includes bibliographical references and index

Suleyman the Magnificent dominated the Ottoman and the eastern Mediterranean worlds - and the imaginations of his contemporaries. During his reign (1520-1566) the Ottoman Empire expanded hugely. The sultan ruled over territories from Algiers to Azerbayjan, from Budapest to Baghdad and Basra, and from the Crimea to Qatif in the Persian Gulf and Mocha in Yemen. He controlled three-quarters of the Mediterranean shores. His armies even besieged Vienna. But Suleyman was more than a conqueror: it was also as patron and legislator that he stamped his name on his age. He provides a fascinating comparison with his fellow sovereigns in the west, Charles V, Francis I and Henry VIII. Yet Suleyman and his world remain much less well known than these Renaissance rulers to historians and other readers today. This book is a welcome contribution to a wider understanding of the man and his times