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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Solyman Biography SOLYMAN (or SULEIMAN) II (c.1495–1566). Sultan of the Turkish Empire, surnamed The Magnificent. In September, 1520, he succeeded his father, Selim I (q.v.). He overthrew the rebellious Governor of Syria, repressed the Egyptian Mamelukes, and concluded a treaty with Persia. In 1521 he took Belgrade, the key to Hungary. He next drove the Knights of St. John from Rhodes (1522). Afterward he devoted himself to improvements in administration and to preparations for an onslaught upon Hungary (q.v.). On Aug. 29, 1526, he overwhelmed the army of King Louis II at Mohács. In 1529 he was summoned to Hungary to aid his protégé, John Zápolya, Waywode of Transylvania, then contesting the crown with Ferdinand, brother of the Emperor Charles V. He laid siege to Vienna, but after a number of unsuccessful assaults retreated. In 1532 he laid Styria waste and again advanced to the neighborhood of Vienna, but was baffled by the resistance of the Hungarian fortress of Güns, and the advance of the Imperial army under Charles V forced him back. Soon after this the Sultan waged a successful war against Persia. In 1535 Solyman concluded with Francis I the famous treaty which opened the commerce of the Levant to the French flag alone. By 1541 the Turks were in permanent possession of the heart of Hungary. In 1542 the combined French and Turkish fleets ravaged the Italian coasts and pillaged Nice. The Turks were now supreme in the Mediterranean; in 1551 Tripoli fell into their hands. A second and third war with Persia, now in a state of semi-subjugation, a brilliant naval victory (1561) over the Knights of Malta and their allies, the Spaniards, an unsuccessful siege of Malta (1565), and a fresh expedition to Hungary (1566), were the chief events of the remainder of his reign. Solyman encouraged literature, and did much for the improvement of the laws as well as for the military organization of the state. See Turkey. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 281. |