Süleyman and the Ottoman golden age
Under Süleyman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire reaches the height of its power, from Hungary to Baghdad and Algiers, and its architects and artists build classical Istanbul.
- Suleyman the Magnificent — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923 — Caroline Finkel, John Murray (2005)
- The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age, 1300–1600 — Halil İnalcık, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1973)
Süleyman I came to the throne in 1520, shortly after his father Selim I had defeated the Safavids at Chaldiran and conquered Egypt and Syria, making the Ottoman sultan protector of Mecca and Medina. Süleyman took Belgrade (1521) and Rhodes (1522), destroyed the Hungarian army at Mohács in 1526 and besieged Vienna in 1529. His fleets, under Hayreddin Barbarossa, dominated the Mediterranean; his armies took Baghdad in 1534.
- Suleyman the Magnificent — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923 — Caroline Finkel, John Murray (2005)
Turks remember him as Kanuni, the Lawgiver, for harmonising imperial law (kanun) with Islamic law. His court was a centre of poetry, calligraphy and miniature painting, and his chief architect, Mimar Sinan, built the Süleymaniye mosque in Istanbul and the Selimiye in Edirne, still among the masterpieces of world architecture.
- The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age, 1300–1600 — Halil İnalcık, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1973)
- Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923 — Caroline Finkel, John Murray (2005)
His marriage to Hürrem (Roxelana), a former slave from what is now Ukraine, and his execution of two of his own sons, Mustafa and Bayezid, gave the reign a darker family drama. He died in 1566 besieging Szigetvár in Hungary.
- Suleyman the Magnificent — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1923 — Caroline Finkel, John Murray (2005)
Why it matters today
Süleyman's age is the golden age in Turkish imagination: a time when the empire was the greatest power in Europe and the Middle East. The mosques of Sinan define Istanbul's skyline, and the television drama Muhteşem Yüzyıl ("The Magnificent Century"), about Süleyman and Hürrem, was watched by hundreds of millions across the region, and angered some conservatives for its portrayal of the sultan.