Opinions about the origin of Roksolana Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan among historians differ. The only thing is that practically no one doubts its Slavic origin. It is believed that Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska was born in western Ukraine, in the family of an Orthodox priest. After 15 years, the young Slav was taken captive by the Crimean Tatars and sold at the slave market.
Biography
The life of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan at home for historians remains largely a mystery. However, the main milestones of her biography as Suleiman's concubine and his wife are, of course, still known to researchers:
1502 (according to other sources 1505) - the date of birth of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska;
1517 (or 1522) - capture by the Crimean Tatars;
1520 - sehzade Suleiman becomes sultan;
1521 - the birth of the first son Hürrem Mehmed;
1522 - birth of Mihrimakh, the only daughter of Roksolana;
1523 - birth of Abdullah, the second son of Hürrem (died at the age of 3);
1524 - birth of sehzade Selim.
1525 - birth of shehzade Bayezid;
1534 - wedding of Suleiman the Magnificent and Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan;
1536 - the execution of the worst enemy of Roksolana Ibranim Pasha;
The biography of the great haseka, the wife of Sultan Suleiman, nicknamed the Legislator in his homeland, and in Europe the Magnificent, was, of course, full of other important events. However, for obvious reasons, it is not possible to find out about them. Almost no exact historical information about Roksolan has been preserved.
Anastasia Lisovskaya: truth and fiction
It is believed that in the homeland of Hürrem Sultan, whose history has been worrying the minds of the inhabitants of both Europe and Asia for many centuries, her name was Anastasia Lisovskaya. Perhaps that is how it was. However, historians are still inclined to think that Anastasia or Alexandra Lisovskaya is a fictitious name. The fact is that this was the name of the heroine of the popular novel about the Ukrainian Roxalana from the city of Rogatin, published in Europe in the century before last. Accurate historical information about the name of the legendary haseki has not been preserved. Apparently, the name Anastasia Lisovskaya was nevertheless invented by the author of the novel himself. The researchers only managed to find out that Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan was born, most likely in 1502. It was captured by the Crimean Tatars, according to legend, at the age of 14-17 years.
The Slavic slave did not give her name to either the Tatars or the owners who bought her from them. In the harem subsequently, no one managed to find out practically anything about her past. Therefore, the new slave Suleiman received the name Roksolana. The fact is that this is how the Turks traditionally called the Sarmatians - the ancestors of the modern Slavs.
How Roksolana got into the Sultan's harem
How exactly Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan got into the palace of Suleiman is also not known for certain. It is only known that his friend and vizier Ibrahim Pasha chose a Slavic slave for the Sultan. Most historians believe that Roksolana was bought by him on the slave market with his own money as a gift for the Lord. From that time on, the rich life of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan began in the palace. If she had been acquired directly in the harem of Suleiman and at his personal expense, he would hardly have been able to marry her. According to Muslim laws, marriage at that time was only allowed with a donated odalisque.
Palace life and children
The title of haseki, or beloved wife, was introduced by Suleiman specifically for Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska. The influence on the Sultan Roksolana had a really huge one. The love of the greatest ruler of that time for his haseki is evidenced even by the fact that after marrying her, he dispersed his entire harem. Roksolana has never really had any rivals, as in the series. However, with all this, the family of Suleiman the Magnificent did not like the suddenly elevated slave, most likely, as in the TV movie. The mother of the Sultan, according to historical data, greatly honored Muslim traditions. And the marriage of a son with a slave for her could really be a real blow.
Life Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan in the palace, as in the series "Magnificent Age", was full of dangers. In fact, several assassination attempts were made on her. It is believed that it was her intrigues that led to the execution of Ibrahim Pasha and Mustafa, the son of Suleiman's first wife, Mahidevran Sultan. According to legend, initially Roksolana sought to make her beloved son Bayezid the heir. However, the Sultan's army supported more of her other son, Selim, who, after the death of Suleiman, ascended the throne.
As contemporaries testify, the haseki Roksolana was an attractive, but also a very smart woman. The life of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan was not only in raising children and in palace intrigues. Roksolana read many books, was interested in politics and economics. She certainly had managerial talent. For example, in the absence of Suleiman, she managed to patch up a huge hole in the Sultan's treasury in a rather cunning way, traditional, rather, for Slavic rulers. Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska simply ordered the opening of wine shops in the European quarter of Istanbul.
Due to the strong influence exerted on the Sultan, contemporaries considered Roksolana a witch. Perhaps the suspicions of witchcraft were not in vain. There is even historical information (albeit not entirely reliable) that Roksolana, already being Suleiman's favorite concubine, ordered various witch artifacts in Ukraine.
The cause of death of Hürrem Sultan is also still a mystery to historians. It is officially believed that the great Haseki died from a common cold. Although there is evidence that she could be poisoned. Also, some historians believe that the Haseki ended her life due to an illness that doctors of that time called simply fatal. Today, this disease is known as cancer. It was this version that was presented in the series "The Magnificent Century".
Portrait of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
In 1494, in the city of Trabzon, a boy was born into the family of the great Ottoman dynasty. At birth, he was given the name Suleiman. His father was Shehzade Selim and his mother was Aishe Hafsa.
Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent was the tenth sultan of the great Ottoman Empire. The history of his reign began in the autumn, on September 22, 1520. And it lasted until September 6, 1566.
The first thing that Sultan Suleiman I did, having ascended the throne, he released all the Egyptian captives from noble families, whom the previous Sultan kept in chains. This fact unspeakably rejoiced in Europe. But they missed the fact that Suleiman, although he was not as cruel and bloodthirsty as he was, was still a conqueror. In 1521, Sultan Suleiman led his first military campaign against Belgrade. Since then, he has constantly fought and captured cities and fortresses, subjugating entire states.
Sultan Suleiman went on his last military campaign on May 1, 1566. On the 7th of August, the Sultan's army proceeded to capture Szigetvarai. But in September of the same year, during the siege of the fortress, Sultan Suleiman died in his tent from dysentery. Suleiman was then 71 years old.
The Sultan's body was taken to the capital Istanbul and buried in the Suleymaniye Mosque, next to the mausoleum of Hürrem Sultan's beloved wife.
The character of Sultan Suleiman
Sultan Suleiman I was creative personality. He loved peace and tranquility. He was also famous as a skilled jeweler, wrote beautiful poems, loved philosophy. Suleiman also possessed Kuznetsk skills and even personally participated in the ebb of guns.
Sultan Suleiman for jewelry work in the TV series Magnificent Century During the reign of Suleiman, grandiose buildings were created. Palaces, bridges, mosques, especially the world-famous Suleymaniye Mosque, which is the second largest mosque in Istanbul - they all show us the unique style of the Ottoman Empire.
Sultan Suleiman uncompromisingly fought against bribery. He severely punished all officials who abused their position. The people loved the Sultan for his good deeds. He built schools so that children could be educated. Suleiman released all the artisans who were forcibly taken out of their cities. But Georg Weber wrote that "he was a ruthless tyrant: neither merit nor kinship saved him from his suspicion and cruelty."
But he was not a tyrant. On the contrary, Sultan Suleiman was a just ruler and never ignored his people and helped all those in need.
Suleiman had a habit of dressing up as a poor man or a rich foreigner so that no one would recognize him. In this form, he entered the market. So he learned the news in the city and what his people thought of him and his reign.
Sultan Suleiman was an excellent strategist. He conquered many states and subjugated the inhabitants of many cities, for which he received the nickname "Lord of the World."
Family of Sultan Suleiman
Suleiman respected family traditions and never went against the family. He especially revered his mother Hafsa Valide Sultan. With her, he developed a warm and trusting relationship. They always corresponded when Suleiman went on military campaigns. And in the first years of his reign, Suleiman enjoyed her great support in political affairs. Until Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska appeared in his life, who, after training, took over the support of Suleiman.
Sultan Suleiman and his mother Valide Sultan in the TV series Magnificent Century Apparently Valide was against her son's marriage to Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska. Because Suleiman married his beloved only after the death of his mother. Although before that there were no legal prohibitions for their marriage.
Communication with the sisters of the Sultan was also warm and friendly. He always helped them and even listened to their advice. The sisters saw him as an ideal. But later, relations with some began to deteriorate. Beihan Sultan was never able to forgive her brother Sultan for the execution of her husband Ferhat Pasha. She even openly wished him dead.
Sisters of Suleiman in the TV series Magnificent Century The ruler treated his first wife, Mahidevran, with respect. He loved his son Mustafa very much, whom she bore him. And he was pleased with the way she brought him up. But after Mahidevran beat Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska, he alienated his wife from himself.
Mahidevran Sultan and Shehzade Mustafa Suleiman treated all his sons equally. He loved each of them and singled out no one. He did not like quarrels among his heirs, and therefore he always strived to improve relations with every shehzade.
The sons of Sultan Suleiman in the TV series Magnificent Age Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska was the closest and dearest person to the Sultan. He fell in love with her cheerful disposition and cheerful character. It was for this that he gave her the name Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska, which meant "bringing fun and joy." And he was deeply saddened by her loss.
