Rulers of the Ottoman Empire. Fathers and Sons. A magnificent age of jewelry. Portraits Portraits of Turkish Sultans

For nearly four hundred years, the Ottoman Empire dominated throughout southeastern Europe, Turkey, and the Middle East. Founded by brave tribes of Turks, the empire at some point began to fall apart due to the gluttony and short-sightedness of its rulers. For a long time this country existed in a very curious state of functional dysfunction, where the dark secrets of state affairs were hidden as if in troubled waters.

In general, the Ottoman Empire was quite tolerant of non-believers. A strong state did not require any proof of its strength. The problems began at the same time as the problems in the country. By the 19th century, mass executions became more and more common. The horror reached its climax in 1915, when the genocide of the entire Armenian population was organized. 1.5 million people died in this grim massacre. Türkiye still refuses to fully recognize this event.

Janissaries

This tradition was very widespread at the dawn of the Ottoman Empire. Specially trained people from all over the country forcibly collected young boys to hand them over to serve the country. Residents of Greece and the Balkans were forced to give up their offspring - they were taken to Istanbul, where the strongest were turned into Muslims and forced to enter military service. The Janissary Corps provided an excellent opportunity to rise - and an equally excellent opportunity to die during severe trials. The tradition disappeared around the 18th century, when the service of the Janissaries became hereditary.

Executions

The Ottoman government had complete control over the life and death of its subjects. The main court, located in the Topkapi Palace, was a terrifying place. Special columns were built here where the heads of the executed were displayed and a special fountain intended exclusively for the executioners - here they washed their hands. Surprisingly, ordinary gardeners often acted as masters’ back-up workers, dividing their time between creating the most skillful bouquets and practicing with an ax. Most often, the guilty were simply cut off, but the blood of members of the royal family could not be shed. The head gardener was always a large, muscular man who could strangle a man with his bare hands.

Cells

The policy of fratricide was never very popular either among the people or the clergy. But what to do with members of the royal family who could stage a coup? The princes of the Ottoman Empire could spend their entire lives in special prisons, Kafes. The conclusion was luxurious, but a cage is a cage. High-born gentlemen went crazy from boredom, became drunkards and committed suicide.

Riots

Despite the fact that the Grand Vizier was a special figure just below the Sultan (formally), they were often used as expendable figures. In fact, the Sultan gave his adviser to be torn to pieces by the crowd every time the danger of a riot was brewing. Selim I had so many viziers during his life that he simply could not remember their names. An 18th-century British ambassador remarked that being a vizier in the Ottoman Empire was more dangerous than being a rearguard soldier in an army.

Slavery

Up until the 19th century, slavery was fairly limited in the Ottoman Empire. Most of the slaves were from Africa and the Caucasus (the overly helpful and, at the same time, brave Circassians were especially valued). Russians, Ukrainians and even Poles - all except Muslims, who could not be legally enslaved. However, the weakened empire could no longer provide itself with the necessary influx of labor. Those who professed Islam also began to be enslaved, with certain reservations, of course. The Ottoman system was very cruel. Hundreds of thousands of people died in raids and worked the fields to death. This is without even mentioning the very common ritual of castration: eunuchs were believed to be less prone to rebellion. The famous historian, Mener Lewis, in one of his works pointed out the millions of slaves imported from Africa - and yet in modern Turkey there are very few people of African descent left. This fact alone speaks volumes about the terrible traditions of Ottoman slavery.

Harem

Many consider harems to be a peculiar necessity of the Eastern way of life. Men, they say, took women into their harems to take care of them. Maybe initially everything was like this - but not during the heyday of the Ottoman Empire. The imperial harem at Topkapi Palace numbered two thousand enslaved women. Some of them have never seen the outside world. You could look at the Sultan’s women at the cost of your life: the eunuchs jealously guarded “the most valuable place of the empire.” Approximately the same situation remained for less noble persons of the state, who preferred to collect their own harems. In general, the position of women at that time could not be called enviable.

