Suleiman's Heir Executed at Topkapi

1554

The Ottoman prince Mustafa, beloved of the Janissaries and widely seen as the ablest heir, was summoned to his father's tent and strangled with a bowstring on the orders of Suleiman the Magnificent. Roxelana, the sultan's Ukrainian-born wife, had lobbied for her own sons' succession. The empire's most promising future died in a silken cord.