Hürrem's death in the TV series Magnificent Century Children of Sultan Suleiman
Suleiman, as expected, had his own harem. He first became a father at the age of 18. His first son was Mahmud, who was born in 1512 from the first favorite Fulane. But, alas, during the smallpox epidemic in 1521, on November 29, the boy died at the age of 9 years. And his mother did not play any serious role in the life of the Sultan, and in 1550 she died.
The second son of Murad in 1513 was presented to Suleiman by his second favorite, Gulfem. But this boy was also destined to die of smallpox at the age of 8. Like his older brother, he died of a smallpox epidemic in 1521. Gulfem ceased to be the Sultan's concubine and no longer gave birth to his children. But she stayed for a long time true friend Sultan Suleiman. However, in 1562, on the orders of Suleiman, Gulfem was strangled.
Mahidevran Sultan and little Mustafa Mahidevran Sultan was the third favorite of the Sultan, who, most likely, bore him several children. She gave birth to the well-known shehzade Mustafa in 1515. Mustafa was very popular among the people of Turkey. Mustafa was accused of rebellion against his father, Sultan Suleiman, and on his orders he was executed in 1553. He was 38 years old. His mother was exiled to Bursa, where she lived for a long time in terrible anguish and terrible poverty. However, Sultan Selim, after the death of her father, returned her status as a sultana, paid her debts, bought a house and assigned a pension. Mahidevran outlived Suleiman's entire family and died in 1581 at about 80 years of age. She was buried in Bursa, next to her son in the mausoleum of Shehzade Mustafa.
Becoming the fourth and only favorite of the Sultan, in 1534 she managed to marry Suleiman officially. It is likely that she became the mother of not five, but six children.
Their firstborn in 1521 was the son of Mehmed. Then in 1522 their daughter Mehrimah was born. After that Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska in 1523. gave birth to a son, Abdullah. But Mahidevran is also attributed to Shekhzade Abdullah, so this fact remains inaccurate. The next son, shehzade Selima, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska gave birth in 1524. In 1525, she again gave the Sultan a son, who was named Bayezid. But in the same year, shehzade Abdullah dies. In 1531 Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska gave birth to her last son, Cihangir.
Hürrem's protege for the post of Grand Vizier was Rustem Pasha, for whom the only daughter of the Sultan Mehrimah was given. In Europe, the news that the Sultan's daughter married a former groom was ridiculed. After all, they are accustomed to equilateral marriages. However, for Sultan Suleiman, first of all, human qualities, intelligence and insight were important.
Mehrimah Sultan and Rustem Pasha It is possible that Sultan Suleiman had another daughter who was able to survive in infancy and survive all diseases. Razi Sultan. Who her mother is and whether she really was the blood daughter of the Sultan is not known. This is indirectly indicated by the inscriptions on the burial in the turba of Yahya Efendi “Carefree Razie Sultan, blood daughter of Kanuni Sultan Suleiman and spiritual daughter of Yahya Efendi.”
By the end of the reign of Sultan Suleiman I, it became obvious that the struggle for the throne among his remaining sons was inevitable. Şehzade Mustafa was executed as a rebel (it is not known whether he was actually a rebel or he was slandered), Mustafa's seven-year-old son Mehmed was also strangled. Hurrem and Suleiman's son Mehmed died in 1543. And Jihangir was very weak physically and died shortly after the execution of shehzade Mustafa. It is said that he died of longing for his murdered older brother.
Shehzade Selim and Shehzade Bayezid Suleiman had only two sons left, who began to fight for the right to inherit the throne. After the death of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan, shehzade Bayezid rebelled against his older brother Selim and was defeated. The rebellious shehzade was executed by the verdict of his father, the Sultan, in 1561. His five sons were killed along with him. .
Suleiman I the Magnificent (Kanuni) (November 6, 1494 - September 5/6, 1566) the tenth sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who ruled from September 22, 1520, Caliph from 1538.
Suleiman is considered the greatest sultan of the Ottoman dynasty; under him, the Ottoman Porte reached its apogee. In Europe, Suleiman is most often called Suleiman the Magnificent, while in the Muslim world Suleiman Kanuni. The honorary nickname "Kanuni", given to Suleiman I by the people of the Ottoman Empire, both then and today, is associated with the word "Just".
Ottoman fleet on a yawkor in the French port of Toulon in 1543
Nasuh Matrakchi
miniature
Suleiman I was born in 1494 in Trabzon in the family of Sultan Selim I and Aisha Hafsa, daughter of the Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray. Until 1512, Suleiman was a Beylerbey in Kaffa. Sultan Selim I died in 1520. At the time of his father's death, Suleiman was the governor of Manisa. He led the Ottoman state at the age of 26.
bas-relief
Suleiman the Magnificent
on the capitol
Sultan's Tughra
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I began his reign by releasing several hundred Egyptian captives from noble families who were kept in chains by Selim. The Europeans rejoiced at his accession, but they did not take into account that although Suleiman was not as bloodthirsty as Selim I, he loved conquest no less than his father. Suleiman I personally led 13 military companies, 10 of which were in Europe.
In the XVI-XVII centuries, the Ottoman Empire reached its highest point of influence during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During this period, the Ottoman Empire was one of the most powerful countries in the world - a multinational, multilingual state that stretched from the southern borders of the Holy Roman Empire - the outskirts of Vienna, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Commonwealth in the north, to Yemen and Eritrea in the south, from Algeria in the west, to Azerbaijan in the east. Under her dominion was most South Eastern Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. At the beginning of the 17th century, the empire consisted of 32 provinces and numerous vassal states, some of which were later captured by it - while others were granted autonomy.
The empire with its capital in Constantinople (Istanbul) controlled the territories of the Mediterranean basin. The Ottoman Empire was a link between Europe and the countries of the East for 6 centuries.
Ottoman miniature depicting Ottoman troops
and the vanguard of the Crimean Tatars in the Battle of Szigetvar,
1566
last fight
Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
By the end of his reign, Sultan Suleiman I, who also assumed the title of caliph in 1538, ruled the greatest and most powerful empire in the history of the Muslim world. Suleiman I the Magnificent died on the night of September 5 in his tent during the siege of the Szigetvara fortress.
He was buried in the mausoleum at the cemetery of the Suleymaniye Mosque next to the mausoleum of his beloved wife Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan.
Suleiman the Magnificent
and Hurrem Sultan
Haseki Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan. The real name is unknown, according to the literary tradition, Alexandra Gavrilovna Lisovskaya (c. 1502 or c. 1505 - April 15 or 18, 1558) - a concubine, and then the wife of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, haseki, mother of Sultan Selim II.
Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska was able to achieve what no one had ever achieved before her. She officially became the wife of Suleiman. Although there were no laws forbidding the marriage of sultans to slave girls, the whole tradition of the Ottoman court opposed it. At the same time, in the Ottoman Empire, even the terms “law” and “tradition” themselves were denoted by one word - eve.
Letters have been preserved that reflect big love and the Sultan's longing for Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska, who was his chief political adviser.
The most educated woman of her time, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Haseki Sultan received foreign ambassadors, answered letters from foreign rulers, influential nobles and artists.
Before Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska, the favorites of the sultans played two roles - the role of the favorite itself and the role of the mother of the heir to the throne, and that these roles were never combined. Having given birth to a son, the woman ceased to be a favorite, going with the child to a remote province, where the heir was to be brought up until he took the place of his father. Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska was the first woman who managed to play both roles at the same time, which caused great irritation of the conservative-minded court. When her sons came of age, she did not follow them, but remained in the capital, only occasionally visiting them. This can largely explain the negative image that has formed around Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska. In addition, she violated another principle of the Ottoman court, which was that one favorite of the Sultan should have no more than one son. Unable to explain how Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska was able to achieve such a high position, contemporaries attributed to her that she simply bewitched Suleiman. This image of an insidious and power-hungry woman was transferred to Western historiography, although it underwent some transformation.
Unlike all her predecessors, as well as the mothers of shehzade, who had the right to build buildings only within the province in which they lived with their sons, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska received the right to build religious and charitable buildings in Istanbul and other large cities of the Ottoman Empire. She created a charitable foundation in her own name. With donations from this fund, the Aksaray district or women's bazaar, later also named after Haseki, was built in Istanbul, the buildings of which included a mosque, madrasah, imaret, elementary School, Hospital And Fountain. It was the first complex built in Istanbul by the architect Sinan in his new position as chief architect of the ruling house, as well as the third largest building in the capital, after the complexes of Mehmet II and Suleymaniye. Other charitable projects of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska include complexes in Adrianople and Ankara, which became the basis of the project in Jerusalem (later named after Haseki Sultan), hospices and canteens for pilgrims and the homeless, a canteen in Mecca (under Haseki Hurrem’s imaret), a public canteen in Istanbul ( in Avret Pazari), as well as two large public baths in Istanbul (in the Jewish and Aya Sôfya quarters).
