Suleyman the Magnificent

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

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Summary

The Ottoman Sultan Suleyman I - known as "Suleyman the Magnificent" in the West - was the most feared and powerful man of the sixteenth century. His journey to power was built on brutal choices and intimate relationships - with the Greek slave who became his closest friend, the Venetian plutocrat who sold him gems and won him allies and the Russian consort who stole his heart. Within a decade, Suleyman reached the walls of Vienna, while his pirate admiral Barbarossa dominated the Mediterranean.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to award-winning author Christopher de Bellaigue, about his acclaimed new book The Lion House which recounts the first third of Suleyman's reign, a remarkable rise to power which led to his domination of the Middle East, large swathes of north Africa and the Mediterranean.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You've probably heard of Silliman, but perhaps your knowledge about him doesn't stretch
0:18.2	much beyond his western nickname, the Magnificent.
0:22.7	He was a contemporary of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the French king François I
0:28.5	and the English monarch Henry VIII, though the latter, poor and preoccupied with matters
0:33.8	of the bedroom, did not concern him a job.
0:36.9	Silliman was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 until his death in 1566.
0:43.8	He led his armies to war, in Belgrade, Rhodes, Budapest, even Vienna, later conquered much
0:50.5	of the Middle East and North Africa.
0:53.1	His reign marked the zenith of Ottoman power, and his reforms reshaped Turkish law and
0:59.3	society in Turkey he's still known as Koununi, the lawgiver.
1:05.4	My guest today has just published an acclaimed, gripping and present tense account of Silliman's
1:12.9	early reign, which draws on extensive primary sources in half a dozen languages.
1:19.1	It's called The Lion House, the coming of a king, and its author is Christopher Debeleg,
1:26.2	award-winning writer of five books.
1:35.1	Christopher, thank you so much for making time to talk about your new book with me.
1:40.8	You start your book though in what might at first glance appear to be a curious place with
1:45.5	a Venetian election.
1:47.8	And then tell the story of Silliman the Magnificent, impartently through this kind of prism of
1:52.4	the relationship between the Ottomans and Venice.
1:54.7	What inspired you to put Venice at the heart of the Ottoman story?
1:58.1	It was where I happened to start the story when I was simply researching and putting down
2:03.4	notes.
	...

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