Any Hollywood script pales in comparison with the life path of Roksolana, who became the most influential woman in the history of the great empire. Her powers, contrary to Turkish laws and Islamic canons, could only be compared with the capabilities of the Sultan himself. Roksolana became not just a wife, she was a co-ruler; They didn’t listen to her opinion; it was the only one that was correct and legal.
Anastasia Gavrilovna Lisovskaya (born c. 1506 - d. c. 1562) was the daughter of the priest Gavrila Lisovsky from Rohatyn, a small town in Western Ukraine, located southwest of Ternopil. In the 16th century, this territory belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and was constantly subject to devastating raids by the Crimean Tatars. During one of them, in the summer of 1522, the young daughter of a clergyman was caught by a detachment of robbers. Legend has it that the misfortune happened just before Anastasia's wedding.
First, the captive ended up in Crimea - this is the usual route for all slaves. The Tatars did not drive valuable “live goods” on foot across the steppe, but carried them on horseback under vigilant guard, without even tying their hands, so as not to spoil the delicate girl’s skin with ropes. Most sources say that the Crimeans, struck by the beauty of Polonyanka, decided to send the girl to Istanbul, hoping to sell her profitably at one of the largest slave markets in the Muslim East.

“Giovane, ma non bella” (“young, but ugly”), Venetian nobles said about her in 1526, but “graceful and short in stature.” None of her contemporaries, contrary to legend, called Roksolana a beauty.
The captive was sent to the capital of the sultans on a large felucca, and the owner himself took her to sell her - history has not preserved his name. On the very first day, when the Horde took the captive to the market, she accidentally caught the eye of the all-powerful vizier of the young Sultan Suleiman I, the noble Rustem, who happened to be there - Pasha. Again, the legend says that the Turk was struck by the dazzling beauty of the girl, and he decided to buy her to give a gift to the Sultan.
As can be seen from the portraits and confirmations of contemporaries, beauty clearly has nothing to do with it - I can call this coincidence of circumstances with only one word - Fate.
During this era, the sultan was Suleiman I the Magnificent (Luxurious), who ruled from 1520 to 1566, considered the greatest sultan of the Ottoman dynasty. During the years of his rule, the empire reached the apogee of its development, including all of Serbia with Belgrade, most of Hungary, the island of Rhodes, significant territories in North Africa to the borders of Morocco and the Middle East. Europe gave the Sultan the nickname Magnificent, while in the Muslim world he is more often called Kanuni, which translated from Turkish means Lawgiver. “Such greatness and nobility,” the report of the 16th-century Venetian ambassador Marini Sanuto wrote about Suleiman, “was also adorned by the fact that he, unlike his father and many other sultans, had no inclination towards pederasty.” An honest ruler and uncompromising fighter against bribery, he encouraged the development of the arts and philosophy, and was also considered a skilled poet and blacksmith - few European monarchs could compete with Suleiman I.
According to the laws of faith, the padishah could have four legal wives. The children of the first of them became heirs to the throne. Or rather, one firstborn inherited the throne, and the rest often faced a sad fate: all possible contenders for supreme power were subject to destruction.
In addition to wives, the Commander of the Faithful had any number of concubines that his soul desired and his flesh required. At different times, under different sultans, from several hundred to a thousand or more women lived in the harem, each of whom was certainly an amazing beauty. In addition to women, the harem consisted of a whole staff of castrati eunuchs, maids of various ages, chiropractors, midwives, masseuses, doctors and the like. But no one except the padishah himself could encroach on the beauties belonging to him. All this complex and hectic economy was supervised by the “chief of the girls” - the eunuch of Kyzlyaragassy.
However, amazing beauty alone was not enough: the girls destined for the padishah’s harem were required to be taught music, dancing, Muslim poetry and, of course, the art of love. Naturally, the course of love sciences was theoretical, and the practice was taught by experienced old women and women experienced in all the intricacies of sex.
Now let’s return to Roksolana, so Rustem Pasha decided to buy the Slavic beauty. But her Krymchak owner refused to sell Anastasia and presented her as a gift to the all-powerful courtier, rightly expecting to receive for this not only an expensive return gift, as is customary in the East, but also considerable benefits.
Rustem Pasha ordered it to be fully prepared as a gift to the Sultan, in turn hoping to achieve even greater favor with him. The padishah was young, he ascended the throne only in 1520 and greatly appreciated female beauty, and not just as a contemplator.
In the harem, Anastasia receives the name Khurrem (laughing). And for the Sultan, she always remained only Khurrem. Roksolana, the name under which she went down in history, is just the name of the Sarmatian tribes in the 2nd-4th centuries AD, who roamed the steppes between the Dnieper and Don, translated from Latin as “Russian”. Roksolana will often be called, both during her life and after her death, nothing more than “Rusynka” - a native of Rus' or Roxolanii, as Ukraine was previously called.

