The Life and Family of Suleyman I

THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF SULEYMAN I

Alan FISHER

From

SULEYMAN THE SECOND AND HIS TIME

edited by Halil Inalcik and Cemal Kafadar

The Isis Press, Istanbul, 1993

For a generation of readers who are accustomed to know, or al least wish lo know, all the details of public and private lives of public figures, reading about political leaders of the sixteenth century may be a frustrating experience. Not only arc there long periods in their lives for which there is no surviving evidence, but these leaders' own contemporaries were not always aware of their activities, or even of their whereabouts at various times in their lives. Much of the evidence surviving for such political figures illuminates more of their public performances than it does of their private lives or personal character.

lt is possible to discover a great deal about Sultan Suleyman's official face. He often appeared in public and impressed those around him, both his own officialdom and foreigners, the latter providing often detailed descriptions of Suleyman in reports to their governments or in letters and diaries written later. One of the clearest is that by Anthony Jenkinson, who was present in Aleppo in 1553 when Suleyman entered the city to spend the winter, in the midst of one of his military campaigns against. the Safavid Shah Tahmasb.

After them [his retainers] came the great Turke himself with great pompe and magnificence, using in his countenance and gesture a wonderful majesty, having only on each side of his person one pale clothed with cloth of gold. He himself was mounted upon a goodly white horse, adorned with a robe of cloth of gold, embroidered most richly with the most precious stones, and upon his head a goodly white tucke, containing in length by estimation fifteen yards, which was of silk and linen woven together, resembling something of Callicut cloth, but much more fine and rich. In the top of his crown a little pinnacle of white ostrich feathers, and his horse most richly appareled in all points correspondent to the same. 1

It is much more difficult to determine what kind of man Suleyman was, behind this royal image. What were his interests, his attitudes, his view of himself as Sultan, his understanding of politics and of the world around him, both within his empire and outside. As with most important figures in Ottoman history, most of the available evidence concerns his public acts, his military exploits, and the great changes which took place in Ottoman society during his long reign. For the man beneath, we are left with inadequate documentation : few personal letters; no personal diary we can be sure was written by Suleyman; little in the way of personal evaluations by his friends and associates. Ottoman chroniclers do include some useful evidence of Suleyman's family circumstances. particularly when these had political significance -for example, his dealings with his sons and indirect documentation about the sultan's relations with his own officials. But an historian who hopes to uncover the quality and quantity of evidence that is available for a genuine biography of Suleyman's European contemporaries will be disappointed.

Europeans who had personal knowledge of Suleyman, who met with him, and who learned about the sultan from others in the Ottoman government, include in their diaries and reports a great deal of information which is helpful. Good examples of the information of this sort which is available include the following bits of enticing data and evaluation, found primarily in the reports of Venetian envoys to Constantinople.

The earliest one, found to date, provides a description of Suleyman in 1520, the year of his accession to power:

The sultan is only twenty five years (actually 26) old, tall and slender but tough, with a thin and bony face. Facial hair is evident but only barely. The sultan appears friendly and in good humor. Rumor has it that Suleyman is aptly named, enjoys reading, is knowledgeable and shows good judgment. 2

Two short descriptions of Suleyman's person appear in Venetian reports from 1526 and 1534. Pietro Bragadino refers to the sultan as "deadly pale, slender. By nature he is melancholy, much addicted to women, liberal, proud, hasty and yet sometimes very gentle." 3 Daniello de Ludovisi wrote in 1534 that Suleyman was of a "choleric and melancholy temperament, given rather to ease than business, orthodox in his faith... He is not very alert.. nor has he the force and prudence... seeing he has given the government of his empire.... [to lbrahim]".4

In the 1550s two very important treatments of Suleyman appear which give us an intimate look at the changes in his character and personality from the time of his youth. Bernardo Navagero, a Venetian, reported in 1553 that he,

now drinks no wine... only fair water, on account of his infirmities. He has the reputation of being very just, and when he has been accurately informed of the facts of the case he never wrongs any man. Of his faith and its laws he is more observant than any of his predecessors. 5

The second observer from the 1550's was Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, ambassador to Suleyman from the Hapsburg Emperor, and resident in the Ottoman Empire between 1554 and 1562. His letters and reports provide a great deal of information about the Empire, about the Ottoman government, and about Suleyman himself. In his first letter to his government, of September, 1555, he described in some detail his impressions of Suleyman, gained from personal experience with him. From the last third of Suleyman's political life, these views portray Suleyman in a light different from that commonly accepted:

He is beginning to feel the weight of years, but his dignity of demeanor and his general physical appearance are worthy of the ruler of so vast an empire. He has always been frugal and temperate, and was so even in his youth... Even in his earlier years he did not indulge in wine or in those unnatural vices to which the Turks are often addicted... He is a strict guardian of his religion and its ceremonies, being not less desirous of upholding his faith than of extending his dominions. For his age he has almost reached his sixtieth year he enjoys quite good health, though his bad complexion may be due to some hidden malady; and indeed it is generally believed that he has an incurable ulcer or gangrene on his leg. This defect of complexion he remedies by painting his face with a coating of red powder, when he wishes departing ambassadors lo take with them a strong impression of his good health; for he fancies that it contributes to inspire greater fear in foreign potentates if they think that he is well and strong. 6

Lacey Baldwin Smith, the biographer of Henry VIIl, wisely noted that:  

If the conclusions of geriatrics are correct, it is during the final stages of life that man casts off a portion of the protective shield hammered out during childhood and adolescence and reveals the raw personality beneath. 7

Perhaps because in his last years, from around 1550 to his death in 1566, Suleyman behaved quite differently from the way he had acted in the first thirty years of his reign, this last third of his political life is often glossed over by biographers and historians. By focusing attention on these last sixteen years of Suleyman's life, I hope in this short essay to remove the "protective shield" and find this sultan's "raw personality beneath," as much as the sources permit us to do so.

