultan could not be fully satisfied. At the end of the events, a truce was signed between the Ottomans and the Christians, which gave rise to the Treaty of Constantinople of 1533; with this, Zápolya preserved the kingdom of Hungary, Carlos V saved his borders and was able to concentrate his forces to counteract the League of Esmalcalda. Suleiman, for his part, could now turn his gaze to Persia, aware of the opportunity to break the truce with the Christians whenever he chose.
Two Iraqs Campaign
For centuries, in the Muslim world, there was conflict between the Ottomans and the Safavid Empire, with the latter ruling Persia and modern Iraq, divided by religious faith: Sunni the former, Shia the latter. The disciples Shiites, or kizilbash', persecuted Sunnis in Mesopotamia, converted mosques and, in 1508, were guilty of destroying the tomb of Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān, one of the most important Sunni theologians in the history. They also used to prevent connections between the Ottomans and their Uzbek allies. This situation demanded that the Ottomans intervene as soon as possible. As soon as the sultan had a pretext to reclaim Baghdad, he decided to attack the rival empire and İbrahim was ordered, in the autumn of 1533, to lead an army to Persian Azerbaijan where he conquered Tabriz on July 16 of the following year. He had started what would become known as the "two Iraq campaign."
Two months later, after a journey that took him through several cities in triumph, Suleiman joined his grand vizier and with him headed for the Persian capital, Baghdad, which for a long time It had once been one of the most important centers of Islam and the seat of the caliphate, but by then it was already in decline. The army that participated in this expedition was enormous: it is said that it consisted of about two hundred thousand men, which caused many logistical and supply difficulties, difficulties accentuated by the impending bad season.
As the Ottoman army approached, the Shah refused a direct confrontation and evacuated the city; on December 4, 1543, Suleiman was thus able to enter without a fight and thus consider himself the legitimate successor of the caliphs and defender of Sunnism. With the annexation of Baghdad to the Ottoman Empire, the city would experience a new season of growth and prosperity. After spending the winter there, on April 2, 1545, Suleiman and his army undertook a difficult journey that took him back to Tabriz in three months, where he took up residence in the shah's palace. As in the previous campaign Hungarian, when Suleiman had sought a direct confrontation with Carlos V, he also expected a fight with the shah; but he too, like Carlos, had shied away from making an impact against such a strong army, so he preferred a more waiting strategy. Thus, the well-known logistical difficulties of the Ottoman army, which was far from its supply bases, forced it to abandon the idea of pursuing the Shah's army, much more mobile and comfortable in the region, and to conquer the holy cities of Qom and Kashan. Suleiman then gave orders to return to Constantinople, where he arrived in early January 1536. The campaign had claimed the loss of more than thirty thousand men, mainly to starvation and disease, but had consolidated the sultan in the eyes of his followers. contemporary coreligionists as a great conqueror who had triumphed over the Sunni heresy; the empire now stretched from the gates of Vienna to Baghdad.
A few days after the end of the expedition, an event occurred that is still disputed by historians today. On March 15, 1536, the grand vizier Pargalı İbrahim Paşa was found murdered in his bedroom in Topkapı Palace. No doubt it was Suleiman himself who ordered his execution; The reasons why he did so are unknown and only theories have been formulated: the suspicion that he was the architect of a conspiracy or the result of a request from Roxelana, who saw İbrahim as a rival for power, are the most common hypotheses. credible. The fact is that Suleiman had to regret having killed his best friend, a partner in success and an excellent strategist.
North Africa and the Mediterranean
.
Following the Danubian and Persian campaigns, Suleiman began to look towards the Mediterranean, then under the control of the navies of the Republic of Venice and Ragusa. Despite some successes such as those of Rhodes or Egypt, the Ottoman fleet it was not as formidable as its land forces, but the availability of strategically located ports and efficient arsenals gave the Ottomans the possibility of imposing their authority at sea as well. The key figure in the reorganization of the Ottoman navy was, like than the contemporary Andrea Doria for the Spanish, the corsair Jeireddín, known in Europe as "Barbarroja". The son of a Greek potter from Mytilene, thanks to his forays into the Mediterranean, he soon acquired a great reputation that led him at the end of 1533 to make his triumphant entry into Constantinople where he was named kapudanpaşa (equivalent to grand admiral) of the Ottoman fleet and governor (Bey) of the islands. By virtue of this prestigious title, he organized Suleiman's fleet in a few months, while Suleiman was busy in Persia, ready to do battle with the Christian naval powers.
