Suleiman Bal
Suleiman Bal (d. c. 1776). Leader of the Tukolor Islamic revolution in Futa Toro. Upon returning from the pilgrimage to Mecca, he preached conversion to Islam throughout Futa Toro (around 1769). At the time, Futa Toro was subjected to invasions from the neighboring Berbers. Soule-Budu, the Futa Toro ruler of the Denianke dynasty, was unable to repel the attacks. Suleiman rallied disaffected soldiers, nobles, and Muslims to fight both the Berbers and the Denianke. The revolution triumphed in 1776, about the same time as the Futa Islamic revolution in Futa Jalon (Guinea). Suleiman declined to rule the new Islamic state, handing over power to Abdul Kader. He himself was killed in a campaign against the Berbers.
Bal, Suleiman see Suleiman Bal
Suleiman Bal (d. c. 1776). Leader of the Tukolor Islamic revolution in Futa Toro. Upon returning from the pilgrimage to Mecca, he preached conversion to Islam throughout Futa Toro (around 1769). At the time, Futa Toro was subjected to invasions from the neighboring Berbers. Soule-Budu, the Futa Toro ruler of the Denianke dynasty, was unable to repel the attacks. Suleiman rallied disaffected soldiers, nobles, and Muslims to fight both the Berbers and the Denianke. The revolution triumphed in 1776, about the same time as the Futa Islamic revolution in Futa Jalon (Guinea). Suleiman declined to rule the new Islamic state, handing over power to Abdul Kader. He himself was killed in a campaign against the Berbers.
Bal, Suleiman see Suleiman Bal
Suleiman, Fadwa
Fadwa Suleiman or Fadwa Soliman (b. May 17, 1970, Aleppo, Syria – d. August 17, 2017, Paris, France) was a Syrian actress of an Alawite descent who led a Sunni-majority protest against Bashar al-Assad's government in Homs. She became one of the most recognized faces of the Syrian Civil War.
Born in Aleppo, Suleiman moved to the capital Damascus to pursue an acting career where she performed in numerous plays, Maria's Voice and Media, and in at least a dozen TV shows, including in The Diary of Abou Antar and Little Ladies. She also played an art teacher at an orphanage in Small Hearts, a television series that helped raise awareness about human organ trafficking and was broadcast by several Arab channels. She also acted in an Arabic adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Qabbani theater in Damascus.
At the beginning of the Syrian uprising in 2011, Suleiman was one of the few outspoken actresses against Assad's government. Knowing her fate would be death or prison, Suleiman wanted to participate in the demonstration to dispel what she said was public perception that all in the Alawite community, which comprised around 10 per cent of the Syrian population, supported Assad's government. She also wanted to dismiss the government's narrative that those who participate in protests were either Islamists or armed terrorists. She appeared at rallies demanding Assad's removal, sharing the podium with soccer star Abdelbasset Sarout, one of a number of Syrian celebrities who backed the revolt.
Suleiman also delivered impassioned monologues to the camera, calling for peaceful protests to continue across the country until Assad was overthrown. In one video message in 2011, Suleiman said security forces were searching Homs neighborhoods for her, and beating people to force them to reveal her hiding place. She cut her hair short like a boy, and moved from house to house to evade capture. In 2012, she fled with her husband via Lebanon and moved to France, where they resided in Paris.
On August 17, 2017, Suleiman died of cancer while in exile in Paris.
Fadwa Suleiman or Fadwa Soliman (b. May 17, 1970, Aleppo, Syria – d. August 17, 2017, Paris, France) was a Syrian actress of an Alawite descent who led a Sunni-majority protest against Bashar al-Assad's government in Homs. She became one of the most recognized faces of the Syrian Civil War.
Born in Aleppo, Suleiman moved to the capital Damascus to pursue an acting career where she performed in numerous plays, Maria's Voice and Media, and in at least a dozen TV shows, including in The Diary of Abou Antar and Little Ladies. She also played an art teacher at an orphanage in Small Hearts, a television series that helped raise awareness about human organ trafficking and was broadcast by several Arab channels. She also acted in an Arabic adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Qabbani theater in Damascus.
At the beginning of the Syrian uprising in 2011, Suleiman was one of the few outspoken actresses against Assad's government. Knowing her fate would be death or prison, Suleiman wanted to participate in the demonstration to dispel what she said was public perception that all in the Alawite community, which comprised around 10 per cent of the Syrian population, supported Assad's government. She also wanted to dismiss the government's narrative that those who participate in protests were either Islamists or armed terrorists. She appeared at rallies demanding Assad's removal, sharing the podium with soccer star Abdelbasset Sarout, one of a number of Syrian celebrities who backed the revolt.
Suleiman also delivered impassioned monologues to the camera, calling for peaceful protests to continue across the country until Assad was overthrown. In one video message in 2011, Suleiman said security forces were searching Homs neighborhoods for her, and beating people to force them to reveal her hiding place. She cut her hair short like a boy, and moved from house to house to evade capture. In 2012, she fled with her husband via Lebanon and moved to France, where they resided in Paris.
On August 17, 2017, Suleiman died of cancer while in exile in Paris.
Suleyman I
Suleyman I (Qanuni) (Suleyman the Magnificent) (Süleyman the Lawgiver) (Süleyman Muhteşem) (Kanuni) (b. November 6, 1494–April 1495— d. September 5/6, 1566, near Szigetvár, Hungary). Greatest of the Ottoman sultans. Peace loving by nature, he took part in thirteen great campaigns in Europe and Asia. In 1521, he conquered Belgrade and the next year the island of Rhodes. In 1526, the Hungarians were defeated at Mohacs and Buda was temporarily occupied. 1529 saw the siege of Vienna, which was however raised soon. The various embassies to Austria had no success, and in 1532 Suleyman started upon what the Turkish sources call “the German campaign against the king of Spain.” However, in 1533, an armistice was concluded with Austria.
