## IN 20 [00:00] hi everyone welcome back to the history in 20 podcast i hope you've all had a good christmas and new year now it's been a while since i've done an episode but here we are back again and today we're talking about one of the 16th century greats and that is suleiman the magnificent so if you don't know anything about him or just want a bit more information we'll start off with a personal profile so he was born on the 6th of november 1494 in trabzon in the ottoman empire part of modern day turkey now he died on the 6th of september 1566 in the kingdom of hungary and which was at the time under the habsburg monarchy he was 71 years old and he reigned as 10th sultan of the ottoman empire from the 30th of september 1520 until his death on the 6th of september 1566. he was married once to mahi devran hurum sultan they got married in it was either 1533 or 34 they were married until her death in 1558 and they had 10 children including sultan selim ii who succeeded him and he was part of the ottoman dynasty so a little bit of an introduction on him well suleiman the magnificent he was known more formerly suleiman the first or suleiman the law giver in turkish and as i said he was the tenth sultan of the ottoman empire and his reign spanned for 45 years from 1520 to 66 and during this period he oversaw a crucial era of the ottoman empire's history so on top of being one of the most formidable leaders of all time he still stood out given the competition that he faced from europe so in this period as well we have monarchs like henry viii of england francis the first of france and charles v the holy roman emperor so he still stands out in that crowd which says a lot about him so we'll talk about his early life first so from his birth in 1494 to about 15 20. so suleiman was the son of another legendary ottoman sultan who was called selium the first he rained for eight years from 1512 to 1520 and who like even despite his short reign he oversaw a huge expansion of the ottoman empire including the conquest of the mamluk sultanate of egypt from 1516 to 17. so during selling the firsts reign the ottoman empire increased in size by 70 um and by the time his death in 1520 it actually spanned 3.4 million square kilometers which is 1.3 million square miles all the way from algeria to moldavia now suleiman was born in november 1494 and although the date is often disputed the sixth november is generally agreed upon so his father as mentioned above was selim the first and his mother was a woman called hafsa sultan so her origins ## The Topkapi Palace today [02:50] are unknown although it is clear that she converted to islam at some point during her lifetime so age seven suleiman's begun his studies at the top kp palace in constantinople where he undertook numerous subjects including history science theology literature and military tactics which is something that greatly contributed to his later life so when he was age 17 he was appointed governor at cafe which you might remember from my previous video on the black death uh i'll post a link up above or in the comments um which was a part on the crimean coast of the black sea um excuse me which is perhaps most famously remembered for its royal in spreading the black death in europe 150 years before suleiman was born so starting with his early reign 1520 upon his father's death in 1520 suleiman ascended the throne become the 10th ottoman sultan but he wasted very little time in organizing military conquests to further expand the territory of the ottoman empire so in 1521 he began the first of a series of campaigns against christian europe starting with belgrade so in mid-may 1521 he started to amass the ottoman forces they headed for christian held belgrade so the hungarian army because they were in control of belgrade at the time were unable to counter-attack against the ottoman forces and during the conflict they succumbed to suleiman's forces so the battle raged from the 25th of june to the 29th of august and it was an ottoman victory and this victory was hugely significant for the ottoman empire because it was the farthest west that had ever expanded in its history so he's been on the throne a year and he's already gone further west than the awesome empire ever been so it's a great start to to suleiman's reign so the following year he targeted the greek island of rhodes so in 1480 under the leadership of messi pasha the ottoman empire been unsuccessful in taking the island stronghold from the knights hospital who were a medieval catholic military order which originated during the crusades however under suleiman's leadership ottoman forces managed to besiege the island successfully so on the 26th of june 1522 400 ottoman ships arrived on the shores of rhodes to begin the siege two days later suleiman arrived to personally take charge arriving with an army of a hundred thousand men so the siege involved heavy gunfire and cannon fire and in a show of advancing warfare in the early modern period and the castle walls eventually began to crumble so the siege lasted until the 22nd of december when the representatives of rhodes accepted suleiman's rather generous terms including one in which suleiman promised not to turn any churches into a mosque now again this victory was hugely significant for the ottoman empire because the capture of roads meant that the ottomans controlled almost the entire eastern mediterranean which made communications and trade much easier with their base back in constantinople and the levant but suleiman again looked further west and into europe now in 1525 francis the first of france who ran from 15 15 to 47. he'd been defeated at the battle of pavia by the ## Francis I (r. 1515-47) [05:56] forces of the holy roman emperor charles v now francis was imprisoned he was forced to sign the treaty of madrid which ceded parts of his territory to charles as well as including his sister's marriage to charles as well so the treaty was signed on the 14th of january 1526 and as a result francis was released from prison however as soon as he'd crossed the border back into france he formed the league of cognac with other european leaders in order to dethrone charles v and who did he turn to in the east suleiman so francis has sullivan to make war on the holy roman empire now interestingly the road from turkey led through hungary to reach the holy roman empire so fortunately for francis and suleiman relations between hungary and the ottoman empire had soured after suleiman's conquest of belgrade in 1521 and by 1526 there were an all-time low so as a