As his first action, Barbarossa conquered Tunis, at that time in the hands of the Hafsid dynasty. However, in July 1535, the city would in turn be conquered by Charles V who, concerned about Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean, had personally taken the lead in a counteroffensive considered by contemporaries to be a crusade with Doria. Despite the great Christian victory, Barbarossa's fleet suffered only marginal losses and was able, a few months later, to attack the Balearic Islands and Valencia, looting them. Convinced of the chances of success at sea, the sultan himself oversaw the fitting out of a new fleet, which continued throughout 1536 at the Golden Horn shipyards.
On May 17, 1537, Suleiman, accompanied by his sons Selim and Mehmed, arrived in Vlora, present-day Albania, with plans to attack Brindisi, while his ally Francis I of France was on his way to conquer Genoa and Milan. The expedition was to include Lütfi Paşa and Barbarossa as fleet commanders. However, the plan did not come to fruition, since the King of France broke the agreement and attacked in Flanders and Picardy. Meanwhile, an attack by Venetian galleys on a traveling Ottoman diplomatic delegation gave Suleiman the pretext to change his target and head for Corfu, an important Serenissima base.
Operations for the siege of the city began in August of that same year and was the first act of what is known as the third Turco-Venetian war, part of the larger arena of the Turco-Venetian wars. Despite the fact that Suleiman could count on the force of twenty-five thousand men and three hundred and twenty ships, the resistance of the Venetians turned out to be quite tenacious, and in particular the artillery of the defenders was decisive for the sultan to decide to withdraw. Tradition has it that Suleiman, after seeing the loss of two galleys, declared that "the life of a single Muslim cannot be paid for by the conquest of a thousand fortresses".
Upon his return to Constantinople, the sultan entrusted Barbarossa with the mission of fighting the Venetians on the islands of the Aegean Sea in order to expel them. During the two military campaigns that followed, the kapudanpaşa achieved one success after another, counting among his conquests the islands of Syros, Patmos, Aegina, Paros, Andro, Skiathos, Scyros, and Serifos. On September 28, 1538, Barbarossa defeated the Holy League promoted by Pope Paul III at the Battle of Préveza. By the end of the operations, twenty-five Venetian islands had fallen or been looted, while thousands of Christians had been killed. prisoners. On October 20, 1540, a peace was signed in which the Venetian ambassadors agreed with Suleiman to pay three hundred thousand ducats as war indemnity and the definitive abandonment of the islands conquered by Barbarossa, to which Nafplion was added and Malvasia.
In October of the following year, Charles V tried to stop the Ottoman successes by leading an expedition to Algiers, which however proved disastrous for the Christians. Suleiman thus became absolute lord of the Mediterranean, a supremacy that the Ottomans maintained for more than thirty years.
Succession to the Hungarian throne
In 1539, the grand vizier Ayas Mehmed Pasha, who had succeeded to the highest office of the Sublime Porte after the assassination of İbrahim Paşa, died of plague, and the sultan decided to appoint in his place to Luṭfī Paşa, his brother-in-law and general of the Ottoman army, who was of Albanian origin.
The sultan had not had time to sign the peace treaty with Venice and now had to turn his attention back to Hungary, from where worrying news was coming. In July 1540, Zápolya had died a fortnight after bearing a son by Isabella Jagiellon, daughter of King Sigismund I of Poland. Although Suleiman believed that the child was his rightful successor, a secret agreement Zápolya had made in 1538 came to light, stating that on his death Hungary would return to the hands of Ferdinand of Habsburg in exchange for his recognition on the throne. as long as he lived For Suleiman, this agreement was unacceptable, since it was made before the birth of his son, while Fernando affirmed that the child was not Elizabeth's son and therefore invaded Hungary.
Thus, Elizabeth and her son Juan left Buda to ask Suleiman for help, who had to leave again in the direction of Hungary. This time the Ottoman army met little resistance on its way and, reinforced by troops sent by Elizabeth, besieged Buda, thereby defeating the defenses led by Wilhelm von Roggendorf and driving out the Imperials, who left sixteen thousand men behind. On 2 September 1541, the sultan accompanied by his son Şehzade Bayezid and the grand vizier Hadım Suleiman Paşa (who had taken over from Luṭfī Paşa a few months earlier) entered the city with great honors. and, as was his custom, he went to a church which had meanwhile been converted into a mosque to pray. He first gave his word to Elizabeth that her young son John would reign over Hungary as soon as he reached the necessary age, and then he returned to Constantinople.
.JPG)
But it was not even two years before he had to set out again for his eighth campaign in Hungary. In fact Ferdinand, strengthened by a moment of tranquility on the home front with the Protestants, had reclaimed the Hungarian throne by offering Suleiman recognition as king in exchange for an annual tribute of one hundred thousand ducats. The sultan, who had no intention of accepting this offer, had no choice but to abandon the capital on April 23, 1543, and wage war against the Habsburgs. Once again, the campaign began in the best possible way for the Ottomans, who seized one fortress after another in Slavonia and Ferdinand-loyal Hungary. After re-entering Buda, the Ottoman army immediately headed north to the siege of Esztergom, which fell after about two weeks, also thanks to the help of the French artillery offered by King Francis I.