On April 15 or 18, 1558, due to a long illness or poisoning, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan died, presumably at the age of fifty-two, after returning from Yedirne. A year later, her body was transferred to the domed octagonal mausoleum of the architect Mimar Sinan. The Mausoleum of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Haseki Sultan (tour. Haseki Hurrem Sultan Turbesi) is decorated with exquisite Iznik ceramic tiles with images of the Garden of Eden, almost to the level of the second row of windows. The tile tiles are characterized by various motifs - coral red, dark blue and traditional turquoise colors in addition to mourning black. Some of the tiles are inscribed with poetry texts, perhaps in honor of Hürrem Sultan's smile and her cheerful nature.
The Mausoleum of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Haseki Sultan is located on the territory of the huge Suleymaniye complex in Istanbul. Look for the mausoleum of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan should be on the left side of the mosque.
Nasuh Matrakchi
Turkish galleys on the Danube
Miniature
During the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent, Turkish miniature painting reached its zenith. Chronicles documenting the official life of the Sultan, major political events, brilliant military victories, and lavish festivities demonstrating the wealth and power of an uncontrollably growing empire needed vivid, impressive illustrations. At the court of Suleiman I, Persians, Albanians, Circassians, Moldavians, as well as Turks, who were just beginning to master the skill of painters, worked. Nasuh al-Silahi was the most famous artist of this group.
Nasuh bin Karagoz bin Abdullah el-Bosnavi, better known as Matrakchi Nasuh or Nasuh el-Silakhi, was an Ottoman scholar, historian, miniaturist of Bosnian origin.
He also became famous as a mathematician, historian, geographer, writer and director of theatrical parodic battles, which were among the entertainments of the Ottoman court. He received the nickname Matrakchi, or Matrakchi, thanks to victories in the sports game "matrak" - a dance competition, the participants of which fight with wooden swords, with small round pillows as shields.
A court scholar and draftsman, Nasuh accompanied Sultan Suleiman in campaigns against Iran and Iraq in 1534-1535; in 1537-1538 he described these military expeditions in the Account of each stage of the campaign in the Two Iraqs (manuscript in Arabic and Persian, better known as Mejmua-i-Menazil, or Routes; Istanbul University Library). Nasuh accompanied the text of the manuscript with 132 illustrations, including 82 images of the cities of Turkey, Iraq and Iran. The scientific and artistic style of these miniatures marked the beginning of the development of the genre of “topographic painting” in Ottoman art, the appearance of which Nasuh explained simply: “I described in words and conveyed with colors all the localities, cities, towns, villages, fortresses, giving their names and pictures.”
The Battle of Szigetvar is a siege by the Ottoman army under the command of Sultan Suleiman I of the small fortress of Szigetvar in Hungary from August 6 to September 8, 1566. The fortress of the Habsburg Empire was defended by the Croats and Hungarians, led by the ban of Croatia, Miklos Zrini.
The battle is known in Hungary and Croatia as the inspiration for Miklós Zrini's great-grandson of the same name to write the epic Szigeti veszedelem in Hungarian. Previously, the importance of the battle was estimated so highly that even Cardinal Richelieu called it "The Battle that Saved Civilization."
Ottoman troops left Istanbul on May 1, 1566. The Sultan was unable to personally manage the horse and was taken out of Istanbul in a covered horse-drawn carriage. The Ottoman army reached Szigetvár Castle on August 6, 1566. A large sultan's tent was placed on Similhof hill. Suleiman was supposed to be in his tent during the entire siege, where he was supposed to receive reports personally from his vizier.
The siege began in August 1566, with the fort's defenders fighting off Ottoman attacks until September.
During the long siege, Suleiman the Magnificent died before dawn on 7 September. Apparently, the death was natural, but the stress and fatigue from the difficult siege certainly played a role. Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha decided not to tell the army about this news, so as not to weaken the will to win in last days siege.
The day after the death of Suleiman, the last battle took place. Szigetvar Castle was burned down, leaving only the ruined walls. In the first half of September 7, the Turks launched an all-out attack using all means (including "Greek fire", cannonade, volley fire and more). Soon the last Croatian-Hungarian citadel in Szigetvár was set on fire.
Zrini in silk clothes and with a golden key on his chest, at the head of his 600 soldiers, rushed into the dense ranks of the Turks. In the end, the heroic commander, who survived the siege for 36 days, fell hit by three bullets. The Turks took the fort and won the battle. Only seven defenders managed to break through the Turkish disposition of troops.
Artist
Kraft Johann Peter.
"Attack of Zrini"
canvas, oil,
1825
The old Sultan died, unable to endure the long journey. This meant that any major decision (like an attack on Vienna) had to be negotiated with the new sultan; for this, the vizier Mehmed Pasha went to Istanbul, where he already met with the successor of Suleiman Selim II.
Selim II
(May 28, 1524 - December 13, 1574)
eleventh sultan of the Ottoman Empire, reigned 1566-1574.
The third son and fourth child of Sultan Suleiman I "The Magnificent" and Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska.
He was known by the nicknames Selim Drunkard and Selim Blondin.
Selim II was born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Initially, Selim briefly ruled Konya. In 1544, after the death of his elder brother Mehmed, Selim was appointed father sanjakbey in the province of Manisa. In 1548, Sultan Suleiman Kanuni, who set off at the head of the Ottoman army on a campaign against Persia, left Sehzade Selim as regent in Istanbul.
In 1553, after the execution of his older half-brother Mustafa, Selim was declared the first heir to the throne.
In 1558, after the death of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska, relations between Selim and his younger brother, shehzade Bayazid, escalated. Sultan Suleiman Kanuni, fearing a coup, sent both sons to govern the provinces of the empire remote from Istanbul. Sehzade Selim was transferred from Manisa to Konya, and his brother Shehzade Bayazid was transferred to Amasya. In 1559, the brothers Bayezid and Selim began an internecine struggle for power. Shehzade Bayazid gathered an army and went on a campaign against his elder brother Selim. In the battle near Konya shehzade Selim, who received the support of his father and had a numerical superiority, defeated the army of his younger brother. Shehzade Bayazid and his family fled to Persia, but in 1561 he was extradited and strangled along with his five sons.
AT last years During the reign of his father Shehzade Selim served as the sanjakbey of Kutahya.
Three weeks after the death of Suleiman Kanuni shehzade Selim arrived from Kutahya to Istanbul, where he took the Sultan's throne.
During the reign of Selim II ( state affairs led by the Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokollu) the Ottoman Empire waged wars with the Safavid Empire, Hungary, Venice (1570-1573) and the Holy League (Spain, Venice, Genoa, Malta), completed the conquest of Arabia and Cyprus.
In 1569 Selim carried out an unsuccessful campaign against Astrakhan. In Istanbul, a plan was drawn up to unite the Volga and Don with a canal, and in the summer of 1569, the Janissaries and Tatar cavalry began the blockade of Astrakhan and canal work, while the Ottoman fleet besieged Azov. But the garrison of Astrakhan repelled the siege. The 15,000-strong Russian army attacked and dispersed the workers and Tatars who had been sent in for protection, and the Ottoman fleet was destroyed by a storm. In 1570, the ambassadors of Ivan the Terrible concluded a peace treaty with Selim II.
The Ottoman Empire is also the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Porte or simply the Porta, a state created in 1299 by the Turkic tribes of Osman I in northwestern Anatolia. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman state began to be called an empire. The fall of Constantinople was a major event in the development of Turkish statehood, since after the victory of 1453 the Ottoman Empire finally gained a foothold in Europe, which is an important characteristic of modern Turkey. The empire reached its greatest exaltation in 1590. Its lands covered part of Europe, Asia and Africa. The reign of the Ottoman dynasty lasted 623 years, from July 27, 1299 to November 1, 1922, when the monarchy was abolished.
After the international recognition of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, on October 29, 1923, after the signing of the Lausanne Peace Treaty (July 24, 1923), the creation of the Republic of Turkey, which was the successor to the Ottoman Empire, was proclaimed. On March 3, 1924, the Ottoman Caliphate was finally abolished. The powers and duties of the Caliphate were transferred to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.
FROM THE HISTORY, LIFE AND TRADITIONS OF THE OTTOMANS.
DEVSHIRME
Devshirme - in the Ottoman Empire, one of the types of tax on the non-Muslim population, a system of forced recruitment of boys from Christian families for their subsequent upbringing and their service as "servants of the Porte", that is, personal slaves of the Sultan. Most of the officials and military of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th-16th centuries consisted precisely of persons called up according to the devshirma. The personal servants (de facto slaves) of the Sultan usually served in one of the four imperial departments: the palace service, the office, theologians and the military. The last, elite, directly subordinate to the Sultan, troops were divided into cavalry and infantry. Janissaries - “new warrior”), reflected the status of a warrior rather than his belonging to one or another branch of the military. Janissaries also performed police and security functions.
The main reason for the emergence of devshirme was the distrust of the Ottoman sultans towards their own Turkic elite. From the time of Murad I, Ottoman rulers had a constant need to "balance the power of the (Turkic) aristocracy through the creation and development of a personal army of Christian dependent soldiers and converted capykullaras ("servants of the Porte")". So one of these “prisoners” of the palace wrote: “There are only a few people in the palace who speak Turkic from birth, because the sultan believes that converted Christians who have neither shelter, nor home, nor parents, nor friends." In the book “The Board, or, The Guide for Rulers”, popular among the Ottoman bureaucracy of those times, it is said in particular that if the Sultan employs representatives different peoples, then “all nationalities will strive to surpass each other ... If the army consists of one people, there is a danger. Soldiers have no zeal and are prone to disorder."
