The life and achievements of

SULEIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT

Magnificent, was born 6 November 1494 in Trabzon on

the southern coast of the Black Sea. His father was

Sultan Selim I and his mother Hafsa Sultan - a

concubine of Selim I.

At the age of 7, Suleiman was sent to Constantinople to

the Topkapi Palace where he began studies of science,

history, literature, theology and military tactics. It was

here be befriended a slave - Paragali Ibrahim - who

would later become a trusted adviser (Grand Vizier) to

Sultan Suleiman, before being executed on his friends

orders.

At the age of 17 Suleiman was named the first governor of Kaffa, before moving to Manisa and

then Edirne. When his father died in 1520, Suleiman entered Constantinople and ascended the

throne - becoming the tenth Ottoman Sultan. Under his rule, the Ottoman Empire became the

largest empire of the time. He was looked up to by the European kings as a generous ruler,

gifted poet and craftsman. Suleiman’s rule saw great developments in art, literature and

science that had lasting impacts we can still see today.

While Suleiman was well known for

his passion for the arts and science,

he was most famous for his military

accomplishments in Europe and

towards the Christian strongholds

of Belgrade and Vienna. To the

east, Suleiman conquered Persia

and to the south the important port

city of Aden. Suleiman’s forces also

captured significant territory in

North Africa..

One of the more significant military campaigns of Suleiman’s reign was the attack on the Island

of Rhodes in 1522. The knights of the Order of St John, successors from the Crusades, had

seized the island from the Byzantines in 1309. For the Ottomans, the Knights of Rhodes were a

constant pain - attacking ships and stopping Suleiman’s attempts to advance the Ottoman

Empire across the Mediterranean. After a tiresome five month siege, the Knights signed over

control of the Islands to Suleiman - a crucial strategic advancement in the Ottoman Empire

expansion.
While Suleiman had great success across the Mediterranean and North Africa, his target was

eastern Europe. A series of successful and aggressive campaigns against the Kingdom of

Hungary, Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Byzantine forces - with the Serbs remaining the last

formidable force against the Ottomans in the Eastern Bloc. Belgrade finally fell after a series of

heavy bombardments in 1521 when the Serbs conceded defeat. This success brought Suleiman

face-to-face with his long-time rivals - the Hapsburg Empire, a dynasty based in Austria that

maintained control through marriage alliances of the great part of western Europe - including

Spain, Portugal and Poland. Suleiman launched an attack on the city of Vienna in 1529, however

Suleiman ultimately withdrew his troops after a long and costly battle. Three years later Suleiman

tried again to seize Vienna. The second failed attempt marked the end of the Ottoman Empire’s

expansion, with Suleiman now focussing on administering the territory that the Empire had control

of.

In Turkey you will often hear of Suleiman I

referred to as Suleiman the Lawgiver. This is

due to his part in rewriting the legal code. The

overriding law of the Empire was Shariah’ Law

- which as the divine law of Islam was outside

of the Sultan’s power’s to change. However as

the Empire expanded into territories of non-

Islamic background, Suleiman felt it necessary

to review the legal codes of the Empire that

considered the new regions and different ways

of life.

Suleiman once described his power as:

I am God’s slave and sultan of this world. By the

grace of God I am head of Mohammed’s

community. God’s might and Mohammed’s

miracles are my companions. I am Suleiman,

whose name the butbe is read in Mecca and

Medina. In Baghdad I am the shah, in Byzantine

realms the Caesar and in Egypt the Sultan who

sends his fleets to the seas of Europe, the

Maghrib and India. I am the sultan who took the

crown and throne of Hungary and granted them

to a humble slave. The voivoda Petru raised his

head in revolt by my horses' hooves ground him

into the dust, and I conquered the land of

Moldavia.
There were many challenges facing Suleiman and his legal system. For starters it needed to take

into account the complex structure of the Ottoman Empire. Geographically, almost all of the

Empire, except for part of Africa, were mountainous communities - isolated from each other.

These communities had developed their own laws which needed to be considered. There were

also many different lifestyles to consider as well. Some Ottoman’s lived in great cities while

others were nomads or merchants who travelled long distances. The Empire was also made up of

many different faiths, including Judaism and Christianity. In some parts of the EMpire, Islam was

the religion of the minority.