This new success against the Christians put an end to Ferdinand's ambitions for Hungary, which remained in Ottoman hands until 1686. This success was followed by lengthy negotiations that led to a peace treaty between the Ottomans and the Holy Roman Empire on June 13, 1547. However, Suleiman could not be entirely satisfied, as he had not yet succeeded in fighting Emperor Charles V in the open field, and the death of Francis I on March 31, 1547 made it unlikely for the future, as it lacked a key ally on the European stage. It was time to look at Persia again.
Second Persian Campaign
In early 1548, Suleiman again abandoned Constantinople and marched his army into Persia. Despite his success in his first expedition, his authority was in jeopardy: several vassals had been unfaithful, and Safavid pro-Shia propaganda continued to gain adherents in Anatolia.
The first action, once he reached the theater of operations, was the siege of Van, which had recently returned to the hands of Tahmasp I after losing it in 1534. After taking Van at the end of August, the sultan decided to repair in Aleppo to spend the winter. At the same time, the Ottoman army occupied other local strongholds while Shah Suleiman's son Mirza, who had joined the ranks of the Ottomans, ravaged western Iran until he was captured and later killed. After the winter, the army The Turk headed towards Erzurum while the grand vizier Rüstem Pasha continued to subdue the Safavid strongholds between Kars and Artvin.
The campaign was a success that reaffirmed the Ottoman authority over Persia, but Suleiman failed again in his attempt to definitively close accounts with the Safavid dynasty, which forced him a few years later to resume the route to Persia for a third campaign.
The problem of succession
Suleiman had six children by his two wives, Mahidevran and Hürrem, four of whom survived beyond 1550: the eldest Şehzade Mustafa was Mahidevran's son, while the youngest Selim, Bayezid and Cihangir were Hürrem's. The latter was aware that if Mustafa became sultan, her own children would be strangled to death, a custom of the Ottoman dynasty. In fact, at least until the reign of Ahmed I, the empire had no formal means of regulating succession, often resorting to the cruel practice of putting rival princes to death to prevent riots and rebellions. In addition, Mahidevran's son was unanimously recognized as the most talented of all his brothers and enjoyed the support of the powerful Pargalı İbrahim Paşa, at that time the grand vizier of the empire, as well as the army and in particular of the Janissaries. The Austrian ambassador Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq pointed out that «Suleiman has among his sons one named Mustafa, who is wonderfully educated and prudent and is of government age, since he is 24 or 25 years old; may God never allow a Saracen of such strength to come near us», and he went on to speak of Mustafa's «remarkable natural gifts». Hürrem is believed to be responsible, at least in part, for the intrigues surrounding the appointment of a successor to the sultanate; although she was the wife of the sultan, she did not have any official public role, but this did not prevent her from exerting a strong political influence. In an attempt to prevent the execution of her sons, Hürrem likely used her influence over her husband to eliminate those who supported Mustafa's rise.
Thus, in power struggles apparently instigated by Hürrem, Suleiman had İbrahim assassinated and replaced him with his son-in-law, Rüstem Pasha. In 1552, when the third campaign against Persia began and Rüstem was appointed commander-in-chief of the expedition, intrigues against Mustapha began. Rüstem sent one of the sultan's most trusted men to report that the soldiers considered the time had come to put a younger prince on the throne, as the sultan had not personally led the army; at the same time, rumors spread that Mustafa had been favorable to the idea. Irritated by this and believing that Mustapha was conspiring against him to gain the throne, Suleiman summoned his son to his tent in the Ereğli Valley the following summer on his return from campaigning in Persia, stating that "he could get rid of the crimes of the that he has been accused and would have nothing to fear if he came".
Mustafa faced a choice: stand before his father at the risk of being killed or, if he refused, be accused of treason. In the end, Mustafa chose to enter his father's shop, trusting that the support of the army would protect him. Busbecq, who claims to have received the account from an eyewitness, described Mustafa's last moments. When he entered his father's tent, the eunuchs attacked him while he bravely defended himself. His father, separated from the fight only by the shop's linen curtains, peered through it and "glared menacingly, her eyes full of anger and cruelty at his lack of courage. Then the executioners, alarmed, redoubled their efforts, threw Mustafa to the ground and, putting the noose around his neck, strangled him". The Ottoman people received the news of Mustafa's murder negatively, the Janissaries accused Suleiman of having " extinguished the brightest sun»; poets and writers celebrated the young prince to whom they dedicated elegies and works.