The mystery of the birth of love between the Sultan and a fifteen-year-old unknown captive will remain unsolved. After all, there was a strict hierarchy in the harem, and anyone who violated it would face severe punishment. Often - death. The female recruits - adzhemi, step by step, first became jariye, then shagird, gedikli and usta. No one except the mouth had the right to be in the Sultan's chambers. Only the mother of the ruling sultan, the valide sultan, had absolute power within the harem, and decided who and when to share a bed with the sultan from her mouth. How Roksolana managed to occupy the Sultan’s monastery almost immediately will forever remain a mystery.
There is a legend about how Hurrem came to the attention of the Sultan. When new slaves (more beautiful and expensive than she) were introduced to the Sultan, a small figure suddenly flew into the circle of dancing odalisques and, pushing away the “soloist,” laughed. And then she sang her song. The harem lived according to cruel laws. And the eunuchs were waiting for only one sign - what to prepare for the girl - clothes for the Sultan’s bedroom or a cord used to strangle the slaves. The Sultan was intrigued and surprised. And that same evening, Khurrem received the Sultan’s scarf - a sign that in the evening he was waiting for her in his bedroom. Having interested the Sultan with her silence, she asked for only one thing - the right to visit the Sultan’s library. The Sultan was shocked, but allowed it. When he returned from a military campaign some time later, Khurrem already spoke several languages. She dedicated poems to her Sultan and even wrote books. This was unprecedented at that time, and instead of respect it aroused fear. Her learning, plus the fact that the Sultan spent all his nights with her, created Khurrem's lasting fame as a witch. They said about Roksolana that she bewitched the Sultan with the help of evil spirits. And in fact he was bewitched.
“Finally, let us unite with soul, thoughts, imagination, will, heart, everything that I left mine in you and took with me yours, oh my only love!”, the Sultan wrote in a letter to Roksolana. “My lord, your absence has kindled a fire in me that does not go out. Have pity on this suffering soul and hurry up your letter so that I can find at least a little consolation in it,” answered Khurrem.
Roksolana greedily absorbed everything that she was taught in the palace, took everything that life gave her. Historians testify that after some time she actually mastered the Turkish, Arabic and Persian languages, learned to dance perfectly, recite her contemporaries, and also play according to the rules of the foreign, cruel country in which she lived. Following the rules of her new homeland, Roksolana converted to Islam.
Her main trump card was that Rustem Pasha, thanks to whom she got to the palace of the padishah, received her as a gift, and did not buy her. In turn, he did not sell it to the kyzlyaragassa, who replenished the harem, but gave it to Suleiman. This means that Roxalana remained a free woman and could lay claim to the role of the padishah’s wife. According to the laws of the Ottoman Empire, a slave could never, under any circumstances, become the wife of the Commander of the Faithful.
A few years later, Suleiman enters into an official marriage with her according to Muslim rites, elevates her to the rank of bash-kadyna - the main (and in fact, the only) wife and addresses her “Haseki,” which means “dear to the heart.”
Roksolana’s incredible position at the Sultan’s court amazed both Asia and Europe. Her education made scientists bow to her, she received foreign ambassadors, responded to messages from foreign sovereigns, influential nobles and artists. She not only came to terms with the new faith, but also gained fame as a zealous orthodox Muslim, which earned her considerable respect at court.
One day, the Florentines placed a ceremonial portrait of Hurrem, for which she posed for a Venetian artist, in an art gallery. It was the only female portrait among the images of hook-nosed, bearded sultans in huge turbans. “There was never another woman in the Ottoman palace who had such power” - Venetian ambassador Navajero, 1533.
Lisovskaya gives birth to the Sultan four sons (Mohammed, Bayazet, Selim, Jehangir) and a daughter, Khamerie. But Mustafa, the eldest son of the padishah’s first wife, Circassian Gulbekhar, was still officially considered the heir to the throne. She and her children became mortal enemies of the power-hungry and treacherous Roxalana.