The practice of devshirme reached its peak during the reign of Mehmed II, who fully experienced the danger posed by a strong Muslim elite.
For many families, the selection of their sons by devshirma became a real tragedy, but there were also cases when parents in every possible way contributed to the child's entry into the palace, since service there opened up great opportunities for a peasant boy. Separation from home, their own roots often led to the fact that such young men became ardent defenders of the Sultan, as their only father, and a new faith for them. However, not everyone forgot about their roots and there are cases when grand viziers used their origin in political negotiations and diplomatic relations.
Since the 1580s, the "servants of the Porte" were allowed to start families and enroll children in the corps by inheritance.
The last mention of the recruitment of Christians according to devshirma dates back to the beginning of the 18th century.
TURKISH ARMY
The Ottoman Empire, since its birth since the beginning of the XIV century, waged wars with many countries. From there, the Turkish army conducts its history. The backbone of the Turkish army was made up of akindzhi, sipahis and janissaries. But let's start with the Sultan's Guard. It consisted of silakhdars - the sultan's squires - light cavalry and messengers of the sultan like courier officers - couriers for delivering important documents and messages. The ancient cavalry consisted of akynji - riders of the militias and combatants. But already in the 15th century, the akindzhi were divided into two groups. The first included warriors of the Beylerbeys, the second included volunteers. It also included small groups of horsemen called the Turkish "deli", which means "crazy" in Turkish. They were really distinguished by incredible, bordering on insanity, courage and an unusual, frightening appearance. Shields and horses were covered with the skins of lions. And the Delhi themselves, instead of armor, were covered with leopard skins. Delhi also used wings in their armor, which were then borrowed in decoration by the Polish hussars.
Of course, seeing this, and experienced warriors took aback. Moreover, the Delhi were used in the Ottoman Empire at the forefront of the Turkish army. The Delhi were armed with pikes and sabers. The next part of the Turkish army is the sipahis. The translation of this word from Persian means "army". Sipahis are a privileged part of the army in their own way - heavy cavalry. The riders are protected by armor made of plates and rings. The head was protected by a helmet. Initially, the weapons of the sipahis were heavy maces and pikes. But already in the 15th century, horsemen used firearms. Janissaries are generally a unique phenomenon. After all, they fought on the side of those who captured them. Indeed, the children of Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians, and Serbs were captured by the Turkish army. Brought up in Muslim traditions, they faithfully served in the infantry of the Ottoman army. Janissaries in translation from Turkish language "new warrior". They lived in the barracks and did not even have the right to marry. Only at the end of the 17th century, the Turks began to be taken into the detachments of the Janissaries. The Janissaries were armed with bows, crossbows, scimitars, daggers. The Janissaries were excellent archers, then from firearms. They didn’t fire into the white light, but aimed fire. Among the Janissaries there were special detachments called "risking their heads." They were divided into mobile groups of five. Two warriors with guns, an archer, a grenade thrower and a warrior with a sword. During the battle, the decisive role in the Turkish army was assigned to the cavalry. She broke through enemy lines. Then the Janissaries went on the attack. Of course, over time, the Turkish army underwent changes, but the fact that at that time part of Europe and Asia Minor was captured speaks of a strong army.
Janissaries - the regular infantry of the Ottoman Empire in 1365-1826. Janissaries, together with sipahis (heavy cavalry) and akynji (irregular light cavalry), formed the basis of the army in the Ottoman Empire. They were part of the kapikulu regiments (the personal guard of the Sultan, which consisted of professional soldiers who were officially considered Sultan's slaves). Janissary regiments also performed police, security, fire and, if necessary, punitive functions in the Ottoman state.
The Janissaries were officially considered slaves of the Sultan and permanently lived in monasteries-barracks. Until 1566, they were forbidden to marry and acquire their own household. The property of the deceased or perished Janissary became the property of the regiment. In addition to military art, the Janissaries studied calligraphy, law, theology, literature and languages. Wounded or old Janissaries received a pension. Many of them went on to successful civilian careers. In 1683, the children of Muslims also began to be taken to the Janissaries.
Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire
during the siege of Rhodes
From the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries, the process of decomposition of the corps of the Janissaries gradually began. They began to acquire families, engage in trade and crafts. Gradually, the Janissaries turned into a powerful conservative political force, a threat to the throne and eternal and indispensable participants in palace coups (Janissary riots led to the overthrow and death of the sultans, for example, in 1622 and 1807).
Finally, in 1826, the corps of the Janissaries was officially abolished by the decree of Sultan Mahmud II, and the rebellion of the Janissaries, outraged by the decree, was severely suppressed. During the operation on June 14, 1826, 15 artillery volleys were fired at the Janissary barracks in the capital.
Janissary officer.
Drawing by Gentile Bellini (late 15th century)
DELHI - WINGED WARRIORS
Turkish rider - Delhi. Engraving by Danish graphic artist Melchior Lorca (1576)
Turkish Deli
This was the name of the soldiers of the cavalry units used in the vanguard of the Turkish army. They were usually recruited by the rulers of the border regions from the northern Balkan peoples (southern Slavs, Hungarians, Albanians, etc.) subject to the Ottoman Empire. The Delhi were distinguished by insane courage, instead of armor they wore the skins of wild animals and adorned themselves with the wings of birds of prey.
Following the example of deli wings, Hungarian hussars began to wear shields and headdresses. Surviving authentic hussar shields of the 16th century. "in the Hungarian style" have the form of a raised wing. Some of them bear the emblem of an eagle's wing, but iconographic sources show that they were often decorated with real eagle's wings, following a tradition that came from Turkey.
Winged delhi are depicted in the Turkish albums of the French traveler, officer, artist and cartographer Nicolas de Nicolay, who traveled to Istanbul in 1551 and then printed a report on his trip, accompanied by numerous engravings (1567).
MIMAR SINAN
During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, one of the greatest Ottoman architects and engineers, Mimar Sinan, became known throughout the world.
He was born on April 15, 1489 in the village of Agyrnas (Anatolia province of modern Turkey). According to a number of researchers, Sinan was born into a Christian Armenian family, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica and the opinion of some scholars in a Greek orthodox family. Received at birth Christian name Joseph (Yusuf). His father was a bricklayer and carpenter, as a result of which Sinan acquired good skills in these crafts in his youth, and this influenced his future career.
In 1512, he was taken away from his parents and recruited by devshirma to the Janissary corps, after which he was sent to Istanbul, where he converted to Islam.
At the grave of Suleiman I
it is assumed that
shown on the left
Mimar Sinan
After Celebi Lutfi Pasha, under whose command the architect had previously served, became supreme vizier in 1539, Sinan was appointed chief court architect of the city of Istanbul. His duties included supervising construction throughout the Ottoman Empire, including the direction of public construction (roads, bridges, water pipes). Over the long 50 years of his tenure, Sinan created a powerful department, with more powers than the minister who controls it. He also created a center for architects, where future engineers were trained.
Şehzade Mosque is the first of Mimar Sinan's most significant architectural structures. Erected in the historic district of Fatih. It was started as a tomb for the son of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent Shehzade Mehmed, who died in 1543, and completed in 1548. It has two minarets of 55 meters.
Shehzade Mosque.
Like many mosques built by Sinan, the building has a square base on which rests a large central dome surrounded by four dome halves and numerous smaller subsidiary domes. The massive faceted columns that carry the dome are very clearly drawn, the structure of the vaults is clearly highlighted by the alternating dark and light wedge-shaped masonry of the arches. Here are the turbes of Şehzade Mehmed, as well as Rustem Pasha and Mustafa Desteri Pasha.
During his life, Sinan built about 300 buildings - mosques, schools, charity canteens, hospitals, aqueducts, bridges, caravanserais, palaces, baths, mausoleums and fountains, most of which were built in Istanbul. His most famous buildings are the Şehzade Mosque, the Suleymaniye Mosque and the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne.
The architecture of Hagia Sophia had a huge influence on his work, and Sinan managed to achieve his dream - to build a dome larger than the dome of Hagia Sophia.
He died on February 7, 1588, was buried in his own mausoleum (turba) near the wall of the Suleymaniye mosque.
The Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul was built by Sinan in 1550-57, and according to scholars and researchers, is his best work. The project was based on the architectural plan of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, a masterpiece of Byzantine architecture, which had a very great influence on the entire work of Sinan, who tried to surpass this temple in his buildings.
The mosque is located on top of a hill right above the Golden Horn. The clear rhythm of architectural forms is well perceived from a distance. There are tombs in the courtyard of the mosque. Suleiman himself and his beloved wife Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska rest in two neighboring turbes. The Suleymaniye Mosque is one of the largest ever built in the Ottoman Empire. In addition to the temple, it housed an extensive social complex, including four madrasahs, a library, an observatory, a large hospital and medical school, kitchens, a hammam, shops and stables.
