Briefly, Ottomans achieved naval dominance in the Mediterranean Sea , Red Sea , and Persian Gulf , and the empire continued to expand for a century after his death. Within the empire, Suleiman was known as a fair ruler and an opponent of corruption. He was a great patron of artists and philosophers , and was noted as one of the greatest Islamic poets, as well as an accomplished goldsmith. Early life Suleiman was born at Trabzon in modern day Turkey.
Suleiman's early experience of government was as governor of several provinces, most notably Bolu in northern Anatolia, and his mother's homeland of Caffa in Crimea. He was the son of a sailor at Parga, and had been captured by corsairs, by whom he was sold to be the slave of a widow at Magnesia. Here he passed into the hands of the young prince Suleyman, then Governor of Magnesia, and soon his extraordinary talents and address brought him promotion From being Grand Falconer on the accession of Suleyman, he rose to be first minister and almost co-Sultan in 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. This resulted in a decisive Ottoman victory and the empire gaining control of the lands to the east including much of modern-day Iraq. In most cases of his conquests, Suleiman typically gave generous terms for surrender. In the case of Knights of Saint John, he allowed them after their surrender to leave with their arms and religious icons on Ottoman ships.
Most stayed. Suleiman by Titian. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Aside from military conquest, Suleiman was dedicated to the improvement of his empire. He commissioned the building of monumental architecture and public works, especially in Constantinople.
Suleiman also oversaw a period in which the arts flourished in his empire. An able poet himself, Suleiman was a powerful patron of the arts. Suleiman also consolidated a secular code of law that worked in tandem with the religious shariah law. He also provided more tolerance for peoples of non-Muslim faiths in the Empire, denouncing blood libels against Jews and liberating Christian serfs. In addition, he also moved the Ottoman Empire more toward a meritocracy whereby civil servants were given positions based on ability rather than birth or wealth.
To understand the influence of Suleiman, one must consider that he even established an alliance with Francis I of France against the Hapsburgs. 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. 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. 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.
He pledged assistance to Protestant causes to undermine the Habsburgs and others and did not hinder Protestantism taking root in Hungary or Transylvania. This struggle intensified confessional concerns and the differentiation of the two sects and empires. His mosque, seen here, is the second largest of the Ottoman era in the city of Istanbul. 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. Capitol Building as one of the world's great lawmakers.
His marriage to Hurrem Sultan Roxalana d.
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