Lisovskaya understood perfectly well: until her son became the heir to the throne or sat on the throne of the padishahs, her own position was constantly under threat. At any moment, Suleiman could become carried away by a new beautiful concubine and make her his legal wife, and order the execution of one of the old wives: in the harem, an unwanted wife or concubine was put alive in a leather bag, an angry cat and a poisonous snake were thrown in there, the bag was tied and a special stone chute was used to lower him with a tied stone into the waters of the Bosphorus. The guilty considered it lucky if they were simply quickly strangled with a silk cord.
Therefore, Roxalana prepared for a very long time and began to act actively and cruelly only after almost fifteen years!
Her daughter turned twelve years old, and she decided to marry her to... Rustem Pasha, who was already over fifty. But he was in great favor at court, close to the throne of the padishah and, most importantly, was something of a mentor and “godfather” to the heir to the throne, Mustafa, the son of the Circassian Gulbehar, Suleiman’s first wife.
Roxalana's daughter grew up with a similar face and chiseled figure to her beautiful mother, and Rustem Pasha with great pleasure became related to the Sultan - this is a very high honor for a courtier. Women were not forbidden to see each other, and the sultana deftly found out from her daughter about everything that was happening in the house of Rustem Pasha, literally collecting the information she needed bit by bit. Finally, Lisovskaya decided it was time to strike the fatal blow!
During a meeting with her husband, Roxalana secretly informed the Commander of the Faithful about the “terrible conspiracy.” Merciful Allah granted her time to learn about the secret plans of the conspirators and allowed her to warn her adored husband about the danger that threatened him: Rustem Pasha and the sons of Gulbehar planned to take the life of the padishah and take possession of the throne, placing Mustafa on it!
The intriguer knew well where and how to strike - the mythical “conspiracy” was quite plausible: in the East during the time of the sultans, bloody palace coups were the most common thing. In addition, Roxalana cited as an irrefutable argument the true words of Rustem Pasha, Mustafa and other “conspirators” that the daughter of Anastasia and the Sultan heard. Therefore, the seeds of evil fell on fertile soil!
Rustem Pasha was immediately taken into custody, and an investigation began: Pasha was terribly tortured. Perhaps he incriminated himself and others under torture. But even if he was silent, this only confirmed the padishah in the actual existence of a “conspiracy.” After torture, Rustem Pasha was beheaded.
Only Mustafa and his brothers were spared - they were an obstacle to the throne of Roxalana’s first-born, red-haired Selim, and for this reason they simply had to die! Constantly instigated by his wife, Suleiman agreed and gave the order to kill his children! The Prophet forbade the shedding of the blood of the padishahs and their heirs, so Mustafa and his brothers were strangled with a green silk twisted cord. Gulbehar went crazy with grief and soon died.
The cruelty and injustice of her son struck Valide Khamse, the mother of Padishah Suleiman, who came from the family of the Crimean khans Giray. At the meeting, she told her son everything she thought about the “conspiracy,” the execution, and her son’s beloved wife Roxalana. It is not surprising that after this Valide Khamse, the Sultan’s mother, lived for less than a month: the East knows a lot about poisons!
The Sultana went even further: she ordered to find in the harem and throughout the country other sons of Suleiman, whom wives and concubines gave birth to, and to take the lives of all of them! As it turned out, the Sultan had about forty sons - all of them, some secretly, some openly, were killed by order of Lisovskaya.
Thus, over forty years of marriage, Roksolana managed the almost impossible. She was proclaimed the first wife, and her son Selim became the heir. But the sacrifices did not stop there. Roksolana's two youngest sons were strangled. Some sources accuse her of involvement in these murders - allegedly this was done in order to strengthen the position of her beloved son Selim. However, reliable data about this tragedy has never been found.
She was no longer able to see her son ascend the throne, becoming Sultan Selim II. He reigned after the death of his father for only eight years - from 1566 to 1574 - and, although the Koran forbids drinking wine, he was a terrible alcoholic! His heart once simply could not withstand the constant excessive libations, and in the memory of the people he remained as Sultan Selim the drunkard!
No one will ever know what the true feelings of the famous Roksolana were. What is it like for a young girl to find herself in slavery, in a foreign country, with a foreign faith imposed on her. Not only not to break, but also to grow into the mistress of the empire, gaining glory throughout Asia and Europe. Trying to erase shame and humiliation from her memory, Roksolana ordered the slave market to be hidden and a mosque, madrasah and almshouse to be erected in its place. That mosque and hospital in the almshouse building still bear the name of Haseki, as well as the surrounding area of ​​the city.
Her name, shrouded in myths and legends, sung by her contemporaries and covered in black glory, remains forever in history. Nastasia Lisovskaya, whose fate could be similar to hundreds of thousands of the same Nastya, Khristin, Oles, Mari. But life decreed otherwise. No one knows how much grief, tears and misfortunes Nastasya endured on the way to Roksolana. However, for the Muslim world she will remain Hurrem - LAUGHING.
Roksolana died either in 1558 or 1561. Suleiman I - in 1566. He managed to complete the construction of the majestic Suleymaniye Mosque - one of the largest architectural monuments of the Ottoman Empire - near which Roksolana’s ashes rest in an octagonal stone tomb, next to the also octagonal tomb of the Sultan. This tomb has stood for more than four hundred years. Inside, under the high dome, Suleiman ordered to carve alabaster rosettes and decorate each of them with a priceless emerald, Roksolana’s favorite gem.
When Suleiman died, his tomb was also decorated with emeralds, forgetting that his favorite stone was ruby.