Istanbul
Suleymaniye Mosque
Architect Mimar Sinan
THE MAGNIFICENT CENTURY OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN EUROPEAN ART
Gentile Bellini
Portrait of Sultan Mehmet
canvas, oil
1480
69.9 × 52.1
National Portrait Gallery, London
Bellini Gentile (Italian: Gentile Bellini, circa 1429, Venice - February 23, 1507, Venice) was an Italian artist.
Son of Jacopo Bellini and presumably older brother of Giovanni Bellini.
An extremely revered artist during his lifetime. His talent was highly appreciated by Frederick III. In 1479 he was sent to Constantinople to Sultan Mehmed II, who asked him to send a good portrait painter.
The artist was known for his portraits of Venetian doges and full-size subject canvases. Most of the work perished in a fire at the Doge's Palace in 1579.
NICOLA NICOLE
(1517-1583) - French statesman, artist and traveler.
Born in 1517 in the historical region of Dauphine, France. Since 1542, he served as a mercenary, served and fought under various banners in Germany, Denmark, England, Sweden, Italy and Spain.
Having traveled most of Europe, he took the position of court geographer under Henry II, and also served as the king's valet. Nicolet's writings are remarkable for their excellent drawings:
"Navigations et perégrinations de N. de N." (Lyon, 1568);
"Navigation du roi d'Ecosse Jacques V autour de de son royame" (Paris, 1583).
In 1551, by order of the king, as part of the embassy of Gabriel d'Aramon, he went to Turkey, to the court of Suleiman the Magnificent. Its official task is to create a series of drawings about the country, while unofficially it is to create maps.
He died in 1583 in Soissons, where he served as royal commissioner of artillery.
Gulfem is the first wife of Suleiman, with whom we were introduced by the story unfolding in the series. We did not witness their romantic intimacy, as the woman lost the child born from the ruler and faded into the background, supplanted by the next passion of the Sultan. However, it is clear that warm relations remained between Gulf and Suleiman. Before Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska took a strong position, the Sultan also consulted with Gulf, trusted her with the management of the harem and emphasized his respect.
Mahidevran
In the memoirs of Mahidevran, we have repeatedly seen the love and passion with which the Sultan treated her before Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska settled in his heart. She shared his young years with the future ruler and gave her first beloved son. The beauty of Mahidevran is undeniable. She has a refined taste and women - it is no coincidence that when Suleiman entrusted her with the management of the harem, she even got into serious debts, as she spent a lot of money on the most expensive fabrics and jewelry. But despite the sincere love that united Mahidevran with Suleiman, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska won this love battle.
Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska
Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska is a daring slave, beloved concubine, legal wife and faithful companion of Suleiman. She found the strength to give up all her past life and move towards the future. She learned to be strong and instead of mourning her spiritual wounds, with each new blow of fate, she walked more and more confidently towards her goal. No wonder all members of the ruling family from the very beginning were so afraid of the influence of Hürrem on the ruler. She was able to take such a high position near the Sultan, which, in principle, a woman of those times could not reach. Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska more than once found herself on the verge of death, her rivals turned her whole life into a series of continuous trials and dangers. However, it is precisely this love that burned in the hearts of Suleiman and his only legal wife that becomes the fire that illuminates history for many centuries to come.
Sadyk
The envoy of King Lajos Valeria, who received the name Sadyk in the Muslim palace, did not feel love for Suleiman, but in the name of fulfilling her duty she had to sneak into the chambers of the ruler and take possession of his heart. Once there, she was able to kindle a fire of passion in the Sultan - he was fascinated by a fragile, sophisticated girl with a modest disposition and deep eyes. Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska with great difficulty managed to convince Hatice to take the concubine sent to Valide to his palace in order to alienate the impudent slave from her son. But even there she manages to capture the Sultan and share a bed with him. If she were not a traitor, who knows what Suleiman's interest could develop into.
Isabella Fortuna
Princess Isabella became a serious test of the love of Suleiman and Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska. Her sensual beauty and impudent rebellious disposition, so reminiscent of the young Alexandra, who also once found herself a prisoner in the palace harem, could not leave the Sultan indifferent. The ruler, accustomed to dealing with obedient slaves, was seized by hunting excitement when he encountered. Fulfilling every whim of his captive, demonstrating good manners and delicate taste, Suleiman gradually destroyed the image of a barbarian that had settled in her lovely head, and became an object of dreams for her. Forgetting about pride, the princess gave up her position and entered the Sultan's harem. However, love built on "sporting interest" cannot sustain the fire of feelings for a long time.
Firuze
Firuze is the last serious rival of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska, who almost ruined her happiness. She became a threat to the Sultan's beloved wife not only because of her youth and freshness, which the mother of the ruler's five children began to lose, but also because of her refined manners, the ability to maintain a dialogue and present herself from a favorable side. Firuze is a muse girl who brings a man who is in the so-called "middle age" back to his youthful dreams and aspirations. Relations with her are saturated with lightness and the fabulous melody of the harp, which is so skillfully owned by a graceful slave. Until the last moment, we could not understand whether Firuze really loves the Sultan so much that she is ready, like Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska, to give up her life for him, or she is a virtuoso actress, again sent to the Ottoman palace by enemies.
Nazenin
The last favorite of Suleiman, who was sent by Fatma, having learned that Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska had crossed the age threshold, allowing her to give the Ottoman dynasty new shekhzade. Here one can hardly speak of love and passion. Suleiman perceives the relationship with a young slave as. And Nazenin herself is torn from her pride overflowing from the fact that she bypassed other concubines, and from the fear for her life that always haunts her - after all, everyone knows that the lawful wife of the sovereign does not tolerate rivals. Indeed, the girl managed to give the Sultan only one more daughter, and fell victim to the love of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska.
Probably, many men would envy the position of the Sultan, which implies the possibility of having an unlimited number of women. However, as in the cinema, it is more important for a person to find one single beloved, with whom one can not only share a bed, but also go through all the joys and sorrows of life together, feeling support and love.
Watch the love story of the Sultan in the TV series
Suleiman the Magnificent his reign and his family.
Information about the life of one of the most famous Ottoman sultans, Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566, born in 1494, died in 1566). Suleiman also became famous for his connection with the Ukrainian (according to other sources, Polish or Ruthenian) slave Roksolana - Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska. We will quote here a few pages from a very respected, including in modern Turkey, book by the English author Lord Kinross “The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire ( came out in 1977), as well as some excerpts from the foreign broadcasts of Voice of Turkey Radio. Subtitles and stipulated notes in the text, as well as notes on the illustrations Portalostranah.ru
Lord Kinross writes:
Suleiman's ascent to the top of the Ottoman Sultanate in 1520 coincided with a turning point in the history of European civilization. The darkness of the late Middle Ages, with its dying feudal institutions, gave way to the golden light of the Renaissance.
In the West, it was to become an inseparable element of the Christian balance of power. In the Islamic East, great things were predicted to Suleiman. The tenth Turkish sultan, who ruled at the beginning of the 10th century AH, he was in the eyes of Muslims a living personification of the blessed number ten - the number of human fingers on hands and feet; ten senses and ten parts of the Qur'an and its variants; ten commandments of the five books; ten disciples of the Prophet, ten skies of Islamic paradise and ten spirits sitting on them and guarding them.
Eastern tradition claims that at the beginning of each age, a great man appears, destined to "take him by the horns", control him and become his incarnation. And such a person appeared in the guise of Suleiman - “the most perfect of the perfect”, therefore, an angel of heaven.
Here is what the Venetian envoy Bartolomeo Contarini wrote about Suleiman a few weeks after Suleiman's ascension to the throne:
“He is twenty-five years old. he is tall, strong, with a pleasant expression. His neck is slightly longer than usual, his face is thin, his nose is aquiline. He has a mustache and a small beard; nevertheless, the facial expression is pleasing, although the skin tends to be excessively pale. They say about him that he is a wise ruler who loves to learn, and all people hope for his good rule.
Educated at the palace school in Istanbul, he spent most of his youth in books and activities that contributed to the development of his spiritual world, and began to be perceived by the inhabitants of Istanbul and Edirne (Adrianople) with respect and love.
Suleiman also received good training in administrative affairs as a junior governor of three different provinces. He thus had to grow into a statesman who combined experience and knowledge, a man of action. At the same time, he remains a cultured and tactful person, worthy of the Renaissance, in which he was born.
Finally, Suleiman was a man of sincere religious convictions, which developed in him a spirit of kindness and tolerance, without any trace of paternal fanaticism. Most of all, he was highly inspired by the idea of his own duty as the "Leader of the Faithful". Following the traditions of the ghazis of his ancestors, he was a holy warrior, obliged from the very beginning of his reign to prove his military might compared to that of the Christians. He sought to achieve in the West with the help of imperial conquests the same thing that his father, Selim, managed to achieve in the East.
