Suleiman also reformed the tax system, dropping extra taxes imposed by his father and establishing a transparent tax rate system that varied according to people's income. Hiring and firing within the bureaucracy would be based on merit, rather than on the whims of higher officials or family connections.
All Ottoman citizens, even the highest, were subject to the law. Suleiman's reforms gave the Ottoman Empire a recognizably modern administration and legal system more than years ago. He instituted protections for Christian and Jewish citizens of the Ottoman Empire, denouncing blood libels against the Jews in and freeing Christian farm laborers from serfdom.
Suleiman the Magnificent had two official wives and an unknown number of additional concubines, so he bore many offspring. His first wife, Mahidevran Sultan, bore him his eldest son, an intelligent and talented boy named Mustafa. His second wife, a former Ukrainian concubine named Hurrem Sultan, was the love of Suleiman's life and gave him seven sons. She started a rumor that Mustafa was interested in ousting his father from the throne, so in Suleiman summoned his eldest son to his tent in an army camp and had the year-old strangled to death.
This left the path clear for Hurrem Sultan's first son Selim to come to the throne. Unfortunately, Selim had none of the good qualities of his half-brother and is remembered in history as "Selim the Drunkard. In , the year-old Suleiman the Magnificent led his army on a final expedition against the Hapsburgs in Hungary.
The Ottomans won the Battle of Szigetvar on September 8, , but Suleiman died of a heart attack the previous day. His officials did not want word of his death to distract and discomfit his troops, so they kept it a secret for a month and a half while the Turkish troops finalized their control of the area. Suleiman's body was prepared for transport back to Constantinople. To keep it from putrefying, the heart and other organs were removed and buried in Hungary.
Today, a Christian church and a fruit orchard stand in the area where Suleiman the Magnificent, greatest of the Ottoman sultans , left his heart on the battlefield. Suleiman the Magnificent vastly expanded the size and significance of the Ottoman Empire and launched a Golden Age in Ottoman arts. Achievements in the areas of literature, philosophy, art, and architecture had a major impact on both Eastern and Western styles.
Some of the buildings constructed during his empire still stand today, including edifices designed by Mimar Sinan. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.
Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Ibrahim was not only a friend, he was an entertaining and instructive companion. He read Persian, Greek and Italian; he knew how to open unknown worlds to the Sultan's mind, and Sulevman drank in his Vezir's wisdom with assiduity.
They lived together: their meals were shared in common; even their beds were in the same room. The Sultan gave his sister in marriage to the sailor's son, and Ibrahim was at the summit of power. Through her charm and guile she managed to catch the eye of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, displacing his former favorite and eventually becoming his wife.
Her son Selim, inherited the empire from his father but proved a disastrous ruler and an alcoholic. Selim is said to have died in after slipping and banging his head in a hammam while drunk. Its glamorous costumes, sumptuous interiors, and the endless conniving and plotting among the women of the harem have fed the resurgent local interest in the Ottoman Empire. They led me to an inner vestibule, where I was divested of my cloak and shoes and regaled with refreshments.
Presently an elderly woman, very richly dressed, accompanied by a number of young girls, approached me, and after the usual salutation, informed me that the Sultana Asseki was ready to see me. All the walls of the kiosk in which she lives are covered with the most beautiful Persian tiles and the floors are of cedar and sandalwood, which give out the most delicious odor. At the entrance to the apartment in which the Sultana consented to receive me, the elderly lady who had accompanied me all the time made me a profound reverence, and beckoned to two girls to give me their aid; so that I passed into the presence of the Sultana leaning upon their shoulders.
The Sultana, who is a stout but beautiful young woman, sat upon silk cushions striped with silver, near a latticed window overlooking the sea. Numerous slave women, blazing with jewels, attended upon her, holding fans, pipes for smoking, and many objects of value. She asked many questions concerning our country and our religion, of which she knew nothing whatever, and which I answered as modestly and discreetly as I could.
I was surprised to notice, when I had finished my narrative, that the room was full of women, who, impelled by curiosity, had come to see me, and to hear what I had to say. When the dancing and music were over, refreshments were served upon trays of solid gold sparkling with jewels. As it was growing late, and I felt afraid to remain longer, lest I should vex her, I made a motion of rising to leave.
