© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004385245_005
chapter 3The Imperial Heyday: the Formation of the
Ottoman System and Reactions to It
Süleyman began his outstanding reign in 1520 following the death of his father
Selim I.1 His situation was precarious: on the one hand, he ruled an empire
that, within only eight years, had doubled in size and now included the three
main Muslim holy cities and Egypt; on the other, a formidable new enemy had
appeared in the East, Safavid Persia, both a menacing military power and a
threat to the Ottomans’ internal security, as the Turcoman origins of the Safavid
dynasty and its emphasis on the Shi’i imamate appealed to large sections of
the population of central and eastern Anatolia. However, the first, spectacular
campaigns of the new sultan were orientated toward the West: Belgrade fell in
1521 and Rhodes two years later, while the Ottomans won a military triumph
over the Hungarians at Mohács in 1526.
Initially, the Asian provinces called for the sultan’s attention only due to
successive revolts in Syria and Egypt, which ended—significantly—following
the intervention of the all-powerful new grand vizier, Ibrahim Pasha (a child-
hood friend of the sultan), who—also significantly—drew up a new law-code
for Egypt. However, Süleyman himself had to return urgently from Hungary
in 1526 in order to deal with two rebellions in central Anatolia, before going
back to intervene personally in the Hungarian dynastic conflicts, even laying
siege to Vienna (1529) as a response to the Habsburgs short-lived conquest of
Buda. The truce that followed enabled the Ottomans to launch their major
campaign against Iran: by 1536, Baghdad and Erzurum had been annexed by
the empire, while Tabriz was temporarily occupied. This campaign, however,
also saw the execution of Ibrahim Pasha, who had almost scandalously risen to
near-absolute power and thereby raised considerable jealousy and hatred (the
two men, it seems, had believed they were to hasten the coming of the Messiah
by capturing Rome).2 In subsequent years, Süleyman made an alliance with
France against the Habsburgs and planned to invade Italy, while the Ottoman
navy under Hayreddin Barbaros captured Venetian fortresses in Greece and
the Aegean. War in Hungary persisted until the signing of a treaty in 1547
1 On Süleyman’s reign see Mantran 1989, 145–155 and 159ff.; Kunt – Woodhead 1995; Emecen
2001b, 31–39; Imber 2009, 42–53.
2 See Fleischer 2007 and cf. Flemming 1987.