In achieving the first goal, he could take advantage of the current weakness of Hungary as a link in the chain of defensive positions of the Habsburgs. In a quick and decisive campaign, he surrounded Belgrade, then bombarded it with heavy artillery from an island on the Danube. “The enemy,” he noted in his diary, “refused to defend the city and set it on fire; they retreated into the citation.” Here, the explosions of mines, brought under the walls, predetermined the surrender of the garrison, which received no help from the Hungarian government. Leaving Belgrade garrisoned by a Janissary unit, Suleiman returned to a triumphant meeting in Istanbul, confident that the Hungarian plains and the upper Danube basin now lay defenseless against Turkish troops. Nevertheless, another four years passed before the Sultan was able to resume his invasion.
His attention at this time shifted from Central Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean. Here, on the way of communication by sea between Istanbul and the new Turkish territories of Egypt and Syria, lay the reliably fortified outpost of Christianity, the island of Rhodes. His Knights Hospitaller of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, skilled and formidable sailors and warriors, notorious to the Turks as "professional thugs and pirates," now constantly threatened the Turks' trade with Alexandria; intercepted Turkish cargo ships carrying timber and other goods to Egypt, and pilgrims on their way to Mecca via Suez; hindered the operations of the Sultan's own corsairs; supported the uprising against the Turkish authorities in Syria.
SuleimanMagnificent captures the island of Rhodes
Thus, Suleiman, by all means, decided to capture Rhodes. To this end, he sent south an armada of almost four hundred ships, while he himself led an army of one hundred thousand men overland through Asia Minor to a place on the coast opposite the island.
The knights had a new Grand Master, Villiers de L "Isle-Adam, a man of action, decisive and courageous, completely devoted in a militant spirit to the cause of the Christian faith. To an ultimatum from the Sultan that preceded the attack and included the usual offer of peace prescribed by the Qur'anic tradition, the Great the master responded only by accelerating the implementation of his plans for the defense of the fortress, the walls of which were additionally strengthened after the previous siege by Mehmed the Conqueror ...
Philippe de l'Isle-Adam - head of the defense of Rhodes.
Siege of Rhodes
The Turks, when their fleet was assembled, landed engineers on the island, who scouted out suitable places for their batteries for a month. At the end of July 1522, reinforcements from the main forces of the Sultan approached ....
(Bombardment) was only a prelude to the main mining operation of the fortress.
It involved the digging of invisible tunnels in rocky soil by sappers, through which mine batteries could be moved closer to the walls and then the mines were placed at selected points inside and under the walls.
It was an underground approach rarely used in siege warfare until this time.
The most thankless and dangerous work of digging fell on that part of the Sultan's troops, which was called up for military service mainly from the Christian origin of the peasants of such provinces subject to him as Bosnia, Bulgaria and Wallachia.
Only at the beginning of September it became possible to move the necessary forces close to the walls in order to start digging.
Janissaries under the walls of Rhodes. 16th century miniature
Soon most of the ramparts were riddled with almost fifty tunnels going in different directions. However, the knights enlisted the assistance of an Italian but mine specialist from the Venetian service named Martinegro, who also led the mines.
Martinegro soon created his own subterranean labyrinth of tunnels, criss-crossing and opposing the Turkish at various points, often at little more than the thickness of a plank.
Kulevrina, which was in service with the defenders of Rhodes in 1522.
He had his own network of listening posts, equipped with mine detectors of his own invention - parchment tubes, which signaled with their reflected sounds about any blow to the enemy pickaxe, and a team of Rhodians whom he trained to use them. Martinegro also installed countermines and "ventilated" the discovered mines by drilling spiral vents to dampen the force of their explosion.
The series of attacks, costly to the Turks, reached its climax at dawn on September 24, during the decisive general assault, announced the day before by the explosions of several newly laid mines.
At the head of the assault, undertaken against four separate bastions, under the cover of a curtain of black smoke, artillery bombardment, the Janissaries marched, hoisting their banners in several places.
But after six hours of fighting as fanatical as any in the history of Christian and Muslim warfare, the attackers were driven back with thousands of casualties.
In the next two months, the Sultan no longer risked new general attacks, but limited himself to mining operations, which penetrated deeper and deeper under the city and were accompanied by unsuccessful local assaults. The morale of the Turkish troops was low; besides, winter was approaching.
But the knights were also discouraged. Their losses, although only a tenth of those of the Turks, were heavy enough in relation to their numbers. Supplies and food supplies were dwindling.
Moreover, among the defenders of the city there were those who would prefer to surrender. It has been fairly argued that Rhodes was lucky that he could exist so long after the fall of Constantinople; that the Christian powers of Europe will now never again resolve their conflicting interests; that the Ottoman Empire, after its conquest of Egypt, has now become the only sovereign Islamic power in the Eastern Mediterranean.
After the resumption of the general assault, which failed, on December 10, the Sultan hoisted a white flag on the tower of the church, located outside the city walls, as an invitation to discuss the terms of surrender on honorable terms.
But the Grand Master convened a council: the knights, in turn, threw out the white flag, and a three-day truce was declared.
Suleiman's proposals, which were now able to be conveyed to them, included permission for the lords and inhabitants of the fortress to leave it, along with the property that they could carry.
Those who chose to stay were guaranteed the preservation of their homes and property without any encroachment, complete religious freedom and tax exemption for five years.
After a heated debate, the majority of the council agreed that "it would be a more acceptable thing for God to ask for peace and save lives." ordinary people, women and children".
The Grand Master continued to favor resistance. But the garrison could no longer endure, the direct threat of an uprising loomed.
Palace of the Grand Masters
So, on Christmas Day, after a siege that lasted 145 days, the capitulation of Rhodes was signed, the Sultan confirmed his promise and, moreover, offered ships for the departure of the inhabitants. An exchange of hostages was made, and a small detachment of highly disciplined Janissaries was sent to the city. The Sultan scrupulously complied with the conditions put forward by him, which were violated only once - and he did not know about it - by a small detachment of troops who broke out of obedience, rushed through the streets and committed a series of atrocities, before they were again called to order.
"Avenue of Knights" 
Suleiman Mosque
After the ceremonial entry of Turkish troops into the city, the Grand Master performed the formalities of surrender to the Sultan, who paid him the appropriate honors.
On January 1, 1523, De L "Il-Adam left Rhodes forever, leaving the city together with the surviving knights, carrying waving banners in their hands, and fellow travelers. Having been shipwrecked during a hurricane near Crete, they lost much of their remaining property, but were able to continue his journey to Sicily and Rome.
For five years, the detachment of knights had no shelter. Finally they were given shelter in Malta, where they again had to fight the Turks. Their departure from Rhodes was a blow to the Christian world, nothing now posed a serious threat to the Turkish naval forces in the Aegean and in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Having established the superiority of his weapons in two successful campaigns, the young Suleiman chose to do nothing. During the three summer seasons, before embarking on the third campaign, he busied himself with improvements in the internal organization of his government. For the first time after entering power, he visited Edirne (Adrianople), where he indulged in hunting fun. Then he sent troops to Egypt to suppress the uprising of the Turkish governor Ahmed Pasha, who had renounced his allegiance to the Sultan. He appointed his grand vizier, Ibrahim Pasha, to command the suppression of the uprising to restore order in Cairo and reorganize the provincial administration.
Ibrahim Pasha and Suleiman: The Beginning
But on his return from Edirne to Istanbul, the Sultan encountered a revolt of the Janissaries. These militant, privileged infantrymen (recruited from Christian children 12-16 years old in Turkish, mainly European, provinces. Converted to Islam at a young age, given first to Turkish families, and then to the army, losing touch with their The first family (note by Portalostranah.ru) counted on annual campaigns to not only satisfy their thirst for battle, but also to secure additional income from robberies. So they resented the Sultan's prolonged inaction.
Janissary
The Janissaries became perceptibly stronger and more aware of their power, as they now made up a quarter of the Sultan's standing army. In wartime they were, as a rule, devoted and faithful servants of their master, although they might not obey his orders forbidding the sack of captured cities, and on occasion limited his conquests, protesting against the continuation of overly strenuous campaigns. But in peacetime, languishing from inactivity, no longer living in an atmosphere of strict discipline, but being in relative idleness, the Janissaries more and more acquired the property of a threatening and insatiable mass - especially during the interval between the death of one sultan and the accession to the throne of another.
Now, in the spring of 1525, they started a rebellion, looting the customs, the Jewish quarter, and the houses of high officials and other people. A group of Janissaries forcibly made their way to the reception room of the Sultan, who is said to have killed three of them with his own hand, but was forced to withdraw when the others threatened his life with their bows pointed at him.
The mutiny was crushed by the execution of their agha (commander) and several officers suspected of complicity, while other officers were dismissed from their posts. The soldiers were reassured by cash offerings, but also by the prospect of a campaign the following year. Ibrahim Pasha was recalled from Egypt and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Empire, acting as the second after the Sultan ...
Ibrahim Pasha
Ibrahim Pasha is one of the most brilliant and powerful figures of Suleiman's reign. He was a Greek of Christian origin - the son of a sailor from Parga, in the Ionian Sea. He was born in the same year - and even, as he claimed, in the same week - as Suleiman himself. Captured as a child by Turkish corsairs, Ibrahim was sold into slavery to a widow and Magnesia (near Izmir, in Turkey. Also known as Manissa. Note Portalostranah.ru), who gave him a good education and taught him how to play a musical instrument.
