Suleiman I (1494/95–1566; Ruled 1520–1566)

views updated May 23 2018

SULEIMAN I (1494/951566; ruled 15201566)

SULEIMAN I (1494/951566; ruled 15201566), tenth Ottoman sultan, born in Trabzon, the son of Hafsa, a Crimean Tatar princess, and the future sultan Selim I (ruled 15121520). Under Suleiman, the Ottoman Empire became the Islamic world's Sunni exemplar. Suleiman spent his childhood in Trabzon, where Selim was governor. As a prince, Suleiman himself received the governorship first of Kefe (Fedosiya) and then, in 1513, of Manisa. In 15141515 he acted as regent during his father's campaign against Iran. In 15161517, he oversaw the defense of Edirne while his father campaigned against the Mamluks in Syria and Egypt.

Suleiman suceeded to the throne in September 1520. In Syria, he immediately suppressed the revolt of a former Mamluk governor, Janberdi Ghazali, and then, using as a pretext the Hungarian maltreatment of his ambassador, he attacked Hungary in 1521, capturing Belgrade. In 1522, he conquered Rhodes, allowing the Knights of St. John to depart freely. In 1526 he invaded Hungary again, defeating and killing King Lajos (Louis II) at Mohács. Following Suleiman's departure, the Hungarian Diet elected János Szapolyai (John Zapolya) as king of Hungary, but later in the year, the Diet of Bratislava elected the Habsburg counter-claimant, Ferdinand of Austria. In 1529, Ferdinand occupied Buda. Suleiman, however, expelled him from Buda, re-enthroned Szapolyai, and unsuccessfully besieged Vienna, the highwater mark of Ottoman expansion efforts. In 1530, Ferdinand again besieged Buda, and Suleiman again invaded, forcing Ferdinand to an agreement that left Szapolyai as king of central and eastern Hungary and himself as king in the west and north, both ruling as Suleiman's tributaries.

The truce freed Suleiman to attack the Shiite Safavids of Iran, for which a series of defections on both sides of the frontier gave a pretext. In 1533, Suleiman's grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha reoccupied Bitlis, whose lord had defected to Shah Tahmasb. Next year he occupied Tabriz and, after the sultan had joined him, Baghdad. By 1536, the sultan had added Baghdad, Erzurum, and, temporarily, Van to his empire. In 1533, recognizing the need to counter the threat especially of Spanish power in the Mediterranean, Suleiman had appointed as admiral the privateer-ruler of Algiers, Hayreddin (Khayr ad-Dīn) Barbarossa, admiral of the Ottoman fleet. The Spanish threat materialized with the conquest of Tunis by Charles Vking of Spain, Holy Roman emperor, and brother of Ferdinandin 1535. This was a factor persuading Suleiman to agree in 1536 to an anti-Habsburg alliance with France, which lasted until the Franco-Spanish treaty of 1559. A proposed Franco-Ottoman campaign in Italy in 1537 failed to materialize. Instead Suleiman unsuccessfully besieged Venetian Corfu. In 1538, by contrast, Barbarossa captured most of the Venetian islands in the Aegean and defeated a combined Spanish, Venetian, and papal fleet in the Gulf of Prevesa. The war ended in 1540, concluding the period of Suleiman's major conquests.

In Hungary, meanwhile, Szapolyai's death activated Ferdinand's claim, and in 1541 and 1542 he besieged Buda. Suleiman responded by converting central Hungary to an Ottoman province and Transylvania in the east to a kingdom under Ottoman suzerainty for Szapolyai's infant son, John Sigismund. In 1543, he led a campaign to Hungary, securing a line of fortresses along the western border. The war ended in 1547, but Ferdinand's claim to Transylvania continued. It was not until 1556, following campaigns in 1551 and 1552 and the Ottoman occupation of Temesvár, that the king and his mother could return to the kingdom. In the Mediterranean, too, the war with the Habsburgs continued. Charles V's failure to capture Algiers in 1541 encouraged Francis I to renew the Ottoman alliance, and in 1543 a Franco-Ottoman force stormed Nice. The Spanish occupation of Monastir and Mahdia on the Tunisian coast in 1550 encouraged further cooperation, but when in 1551, the French fleet failed to appear for a joint campaign, the Ottoman admiral, Sinan Pasha, instead seized Tripoli from the Knights of St. John. Ottoman expansion in North Africa continued with the capture of Wahran and Bizerta in 15561557 and the expulsion of the Spaniards from Jerba in 1560. However, Suleiman's last major naval campaign against the Knights on Malta, in 1565, was a failure.