Suleyman’s next campaign was directed against Persia, which avoided the battle. In 1534, the sultan made his ceremonial entrance in Baghdad, where he stayed for four months and built the mausoleum of Abu Hanifa. He also visited Najaf, Kufa and Karbala’. In 1541 and 1543, he was again in Hungary, where Turkish administration was introduced. The war against Persia was resumed in 1548 but without success, and in 1555 a treaty was concluded at Amasia, where Suleyman received the Austrian embassy under Ogier Giselin de Busbecq. It could only obtain an armistice. The sultan died during the siege of Szigeth.
Suleyman was a pious man, and must have been a born ruler. As a poet, he used the pen-name of Muhibbi. Following the principles of his predecessors, he elaborated the system of state institutions by promulgating the “Canon,” which deals mainly with the organization of the army, the laws of landed property, the police and the feudal code. During his reign, the Ottoman Empire established its place in international affairs. The Christian states had lost all hope of driving the Turks out of Europe, and King Francis concluded an alliance with the Ottoman sultan. The Turkish fleet began to be active in the Mediterranean, in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean. The possession of Aden and Yemen was secured for the empire.
Under Suleyman, Ottoman civilization gained its own special character in the field of literature and especially in that of architecture with the works of Sinan in Istanbul, Baghdad, Konya, Jerusalem and Mecca.
A chronology of Suleyman’s life reads as follows:
Suleyman was born in November of 1494 as the only son of Sultan Selim I.
Early in the sixteenth century, Suleyman became sacak beyi, the governor of Kaffa in the Crimea.
Around 1512, Suleyman moved to Anatolia, where he became governor in Manisa.
In 1520, following the death of his father, Suleyman became the new sultan. He immediately set out on campaigns against the Christian powers in Europe.
In 1521, Belgrade (today’s Serbia) fell to the Ottomans.
In 1522, the island of Rhodes fell to the Ottomans. This meant the end of the rule of the Knights of St. John.
In 1526, Suleyman struck a final defeat on the Hungarians at the battle of Mohacs. Their king was killed, and Suleyman supported the new king John. John became the vassal king under the Ottomans.
In 1529, Suleyman started a short-lived and unsuccessful siege to Vienna.
In 1532, there was an important victory against Austria, where Ottoman forces looted large parts of the country. However, Austria still was not put under direct Ottoman rule, as the sultan was mainly occupied with his Asian neighbors at this time.
In 1534, a campaign was launched against Persia.
In 1535, both Iraq and the region of Erzurum was conquered after the defeat of the Persians.
In 1538, the Ottomans won the sea battle off Preveza under the leadership of Khayr ud-Din, known in Europe as Barbarossa. This made the Ottomans the leading power in the Mediterranean Sea.
From 1541 to 1562, there was a war in Hungary that led to few changes in the situation with regards to Ottoman dominance.
In 1548, a second campaign was launched against Persia.
In 1549, the region around Van Lake came under Ottoman control.
In 1551, Tripoli fell to the Ottomans, giving the empire control over all of the eastern Mediterranean coast from today’s Macedonia to southern Tunisia (including today’s Greece (EU), Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Libya.)
In 1553, Suleyman’s son, Mustafa, rebelled against his father’s rule and received many supporters in Anatolia. Suleyman’s reaction was to have Mustafa executed.
In 1554, a third campaign was launched against Persia.
In 1555, a formal peace was signed between the Safavids of Persia and the Ottomans, without substantial changes in the borders between the states.
In 1559, two other sons of Suleyman, Selim and Bayazid, began fighting over the succession to the sultanate.
In 1560, a strong Spanish campaign against Jerba was crushed by Ottoman troops. Suleyman’s son Bayazid was executed, leaving Selim heir of the sultanate.
In 1565, the Ottomans do not succeed in capturing Malta from the Knights of St. John.
On September 5, 1566, Suleyman died near Szigetvar in Hungary.
Süleyman I, as the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566, not only undertook bold military campaigns that enlarged his realm, he also oversaw the development of what came to be regarded as the most characteristic achievements of Ottoman civilization in the fields of law, literature, art, and architecture.
Süleyman was the only son of Sultan Selim I. He became sancak beyi (governor) of Kaffa in the Crimea during the reign of his grandfather Bayezid II and of Manisa in western Asia Minor in the reign of Selim I.
Süleyman succeeded his father as sultan in September 1520 and began his reign with campaigns against the Christian powers in central Europe and the Mediterranean. Belgrade fell to him in 1521 and Rhodes, long under the rule of the Knights of St. John, in 1522. At Mohács, in August 1526, Süleyman broke the military strength of Hungary, and the Hungarian king, Louis II, lost his life in the battle.
The vacant throne of Hungary was claimed by Ferdinand I, the Habsburg archduke of Austria, and by John (János Zápolya), who was voivode (lord) of Transylvania, and the candidates of the “native” party opposed to the prospect of Habsburg rule. Süleyman agreed to recognize John as a vassal king of Hungary, and in 1529, hoping to remove at one blow all further intervention by the Habsburgs, he laid siege to Vienna. Difficulties of time and distance and of bad weather and lack of supplies, no less than the resistance of the Christians, forced the sultan to raise the siege.
