132. Karen Armstrongquest which brought the whole of Syria and Egypt under Ot-
toman rule. North Africa and Arabia were also incorporated
into the empire. To the west, the Ottoman armies continued
their conquest of Europe and reached the gates of Vienna in
the 1530s. The sultans now ruled a massive empire, with su-
perb bureaucratic efficiency, unrivalled by any other state at
this time. The sultan did not impose uniformity on his sub-
jects nor did he try to force the disparate elements of his em-
pire into one huge party. The government merely provided a
framework which enabled the different groups - Christians,
Jews, Arabs, Turks, Berbers, merchants, ulama, tariqahs and
trade guilds -to live together peacefully, each making its own
contribution, and following its own beliefs and customs. The
empire was thus a collection of communities, each of which
claimed the immediate loyalty of its members. The empire
was divided into provinces, ruled by a governor (pasha) who
was directly responsible to Istanbul.
The empire reached its apogee under Suleiman al-Qanuni
("the Lawgiver") (1520-66), who was known as Suleiman the
Magnificent in the West. Under his rule, the empire reached
the limits of its expansion, and Istanbul enjoyed a cultural re-
naissance, which was chiefly characterized by superb archi-
tecture, notably that of the court architect Sinan Pasha (d.
1578). The Ottoman mosques that appeared all over the em-
pire shared a distinctive style: they were spacious, filled with
light, had low domes and high minarets. The court also pa-
tronized painting, history and medicine to a high level, built
an observatory in 1579 and was intrigued by the new Euro-
pean discoveries in navigation and geography. There was an
eager interchange of information with the West during these
expansive years when, despite Europe's achievements, the
Ottoman state was the most powerful in the world.
Like the other two empires, the Ottomans also gave their
state a special Islamic orientation. Under Suleiman, the