On April 27, 1494, the 10th ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent, was born, to whose reign one of the most popular Turkish TV series “The Magnificent Century” is dedicated. Its release on screens caused a mixed reaction from the public: ordinary viewers followed the twists and turns of the plot with interest, historians indignantly commented on the large number of deviations from the historical truth. What was Sultan Suleiman really like?


The main characters of the series *Magnificent Century*

The series is intended primarily for a female audience, so the central storyline in it was the relationship between the Sultan and the numerous inhabitants of the harem. A descendant of the 33rd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Murad V, Osman Salahaddin objects to this emphasis: “He ruled for 46 years. Over the years, he has covered almost 50 thousand kilometers on hikes. Not in a Mercedes, but on horseback. This took a lot of time. Therefore, the Sultan simply physically could not be in his harem so often.”

Francis I and Sultan Suleiman

Of course, the film did not initially claim to be a documentary historical film, so the share of fiction in it is really large. Consultant for the series, Doctor of Historical Sciences E. Afyonji explains: “We dug through a lot of sources. We translated the records of the Venetian, German, and French ambassadors who were visiting the Ottoman Empire at that time. In The Magnificent Century, events and personalities are drawn from historical sources. However, due to lack of information, we had to figure out the padishah’s personal life ourselves.”

Sultan Suleiman receives the ruler of Transylvania, Janos II Zapolyai. Antique miniature

It was not by chance that Sultan Suleiman was called the Magnificent - he was the same figure as Peter I in Russia: he initiated many progressive reforms. Even in Europe they called him the Great. The empire during the time of Sultan Suleiman conquered vast territories.

Fragment of the engraving *Bath of the Turkish Sultan*

The series softened the true picture of the morals of that time: society is shown as more secular and less cruel than it really was. Suleiman was a tyrant, as G. Weber claims, neither kinship nor merit saved him from his suspicion and cruelty. At the same time, he fought against bribery and severely punished officials for abuses. At the same time, he patronized poets, artists, architects and wrote poetry himself.

On the left is A. Hikel. Roksolana and the Sultan, 1780. On the right – Halit Ergench as Sultan Suleiman and Meryem Uzerli as Hurrem

Of course, screen heroes look much more attractive than their historical prototypes. The surviving portraits of Sultan Suleiman depict a man with delicate facial features of the European type, who can hardly be called handsome. The same can be said about Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska, known in Europe as Roksolana. The women's outfits in the series reflect European fashion rather than Ottoman fashion - there were no such deep necklines during the Magnificent Century.

Meryem Uzerli as Hurrem and traditional Ottoman outfit

Intrigues and squabbles between Hurrem and the third wife of Sultan Mahidevran, to which much attention is paid in the film, also took place in real life: if the heir to the throne, Mahidevran’s son Mustafa, had come to power, he would have killed Hurrem’s children to get rid of competitors. Therefore, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska was ahead of her rival and did not hesitate to give the order to kill Mustafa.