Some time later, at the time of his youth, Ibrahim met Suleiman, at that time the heir to the throne and governor of Magnesia, who was fascinated by him and his talents, and made him his property. Suleiman made Ibrahim one of his personal pages, then an attorney and the closest favorite.
After the ascension of Suleiman to the throne, the young man was appointed to the post of senior falconer, then successively held a number of posts in the imperial chambers.
Ibrahim managed to establish unusually friendly relations with his master, spending the night in Suleiman's apartment, having dinner with him at the same table, sharing leisure time with him, exchanging notes with him through dumb servants. Suleiman, reserved by nature, silent and prone to manifestations of melancholy, needed precisely such confidential communication.
Under his patronage, Ibrahim was married with marked pomp and splendor to a girl who was considered one of the Sultan's sisters.
His rise to power was, in fact, so swift that it caused some anxiety in Ibrahim himself.
Well aware of the vagaries of the ups and downs of the Ottoman court, Ibrahim once went so far as to beg Suleiman not to put him in too high a position, as a fall would be ruin for him.
In response, Suleiman is said to have praised his favorite for his modesty and vowed that Ibrahim would not be put to death while he reigned, no matter what charges might be brought against him.
Ibrahim Pasha
But, as the historian of the next century will note in the light of further events: "The position of kings, who are human and subject to change, and the position of favorites, who are proud and ungrateful, will cause Suleiman not to fulfill his promise, and Ibrahim will lose his faith and loyalty"
Hungary - Ottoman Empire:
how hungary disappearedfrom a world map divided into three parts
Sultan Suleiman"The revolt of the Janissaries may have hastened Suleiman's decision to carry out a campaign in Hungary. But he was also influenced by the defeat and capture of Francis I by the Habsburg Emperor at the Battle of Pavia in 1525. Francis, from his prison in Madrid, sent a secret letter to Istanbul, hidden in the soles of his messenger's shoes, asking the Sultan for release, undertaking a general campaign against Charles, who would otherwise become the "master of the sea." (Meaning the battle for Milan and Burgundy between France and Spain (Holy Roman Empire) and, accordingly, French King Francis I, who was soon released by Charles V to France, and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor from the Habsburg dynasty.
Francis I
By this point, the Hungarians had concentrated their forces on the Mohács plain, about thirty miles to the north. The young King Louis arrived with an army of only four thousand men. But the most diverse reinforcements began to arrive, until the total number of his troops, including Poles, Germans and Bohemians, reached twenty-five thousand people.
Louis
The emperor (i.e. Charles V - the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire - and also the ruler of Spain, and earlier of Austria. Note Portalostranah.ru) when it came to the allocation of troops for the war with the Turks, turned out to be dependent on the mercy of a number of Protestant diets. They were in no hurry, even resisted isolating the soldiers, because among them were pacifist-minded people who saw a principled enemy not in the sultan, but in the pope. At the same time, they were quick to exploit the age-old conflict between the Habsburgs and the Turks for their own religious purposes. As a result, in 1521 the Diet of Worms refused to allocate aid for the defense of Belgrade, and now, in 1526, the Diet of Speyer, after much deliberation, voted too late for reinforcements for the army at Mohacs.
On the battlefield, the most astute of the Hungarian generals discussed the question of a strategic retreat towards Buda, thereby inviting the Turks to follow them and extend their lines of communication; moreover, winning along the way due to replenishment from the army of Zapolya, at that moment only a few days away from the transition, and from the contingent of Bohemians who had already appeared on the western border.
But the majority of Hungarians, self-confident and impatient, harbored dreams of immediate military glory. Led by the militant Magyar nobility, who at the same time did not believe the king and envied Zapolya, they noisily demanded an immediate battle, taking up an offensive position right on this place. Their demands prevailed, and the battle took place on a marshy, six-mile-long plain and west of the Danube, a place chosen for the deployment of the Hungarian cavalry, but affording the same opportunity to the more professional and more numerous cavalry of the Turks. Upon learning of this reckless decision, the far-sighted and intelligent prelate predicted that "the Hungarian nation will have twenty thousand dead on the day of battle and it would be good for the pope to canonize them."
Battle of Mohache 1526 Impatient in both tactics and strategy, the Hungarians opened the battle with a frontal attack by their heavily armed cavalry, led personally by King Louis, and aimed directly at the center of the Turkish line. When it seemed that success was planned, the attack was followed by a general offensive of all Hungarian troops. However, the Turks, hoping in this way to mislead the enemy and defeat him, planned their defense in depth, placing their main line further to the rear, near the slope of the hill that covered it from behind. As a result, the Hungarian cavalry, which at the moment was still rushing forward, reached the main core of the Turkish army - the Janissaries, grouped around the Sultan and his banner. Violent hand-to-hand fights broke out, and at one point the Sultan himself was in danger when arrows and spears hit his shell. But the Turkish artillery, which greatly outnumbered the enemy, and skillfully used as usual, decided the outcome of the matter. It mowed down the Hungarians by the thousands and gave the Turks the opportunity to surround and defeat the Hungarian army in the center of the position, destroying and scattering the enemy until the survivors fled in complete disarray to the north and east. The battle was thus won in an hour and a half.
Battle of Mojache 1526 
Battle of Mohache 1526 The King of Hungary died on the battlefield while trying to escape with a head wound. (Louis was 20 years old. Note Portalostranah.ru). His body, identified by the jewels on his helmet, was found in a swamp, where he was drowned under the weight of his own armor by his fallen horse. His kingdom died with him, for he had no heir; most of the Magyar nobility and eight bishops also died. Suleiman is said to have expressed chivalrous regret over the death of the king: “May Allah be lenient with him and punish those who deceived his inexperience: it was not my desire that he should stop his journey like that when he had barely tasted the sweetness of life and royalty."
Battle of Mojache 1526
More pragmatic and far from chivalrous was the Sultan's order not to take prisoners. In front of his bright red imperial tent, a pyramid of a thousand heads of the Hungarian nobility was soon erected, on August 31, 1526, the day after the battle, he wrote in his diary: “The Sultan, seated on a golden throne, receives expressions of respect from his viziers and beys; the massacre of 2,000 prisoners; pouring rain." September 2: "2,000 Hungarian infantrymen and 4,000 cavalry killed at Mohacs are interred." After that, Mohach was burned, and the surroundings were set on fire by akindzhi (Akindzhi (i.e., in translation, "make a raid") - the Ottoman irregular cavalry, in which, unlike the Janissaries, the Turks served, and not Slavic slaves. Note. Potalostranah.ru).
Not without reason, the "ruins of Mohács", as the place is still called, was described as "the tomb of the Hungarian nation". Until now, when misfortune happens, the Hungarian creates: “It doesn’t matter, the loss was greater on the Mohacs field.”
Battle of Mojache 1526
After the Battle of Mohacs, which established Turkey's position as the superior force in the heart of Europe for the next two centuries, the organized resistance of Hungary actually came to naught. Jan Zapolya and his troops, who could have influenced the outcome of the battle, reached the Danube the next day, but hastened to retreat, having barely received the news of the defeat of their compatriots. On September 10, the Sultan and his army entered Buda. On the way there: “September 4th. He ordered to kill all the peasants in the camp. Exception for women. Akıncı is forbidden to engage in robbery.” It was a ban that they constantly ignored.
Battle of Mojache 1526
The city of Buda was burned to the ground, and only the royal palace survived, where Suleiman made his residence. Here, in the company of Ibrahim, he collected a collection of palace valuables, which was delivered by river to Belgrade, and from there further to Istanbul. These riches included Matthias Corwin's large library, famous throughout Europe, along with three bronze sculptures from Italy depicting Hercules, Diana, and Apollo. The most valuable trophies, however, were two huge cannons, which Mehmed the Conqueror had to destroy after the failed siege of Belgrade and which the Hungarians have since proudly displayed as proof of their heroism.
Suleiman Mohacs
The Sultan, now immersed in the pleasures of ordinary and falconry, in the world of music and palace balls, meanwhile pondered what he would do with this country, which he conquered with such unexpected ease. He was supposed to occupy Hungary and leave his garrisons there, adding it to the empire, as he did with Belgrade and Rhodes. But for the moment he chose to be content with the fruits of his limited victory. His army, essentially fit for combat only in the summer, suffered from the harsh, rainy weather of the Danube valley.
In addition, winter was approaching, and his army was not able to exercise control over the entire country. Moreover, the presence of the Sultan was required in the capital to deal with the unrest in Anatolia, where it was necessary to suppress the uprisings in Cilicia and Karaman. Communication routes between Buda and Istanbul were very long. According to the historian Kemalpashi-zade: “The time when this province should have been annexed to the possessions of Islam has not yet come. The matter was adjourned until a more appropriate occasion."
Therefore, Suleiman built a bridge of boats across the Danube to Pest and, after setting the city on fire, led his troops home along the left bank of the river.
