SULEYMAN I
(1494-1566)
Suleyman in his time was regarded as the most significant ruler in the world, by
both Muslims and Europeans. His military empire expanded greatly both to the
east and west, and he threatened to overrun the heart of Europe itself. In
Constantinople, he embarked on vast cultural and architectural projects.
Istanbul in the middle of the sixteenth century was architecturally the most
energetic and innovative city in the world. While he was a brilliant military
strategist and canny politician, he was also a cultivator of the arts. Suleyman's
poetry is among the best poetry in Islam, and he sponsored an army of artists,
religious thinkers, and philosophers that outshone the most educated courts of
Europe.
In Islamic history, Suleyman is regarded as the perfect Islamic ruler in history.
He is asserted as embodying all the necessary characteristics of an Islamic
ruler, the most important of which is justice ('adale ). The Qur'an itself
points to King Solomon as embodying the perfect monarch because he so perfectly
embodied 'adale ; Suleyman, named after Solomon, is regarded in Islamic history
as the second Solomon. The reign of Suleyman in Ottoman and Islamic history is
generally regarded as the period of greatest justice and harmony in any Islamic
state.
The Europeans called him "The Magnificent," but the Ottomans called him Kanuni,
or "The Lawgiver." The Suleymanie Mosque, built for Suleyman, describes Suleyman
in its inscription as Nashiru kawanin al-Sultaniyye , or "Propagator of the
Sultanic Laws." The primacy of Suleyman as a law-giver is at the foundation of
his place in Islamic history and world view. It is perhaps important to step
back a moment and closely examine this title to fully understand Suleyman's
place in history.
The word used for law here, kanun, has a very specific reference. In Islamic
tradition, the Shari'ah, or laws originally derived from the Qur'an , are meant
to be universally applied across all Islamic states. No Islamic ruler has the
power to overturn or replace these laws. So what laws was Suleyman "giving" to
the Islamic world? What precisely does kanun refer to since it doesn't refer to
the main body of Islamic law, the Shari'ah ?
The kanun refer to situational decisions that are not covered by the Shari'ah .
Even though the Shari'ah provides all necessary laws, it's recognized that some
situations fall outside their parameters. In Islamic tradition, if a case fell
outside the parameters of the Shari'ah , then a judgement or rule in the case
could be arrived at through analogy with rules or cases that are covered by the
Shari'ah . This method of juridical thinking was only accepted by the most
liberal school of Shari'ah , Hanifism, so it is no surprise that Hanifism
dominated Ottoman law.
The Ottomans, however, elevated kanun into an entire code of laws independent of
the Shari'ah. The first two centuries of Ottoman rule, from 1350 to 1550, saw an
explosion of kanun rulings and laws, so that by the beginning of the sixteenth
century, the kanun were a complete and independent set of laws that by and large
were more important than the Shari'ah . This unique situation was brought about
in part because of the unique heritage of the Ottomans. In both Turkish and
Mongol traditions, the imperial law, or law pronounced by the monarch, was
considered sacred. They even had a special word for it: the Turks called it Türe
and the Mongols called it Yasa . In the system of Türe and Yasa , imperial law
was regarded as the essential and sacred foundation of the empire. When this
tradition collided with the Islamic Shari'ah tradition, a compromised system
combining both was formed.
The Sultanic laws were first collected together by Mehmed the Conqueror. Mehmed
divided the kanun into two separate sets or laws. The first set dealt with the
organization of government and the military, and the second set dealt with the
taxation and treatment of the peasantry. The latter group was added to after the
death of Mehmed and the Ottoman kanun pretty much crystallized into its final
form in 1501. Suleyman, for his part, revised the law code, but on the whole the
Suleyman code of laws is pretty identical to the 1501 system of laws. However,
it was under Suleyman that the laws took their final form; no more revisions
were made after his reign. From this point onwards, this code of laws was called,
kanun-i 'Osmani , or the "Ottoman laws."