Immediately after 1547, Suleiman's main concern was the eastern front and Iran. In 1548, the flight of Shah Tahmasb's brother to Istanbul gave Suleiman the opportunity to invade, but again without conquest apart from the recapture of Van. A third Iranian campaign in 15531554 was equally unproductive, concluding with the treaty of Amasya in 1555, fixing the borders between the two empires. After 1564, the sultan's attention turned to Hungary again. With the bulk of Ottoman forces at Malta, Ferdinand's son Maximilian pressed his claim to Transylvania: Suleiman's response was to launch a major campaign in 1566. In September 1566 he died during the siege of Szigetvár.

During his reign, Suleiman had added central Hungary, Iraq, and territories in eastern Anatolia, the Aegean, and North Africa to the Ottoman Empire, while from the 1530s his fleets dominated the eastern Mediterranean. The kings of France, Muslim rulers in India, and the sultan of Aceh (Sumatra) sought him as an ally, emphasizing his stature as ruler of a world empire. His reach into the western Mediterranean, however, depended on cooperation with the French and the semiautonomous Algerians. After 1540, Habsburg power in central Europe and the Mediterranean, and the Safavids on his eastern border, together with geographical constraints, limited the scope for further conquest and, in the age of Iberian maritime empires, the Ottoman Empire remained essentially land-based. Despite a memorandum of 1525 urging Suleiman to establish an Ottoman hegemony in the Indian Ocean, efforts to disrupt Portuguese shipping at sea and to dislodge the Portuguese from Diu in 1538 and Hormuz in 1552 were unsuccessful.

Despite incessant warfare, the reign was a period of prosperity in the Ottoman Empire. Tax censuses indicate a rising population, with an increase in the number and size of settlements. The treasury remained in surplus, and the standard of the silver currency relatively stable. There were, however, discontents, particularly in Anatolia, leading to a series of popular revolts in the 1520s. In particular, the Safavid shahs made messianic claims, and their many adherents in the Ottoman East posed a constant threat of rebellion, which the sultan controlled through a network of informers.

Suleiman's reign brought conflict within the dynasty. The royal family reproduced through concubines: the practice of marriage, abandoned after 1450, had served political, not reproductive ends. It had also been customary to limit each concubine to one son, with civil war and fratricide deciding which one was to succeed. As an only son, Suleiman had succeeded to the throne unchallenged. However, early in his reign Suleiman became infatuated with his Slavic concubine Hurrem (known as Roxelanna in the West) who bore him more than one son and, in 1534, became his wife. In 1553, when rivalry for the succession increased, Suleiman, probably with the collusion of Hurrem and her faction, executed Mustafa, his son by the concubine Mahidevran, leaving Hurrem's sons Bayezid and Selim as sole contestants. After her death in 1558, Bayezid rebelled. Suffering defeat in 1559, he fled to Iran, where, after Shah Tahmasb had extracted a peace agreement and a payment from Suleiman, he was executed, leaving Selim as sole heir.

Suleiman was intensely conscious of his image. A number of European engravings, all deriving from a single original, give a sense of his appearance, which he clearly tended, applying make-up in his old age to hide blemishes. To his ordinary subjects, however, he would appear only occasionally as a distant figure in a magnificent cavalcade. More enduring are his titles. To Europeans, he is "the Magnificent" in reference to the extent of his empire, and to his youthful ostentation, best known to the Venetians in his commission of a bejewelled triple tiara in 1532. To Muslims he is "the Lawgiver," a title first attested in the eighteenth century, but presumably used earlier. This reflects his promulgation of a new recension of the "feudal" code compiled circa 1500, under Bayezid II, but more importantly his co-operation with the chief mufti, Ebus-suud, in systematizing some areas of of Islamic law, and Ebus-suud's reformulation of "feudal" land law in Islamic terms. It was under Ebus-suud's influence that Suleiman became conspicuously pious in the second half of his reign. Suleiman was the first Ottoman sultan to adopt formally the title of caliph, implying leadership of the Islamic world. The impetus for the claim came from his overwhelming power, his status as guardian of the Holy Cities, and the need to counter Safavid claims and to emulate Charles V's status as Holy Roman emperor. After the Ottoman-Habsburg treaty of 1547, where Charles V no longer used the title "Emperor," Suleiman also adopted the epithet "Caesar" or "breaker of Caesars." In the same year, he began the construction of the Suleimaniye Mosque in Istanbul, a masterpiece of his chief architect Sinan, as a monument to his imperial pretensions. Its completion in 1557 coincided with Bayezid's rebellion, an event that undermined his caliphal-imperial image. Nonetheless, his death on the battlefield secured him the posthumous title of "Holy Warrior and Martyr."

