Achievements, opposition and assessment

Answer

He had the sultan's laws codified into the kanun, a clear legal system that sat alongside Islamic sharia and made justice consistent across the empire.

Answer

Its greatest ever — stretching across three continents, from Hungary and the Balkans in Europe, through the Middle East to Baghdad, and along North Africa.

Answer

The architect Sinan built mosques like the Suleymaniye in Istanbul, and poetry, calligraphy and tile-work flourished under royal patronage.

Answer

A system letting religious communities (Christians, Jews) run their own community affairs within the empire, which reduced revolt and kept the diverse state stable.

Answer

A levy that recruited talented Christian boys, converted them, and trained them as loyal janissary soldiers and administrators of the state.

Answer

Both were centralised, bureaucratic and faith-legitimised. But the Ottomans governed far more territory and many faiths (via the millet system), rather than a single-nation, single-faith kingdom.

Answer

Suleiman's influential wife, a former concubine. She gained great political power and her rivalry with other heirs split the court into factions.

Answer

Both were executed amid succession rivalry — Mustafa in 1553 on suspicion of treason, and Bayezid later after fleeing to Persia — leaving the weaker Selim II as heir.

Answer

It marked the limit of Ottoman expansion into central Europe — armies could reach the heart of Europe but could not hold it.

Answer

The ruinous cost of continuous warfare, over-extended frontiers that were hard to defend, and deadly court intrigue over the succession.

Answer

In 1566, during the siege of Szigetvár in Hungary, while still on campaign at nearly 72.

Answer

Traditional historians see 1566 as the start of Ottoman decline; recent historians argue the empire stayed strong and adaptable for another century, so 'decline' is too simple a label.