Selim and Suleiman: the empire at its height (1512-1566)

Part oneSelim in the east

In 1501 a young man named Ismail founded the Safavid state in Iran and declared Twelver Shi'ism its official faith. Many Turkmen tribes of eastern Anatolia, known as the Qizilbash, followed him. They lived on both sides of the Ottoman-Safavid border, and in 1511 a Shia Turkmen named Shahkulu led a rising in Anatolia in Ismail's name. The Ottomans feared they would lose the east.

Selim I, who took the throne in 1512, met the threat head on. In 1514 he marched east with a large army and met Ismail at Chaldiran. The Ottomans had muskets and cannon, while the smaller Safavid army relied on swords and cavalry. The battle was won in a single day, and Selim entered Tabriz, the Safavid capital. Ismail lost his name for being unbeatable. Eastern Anatolia, with cities such as Diyarbakir and Mardin, became Ottoman for good.

Part twoThe Mamluk lands and the holy cities

The defeat of the Safavids broke their alliance with the Mamluks of Egypt, and Selim turned south. In 1516 he beat the Mamluk sultan at Marj Dabiq, north of Aleppo, and the cities of Syria opened to him. In January 1517 he defeated the last Mamluk sultan outside Cairo and entered the city. Egypt, Syria and the Hijaz passed to the Ottomans in a single campaign.

The sharif of Makkah sent Selim the keys of the holy city, and Selim took the title Servant of the Two Holy Sanctuaries. From then on the Ottoman sultans sent the yearly caravans and gifts to Makkah and Madinah and cared for the pilgrims' roads. The Abbasid caliph who had lived in Cairo under the Mamluks was taken to Istanbul. In eight years Selim had nearly doubled the empire. He died in 1520.

Part threeSuleiman the Lawgiver

His son Suleiman ruled for forty-six years, from 1520 to 1566. Europeans called him the Magnificent. His own people called him Kanuni, the Lawgiver.

In the field he went from strength to strength at first. He took Belgrade in 1521 and the island of Rhodes, the stronghold of the Knights Hospitaller, in 1522. In 1526 at Mohacs he crushed the Hungarian army, and much of Hungary became Ottoman. In 1529 he besieged Vienna, but autumn rain and long supply lines forced him to withdraw. In the east he took Baghdad in 1534. At sea his admirals, among them Hayreddin Barbarossa, made the Ottoman fleet a power across the Mediterranean.

At home Suleiman put the empire's laws in order. Working with his chief mufti, Ebussuud Efendi, he brought the sultan's administrative law, the kanun, into line with the Sharia, and his codes set out taxes, land holding and the duties of officials across his realm. He was also a poet. He was devoted to his wife Hurrem Sultan, who entered the palace as a captive and became the first woman to hold the title of chief consort. She wrote to foreign rulers on his behalf and built mosques, schools, hospitals and soup kitchens.

The age had its shadows. Under Ottoman custom a new sultan put his brothers to death to prevent civil war, and the struggle for succession reached into Suleiman's own family. His capable grand vizier Ibrahim Pasha was executed in 1536, and his eldest son Mustafa in 1553. Suleiman died in 1566 on campaign in Hungary, at the siege of Szigetvar. His empire stretched from Hungary to Yemen and from Algeria to Iraq, and his architect, Sinan, was filling it with mosques.

His people called him Kanuni, the Lawgiver, for the order he gave the empire's laws.

WatchThe lecture for this chapter

Lecture Hikma HistoryBattle of Chaldiran: Ottomans vs Safavids (1514) (opens on YouTube)

The mapWhere it happened

• Istanbul
• Chaldiran
• Tabriz
• Marj Dabiq
• Cairo
• Makkah
• Belgrade
• Mohacs
• Vienna
• Baghdad
• Rhodes

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

SourcesSources for this chapter