She immediately clapped her hands, and several slaves came forward, in obedience to her whispered commands, carrying trays heaped up with beautiful stuffs, and some silver articles of fine workmanship, which she pressed me to accept. After the usual salutations the old woman who first escorted me into the imperial presence conducted me out, and I was led from the room in precisely the same manner in which I had entered it, down to the foot of the staircase, where my own attendants awaited me.
I was very glad to observe a lady that had been distinguished by the favor of an emperor, to whom beauties were every day presented from all parts of the world. But she did not seem to me to have ever been half so beautiful as the fair Fatima I saw at Adrianople; though she had the remains of a fine face, more decayed by sorrow than by time.
She wore a vest called donalma, and which differs from a caftan by longer sleeves, and folding over at the bottom. It was of purple cloth, straight to her shape, and thick-set, on each side, down to her feet, and round the sleeves, with pearls of the best water, of the same size as their buttons commonly are. This habit was tied at the waist with two large tassels of smaller pearl, and round the arms embroidered with large diamonds: her shift fastened at the bottom with a great diamond, shaped like a lozenge; her girdle as broad as the broadest English ribbon, entirely covered with diamonds.
Round her neck she wore three chains, which reached to her knees: one of large pearl, at the bottom of which hung a fine colored emerald, as big as a turkey-egg; another, consisting of two hundred emeralds, close joined together of the most lively green, perfectly matched, every one as large as a half-crown piece, and as thick as three crown pieces; and another of small emeralds, perfectly round.
But her earrings eclipsed all the rest. They were two diamonds, shaped exactly like pears, as large as a big hazelnut.
Round her talpoche she had four strings of pearl, the whitest and most perfect in the world, at least enough to make four necklaces, every one as large as the Duchess of Marlborough's, and of the same size, fastened with two roses, consisting of a large ruby for the middle stone, and round them twenty drops of clean diamonds to each. Beside this, her headdress was covered with bodkins of emeralds and diamonds. She wore large diamond bracelets, and had five rings on her fingers, all single diamonds, except Mr.
Pitt's the largest I ever saw in my life. It is for jewelers to compute the value of these things; but, according to the common estimation of jewels in our part of the world, her whole dress must be worth above a hundred thousand pounds sterling.
This I am very sure of, that no European queen has half the quantity; and the Empress' jewels, though very fine, would look very mean near hers. But the magnificence of her table answered very well to that of her dress. The knives were of gold, the hafts set with diamonds but the piece of luxury that gripped my eyes was the tablecloth and napkins, which were all tiffany, embroidered with silks and gold, in the finest manner, in natural flowers.
It was with the utmost regret that I made use of these costly napkins, as finely wrought as the finest handkerchiefs that ever came out of this country. Suleiman surrounded Belgrade and captured the city in August The next step was to conquer the Eastern Mediterranean island of Rhodes.
In , he set sail with around , men and captured the islands after a five-month siege. One of his greatest victories came at the Battle of Mohacs on August 29, The Ottoman army of up to 70, lost just 1, men compared to up to 20, on the Hungarian side. After taking Buda in , he was unsuccessful in his conquest of Vienna in the same year and was forced to raise his siege.
It was under his reign that Ottoman institutions reach the supposed peak of their classical form, a largely hermetic system staffed by individuals trained internally rather than accessible to outsiders. They largely reached the limitations of their supply lines and infrastructure, leading to a greater focus on internal affairs rather than a pressing need for territorial expansion.
Although later Sultans did conquer more territory, they often found wars to be rather prolonged affairs with multiple fronts and little gain. The empire began a controlled decentralization in response to the need for tax in kind, changes in the nature of warfare, the Little Ice Age , and other transformations in Europe. It was this adaptability—rather than clinging to raw power—that allowed the Ottoman Empire to weather these crises.
Where so many other empires and kingdoms collapsed, the Ottomans survived into twentieth century. The Sultan often reflected in his poetry on the transitory nature of rule, life, and power. His poetry characterizes the world as a trap, filled largely with misery. Given the events of his long reign, he likely felt keenly the repercussions of rule.
Despite the pains power caused him, he knew that nothing, including his own reign, lasts forever. Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Stanton Foundation. Skip to main content.
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