10 Suleiman the Magnificent

Suleiman the Magnificent

Suleiman I (Ottoman Turkish: سلطان سليمان اول‎; Modern Turkish: I. Süleyman, Kanunî Sultan Süleyman or Muhteşem Süleyman;^[3] 6 November 1494 – 7 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and "Kanuni" (the Lawgiver) in his realm, was the tenth and longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to his death in 1566.^[4] Under his administration, the Ottoman state ruled over 20 to 30 million people.

Suleiman became a prominent monarch of 16th-century Europe, presiding over the apex of the Ottoman Empire's economic, military and political power. Suleiman personally led Ottoman armies in conquering the Christian strongholds of Belgrade and Rhodes as well as most of Hungary before his conquests were checked at the Siege of Vienna in 1529. He annexed much of the Middle East in his conflict with the Safavids and large areas of North Africa as far west as Algeria. Under his rule, the Ottoman fleet dominated the seas from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and through the Persian Gulf.^[5]

At the helm of an expanding empire, Suleiman personally instituted major legislative changes relating to society, education, taxation and criminal law. His reforms, carried out in conjunction with the empire's chief judicial official Ebussuud Efendi, harmonized the relationship between the two forms of Ottoman law; sultanic (Kanun) and religious (Sharia).^[6] He was a distinguished poet and goldsmith; he also became a great patron of culture, overseeing the "Golden" age of the Ottoman Empire in its artistic, literary andarchitectural development.^[7]

Breaking with Ottoman tradition, Suleiman married Roxelana, a woman from his harem, a Christian of Rusyn origin who converted toIslam, and who became subsequently known and influential as Hürrem Sultan. Their son Selim II succeeded Suleiman following his death in 1566 after 46 years of rule, thus beginning a long state of stagnation and decline during Selim II's reign. Suleiman's previous heirs apparent Mehmed and Mustafa had died, the former from smallpox and the latter had been strangled to death 13 years previously at the sultan's order. His other son Bayezid was executed in 1561 on Suleiman's orders, along with his four sons, after a rebellion.

Upon succeeding his father, Suleiman began a series of military conquests, eventually suppressing a revolt led by the Ottoman-appointed governor of Damascus in 1521. Suleiman soon made preparations for the conquest of Belgrade from the Kingdom of Hungary—something his great-grandfather Mehmed II had failed to achieve because of John Hunyadi's strong defense in the region. Its capture was vital in removing the Hungarians and Croats who, following the defeats of the Serbs, Bulgarians, Albanians and the Byzantines, remained the only formidable force who could block further Ottoman gains in Europe. Suleiman encircled Belgrade and began a series of heavy bombardments from an island in the Danube. Belgrade, with a garrison of only 700 men, and receiving no aid from Hungary, fell in August 1521.^[15]

The fall of Christendom's major strongholds spread fear across Europe. As the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire to Constantinoplewas to note, "The capture of Belgrade was at the origin of the dramatic events which engulfed Hungary. It led to the death of King Louis, the capture of Buda, the occupation of Transylvania, the ruin of a flourishing kingdom and the fear of neighboring nations that they would suffer the same fate ..."^[16]

The road to Hungary and Austria lay open, but Suleiman turned his attention instead to the Eastern Mediterranean island of Rhodes, the home base of the Knights Hospitaller. In the summer of 1522, taking advantage of the large navy he inherited from his father, Suleiman dispatched an armada of some 400 ships towards Rhodes, while personally leading an army of 100,000 across Asia Minor to a point opposite the island itself.^[17] Here Suleiman built a large fortification, Marmaris Castle, that served as a base for the Ottoman Navy. Following the brutal five-month Siege of Rhodes (1522), Rhodes capitulated and Suleiman allowed the Knights of Rhodes to depart. (The Knights of Rhodes eventually formed a new base in Malta, becoming known as Knights of Malta, even now.)