An employee of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences S. Oreshkova draws attention to the fact that the harem is not shown exactly as it really was: “It is surprising that in the series Suleiman’s concubines and wives walk so freely. There was a garden next to the harem, and only eunuchs could be with them there! In addition, the series does not show that the harem in those days was not only a place where the Sultan’s wives with children, servants and concubines lived. At that time, the harem was partly like an institution for noble maidens - it contained many pupils who did not intend to become the ruler’s wife. They studied music, dance, poetry.” Therefore, it is not surprising that some girls dreamed of getting into the harem of the Sultan.

Everyone probably saw the famous photo with an ugly, fat woman, supposedly the beloved wife of the Sultan, and many had the opinion that all the women there were like that, if this one was the beloved. And that's a lie. A harem is a variety of faces, bodies and images. However, see for yourself

This is the same photo that formed the opinion of many about harems. Now let's see if this is really so

These photos are circulating on the Internet with the caption “Harem”. In fact, these are photographs of male actors of the first state theater created by order of Shah Nasereddin (a great lover of European culture) at the Dar el-Funun Polytechnic School in 1890, who performed satirical plays only for the palace nobility.

The organizer of this theater was Mirza Ali Akbar Khan Naggashbashi, who is considered one of the founders of modern Iranian theater. Since women were prohibited from performing on stage, these roles were performed by men. The first women appeared on stage in Iran in 1917.

And here are real photos of women from the harems of the sultans of different periods. Ottoman odalisque, 1890

There are few photographs, because, firstly, men were prohibited from entering harems, and, secondly, photography was just beginning its development, but some photographs, paintings and other evidence have been preserved that only the most beautiful were selected for harems representatives of different nations.

Women in a harem, 1912

Woman in a harem with a hookah, Türkiye, 1916

Women from the harem going for a walk. Photo from the Museum of Peru (Istanbul)

Concubine, 1875

Gwashemasha Kadin Effendi, wife of Sultan Abdul Hamid II

Her mother, Geverin Nedak Seteney, together with her sister, was kidnapped by Turkish slave traders around 1865 in Circassia, shortly before devastated by Russian troops, and sold into slavery in the harem of Sultan Abdul Aziz I. On the way to Istanbul, Geverin's sister, not wanting to be slave, threw herself overboard and drowned.

Circassian women were especially popular in harems for their beauty and grace.

Painting by the French orientalist artist Jean-Leon Gerome “Circassian woman under a veil”, painted by him during a trip to Istanbul in 1875-76. The painting supposedly depicts Nedak Setenei, the mother of Gwashemash.

Gulfem Hatun (Ottoman: گلفام خاتون, Turkish: Gülfem Hatun) - second concubine of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman, mother of Shehzade Murad, Circassian

A very young Circassian woman in the Sultan’s harem

Khyurem Sultan, the same Roksolana (1502-1558) was his concubine-favorite, and then the main and legal wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent

Princess Durru Shewar (1914 - 2006) Princess of Berar and Imperial Princess of the Ottoman Empire, wife of Azam Yah, eldest son of the seventh and last Nizam of Hyderabad

And look not at children and members of the royal family. What a beauty! Durrüşehvar Sultan, daughter of the last caliph Abdulmecid Efendi and grandson of the Ottoman Sultan Abdulaziz

Princess Begum Sahiba Nilufer Khanum Sultana Farhat

Nazime Sultan and Caliph Abdulmecid Sultan

Ayse Sultan (Osmanoglu) II. She is the daughter of Abdulhamit

Dürrüşehvar Sultan with his father and husband. 1931

And here are photos of real Turkish women (period 1850-1920). Not in a harem, however, but the Turks clearly had someone to choose from for a wife

Suleiman I, the tenth sultan of the Ottoman Empire, endowed his state with unprecedented power. The great conqueror also became famous as a wise author of laws, founder of new schools and initiator of the construction of architectural masterpieces.

In 1494 (according to some sources - in 1495) the Turkish Sultan Selim I and the daughter of the Crimean Khan Aisha Hafsa had a son who was destined to conquer half the world and transform his native country.

The future Sultan Suleiman I received a brilliant education for those times at the palace school in Istanbul, and spent his childhood and youth reading books and spiritual practices. From an early age, the young man was trained in administrative matters, appointed governor of three provinces, including the vassal Crimean Khanate. Even before ascending the throne, young Suleiman won the love and respect of the inhabitants of the Ottoman state.