The campaign was successful, however, in a more immediate sense, for John was to rule thereafter over most of Hungary until his death, in 1540. A second great campaign in 1532, notable for the brilliant Christian defense of Güns, ended as a mere foray into Austrian border territories. The sultan, preoccupied with affairs in the East and convinced that Austria was not to be overcome at one stroke, granted a truce to the archduke Ferdinand in 1533.
The death of John in 1540 and the prompt advance of Austrian forces once more into central Hungary drove Süleyman to modify profoundly the solution that he had imposed in the time of John. His campaigns of 1541 and 1543 led to the emergence of three distinct Hungarys—Habsburg Hungary in the extreme north and west; Ottoman Hungary along the middle Danube, a region under direct and permanent military occupation by the Ottomans and with its main center at Buda; and Transylvania, a vassal state dependent on the Porte and in the hands of John Sigismund, the son of John Zápolya.
Between 1543 and 1562 the war in Hungary continued, broken by truces and with few notable changes on either side. The most important was the Ottoman capture of the Banat of Temesvár (Timişoara) in 1532. After long negotiations a peace recognizing the status quo in Hungary was signed in 1562.
Süleyman waged three major campaigns against Persia. The first (1534–35) gave the Ottomans control over the region of Erzurum in eastern Asia Minor and also witnessed the Ottoman conquest of Iraq, a success that rounded off the achievements of Selim I. The second campaign (1548–49) brought much of the area around Lake Van under Ottoman rule, but the third (1554–55) served rather as a warning to the Ottomans of the difficulty of subduing the Ṣafavid state in Persia. The first formal peace between the Ottomans and the Ṣafavids was signed in 1555, but it offered no clear solution to the problems confronting the Ottoman sultan on his eastern frontier.
The naval strength of the Ottomans became formidable in the reign of Süleyman. Khayr al-Dīn, known in the West as Barbarossa, became kapudan (admiral) of the Ottoman fleet and won a sea fight off Preveza, Greece (1538), against the combined fleets of Venice and Spain, which gave to the Ottomans the naval initiative in the Mediterranean until the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Tripoli in North Africa fell to the Ottomans in 1551. A strong Spanish expedition against Tripoli was crushed at Jarbah (Djerba) in 1560, but the Ottomans failed to capture Malta from the Knights of St. John in 1565. Ottoman naval power was felt at this time even as far afield as India, where a fleet sent out from Egypt made an unsuccessful attempt in 1538 to take the town of Diu from the Portuguese.
The later years of Süleyman were troubled by conflict between his sons. Mustafa had become by 1553 a focus of disaffection in Asia Minor and was executed in that year on the order of the sultan. There followed during 1559–61 a conflict between the princes Selim and Bayezid over the succession to the throne, which ended with the defeat and execution of Bayezid. Süleyman himself died while besieging the fortress of Szigetvár in Hungary.
Süleyman surrounded himself with administrators and statesmen of unusual ability, men such as his grand viziers (chief ministers) İbrahim, Rüstem, and Mehmed Sokollu. ʿUlamāʾ (specialists in Islamic law), notably Abū al-Suʿūd (Hoca Çelebi) and Kemalpaşazade, made the period memorable, as did the great Turkish poet Bâkî and the architect Sinan. Süleyman built strong fortresses to defend the places he took from the Christians and adorned the cities of the Islamic world (including Mecca, Damascus, and Baghdad) with mosques, bridges, aqueducts, and other public works. In general, Süleyman completed the task of transforming the previously Byzantine city of Constantinople into Istanbul, a worthy center for a great Turkish and Islamic empire.
Suleyman’s regime was marked by strong territorial advances in North Africa, central Europe, Bessarabia and Iraq. However, he also oversaw great advances in fields like law, literature, art and architecture. His nickname, Kanuni, is best translated into “the Lawgiver,” indicating his importance in these fields.
Suleyman put strong emphasis on building strong fortresses to defend captured Christian cities, and he improved the infrastructure of many cities in the Muslim world, like Mecca, Damascus and Baghdad. However, most remarkable was that during his time, Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, was fully transformed into a Muslim city through its new organization, architecture and institutions.
At the time of Suleyman's death the Ottoman Empire, with its unrivaled military strength, economic riches and territorial extent, was the world's foremost power. Suleyman's conquests had brought under the control of the Empire the major Muslim cities (Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, and Baghdad), many Balkan provinces (reaching present day Croatia and Austria), and most of North Africa. His expansion into Europe had given the Ottoman Turks a powerful presence in the European balance of power. Indeed, such was the perceived threat of the Ottoman Empire under the reign of Suleyman that many believed that the Ottoman conquest of Europe was imminent.
Even thirty years after his death "Sultan Solyman" was quoted by the English author William Shakespeare as a military prodigy in The Merchant of Venice (Act 2, Scene 1).
Suleyman's legacy was not, however, merely in the military field. The administrative and legal reforms which earned Suleyman the name Law Giver ensured the Empire's survival long after his death, an achievement which took many generations of decadent heirs to undo.
Through his personal patronage, Suleiman also presided over the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire, representing the pinnacle of the Ottoman Turks' cultural achievement in the realm of architecture, literature, art, theology and philosophy. Today, the skyline of the Bosphorus, and of many cities in modern Turkey and the former Ottoman provinces, are still adorned with the architectural works of Mimar Sinan. One of these, the Süleymaniye Mosque, is the final resting place of Suleyman and Herenzaltan. They are buried in separate domed mausoleums attached to the mosque.
