50 Fun Facts About Suleiman the Magnificent

In which years did Suleiman the Magnificent reign as Ottoman sultan?

It was the longest reign of any Ottoman sultan and raised the empire's population to at least 25 million.

Whom did Suleiman succeed as sultan in 1520?

His father had made war with Persia a priority; Suleiman turned first to Europe.

What did Suleiman's own subjects call him, rather than 'the Magnificent'?

The epithet referred to his reform of the legal system, though it may only date from the 18th century.

Suleiman was which number Ottoman sultan?

The Venetian envoy who described him weeks after his accession noted he was tall, slender and barely bearded.

In which Black Sea city was Suleiman born in 1494?

His father was governor there; his mother Hafsa was a convert concubine of unknown origin.

Which city did Suleiman capture in 1521, succeeding where his great-grandfather had failed?

John Hunyadi's defence had stopped the Conqueror; the city became the second-largest Ottoman town in Europe.

The 1522 conquest of Rhodes drove out which military order?

Suleiman let them depart after a five-month siege; they re-established themselves on Malta in 1530.

Which fortress did Suleiman build as a naval base for the Rhodes campaign?

The island cost the Ottomans 50,000 to 60,000 dead from battle and sickness.

Which Hungarian king was killed at the Battle of Mohács in 1526?

His death ended the Jagiellonian dynasty in Hungary and Bohemia; Suleiman lamented that he had barely tasted royalty.

Which Hungarian nobleman did Suleiman back for the throne after Mohács?

Other nobles preferred Ferdinand of Austria, and Hungary ended up split three ways.

In which year did Suleiman's siege of Vienna fail?

A reinforced garrison of 16,000 held out; a second attempt in 1532 never reached the city.

The siege of which town delayed Suleiman's second march on Vienna in 1532?

In both Vienna campaigns bad weather forced the army to abandon its heavy siege equipment.

By the 1533 Treaty of Constantinople, Ferdinand I recognised Suleiman as what?

Ferdinand also agreed to pay an annual tribute.

The treaty ending the 1543 campaign pointedly called Charles V not 'Emperor' but what?

The wording let Suleiman identify himself as the true Caesar.

Which Hungarian castle repelled Suleiman's forces in 1552 under István Dobó?

Esztergom, Siklós, Székesfehérvár and Szeged had all fallen in the 1543 campaign.

Which Persian dynasty was Suleiman's main enemy in the east?

Shah Tahmasp avoided pitched battle and used scorched earth, exposing Ottoman armies to the Caucasus winter.

Which city did Suleiman enter in triumph in 1535?

He won local support by restoring the tomb of Abu Hanifa, founder of the Hanafi legal school.

Which 1555 treaty fixed the border between the Ottoman and Safavid empires?

Armenia and Georgia were split down the middle; the Ottomans kept most of Iraq and the Persians kept Tabriz.

Which admiral, called Barbarossa by Europeans, did Suleiman appoint to rebuild the fleet?

Andrea Doria's capture of Koroni had alarmed the sultan about Spanish ambitions in the eastern Mediterranean.

Which French king allied with Suleiman against the Habsburgs?

The 1542 renewal promised 60,000 Ottoman troops and 150 galleys against Charles V and Ferdinand.

Which port in Yemen did the Ottomans take in 1538 as a base against the Portuguese?

They then failed at Diu, but fortified Aden with 100 guns and took the whole of Yemen.

Which Sumatran sultanate asked Suleiman for help against the Portuguese in 1564?

The Ottomans launched an expedition that gave the Acehnese extensive military support.

Which corsair captured Tripoli from the Knights of Malta in 1551?

He was made commander of the city in 1553 and it became the capital of Ottoman Tripolitania.

The Great Siege of Malta in 1565 ended how?

Half the Knights were killed and 10,000 Ottoman troops lost; the siege ran from 18 May to 8 September.

Suleiman's legal code brought together sharia and which other body of Ottoman law?

The sultanic laws covered criminal law, land tenure and taxation, and his code lasted more than 300 years.

Which Grand Mufti helped Suleiman reform Ottoman law?

The finished code became known simply as the Ottoman laws, and outlasted its author by three centuries.

On whose advice did Suleiman issue a decree denouncing blood libels against Jews?

The Spanish Jew was the sultan's favourite physician and dentist.

Under what pen name did Suleiman write poetry?

It means 'Lover'; he wrote in Persian and Turkish, and some verses became Turkish proverbs.

Besides poetry, in which craft was Suleiman personally skilled?

He was also a great patron of the arts, overseeing the empire's golden age.

Suleiman is credited with spreading which flower through Europe?

Diplomats visiting his court are thought to have been given the flowers as gifts.

The four-tiered crown Suleiman had made in 1532 was a riposte to whose three-tiered one?

Venetian merchants made it for 115,000 ducats; its four layers stood for the four known continents.

Who was Suleiman's chief court architect from 1538?

He credited himself with more than 300 buildings and served until his death in 1588.

In which years was the Süleymaniye complex in Istanbul built?

It included four madrasas, a medical school, a hospital, a caravanserai, a soup kitchen and Suleiman's own tomb.

The Şehzade Mosque was built in memory of which of Suleiman's sons?

He died in 1543, and his father composed a chronogram whose letters add up to the year.

Which holy site's walls did Suleiman rebuild in the 1530s?

The walls he built around the Old City still stand; he also restored the Dome of the Rock and renovated the Kaaba.

By what name was Hürrem Sultan known in the West?

The name referred to her Ruthenian origins; she was possibly the daughter of an Orthodox priest.

How did Hürrem come to Constantinople?

She rose through the harem to become the sultan's favourite and then, astonishingly, his legal wife.

What Ottoman tradition did Suleiman break in 1534?

Hürrem became the first Haseki sultan and the period she opened is called the Sultanate of Women.

With which Polish king did Hürrem correspond, helping forge an alliance?

She signed documents in Suleiman's absence and attended council meetings, unprecedented for an Ottoman woman.

Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha, Suleiman's boyhood friend and Grand Vizier, came from where?

Captured as a Christian boy in the Venetian war, he was given to Suleiman as a slave around 1514.

What was Ibrahim's first post in Suleiman's service?

He rose to first officer of the bedchamber, then Grand Vizier in 1523 at about thirty, with no military experience.

How did Ibrahim Pasha die in 1536?

His chroniclers called him both 'the favourite' and 'the executed'.

Which of Suleiman's sons was killed with a bowstring in his father's tent in 1553?

Rüstem Pasha's intrigues had convinced the sultan that his eldest surviving son was plotting for the throne.

Which son fled to Persia after losing a civil war and was strangled there in 1561?

The Shah handed him and his four sons to a Turkish executioner in return for gold.

Who succeeded Suleiman in 1566?

He was Hürrem's son; historians now see the era after Suleiman as one of transformation rather than decline.

At which siege did Suleiman die in September 1566?

He died in his tent aged 71, one day before the Hungarian fortress fell.

For how long was Suleiman's death kept secret from his army?

The Grand Vizier hid the news so the soldiers would not give up the fight before the heir could be enthroned.

Which of Suleiman's organs were buried in Hungary rather than Istanbul?

A mausoleum at Turbék became a pilgrimage site with a mosque, a Sufi hospice and a paid garrison.

In which Shakespeare play does a prince boast of beating 'Sultan Solyman' three times?

The Prince of Morocco makes the claim in Act 2, Scene 1, thirty years after the sultan's death.

Suleiman's relief portrait appears in the House Chamber of which building?

He is one of 23 lawgivers honoured over the gallery doors for shaping the principles behind American law.