Suleyman's very last year of life was not a good one for the sultan nor for his empire. He died in September of 1566, in Szigetvar, Hungary, in the midst of a military campaign of little or no consequence, approximately 750 miles from his capital of Constantinople (as tile crow flies), in the forty-sixth year of his reign, and at the age of 72. This was not a very impressive place or way to end a career that had earned for Suleyman the title at home of Kanuni (Lawgiver), and abroad of the Grand Turk, the Magnificent, the Grand Signior, the Scourge of Europe. What was Suleyman doing in this rather remote place, at that age, expending Ottoman men and treasure to achieve a goal of no importance? The answer to this question may go a long way in helping us to understand tile man beneath tile magnificent and famous sovereign he was.

Indeed, Suleyman died in tile general vicinity of his first major military venture, in 1521. some forty-five years earlier. Then, Suleyman had captured Belgrade, tile "key to Hungary," and central Europe, and bad set the stage for a career that would extend his state's frontiers in all directions, and would build Ottoman fiscal and military power to a level unmatched before or after. The official title his chancery used on public documents called him:

Suleyman, son of Selim of an, Sultan of Sultans, Touchstone of ija-'!:ans, Distributor of Crowns to the Rulers of the Surface of the Earth, Sovereign of the White Sea, Black Sea, Rumelia, Anatolia, Overlord of Rum and Karalll3ll, of Dulkadtr and Diyarbakrr, Azerbaijan Syria, Aleppo, Egypt, of noble Jerusalem, of venerated Mecca and sacred Medina, of Jidda, Yemen, and many other lands, Sultan Suleyman Shah and Khan. 8

A second collection of Suleyman's titles and political claims appears in an inscription placed at the fortress of Bender, conquered by the sultan in 1538:9

I am God's slave and sultan of this world. By the grace of God I am head of Muhammad's community. God's might and Muhammad's miracles are my companions. I am Suleyman, in whose name the hutbe is read in Mecca and Medina. In Baghdad I am the Shah, in Byzantine realms the Caesar and in Egypt the Sultan, who sends his fleets to the seas of Europe, the Maghrib and India. I am the sultan who Look the crown and throne of Hungary and granted them to a humble slave. The voivoda Petru raised his head in revolt, but my horse's hoofs ground him into the dust, and I conquered the land of Moldavia.

But in 1566 Suleyman was an old man, and all was not going well either fiscally or militarily with his vast empire. While ultimately successful in this particular venture, the Ottoman army would take Suleyman's goal without him,

and it would not be long before this territory would be lost forever to Suleyman's successors. This final battle, later called the Szigetvar campaign, was filled with tragic elements. 10 The problems Suleyman faced, and the ways he approached them provide us with cleat evidence of the changing nature of his empire and of the sultan's deteriorating physical and mental condition. A close look at those event in mid-1566 serves to humanize what has become in the historiography of the period an almost superhuman and "Magnificent" Suleyman.

Those close to him had known for a long time that the characteristics and abilities which Suleyman had displayed so forcefully in the first two decades of his career and which had permitted him to provide strong and at times brilliant leadership, were now long gone. A stubborn streak, a hot temper, poor judgment in selecting advice and serious policy mistakes, all played a role in this last event of his life. Such characteristics may have been present to a lesser extent throughout most of his life, but they were magnified in his old age.

For almost half a century he had ruled the largest state of his time, had directed a dozen extensive military campaigns in person against his most powerful opponents, 11 often more than six hundred miles from his residence, and had established a reputation as one of the most important political figures in Eurasia by mid-century. At the start of his reign, Europe had been ruled by a handful of young, energetic, and capable men. Indeed, neither Europe nor Asia had benefitted from such a concentration of political talent for centuries, perhaps ever. Charles V was 20 when he was crowned Emperor and Louis became King of Hungary and Bohemia at 14. Henry VIII, the "elder statesman", was 29 when be occupied the English throne. Ivan IV of Muscovy became Grand Prince at 17. Francis I and Suleyman were both 26 at the start of their reigns. For decades, European history was written by these men, who grew older together. But by 1566, all were dead save Suleyman and Ivan. Both Henry and Francis had died in 1547 at the ages of 56 and 51 respectively. Charles died in 1558 at 58 and Ferdinand in 1564 at 61. Ivan would outlive Suleyman by 18 years, and was only 36 when Suleyman died. In 1566 Suleyman was a frail 72 years old. His western counterparts were succeeded, as be would be, by rulers of quite different cloth -Philip II and Maximilian, Elizabeth I and Henry II. Ivan IV of Moscow led a newly formed state which would challenge the Ottomans in the future.

Superficially the events of 1566 were not a striking departure from those of earlier years. And there is much to be said for the proposition that the year was a logical continuation of Suleyman's previous behavior. Two events prompted the sultan to undertake this last foolish venture, and his response to them tell us much about his personality and attitudes. The year before, his navy had faced new western fortification technology at Malta and had with great embarrassment failed to capture this small Mediterranean island. 12 Second, Maximilian II Hapsburg had reneged on payment to Suleyman of an annual tribute specified by the Habsburg-Ottoman treaty of 1561, and had been testing Suleyman's strength and perhaps health with some minor raids on the Hungarian border. But it also appears that the Sultan had succumbed to criticism he had been receiving for several years from his daughter Mihrimah and her religious confident, the Seyh Nuruddin, that Suleyman had been neglecting for too long the requirement to campaign in person against the infidel. 13 In fact, looking at the chronology of Suleyman's military campaigns, he had not led his army against anyone since the Iranian campaign which began in 1552, and had last fought against the European infidel in person in 1543 at Gran. Suleyman now apparently decided to show that his empire was still a world power to reckon with, that the failure at Malta was an aberration and not a harbinger of the future, that he would not tolerate insolence from his neighbors, even from an emperor. By deciding to lead his army in person, the largest land army he had ever produced, all would see that he was still physically and mentally the "Grand Turke."