Qanuni see Suleyman I
Suleyman the Magnificent see Suleyman I
Suleyman the Lawgiver see Suleyman I
Suleyman Muhtesem see Suleyman I
Kanuni see Suleyman I
Suleyman I (Qanuni) (Suleyman the Magnificent) (Süleyman the Lawgiver) (Süleyman Muhteşem) (Kanuni) (b. November 6, 1494–April 1495— d. September 5/6, 1566, near Szigetvár, Hungary). Greatest of the Ottoman sultans. Peace loving by nature, he took part in thirteen great campaigns in Europe and Asia. In 1521, he conquered Belgrade and the next year the island of Rhodes. In 1526, the Hungarians were defeated at Mohacs and Buda was temporarily occupied. 1529 saw the siege of Vienna, which was however raised soon. The various embassies to Austria had no success, and in 1532 Suleyman started upon what the Turkish sources call “the German campaign against the king of Spain.” However, in 1533, an armistice was concluded with Austria.
Suleyman’s next campaign was directed against Persia, which avoided the battle. In 1534, the sultan made his ceremonial entrance in Baghdad, where he stayed for four months and built the mausoleum of Abu Hanifa. He also visited Najaf, Kufa and Karbala’. In 1541 and 1543, he was again in Hungary, where Turkish administration was introduced. The war against Persia was resumed in 1548 but without success, and in 1555 a treaty was concluded at Amasia, where Suleyman received the Austrian embassy under Ogier Giselin de Busbecq. It could only obtain an armistice. The sultan died during the siege of Szigeth.
Suleyman was a pious man, and must have been a born ruler. As a poet, he used the pen-name of Muhibbi. Following the principles of his predecessors, he elaborated the system of state institutions by promulgating the “Canon,” which deals mainly with the organization of the army, the laws of landed property, the police and the feudal code. During his reign, the Ottoman Empire established its place in international affairs. The Christian states had lost all hope of driving the Turks out of Europe, and King Francis concluded an alliance with the Ottoman sultan. The Turkish fleet began to be active in the Mediterranean, in the Red Sea and in the Indian Ocean. The possession of Aden and Yemen was secured for the empire.
Under Suleyman, Ottoman civilization gained its own special character in the field of literature and especially in that of architecture with the works of Sinan in Istanbul, Baghdad, Konya, Jerusalem and Mecca.
A chronology of Suleyman’s life reads as follows:
Suleyman was born in November of 1494 as the only son of Sultan Selim I.
Early in the sixteenth century, Suleyman became sacak beyi, the governor of Kaffa in the Crimea.
Around 1512, Suleyman moved to Anatolia, where he became governor in Manisa.
In 1520, following the death of his father, Suleyman became the new sultan. He immediately set out on campaigns against the Christian powers in Europe.
In 1521, Belgrade (today’s Serbia) fell to the Ottomans.
In 1522, the island of Rhodes fell to the Ottomans. This meant the end of the rule of the Knights of St. John.
In 1526, Suleyman struck a final defeat on the Hungarians at the battle of Mohacs. Their king was killed, and Suleyman supported the new king John. John became the vassal king under the Ottomans.
In 1529, Suleyman started a short-lived and unsuccessful siege to Vienna.
In 1532, there was an important victory against Austria, where Ottoman forces looted large parts of the country. However, Austria still was not put under direct Ottoman rule, as the sultan was mainly occupied with his Asian neighbors at this time.
In 1534, a campaign was launched against Persia.
In 1535, both Iraq and the region of Erzurum was conquered after the defeat of the Persians.
In 1538, the Ottomans won the sea battle off Preveza under the leadership of Khayr ud-Din, known in Europe as Barbarossa. This made the Ottomans the leading power in the Mediterranean Sea.
From 1541 to 1562, there was a war in Hungary that led to few changes in the situation with regards to Ottoman dominance.
In 1548, a second campaign was launched against Persia.
In 1549, the region around Van Lake came under Ottoman control.
In 1551, Tripoli fell to the Ottomans, giving the empire control over all of the eastern Mediterranean coast from today’s Macedonia to southern Tunisia (including today’s Greece (EU), Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Libya.)
In 1553, Suleyman’s son, Mustafa, rebelled against his father’s rule and received many supporters in Anatolia. Suleyman’s reaction was to have Mustafa executed.
In 1554, a third campaign was launched against Persia.
In 1555, a formal peace was signed between the Safavids of Persia and the Ottomans, without substantial changes in the borders between the states.
In 1559, two other sons of Suleyman, Selim and Bayazid, began fighting over the succession to the sultanate.
In 1560, a strong Spanish campaign against Jerba was crushed by Ottoman troops. Suleyman’s son Bayazid was executed, leaving Selim heir of the sultanate.
In 1565, the Ottomans do not succeed in capturing Malta from the Knights of St. John.
On September 5, 1566, Suleyman died near Szigetvar in Hungary.
Süleyman I, as the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566, not only undertook bold military campaigns that enlarged his realm, he also oversaw the development of what came to be regarded as the most characteristic achievements of Ottoman civilization in the fields of law, literature, art, and architecture.
Süleyman was the only son of Sultan Selim I. He became sancak beyi (governor) of Kaffa in the Crimea during the reign of his grandfather Bayezid II and of Manisa in western Asia Minor in the reign of Selim I.
Süleyman succeeded his father as sultan in September 1520 and began his reign with campaigns against the Christian powers in central Europe and the Mediterranean. Belgrade fell to him in 1521 and Rhodes, long under the rule of the Knights of St. John, in 1522. At Mohács, in August 1526, Süleyman broke the military strength of Hungary, and the Hungarian king, Louis II, lost his life in the battle.
The vacant throne of Hungary was claimed by Ferdinand I, the Habsburg archduke of Austria, and by John (János Zápolya), who was voivode (lord) of Transylvania, and the candidates of the “native” party opposed to the prospect of Habsburg rule. Süleyman agreed to recognize John as a vassal king of Hungary, and in 1529, hoping to remove at one blow all further intervention by the Habsburgs, he laid siege to Vienna. Difficulties of time and distance and of bad weather and lack of supplies, no less than the resistance of the Christians, forced the sultan to raise the siege.