See also Levant ; Mediterranean Basin ; Ottoman Dynasty ; Ottoman Empire ; Piracy .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Busbecq, Ogier Ghislain de. The Turkish Letters of Ogier de Busbecq, Imperial Ambassador at Constantinople, 15541562. Oxford, 1927.

İnalcik, Halil, and Cemar Kafadar, eds. Süleimân the Second [sic] and his Time. Istanbul, 1993.

Kunt, Metin, and Christine Woodhead, eds. Süleiman the Magnificent and His Age. London and New York, 1995.

I Veinstein, Gilles, ed. Soliman le Magnifique et son temps. Paris, 1992.

Colin Imber

Suleiman I

views updated Jun 08 2018

SULEIMAN I

SULEIMAN I (the Magnificent ), Ottoman sultan 1520–1566, called al-Qānūnī, "the Legislator," "the Lawgiver," as the Turks referred to him for his extensive legislative achievements in fiscal and feudal law. The epithet "the Magnificent" was given to him by the Europeans as a tribute to the fact that his rule coincided with the golden period of the *Ottoman Empire. The Jews called him "King Solomon," not only because of his name, but also because of his wisdom and legislative activities. Suleiman conquered *Hungary and laid siege to Vienna in 1529. He annexed *Iraq and *Yemen and extended Ottoman control of North Africa from *Egypt to the borders of *Morocco. Generally he followed the positive system of his father and grandfather toward the Jews, but there were also some problems, caused especially by his tax policy and the pressure to get money from the Jewish population. The long years of his reign represented the pinnacle of Ottoman Jewry, and under his reign the Jewish communities achieved their highest political and economic status, and also benefited from the involvement of Jews in Suleiman's court. In these years thousands of Jews, many of them anusim from Portugal, immigrated into the Ottoman Empire. The Jewish population in his days achieved records in communal, social, economic, and intellectual life. Under Suleiman's rule the Jewish settlement in Ereẓ Israel, especially in *Safed, had a strong presence. Like his father and grandfather, Suleiman used the sürgün system, and transferred Jewish residents from their native cities to other cities. In 1523 he transferred 150 Jewish families from *Salonika to *Rhodes just after its conquest in 1522. According to one testimony, 150 of the richest and most respected Jewish landlords in Salonika (men, women, and children) were transferred at the command of Sultan Suleiman. He wanted to develop Rhodes and to establish it economically. The Jews were forced to remain on the island, but there were people who did succeed in escaping from there. Suleiman had followed this system after he captured Buda in 1526. Despite the fact that the Jews were among the few who had remained in Buda and had delivered the keys to the city into his hands, he still took the Jews with him, leading them off in boats as sürgün. The Jews were dispatched as sürgün, in the category of craftsmen and tradesmen. The Jews of Buda were settled in Sofia, Kavalla, and according to one source, in Salonika as well. Other Jews from Buda settled during Sultan Suleiman's reign in *Edirne (Adrianople), *Istanbul, and perhaps even in Safed. Joseph b. Solomon Ashkenazi, who handed Suleiman the keys to the city of Buda, was awarded, together with his descendants, tax exemption and special grants. The firman written by Suleiman to Ashkenazi was renewed during the Ottoman era by other sultans.

Generally Suleiman was strict, in accordance with the laws of *Islam and state legislation. Suleiman codified the regulations regarding the attire of his subjects, and during his reign the obligation of the Jews to preserve all *Omar regulations was discussed. The Jews had to obtain firmans from the sultan, permitting them to restore several synagogues in some cities. On the other hand, Suleiman did not enforce all of Omar's regulations. For example, Moses *Hamon, his physician and adviser, acquired the right to build a four-story house, and there are sources about Jews in Istanbul who felt free to dress in expensive wool and muslin, silky atlas and cotton cloaks and expensive shoes. Preserved in the Ottoman archives are dozens of firmans written by Suleiman dealing with the status of the Jews of Ereẓ Israel and other communities. Suleiman ordered local Ottoman officials to change their attitude toward the Jewish population and to prevent pressure and extortion. Many of these orders were written in response to letters of complaint sent to Suleiman by the Jews.