In fact, this campaign would serve as evidence to the Ottomans and their enemies exactly what Suleyman had hoped it would not show: that the sultan was gravely, indeed terminally ill; that the Ottoman army had difficulty, even with a huge manpower and its most advanced technology, in capturing a very minor fortress defended not by the army of the Emperor but by a secondary and second-rate military commander; and that the Ottoman government could not distinguish, in formulating its foreign policy, between what were its essential interests and what were unimportant.

First of all, Suleyman was seriously ill, a fact that was well known in Constantinople and elsewhere in Europe. The sultan had never been physically strong, and reports of his death had prematurely circulated in Europe almost annually since the late 1540s. News reaching most European capitals in the 1560s resembled that arriving in London, which, since 1561 had spoken of his actual or imminent death on a monthly basis. 14

Reports of Suleyman's illness usually identified gout, dysentery, or arthritis, and he may have suffered from all three. The descriptions of his physical appearance focused on his general weakness, his swollen legs, evidence of anorexia, facial swelling, and bad color.15

When he set out for this, his last battle, Suleyman was in a great deal of pain. Unlike his performance on his first campaign in 1521, whose route through Thrace, Bulgaria, and Serbia he was now retracing, Suleyman could no longer ride on horseback for more than a few minutes. Soon after the environs of Constantinople had been left behind, Suleyman's officials realized that, even protected by soft pillows laid out in the state carriage, their sovereign and commander could not easily last as far as Hungary. His Grand Vezir Sokollu Mehmed assigned a corps of engineers to proceed ahead of the army, under his personal command, to prepare the road, to smooth out the dirt and stone surface, and to find alternative routes where spring floods had ruined the road bed. Clearly the process was going 10 take a long time, and the army's progress would be very slow.16 Accompanying him were many of his highest officials, a massive army of infantry and cavalry, engineers, and baggage trains. On the second day out of Constantinople, a temporary wooden bridge had to be built at Buyuk Cekmece to replace the stone structure recently washed away in a violent rainstorm and ensuing flood. 17

One can imagine the discussions between Suleyman and his advisers on the advisability of continuing this campaign. It took ten days to reach Edirne, and two days of rest 1here were scarcely enough to permit the sultan to recover his strength. 18 But Suleyman was stubborn and refused to admit the seriousness of his health problems. Seyh Nurredin's admonitions weighed heavily on his mind.

Along this journey, stretched out in his carriage all the way to Belgrade, Suleyman bad ample time to consider the fruits, bitter and sweet; of his reign. By 1529 he had earned the nickname of "Grand Turke" in the west, and perhaps already that of Kanuni at home. He had conquered this city of Belgrade in 1521, much of Hungary including Buda, had driven the Knights of St. John from their Mediterranean stronghold at Rhodes, and had achieved one of the most important military victories of the century at Mohacs. In the next decade, Suleyman would defeat the Iranians and conquer Baghdad and briefly hold Tabriz. Receiving requests for alliance and friendship with France in the west and from Islamic states east of Iran, Suleyman's navies ruled the Mediterranean and his armies had been virtually undefeated. The ailing sultan in 1566 could no doubt look back on those early years as times of glory and achievement.

At home, Suleyman had been able to use the rich administrative and financial resources he had inherited to produce what was for the sixteenth century the model of effective government. Taking into account the diverse nature of his empire, and its sheer size, he could note with satisfaction that there had been few instances of misrule or bureaucratic tyranny. Seldom had he heard complaints, and he could feel sure that there had in fact been few.

But these early triumphs were not the whole story of Suleyman's career. There was also much about which to feel disappointed, now, near the end of his life. Most accounts of Suleyman's personal disposition in his last years reported an overriding despair. When his army was finally told of his death, there were many who ascribed its cause to "nikris."19

There can be little doubt that Suleyman was deeply committed to his family, his mother Hafsa, his concubines Gulbahar and Hurrem, his sisters of whom at least one outlived Suleyman, and his children. Some sources indicate that his mother was either a Turk or a Crimean Tatar,20 but in a document establishing the foundation for her mosque in Manisa, his mother's name is given as Hafsaa bint Abdulmennan [Hafsa, daughter of the slave of God]. This is an epithet given as a name most usually to a convert to Islam, which makes it unlikely that her father had been a Turk or Tatar, both being Muslim, but rather was himself a convert to Islam. 21

Hafsa Sultan accompanied her son on his early administrative assignments, in Kefe in 1510, and when he assumed the role of Sehzade and the governorship of Manisa, she was by his side. 22 When her husband and Suleyman's father, Selim, died, she accompanied her son to Constantinople, where she remained for a long time in the Old Palace. With her death in 1534, Suleyman lost not only a mother, but a good friend and advisor. A mosque was built in Manisa with her vakfiye and Suleyman built a tumarhane there for her too. 23

Suleyman had at least six sisters, all of whom married important Ottoman officials. Hatice, who became the wife of Suleyman's grand vezir Ibrahim Pasha, and for whom a 16-day wedding celebration was held in the Hippodrome outside the walls of Topkapi Sarayi in 1524, was one of Suleyman's favorites. A second sister, Sah Sultan, was married to the grand vezir Lutfi Pasha, and lived until 1572, six years after Suleyman's death.