The campaign was successful, however, in a more immediate sense, for John was to rule thereafter over most of Hungary until his death, in 1540. A second great campaign in 1532, notable for the brilliant Christian defense of Güns, ended as a mere foray into Austrian border territories. The sultan, preoccupied with affairs in the East and convinced that Austria was not to be overcome at one stroke, granted a truce to the archduke Ferdinand in 1533.
The death of John in 1540 and the prompt advance of Austrian forces once more into central Hungary drove Süleyman to modify profoundly the solution that he had imposed in the time of John. His campaigns of 1541 and 1543 led to the emergence of three distinct Hungarys—Habsburg Hungary in the extreme north and west; Ottoman Hungary along the middle Danube, a region under direct and permanent military occupation by the Ottomans and with its main center at Buda; and Transylvania, a vassal state dependent on the Porte and in the hands of John Sigismund, the son of John Zápolya.
Between 1543 and 1562 the war in Hungary continued, broken by truces and with few notable changes on either side. The most important was the Ottoman capture of the Banat of Temesvár (Timişoara) in 1532. After long negotiations a peace recognizing the status quo in Hungary was signed in 1562.
Süleyman waged three major campaigns against Persia. The first (1534–35) gave the Ottomans control over the region of Erzurum in eastern Asia Minor and also witnessed the Ottoman conquest of Iraq, a success that rounded off the achievements of Selim I. The second campaign (1548–49) brought much of the area around Lake Van under Ottoman rule, but the third (1554–55) served rather as a warning to the Ottomans of the difficulty of subduing the Ṣafavid state in Persia. The first formal peace between the Ottomans and the Ṣafavids was signed in 1555, but it offered no clear solution to the problems confronting the Ottoman sultan on his eastern frontier.
The naval strength of the Ottomans became formidable in the reign of Süleyman. Khayr al-Dīn, known in the West as Barbarossa, became kapudan (admiral) of the Ottoman fleet and won a sea fight off Preveza, Greece (1538), against the combined fleets of Venice and Spain, which gave to the Ottomans the naval initiative in the Mediterranean until the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Tripoli in North Africa fell to the Ottomans in 1551. A strong Spanish expedition against Tripoli was crushed at Jarbah (Djerba) in 1560, but the Ottomans failed to capture Malta from the Knights of St. John in 1565. Ottoman naval power was felt at this time even as far afield as India, where a fleet sent out from Egypt made an unsuccessful attempt in 1538 to take the town of Diu from the Portuguese.
The later years of Süleyman were troubled by conflict between his sons. Mustafa had become by 1553 a focus of disaffection in Asia Minor and was executed in that year on the order of the sultan. There followed during 1559–61 a conflict between the princes Selim and Bayezid over the succession to the throne, which ended with the defeat and execution of Bayezid. Süleyman himself died while besieging the fortress of Szigetvár in Hungary.
Süleyman surrounded himself with administrators and statesmen of unusual ability, men such as his grand viziers (chief ministers) İbrahim, Rüstem, and Mehmed Sokollu. ʿUlamāʾ (specialists in Islamic law), notably Abū al-Suʿūd (Hoca Çelebi) and Kemalpaşazade, made the period memorable, as did the great Turkish poet Bâkî and the architect Sinan. Süleyman built strong fortresses to defend the places he took from the Christians and adorned the cities of the Islamic world (including Mecca, Damascus, and Baghdad) with mosques, bridges, aqueducts, and other public works. In general, Süleyman completed the task of transforming the previously Byzantine city of Constantinople into Istanbul, a worthy center for a great Turkish and Islamic empire.
Suleyman’s regime was marked by strong territorial advances in North Africa, central Europe, Bessarabia and Iraq. However, he also oversaw great advances in fields like law, literature, art and architecture. His nickname, Kanuni, is best translated into “the Lawgiver,” indicating his importance in these fields.
Suleyman put strong emphasis on building strong fortresses to defend captured Christian cities, and he improved the infrastructure of many cities in the Muslim world, like Mecca, Damascus and Baghdad. However, most remarkable was that during his time, Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, was fully transformed into a Muslim city through its new organization, architecture and institutions.
At the time of Suleyman's death the Ottoman Empire, with its unrivaled military strength, economic riches and territorial extent, was the world's foremost power. Suleyman's conquests had brought under the control of the Empire the major Muslim cities (Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Damascus, and Baghdad), many Balkan provinces (reaching present day Croatia and Austria), and most of North Africa. His expansion into Europe had given the Ottoman Turks a powerful presence in the European balance of power. Indeed, such was the perceived threat of the Ottoman Empire under the reign of Suleyman that many believed that the Ottoman conquest of Europe was imminent.
Even thirty years after his death "Sultan Solyman" was quoted by the English author William Shakespeare as a military prodigy in The Merchant of Venice (Act 2, Scene 1).
Suleyman's legacy was not, however, merely in the military field. The administrative and legal reforms which earned Suleyman the name Law Giver ensured the Empire's survival long after his death, an achievement which took many generations of decadent heirs to undo.
Through his personal patronage, Suleiman also presided over the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire, representing the pinnacle of the Ottoman Turks' cultural achievement in the realm of architecture, literature, art, theology and philosophy. Today, the skyline of the Bosphorus, and of many cities in modern Turkey and the former Ottoman provinces, are still adorned with the architectural works of Mimar Sinan. One of these, the Süleymaniye Mosque, is the final resting place of Suleyman and Herenzaltan. They are buried in separate domed mausoleums attached to the mosque.
