A new book on Turkish history explores the era of the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Süleyman
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Sultan Süleyman I is called “the Magnificent” in the West and “the Lawgiver” in Turkey due to the codification of laws, both religious and secular, during his reign. Süleyman’s era is considered the heyday of Ottoman rule. His reign from 1520 to 1566 is synonymous with the greatest territorial extent of the empire. By coincidence, it began at almost the same time as the fateful encounter between Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma in Tenochtitlan (Mexico City today) that would destroy the Aztec empire and enrich the Spanish. The flow of silver from the New World to the Old that followed the Spanish conquests was already starting to upend the Ottoman economy, causing rampant inflation and weakening Ottoman superiority vis-à-vis the West, but for the moment, the Ottomans were blissfully unaware of any of this. Süleyman proceeded to expand the already impressive empire he had inherited from his father, Selim I (son of Bayezid II, grandson of Mehmed II).