Suleiman Born: The Ottoman Empire's Greatest Sultan

Suleiman inherited the Ottoman Empire at 26 when his father Selim I died in 1520, and spent the next four decades making it larger, more organized, and more culturally ambitious than anything the Ottoman state had achieved before. His subjects called him Kanuni, the Lawgiver, which they considered a more important distinction than "the Magnificent," the title Europeans gave him. Born on November 6, 1494 (some sources say April 27, 1495), in Trabzon on the Black Sea coast, Suleiman was educated in the palace schools of Istanbul and served as a provincial governor in several posts before ascending the throne. He personally led thirteen major military campaigns, conquering Belgrade in 1521, the island of Rhodes in 1522, and defeating the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, which brought most of Hungary under Ottoman control. His legal codification was his most lasting domestic achievement. He systematized Ottoman law into a comprehensive body of secular legislation, called kanun, which governed taxation, land tenure, criminal penalties, and the treatment of non-Muslim subjects. He balanced this secular legal tradition with sharia, Islamic religious law, creating a dual system that endured for centuries. The kanun defined the rights and obligations of every class of Ottoman society with a precision that gave the empire administrative coherence across three continents. His relationship with Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana), a former enslaved woman from Ruthenia who became his legal wife, was unprecedented. No Ottoman sultan had married a former concubine. Their partnership was both romantic and political: Hurrem wielded significant influence over court affairs and foreign diplomacy. Their son Selim II eventually succeeded Suleiman. He commissioned the architect Mimar Sinan, whose mosques, bridges, and public buildings, including the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, are considered the pinnacle of Ottoman architecture. Suleiman died on September 6, 1566, during the siege of Szigetvar in Hungary. His death was kept secret for three weeks to prevent the army from breaking camp. He was 71.