Western historians know Suleyman primarily as a conqueror, for he made Europe
know fear like it had never known of any other Islamic state. Conquest, like
every other aspect of the Ottoman state and culture, was a multicultural
heritage, with origins as far back as Mesopotamia and Persia, and as far afield
as the original Mongol and Turkish peoples in eastern and central Asia.
Suleyman had many titles; in inscriptions he calls himself:
Slave of God, powerful with the power of God, deputy of God on earth, obeying
the commands of the Qur'an and enforcing them throughout the world, master of
all lands, the shadow of God over all nations, Sultan of Sultans in all the
lands of Persians and Arabs, the propagator of Sultanic laws (Nashiru kawanin al-Sultaniyye
), the tenth Sultan of the Ottoman Khans, Sultan, son of Sultan, Suleyman Khan.
Slave of God, master of the world, I am Suleyman and my name is read in all the
prayers in all the cities of Islam. I am the Shah of Baghdad and Iraq, Caesar of
all the lands of Rome, and the Sultan of Egypt. I seized the Hungarian crown and
gave it to the least of my slaves.
He called himself the "master of the lands of Caesar and Alexander the Great,"
and later as simply, "Caesar." It's hard, of course, not to be slightly humbled
by assertions of such greatness, and no ruler in the sixteenth century was more
adept at diminishing the egos of all the other rulers surrounding him.
Suleyman believed, however, that the entire world was his possession as a gift
of God. Even though he did not occupy Roman lands, he still claimed them as his
own and almost launched an invasion of Rome (the city came within a few
hairbreadths of Ottoman invasion in Suleyman's expedition against Corfu). In
Europe, he conquered Rhodes, a large part of Greece, Hungary, and a major part
of the Austrian Empire. His campaign against the Austrians took him right to the
doorway of Vienna.
Besides invasions and campaigns, Suleyman was a major player in the politics of
Europe. He pursued an aggressive policy of European destabilization; in
particular, he wanted to destabilize both the Roman Catholic church and the Holy
Roman Empire. When European Christianity split Europe into Catholic and
Protestant states, Suleyman poured financial support into Protestant countries
in order to guarantee that Europe remain religiously and politically
destabilized and so ripe for an invasion. Several historians, in fact, have
argued that Protestantism would never have succeeded except for the financial
support of the Ottoman Empire.
Suleyman was responding to an aggressively expanding Europe. Like most other non-Europeans,
Suleyman fully understood the consequences of European expansion and saw Europe
as the principle threat to Islam. The Islamic world was beginning to shrink
under this expansion. Portugal had invaded several Muslim cities in eastern
Africa in order to dominate trade with India, and Russians, which the Ottomans
regarded as European, were pushing central Asians south when the Russian
expansion began in the sixteenth century. So in addition to invading and
destabilizing Europe, Suleyman pursued a policy of helping any Muslim country
threatened by European expansion. It was this role that gave Suleyman the right,
in the eyes of the Ottomans, to declare himself as supreme Caliph of Islam. He
was the only one successfully protecting Islam from the unbelievers and, as the
protector of Islam, deserved to be the ruler of Islam.
While the expansion of European power helps explain Suleyman's conquest of
European territories, it doesn't help us when it comes to the vast amount of
Islamic territory that he invaded or simply annexed. How does conquering Islamic
territory "protect" Islam? The Ottomans understood this as belonging to Suleyman's
task as universal Caliph of Islam. This role demanded that Suleyman also see to
the integrity of the faith itself and to root out heresy and heterodoxy. His
annexation of Islamic territory, such as the annexation of Arabia, were
justified by asserting that the ruling dynasties had abandoned orthodox belief
or practice. Each of these invasions or annexations were preceded, however, by a
religious judgement by Islamic scholars as to the orthodoxy of the ruling
dynasty.
Suleyman undertook to make Istanbul the center of Islamic civilization. He began
a series of building projects, including bridges, mosques, and palaces, that
rivaled the greatest building projects of the world in that century. The
greatest and most brilliant architect of human history was in his employ: Sinan.
