The Long, Bloody Reign of Suleiman: Magnificent or Not?

Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent used war and conquest to expand the Ottoman Empire during his bloody but prosperous reign in the 16th century. In addition to the honorific ‘the Magnificent’, he is also known as ‘the Lawgiver’. He was the longest-reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled much of the world for 623 years.

During his 45 years as sultan, from 1520 to 1566, Suleiman ordered two of his sons slain (one by strangulation); killed an official of his government who had been a long-time friend; ruled a society rife with slavery; and killed multitudes with his wars. Yet society remembers Suleiman as “the Magnificent.” It is said that the victors write history. Perhaps they also bestow their own nicknames.

When Suleiman rose to power as sultan, the Ottoman Empire controlled Anatolia, the Balkans, Egypt and the Levant (the lands around the eastern Mediterranean). He conquered and would add Hungary, parts of Persia, Mesopotamia and North Africa to his empire. Suleiman ruled vast territories in Europe, Africa and Asia. The Ottoman Empire had an estimated population of at least 25 million under his reign, and as we will see, many of them were slaves.

The Women in Suleiman the Magnificent’s Life

Suleiman was born on Nov. 6, 1494, the only son of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. His grandfather, Bayezid II, appointed him governor of Kaffa in Crimea around age 17. Later, his father appointed him governor of Manisa in western Turkey. So he already had some experience in governance when he became sultan in 1520.

His mother, Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, was a consort of Selim I. She lived with Suleiman during his governorship from 1513 to 1520 in Manisa. She built a college, mosque, primary school and hospice there. She also was cured of a disease, supposedly by the invention of a paste known as mesir macunu, and so she was the founder of the Festival of Mesir Macunu, a festival that is still celebrated. She became one of the most influential people in the Ottoman Empire after her son rose to power, writes the blog, Women’s History and More.

A Venetian diplomat who saw her in Suleiman’s court, Pietro Bragadin, said she was “a very beautiful woman of 48, for whom the Sultan bears great reverence and love.”

It is unclear whether he had a harem as governor, but when he became Sultan, he did. Historians say he had 17 women in his harem, with reportedly at least two favorites. One, a Polish girl called Roxelana or H ürrem, had been captured by Crimean Tatars, taken to Istanbul and sold as a slave. She entered Suleiman’s harem and eventually caught his attention.

Roxelana and Suleiman the Magnificent, by Anton Hickel, 18th century (Public Domain)

His new favorite requested to learn Islam, and he was happy she wanted to convert, says this Ancient Origins article. But as a Muslim, she told Suleiman that she couldn’t sleep with him because they were not married. He eventually agreed and also freed her from her bondage, and she became his legal wife. She gained great influence and power. Some historians say she persuaded Suleiman to curtail slave-raiding by Tatars in her home country. Hürrem and Suleiman had five children together, including his successor, Selim II.

A 16th century Engraving by Agostino Veneziano (Public Domain)

Hürrem founded a mosque, a soup kitchen, a women’s hospital and two Koranic schools. At one point before their marriage, she aroused the jealousy of Mahidevran, another one of Suleiman’s favorites. Mahidevran was the mother of the heir apparent, Mustafa, whom Suleiman later killed. Mahidevran beat Hürrem and was sent into exile in a province with Mustafa.

The marriage to Hürrem roused controversy for a few reasons. He was the first sultan to marry since the beginning of the empire. There was reportedly a lot of gossip about the married couple. People said she was a witch who beguiled the sultan. She was also said to be behind the many intrigues that the emperor faced during his long reign.

An article on an Ohio State University  Origins page, states:

Indeed, political intrigue followed him over the course of his rule. He was forced to have his dear friend and one of his longest serving grand viziers, Ibrahim (d.1536), killed because he took too many royal prerogatives for himself. Likewise, he had his politically popular son Mustafa (d.1556) executed and participated in a minor dispute against his son Beyzid (d.1561), who was also strangled to death at his father’s order.

War From the Beginning of His Reign

When Suleiman became sultan in September 1520, he began attacking Christian countries in the Mediterranean and Central Europe almost from the very beginning. In 1521, he took Belgrade. In 1522-23 Rhodes fell to him. At Mohács in Hungary, he overcame the military might of the Hungarians, and their king, Louis II, died in battle. With the Hungarian throne vacant, it was claimed by a Habsburg Austrian archduke, Ferdinand I, and also by a leader of Transylvania by the name of János Zápolya or John. The natives did not want the Habsburgs to rule them, so Suleiman recognized John, and in 1529 he ruled Hungary as a vassal until his death in 1540.

Short Sword (Yatagan) from the Court of Suleiman the Magnificent (Public Domain)

Hoping to eliminate any more intervention by the Habsburgs, in 1529 the Ottoman military besieged Vienna. But the long distance from home, lack of supplies and difficult weather, plus fierce resistance by the Christians, prompted the Ottomans to discontinue the siege. However, in 1532, Suleiman had another go at the Austrians.

