From Suleyman the Second and His Time 

THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF SULEYMAN I

Alan FISHER

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 Ietters 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. 1

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 tuckc, conllliniog 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 apparrelled in all points correspondent to the same.

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 Sulleyman'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 knowledgable 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

2Bartolomeo 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, Re/aziohi degli Ambasciatori Veneti al Senato, series III, vol. 3, Florence,1855, pp. 5) -58.

3Alberi, 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.

THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF SULEYMAN I

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 lbrfillim]".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:5

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.

TI1e 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 w th him. From the last third of Suleyman's political life, these views portray SuleY,mfin in a light different from that commonly accepted:6

He is beginning to feel the weight of years, but his dignity of demeanour 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, I.hough 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 witli a coating of red powder, when he wishes departing ambassadors lo take with them a strong impression of his good hea:Jth; for he fancies that it contributes to inspire greater fear in foreign potentates if they think that he is well and strong.

4Alberi, 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.

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

Lacey Baldwin Smith, thc biogrnpher of Henry VIIl, wisely noted that:7 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.

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, Ihope in this short essay to remove the "protective shield" and find this sultan's "raw personality beneath," as much as the sources pennit us to do so.

Stileyman'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 an uni (Lawgiver), and abroad of the Grand Turk, the magnificent, the Grand Signior, the Scourge of Europe. What was Suleyman doing in this ratlier remote place, at that age, expending Ottoman men and treasure to achieve a goal of no importance? lbe 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 bim: 8

Stileyman, son of Selim tf 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.

7Lacey Baldwin Smith, Henry Vil/, The Mask of Roya/ry, London, 1971, p. 23.

8Josef Matuz, Das Kanzleiwesen Sultan Slileymans des Priichligen, Freiburg er Islamstudien, Bd.

V, Wiesbaden. 1984, pp. 121-122.

THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF SOLEYMAN

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

[am God's slave and sultan of this world. By the grace of God I am head of Mu ammad's community. God's might and Muhammad's miracles are my companions. I am Suleyman, in whose name the

!Jutbe 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. Tue 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 ultiniately successful in U1is 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. TI1is final battle, later called the Szigetvar campaign, was filled with tragic elements. 10 TI1e problems Suleyman faced, and the ways he approached them provide us with cleat evidence of the changing nature of his empire and of U1e 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 U1e period an almost superhuman and "Magnificent" Siiieyman.

lhose 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

9Cited and tr nslated in Hali! lnalc1k. 17ie Ottoman E1;1pire, the Classical Age, London, 1963,

(translated by Norman ltzkowicz and Colin Imber), p. 41.

1°'rhe most important accounts are: Ismail Hakk.i Uzun ar§1h. Osmanli Tarihi, vol. IT, Tiirk Tarih

Kurumu, Ankara, 1975 (3rd edition). pp. 409-420 ; Mu tafa Seliinikl. Tilrl/!-i Sel!iniki. Istanbul, 1864 pp. 23-48; Lo\cmiin. Tiin"/!-i Su/filn Sii/eymiln. dated 1568-9 Topkap1 Palace Library, Ms. H. 1339; A. Siiheyl Onver. "Kanuni Sultan Siileym;m'm Son Avusturya Seferinde HastalJ 1. 61ilmii, Cenazesi ve Defni," Kanunl Armagani, Tiirk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara, 1970, pp. 301-306; M. Tayyib Giikbilgin, "'Kanuni Suleyman'm 1566 Szigetvar Seferi, Sebepleri ve Hazirhklan," Tarih Dergisi, XX!, 1968, pp. 1-14; M. Tayyib Giikbilgin, "Kanuni Sultan Suleyman'm Macaristan ve Avrupa Siyasetinin Sebep ve Amilleri, Ge irdi i Salbalar," Kanuni Armagam, pp. 5-39.

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 furone. 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 fonned state which would challenge the Ottomans in fue future.

Superficially the evenls of 1566 were not a striking departure from those of earlier years. And there is much to be said for the proposition that fue 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 embarassment failed to capture this small Mediterranean island. 12 Second, Maximilian II Habsbnrg 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, !he ey]J Nfiriiddin, 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,

11Tue earlier campaigns Suleyman personally directed were: Belgrade (1521), Rhodes (1522), Mohacz (1526), Vienna (1529), Giins (1532), Baghdad (1533), Corfu (1536), Suczawa (1538),

Ofen (1541), Gran (1543), Tabriz (1548), and Nahcivan (Nakhjivan, 1552).