Qanuni see Suleyman I
Suleyman the Magnificent see Suleyman I
Suleyman the Lawgiver see Suleyman I
Suleyman Muhtesem see Suleyman I
Kanuni see Suleyman I
Suleyman II
Suleyman II (Suleiman II) (Suleyman-i sani) (Suleyman Ibrahim II) (April 15, 1642, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire - June 22/23, 1691, Edirne, Ottoman Empire). Ottoman sultan (r. November 8, 1687 - June 22, 1691).
Suleiman II (Süleymān-i sānī) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1687 to 1691. The younger brother of Mehmed IV (1648–87), Suleiman II was born at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul and spent most of his life in the kafes (cage), a kind of luxurious prison for princes of the blood within the Topkapı Palace (it was designed to ensure that none could organize a rebellion). His mother was Saliha Dilâşub Sultan, a Valide Sultan of Serbian descent.
When he was approached to accept the throne after his brother's deposition in 1687, Suleiman II assumed that the delegation had come to kill him and it was only with the greatest persuasion that he could be tempted out of the palace to be ceremonially girded with the Sword of Osman.
Hardly able to take control of events himself, Suleiman II nevertheless made a shrewd choice by appointing Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha as his Grand Vizier. Under Köprülü's leadership the Turks halted an Austrian advance into Serbia and crushed an uprising in Bulgaria. Suleiman II died at Edirne Palace in 1691. He married Khadija, without issue.
Despite only four years in power, Suleyman was able to strengthren structures and administration in the Ottoman Empire, as well as reconquer territory lost under the last years of the preceding sultans (his brother’s) regime.
The army mutiny that brought Süleyman to the throne and deposed his brother continued violently through the early part of his reign, and the Ottomans suffered a series of military defeats in the Balkans. In 1689, however, a member of the Köprülü family, which earlier in the century had given Turkey two outstanding viziers (ministers), came to power. Fazıl Mustafa Paşa became grand vizier, re-established order, drove the Austrians out of Bulgaria and Transylvania, and retook Belgrade and Niš in 1690. Süleyman, allowing Fazıl Mustafa Paşa a free hand in the government, succeeded in introducing reforms to lighten the tax burden and to improve the condition of his Christian subjects.
Suleiman II see Suleyman II
Suleyman-i sani see Suleyman II
Suleyman Ibrahim II see Suleyman II
Suleyman II (Suleiman II) (Suleyman-i sani) (Suleyman Ibrahim II) (April 15, 1642, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire - June 22/23, 1691, Edirne, Ottoman Empire). Ottoman sultan (r. November 8, 1687 - June 22, 1691).
Suleiman II (Süleymān-i sānī) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1687 to 1691. The younger brother of Mehmed IV (1648–87), Suleiman II was born at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul and spent most of his life in the kafes (cage), a kind of luxurious prison for princes of the blood within the Topkapı Palace (it was designed to ensure that none could organize a rebellion). His mother was Saliha Dilâşub Sultan, a Valide Sultan of Serbian descent.
When he was approached to accept the throne after his brother's deposition in 1687, Suleiman II assumed that the delegation had come to kill him and it was only with the greatest persuasion that he could be tempted out of the palace to be ceremonially girded with the Sword of Osman.
Hardly able to take control of events himself, Suleiman II nevertheless made a shrewd choice by appointing Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha as his Grand Vizier. Under Köprülü's leadership the Turks halted an Austrian advance into Serbia and crushed an uprising in Bulgaria. Suleiman II died at Edirne Palace in 1691. He married Khadija, without issue.
Despite only four years in power, Suleyman was able to strengthren structures and administration in the Ottoman Empire, as well as reconquer territory lost under the last years of the preceding sultans (his brother’s) regime.
The army mutiny that brought Süleyman to the throne and deposed his brother continued violently through the early part of his reign, and the Ottomans suffered a series of military defeats in the Balkans. In 1689, however, a member of the Köprülü family, which earlier in the century had given Turkey two outstanding viziers (ministers), came to power. Fazıl Mustafa Paşa became grand vizier, re-established order, drove the Austrians out of Bulgaria and Transylvania, and retook Belgrade and Niš in 1690. Süleyman, allowing Fazıl Mustafa Paşa a free hand in the government, succeeded in introducing reforms to lighten the tax burden and to improve the condition of his Christian subjects.
Suleiman II see Suleyman II
Suleyman-i sani see Suleyman II
Suleyman Ibrahim II see Suleyman II
Suleyman Celebi
Suleyman Celebi (Suleyman Dede) (d.1421/1429, Bursa, Ottoman Empire). Ottoman poet from Bursa. He is the earliest Ottoman poet of whom an original poem written in Turkish has survived. It is the Hymn on the Prophet’s nativity, often recited at religious ceremonies, in particular at the festival of the Prophet’s birthday (in Arabic, mawlid).
Suleyman Celebi was one of the most famous early poets of Anatolia. Süleyman appears to have been the son of an Ottoman minister, Ahmed Paşa, who served in the court of Sultan Murad I. Süleyman became a leader of the Khalwatīyah dervish order and then imam (religious leader) to the court of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I (1389–1402). After Bayezid’s death, Süleyman took the position of imam in a mosque in Bursa.
Süleyman’s most famous and only surviving work is the great religious poem Mevlûd-i Nebi, or Mevlûd-i Peygamberi (“Hymn on the Prophet’s Nativity").
