Suleiman I, commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( kanuni sultan sulaiman) in his realm, was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until his death in 1566. Under his administration, the Ottoman caliphate ruled over at least 25 million people.
Suleiman succeeded his father as sultan in September 1520 and began his reign with campaigns against the Christian powers in central Europe and the Mediterranean. Belgrade fell to him in 1521 and the island of Rhodes in 1522–23. At Mohács, in August 1526, Suleiman broke the military strength of Hungary.
Suleiman became a prominent monarch of 16th-century Europe, presiding over the apex of the Ottoman Empire’s economic, military and political power. Suleiman personally led Ottoman armies in conquering the Christian strongholds of Belgrade and Rhodes as well as most of Hungary before his conquests were checked at the Siege of Vienna in 1529. He annexed much of the Middle East in his conflict with the Safavids and large areas of North Africa as far west as Algeria. Under his rule, the Ottoman fleet dominated the seas from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and through the Persian Gulf.
At the helm of an expanding empire, Suleiman personally instituted major judicial changes relating to society, education, taxation and criminal law. His reforms, carried out in conjunction with the empire’s chief judicial official Ebussuud Efendi, harmonized the relationship between the two forms of Ottoman law: Sultanic (Kanun) and religious (Sharia).He was a distinguished poet and goldsmith; he also became a great patron of culture, overseeing the “Golden” age of the Ottoman Empire in its artistic, literary and architectural development.
Breaking with Ottoman tradition, Suleiman married Hürrem Sultan, a woman from his harem, an Orthodox Christian of Ruthenian origin who converted to Islam, and who became famous in the West by the name Roxelana, due to her red hair. Their son Selim II succeeded Suleiman following his death in 1566 after 46 years of rule. Suleiman’s other potential heirs, Mehmed and Mustafa, had died; the former had died from smallpox, and the latter had been strangled to death 13 years earlier at the sultan’s order. His other son Bayezid was executed in 1561 on Suleiman’s orders, along with Bayezid’s four sons, after a rebellion. Although scholars prefer “crisis and adaptation” rather than decline after his death, the end of Suleiman’s reign was a watershed in Ottoman history. In the decades after Suleiman, the empire began to experience significant political, institutional, and economic changes, a phenomenon often referred to as the Transformation of the Ottoman Empire.
Suleiman the Magnificent passed away on the night of Sept. 7. The siege was coming to the end. In such a situation, the death knell of the sultan could cause the one-month-long effort go down the drain if it was heard among the soldiers. The Grand Vizier, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, ordered those who knew of the death to keep it a secret. He also said the sultan would be buried under where he had lived, after all the necessary procedures were performed. The body of the sultan was put under his throne temporarily after his internal organs were taken out, musk and amber smells were applied and a funeral prayer was secretly performed. A man also laid the bed of the sultan like a patient.
With the encouragement of the grand vizier, preparations for the last attack were made. The Ottoman soldiers took the inner castle, the last point of resistance in Szigetvar, in a short time. Therefore, Szigetvar was conquered on Sept. 7.
The Grand Vizier Shahzade Selim II (the son of the sultan), the only successor to the throne and Sanjak-bey of Kütahya, managed the conquest of the castle, sending a letter reporting his father’s death.
He spent time around Szigetvar so that Shahzade Selim could reach the army. When he learned that Selim II had passed Rumelia, the grand vizier directed the army to Belgrade.
As they got closer to the castle, hafiz people started to read the Quran. The officials around the sultan who understood the situation wore black turbans. The knell spread; the whole army started to lament and cry. There was a moment when the soldiers stopped walking. They were crying and saying “Hay Sultan Suleiman.”
Sokollu Mehmed Pasha went up to the soldiers and asked them why they stopped walking. “Brothers, fellows... Let’s bid farewell to the Islam Sultan of many years with the Quran. He made Hungary an Islamic country. He fed all of us with his benevolence. Is this our response to him? Aren’t we going to carry him over our heads? His son Selim II waited for you for 17 days in Belgrade. Our late sultan spoke in his will about our wage increase and tips to him. Do not stop hafiz people! The cure for our pain is the Quran,” he said and calmed the soldiers.
Selim II met the funeral of his father, whose death was kept a secret for 42 days, by wearing a black kaftan. People prayed in front of the carriage which carried the sultan’s body. His coffin was put on the coffin rest, and the second funeral prayer was performed. Later, the sultan’s funeral set off for Istanbul with another group, apart from the army, and was met by the cries and prayer of people along the way.
The funeral of Suleiman the Magnificent was brought to the place where his tomb was planned to be built in the Süleymaniye Mosque after a third funeral prayer was performed by Shaykh al-Islam Ebussuud Efendi.
A tent was set up over the grave as the tomb was not built yet. The sultan was buried in the grave that was prepared under the supervision of Mimar Sinan. Thus a chapter of history came to a close.

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