12 erafettin Turan, "Saloz'tn Tiirk Hakimiyeti Altma Almmas1," Tarih AriJ§tmrwlan Dergisi, IV/6-7, pp. 189-197; and by the same author, "Rodos'un Zaptmdan Malta Muhasarasma," Kanunf Armagam, pp. 47-117.

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

THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF S0LEYMAN       7

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, Stileyman 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, Stileyman could no longer ride on horseback for more tlian a few minutes. Soon after the environs of Constantinople had been left behind, Stileyman'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 So ollu Mel med assigned a corps of engineers to proceed allead of the army, under his

14statements 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 Siiieymiin'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.

15oetails of Siileymiin"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, III, for his help in analyzing Suleyman's symptoms, in a letter of November, 1982.

personal command, to prepare the road, to smooth out the dirt and stone surface, and to find alternative mutes where spring floods had ruined the road bed. Clearly the process was going 10 take a long time, and the anny's progress would be very slow.16 Accompanying him were many of his highest officials, a massive anny of infantry and cavalry, engineers, and baggage trains. On the second day out of Constantinople, a temporary wooden bridge had to be built at Biiyiik <;ekrnece to replace the stone structure recently washed away in a violent rainstorm and ensuing flood.17

One can imagine Ilic discussions between Suleyman and his advisers on the advisability of continuing this campaign. It took ten days to reach Edime,

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. ei Nfirredin'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 nuni 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 annies 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 rid: administrative and financial resources he had inherited to produce what was for the sixteenth century, Ille 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.

16see SU/eymannlime, Chester Beatty Libr<iry, ms 413, ff. 44b-47b, for graphic descriptions of

the trek.

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

completed in 1568, reads : "lhis royal bridge is straight, just as ira! [the bridge from this world

to Paradise] is straight; Suleyman himself cro,ssed this bridge directly to Paradise." Erdem Yiicel,

"Biiyiik elcmece'de Tiirk E.serleri," Vakif/ar-Dergisi, IX, 1971, p. 98.

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

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

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 dispair. 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 J:lafl/a. his concubines Giilbahar and Hiirrem, 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 J:Iaf a bint cAbdiilmennan [l:laf a, 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

I::Iaf!ia Sullan accompanied her son on his early administrative assignments, in Kefe in 1510, and when he assumed the role of ehzade 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 va flye and Slileyman built a tfmar[liine there for her too.23

Suleyman had at least six sisters, all of whom married important Ottoman officials. J:.Iatice, who became the wife of Suleyman's grand veZir

!bra.him Pa§a, and for whom a 16-day wedding celebration was held in the Hippodrome outside the walls of Topkap1 Sarayr in 1524, was one of

Siileymiin's favorites. A second sister, Sfill Sultan, was married to the Grand

Vezir Lu!fi Pa§<'!, and lived until 1572, six years after Suleyman's death.

TI1e sultan 's daughter, Mihrimfill, whose mother was Hiirrem Sultan, exercised a great deal of influence on Siileymiin in his later years, and particularly after Hiirrem died, may well have been instrumental in encouraging the sultan to

190nver. p. 302.

20That 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.

21M. <;:agatay Ulu ay, Padijahlartn Kadmlan ve K1z/ari, Ankara, Tiirk Tarih Kurumu, 1980. pp.

29-30.

22M. <;:agatay Ulu ay, "Kanuru Sultan·Suleyman ve Ailesi ile llgili BaZJ Notlar ve Vesikalar," in

Kanuni Armagam, pp. 227•228. '

23u1u y. Padi§ahlarrn... p. 30.

undertake bis last campaign. Married to the grand vezir Riistem Pa in 1538, she was in an important position close to the sultan through much of the last half of his reign. The sultan permitted bis daughter to be a public figure, and she was able together with Ri1stem 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 Uskiidar across the Bospborus, and the other at Edimekap1 on the western edge of Constantinople. The latter mosque was one of the most Innovative constructions of the court architect. Sinful.