The Mevlûd, as it is more commonly called, tells the story of the Prophet Muḥammad’s birth, life, and death; his miracles; and his journey to heaven. Written in simple 15th-century Ottoman Turkish style, it is a work inspired with religious fervor and is often recited at religious ceremonies, particularly funerals in present Turkey. It is chanted during the celebrations of the Prophet’s birthday.
Celebi, Suleyman see Suleyman Celebi
Suleyman Dede see Suleyman Celebi
Dede, Suleyman see Suleyman Celebi
Suleyman Celebi (Suleyman Dede) (d.1421/1429, Bursa, Ottoman Empire). Ottoman poet from Bursa. He is the earliest Ottoman poet of whom an original poem written in Turkish has survived. It is the Hymn on the Prophet’s nativity, often recited at religious ceremonies, in particular at the festival of the Prophet’s birthday (in Arabic, mawlid).
Suleyman Celebi was one of the most famous early poets of Anatolia. Süleyman appears to have been the son of an Ottoman minister, Ahmed Paşa, who served in the court of Sultan Murad I. Süleyman became a leader of the Khalwatīyah dervish order and then imam (religious leader) to the court of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I (1389–1402). After Bayezid’s death, Süleyman took the position of imam in a mosque in Bursa.
Süleyman’s most famous and only surviving work is the great religious poem Mevlûd-i Nebi, or Mevlûd-i Peygamberi (“Hymn on the Prophet’s Nativity").
The Mevlûd, as it is more commonly called, tells the story of the Prophet Muḥammad’s birth, life, and death; his miracles; and his journey to heaven. Written in simple 15th-century Ottoman Turkish style, it is a work inspired with religious fervor and is often recited at religious ceremonies, particularly funerals in present Turkey. It is chanted during the celebrations of the Prophet’s birthday.
Celebi, Suleyman see Suleyman Celebi
Suleyman Dede see Suleyman Celebi
Dede, Suleyman see Suleyman Celebi
Suleyman Pasha
Suleyman Pasha (1316-1357/1359). Eldest son of the Ottoman sultan Orkhan. He was the first to cross to the European shore of the Dardanelles with permanent results by taking Gallipoli and the whole of Rumelia. He was buried in Bulayr, a symbol of the firm resolve never again to abandon the new won ground. His tomb became a place of national pilgrimage.
Suleyman Pasha struck a bold blow to the weakened Byzantine Empire on behalf of the Turkish people, which gave the Turks a permanent establishment on the European side of the Hellespont. This event took place in 1354.
The Ottoman writers pass over in silence the previous incursions of the Turks into Europe, which gained no conquest and led to no definite advantage, but they dwell fully on this expedition of Suleyman, and adorn it with poetic legends of the vision that appeared to the young chieftain as he mused on the sea-shore near the ruins of Cyzicus. They tell how the crescent of the moon rose before him as the emblem of his race, and united the continents of Europe and Asia with a chain of silver light, while temples and palaces floated up out of the great deep, and mysterious voices blended with the sounding sea, exciting in his heart a yearning for predestined enterprise, and a sense of supernatural summons. The dream may have been both the effect of previous schemes, and the immediate stimulant that "made Suleyman put his scheming into act".
With only thirty-nine of his chosen warriors, he embarked at night in a Genoese bark on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont, and surprised the Castle of Tzympe (Cinbi), on the opposite coast. Reinforcements soon pushed across to the adventurers, and in three days Tzympe was garrisoned by three thousand Ottoman troops.
At this crisis, Cantacuzene was so severely pressed by his rival Palaeologus, that, instead of trying to dislodge the invaders from Tzympe, or even remonstrating against their occupation of that fortress, he implored the help of Orhan against his domestic enemy. Orhan gave up his brother-in-law's cause, and provided assistance to the old emperor. But he ordered that assistance to be administered by Suleyman, the conqueror of Tzympe, an axillary the most formidable to those with whom he was to operate. Ten thousand more Turks were sent across to Suleyman, who defeated the Slavonic forces which Palaeologus had brought to the empire, but the victors never left the continent on which they hid conquered. Cantacuzene offered Suleyman ten thousand ducats to retire from Tzympe. The sum was agreed on, but before the ransom was paid, a terrible earthquake shook the whole district of Thrace, and threw down the walls of its fenced cities.
The Greeks trembled at this visitation of Providence, and the Turks saw it as the hand of God acting in their favor. They thought He was smoothing the path for their conquest of the Promised Land. Two of Suleyman's captains, Adjé Bey, and Ghas Fasil, instantly occupied the important town of Gallipoli, marching in over the walls which the earthquake had shattered, meeting no resistance by the awe-struck inhabitants. The fields in the neighborhood still are named after Adjé; and the tombs of these two captains of the Osmanli host are still to be seen in Gallipoli. They were buried on the scene of their great exploit. Turkish pilgrims gather there in veneration of the warriors, who gave to the Turkish people the strong city, the key of the Hellespont, the gate to easy passage into Europe.
Suleyman, on hearing that his troops had occupied Gallipoli, refused to give up Tzympe. He threw large colonies of Turks and Arabs across the straits, which he planted in the territory, which had been thus acquired. The fortifications of Gallipoli were repaired, and that important post was strongly garrisoned. Suleyman took possession of other places in the Thracian Chersonese, which he strengthened with new walls and secured with detachments of his best troops.
The Greek Emperor made a formal complaint of these aggressions to Orhan, who replied that it was not the force of arms that had opened the Greek cities to his son, but the will of God, manifested in the earthquake. The Emperor rejoined that the question was not how the Turks had marched into the cities, but whether they had any right to retain them. Orhan asked for time to think, and afterward made proposals for negotiating the restoration of the cities, but he had firmly resolved to take full advantage of the opportunities for expanding the Ottoman power.
