Suleiman the Magnificent
Learn about Suleiman the Magnificent — the Ottoman sultan who presided over the empire's golden age, reforming its laws and expanding its borders from Vienna to Baghdad.
Suleiman I (r. 1520–1566), known in the West as 'the Magnificent' and to his own subjects as Kanuni ('the Lawgiver'), was the longest-reigning Ottoman sultan and the ruler under whom the empire reached its zenith of power, territorial extent, and cultural achievement.
Suleiman's military campaigns were formidable. He conquered Belgrade (1521), Rhodes (1522), most of Hungary (1526), and besieged Vienna (1529) — the high-water mark of Ottoman expansion into Central Europe. His navy, under the famous admiral Barbarossa, dominated the Mediterranean. To the east, he took Baghdad and Mesopotamia from the Safavids. At his death, the Ottoman Empire stretched from Hungary to Yemen, from Algeria to Iraq.
But it was as a lawgiver that Suleiman made his most lasting contribution. He systematically codified Ottoman law, harmonizing Islamic sharia with secular kanun (law) to create a comprehensive legal framework that governed the empire for centuries. He was also a patron of the arts — the architect Sinan built some of history's greatest mosques during his reign, including the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul. Suleiman himself was an accomplished poet. His reign represents the Ottoman Empire at its most powerful, sophisticated, and culturally productive.