Of the females in Siileymful 's life, however, the most important were the two who bore him children. The first was Giilbahar (or according to one source, Mfillidevran Sultan), mother of several sons, including cAbdullah, who died in infancy of disease, and Mu afft, who was executed by order of his father, in

1553.24 Giilbahar died only in 1581, outJiving Suleyman and all of his children.

There can be no doubt that Suleyman's second concubine, Hiirrem, 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, Hiirrem-Siih J:{fitun, and lj eki Htirrem Sultan.25 She joined Suleyman's household while he was still Sehzacte, but it was after he became sultan that Hiirrem had such an important influence on his life and activity. There is evidence that Hiirrem and Giilbahar competed for Suleyman's primary affection, a competition that ended with Hlirrem'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 Hiirrem 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 tJ1is 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, ailed Roxalana, and tJ1ere has been great feasting. The ceremony took place in the Seraglio, and the festivities

24Petra Kappert, Die Osmanischen. Prini.en, und ihre Residenz Ama sya im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, Istanbul : Nederland s Historisch-Archaeologisch Institut, 1976, p; 75.

25For general accounts of her life, see Michel Sokoloicki, "La Sultane Ruthene," Be/leien, XXlll.

1959; M. Tayyib Gokbilgin, "Hiirrem Sultan," lsliim Ansik/ opedisi, V, pp. 593•596; Willy

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

26Found in the journal of the Genoe·se Bank of St. George in Constantinople, and translaied by

Barnette Miller in Beyond the Sublime Porte: The Grand Seraglio of Stambul, New Haven, 1931,

pp. 93-94.

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 lhat all of his subjects marvel and say that she has bewitched him, and they call her tile ziadi or witch.27

Suleyman and Hiirrem corresponded with each oilier while he was on campaign and a number of these letters have been preserved. In one, Hiirrern 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 Jetter, so that,J 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 MuI.iibbi. 29 Her death in 1558 was a

tragedy for Siileymfui.

One of the great sources of Si.ileyrniin'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. Mel.1med IIhad introduced the so­ callcd "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 Siilcyman's fther, Selim, who had been able to eliminate his broth ers soon after taking the throne. Stileyman him self 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.3 From

271 costumi, et imodi parti colari df' la vita de Turchi, Rome, 1545, ch. XN.

281n M. <;:agatay Ulu ay, Osmanli Sulta11lamra A k Mektuplan, Istanbul, 1950, p. 31, cited and

translated by Halil lnalc1k, The Ottoman Empire p. 87.

29Trao slations o( selections from his poery appear in E. J. W. Gibb, A History of Ottoman Poetry, vol. 111. Y,ndon, 1()()4, pp. 8-10.

3°For discussion& · of the..meth s of Ottoman politica l succession, see A. D. Alderson, The Structure of the Ottoma Dynasty, Oxford, 1956, pp. 7-8; and Halil lnalc1k, The Ottoman Empire,

pp. 59-64.

Suleyman's perspective, which may or may not have been entirely accurate, his sons began struggling 10 gain the right to succeed him as early as the 1550s with Muwiffi'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 tbriihim and Riistem, 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 lhe circwncision of Mu Jala, Selim and Mel:uned in 1530.31 Bayezid was only five at the lime and was circumcised only in 1539, in somewhat less extravagant but

still public circumstances.32 His sons had accompanied Suleyman on campaigns, and Mu iarn. 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 U1eir father died. It would have been difficult, even in ideal circumstances, for the sons to develop good relationships witlI each other. That two mothers were involved would inevitably create added complications.

Of Suleyman's sons who reached adulthood, the first to die was Mel:Jmed, of natural causes, in 1543. His death came as a great shock to Suleyman, who apparently bad considered him his likely beir, and gave Suleyman bis first opportunity to become an architectural patron, with lhe construction of a mosque in central Constantinople, designed by and built under the supervision of the

great Ottoman architect Sinan.33 But ii. was to be the circumstances surrounding

31A detailed description of these festivities appears in Celalzide Mu !afa's Taba iitu'l-Memiilik, published by Petra Kappert, Geschichre Sultan Suleymiin J> iinunis von J 520 bis J 557, (Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Supplementhand 21), Wiesbaden, 1981, ff. 194a-20lb.

32Tabakiit, ff. 337a-339a.