A number of Jews held important posts during Suleiman's rule, some acting as diplomatic agents of the Ottoman Empire in European capitals. As one of his Jewish advisers, the aforementioned Moses Hamon accompanied the sultan on his travels and campaigns. Hamon also interceded on behalf of the Jews with the sultan. Following the Amasya blood libel in 1553, Hamon persuaded the sultan to issue a special decree prohibiting provincial judges from trying cases of blood libel and requiring them to refer such cases to the Imperial divan for trial. Hamon was in close contact with the party in the court led by Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana), Suleiman's favorite wife, and Grand Vizir Rustem Pasha. Hamon is also believed to have interceded with Suleiman to exert pressure on Venice to facilitate the departure of the Mendes-Nasi family for the Ottoman Empire. Moses Hamon was the man who influenced Suleiman to bring Gracia Mendes to Istanbul in 1552 and to protect her on the way from Italy to the Ottoman capital. Hamon strived to assist Jews in the Ottoman Empire who requested his political help. But there is no proof that he took up the request of the impoverished clothiers of Salonika to intervene on their behalf at the court of the kadi of Istanbul. On the other hand, he did intervene in the quarrel in the community of Salonika about the activity of the wealthy Barukh.

Another Jew who had an important role in the state, especially in foreign affairs, was Don Joseph *Nasi. Deeply impressed by Nasi's erudition and financial and diplomatic talent, the sultan made him one of his confidants, and gave him his protection and several economic monopolies. In 1555 Suleiman, at Nasi's request, urged Pope Paul iv, who had burned a group of Portuguese anusim in Ancona, to release the Ottoman Jewish subjects who had been arrested. When the Nasi family declared that their agents, who were Ottoman subjects, were among the prisoners, Suleiman urged the pope to free them. Since some of the Ancona prisoners were Nasi's agents, they could be considered Ottoman subjects. The effort failed and the Jews were burned. Suleiman also made efforts in 1555 to release confiscated possessions of Jewish merchants in the papal territory. Suleiman protested, claiming that this act had caused many Jews of Salonika and Istanbul to go bankrupt, so they were unable to pay their taxes to the Ottoman treasury. In the last days of his reign, in 1666, Suleiman, under Jewish influence at his court, interceded concerning money interests of some Levantine Jewish merchants who owed debts to Venetian merchants. In the course of this crisis, Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokollu intervened, and a sultanic messenger was sent to Venice, with a special firman issued by Suleiman. This intervention was in favor of the Segura family, whose members were close to Joseph Nasi and possessed important businesses in the empire.

Finally the sultan gave Gracia Mendes, as a multazima during the years 1560–1566, the ruined city of *Tiberias and its environs, and permitted her to build the walls of the city. Details about this agreement are written in the orders of Suleiman to the governor of *Damascus and to other Ottoman officials. The chronicler Joseph ha-Kohen writes about the important role of Joseph Nasi in developing the city of Tiberias.

During Suleiman's rule the Jews of the Ottoman Empire made great cultural and economic progress. They developed the empire's commerce and succeeded in renting from the sultan the right to collect taxes, especially customs duties. Despite this, at the same time there were the first indications of financial pressure on the Jews by the authorities, and it required great efforts on the part of the Jews close to the court to keep such pressure to a minimum.

Suleiman had connections with two Jewish women called *Kiera (kira) who had good relations with the wives in the harem. When he ascended to the throne, in 1520/1521, he gave the Jewish kira, Stronillah, who served his mother Hafsa Sultan, an exemption from taxes for her and her descendants. This woman adopted Islam at the end of her life and received the name Fatma. We do not know if her conversion was under pressure by the sultan. Another kira, Esther *Handali, was certainly active in the harem before the death of Suleiman, and served Nur-Banu, the favorite concubine of Selim ii, continuing her services to that woman during the reign of Selim ii. Under Suleiman's reign the two kiras did not gain political influence but did have opportunities to become wealthy.

The Ottoman censuses organized by Sultan Suleiman have considerable importance for the history of the Jews in the 16th century. In Ereẓ Israel four censuses were carried out in his time. Suleiman built the wall around the Old City of Jerusalem which still stands (see *Jerusalem, Under Ottoman Rule). This deed made a great impression throughout the Jewish Diaspora.

The attitude of Suleiman to the Jews of Salonika was described by many writers and historians. In 1537 Suleiman visited Salonika and granted the Jewish residents a decree exempting them from the obligation of being "celep" (that is, rich men chosen by the Ottoman officials to use their own money to buy thousands of sheep and to drive them to Istanbul, where they would sell the sheep to the butchers of the city at a fixed price, which often resulted in a financial loss) and from the obligation to be the operators of the silver mines in Siderokapisi, near Salonika. But in 1545 this document was burned in the Great Fire which broke out in Salonika, and the Jews lost these rights. For 20 years the Jews of Salonika sent emissaries to Istanbul to attempt to renew the old order, but their efforts failed. R. Moses *Almosnino did succeed in obtaining the reissue of the order.

