Soliman the Magnificent

Biography

First years

To the seven years age it was sent in the capital, Istanbul to follow there its Humanités which consisted, at the time, in the study of sciences, history, literature, theology. His/her father, Selim the terrible one, added to it the technical soldiers. It made its first experiments as regards government in various provinces.

At the beginning of its reign he undertook several conquest campaigns. He thus conquered the Serbia in 1521 by taking Belgrade. The following year, it besieged and took the island of Rhodos in 1522, letting the knights of Saint Jean take refuge with Malta.

The apogee of its reign

The August 29th 1526 Soliman gained the victory of Mohács against the king Louis II of Hungary and occupied the major part of the Hungary, of which it gave the throne to Jean Zápolya prince of Transylvania. But Charles Quint, Holy Roman Emperor, and his/her brother Ferdinand, archduke of Austria, took again Hungary. A counter-attack of Soliman ended in a failure because of the bad weather. Soliman threatened Vienna in 1529 and 1532. Finally in 1533, it signed a peace treaty with Ferdinand, cutting into two Hungary from which a part returned in Habsbourg, and the other in Jean Zápolya. With died of Jean Zápolya, Ferdinand remained in its part of Hungary, giving to Soliman the impression to be able to annex the other part. It followed from there new combat and a new treaty to return to the starting point.

From 1533 to 1536 it conquered is Anatolia and the Azerbaïdjan. During the same time, the Othoman troops occupied the Yemen. The corsairs Turkish installed with Algiers took Tunis with the Hafsides on its behalf in 1534. Their kingdom was conquered by the Turkish pasha of Tripoli which took Kairouan in 1557 and by the pasha of Algiers which took Tunis in 1569.

Soliman consolidated his conquests by signing a series of peace treaties with his neighbors. In 1540, it signs with Venice a peace treaty together with advantageous Capitulations for the Venetian merchants. In 1541 it installed an Othoman regency in Hungary during the childhood of the new king. In 1547 it signed a peace treaty with Charles Quint. In same time it maintained good relationships with France, another adversary of Charles Quint. In pledge of these good relationships, it allowed François I {{er}} to have a permanent representation in Istanbul, a vault of Embassy which became thereafter the Lycée Saint-Beno4it cheese and granted to France capitulations.

The August 29th 1551 Soliman takes the Hungarian fortress of Belgrade and Sabac.

In 1559 it signed a peace treaty with the shah safavide of Iran.

Its death

At this point in time it conducted a campaign against the Germanic emperor Maximilien II that the Sultan died in 1566, the battle day before of Szigetvár in Hungary, gained by the Turks. It was buried at the side of his preferred wife Roxelane, in the mausoleum contiguous to the Mosquée Süleymaniye of Istanbul.

The judgment of the History

Seen from abroad Soliman, the Large Turkish, appeared a danger to everyone because of his power and his ambition, but inside he was regarded as a good sovereign, combatant corruption, and like a patron towards the artists and the philosophers. Itself is known to have been a poet and a skilful jeweller.

For all the commentators it is with, under the reign of Soliman, that the Empire will know its apogee, when its armies advance to the Austrian capital in 1529 and 1532 (they will make these seats besides in vain). Conversely, Vienna will mark the limit of the expansion of the Empire in Occident (as Aden the limit will fix some at the East). For the chroniclers of the time, the head office of Vienna caused, in Occident a very important Traumatisme. If important that they placed it on a level equivalent to that of the invasions Viking S or great plague.

The role of Roxelane

If Soliman of cruelty were sometimes shown, some say that it is necessary to see there the influence of his wife Roxelane ( Hürrem Sultan in Turkish), sultana girl of an orthodoxe and named Ukrainian priest Aleksandra Lisowska (1505 - Edirne 1558). Roxelane had become the third wife in the hierarchy of the harem with the birth of a son. It is said that it was a very skilful policy and that it could play of the fascination of her husband. The rule of succession in force at the Othomans was that the successor was to be the oldest son, also this one was to get rid of all his/her brothers like as many competitors. The applicant was Mustafa the son of another wife.

In 1541 a fire destroyed the old palate and all the Harem was moved towards the large palace where it was found nearer to the Sultan: thus the era known as started of the “reign of the women”. Roxelane had a rival to eliminate, it was the most faithful companion of Soliman, Ibrahim. This last was like Roxelane a former prisoner and slave, it became large the Vizier of Soliman during 13 years. Ibrahim had had Roxelane. Soliman had promised his sister to him, Hatice, in marriage. By offering Roxelane to the Sultan, Ibrahim had thought that would consolidate its position, but it was the opposite which occurred. Roxelane became jealous of the friendship of Soliman for Ibrahim, it started to spread gossip on Ibrahim. One night he was strangled by a guard deaf-mute, but however no obvious proof was reported on the responsibility for Roxelane in this murder.

Soliman wanted to build a new palate, Roxelane fearing to see itself there locked up in a new harem, dissuaded some and incited it to build a mosque. Thus the architect Sinan was selected for the construction of the mosque known as “Süleymaniye” with Istanbul in 1549.

A false letter of the crown prince Mustafa to the shah to Iran requiring its assistance of him to reverse Soliman was intercepted. Mustafa precipitated in his/her father to be justified, only and without weapon. Soliman killed his son the November 6th 1553, while crying it.

Of four wire of Roxelane:

first Mehmet died young person of natural death;
second Cihangir, although brilliance was reached of epilepsy;
the third Bayezid was intelligent and cruel, it is the Bajazet of Jean Racine.
Selim (the future Selim II) the fourth was thus its elected official because Roxelane thought that it should not assassinate his brothers, being of a rather soft naturalness. Roxelane will not see its plans being achieved because she died the April 17th 1558.

The two brothers clashed as opposed to what had supposed their mother, which led Bayezid to take refuge in Persia near the Shah. Soliman managed to make it extradite to assassinate it quickly.

The heritage

Soliman made build many complex monks , (külliye) , including/understanding mosque, madrasas, library, canteens and mausoleum, of which most famous is the Süleymaniye mosque of Istanbul. He made build complexes of this kind with Damas with Médine and the Yemen.

In 1517 Selim I {{er}} had taken the control of the old territory of Judaea to the Mamelouks. The Othomans accepted hundreds of refugees fleeing forced conversions operated by the king Ferdinand II of Aragon into 1492, thus in Istanbul important a Jewish minority had settled. Soliman taken care to restore Jerusalem and it made surround the old city of a wall which one can still see today.

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