Cihangir is said to have died of grief a few months after learning of his half-brother's murder. The two surviving brothers, Selim and Bayezid, were given command over different parts of the empire. However, within a few years a civil war broke out between them, each supported by loyal forces. With the help of his father's army, Selim defeated Bayezid in Konya in 1559, prompting the latter to take refuge with the Safavids along with his four sons. After diplomatic exchanges, the sultan demanded from Shah Tahmasp I that Bayezid was extradited or executed. In 1561, in exchange for large amounts of gold, the Shah allowed a Turkish assassin to strangle Bayezid along with all of his sons, paving the way for Selim's succession to the throne five years later.
Third Persian Campaign
The tragic events surrounding the succession took place, as already stated, against the backdrop of what would become known as the third Persian campaign, the last one waged by Suleiman. The operations had begun in 1552 when the grand vizier Rüstem Pasha, in command of the army, headed for Anatolia and arrived at Carmania where he stopped to spend the bad season. It was on this occasion that Rüstem began his plot against Prince Mustafa, who has already been mentioned, which got Suleiman the following summer, to show that he was still the head of the Empire, also led an army to join the great vizier and participate in the campaign.
After the execution of his son Mustafa, the sultan headed for Aleppo to take up quarters. The entry into the city, which is now part of Syria, was triumphant and pompous. The English explorer Anthony Jenkinson recounted in great detail that the procession was opened by six thousand Sipahi light horsemen, dressed in scarlet red, followed by ten thousand tributaries, dressed in yellow velvet, in turn followed by four captains, each at the head of twelve thousand armed; then sixteen thousand janissaries dressed in purple, a thousand pages of honor, and three men on white horses; then the sultan "in his resplendent majesty" followed by the great dignitaries and four thousand armed horsemen bringing up the rear of the procession.
In the spring, after sending Shah Tahmasp I an ultimatum calling on him to return to Sunnism, which was met with a predictable negative response, Suleiman launched military operations that devastated the entire Yerevan region. The violent offensive Ottoman made the shah call for an end to hostilities; the sultan accepted the offer, which led to the peace of Amasya, stipulated on 29 May 1555, in which the borders between the two empires were redrawed with the shah acknowledging the Ottoman conquests but in which Suleiman allowed Shia pilgrims to safely reach the holy sites of Islam under their control. In addition, the Shah promised to put an end to Shia incursions and propaganda in Anatolia. As a result of these agreements, there was no further fighting on the Persian front. for more than twenty years.
At the same time, Suleiman also had to deal with putting down a new rebellion, one of the most serious in his empire. A subject claimed to be Prince Mustafa, who had escaped assassination and established a new illegitimate government in northern Anatolia, for which he recruited many rebels. The insurgents were stopped by the decisive intervention of Prince Bayezid, but it became clear that these riots were a sign of the plight of the peasantry, which was being squeezed by inflation and heavy taxes. The empire was experiencing a severe currency crisis caused by by the arrival of cheap money, often counterfeited, from Europe.
The failure of Malta
In 1530, Emperor Charles V had granted the Knights Hospitallers, expelled from Rhodes a few years earlier by Suleiman, the island of Malta where they settled and had the opportunity to reestablish themselves. The divan The Ottomans, worried about Christian incursions against their army, decided to prepare an expedition to attack them at their new base. The planning of the new campaign, in which all the shipyards of the Golden Horn participated, was long and lasted until the beginning of 1565. Once prepared, the fleet of more than two hundred ships, including 150 galleys in a state of war, was went to sea under the command of Lala Kara Mustafa Pasha. However, the great preparations could not be kept secret, and therefore they had alerted the Knights, who had time to prepare their defenses; the island's resistance, led by Grand Master Jean Parisot de La Valette, could count on 8,500 defenders, 700 of whom were knights.
On May 18, the Great Siege of Malta began and the island was soon occupied by the Ottomans, who were unable to take the strategic fortresses of Saint Elmo and Saint Angel. Despite incessant bombardment, the Ottomans were unable to get the upper hand, and on September 12 it was decided to withdraw the fleet to the capital. The defeat, the first under Suleiman, cost the Turks between 20,000 and 35,000 men, according to sources.
Last expedition and death
In 1566, Suleiman was 72 years old, 46 of which had been spent ruling the empire; The elderly sultan suffered from gout that forced him to move in a wheelchair. Maximilian II of Habsburg had succeeded his father Ferdinand I on the throne of the Holy Roman Empire and breathed new life into the Habsburg claims to the Danube countries, reopening the Transylvanian question that had been shelved for some years after Ottoman victories.
