Suleiman the Magnificent Ascends

September 30, 1520

On the death of Selim the Grim, his son Suleiman rode into Istanbul and took the Ottoman throne. Twenty-five years old, learned in poetry and law, he would reign for forty-six years, extend the empire deep into Europe, and be remembered in Turkish as the Lawgiver, Kanuni. His reign witnessed the Suleymaniye Mosque, Ottoman law codification, and military campaigns bringing the empire to its greatest extent.