33Evliya «;:elebi, the famous seventeenth century Ottoman gentleman and traveller, remembered

that Mehmed was a "prince of more equisite qualities than even Mu !afii. He had a piercing

intellect and a subtle judgment. Siileyrniin had intended that he would be ltis successor. But man proposes and God disposes." Evliya Efendi. Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, tr. Harnrner-Purgstall, 2 vols. (London 1845), II: 9.

THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF SOLEYMAN       13

the dealh of Mu$\affi. Len years later, that gave Suleyman the greatest pain in his last years.

Prince Mu !llfil was considered a the probable heir to his father's throne. Busbecq, who was in Constantinople soon after, reports to us tbat both sultan and Ottoman population in general were devastated by Mu$!Jila.'s death,34

...on acco•mt of his remarkable natural gifts, [he] was marked out by the affection of the soldiers and the w ishes of the people as the certain successor of his father...

But Mu \affi's mother was Giilbahar, Suleyman's concubine who had been exiled to Manisa in 1534. And Stileyman's wife, Hiirrem, intended that one of her own sons would succeed their father, and engineered a plan by which Mu !llra incurred his father's disfavor, and ultimately his hatred.

She was aided by the Grand Vezir Riistem P a, who sent the Aga of the Sipahis, emsi, to Istanbul with the story, entirely without merit, that Mu$ ara was planning a rebellion against his father with the intention of seizing the throne for himsetf.35 Soldiers accompanying Mu !llffi were reported to have said

that 36

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

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

Suleyman ordered Mustafa to his camp ouL ide of Konya "to explain his attitude and bebavior." But upon Mus¢a's arrivaJ at his father's tent, he was strangled with his father looking on from behind a curtain. Busbecq reported38

34ousbecq. p. 29.

35Petra Kappert, Die Osnumisc/1e11 Prinzen. p. 100; and Ibrahim P evi, Pefevi Tarihi, (ed. Murat

Uraz), Istanbul, 1968, vol. I, pp. 300-302.

36von Hammer Purgstall, Histoire, VI : 54.

37re evi, p. 300 ; for discussion of the personal qualities of Mu !afii. see Joseph von Karabacek.

"Geschichte Suleimans des Grossen, verfasst und eigenhandig geschrieben von seinem Sohnc Mus\afa," Kaisers Akademie der Wissen schaften in Wien, Philosophisch-historische Klasse. Sirzungsber icltte, 1917. pp. 3- 10,

38Busbecq, p. 33. ·

that Suleyman, seeing that the mute-executioners were slow about their business,

lhrust his head out of lhe part of the tent in which he was and directed fierce and threatening glances upon the mutes.... Thereupon the mutes in !heir alarm, redoubling their efforts, hurled the unhappy Mu$\afa to the ground, and throwing lhe bowstring around his neck, strangled him.

Mu$\afa's body was taken to Bursa where it was interred in a mausoleum originally intended to house the bodies ofSuleyman's uncles. Over the tomb was later placed an inscription which read:39

Shah Selim, son of Khan Suleyman, gave the order. This garden, the image of Paradise and this tomb, lhe garden of roses, is that of Sultan Mu$(.affi.

As a probable result of Mu$taffi's execution, another of Suleyman's sons, Cillangir, died. Suffering from a birth defect which left him hunchbacked and pigeon-chested, Cihlingir was nevertheless bright, good nalured, and an almost constant companion of his father. He had also been very close to Mu$(.affi, 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

Tims, as Suleyman entered his sixtieth year, all of his sons were dead save two: Bayezid and Selim, both of whom were Hiirrem'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 tinle, and Ouomao historians afterwards, believed that Riistem's story about Musiaffi 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 Hiirrem 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 Mu \afa, Suleyman ordered the execution of Bayezid without further investigation. Hiirrem was able to persuade Suleyman that 1.he charges were false

39Albert Gabriel, U11e Capitale Turque, Bursa, Paris, 1958 vol. I, p. 122.

40Ismail Hakla Uzu ar 1h, Osmanli Tarihi, vol. II, 3rd printing, Ankara, 1975, p. 403.

THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF SDLEYMAN I    15

and to change his mind. But it was increasingly clear 1hat Stileyman was no longer in complele 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 Kiitahya, and Selim in Manisa. 41 Hiirrem'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, tled to Iran where he remained wilh his wife and children in exile. Negotiations between Stileyman 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 i.ven 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 Bfiyezid at the time of his first difficulty, that42

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.