Beginning of reign

Suleiman took the throne when he was barely 26 years old. A description of the appearance of the new ruler, written by the Venetian ambassador Bartolomeo Contarini, was included in the famous book in Turkey by the English Lord Kinross, “The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire”:

“Tall, strong, with a pleasant expression on his face. His neck is slightly longer than usual, his face is thin, and his nose is aquiline. The skin tends to be excessively pale. They say about him that he is a wise ruler, and all people hope for his good rule.”

And Suleiman initially lived up to expectations. He started with humane actions - he returned freedom to hundreds of chained prisoners from noble families of states captured by his father. This helped renew trade relations with the countries.

Europeans were especially happy about the innovations, hoping for long-term peace, but, as it turned out, it was too early. Balanced and fair at first glance, the ruler of Turkey nevertheless nurtured a dream of military glory.

Foreign policy

By the end of his reign, the military biography of Suleiman I included 13 major military campaigns, of which 10 were campaigns of conquest in Europe. And that's not counting small raids. The Ottoman Empire had never been more powerful: its lands stretched from Algeria to Iran, Egypt and almost to the doorstep of Vienna. At that time, the phrase “Turks at the gates” became a terrible horror story for Europeans, and the Ottoman ruler was compared to the Antichrist.

A year after ascending the throne, Suleiman went to the borders of Hungary. The Sabac fortress fell under the pressure of Turkish troops. Victories flowed like a cornucopia - the Ottomans established control over the Red Sea, took Algeria, Tunisia and the island of Rhodes, conquered Tabriz and Iraq.

The Black Sea and the eastern Mediterranean also took a place on the rapidly growing map of the empire. Hungary, Slavonia, Transylvania, Bosnia and Herzegovina were subordinate to the Sultan. In 1529, the Turkish ruler took a swing at Austria, storming its capital with an army of 120 thousand soldiers. However, Vienna was helped to survive by an epidemic that killed a third of the Ottoman army. The siege had to be lifted.

Only Suleiman did not seriously encroach on Russian lands, considering Russia a remote province that was not worth the effort and money spent. The Ottomans occasionally launched raids on the possessions of the Moscow state; the Crimean Khan even reached the capital, but a large-scale campaign never happened.

By the end of the reign of the ambitious ruler, the Ottoman Empire had become the greatest and most powerful state in the history of the Muslim world. However, military measures depleted the treasury - according to estimates, the maintenance of an army of 200 thousand military personnel, which also included Janissary slaves, consumed two-thirds of the state budget in peacetime.

Domestic policy

It was not for nothing that Suleiman received the nickname the Magnificent: the ruler’s life was filled not only with military successes, the Sultan also succeeded in the internal affairs of the state. On his behalf, Judge Ibrahim from Aleppo updated the code of laws, which was in force until the twentieth century. Mutilation and the death penalty were reduced to a minimum, although criminals caught forging money and documents, bribery and perjury continued to lose their right hand.

The wise ruler of the state, where representatives of different religions coexisted, considered it necessary to weaken the pressure of Sharia and attempted to create secular laws. But some of the reforms never took root due to constant wars.

The education system also changed for the better: primary schools began to appear one after another, and graduates, if desired, continued to receive knowledge in colleges, which were located within the eight main mosques.

Thanks to the Sultan, the architectural heritage was replenished with masterpieces of art. According to the sketches of the favorite architect of the ruler, Sinan, three luxurious mosques were built - Selimiye, Shehzade and Suleymaniye (the second largest in the capital of Turkey), which became examples of the Ottoman style.

Suleiman was distinguished by his poetic talent, so he did not ignore literary creativity. During his reign, Ottoman poetry with Persian traditions was polished to perfection. At the same time, a new position appeared - rhythmic chronicler, it was occupied by poets who put current events into poems.

Personal life

Suleiman I, in addition to poetry, was fond of jewelry, was known as a skilled blacksmith, and even personally cast cannons for military campaigns.

It is unknown how many women were in the Sultan's harem. Historians only know about the official favorites who bore children to Suleiman. In 1511, Fulane became the first concubine of the 17-year-old heir to the throne. Her son Mahmud died of smallpox before he was 10 years old. The girl disappeared from the forefront of palace life almost immediately after the death of the child.