The death of Suleiman in Transylvania (September 6, 1566) and his funeral (November 22, 1566) are described by the same Moses Almosnino, who was present in Istanbul at that time, in his book History of the Ottoman Kings. In a second work he described Sultan Suleiman's reign. The entire book is full of admiration for Suleiman's wisdom and statesmanship as well as his attitude toward his subjects, Muslim and non-Muslim. He calls Sultan Suleiman "Our great master Sultan Suleiman, may his memory live forever." The feelings of admiration toward Suleiman are noted also in the colophon of the response by R. Isaac Bar Sheshet published in Istanbul in 1556. The publisher, Shemuel ha-Levi, wrote at the time of the publication, "In Istanbul, the fine city, the city of a great king, a faithful shepherd, our master the Sultan Suleiman, may his splendor be exalted, and his honor grow, and in his times and ours Judea and Israel be redeemed, and may the redeemer come to Zion." Sultan Suleiman was the first Ottoman sultan in whose honor a special poem was written in Hebrew. This poem was written by the Istanbuli poet Shelomo ben Mazal Tov (d. 1545). The last book published in Istanbul during Suleiman's reign was Sefer Yuḥasin by R. Abraham *Zacuto. It was printed in 1566, a few months before Suleiman's death during his campaign in Hungary, and the publisher expressed his wishes for the sultan: "…May the Lord bring him back here in peace without obstacles, and may the Lord cause all his enemies to be defeated by him …"

bibliography:

Rosanes, Togarmah, 2 (19372), 1–94; S.N. Fisher, The Middle East, a History (1959), 218–29; U. Heyd, in: Sefunot, 5 (1961), 139, 144–8. add. bibliography: A.H. Lybyer, The Government of Suleiman (1966); S.W. Baron, in: Joshua Finkel Festschrift (1974), 29–36; A. Cohen and B. Lewis, Population and Revenue in the Towns of Palestine in the Sixteenth Century (1978); A. Bridge, Suleiman the Magnificent (1983); M.A. Epstein, The Ottoman Jewish Communities and their Role in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (1980); A. Shmuelevitz, The Jews of the Ottoman Empire in the Late Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (1984); Yehudim be-Darkhei ha-Shayyarot u-be-Mikhrot ha-Kesef shel Makedonia (1984); R. Lamdan, in: Z. Ankori (ed.), Mi-Lisbon le-Saloniki ve-Kushta (1988), 135–54; L. Bornstein-Makovetsky, ibid., 69–94; A. Cohen, in: Journal of Turkish Studies, 10 (1986), 73–78; H. Inalcik, in: Essays in Honor of Bernard Lewis: (1989), 525, 529 n. 22; A. Cohen, ibid., 467–77; Y.H. Hacker, in: Zion, 55 (1990), 27–82; A. Cohen, in: Cathedra, 57 (1990), 31–51; Hacker, in: A. Rodrigue (ed.), Ottoman and Turkish Jewry: Community and Leadership (1992), 27–31, 58–62; M. Rozen, ibid. (1992), 141–44, 162; M. Rozen, Bi-Netivei ha-Yam ha-Tikhon (1993), 47–50, 69–70, 147, 157–58, 164; A. Cohen and E. Simon-Pikali, Yehudim be-Veit ha-Mishpat ha-Muslemi (1993), index; L. Bornstein-Makovetsky, in: Sh. Trigano (ed.), Société juive à travers les âges, 3 (1993), 433–62; A. Levy, The Jews of the Ottoman Empire (1994); T. Be'eri, in: Pe'amim, 59 (1994), 68–69; B. Arbel, Trading Nations, Jews and Venetians in the Early Modern Period (1995); K. Metin and C. Woodhead, Suleiman the Magnificent and his Age (1995); M. Rozen, in: M. Rozen (ed.), Yemei ha-Sahar (1996), 13–37; M.Z. Benaya, Moshe Almosnino Ish Saloniki (1996); M.M. Weinstein, in: Studies in Bibliography and Booklore, 20 (1998), 145–76; N. Shor, Bonim Ḥomah bi-Yrushalayim (2000), 96–108; M. Rozen, A History of the Jewish Community in Istanbul, The Formative Years, 14531566 (2002); Y. Hacker, in: Kehal Israel, 2 (2004), 287–309.

