Suleiman I

Suleiman I, Soliman, Solyman

called the Magnificent. ?1495--1566, sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1520--66), whose reign was noted for its military power and cultural achievements

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Suleiman I 

(or Sulciman II Kanuni, “the Lawgiver,” or, in European literature, Suleiman the Magnificent). Born Apr. 27, 1495; died Sept. 6, 1566, in Szigetvár, Hungary. Turkish sultan (1520–66).

Suleiman carried out an expansionist policy: under him the Ottoman Empire achieved its farthest territorial extent and its greatest power. Belgrade was taken in 1521, and most of Hungary was annexed after the battle of Mohács in 1526; in the 1530’s, Iraq, the island of Rhodes and other islands in the Aegean Archipelago, Tripoli, Algeria, and other territories were conquered. Suleiman waged a persistent struggle against Iran in Transcaucasia.

Suleiman drew up a law code (Kanun-name), dealing with such matters as administrative structure and finance, the status of individual provinces, regulation of the military-feudal system, forms of landownership, obligations of the population, and attachment of peasants to the land. He devoted a great deal of attention to the construction of mosques, palaces, and fortresses. The buildings of the architect Sinan are particularly famous.

Suleiman died during a campaign in Hungary.

REFERENCES

Novichev, A. D. Istoriia Turtsii, vol. 1. Leningrad, 1963.
Tsvetkova, B. Prouchvaniia na gradskoto stopanstvo prez XV-XVI vek. Sofia, 1972.