Süleyman the Magnificent

Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (r. 1520-1566)

• Born: 1494 or 1495
• Birthplace: Probably Istanbul, Ottoman Empire (now in Turkey)
• Died: September 5 or 6, 1566
• Place of death: Near Szigetvár, Hungary

Süleyman is undoubtedly the best-known Ottoman Turkish sultan. He extended the domains of the empire eastward, establishing a long-lasting border between the Islamic Sunni Turks and the Islamic Shīՙite realm under theṢafavid shahs. His reign marked a period of internal stability, primarily through an ordered system of laws.

Early Life

Süleyman (sew-lay-MAHN) the Magnificent, tenth in the line of Ottoman Turkish sultans, was the son of Sultan Selim I (r. 1512-1520) by his wife, Aisha Sultan. Aisha Sultan was herself the daughter of a prestigious Islamic ruler, Menghli Giray, the head of the Black Sea Crimean khanate. Little is known about Süleyman’s early education in the palace environment of Istanbul. The young prince received practical training, first as governor of the district, or sancak, of Kaffa, during the sultanate of his grandfather Bayezid II, and later, under Selim, as governor of the province of Manisa (ancient Lydia, in Asia Minor).

Possibly because Selim was such a dominant sultanic authority, his son’s succession at the time of Selim’s death seems to have come automatically, without the necessity of advance preparation to avert internal intrigues between rival pretenders. Once on the Ottoman throne, Süleyman proved that he was more than worthy of Selim’s confidence in his administrative as well as his military capacities.

Life’s Work

The Ottoman sultan whose reputation is symbolized by the Western epithet, the Magnificent, carried a different title in Ottoman tradition. The nearly half-century rule of Süleyman earned for him the Ottoman epithet qanuni, or lawgiver. This honor resulted largely from the fact that he systematized imperial Turkish rule over diverse provinces conquered by his predecessors in Christian Europe and in the Arab Islamic zone. Süleyman’s reign was also marked by repeatedly spectacular demonstrations of Turkish strength. Süleyman personally commanded thirteen major Ottoman military campaigns, ten against European adversaries and three in Asia against Islamic rivals.

Süleyman’s reputation for military leadership began in the first two years of his reign, when he captured the city of Belgrade (1521) and the island fortress of Rhodes (1522). From then on, Ottoman armies would play an important role in the international game of influence between the French Valois king Francis I and the Austrian Habsburg emperor and Spanish king Charles V . The latter was a natural rival of Süleyman because the Habsburg and Ottoman empires were both tempted to expand claims over the territory of weaker Danubian neighbors.

First, at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, when the Ottomans toppled the last medieval Hungarian dynasty, killing King Louis II, and again in the spectacular campaign of 1529, the future of Hungary was the object of Habsburg-Ottoman struggles. These ended, at least temporarily, when Süleyman laid siege to Vienna itself in September, 1529. After this extraordinary show of force, Süleyman was able to ensure recognition of his protégé-king John Zápolya in Buda.

From the Danubian valley, the focus of Ottoman imperial pretensions spread to North Africa. Here again, despite Habsburg efforts to stop the sultan’s expansionist diplomacy, Ottoman domination would become increasingly imminent in the 1530’s. An important sign of Süleyman’s intention to bring the North African areas into closer dependence on the Ottoman Empire was his appointment of Barbarossa, perhaps the dominant renegade corsair leader along the North African coast, to the post of kapudan pasha (Ottoman high admiral) in 1533.

In 1534, Süleyman also succeeded in annexing Iraq to the empire defeating theṢafavid Persian shah’s claims. From their southernmost bases in Iraq, the Ottoman navy could proceed to dominate the Persian Gulf, entering the Indian Ocean at the height of Süleyman’s reign. Süleyman took great interest in the newly annexed Ottoman province of Iraq. He built an important mausoleum in Baghdad for Abu Hanifah, founder of the Hanifite school of Islamic law (the “official” school followed by the Ottomans). He also personally visited the most important Islamic shrines of Iraq, including the holy Shia sites of Nedjef and Karbala.

By the 1540’s and 1550’s, it was quite clear that, with the exception of the westernmost area of North Africa (the independent sultanate of Morocco), all major Arab zones of the eastern and southern Mediterranean would fall under the suzerainty of Süleyman or his immediate successors. Only the borders of the Danubian west and eastern Anatolia, where the struggle with the Ṣafavid shah went on until the Treaty of Amasia in 1555, were still in question. It might have been possible to gain a comparable treaty with Süleyman’s Habsburg rival, Emperor Ferdinand I, who had never abandoned hopes of dominating Hungary. Apparently Süleyman’s Grand Vizier Rustem (who was also his son-in-law) made this impossible until his death in 1561. No sooner had Süleyman signed a treaty (1561) than, with the advent of a new Habsburg monarch (Emperor Maximilian), new hostilities erupted.

The last five years of Süleyman’s long reign seemed to be marked with signs of both personal and political decline. The death of his wife, Khurram, demoralized the sultan. Two of his sons, Princes Bayezid and Selim, began a bitter rivalry. The tragic outcome of this split, which ended with the execution of Bayezid, not only shook the sultanic family itself but also affected the interests of contending political groups who could no longer be certain how to organize support for the future sultan, Selim II. Nevertheless, Süleyman’s visible strength was enhanced by his choice of a new grand vizier, Mehmed Sokollu. Süleyman accompanied his armies, now virtually under Sokollu’s command, one more time, to the Hungarian battlefield of Szigetköz. Although the Ottomans were successful in this confrontation with their perennial Christian enemies, Süleyman died during the campaign, presumably without knowledge of his army’s victory.