[Abraham Haim /

Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky (2nd ed.)]

Suleiman I

views updated Jun 08 2018

Suleiman I

Suleiman I (1494-1566) was the tenth ottoman sultan, known to the Turks as Kunani, or lawgiver, and to the Western historians as "the Magnificent, " he ruled the Osmanli empire with undisputed strength and brilliance.

The only son of Selim I, Suleiman attended the palace school and served his apprenticeship as a governor, first at Bolu, where he was assigned when about 15, later at Kaffa, the homeland of his mother, daughter of a Crimean Tatar khan. He also supervised the state when his father was campaigning. In education and experience Suleiman surpassed every European ruler of his day.

Campaigns of Expansion

Suleiman continued Selim's expansionist activites, personally participating in 13 campaigns. This military activity was in part due to the nature of the state, since, without raiding, as the Sultan is said to have realized, the Janissaries lacked income and apolitical outlets for their energies. This was certainly a crucial cause of later Ottoman decline. The first of Suleiman's military moves was against Belgrade, captured on Aug. 29, 1521, in retaliation for the harsh treatment accorded a Turkish embassy seeking tribute of the king of Hungary. Thus the way into the heartland of central Europe was opened.

Rhodes, only 6 miles off the Turkish coast, was the Sultan's second military objective. The resident Knights of St. John had long protected Christian pirates harassing the sealanes to Egypt. The island capitulated in December 1522 after a bloody 6-month siege. Inhabitants not choosing to leave were given their full civil rights and a 5-year remission of taxes, an indication of Suleiman's just—and shrewd— nature.

Suleiman enjoyed the succeeding 3 years at leisure in or near the capital. However, the groundwork was laid at this time for two situations—harem influence and the elevation of favorites—which were to become disastrous for the empire in later centuries. A slave girl, Roxelana ("the Russian"), so attracted the sultan that he made her his legal wife. Khurrem Sultan, as she was formally called, had three children, his successor Selim II (born 1524), Prince Bayezid, and Princess Mihrimah.

Favoritism also appeared, undermining the morale of a government service in which promotions had resulted from meritorious service. The Sultan's favorite, Ibrahim, was a Greek, sold into slavery by pirates. His mistress educated him, and he became attached to Suleiman while the latter was still a prince. On June 27, 1524, Ibrahim was made grand vizier. He was remarkably capable, but those supplanted in service were disaffected. One of Ibrahim Pasha's first duties was to reorganize Ottoman affairs in Egypt in response to uprisings there. The new arrangements successfully combined a degree of local autonomy with overall ottoman supervision. Egypt's laws were later codified on the basis of Ibrahim's changes.

In the summer of 1526 Suleiman broke the power of Hungary. The Turks advanced into and temporarily occupied the capital in a major raid necessitated in part by Janissary restlessness over several years' inactivity. May 1529 saw Suleiman again in the Danubian area, now in support of the Transylvanian duke, John Zapolya, in opposition to the Austrians who had occupied Buda. Ousting them, Suleiman installed Zapolya as his vassal in Hungary and launched the famous siege of Vienna, Sept. 27-Oct. 15, 1529. On the very eve of the city's surrender, the Janissaries withdrew, perhaps because Turkish forces were limited in their military operations by climatic factors. No winter campaigns were undertaken because the rains made movement of artillery, men, and supplies too difficult.

Eastern Campaigns

The Sultan's fifth campaign was a minor one against the emperor Charles V in 1532. Then the wars moved East. In July 1534, the grand vizier, Ibrahim, took Tabriz and, in November, Baghdad. There the Sultan spent 18 months, settling the administration and visiting Kufa, Kerbala, and other holy places. Meanwhile his foe, Shah Tahmasp, reoccupied many of his conquered territories, thus necessitating Suleiman's return and leading to the sack of Tabriz in 1536.

That same year Ibrahim fell from favor. Favorite, confidant, adviser, policy maker, and even brother-in-law of Suleiman, Ibrahim was found outside the palace strangled the morning of March 15, 1536. He had apparently overstepped the bounds of his position, frequently assuming titles beyond his rank. Since he was still Suleiman's slave, his extensive property reverted to his master.

Corfu and Moldavia occupied Ottoman attention between 1537 and the reconquest and then annexation of Hungary in 1541. Austria's opposition to the latter act resulted only in further Ottoman annexations and an annual tribute payment established by peace treaty in 1547. Austrian treaty violations, however, led to Turkish acquisition of Temesvar in 1552, but Suleiman did not participate in that expedition—he was again in pursuit of Shah Tahmasp.

