THE RISE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 105force them to withdraw from Hungary to protect their own holdings. The
sultan hoped, but failed, to force the Hapsburg main army to battle and,
with his objective missed and the season once again late, withdrew from
Austria to winter over in Hungary.
Realizing that large-scale operations would not likely succeed, in 1533
Suleiman negotiated a peace treaty with the Hapsburgs. Peace, however,
was not in the cards for Suleiman. Now that his western frontier was
secure and calm, he could turn to his long-held ambitions against the
Persians and begin the conquest of Mesopotamia. The Persians, though,
simply surrendered territory and refused battle. Frustrated and concerned
about overextending his army, Suleiman turned on Iraq and captured
Baghdad. During his approach, the Sunni leaders of Baghdad led the popu-
lation in a revolt that butchered the local Shiite population. By 1538 Ot-
toman rule extended to the Persian Gulf.
Campaigns were frequent in the Balkans and Transylvania. Treaties
meant little to either the sultan or the Hapsburgs, and so warfare was fairly
constant. In 1566 the Hapsburgs and Ottomans were once again at war, the
reason being constant raiding by the Hapsburgs (and no doubt the Ottomans
as well) across their mutual borders in Transylvania. Revolts occurred and
the Ottoman army moved into action to squelch the disturbances. The major
event of this campaign was the Siege of Sziget on August 7.
The citadel at Sziget was occupied by 2,500 Magyars. This small and
relatively unimportant place had a ferocious soldier, Count Miklos Zrinyi,
to defend it. After a month of fighting, Zrinyi knew the end was upon him
and prepared a bitter reception for the attackers. The Ottomans assailed
the citadel, striking at the gate where a cannon stood loaded and ready to
fire. Count Zrinyi fired it point blank as the Turks broke through the gate,
slaughtering dozens of them, but it was not enough to stop their rush. He
then advanced with his sword, slashing his enemies, dying under their
blows and bullets. This was but a prelude, for Count Zrinyi’s death was
followed by the explosion of a huge magazine deep in the citadel. As the
count fell, a further 3,000 Ottoman soldiers were slain by the blast.
When Suleiman learned of his victory he died of a heart attack. The
explosion at Sziget in 1566 blasted apart the long unbroken chain of ca-
pable sultans. Shorn of its leader, the Ottoman army turned around and
marched south to Istanbul for a new struggle for succession. In the event,
however, Suleiman’s son, Selim, ascended with little effort. Like Suleiman
the Magnificent, his son Selim would also have a sobriquet. Selim was
known as “Selim the Sot,” for he was an alcoholic and quite addicted to
Cypriot wine. Selim’s ascent began the gradual decline of the Ottoman
Empire.