The sultan 's daughter, Mihrimah, whose mother was Hurrem Sultan, exercised a great deal of influence on Suleyman in his later years, and particularly after Hurrem died, may well have been instrumental in encouraging the sultan to undertake his last campaign. Married to the grand vezir Rustem Pasa in 1538, she was in an important position close to the sultan through much of the last half of his reign. The sultan permitted his daughter to be a public figure, and she was able, together with Rustem, to amass a considerable fortune. A part of her wealth was used to create foundations to build and support two very large mosque complexes, one in Uskudar across the Bosphorus, and the other at Edirnekapi on the western edge of Constantinople. The latter mosque was one of the most innovative constructions of the court architect, Sinan.

Of the females in Suleyman's life, however, the most important were the two who bore him children. The first was Gulbahar (or according to one source, Mahidevran Sultan), mother of several sons, including Abdullah, who died in infancy of disease, and Mustafa, who was executed by order of his father, in 1553. 24 Gulbahar died only in 1581, outliving Suleyman and all of his children.

There can be no doubt that Suleyman's second concubine, Hurrem, was the single most important person in his life. Because of her Ruthenian origin, Europeans tended to call her Roxelane, while Turkish sources refer to her variously as Hurram Sultan, Hurrem-Shah Hatun, and Haseki Hurrem Sultan.25 She joined Suleyman's household while he was still Sehzade, but it was after he became sultan that Hurrem had such an important influence on his life and activity. There is evidence that Hurrem and Giilbahar competed for Suleyman's primary affection, a competition that ended with Hurrem's victory after the death of Suleyman's mother, who had been successful in mediating the competition.

It was soon after his mother's death that Hurrem and Suleyman were officially and publically married, an event unusual in Ottoman history. A 1534 Genoese source has an interesting and detailed account of the marriage, which offered the population of Constantinople, native and foreign, a magnificent spectacle: 26

This week there has occurred in this city a most extraordinary event, one absolutely unprecedented in the history of the sultans. The Grand Signior Suleiman has taken to himself as Empress a slave woman from Russia, called Roxalana, and there has been great feasting. The ceremony took place in the Seraglio, and the festivities have been beyond all record... There is great talk about the marriage and none can say what it means.

Luigi Bassano da Zara wrote in 1545 that:

He [Suleyman] bears her such Jove and keeps such faith to her that all of his subjects marvel and say that she has bewitched him, and they call her tile ziadi or witch. 27

Suleyman and Hurrem corresponded with each oilier while he was on campaign and a number of these letters have been preserved. In one, Hurrem wrote: 28

My Lord, your absence has kindled in me a fire that does not abate. Take pity on this suffering soul and speed your letter, so that I may find in it at least a little consolation. My Lord, when you read my words, you will wish that you had written more to express your longing.

Suleyman's responses often were written as poetry, sections of which have survived under the pseudonym of Muhibbi. 29 Her death in 1558 was a tragedy for Suleyman.

One of the great sources of Suleyman's "nikris" at the end of his life was undoubtedly the relationship he had had with his sons. An important strength of the early Ottoman system was the availability of outstanding sons to take their fathers' places as sultan, and it is often said of Ottoman history that the first ten sultans of the Ottoman dynasty (Suleyman being the tenth) had been men of unusual ability in politics and military affairs. Mehmed II had introduced the so-called "Law of Fratricide" as a means of preventing the brothers of a reigning sultan from undermining the ruler's authority. The "Law" had been effectively implemented only in the case of Suleyman's father, Selim, who had been able to eliminate his brothers soon after taking the throne. Suleyman himself was the only surviving son of Selim in 1520, while his grandfather, Bayezid II, had had great difficulty in liquidating threats from his brother Cem Sultan. Political activity by a sultan's living sons during the lifetime of their father was a relatively new and ominous development in Suleyman's time. 30 From Suleyman's perspective, which may or may not have been entirely accurate, his sons began struggling to gain the right to succeed him as early as the 1550s with Mustafa's presumed or real efforts, to raise a rebellion against him. The struggle lasted until the execution of Bayezid at the end of the decade.

Suleyman had fathered several capable sons, several of whom showed promise in arenas important to be a successful sultan: in leadership, in military affairs, and in the arts. Moreover, Suleyman's relationships with several officials of his government, particularly Ibrahim and Rustem, provided his sons opportunities to develop premature political ambitions before their father died.

His sons meant a great deal to Suleyman from early in his reign, and he developed a close rapport with several of them. One of the most spectacular public events of Suleyman's reign was the twenty-day ceremony celebrating the circumcision of Mustafa, Selim and Mehmed in 1530. 31 Bayezid was only five at the time and was circumcised only in 1539, in somewhat less extravagant but still public circumstances.32 His sons had accompanied Suleyman on campaigns, and Mustafa, particularly, had demonstrated talents appropriate to a military leader. They went hunting together in Edirne, in the forests outside of Constantinople, in Asia Minor, and even in the environs of Aleppo. Until problems surfaced towards the end of his reign, in the 1550s, relationships between father and sons were apparently good. Behind this companionship, however, must have lurked the reality in everyone's mind that only one could actually follow Suleyman as sultan, and if the "Law of Fratricide" were to be implemented, all others would die soon after their father died. It would have been difficult, even in ideal circumstances, for the sons to develop good relationships with each other. That two mothers were involved would inevitably create added complications.

Of Suleyman's sons who reached adulthood, the first to die was Mehmed, of natural causes, in 1543. His death came as a great shock to Suleyman, who apparently had considered him his likely heir, and gave Suleyman his first opportunity to become an architectural patron, with the construction of a mosque in central Constantinople, designed by and built under the supervision of the great Ottoman architect Sinan. 33 But it was to be the circumstances surrounding the death of Mustafa ten years later, that gave Suleyman the greatest pain in his last years.

Prince Mustafa was considered as the probable heir to his father's throne. Busbecq, who was in Constantinople soon after, reports to us that both sultan and Ottoman population in general were devastated by Mustafa's death.

