Suleiman the Magnificent

1494 – 1566 · died at about 72^[1][2]

Politics & Leadership

Fun Facts About Suleiman the Magnificent

• Suleiman the Magnificent was also a goldsmith and a poet who wrote in Persian and Turkish under the pen name Muhibbi, meaning Lover. Some of his verses became Turkish proverbs.^[1]
• Suleiman was called the Magnificent in the West and Kanuni, the Lawgiver, by Ottomans, but the Lawgiver epithet is absent from 16th- and 17th-century Ottoman sources and may date from the 1700s.^[1]
• Suleiman died during the siege of Szigetvár in Hungary. His grand vizier kept the death secret, and his heart and liver were buried near Szigetvár while his body returned to Istanbul.^[1]
• Suleiman married Hürrem Sultan, known in the West as Roxelana, a former slave captured by Crimean Tatars, to the astonishment of observers in the palace and the city.^[1]
• As a young man Suleiman befriended Pargalı Ibrahim, a Greek slave who became his grand vizier and one of his most trusted advisers, and was later executed on Suleiman's orders.^[1]
• Suleiman exchanged six documents with the Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great, and Ottoman admirals sailed to Mughal ports such as Surat.^[1][3][4]
• Suleiman the Magnificent was alive at the same time as William Shakespeare — their lives overlapped for 2 years (1564–1566).^[1][2][5][6]
• Suleiman the Magnificent and Akira Kurosawa died on the same day of the year, September 6.^[1][2][7][8]

Suleiman I, commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent, was the Ottoman sultan from 1520 to 1566. The longest reign among the Ottoman sultans, his rule brought about a notable peak in the Ottoman Empire's economic, military and political power, and raised the number of the empire's subjects to at least 25 million people.^[1]

Contemporaries

Michelangelo

70 yr overlap

Henry VIII

53 yr overlap

Hernán Cortés

53 yr overlap

Martin Luther

52 yr overlap

Nicolaus Copernicus

49 yr overlap

Albrecht Dürer

34 yr overlap

Niccolò Machiavelli

33 yr overlap

Elizabeth I

33 yr overlap

Vasco da Gama

30 yr overlap

Ferdinand Magellan

27 yr overlap

Raphael

26 yr overlap

Sir Francis Drake

26 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Suleiman the Magnificent

When was Suleiman the Magnificent born?

Suleiman the Magnificent was born on November 6, 1494, and died on September 6, 1566.

How old was Suleiman the Magnificent at death?

Suleiman the Magnificent was born on November 6, 1494, and died on September 6, 1566, at age 71.

What was Suleiman the Magnificent known for?

Suleiman the Magnificent was known for: Longest-reigning Ottoman sultan. Suleiman I, commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent, was the Ottoman sultan from 1520 to 1566. The longest reign among the Ottoman sultans, his rule brought about a notable peak in the Ottoman Empire's economic, military and political power, and raised the number of the empire's subjects to at least 25 million people.

Who was alive at the same time as Suleiman the Magnificent?

Suleiman the Magnificent's closest contemporary was Michelangelo. Their lives overlapped for 70 years.