Gulfem Khatun, the second concubine, also gave the ruler a son, who was also not spared by the smallpox epidemic. The woman, excommunicated from the Sultan, remained his friend and adviser for half a century. In 1562, Gulfem was strangled by order of Suleiman.

The third favorite, Makhidevran Sultan, was close to acquiring the status of the official wife of the ruler. For 20 years she had great influence in the harem and in the palace, but she also failed to create a legal family with the Sultan. She left the capital of the empire with her son Mustafa, who was appointed governor of one of the provinces. Later, the heir to the throne was executed for allegedly planning to overthrow his father.

The list of women of Suleiman the Magnificent is headed by Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska. A favorite of Slavic roots, a captive from Galicia, as she was called in Europe, charmed the ruler: the Sultan granted her freedom, and then took her as his legal wife - a religious marriage was concluded in 1534.

Roksolana received the nickname Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska (“laughing”) for her cheerful disposition and smiling nature. The creator of the harem in the Topkapi Palace, the founder of charitable organizations inspired artists and writers, although she did not have an ideal appearance - her subjects valued intelligence and worldly cunning.

Roksolana skillfully manipulated her husband; on her orders, the Sultan got rid of sons born to other wives and became suspicious and cruel. Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska gave birth to a daughter, Mihrimah, and five sons.

Of these, after the death of his father, the state was headed by Selim, who, however, was not distinguished by the outstanding talent of an autocrat, loved to drink and take a walk. During the reign of Selim, the Ottoman Empire began to fade. Suleiman's love for Hurrem did not fade over the years; after the death of his wife, the Turkish ruler never walked down the aisle again.

Death

The Sultan, who brought powerful states to their knees, died, as he himself wished, in the war. This happened during the siege of the Hungarian fortress Szigetavr. 71-year-old Suleiman had been tormented by gout for a long time, the disease progressed, and even riding a horse was already difficult.

He died on the morning of September 6, 1566, not having lived a couple of hours before the decisive assault on the fortress. The doctors who treated the ruler were immediately killed so that information about the death would not reach the army, which, in the heat of disappointment, could rebel. Only after the heir to the throne, Selim, established power in Istanbul, did the soldiers learn about the death of the ruler.

According to legend, Suleiman sensed the approaching end and voiced his last will to the commander-in-chief. A request with a philosophical meaning is known to everyone today: the Sultan asked not to cover his hands during the funeral procession - everyone should see that the accumulated wealth remains in this world, and even Suleiman the Magnificent, the great ruler of the Ottoman Empire, leaves empty-handed.

Another legend is associated with the death of the Turkish ruler. Allegedly, the body was embalmed, and the removed internal organs were placed in a vessel made of gold and buried in the place of his death. Now there is a mausoleum and a mosque there. The remains of Suleiman rest in the cemetery of the Suleymaniye Mosque, which he built, near the Roksolana mausoleum.

Memory

Several feature films and documentaries tell about the life of Suleiman I. A striking adaptation of harem intrigues was the series “The Magnificent Century,” which was released in 2011. The role of the Ottoman ruler is played by, whose charisma is felt even from the photo.

The image created by the actor is recognized as the best embodiment of the Sultan's power in cinema. She plays the concubine and wife of the ruler; the actress with German-Turkish roots also managed to convey the main features of Hurrem - spontaneity and sincerity.

Books

• “Suleiman the Magnificent. The greatest sultan of the Ottoman Empire. 1520-1566", G. Lamb
• “Suleiman. Sultan of the East”, G. Lamb
• “Sultan Suleiman and Roksolana. Eternal love in letters, poems, documents...” Prose of the greats.
• Series of books “Magnificent Century”, N. Pavlishcheva
• "The Magnificent Age of Suleiman and Hürrem Sultan", P. J. Parker
• "The Greatness and Collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Lords of endless horizons", Goodwin Jason, Sharov M
• “Roksolana, Queen of the East”, O. Nazaruk
• "Harem", B. Small
• “The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire”, L. Kinross

Movies

• 1996 – “Roksolana”
• 2003 – “Hurrem Sultan”
• 2008 – “In search of truth. Roksolana: bloody path to the throne"
• 2011 – “Magnificent Century”

Architecture

• Hurrem Sultan Mosque
• Shehzade Mosque
• Selimiye Mosque