Court Intrigues

When, in 1553, full-scale operations against Persia resumed, Roxelana's politicking appeared. Rustem Pasha, the grand vizier and husband of princess Mihrimah, led the Ottoman forces but reported the Janissaries were talking of replacing an aging sultan with his more vigorous eldest son, Mustafa. At Roxelana's urging, the Sultan joined the army. He met and executed Mustafa at Eregli on October 16. Prince Jahangir, Mustafa's deformed brother, committed suicide when he heard the news. Since Mehmed, Suleiman's favorite, had died in 1543, only Roxelana's sons now remained alive.

After Mustafa's death, the Sultan continued the war with Tahmasp, finally settling the border in 1555 after prolonged treaty negotiations. The Ottomans retained Baghdad and the Persian Gulf port of Basrah.

The last years of Suleiman's life were marred by the death of Roxelana in April 1558 and the war, beginning the following year, between her sons, the sly, intriguing, alcoholic Selim and the younger Bayezid. Selim was aided by Rustem Pasha and Mihrimah, whose influence over the Sultan was considerable. Defeated in battle, Bayezid fled to Iran, vainly asking parental forgiveness; apparently his request was never received. He was surrendered to the Sultan's agent, in exchange for gold, and was executed.

Suleiman's last campaign, carried out when he was past 70, was again into Hungary. His forces besieged and took the last non-Turkish fortress, Sziget, in 1566. The Sultan died during the night of Sept. 5-6, his death kept secret over 3 weeks until Selim's succession.

Suleiman's Role

Suleiman's military exploits and interest in the hunt indicate an indefatigable nature. He was also active as a legislator, bringing to its peak the administrative system of the burgeoning empire. The laws for which he is famed were necessitated by the rapid expansion of the state and the governing system. Predominating were such matters as inheritance rights, ceremony within the government, criminal punishments, and, in 1530, regulations to reorganize feudal grants in an effort to end corruption. Although the income of the state was extensive, the sumptuous nature of the court and the subcourts of the princes and slave viziers created problems which later led to widespread corruption.

Internationally, the expansion of the empire rearranged European politics. In 1536 the French king, Francis I, concluded an alliance with the Turks, raising France's position to that of Venice and others. Ottoman sea power was long established in the eastern Mediterranean; now, under Khair al-Din Barbarossa, Ottoman suzereignty over North Africa was firmed up. Barbarossa and his successors roamed the Mediterranean, raiding Spanish coastal areas at will. After the French alliance they often cooperated with French ships. The only setback occurred in 1565, when an attack on Malta failed. Ottoman sea power dominated the area long after Suleiman's death.

Other naval ventures in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean brought Yemen and Aden into the Ottoman Empire and even led to a siege of the Portuguese-held Indian city of Diu in 1538. Turkey produced several famous naval commanders during this period, including Piri Reis, noted for his cartographic work but executed for his failure to break Portugal's hold on Ormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

Cultural progress was also made during Suleiman's reign. Foreign concepts receded as Ottoman civilization found its own footing. The Sultan himself, using the name Muhibbi, was quite a poet and beyond that a patron of poets and inspiration of historians. His diary is an invaluable record of his reign. He seems also to have been a humble religious man, composing prayers and eight times copying the Koran. His religious nature further is evidenced in the large number of mosques he commissioned.

Architecture was a major achievement of Suleiman's time, most of the domes and minarets of Istanbul dating from then. Works ordered by the Sultan include mosques for his father, Roxelana, Mehmed, Jahangir, Mihrimah, and himself; the aqueducts at Mecca and Istanbul; and a tomb for the Ottoman-favored Islamic legalist Abu Hanifa.

Further Reading

Full-length biographical studies of the Sultan are Roger B. Merriman, Suleiman the Magnificent (1944), and Harold Lamb, Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the East (1951). An early but exhaustive examination of 16th-century Osmanli administration appears in Albert H. Lybyer, The Government of the Ottoman Empire in the Time of Suleiman the Magnificent (1913; repr. 1966). □

Suleiman (1494–1566)

views updated Jun 08 2018

Suleiman (14941566)

Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until 1566, under whose rule the empire reached the height of its power and influence, as well as its peak as a center of science, culture, literature, and art. Born in 1494, he was the only son of Sultan Selim I, who appointed him to serve as the governor of the provinces of Bolu and Kaffa. He became the tenth sultan of the empire in 1520 on the death of his father.