result this gave suleiman the chance to attack hungary later that same year which led to one of the most famous battles of the 16th century the battle of mohacks on the 29th of august 1526. now initially although outnumbered the advantage was with the hungarians because their troops were well rested in the new the territory whereas on the other hand the ottomans had just marched across eastern europe in the scorching summer heat however suleiman's troops were much more disciplined than the hungarian troops who were also supported by a small contingent of polish soldiers so the ottoman troops cut through the hungarian defenses and the forced king louis ii of hungary to flee upon his retreat he was thrown from his horse into a river and died weighed down by his armor so he drowned in the river and he was only 20 years old at the time so approximately 14 000 hungarian soldiers were killed as a result of this but suleiman didn't stop there just two days later he watched from his golden throne as 2 000 hungarian prisoners were executed now again this shows how suleiman earned his epithet the magnificent because the ottoman empire penetrated further into europe than it had ever been during its entire history and it also ended the ottoman hungarian wars which had raged in some form or other since 1366 as well as ending the jagiellonian dynasty in hungary with the death of louis ii and more importantly if you look at the bigger picture suleiman had achieved all of this by the time he was just 32 years old so following the battle of mohawks and the death of louis ii archduke ferdinand ## Archduke Ferdinand I (r. 1521-64) [08:24] the first of austria who was also charles v's brother claimed the hungarian throne however he was only recognized in western hungary so there was a nobleman based in transylvania called john zapaloya and he challenged ferdinand for the throne now zapaloya was supported by suleiman as he accepted vassal status in the ottoman empire and this ultimately signified the collapse and partition of medieval hungary which was to last until 1700 so it was split between the ottoman empire the principality of transylvania and the habsburg monarchy so following the diet of pozney which is modern day bratislava on the 26th of october 1526 ferdinand was crowned king of royal hungary and there was a legitimate claim behind this because he was married to louis ii sister anna and louie had been married to ferdinand's sister mary so to enforce his claim on hungary ferdinand captured buddha which is modern-day western budapest in 1527 but two years later suleiman reacted and regained control of buddha then marched on to vienna and this was to be the most ambitious ottoman expedition to the west so the ottoman army at this point numbered about a hundred thousand um and they'd marched through the majority of the european wet season arriving outside the gates of vienna on 27th september 1529 so huge torrential and cold downpours ensured that the ottomans could not dig tunnels because the ground was sudden and the defenders of the city kept filling them back up with the mud turn into like a glue-like texture so the 21 000 defenders of the city were led by a man called nicholas graf salm who was an imperial senior military commander who kept morale up and successfully led the defense of vienna so on the 14th of october the siege was called off which resulted in a humiliating defeat for suleiman who arrived back in constantinople on 16th december 1529 having lost 15 000 troops compared to just 1500 of the defenders so this defeat left a sour taste for suleiman and it marked the beginning of a bitter ottoman habsburg rivalry that was to last right up until the 20th century so in 1532 suleiman again attempted to besiege vienna but he never reached the city as the ottomans were delayed by the siege of guns sometimes called the siege of kosheg within hungary so due to conflicting sources the outcome of this is actually unknown so depending on which source you follow either suleiman haven't been delayed for nearly a month withdrew at the august reigns or the croatian captain nicola jurisic rejected to offer this to off rejected the offer to surrender on favorable terms either way the defenders prevented suleiman from reaching vienna for a second time so we'll fast forward a bit to 1536 and suleiman formed a franco ottoman alliance with francis the first which was tactically one of the finest moves that francis actually made as king keeping in line with the famous saying keep your friends close and your enemies closer because although he was obviously intimidated by suleiman he still had charles v to contend with and if he had uh suleiman on the east and charles in the middle then charles could feel essentially trapped with the alliance between those two so following the two failed campaigns in vienna in 1529 and 1532 and after making the alliance with francis in 1536 suleiman then saw an opportunity to redeem himself in the early 1540s when conflict erupted again in hungary so in 1541 and 44 the habsburgs attempted to lay siege to buda but they were repelled by the ottomans who also captured two habsburg fortresses in the process so as a result ferdinand and charles were forced to sign a humiliating five-year treaty with suleiman so for ferdinand this meant that he had to pay a fixed early sum to suleiman for the hungarian lands he continued to control while also renounced his claim to the kingdom of hungary and significantly the treaty referred to charles v as king of spain rather than holy roman emperor ## Charles V (r. 1519-56) [12:27] which led to suleiman to identify as the real caesar so in the matter of just a few short years suleiman had penetrated into europe almost reaching austria he'd taken back hungarian territory he denounced charles v as the holy roman emperor and he'd formed a franco ottoman alliance which was to last for three centuries so he's done pretty well in those years that i'd say for sure so the next section we're going to look at is i've decided to call it suleiman further afield so eyes on the east because it wasn't just europe that suleiman was concerned with i don't just want a eurocentric version of him i want a whole version so a rounded version of what suleiman did so as i said it wasn't just europe that he was concerned with so persia was the thorn in selim the first side and suleiman the magnificent was determined not to make at the thorn in his side too so the enemy was a rival muslim faction called the safavid dynasty so in 1533 suleiman led an army into asia minor where he