146 • 9 FIREARMS, SLAVES, AND EMPIRESSuleyman "the Lawgiver" or "the Magnificent" (r. 1520-1566) had no
living brothers to challenge his succession to Selim. Seen as the greatest of
the Ottoman sultans by Turks and Westerners alike, Suleyman headed the
forces that took Rhodes and Belgrade, defeated the Hungarians, besieged
Vienna, captured most of the North African coast, drove Portugal's navy
from the Red Sea, and twice defeated the Safavids. He revamped the Ot¬
toman Empire's government and laws. Regrettably, though, he delegated
too many of his functions to his viziers. Late in life he fell under the influ¬
ence of his favorite wife, who caused him to have one of his sons (by an¬
other wife) killed and another exiled, thus leaving the throne to her son,
Selim II "the Sot" (r. 1566-1574). Few of the subsequent sultans would
match the quality of the first ten.
Causes of Ottoman Success
You may have inferred that the power and the glory of the Ottoman Em¬
pire stemmed from the personalities and policies of those first ten sultans.
Rarely in history has one state enjoyed such a succession of just and brave
rulers for almost three centuries. No doubt the Ottoman Empire owed
some of its strength to these capable sultans, who learned the principles of
government from their fathers during their on-the-job training in the
provinces. They gained power by competing against their brothers, and
usually the best man won. To avoid costly power struggles, they estab¬
lished a rule that the man who succeeded to the sultanate should have all
his brothers put to death. They let no religious prejudices stop them from
using the administrative (and sometimes even the military and naval)
skills of their Anatolian and Balkan Christian subjects to benefit the Ot¬
toman Empire. When rival factions arose in the army and the bureaucracy,
they kept them balanced and thus under control. "No distinction is at¬
tached to birth among the Turks," wrote a sixteenth-century envoy from
the Habsburg Empire:
The deference to be paid to a man is measured by the position he holds in
the public service. There is no fighting for precedence; a man's place is
marked out by the duties he discharges. In making his appointments the
sultan pays no regard to any pretensions ... of wealth or rank, nor does he
take into consideration recommendations of popularity; he considers each
case on its own merits, and looks carefully into the character, ability, and
disposition of the man whose promotion is in question.... Among the
Turks, therefore, honors, high posts, and judgeships are the rewards of great
ability and good services.