His departure left a political and dynastic vacuum in Hungary. Two rival claimants sought to fill it by contesting the crown of the deceased King Louis. The first was Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg, brother of Emperor Charles V and brother-in-law of the childless King Louis, whose throne he had a legitimate claim to. His rival pretender was Jan Zápolyai, the ruling prince of Transylvania, who, as a Hungarian, could win over a law that excluded the participation of foreigners in the struggle for the throne of his country, and who, with his army still fresh and not exhausted in battles, practically controlled most of the kingdom.
Jan Zápolya and the Sejm, who consisted mainly of the Hungarian nobility, elected Zápolya and he entered Budapest to be crowned. This suited Suleiman, who could count on Zápolya to keep his promise, while Zápolya himself received material support from Francis I and his anti-Habsburg allies.
However, a few weeks later a rival Sejm, supported by the pro-German part of the tribal nobility, elected Ferdinand, who had already been elected King of Bohemia, King of Hungary. This led to civil war, in which Ferdinand, at his own peril and risk, went on a campaign against Zapolya, defeated him and sent him into exile in Poland. Ferdinand in turn was crowned King of Hungary, occupied Buda, and began to make plans for a Central European Habsburg state made up of Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary.
Ferdinand I
Such plans, however, had to depend on the Turks, whose diplomacy henceforth and henceforth influenced the course of European history. From Poland, Zapolyai sent an ambassador to Istanbul, seeking an alliance with the Sultan. At first he met with an arrogant reception from Ibrahim and his fellow viziers. But in the end the sultan agreed to give Zápolya the title of king, effectively granting him the lands that his armies had conquered, and promising him protection from Ferdinand and all his enemies.
An agreement was signed under which Zapolyai undertook to pay the Sultan an annual tribute, to allocate at his disposal every ten years a tenth of the population of Hungary of both sexes and forever grant the right of free passage through his territory to the armed forces of the Turks. This turned Jan Zápolyai into a vassal of the Sultan and his part of Hungary into a satellite kingdom under Turkish protectorate.
Ferdinand, in turn, sent ambassadors to Istanbul in the hope of reaching a truce. The Sultan denied them their self-assured demands and they were thrown into prison.
Suleiman was now preparing plans for a third campaign in the upper Danube valley, the purpose of which was to defend Zapolya from Ferdinand and challenge Emperor Charles V himself.
Charles V
Suleiman the Magnificent tries to take the city of Vienna
Sultan Suleyman
On May 10, 1529, he left Istanbul with an army even larger than before, again under the command of Ibrahim Pasha. The rains were pouring even harder than before, and the expedition reached the outskirts of Vienna a month later than planned. Meanwhile, Zápolya came to greet his master in the field of Mohács with six thousand men. The Sultan received him with due ceremony, crowning him with the sacred crown of Saint Stephen...
Fortunately for the defenders (at Vienna), Suleiman was forced by the rains to leave behind him the bulk of his heavy siege artillery, so effective on Rhodes. He had only light guns capable of inflicting only minor damage to the fortified walls, and therefore could rely mainly on laying mines. However, the sultan underestimated the task before him when he offered to surrender to the garrison, stating that he only sought to pursue and discover King Ferdinand.
The musket fire of the Turks was so accurate and constant that it made it impossible for any defender to appear on these walls without the risk of being wounded or killed; their archers, hiding among the ruins of the suburbs, fired an endless hail of arrows, and so deadly that they fell into the loopholes and loopholes in the walls, preventing the townspeople from going out into the streets. Arrows flew in all directions, and the crowns took some of them, wrapped in expensive fabrics and even adorned with pearls - apparently fired by noble Turks - as souvenirs.
Turkish sappers blew up mines and, despite active counter-mining through the city cellars, large gaps began to form in the walls of the city as a result. The constantly renewed attacks of the Turks were repulsed by the courageous defenders of the city, who celebrated their success with the loud sound of trumpets and military music. They themselves periodically made sorties, sometimes returning with prisoners - with trophies, which in one case amounted to eighty people and five camels.
SiegeOfViennaByOttomanForces
Suleiman watched the military operations from a carpeted tent, which rose high above the camp of the Turks, hung from the inside with thin expensive fabrics and furnished with sofas decorated with precious stones and numerous turrets with gold spikes.
On the evening of October 12, a Divan, a military council, was convened at the Sultan's headquarters to decide whether to continue or end the siege. Ibrahim, expressing the views of the majority, would prefer to remove it; army morale was low, winter was approaching, supplies were dwindling, the Janissaries were dissatisfied, the enemy was expecting close reinforcements. After discussion, it was decided to attempt a fourth and final major assault, offering the troops exceptional cash rewards for success. On October 14, the assault was launched by the Janissaries and selected units of the Sultan's army. The assault ran into a desperate resistance that lasted hour after hour. The attackers failed to assault a gap in the walls 150 feet wide. The Turkish losses were so heavy that they gave rise to widespread disillusionment.
The sultan's army, capable of fighting only in the summer, could not endure a winter campaign without losing its horses, and was therefore limited to a season of war of scarcely more than six months. But both the sultan himself and the ministers who accompanied him could not be absent from Istanbul for such a long time. Now that it was already mid-October and the last attack ended in failure, Suleiman lifted the siege and ordered a general retreat. Turkish troops set fire to their camp, killing or burning alive the prisoners captured in the Austrian province, except for those of both sexes who were younger and who could be sold in the slave markets. The army began its long journey to Istanbul, disturbed by skirmishes with enemy cavalry and exhausted by bad weather.
The heart of Christian Europe was not given into the hands of the Turks. Sultan Suleiman suffered his first defeat, being driven back from the walls of the great capital by a force that his own outnumbered three to one. In Buda, his vassal Zápolyai greeted him with a compliment on his "successful campaign".
It was such a sultan who tried to present her to his subjects, who celebrated his return with festivities in the name of the wasteful and magnificent feast of the circumcision of his five sons. The Sultan sought to maintain his authority by presenting everything as if he did not intend to take possession of Vienna, but only wanted to fight Archduke Ferdinand, who did not dare to go against him and who, as Ibrahim later put it, was just a small Viennese citizen who did not deserve serious attention ".
In the eyes of the whole world, the authority of the sultan was saved by the arrival in Istanbul of ambassadors from Ferdinand, who offered a truce and an annual “boarding house” to the sultan and the grand vizier, if they recognize him as king of Hungary, give way to Buda and refuse to support Zapolya.
The Sultan still expressed his determination to cross arms with Emperor Charles. Therefore, on April 26, 1532, he once again moved up the Danube with his army and river fleet. Before reaching Belgrade, Suleiman was greeted by Ferdinand's new ambassadors, who now offered peace on even more conciliatory terms, increasing the size of the proposed "boarding house" and expressing their readiness to recognize Zápolya's individual claims.
But the sultan, having received the ambassadors of Ferdinand in a luxuriously furnished room and making them feel humiliated by the fact that they were placed below the envoy of France, emphasized only that his enemy was not Ferdinand, but Charles: “The King of Spain,” he said defiantly, “for for a long time declared his desire to go against the Turks; but I, by the grace of God, go with my army against no If he has a brave heart, let him wait for me on the battlefield, and then everything will be God's will. If, however, he does not want to wait for me, let him send a tribute to my Imperial Majesty.
This time the emperor, having returned to his German dominions temporarily at peace with France, fully aware of the seriousness of the Turkish threat and his obligation to defend Europe against it, gathered the largest and most powerful imperial army that had ever opposed the Turks. Inspired by the knowledge that this was a decisive turning point in the struggle between Christianity and Islam, soldiers flocked to the theater of war in droves from all corners of his dominions. From behind the Alps came contingents of Italians and Spaniards. An army was assembled that had never before been assembled in Western Europe.
In order to raise such an army, Charles was forced to come to an agreement with the Lutherans, who had hitherto rendered all efforts in the defense of the empire in vain by their unwillingness to allocate appropriate funds, military equipment and supplies for that purpose. Now, in June 1532, a truce was reached at Nuremberg, under which the Catholic Emperor, in exchange for such support, made important concessions to the Protestants and postponed indefinitely the final solution of the religious question. So the Ottoman Empire, paradoxically, became, in fact, an "ally of the Reformation."
Now Suleiman, instead of marching, as before, through the Danube valley straight to Vienna, sent forward irregular cavalry to demonstrate his presence in front of the city and devastate its environs. He himself led his main army a little further south into open country, perhaps with the intention of luring the enemy out of the city and giving him battle on terrain more favorable to his regular cavalry. About sixty miles south of the city, he was stopped in front of the small fortress of Guns, the last city of Hungary before the Austrian border. Here the sultan encountered the unexpected and heroic resistance of a small garrison, which, under the leadership of a Croatian aristocrat named Nikolai Jurisich, steadfastly held out to the end, delaying Suleiman's advance for almost the entire month of August ...
In the end, Ibrahim came up with a compromise. The defenders were told that the Sultan, considering their bravery, had decided to spare them. Ibrahim received the commander with honor, and he agreed to the terms of surrender "on paper", handing over the keys to the city as a sign of nominal Turkish possession. After that, only a small number of Turkish soldiers were allowed to go inside the city in order to put people at holes in the walls and prevent massacre and looting.
So the main forces of the Turkish army returned to Istanbul unharmed, to be ready to fight at any moment.