An ambitious and capable military leader, Suleiman spent much of his life campaigning on the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire. When an Ottoman company of diplomats was refused tribute by the king of Hungary, Suleiman ordered his army into the Balkan Peninsula, and conquered Belgrade in 1521. He then ordered an attack on the Knights Hospitallers, a Christian military order in control of the Greek island of Rhodes. In 1522, the island surrendered after a long siege.

In 1526 Suleiman returned to Hungary, defeated the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohacs, and captured Buda, the capital of the Hungarian kingdom. He returned in 1529, drove the occupying Austrian army out of the capital, and installed a Duke of Transylvania, John Zapolya, as his vassal. From Hungary Suleiman led an assault on the Austrian capital of Vienna in the fall of 1529. The siege of the city failed as the weather worsened and the professional soldiers known as Janissaries abandoned the siege.

After Vienna, Suleiman campaigned in Persia and Mesopotamia. Under the leadership of his grand vizier, Ibrahim, the Ottoman armies captured Baghdad and the Persian city of Tabriz in 1534. Suleiman sacked the city of Tabriz in 1536, and in the same year ordered the murder of Ibrahim for his ambition to rule Persia.

Suleiman made important reforms in the administration and laws of his expanding empire. He also made an alliance with the French king Francis I against the Habsburg emperors. This alliance made the Turks a forceful influence in the dynastic rivalries of Europe for the next three centuries.

In the 1540s he fought against European armies in Hungary and Austria. The Ottoman Empire annexed Hungary in 1541 and by 1547 was earning an annual tribute from the Habsburg rulers of Austria. The Ottoman navy captured the North African port of Tripoli in 1551. Under Khair al-Din Barbarossa, the Ottoman Empire reigned over North Africa and the Turkish navy became the most powerful force in the Mediterranean. Turkish ships staged frequent raids on European ports for gold and slaves. Ottoman forces also raided ports on the Red Sea as far as the Indian port of Diu, a colony of Portugal, and annexed the coasts of Arabia to the empire. After warring for several more years with the Persian armies of Shah Tahmasp, Suleiman settled the eastern frontiers of the Ottoman Empire in 1555, including Baghdad and the Persian Gulf port of Basra under their control.

Suleiman was a patron of the arts and literature, and was himself a distinguished poet and writer. A distinctly Ottoman style in the visual arts emerged, and the sultan commissioned the building of several important mosques in the Ottoman capital of Istanbul (formerly Constantinople). Suleiman's private life, however, was marred by constant intrigue and the corruption of his ministers and diplomats. He took as his wife a slave girl, Roxelana, who was given the title of Khurrem Sultan and who gave birth to Suleiman's younger son Selim in 1524. Roxelana intrigued in favor of her sons Selim and Bayezid against their elder half brother Mustapha. In 1553, as Mustapha's own power and influence at the sultan's court reached a dangerous point, Suleiman had him executed. In 1558 Roxelana died, an event followed by a war between her sons Selim and Bayezid. The conflict ended in the defeat and the betrayal of Bayezid by the shah of Persia, who turned him over to Suleiman for execution in exchange for a large payment of gold. While on campaign in Hungary, Suleiman laid siege to the Szigetva, where he died. His son Selim II inherited the Ottoman Empire at the greatest extent of its history.

See Also: Ottoman Empire

Suleiman I

views updated May 17 2018

Suleiman I ( the Magnificent) (1494–1566) Ottoman Sultan (1520–66). He succeeded his father, Selim I. Suleiman captured Rhodes from the Knights Hospitallers and launched a series of campaigns against the Austrian Habsburgs, defeating the Hungarians at Mohács (1526), and subsequently controlling most of Hungary. In 1529, his troops besieged Vienna. Suleiman's admiral, Barbarossa, created a navy that dominated the Mediterranean and ensured Ottoman control of much of the North African coastal region. In the e, Suleiman won victories against the Safavids of Persia and conquered Mesopotamia. See also Ottoman Empire

Suleiman the Magnificent

views updated May 14 2018

Suleiman the Magnificent name given to Suleiman I (c.1494–1566), sultan of the Ottoman Empire 1520–66; also known as Suleiman the Lawgiver. The Ottoman Empire reached its fullest extent under his rule; his conquests included Belgrade (1521), Rhodes (1522), and Tripoli (1551), in addition to those in Iraq (1534) and Hungary (1562). He was also a noted administrator and patron of the arts.