At a glance
Era 8- Dates
- 1494-1566 CE; ruled 1520-1566 CE
- Who
- Ottoman sultan at the height of the empire, known as the Lawgiver
- Era
- The Ottomans
ProfileSuleiman I, Kanuni
Suleiman became sultan in 1520 and ruled for forty-six years, longer than any other Ottoman. Europeans called him the Magnificent. His own people called him Kanuni, the Lawgiver.
In war he took Belgrade in 1521 and Rhodes in 1522, crushed Hungary at Mohacs in 1526, besieged Vienna in 1529 and took Baghdad in 1534. His fleets made the Ottomans a great power in the Mediterranean. At home, working with his chief mufti, Ebussuud Efendi, he brought the empire's laws into order and into line with the Sharia.
He wrote poetry, and his wife Hurrem Sultan was his close companion and adviser. Through his architect Sinan he filled Istanbul with mosques, and the Suleymaniye bears his name. The struggle over his succession cost the lives of his grand vizier Ibrahim and his son Mustafa. He died in 1566 on campaign in Hungary.
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