...on account of his remarkable natural gifts, [he] was marked out by the affection of the soldiers and the wishes of the people as the certain successor of his father... 34

But Mustafa's mother was Gulbahar, Suleyman's concubine who had been exiled to Manisa in 1534. And Suleyman's wife, Hurrem, intended that one of her own sons would succeed their father, and engineered a plan by which Mustafa incurred his father's disfavor, and ultimately his hatred.

She was aided by the grand vezir Rustem Pasha, who sent the Aga of the Sipahis, Semsi, to Istanbul with the story, entirely without merit, that Mustafa was planning a rebellion against his father with the intention of seizing the throne for himself. 35 Soldiers accompanying Mustafa were reported to have said that:

The sultan is now too old to march in person against the enemy. No one save the Grand Vezir objects to having him yield his place to the Prince [Mustafa]; it would be easy to cut Rustem's head off and send the old sultan to repose. 36

Hearing this story, and apparently being sufficiently gullible to believe it, Suleyman decided to execute him. In 1553 Mustafa was Suleyman's eldest living son, being 39 years old; Selim was 30, Bayezid was 28, and Cihangir was 23. Pecevi described Mustafa as "smarter and better qualified" to succeed to the throne than any of the other three. 37

Suleyman ordered Mustafa to his camp outside of Konya "to explain his attitude and behavior." But upon Mustafa's arrival at his father's tent, he was strangled with his father looking on from behind a curtain. Busbecq reported  that Suleyman, seeing that the mute-executioners were slow about their business,

Thrust his head out of the part of the tent in which he was and directed fierce and threatening glances upon the mutes.... Thereupon the mutes in their alarm, redoubling their efforts, hurled the unhappy Mustafa to the ground, and throwing the bowstring around his neck, strangled him. 38

Mustafa's body was taken to Bursa where it was interred in a mausoleum originally intended to house the bodies of Suleyman's uncles. Over the tomb was later placed an inscription which read:

Shah Selim, son of Khan Suleyman, gave the order. This garden, the image of Paradise and this tomb, the garden of roses, is that of Sultan Mustafa. 39

As a probable result of Mustafa's execution, another of Suleyman's sons, Cihangir, died. Suffering from a birth defect which left him hunchbacked and pigeon-chested, Cihangir was nevertheless bright, good natured, and an almost constant companion of his father. He had also been very close to Mustafa, was devastated by his brother's execution and his father's involvement in it, and by most reports, soon thereafter died “of a broken heart,” in Aleppo where he was spending the winter with the sultan. 40

Thus, as Suleyman entered his sixtieth year, all of his sons were dead save two: Bayezid and Selim, both of whom were Hurrem's. The sultan must have known that he had been directly responsible for the deaths of two of his favorites. Almost everyone around Suleyman at the time, and Ottoman historians afterwards, believed that Rustem's story about Mustafa had been entirely false, and the sultan must have come to recognize in time that he had been wrong. His family tragedies were not over yet, however.

So long as Hurrem was alive, she was apparently able to keep both brothers peaceful and their relations with Suleyman on a good footing; in one instance, in 1555, however, Suleyman was led to believe that Bayezid was planning a revolt against his authority in the aftermath of Bayezid's successful suppression of a rebellion in central Anatolia. As gullible as he had been in the case of Mustafa, Suleyman ordered the execution of Bayezid without further investigation. Hurrem was able to persuade Suleyman that the charges were false and to change his mind. But it was increasingly clear that Suleyman was no longer in complete charge of his political faculties.

Both Bayezid and Selim established their own households and courts in the towns where they served as governors, Bayezid in Kutahya, and Selim in Manisa. 41 Hurrem's death in 1558 brought about renewed competition, and soon open conflict, between the two brothers. Although there were other complicating factors in their struggle, relating to competition between different elements of

Ottoman society in Anatolia, the two brothers ended up fighting a pitched battle in 1558 near Ankara, a battle which Bayezid and his forces lost. Bayezid, fearing for his life, fled to Iran where he remained with his wife and children in exile. Negotiations between Suleyman and Shah Tahmasb dragged on for a while, both sovereigns normally being enemies. The Shah ultimately approved of Bayezid's execution by agents sent by Suleyman in 1560.

Some letters sent by Suleyman and Bayezid to each other, as well as orders from the sultan to his provincial officials, have survived, and provide an unusual insight into Suleyman's frame of mind in his last years. Suleyman is reported to have told Beyezid at the time of his first difficulty, that:

in future you may leave all to God, for it is not man's pleasure, but God's will, that disposes of kingdoms and their government. If he has decreed that you shall have the kingdom after me, no man living shall be able to prevent it. 42

When Suleyman learned that Bayezid was planning to flee from his defeat at the hands of Selim, perhaps to Iran or Iraq, he ordered officials to the east of Konya that

you shall gather around you all your men who use muskets and handle bows and arrows and other instruments of war and killing, to block the roads to the said rebel [i.e. Bayezid], put his men to the sword, plunder their goods and chattels, and capture and punish him. 43

After weeks of difficult negotiations, Suleyman was able to have Bayezid, and all of his sons, executed in Tabriz, and their bodies were brought back to be buried in Istanbul. Halil Inalcik offers the following explanation for Suleyman's actions taken against his sons Mustafa and Bayezid:

Suleiman, in taking action against his own sons Mustafa and Bayezid, showed that he considered the idea of law and order more important in his empire than anything else. 44

The implication here is that Suleyman really did believe that these two sons were plotting to overthrow his government and seize the throne "illegally." Professor Inalcik offers a statement made by Suleyman in a letter to Bayezid to show Suleyman's great concern for legality:

O my dear· son, Bayezid, if you return to the right path I will certainly forgive you. In any case, do not say that you are not guilty but do say, my dear son, that you repent for what you have done. 45

Most of the available evidence points to the conclusion that at least in the case of Mustafa there was no activity which might fit the sultan's definition of disloyalty, but rather that Mustafa was more than likely "framed" by Hurrem and Rustem Pasha. In the case of Bayezid, there is at least as much evidence to say that he was struggling with his remaining brother for the position of heir as there is to suggest that his actions were aimed against Suleyman. Indeed, the views held by Ottomans at the time and thereafter are almost unanimous in their condemnation of Suleyman for his decision to punish Bayezid. Evliya Celebi present a story, obviously fabricated in its details, but probably accurately portraying the attitudes held by Ottomans about Bayezid's demise.