Significance

The reign of Süleyman the Magnificent can be considered representative of the golden age of the Ottoman Empire, which ran roughly from 1450 to about 1600: The empire at that time was politically, militarily, and culturally strong. Probably the outstanding example of the strength of Ottoman political and military organization was the Janissary (literally, new army) corps. Although this military corps had arisen at least a century before Süleyman’s sultanate, it seems to have reached the zenith of its efficiency in the first half of the sixteenth century. What the Janissaries represented militarily was characteristic of the entire structure of Ottoman rule under Süleyman: absolute loyalty and individual subservience to the sultan.

Süleyman was careful to maintain and control the Ottoman institution that could provide for such a system of unquestionable loyalty; this was the devshirme, or levy of non-Turkish conscripts, who were mainly Christian youths “contributed” by subjects populations in the Balkan zone or raided areas beyond Ottoman frontiers. Such conscripts, called kapi kullar (slaves of the imperial gate), were brought into the special schools of Istanbul and trained for very select service, either as military elites or bureaucratic officials such high-ranking officers as the grand vizier could be drawn from these men. Since their sole source of sponsorship was the palace at Istanbul, such elites could be sent to any area of the empire at the sultan’s will.

In Süleyman’s time, the practical results of such centralization were still quite visible: There were very few acts of insubordination, either within the formal imperial administration or on the part of provincial populations under Ottoman rule. In this respect, Ottoman governing institutions under Süleyman represented a considerably more efficient substructure for monarchical authority than could be found anywhere else, either in Europe or in the immediately adjacent areas of western Asia under the Ottomans’ neighbors, the Ṣafavid shahs of Iran. The unquestioned authority of the sultanate probably contributed to other symbols of self-assurance in the Ottoman Empire under Süleyman I. There are suggestions, in the form of the great ganunnahmes, or “books of law” prepared under the sultan’s supervision for each major province of the empire, of a pervading sense of social and economic order that would have affected not only elite but also all classes of governed populations, whether Christian, Jewish, or Islamic. One may still observe, in the splendid architectural monuments (especially mosques and schools, or madrasas) erected by Süleyman’s chief architect, Sinan Pasha, models of structural support and harmony which, in purely aesthetic terms, ensured imperial supremacy.

Bibliography

Ahmed, S. Z. The Zenith of an Empire: The Glory of the Suleiman the Magnificent and the Law Giver. Trumbull, Conn.: Weatherhill, 2001. Biography of Süleyman, emphasizing the creative and dynamic aspects of his rule and his empire. Includes illustrations.

Fisher, Sydney Nettleton, and William Ochsenwald. The Middle East: A History. 6th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Chapter 18 of this well-known general history is entitled “The Ottoman Empire as a World Power.” In addition to providing a comprehensive review of the major events of Süleyman’s reign, Fisher covers a number of cultural topics including Ottoman literature and architecture of the period.

Gibb, H. A. R., and Harold Bowen. Islamic Society in the Eighteenth Century. Vol. 1 in Islamic Society and the West: A Study of the Impact of Western Civilization on Moslem Culture in the Near East. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960. Although the joint authors of this work dedicate the majority of their analysis to Islamic society in the eighteenth century, chapters 2 and 3 (“Caliphate and Sultanate” and “The Ruling Institution”) provide essential details of the internal organization of the Ottoman Empire in the age of Süleyman I. These include discussions of the army and central administration, both originally recruited by means of the devshirme system.

Goffman, Daniel. The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Reconsideration of the Ottoman Empire, arguing that it should be understood as part of Renaissance Europe, rather than as a “world apart,” isolated and exotic. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, and index.

Hodgson, Marshall G. S. The Gunpowder Empires and Modern Times. Vol. 3 in The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974. Chapter 3 of this volume is entitled “The Ottoman Empire: Shari’ah Military Alliance, 1517-1718.” In this section dealing with the strongest period of Ottoman history, the author provides an analytical framework for comparing prototypes of government and society in several geographical areas of Islamic civilization. The Ottoman model represented by Süleyman is compared with that of theṢafavid shahs in Iran and the “Indo-Timuri” (Mughal) empire of India.

Inalcik, Halil. “The Heyday and Decline of the Ottoman Empire.” In The Further Islamic Lands, Islamic Society and Civilizations. Vol. 2 in The Cambridge History of Islam, edited by P. M. Holt, Ann K. S. Lambton, and Bernard Lewis. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1970. This is the most concise history of the Ottoman Empire in the age of Süleyman. Like most other political histories dealing with the reign of Süleyman, it turns very quickly to a discussion of decline under his immediate successors, particularly under Selim.

Kunt, Metin, and Christine Woodhead, eds. Süleyman the Magnificent and His Age: The Ottoman Empire in the Early Modern World. New York: Longman, 1995. Anthology of essays covering the genesis of the Ottoman Empire, the policies and problems faced by the Empire in the sixteenth century, and Süleyman’s reign in the context of those problems. Includes illustrations, maps, bibliographic references, and index.

Lybyer, Albert H. The Government of the Ottoman Empire in the Time of Suleiman the Magnificent. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1913. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1978. This is one of the earliest attempts by a Western historian to provide a comprehensive history of Süleyman’s reign. Nevertheless, it provides basic facts and the beginnings of an analytical framework for discussing the structures of the Ottoman “ruling institution,” a term and concept taken over and developed in much greater detail by H. A. R. Gibb and Harold Bowen in the 1950’s.