When Suleyman learned that Bfiyezid 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 that43

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.

After weeks of difficult negotiation s, Suleyman was able to have Bayezid,

and all of his sons, executed in Tabriz, and theirbodies were brought back to be

41'Th e clearest account of these developments and events may be found in erafettin Turan,

Kanunf'nin Oglu ehzad e Bayezid Vakas1, Ankara, 1961.

42Halil lnalc1k. The Ottoman· Empire, p. 59. " ;

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

buried in Istanbul. Halil Inalc1k offers the following explanation for Suleyman's actions taken against his sons Mustara and Bayez'id:44

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.

The implication here is that Suleyman really did believe that these two sons were plotting to overthrow his government and seiu the throne "illegally." Professor Inalcik offers a statement made by Stileyman in a letter to Dayezid to

show Stile.yman's great concern for legality : 5

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.

Most of the available evidence points to the conclusion that at least in the case of Mu$!ala there was no activity which might fit the sultan's definition of disloyalty, but rather that Mu$\aia was more lhan likely "framed" by Hiirrem and Riistem Pa a. In the case of Bayezid, there is at least as much evidence to say that he was struggling witb his remaining brother for the position of heir as there is to suggest that hi actions were aimed against Suleyman. Indeed, the views held by Ouomans at the time and thereafter are almost unanimous in their condemnation of Suleyman for his decision to punish Bayezid. Evliya <;elebi present a story, obviously fabricated in its details, but probably accurately portraying the attitudes held by Ottomans about Bayezid's dernise.46

It is said diat Suleyman, in passing the grave of Bayezid on the way to Kag1thane, 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 Riistem P a grew black. Suleyman from that day got die gout, and Rustem Pa '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 Riistem to condemn his son and wished him a black face in the oilier world for the reward of his black deeds.

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 Sellin remained. While Selim had a

44Halil lnalc1k. "Suleiman the Lawgiver and Ottoman Law," Archivum Ottomanicum, I, 1969, p.

111.

45Ioalc1k, ibid.

46Evliya Efendi, op. cit., p. 8.

THE LIFE AND FAMI L Y OF SULEYMAN     17

great many positive qualities, among them being his talents in literature and the arts, he was known a'\ personally undisciplined, a consumer of alcohol in great quantites, and a poor judge of character. Most everyone at the lime believed that. of Silleymfin'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. Siileymfm was a man of deep religious convictions. This fact influenced his support for and participation in the arts, including literature and architecture, his applicatio of justice and the law, and in a narrower sense, gave him at times a pUritanicai attitude towards the behavior of those around him.

Stileymao 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, Siileymfin usually corresponded with Hiirrem in poetry and a good deal of his writing in this genre has survived. Five of his sons were poets as well, and Mu !affi. Bll.yezid, and Selim arc includ ed in Ottoman biographies of poets and artists.47 It was Stileymlin'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 Mel)med, an'd finally the huge complex bearing his own name. The most skilled of alf Ottoman architects, Sinfin, 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 commiunent 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 bis 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 Silleyman believed to be illegal, punishment was swift and firm. Whether or not one thinks that Suleyman made

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

48Halil lnalc1k, "'dalei ameler," Beige/er, Turk Tarih Be/geleri Dergisi, II (1955): 49-145.

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

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 nonconfonnist named Molla abiz 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 abiz 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 senteilce.50

Secondly, Siilcyman's government issued orders in 1537 that any provincial representatives who learned of people under tlieir 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 non­

Muslims 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 lbe 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.

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

SI Hali\ Ina\c1k, The Ottoman Empire. p. 182.

52Mo.iradgea d'Ohssoo, Tableau General de /'Empire Othoman, vol. IV, pat1 l. Paris. 1791, pp.

56-57.

THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF SOLEYMAN       19

In Stileyman'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 govenunent:53

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 lhe vast mass of Hungary. He has once looked upon Vienna, it is true, but it was for the first and last time.

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

53Busbecq, pp. 240-24 I.

54Smdies which hav e appeared in print since this essay was written, and which concern the

topics treated in this essay. include:

Hali! lnalcik, "Sultan Siileymiin: 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, Parjs, 1992.