Ultimately the solution was relatively simple for Suleiman. As new territories were added to the

Empire, the Ottoman’s tried to preserve as many of the local laws as possible - as long as they

did not contradict the religious laws or general legal principles of the empire. This practice in turn

reduced the opposition to Ottoman rule - which ensured that local laws suited local conditions

and made collecting taxes much easier.

In Islamic faith, Jews and Christians

are grouped with Muslims as ‘people

of the book’, that is people who share

the same background with belief in

Abraham, Moses and the Prophets.

As the Ottoman Empire expanded,

more Christians and Jews were living

under Muslim rule. Although there

were the occasional executions and

forced conversions - which had been

features of other Empire expansions,

most people under the Ottomans

were free to practise their own

religions.

Jewish and Christian religious

communities were allowed to govern

themselves, as long as they provided

taxes to the government and kept the

peace in their own communities.

Under Suleiman’s rule, each had its

own Millet (the Turkish word for

nation). Under the Millet system,

communities could have their own

courts, although in any dispute

involving a Muslim or criminal acts

such as robbery, the Islamic court

took over.
 Under Suleiman’s patronage, the Ottoman Empire entered into what is known as the golden age of

its cultural development. This period of time saw the introduction of artistic societies where after

apprenticeship, an artist and craftsman could advance in their field and were paid wages by the

Sultan’s purse.

Suleiman himself was a poet. His most famous verse is:

The people think of wealth and power as the greatest

fate,

But in this world a spell of health is the best state.

What men call sovereignty is a worldly strife and

constant war;

Worship of god is the highest throne, the happiest of

all estates.

He is also attributed as author of a famous Turkish

proverb which states that everyone aims at the same

meaning, but many are the version of the story.

Suleiman also became known for his contributions to

architecture. It was under Suleiman that he sought to

turn Constantinople into the centre for Islamic

civilization, who he entrusted architect Mizmar Sinan

to build and create. Suleiman was responsible for the

restoration of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and

the walls of Jerusalem, and renovated the Kaaba in

mecca.

In total it is believed that Suleiman had two wives and a harem of seventeen who bore him 13

children. Of his relationships, the most notable and well known was with a girl known as Roxelana.

Roxelana came to the Topkapi Palace as a harem girl for the Sultan. She was the daughter of an

orthodox priest in the Crimea, and taken to Constantinople as a slave. Eventually, Roxelana rose

through the ranks of the harem to become the Sultan’s favourite - becoming the legal wife of

Suleiman much to the astonishment of the palace and the city.

Suleiman composed a poem for his wife:

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 does not distress me in this room ...

My Istanbul, my karaman, the earth of my Anatolia

My Badakhshan, my Baghdad and Khorasan

My woman of beautiful hair, my love of the slanted brow, my love of eyes full of

misery ...

I'll sing your praises always

I, lover of the tormented heart, Muhibbi with eyes full of tears, I am happy.
Of his children, Suleiman had six boys - all potential heir’s to the throne. As was custom at the time of

Suleiman’s rule, there was no succession order for who became Sultan on the death of their father -

instead it was a battle and a race that often led to fratricide. By 1556, only two of Suleiman’s sons

were living- Selim II and Bayezid. In 1559 the brothers were at war with Selim using his father’s army

to defeat Bayezid in Konya, a town in central Turkey. After his defeat, Bayezid fled with his son’s

seeking refuge with the Safavid - the ruling Iranian family. When Selim heard of his brothers escape,

he paid the Safavid Shah large amounts of gold to murder his brother and nephews - thus paving the

way for Selim to take the throne upon his father’s death.

In September 1566, Suleiman died in the Battle of Szigetvar. His body was taken back to Istanbul and

Selim, his only remaining son, ascended the throne to become Sultan Selim II.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Once finished, create a timeline of Suleiman's life using the dates in the text as your markers.

1. Where was Suleiman born?

2. Who were Suleiman's parents?

3. Where did Suleiman study as a child?

4. What significant event happened in 1522? Describe the event.

5. Why did the Ottoman expansion stop?

6. How is Suleiman known in Turkey?

7. What were the considerations needed in creating a legal system in the Ottoman Empire?

8. What is the Millet system?

9. How many children did Suleiman have?

10. Who was Roxelana? In our answer describe how Suleiman felt about her.

11. What happened with his sons? Who took control and how did they win power?