It is said that Suleyman, in passing the grave of Bayezid on the way to Kagithane, said: Rebel, art thou become a monarch, or art thou dead?" Thus saying, a black vapor arose from the Prince's grave, and Suleyman's horse affrighted, threw his rider. In one moment the face of Rustem Pasha grew black. Suleyman from that day got the gout, and Rustem Pasa's face remained black for seventy days, after which the skin coming off, became yellow as it had been before. Suleyman saw clearly that he had been led by Rustem to condemn his son and wished him a black face in the other world for the reward of his black deeds. 46

There can be little doubt that Suleyman, riding in his carriage in great pain on tile way to Szigetvar, must have thought long and hard about the mistakes he had made with his sons; only Selim remained. While Selim had a great many positive qualities, among them being his talents in literature and the arts, he was known as personally undisciplined, a consumer of alcohol in great quantities, and a poor judge of character. Most everyone at the time believed that, of Suleyman's sons, Selim was probably the least qualified to take his great father's place.

There were other elements of Suleyman's character that need to be mentioned in order to give a complete picture of this great man's personality. Suleyman was a man of deep religious convictions. This fact influenced his support for and participation in the arts, including literature and architecture, his application of justice and the law, and in a narrower sense, gave him at times a puritanical attitude towards the behavior of those around him.

Suleyman had been educated in the traditional manner for an Ottoman prince while growing up in Trabzon. He was a goldsmith of average talent and bad learned the techniques of writing poetry. As mentioned above, Suleyman usually corresponded with Hurrem in poetry and a good deal of his writing in this genre has survived. Five of his sons were poets as well, and Mustafa, Bayezid, and Selim are included in Ottoman biographies of poets and artists. 47 It was Suleyman's support for architecture and literature which provided the impetus for a flowering of Ottoman high culture during his reign. His own personal patronage was responsible for the construction of several large and important mosques in Constantinople: the mosque for his father, for Prince Mehmed, and finally the huge complex bearing his own name. The most skilled of all Ottoman architects, Sinan, found the support necessary to permit his design and construction of hundreds of buildings from Suleyman, his family, and officials in his government who wished to emulate their sovereign.

Suleyman's commitment to the principles of Islam, as be understood them, led him to focus on the emphasis upon the legal foundations of his Islamic Ottoman state. This meant, in practice, that he expected his officials, and even his own family, to act according to the law as it existed, and to establish new laws where the existing structure was defective. On campaign, his troops and officers were expected to behave in a manner consistent with legal norms. 48

Officials of his government responsible for the administration of provinces were expected to act in the interests of the state and the province in question, and activity aimed at furthering their personal interests at the expense of the people or the government was punished severely. 49 And finally, even when his own family was involved in behavior which Suleyman believed to be illegal punishment was swift and firm. Whether or not one thinks that Suleyman made mistakes in his determination of guilt or innocence in individual cases, the evidence is clear that he was even-handed in his application of the law, even when he was the ultimate loser.

Finally, it must be admitted that Suleyman's deep religious convictions sometimes led him to pursue policies which, by modern standards, must be identified as narrow minded and puritanical.

Several instances are worth mentioning here. First, in 1527, a religious non-conformist named Molla Kabiz made public statements to the effect !hat Jesus was a more important religious figure than had been Muhammad. Arrested, and interrogated by governmental officials, both religious and civil, Mollah Kabiz was determined to have been a heretic and was sentenced to death for his crimes. Suleyman witnessed the final session of the interrogation, and was reported to have been greatly offended by the Molla's claims saying: "This heretic comes to our divan, has the boldness to talk nonsense which violates the glorious reputation of our Prophet." In the end Suleyman concurred with the capital sentence. 50

Secondly, Suleyman's government issued orders in 1537 that any provincial representatives who learned of people under their jurisdictions who "doubted the words of the Prophet should be deemed an unbeliever, and executed." The same orders indicated the government's expectation that mosques would be built in all localities where they did not yet exist. 51 Presumably these orders applied only to the sultan's Muslim subjects as there is no evidence that non­Muslims were treated in an intolerant way consistent will the letter or spirit of these orders.

Finally, in 1555. Suleyman cracked down with force on the sale and production of alcoholic beverages within his empire, ordering that any ship found transporting wine be burned and destroyed, any shops determined to be selling wine or other alcoholic drinks be closed down, and individuals responsible for the sale or production of wine be executed in a particularly brutal fashion, according to d'Ohsson, by having molten lead poured down their throat. 52 These three incidents do inform us, perhaps, about some elements of Suleyman's own personal religious views, but they do not describe the totality of his religious and judicial attitudes or behavior.