The mosques built by Sinan are considered the greatest architectural triumphs of
Islam and possibly the world. They are more than just awe-inspiring; they
represent a unique genius in dealing with nearly insurmountable engineering
problems.
Suleyman was a great cultivator of the arts and is considered one of the great
poets of Islam. Under Suleyman, Istanbul became the center of visual art, music,
writing, and philosophy in the Islamic world. This cultural flowering during the
reign of Suleyman represents the most creative period in Ottoman history; almost
all the cultural forms that we associate with the Ottomans date from this time.
The reign of Suleyman, however, is generally regarded, by both Islamic and
Western historians, as the high point of Ottoman culture and history. While
Ottoman culture flourishes during the reign of Selim II, Suleyman's son, the
power of the state, internally and externally, began to perceptibly decline.
Islamic historians believe that the decline was due to two factors: the
decreased vigilance of the Sultan over the functions of government and their
consequent corruption, and the decreased interest of the government in popular
opinion. Western historians are not sure how to explain the decline after the
death of Suleyman. A major factor seems to be a series of eccentric and
sometimes insane Sultans all through the seventeenth century. When the Ottomans
abandoned the practice of killing all rivals to the throne, they began to
imprison them. The Sultanate, then, often fell to individuals who had been
imprisoned for decades and, well, there was often no cream filling in those
Twinkies. This led to the growth of the power of the bureaucracy and its
consequent corruption (this does not fundamentally disagree with the Islamic
version of Ottoman history). The decline in the Ottoman Empire in the Western
tradition is also considerably determined by the ever-increasing expansion of
the European powers. How much this played a direct part in the decline of the
Ottomans in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is difficult to determine,
but there is no question that the last century of the Ottomans (19th), the
principle historical factor in Ottoman decline was the hyper-aggressive
expansion of European colonial powers. Whatever the reason, the Ottoman Empire
begins its slow transformation under Selim II, the son of Suleyman.
(1494-1566)
Suleyman in his time was regarded as the most significant ruler in the world, by
both Muslims and Europeans. His military empire expanded greatly both to the
east and west, and he threatened to overrun the heart of Europe itself. In
Constantinople, he embarked on vast cultural and architectural projects.
Istanbul in the middle of the sixteenth century was architecturally the most
energetic and innovative city in the world. While he was a brilliant military
strategist and canny politician, he was also a cultivator of the arts. Suleyman's
poetry is among the best poetry in Islam, and he sponsored an army of artists,
religious thinkers, and philosophers that outshone the most educated courts of
Europe.
In Islamic history, Suleyman is regarded as the perfect Islamic ruler in history.
He is asserted as embodying all the necessary characteristics of an Islamic
ruler, the most important of which is justice ('adale ). The Qur'an itself
points to King Solomon as embodying the perfect monarch because he so perfectly
embodied 'adale ; Suleyman, named after Solomon, is regarded in Islamic history
as the second Solomon. The reign of Suleyman in Ottoman and Islamic history is
generally regarded as the period of greatest justice and harmony in any Islamic
state.
The Europeans called him "The Magnificent," but the Ottomans called him Kanuni,
or "The Lawgiver." The Suleymanie Mosque, built for Suleyman, describes Suleyman
in its inscription as Nashiru kawanin al-Sultaniyye , or "Propagator of the
Sultanic Laws." The primacy of Suleyman as a law-giver is at the foundation of
his place in Islamic history and world view. It is perhaps important to step
back a moment and closely examine this title to fully understand Suleyman's
place in history.
The word used for law here, kanun, has a very specific reference. In Islamic
tradition, the Shari'ah, or laws originally derived from the Qur'an , are meant
to be universally applied across all Islamic states. No Islamic ruler has the
power to overturn or replace these laws. So what laws was Suleyman "giving" to
the Islamic world? What precisely does kanun refer to since it doesn't refer to
the main body of Islamic law, the Shari'ah ?