The Christians defended Güns brilliantly and fought off the Ottomans. Suleiman was preoccupied with events to the East. He realized he could not defeat the Austrians quickly, so he called a truce in 1533 with none other than the same Archduke Ferdinand I. War in Hungary resumed in 1543. Truces were made and broken. Eventually, in 1562, after much negotiating, the two powers made a tentative peace that was also later broken.

Campaigns Against Persia, Greece, Europe, India and Africa

The Ottomans under Suleiman launched three big campaigns against the Persians. From 1534-1535, the Ottomans took control of Iraq and the area of Erzurum in eastern Asia Minor. From 1548-1549, the second drive of the Ottomans against Persia took control of the area of Lake Van. However, the third campaign, from 1554-1555, according to Britannica:

“served rather as a warning to the Ottomans of the difficulty of subduing the Safavid state in Persia. The first formal peace between the Ottomans and the Safavids was signed in 1555, but it offered no clear solution to the problems confronting the Ottoman sultan on his eastern frontier.” 

Territories of the Ottoman Empire under Suleiman the Magnificent (Chamboz/CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Ottoman navy became very strong under Suleiman. Barbarossa, whose real name was Khayr al-Din, was admiral. In 1538, his fleet defeated the combined naval forces of Spain and Venice at Prevez, Greece. The Ottomans would go on to hold sway in the eastern Mediterranean until the 1571 Battle of Lepanto. Also in 1538, the Ottomans in Egypt launched an attack on Diu, India, but could not wrest it from the Portuguese.

In 1551, still under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottomans took Tripoli. The Spaniards launched a major fight against Tripoli but were defeated at Jarbah in 1560. The Ottomans tried to take Malta in 1565, but the Knights of St. John were able to fend them off.

War, Yes. But Also Tolerance For Others’ Religions and Lifeways

While the Ottomans under Suleiman the Magnificent made war a lot, they allowed the people they conquered to have their own religions and customs as long as the people did not buck the system. Ottoman officials were supposed to know local customs, norms and practices, but they did not end or curtail them so as not to cause unrest.

The Ohio State University site says:

“The Ottoman world was one in which Islam was privileged and Suleiman’s reign marked a renewed interest in Islamic religious matters. Nonetheless, all groups of the empire found niches to fill and were generally allowed to maintain their way of life and flourish during his reign.”

The site adds that he continued the claim his father had made, to being the caliph (the chief Muslim civil and religious ruler), and having universal  rule. From that time forward, Ottoman sultans made themselves the caliph and the head of Sunni Muslims. The divisions between Shi’a Safavids and Sunnis intensified and further differentiated the  two empires.

Suleiman the Lawgiver (Kanuni) standardized what the OSU article calls “Sultanic law.” He edited the law books of his predecessors and expanded the statutes and code of law into a universal, single text. The law laid out punishments for crimes and required cash payments that varied with the perpetrators’ social status.

Slaves in the Ottoman Empire

Slavery was rampant in the Ottoman Empire. It has been estimated that a fifth of the population of the empire were slaves, which would be about 5 million people during Suleiman’s reign. Slaves played a major role in the economy and society in general.

The Ottomans captured slaves during their many wars and organized expeditions mounted specifically to take slaves from Eastern, Southern, Central and Southeast Europe; the Caucasus; Africa; and the Western Mediterranean. Experts say that from 1453 to 1700, the Ottomans enslaved about 2.5 million people just from the slave trade of the Black Sea.

A Builder Of Monuments And Great Works

Suleiman constructed mighty fortresses to hold the territory he took from Christian countries. He also gave cities of the Muslim world, including Baghdad, Damascus and Mecca, aqueducts, bridges, mosques and other edifices.

Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, commissioned by Suleiman (Public Domain)

He completed the transformation of Byzantine Constantinople into Ottoman Istanbul and made it the centerpiece of a great Turkish empire.

A Metropolitan Museum of Art website says:

Apart from mosques and other pious foundations—including schools, hospices, and soup kitchens, supported by shops, markets, baths, and caravanserais—Süleyman also commissioned repairs and additions to major historical monuments. The tile revetment of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, as well as several additions to sites in Mecca and Medina, the two Holy Cities of Islam, date from this period.

A warmonger and filicide, but also a sensitive poet, Suleiman wrote this for Hürrem Sultan:

“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 world…
My Constantinople, my Caraman, the earth of my Anatolia
My Badakhshan, my Baghdad and Khorasan
My woman of the beautiful hair, my love of the slanted brow, my love of eyes full of mischief…
I’ll sing your praises always
I, lover of the tormented heart, Muhibbi of the eyes full of tears, I am happy.”

The Death Of Suleiman The Magnificent

Suleiman died of natural causes in September 1566 while on a war campaign in Hungary. Historians say that his heart and other organs were buried there to prevent decay.

In 2015, historians said they found his organs in a tomb in Hungary. The Guardian reported: “Historians believe Suleiman’s heart and internal organs were buried in the tomb and his body taken back to Constantinople, as Istanbul was then known. His death at Szigetvar was kept secret for 48 days to prevent his troops from giving up the fight.”

Top image: Suleiman the Magnificent reigned for 45 years and made war in much of the world, conquering territory from Europe to Asia. (Public Domain)

By Mark Miller