occupied tabriz and took bitlist without resistance the following year they made a push for persia and found the safavid seeding territory instead of engaging in a pitched battle so by 1535 suleiman entered baghdad and restored the tomb of abu hanifa and hanifah was the founder of the hanefe hanafi school of islamic law which the ottomans followed so suleiman turned his sights even further east and he wanted to trade with the mughal empire which were based in south asia so in 1538 he captured the port of aidan in yemen from the portuguese and later in the year he solidified it as a base from where the ottomans could trade in asia so obviously with its strong trade routes to both the red sea and the indian ocean the ottomans enjoyed a significant level of trade with the mughals in the 16th century and suleiman is even reported to have traded six documents with akbar the great who was ## Akbar the Great (r. 1556-1605) [14:16] the third mughal emperor so it wasn't just east there was well south of the ottoman empire as well in north africa so north africa was another area where suleiman focused his attentions on because he desperately wanted territory that would link the ottoman empire together so from 1538 to 59 the ottoman portuguese wars raged through north africa and the red sea has both fought for the best trading locations so when the 21-year conflict finally came to an end in 1559 the ottomans had successfully expanded their influence in the red sea while the portuguese maintained control of the persian gulf however significantly for the ottomans they took the weakened adele sultanate into their territory which further enhanced ottoman expansion into somalia and the horn of africa helping to link the north african ottoman territories closer together so we're hopping from north africa back to persia now and we're going on to suleiman's second campaign in persia which was from 1548-49 so at this point the safavids once again refused to enter into pitched battle and used scorched earth tactics exposing the ottomans to the harsh winter conditions of the region so the ottomans left in 1549 but they had managed to claim some territory in van gaal and azerbaijan so suleiman the magnificent's final campaign into persia was his most successful i guess you could say third time lucky so in 1553 he recaptured herzeram and crossed the upper euphrates river gaining territory in northern persia the peace of emacia was signed in 1555 which defined the borders of the safavid and ottoman empires so armenia and georgia were equally split between the two while the ottomans also gained iraq which granted them access to the persian gulf to help with trade even more so even further afield we'll go to in 1564 the ottomans received a request for support against the portuguese from assa which is in modern day sumatra all the way in indonesia now if you put this into context for the 16th century i mean we're talking like 1564 less than 100 years ago was the first time that europeans well christopher columbus had gone to america less than 100 years ago so he'd gone west and we're talking like we're getting contacts here from the ottoman empire so from turkey constantinople istanbul we're in contact from there right over to indonesia which is mental to think about so anyway the ottomans complied and sent a fleet over now again this demonstrates how suleiman earned his title his influence was known all the way from austria to indonesia and it's hard to imagine that any other monarch of that time would have had that much global influence so he's certainly one of the most important characters and globally recognized names of the 16th century so i've split the next bit up into suleiman's death and legacy but just before we get there i want to talk a bit about ottoman culture under suleiman the magnificent so as as you've presumably guessed the ottoman empire thrived under suleiman the magnificent as he presided over what became to be known as the golden age of the ottoman empire so unlike many of his islamic and christian contemporaries he actually protected the jewish communities of the ottoman empire so in the early 1550s he introduced what was called a furman which was a royal mandate which denounced blood libels against the jews because his favorite doctor was a spanish jew called moses harmon so suleiman the magnificent also developed a distinctly ottoman culture so while his father wrote poetry solely in persian suleiman wrote in persian and turkish and some of his verses have actually become famous turkish proverbs including one that says everyone aims at the same meaning but many are the versions of the story which is a really interesting quote especially from a historian's point of view so suleiman also helped to develop the architecture of the ottoman empire and he oversaw the construction of 300 monuments during his reign and he also oversaw the restoration of the dome of the rock and the old city walls in jerusalem so suleiman's death comes about on the 6th of september 1566. um he was on route from constantinople to hungary to lead another expedition 71 years old and he's still leading expeditions into europe and he died um so ultimately the ottomans were successful in the the uh following battle of shigetawa and suleiman's death was kept secret from the troops so as not to affect their morale and his body was sent back to istanbul where he was buried and suleiman the magnificent is indeed magnificent for many reasons so a successful military leader again territory in europe africa and asia so across three continents while also maintaining and developing a successful culture in the ottoman empire he protected its jewish citizens he expanded the empire to the largest it had ever been and he dominated the seas from the mediterranean sea to the red sea to the persian gulf and even over to the indian ocean so he was truly was a magnificent leader and thoroughly deserving of his title so i hope you enjoyed this one it's something i've gone about in a slightly different format with rather than a biographical point of view i've gone from like his european conquests to further afield because i thought with suleiman the magnificent i think that's an easy way i didn't want to be dot in between hungary then off to indonesia or we're going to africa now whoops back to constantinople so i thought that was an easy way of doing it but if you've got any feedback on what how you prefer it doing just let me know in the comments below please don't forget to like comment share subscribe and i'll see you next time thanks for watching you