Imperial Ottoman

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Suleiman the Magnificent

The life and reign of Suleiman I (1520-1566), the longest-reigning Ottoman sultan, under whom the Ottoman Empire reached the height of its power.

Suleiman I, called Kanuni (the Lawgiver) by the Ottomans and the Magnificent by the Europeans, reigned as Ottoman sultan from 1520 to 1566, a span of forty-six years. His reign is generally regarded as the apogee of the Ottoman state: the period at which the empire’s military power, administrative reach, cultural production, and economic prosperity all reached their highest points. He is one of the most famous rulers in the list of Ottoman sultans, and his reign shaped the institutional framework of the Ottoman government for the next three centuries. His principal residence was the Topkapı Palace, the setting for the imperial council described in the article on the Grand Vizier and the Divan.

Early Life and Accession

Suleiman was born in Trabzon on 6 November 1494, the son of Selim I and Hafsa Hatun. He was trained as a prince in the imperial household and served as governor of Kaffa (1509), Manisa (1511), and Edirne (1517). He was proclaimed sultan on 22 September 1520, three days after the death of his father. His accession was uncontested, but it was followed by an early test of his authority: the beylerbeyi of Damascus, Janbirdi al-Ghazali, refused to recognize him and was defeated and killed in 1521. The dismissal and execution of the Grand Vizier Piri Mehmed Pasha inaugurated the new reign and led to the appointment of Ibrahim Pasha, a favorite of the sultan who would dominate the early years of the reign.

The Imperial Council and the Grand Vizier

The most distinctive feature of the early part of Suleiman’s reign was the partnership between the sultan and his Grand Vizier, Ibrahim Pasha. Ibrahim was appointed Grand Vizier in 1523, and for the next thirteen years he conducted the day-to-day business of government, leading the Divan-ı Hümayun (the imperial council described in the article on the Grand Vizier and the Divan), commanding the army in the field, and conducting the empire’s foreign relations. The partnership ended in 1536, when Ibrahim fell from favor and was executed — a fall variously attributed to the increasing influence of Hürrem Sultan, the suspicion of the ulema, and the sultan’s own desire to resume the personal direction of the government. The execution inaugurated the second period of the reign, in which Suleiman ruled more directly and appointed a sequence of Grand Viziers, of whom the most able was Sokollu Mehmed Pasha.

The Military Conquests

Suleiman’s reign was marked by an extraordinary sequence of military campaigns. In the Balkans, he captured Belgrade in 1521, defeated the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, and laid siege to Vienna in 1529 — an unsuccessful siege that nevertheless established a long-term Ottoman foothold in central Europe. The 1541 campaign conquered Buda and incorporated much of Hungary into the Ottoman system. The campaign of 1566, Suleiman’s last, was directed against the fortress of Szigetvár in Hungary, and the sultan died of natural causes on the night of the final assault on 6–7 September 1566.

In the Mediterranean, Suleiman conquered Rhodes in 1522, ending the long tenure of the Knights of St John; Tripoli in 1551; and Cyprus in 1571, in the reign of his successor Selim II. The Battle of Lepanto (1571) was a major setback, but the Ottomans rebuilt their fleet within a year. In the east, two wars with the Safavid shahs of Persia (1532–1555 and 1558–1590) ended with the Treaty of Amasya of 1555. The 1538 expedition incorporated Iraq into the empire. The conquest of Egypt by Selim I in 1517 had given the Ottomans control of the southern Mediterranean, and the 1520s and 1530s saw the establishment of the regencies of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli.

The Lawgiver

Suleiman is known to the Ottomans as Kanuni, “the Lawgiver,” a title that refers to his codification of the kanun (sultanic law) that coexisted with the sharia in the Ottoman legal system. The kanun regulated matters not covered by the sharia: criminal law, taxation, land tenure, the status of non-Muslims, the conduct of officials, and the like. Suleiman’s kanunname systematized the existing practice and remained in force, with subsequent additions and revisions, until the Tanzimat reforms of the nineteenth century. The kanun was the principal instrument of Ottoman legislation and the principal source of the sultan’s authority as a lawgiver.

The Cultural Patronage

Suleiman’s reign is associated with a flourishing of Ottoman culture. The most prominent architect of the age was Mimar Sinan, the chief architect of the empire, who designed the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul (1550–1557), the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, and the Şehzade Mosque in Istanbul. The Süleymaniye complex, with its hospital, school, imaret, caravanserai, and library, was one of the most ambitious religious and charitable foundations of the empire. The poets of the age, including Bâkî, Fuzûlî, and Zâtî, were among the greatest of the Ottoman classical tradition. The ulema of the age, including Ebussuud Efendi, the Şeyhülislam of the empire, gave the legal and religious life of the empire an enduring institutional form.

Legacy

Suleiman’s reign is, by general agreement, the apex of the Ottoman state. The empire was at its largest, its administration was at its most efficient, its economy was at its most productive, and its culture was at its most vibrant. The institutional framework of the Ottoman government — the divan, the grand vizierate, the millet system, the timar system, the kanun — was at its most coherent. The combination produced a state that could project power from the gates of Vienna to the Persian Gulf, from the Crimea to Yemen, and from Algiers to the Caucasus. The collapse of the 1590s and 1600s — the inflation, the Celali revolts, the fiscal crisis, the loss of control over the provinces — was the consequence of forces that were not yet visible in the 1560s, but that were, in retrospect, already at work.