The kanun refer to situational decisions that are not covered by the Shari'ah .
Even though the Shari'ah provides all necessary laws, it's recognized that some
situations fall outside their parameters. In Islamic tradition, if a case fell
outside the parameters of the Shari'ah , then a judgement or rule in the case
could be arrived at through analogy with rules or cases that are covered by the
Shari'ah . This method of juridical thinking was only accepted by the most
liberal school of Shari'ah , Hanifism, so it is no surprise that Hanifism
dominated Ottoman law.
The Ottomans, however, elevated kanun into an entire code of laws independent of
the Shari'ah. The first two centuries of Ottoman rule, from 1350 to 1550, saw an
explosion of kanun rulings and laws, so that by the beginning of the sixteenth
century, the kanun were a complete and independent set of laws that by and large
were more important than the Shari'ah . This unique situation was brought about
in part because of the unique heritage of the Ottomans. In both Turkish and
Mongol traditions, the imperial law, or law pronounced by the monarch, was
considered sacred. They even had a special word for it: the Turks called it Türe
and the Mongols called it Yasa . In the system of Türe and Yasa , imperial law
was regarded as the essential and sacred foundation of the empire. When this
tradition collided with the Islamic Shari'ah tradition, a compromised system
combining both was formed.
The Sultanic laws were first collected together by Mehmed the Conqueror. Mehmed
divided the kanun into two separate sets or laws. The first set dealt with the
organization of government and the military, and the second set dealt with the
taxation and treatment of the peasantry. The latter group was added to after the
death of Mehmed and the Ottoman kanun pretty much crystallized into its final
form in 1501. Suleyman, for his part, revised the law code, but on the whole the
Suleyman code of laws is pretty identical to the 1501 system of laws. However,
it was under Suleyman that the laws took their final form; no more revisions
were made after his reign. From this point onwards, this code of laws was called,
kanun-i 'Osmani , or the "Ottoman laws."
Western historians know Suleyman primarily as a conqueror, for he made Europe
know fear like it had never known of any other Islamic state. Conquest, like
every other aspect of the Ottoman state and culture, was a multicultural
heritage, with origins as far back as Mesopotamia and Persia, and as far afield
as the original Mongol and Turkish peoples in eastern and central Asia.
Suleyman had many titles; in inscriptions he calls himself:
Slave of God, powerful with the power of God, deputy of God on earth, obeying
the commands of the Qur'an and enforcing them throughout the world, master of
all lands, the shadow of God over all nations, Sultan of Sultans in all the
lands of Persians and Arabs, the propagator of Sultanic laws (Nashiru kawanin al-Sultaniyye
), the tenth Sultan of the Ottoman Khans, Sultan, son of Sultan, Suleyman Khan.
Slave of God, master of the world, I am Suleyman and my name is read in all the
prayers in all the cities of Islam. I am the Shah of Baghdad and Iraq, Caesar of
all the lands of Rome, and the Sultan of Egypt. I seized the Hungarian crown and
gave it to the least of my slaves.
He called himself the "master of the lands of Caesar and Alexander the Great,"
and later as simply, "Caesar." It's hard, of course, not to be slightly humbled
by assertions of such greatness, and no ruler in the sixteenth century was more
adept at diminishing the egos of all the other rulers surrounding him.
Suleyman believed, however, that the entire world was his possession as a gift
of God. Even though he did not occupy Roman lands, he still claimed them as his
own and almost launched an invasion of Rome (the city came within a few
hairbreadths of Ottoman invasion in Suleyman's expedition against Corfu). In
Europe, he conquered Rhodes, a large part of Greece, Hungary, and a major part
of the Austrian Empire. His campaign against the Austrians took him right to the
doorway of Vienna.