In Suleyman's very last days, as he entered Hungary for the last time, the sultan may well have considered the achievements and failures of his reign, much along the lines provided by Busbecq in his last letter to his government:

It is said that Suleyman has set before himself the achievement of three ambitions: namely, to see the completion of his mosque which is indeed a sumptuous and splendid structure; to restore the ancient aqueducts and give Constantinople a proper water supply; and to capture Vienna. His first two have been achieved; in his third ambition he has been baulked... What has he achieved by his mighty array, his unlimited resources, his countless hosts? He has with difficulty clung to the portion of Hungary which he had already captured. He, who used to make an end of mighty kingdoms in a single campaign, has won, as the reward of his expeditions, some scarcely fortified citadels, and unimportant towns and has paid dearly for the fragment which he has gradually tom away from the vast mass of Hungary. He has once looked upon Vienna, it is true, but it was for the first and last time. 53

This last campaign, at Szigetvar, some years after Busbecq wrote the above lines, corroborated the ambassador's evaluation. 54

1  “The manner of the entring of Soliman the great. Turke, with his armie into Aleppo in Syria, marching towards Persia against the Great Sophie, the fourth day of November. 1553, noted by Master Anthony Jenkinson, present at that time," in Richard Hakluyt, The Principal

Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Notion, Glasgow, 1904, PI'·

105-110 here pp. 107-108.

2  Bartolomeo Contarini, Venetian envoy to Constantinople from 1519-1520, report summarized in Marino Sanuto, Diarii, Venice, 1879-1903, 59 vols.; here vol. 25, p. 352. A full report by Contarini appears in Eugenio Alberi, Relaziohi degli Ambasciatori Veneti al Senato, series III, vol. 3, Florence,1855, pp. 5) -58.

3  Alberi, IIl/3, p. 101; the full text of Bragadino's report covers pp. 99-112; it is referred to in Sanuto, vol. 41, p. 396.

4  Alberi, Ill, vol. I. Florence, 1840, p. 28; the full text of his report is on pp. 1-32.

5  Alberi, op. cir., Ill/I. pp. 72-3; his full report is in pp. 33-110. Sections of this report and the one cited previously appear in Roger B. Merriman, Suleyman the Magnificent. Cambridge, Mass.. Harvard University Press. 1944, pp. 191-192.

6  Edward Seymour Forster (and ed.), The Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, Imperial Ambassador at Consrantinople, Oxford, 1927, pp. 55-56.

7  Lacey Baldwin Smith, Henry VII, The Mask of Royalty, London, 1971, p. 23.

8  Josef Matuz, Das Kanzleiwesen Sultan Suleymans des Priichtigen, Freiburger Islamstudien, Bd. V, Wiesbaden. 1984, pp. 121-122.

9  Cited and translated in Hali! lnalc1k. 17ie Ottoman Empire, the Classical Age, London, 1963, (translated by Norman ltzkowicz and Colin Imber), p. 41.

10  The most important accounts are: Ismail Hakki Uzuncarsah, Osmanli Tarihi, vol. II, Tiirk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara, 1975 (3rd edition). pp. 409-420 ; Mustafa Selaniki. Tarih-i Selaniki. Istanbul, 1864 pp. 23-48; Lokman. Tarih-i Sultan Suleyman, dated 1568-9 Topkapi Palace Library, Ms. H. 1339; A. Suheyl Unver. "Kanuni Sultan Suleyman’in Son Avusturya Seferinde Hastahgi, Olumu, Cenazesi ve Defni," Kanunl Armagani, Turk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara, 1970, pp. 301-306; M. Tayyib Gukbilgin, "'Kanuni Suleyman'in 1566 Szigetvar Seferi, Sebepleri ve Hazirhklan," Tarih Dergisi, XXI, 1968, pp. 1-14; M. Tayyib Gukbilgin, "Kanuni Sultan Suleyman'in Macaristan ve Avrupa Siyasetinin Sebep ve Amilleri, Gecirdigi Safhalar," Kanuni Armagam, pp. 5-39.

11  Tue earlier campaigns Suleyman personally directed were: Belgrade (1521), Rhodes (1522), Mohacz (1526), Vienna (1529), Guns (1532), Baghdad (1533), Corfu (1536), Suczawa (1538), Ofen (1541), Gran (1543), Tabriz (1548), and Nahcivan (Nakhjivan, 1552).

12  Serafettin Turan, "Sakiz'in Turk Hakimiyeti Altina Almmasi," Tarih Arastirmalan Dergisi, IV/6-7, pp. 189-197; and by the same author, "Rodos'un Zaptindan Malta Muhasarasma," Kanuni Armagani, pp. 47-117.

13  See J. von Hammer-Purgstall, Histoire de l'Empire Ottoman. Paris, 1836, vol. VI, p. 214.

14  Statements such as "Letters from Constantinople contradict the reported death of the Grand Turk" (1561); "News is revived that the Turk is dead" (1562); "The Turk is still ill" (1562); "The Turk is still alive, but his death is imminent" (1562); "The death of the Sultan is reported" (1563), appear throughout the state papers in London, and continue right up to Suleyman's actual death. See Joseph Stevenson (ed), Calendar of State Papers, foreign series, of the reign of Elizabeth, volumes for 1561-2, 1563, 1564-5, London, 1866-1870.

15   Details of Suleyman’s health were often included in the reports of foreign envoys in Constantinople; among the most detailed were those of envoys from Venice. For reports on his condition in 1562, see Marcantonio Donini's reports in Eugenio Alberi, Ill/3, pp. 173-298 (with health descriptions on pp. 178-179). My thanks to Dr. William C. Waters, UI, for his help in analyzing Suleyman's symptoms, in a letter of November, 1982.

16  See Suleymanname, Chester Beatty Library, ms 413, ff. 44b-47b, for graphic descriptions of the trek.

17  The inscription on a new bridge built here, commissioned by Suleyman at this time, and

completed in 1568, reads : "This royal bridge is straight, just as Sirat [the bridge from this world to Paradise] is straight; Suleyman himself crossed this bridge directly to Paradise." Erdem Yucel, "Buyukcekmece'de Turk Eserleri," Vakiflar-Dergisi, IX, 1971, p. 98.