On May 1, 1566, the sultan set out from Constantinople at the head of one of the largest armies he had ever commanded, reportedly three hundred thousand soldiers equipped with enormous artillery, for his thirteenth military campaign. He had not personally participated in an expedition for more than a decade, and was criticized for it by both the visirs and the common people, as it was considered the duty of the Ottoman leader to continuously strive to expand the borders of the Islam against the infidels. Apparently, the campaign would have been a simple one, probably without the need for any combat.
However, the disease had weakened him deeply, he could no longer ride a horse and was forced to follow the troops only thanks to a carriage. After a slow march due to natural causes, which lasted 49 days, Suleiman reached Belgrade and then went to Zemun, where he was received by Juan Sigismundo with great pomp.
After granting him power over the territories between Tisza and Transylvania, the sultan headed for Szigetvár, which he placed under siege from 6 August. The fighting continued until September 8, but Suleiman could not see the end: he died in his tent during the night of September 5-6. To avoid disturbances in the army, which was still on the campaign trail, the grand vizier Sokollu decided to keep the news of the sultan's death secret, at least until his successor Selim reached the coffin of the father. of the. At that time, the only remaining prince was in Kütahya, where he was governor, and as soon as he was informed, he set out to join Sokollu. During the wait, the grand vizier prevented everyone from entering the tent where Suleiman's body lay and gave orders to the troops as if they came from the deceased sultan himself. The secret was kept even when the army marched back to Constantinople after the end of operations in the Southern Transdanubian region. Only when the procession was close to Belgrade did Selim arrive and then the news could spread.
The sultan's embalmed body was brought to Constantinople to be buried next to Roxelana in the mausoleum built near the Süleymaniye Mosque, while his heart, liver and some other organs were buried in Turbék, just outside Szigetvár, where a cenotaph was erected that became a sacred and pilgrimage site. Within a decade a mosque and a Sufi hospice were built nearby and several dozen soldiers were posted to guard the site. No historian is aware of the funeral ceremony of the great sultan; It must have been very simple, as was customary in Islam.
Physical appearance and personality
.jpg)
The Venetian diplomat Bartolomeo Contarini left one of the first descriptions of Suleiman's appearance, at the time he became sultan: "He is only twenty-five [actually 26] years old, tall and thin but hard, with a face fine and bony. His facial hair is evident, but just barely. The sultan is friendly and in a good mood. Suleiman is said to have an appropriate name, to like to read, to be well informed and to have common sense". An earlier drawn image is that of Albrecht Dürer in 1526 who, however, never met the Ottoman sultan, only which was based on descriptions of Venetian merchants who had been in Constantinople. However, the accuracy of Dürer's depiction is confirmed by the similarities to the drawing made by Hieronymus Hopfer; in both cases, the great sultan appears with an elongated neck, arched nose, and small ears; somatic features that closely resemble the appearance of his great-grandfather Mehmed II, as he transmitted it from the famous portrait of Gentile Bellini. A later description, from his mature years, describes him as a "youthful, thin and very frail, but he has a very strong hand and can shoot the bow better than anyone."
On the other hand, Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq gives a description of an old Suleiman from the years of his entry into Amasya (1555): «Although his face was sad, his expression continued to inspire a feeling of great majesty. His health is good, were it not for his bad complexion, a sign of some secret malady. But, like women, he can withstand the ravages of time well. He puts on makeup, especially on the days that he sees off the ambassadors ».
The sultan's character is described by most as calm and thoughtful, far removed from the irascible character of his father Selim I, while a Venetian diplomat at the Ottoman court around 1530 states that "his character is wrathful and melancholic and that he is not very good at work because he has abandoned the empire to the grand vizier without whose advice neither he nor other members of the court make decisions, while İbrahim acts without ever consulting the Grand Lord or anyone else more". In fact, although his European contemporaries considered him a ruler of undoubted greatness, they did not stop acknowledging his, perhaps excessive, dependence on his wife Roxelana and İbrahim Paşa, and accusing him of the death of his own children.
In any case, all commentators agree in describing him as a "pious Muslim, immune to all fanaticism, tolerant of Christians" who guaranteed the rights of infidels (Dhimmi), but also implacable against what he considered a Shia heresy. Firmly convinced that he was in God's favor, he recited fervent prayers before every major battle and, as soon as he conquered a city, went to a mosque to give thanks for the victory. When he was not busy administering, he participated in theological discussions with court scholars, studied philosophy and sacred books, to the point that eight copies of the Qur'an copied personally by Suleiman have survived.
As a good Muslim, he also demonstrated a sober lifestyle, though not on the level of the early sultans. Commentators report in detail that his tableware was strictly porcelain, and he only once used precious vessels, but the jurists rebuked him. In his old age he was even more careful, so he only used earthenware. Even alcoholic beverages, which he had tolerated in his youth, became prohibited in his later life, yet his public image was always surrounded by an aura of opulence. His court observed a lavish ceremonial that he himself had developed, and the ambassadors he received recounted his astonishment at such wealth. Every time Suleiman left the capital at the command of his army to embark on one of the many campaigns that marked his life, lavish parties were held. On such occasions, the sultan was fond of dressing in precious fabrics and wearing beautiful jewelry.
