Person1494 – 1566

Suleiman I

Also called: Suleiman the Magnificent, Süleyman the Lawgiver, Kanuni Sultan Süleyman

Ottoman sultan (r. 1520–1566) who crushed Hungary, besieged Vienna and dominated the Mediterranean at the height of the empire; known as “the Lawgiver”

Son of Selim I, he became sultan in 1520. He took Belgrade and Rhodes, crushed Hungary at Mohács and besieged Vienna in 1529. In the east he took Baghdad from the Safavids, and his admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa commanded the Mediterranean. His legal reforms earned him the name Kanuni, “the Lawgiver”, and the architect Sinan built the Süleymaniye Mosque for him. He died in camp during a Hungarian campaign in 1566.

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2 related events

1
1520 – 1566Suleiman I and the Ottoman Golden Agemonarch
Under Suleiman I the Ottoman Empire became a great empire spanning three continents. Called “the Lawgiver” for his codification of the laws, he held many peoples together by granting religious communities self-government.
2
1526 – 1529Battle of Mohács and the Siege of Viennacommander
The Ottoman sultan Suleiman I destroyed the Hungarian army at Mohács and three years later besieged Habsburg Vienna. The Ottomans had driven deep into Europe and reached the height of their power.

People who appear alongside

Mimar Sinan1588
Chief court architect of the Ottoman Empire (c. 1490–1588), who built the Süleymaniye and Selimiye mosques among hundreds of buildings

Themes this person appears in

Turkic-Islamic Empires and Other Civilizations1000 – 1533
From the Ghaznavid raids on India to the Mughal Empire and Suleiman I — five centuries in which Turkic-led Islamic empires took western Asia and India, while Africa, Southeast Asia and the Americas raised civilisations of their own
Islamic Empires and the Atlantic World1500 – 1800
Three centuries in which the Ottomans of Suleiman I, the Mughals of Akbar and the Safavids of Abbas I flourished and then faltered, while across the Atlantic the slave trade and colonies transformed the Americas, leading to American independence
Reformation and Absolutism1517 – 1796
From Luther’s Ninety-five Theses to Catherine the Great — the wars of religion of a divided Christendom ended at Westphalia, and absolute monarchs armed with divine right, standing armies, bureaucracies and mercantilism, followed by the enlightened despots of eastern Europe, contended for the balance of power among sovereign states