S leyman, who would be known to the west as the Magnificent, began his reign as sultan
of the Ottoman Empire in September 1520.
His political career began far earlier: as a teenager, he served as a provincial governor
and was key participant in his father Selim s (r.1512-1520) rebellion that secured him
and S leyman, by extension the throne.
S leyman s reign lasted 46 years, the longest in Ottoman history.
Over that span, he rose to be one of the most powerful and influential monarchs of European
history, feared on the battlefield and the conqueror of new lands for his empire.
When S leyman was made sultan, his kingdom encompassed the peoples and territories of
the Balkans, Anatolia, the Levant, and Egypt.
Under his reign, it expanded to include much of North Africa, Hungary, and Mesopotamia.
In the first six years, S leyman took Belgrade and Rhodes.
In 1526, he also scored a decisive victory against the Kingdom of Hungary and its allies
at the Battle of Moh cs, during which Hungary's King Louis the Second (r.1516-1526) lost his
life.
His death sparked a succession crisis and border dispute among Habsburg Austria, the
Ottomans, and the kingdoms of Croatia and Hungary, allowing the bulk of Hungary to come
under Ottoman rule.
Years later, S leyman himself died peacefully in his command tent while leading his last
campaign against Szigetv r, Hungary in 1566.
His was a multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, and multi-confessional empire.
The Ottoman state had little interest in radically changing the attitudes or practices of local
groups if they were peaceful.
Consequently, Ottoman governance was often curtailed by local custom.
It was expected that Ottoman officials would have a knowledge of local practices and norms,
which they were not to tread upon lest it cause unrest.
The Ottoman world was one in which Islam was privileged and S leyman 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.
S leyman played a pivotal role in European affairs during his 46 years in power.
He pledged assistance to Protestant causes (to undermine the Habsburgs and others) and
did not hinder Protestantism taking root in Hungary or Transylvania.
He formed an alliance with the French against the Habsburgs and transformed much of the
Mediterranean Sea into an Ottoman lake for decades to come.
The effects of S leyman's reign continue to be visible in modern-day Europe.
In the Islamic world, S leyman extended the claim his father had tentatively made to the
Caliphate and Universal Rule.
Henceforth, all Ottoman sultans saw themselves as Caliph and head of all Sunni Muslims.
S leyman s claim further cemented differences between Shi a and Sunni institutions, as the
Shi a Safavids (centered in Persia) and the Sunni Ottomans sought to legitimize their
rule and affirm their claims against each other.
This struggle intensified confessional concerns and the differentiation of the two sects and
empires.
Beyond the military conquest for which he has been remembered, S leyman also standardized
Sultanic law.
He collected and edited the various law books of his forbearers and added a number of statutes
to create a more universally applicable singular text.
This law book, like its predecessors, provided the basis for punishments for various offenses,
favoring cash payments based on the perpetrator s social status for most crimes.
His work codifying laws earned the Sultan his Ottoman honorific Kanun?, or law giver.
He is still remembered globally as Kanun?, a status that earned S leyman a bas-relief
in the U.S. Capitol Building as one of the world's great lawmakers.
For all the cultural splendor and military success of S leyman's rule, it was also tragic
in an almost Shakespearean sense.
His marriage to Hurrem Sultan (Roxalana) (d.1558) caused a great deal of controversy because
S leyman was the first Sultan since the early years of the empire to marry.
S leyman was deeply devoted to his wife: several of his poems are directed to her and she accrued
remarkable power in her own right.
This marriage supposedly caused no small amount of gossip.
There were claims that she was a witch that had beguiled the Sultan and she was the excuse
behind many of the intrigues that S leyman dealt with in his long reign.
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.
S leyman s rule has long marked a turning point in Ottoman history as well as that of
the regions the empire controlled.
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.
Many historians have argued that S leyman represented the apogee of Ottoman power and
statecraft and his death started a centuries-long decline.
We now know this story of decline to be false, though the S leymanic period did give way
to a moment of temporary crisis and reform in the seventeenth century.
It is arguably under S leyman that the Ottomans began to feel the weight of their success.
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 system of centralized rule that finalized under S leyman had to adapt in short order
to the rapidly changing world and the various crises that rocked Europe during the late
sixteenth and seventeenth centures.
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.
S leyman, despite his authority, recognized this need for flexibility.
His greatness and the empire's success were predicated on this mixture of tolerance, power,
and innovation.
Where so many other empires and kingdoms collapsed, the Ottomans survived into twentieth century.
Remembering the reign of S leyman stirs up different feelings: some seek to claim prestige
in the Ottoman past and others seek to revile it.
Yet, it behooves us to reflect on Ottoman rule and the Magnificent at our current juncture.
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.