18  Selaniki, op. cit;, pp. 23-30, provides the most detail on this campaign; Suleymanname ff.

44b-47b, provides the information about Suleyman's attitudes and health.

19  Unver. p. 302.

20  That she was a Tatar, a daughter of the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray, was a story apparently begun by Jovius, repeated by other western sources, and taken up by Merriman in his biography of Suleyman, p. 27.

21  M. Cagatay Ulucay, Padisahlarin Kadinlari ve Kizlari, Ankara, Turk Tarih Kurumu, 1980. pp. 29-30. 22M. Cagatay Ulucay, "Kanuru Sultan Suleyman ve Ailesi ile Dgili Bazi Notlar ve Vesikalar," in Kanuni Armagani, pp. 227-228. '

23  Ulucay, Padisahlarin... p. 30.

24  Petra Kappert, Die Osmanischen Prinzen, und ihre Residenz Amasya im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, Istanbul: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Institut, 1976, p; 75.

25  For general accounts of her life, see Michel Sokolnicki, "La Sultane Ruthene," Belleten, XXlll, 1959; M. Tayyib Gokbilgin, "Hurrem Sultan," lslam Ansiklopedisi, V, pp. 593-596; Willy

Sperco, Roxelane: epouse de Soliman le Magnifique, Paris, 1972.

26  Found in the journal of the Genoese Bank of St. George in Constantinople, and translated by Barnette Miller in Beyond the Sublime Porte: The Grand Seraglio of Stambul, New Haven, 1931, pp. 93-94.

27  I costumi, et modi particolari de la vita de Turchi, Rome, 1545, ch. XIV.

28  In M. Cagatay Ulucay, Osmanli Sultanlarina Ask Mektuplan, Istanbul, 1950, p. 31, cited and translated by Halil lnalcik, The Ottoman Empire p. 87.

29  Translations of selections from his poetry appear in E. J. W. Gibb, A History of Ottoman Poetry, vol. III. London, 1904, pp. 8-10.

30  For discussions of the methods of Ottoman political succession, see A. D. Alderson, The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty, Oxford, 1956, pp. 7-8; and Halil lnalcik, The Ottoman Empire, pp. 59-64.

31  A detailed description of these festivities appears in Celalzade Mustafa's Tabakatu l-Memalik, published by Petra Kappert, Geschichte Sultan Suleyman Kanunis von 1520 bis 1557, (Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Supplementhand 21), Wiesbaden, 1981, ff. 194a-201b.

32  Tabakat, ff. 337a-339a.

33  Evliya Celebi, the famous seventeenth century Ottoman gentleman and traveller, remembered that Mehmed was a "prince of more exquisite qualities than even Mustafa. He had a piercing intellect and a subtle judgment. Suleyman had intended that he would be his successor. But man proposes and God disposes." Evliya Efendi. Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, tr. Hammer-Purgstall, 2 vols. (London 1845), II: 9.

34 Busbecq. p. 29.

35 Petra Kappert, Die Osmanischen Prinzen. p. 100; and Ibrahim P evi, Pefevi Tarihi, (ed. Murat Uraz), Istanbul, 1968, vol. I, pp. 300-302.

36 von Hammer Purgstall, Histoire, VI : 54.

37 re evi, p. 300 ; for discussion of the personal qualities of Mustafa see Joseph von Karabacek. "Geschichte Suleimans des Grossen, verfasst und eigenhandig geschrieben von seinem Sohne Mustafa," Kaisers Akademie der Wissen schaften in Wien, Philosophisch-historische Klasse. Sitzungsberichte, 1917. pp. 3- 10.

38 Busbecq, p. 33.

39 Albert Gabriel, Une Capitale Turque, Bursa, Paris, 1958 vol. I, p. 122.

40 Ismail Hakki Uzuncarsih, Osmanli Tarihi, vol. II, 3rd printing, Ankara, 1975, p. 403.

41 'The clearest account of these developments and events may be found in Serafettin Turan, Kanuni’nin Oglu Sehzade Bayezid Vakasi, Ankara, 1961.

42  Halil lnalcik. The Ottoman Empire, p. 59.

43  Uriel Heyd, Ottoman Documents on Palestine, 1552-1615, Oxford, 1960, pp. 65-67, citing the Muhimme Defteri, III, 59, 26 June 1559.

44  Halil lnalcik. "Suleiman the Lawgiver and Ottoman Law," Archivum Ottomanicum, I, 1969, p. 111.

45   Inalcik, ibid.

46   Evliya Efendi, op. cit., p. 8.

47  see E. J. W. Gibb, Ottoman Poetry. Ill: 5-6.

48   Halil lnalcik, "Adaletnameler," Belgeler, Turk Tarih Belgeleri Dergisi, II (1955): 49-145.

49   Halil lnalcik, "Suleiman the Lawgiver, " p. 110.

50   Kappert, raba iit, ff. 172b-175b.

51   Halil Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire. p. 182.

52   Mouradgea d'Ohssoo, Tableau General de l'Empire Othoman, vol. IV, part 1, Paris. 1791, pp. 56-57.

53  Busbecq, pp. 240-241.

54  Studies which hav e appeared in print since this essay was written, and which concern the topics treated in this essay include:

Halil lnalcik, "Sultan Suleyman: The Man and the Statesman," pp. 89-104;

Leslie Peirce, "The Family as Faction: Dynastic Politics in the Reign of Suleyman," pp. 105-116; and Alan Fisher, "Suleyman and His Sons", pp. 117-126: all in Gilles Veinstein (ed), Soliman le magnifique et son temps, Actes du Colloque de Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 7-10 mars 1990, Paris, 1992.