In old age, Suleiman, tired by illness and constant military campaigns, lost part of the warrior character that had distinguished him in his youth; the nobleman Antonio Barbarigo provides a fresco of the sultan in 1558: “This gentleman is 66 years old and has reigned happily for 32; he is of medium height, tougher than otherwise, pale, has large black eyes and an aquiline nose; He is a just, benign and very religious gentleman in his right, although in his youth he was bellicose and a lover of war, it is clear, however, that now that he is old he desires peace with every prince, and will never make war on anyone unless he is forced to do so by those with whom he wars or by the false persuasions of his ministers... He knows that he is lord of many countries and kingdoms, and he wishes to enjoy those he has in peace. He is very fond of history, and continually reads the stories of Alexander the Great and those of the Persians. This gentleman is very afflicted with gout and for this reason, on the advice of his doctors, he goes to Adrianople every year to winter... ».
The Ottoman Empire under Suleiman
Legal and political reforms
Although Suleiman was known as "the Magnificent" in the West, to the Ottomans he was Kanuni Suleiman or "the Lawgiver" (قانونی). At the time, sharia, or Holy Law, was the main law of the empire and, being considered divine by Islam, not even the sultan had the power to change it. However, a distinct area of law, known as Kanun (قانون, canon law), depended solely on the will of Suleiman and covered basic areas such as criminal law, land tenure and taxation. He had all the various rulings issued by the nine Ottoman sultans who had preceded him compiled and, after eliminating duplication and resolving contradictory statements, taking care not to violate the fundamental laws of Islam, he published a single legal code. In this context, the sultan, supported by his grand mufti Ebussuud Efendi, tried to reform the legislation to adapt it to a rapidly evolving empire. When the laws of the Kanun reached their final form, the law code was renamed kanun-i Osmani (قانون عثمانی), or "Ottoman laws". Suleiman's legal code lasted for more than three hundred years.
He paid special attention to the situation of the rayah, Christian subjects who worked the land of the spahi. His Kanune Raya, or Code of the Rayas, reformed the law that regulated the levies and taxes to which the rayas were obliged, which it raised their status above that of serfs, to the point that many Christian serfs emigrated to Turkish territories to benefit from this reform. The sultan also took care to provide protection for the Jews residing in his empire for centuries to come: in late 1553 or 1554, at the suggestion of his favorite physician and dentist, the Spanish Jew Moses Hamon, the sultan issued a firman (فرمان) in which he formally denounced the slander against them. He also enacted new criminal and police laws, in which he prescribed a series of fines for specific crimes, as well as reduced cases of execution or mutilation. In the field of taxation, taxes were collected, although judged as light, on various goods and products, such as animals, mining, commercial benefits and import and export rights.
Government and Military Administration
During his reign, Suleiman was always concerned with personally drawing up a general strategy to be followed by the empire, but for the execution of these directives and attention to detail he used the visir (literally " the one who decides"), or of high dignitaries who acted as advisers and ministers. These made up the diwan (or dīvān), the supreme administrative body of the empire with powers practically unlimited. There were typically three visirs who jointly administered domestic and foreign policy, as well as public order, while two defterdar oversaw a complex organization of offices entrusted with the management of finances. Another important position was the nişancı, the court calligrapher, who was in charge of authenticating the documents by putting the tughra of the sultan and verifying the laws that were promulgated; two kazasker administered the entire judicial system. If circumstances required, other dignitaries could also participate. The diwan was presided over by the grand vizier, a trusted man of the sultan. During his long reign, up to ten people took turns in this position, in order: Pîrî Mehmed Paşa (1518 - 1523), Pargalı İbrahim Paşa (1523 - 1536), Ayas Mehmed Paşa (1536 - 1539), Çelebi Lütfi Paşa (1539 - 1541), Hadım Suleiman Paşa (1541 - 1544), Rüstem Paşa (1544 - 1553), Kara Ahmed Paşa (1553 - 1555), Rüstem Paşa (1555 - 1561), Semiz Ali Paşa (1561 - 1565) and Sokollu Mehmet Paşa (156 5 - 1579). Suleiman, like all sultans since Mehmed II, was not directly present in the room where the meetings were held, but there was still the possibility that he would secretly attend. On the diwan the Magnificent also used to receive ambassadors in ceremonies of great pomp and circumstance.