Besides invasions and campaigns, Suleyman was a major player in the politics of
Europe. He pursued an aggressive policy of European destabilization; in
particular, he wanted to destabilize both the Roman Catholic church and the Holy
Roman Empire. When European Christianity split Europe into Catholic and
Protestant states, Suleyman poured financial support into Protestant countries
in order to guarantee that Europe remain religiously and politically
destabilized and so ripe for an invasion. Several historians, in fact, have
argued that Protestantism would never have succeeded except for the financial
support of the Ottoman Empire.
Suleyman was responding to an aggressively expanding Europe. Like most other non-Europeans,
Suleyman fully understood the consequences of European expansion and saw Europe
as the principle threat to Islam. The Islamic world was beginning to shrink
under this expansion. Portugal had invaded several Muslim cities in eastern
Africa in order to dominate trade with India, and Russians, which the Ottomans
regarded as European, were pushing central Asians south when the Russian
expansion began in the sixteenth century. So in addition to invading and
destabilizing Europe, Suleyman pursued a policy of helping any Muslim country
threatened by European expansion. It was this role that gave Suleyman the right,
in the eyes of the Ottomans, to declare himself as supreme Caliph of Islam. He
was the only one successfully protecting Islam from the unbelievers and, as the
protector of Islam, deserved to be the ruler of Islam.
While the expansion of European power helps explain Suleyman's conquest of
European territories, it doesn't help us when it comes to the vast amount of
Islamic territory that he invaded or simply annexed. How does conquering Islamic
territory "protect" Islam? The Ottomans understood this as belonging to Suleyman's
task as universal Caliph of Islam. This role demanded that Suleyman also see to
the integrity of the faith itself and to root out heresy and heterodoxy. His
annexation of Islamic territory, such as the annexation of Arabia, were
justified by asserting that the ruling dynasties had abandoned orthodox belief
or practice. Each of these invasions or annexations were preceded, however, by a
religious judgement by Islamic scholars as to the orthodoxy of the ruling
dynasty.
Suleyman undertook to make Istanbul the center of Islamic civilization. He began
a series of building projects, including bridges, mosques, and palaces, that
rivaled the greatest building projects of the world in that century. The
greatest and most brilliant architect of human history was in his employ: Sinan.
The mosques built by Sinan are considered the greatest architectural triumphs of
Islam and possibly the world. They are more than just awe-inspiring; they
represent a unique genius in dealing with nearly insurmountable engineering
problems.
Suleyman was a great cultivator of the arts and is considered one of the great
poets of Islam. Under Suleyman, Istanbul became the center of visual art, music,
writing, and philosophy in the Islamic world. This cultural flowering during the
reign of Suleyman represents the most creative period in Ottoman history; almost
all the cultural forms that we associate with the Ottomans date from this time.
The reign of Suleyman, however, is generally regarded, by both Islamic and
Western historians, as the high point of Ottoman culture and history. While
Ottoman culture flourishes during the reign of Selim II, Suleyman's son, the
power of the state, internally and externally, began to perceptibly decline.
Islamic historians believe that the decline was due to two factors: the
decreased vigilance of the Sultan over the functions of government and their
consequent corruption, and the decreased interest of the government in popular
opinion. Western historians are not sure how to explain the decline after the
death of Suleyman. A major factor seems to be a series of eccentric and
sometimes insane Sultans all through the seventeenth century. When the Ottomans
abandoned the practice of killing all rivals to the throne, they began to
imprison them. The Sultanate, then, often fell to individuals who had been
imprisoned for decades and, well, there was often no cream filling in those
Twinkies. This led to the growth of the power of the bureaucracy and its
consequent corruption (this does not fundamentally disagree with the Islamic
version of Ottoman history). The decline in the Ottoman Empire in the Western
tradition is also considerably determined by the ever-increasing expansion of
the European powers. How much this played a direct part in the decline of the
Ottomans in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is difficult to determine,
but there is no question that the last century of the Ottomans (19th), the
principle historical factor in Ottoman decline was the hyper-aggressive
expansion of European colonial powers. Whatever the reason, the Ottoman Empire
begins its slow transformation under Selim II, the son of Suleyman.