To assert his rights, he had to fight against endless adversaries. The strength of his sultanate rested on the crucial role of the Janissary infantry corps (from Turkish yeni çeri, "new troop"). These were forcibly recruited from among young Christians, forced in the first centuries of the sultanate to be celibate, and bound by traditional adherence to the same religious brotherhood, the Bektashiyya. The Janissaries, considered the elite of the Ottoman army (in the first half of the 16th century numbered about twelve thousand), were not they could have another occupation or source of income than that derived from the profession of arms, and their inactivity in peacetime increased the risk of riots. The need to keep them busy may help to understand why Ottoman military campaigns were so frequent and why the first decade of his reign was consequently a period of intense warfare.
Suleiman also gave a strong impetus to the strengthening of the Ottoman military fleet, which until then was not particularly developed. The availability of virtually unlimited resources, safe harbors in strategic positions, and efficient arsenals allowed unthinkable results to be achieved very quickly, to the point that the Ottomans soon came to control the Mediterranean. In Galata, in the Golden Horn, there was the largest production center of the fleet with its more than one hundred and twenty covered shelters with the capacity to each house two galleys available in 1550, while ten years later there were fifteen thousand workers in the port. The development of the fleet was so rapid that for the siege of Rhodes the Ottomans could count on a hundred ships, while for the Great Siege of Malta in 1566 twice as many were available.
Economy
The first decades of his sultanate coincided with a very favorable period for the economy of his subjects. The economic model adopted among the Ottomans at that time was very different from the Western one, approaching it to capitalism. In the Ottoman Empire there was a much stricter management of the economy, which was maintained until the end of the 19th century, focused on satisfying the needs of the State and the population rather than on the search for personal enrichment. To do this, the central government controlled production and distribution activities with inflexible authority, through a series of officials, and set prices to protect the consumer.
Any worker in the empire was classified into esnaf (similar to Western corporations) so that in the 16th century there were up to a thousand in Constantinople alone. These, grouped in turns, were directed by a chief and a committee, all of them elected by the affiliates, and supervised the control of prices, regulated access to the profession and controlled the distribution of raw materials. These institutions were inspired by the customs of the futuwwa (religious brotherhood) which dates back to Abbasid times and developed under the Sultanate of Rum and among the Anatolian principalities.
Trade was highly developed, and supply routes stretched throughout the empire and beyond. Meat, grain, timber, honey, and metals from Bulgaria and Rumania arrived in the capital; Anatolia supplied grain, fruit, and horses, while rice, sugar, cotton, and large supplies of wheat came from Egypt. Coffee, spices, and horses were imported from other eastern Arab countries, Persian silks and rugs were imported from Persia, and precious stones from the Far East. Europe, and in particular the Republic of Venice, exported manufacturing, technological and luxury products to the Ottoman Empire. The empire, for its part, exported raw materials and spices mainly to Europe.
To facilitate trade, Suleiman built roads and bridges, some of which were still in use at the end of the 20th century, and encouraged the renovation and expansion of the caravanserais already built by the Seljuks. commercial purpose; in particular, the expeditions to Persia that allowed opening new trade routes to Asia and reinforcing trade with the Uzbek allies.
Science and education
Education was another area considered very important by the sultan. Schools attached to mosques and funded by religious foundations largely provided free tuition for Muslim children before it was done in Christian countries at the time. In the capital of the empire, Suleiman increased to fourteen the number of mektebs (مكتب, elementary schools), in which children were taught to read and write, as well as the principles of Islam. Young people who wanted higher education could then enter one of the eight madrasas (مدرسه) whose curriculum included grammar, metaphysics, philosophy, astronomy, and astrology. Advanced courses allowed for university-level training, whose graduates became imams (امام) or teachers. The educational centers used to be one of the many buildings that surrounded the courtyards of the mosques; the rest were libraries, bathrooms, kitchens, homes and hospitals for the benefit of the people. Attending a course of study was an essential requirement to aspire to any prestigious position in the empire. Men of great value arose from these cultural institutions who marked the scientific life of the empire throughout the century, such as the mathematician and astronomer Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf, who in 1577 built the Constantinople Observatory, which allowed him to update the tables of Ulugh Beg from the previous century, and the geometer Ali Ib Veli, who anticipated the Europeans in the study of logarithms.
If at the end of the 16th century the Ottoman cultural environment seemed varied and stimulating, and only in the capital were there more than hundred madrasas, this favorable situation waned in the following years, when the ulama began to interfere, and consequently, they prohibited the study of the sciences in favor of the teaching of a rigid religious vision that bordered on fanaticism.
Art and architecture
Under Suleiman's patronage, the Ottoman Empire entered the peak of its cultural development. The imperial headquarters oversaw hundreds of art societies (called اهل حرف Ehl-i Hiref, "Community of Craftsmen") that had their headquarters in Topkapı Palace. After a period of apprenticeship, artists and craftsmen could move up the ranks in their field and received a commensurate salary in annual or quarterly installments. Payroll records, which have survived to the present day, testify to the extent of Suleiman's artistic patronage; for example, the oldest of the records, dating from 1526, lists forty societies with more than six hundred members. The Ehl-i Hiref brought to the sultan's court the most talented craftsmen of the empire, both from the Islamic world and from recently conquered territories in Europe, creating a mix from Arab, Turkish, and European cultures. Craftsmen serving the court included painters, bookbinders, furriers, jewelers, and goldsmiths. While previous rulers had been influenced by Persian culture (Selim I, for example, wrote poetry in Persian), during Suleiman's period the artistic identity of the Ottoman Empire was affirmed.
His reign is considered a golden age for Turkish literature; he himself was a poet who wrote in Persian and Turkish under the takhallus (pen name or pen name) Habibi (محبی, "the lover" or "the one in love"). Some of Suleiman's verses became Turkish proverbs, such as the famous "They all point to the same meaning, but many are the versions of the story". A Venetian ambassador commented that the sultan: “he delights in composing in praise of God, making himself humble and always saying that he is nothing; but to record his greatness, he chronicles all that he has done." When his young son Mehmed died in 1543, he composed a moving chronogram to commemorate the year: "Incomparable among princes, my Sultan Mehmed ». In addition to the sultan's work, many great talents animated the literary world during his reign, such as Fuzûlî and Bâkî. Literary historian Elias John Wilkinson Gibb observed that "at no time, even in Turkey, was poetry given greater encouragement than during the reign of this sultan."
Suleiman is also famous for financing the construction of numerous monuments and encouraging architectural development within his empire. Through a series of projects, the sultan sought to transform Constantinople into the center of Islamic civilization by building bridges, mosques, palaces, and various charitable and social institutions. The largest of these was built by Mimar Sinan, the sultan's principal architect, thanks to whom Ottoman architecture reached its zenith. Sinan became responsible for the construction of more than three hundred monuments throughout the empire, including his two masterpieces, the Suleymaniye Mosque and the Selimiye Mosque, the latter built in Adrianople (present-day Edirne) during the reign of his son Selim II. Suleiman also restored the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the walls (the present-day walls of the Old City of Jerusalem), renovated the Kaaba in Mecca, and built a complex in Damascus.
Legacy
At Suleiman's death, the Ottoman Empire was one of the world's major powers. The Magnificent's conquests had expanded its borders to include Baghdad, many Balkan territories, including present-day Croatia and Hungary, and most of from North Africa. The expansion of the empire in Europe had given the Ottomans the possibility of directly influencing the balance of power in the Christian West, to the point that the Austrian ambassador Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq warned of the imminent conquest of Europe: "On the part... of the Turks] there are the resources of a mighty empire, uninterrupted force, the habit of victory, resistance to work, unity, discipline, frugality and vigilance... Can we doubt what the result will be?... When the Turks settle Persia, they will rush at our throats backed by the might of all the East; I dare not say how unprepared we are."
His legacy, however, was not only military; a century later, the French traveler Jean de Thévenot spoke of the "strong agricultural base of the country, the well-being of the peasants, the abundance of staple foods, and the pre-eminence of organization in Suleiman's government". Thirty years after his After his death, the famous English playwright William Shakespeare mentions him as a military prodigy in The Merchant of Venice, where the Prince of Morocco boasts of his prowess, saying he defeated Suleiman in three battles.
However, the evaluation of the work of the "magnificent" sultan, of his administrative, cultural and military achievements, must also take into account the fundamental contribution of the many talented figures who served him, such as the greats visirs İbrahim Paşa and Rüstem Pasha, the grand mufti Ebussuud Efendi, who played an important role in the legal reform, and the foreign minister and chronicler Celalzade Mustafa, who was instrumental in the development of bureaucracy and in the establishment of the myth of the Magnificent.
Ancestry
| Murad II | ||||||||||||||||
| Mehmed II | ||||||||||||||||
| Hüma Hatun | ||||||||||||||||
| Bayezid II | ||||||||||||||||
| Sittişah Hatun | ||||||||||||||||
| Selim I | ||||||||||||||||
| Ala al-Dawla Bozkurt | ||||||||||||||||
| Gülbahar Hatun | ||||||||||||||||
| Solimán I | ||||||||||||||||
| Hyias-ed-Din | ||||||||||||||||
| Hacı I Giray | ||||||||||||||||
| Meñli I Giray | ||||||||||||||||
| Ayşe Hafsa Sultan | ||||||||||||||||
| Zayan Sultan | ||||||||||||||||
Contenido relacionado
Navamorales
Mozárbez
538