The Ottoman power was now the basis for operations in Europe which had been acquired, and was afforded by the perpetual dissensions that raged between Cantacuzene and his son-in-law Palaeologus – each of whom was continually soliciting Orhan's aid against the other, and obtaining that aid according to what seemed best for the interests of the Turkish sovereign, who was the real enemy of them both.
Suleyman, in whom Orhan Gazi saw grand prospects of further success for the house of Ottoman, died before his father. An accidental fall from his horse, while he was engaged in the favorite Turkish sport of falconry, caused his death. Suleyman was not buried at Bursa, but, by Orhan's order, a tomb was built for him on the shore of the Hellespont, over which he had led the Turkish people to a second empire.
Suleyman Pasha (1316-1357/1359). Eldest son of the Ottoman sultan Orkhan. He was the first to cross to the European shore of the Dardanelles with permanent results by taking Gallipoli and the whole of Rumelia. He was buried in Bulayr, a symbol of the firm resolve never again to abandon the new won ground. His tomb became a place of national pilgrimage.
Suleyman Pasha struck a bold blow to the weakened Byzantine Empire on behalf of the Turkish people, which gave the Turks a permanent establishment on the European side of the Hellespont. This event took place in 1354.
The Ottoman writers pass over in silence the previous incursions of the Turks into Europe, which gained no conquest and led to no definite advantage, but they dwell fully on this expedition of Suleyman, and adorn it with poetic legends of the vision that appeared to the young chieftain as he mused on the sea-shore near the ruins of Cyzicus. They tell how the crescent of the moon rose before him as the emblem of his race, and united the continents of Europe and Asia with a chain of silver light, while temples and palaces floated up out of the great deep, and mysterious voices blended with the sounding sea, exciting in his heart a yearning for predestined enterprise, and a sense of supernatural summons. The dream may have been both the effect of previous schemes, and the immediate stimulant that "made Suleyman put his scheming into act".
With only thirty-nine of his chosen warriors, he embarked at night in a Genoese bark on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont, and surprised the Castle of Tzympe (Cinbi), on the opposite coast. Reinforcements soon pushed across to the adventurers, and in three days Tzympe was garrisoned by three thousand Ottoman troops.
At this crisis, Cantacuzene was so severely pressed by his rival Palaeologus, that, instead of trying to dislodge the invaders from Tzympe, or even remonstrating against their occupation of that fortress, he implored the help of Orhan against his domestic enemy. Orhan gave up his brother-in-law's cause, and provided assistance to the old emperor. But he ordered that assistance to be administered by Suleyman, the conqueror of Tzympe, an axillary the most formidable to those with whom he was to operate. Ten thousand more Turks were sent across to Suleyman, who defeated the Slavonic forces which Palaeologus had brought to the empire, but the victors never left the continent on which they hid conquered. Cantacuzene offered Suleyman ten thousand ducats to retire from Tzympe. The sum was agreed on, but before the ransom was paid, a terrible earthquake shook the whole district of Thrace, and threw down the walls of its fenced cities.
The Greeks trembled at this visitation of Providence, and the Turks saw it as the hand of God acting in their favor. They thought He was smoothing the path for their conquest of the Promised Land. Two of Suleyman's captains, Adjé Bey, and Ghas Fasil, instantly occupied the important town of Gallipoli, marching in over the walls which the earthquake had shattered, meeting no resistance by the awe-struck inhabitants. The fields in the neighborhood still are named after Adjé; and the tombs of these two captains of the Osmanli host are still to be seen in Gallipoli. They were buried on the scene of their great exploit. Turkish pilgrims gather there in veneration of the warriors, who gave to the Turkish people the strong city, the key of the Hellespont, the gate to easy passage into Europe.
Suleyman, on hearing that his troops had occupied Gallipoli, refused to give up Tzympe. He threw large colonies of Turks and Arabs across the straits, which he planted in the territory, which had been thus acquired. The fortifications of Gallipoli were repaired, and that important post was strongly garrisoned. Suleyman took possession of other places in the Thracian Chersonese, which he strengthened with new walls and secured with detachments of his best troops.
The Greek Emperor made a formal complaint of these aggressions to Orhan, who replied that it was not the force of arms that had opened the Greek cities to his son, but the will of God, manifested in the earthquake. The Emperor rejoined that the question was not how the Turks had marched into the cities, but whether they had any right to retain them. Orhan asked for time to think, and afterward made proposals for negotiating the restoration of the cities, but he had firmly resolved to take full advantage of the opportunities for expanding the Ottoman power.
The Ottoman power was now the basis for operations in Europe which had been acquired, and was afforded by the perpetual dissensions that raged between Cantacuzene and his son-in-law Palaeologus – each of whom was continually soliciting Orhan's aid against the other, and obtaining that aid according to what seemed best for the interests of the Turkish sovereign, who was the real enemy of them both.
Suleyman, in whom Orhan Gazi saw grand prospects of further success for the house of Ottoman, died before his father. An accidental fall from his horse, while he was engaged in the favorite Turkish sport of falconry, caused his death. Suleyman was not buried at Bursa, but, by Orhan's order, a tomb was built for him on the shore of the Hellespont, over which he had led the Turkish people to a second empire.
Suleyman Pasha
Suleyman Pasha (Khadim -- “the eunuch”) (d.1548). Ottoman general and Grand Vizier. From 1524 until 1534, he was governor of Egypt, and the first to send the yearly revenue, the so-called Egyptian treasure, to Istanbul. In reply to the appeal to Bahadur, the sultan of Gujarat (r.1526-1537), he was ordered by Sultan Suleyman II to equip a fleet to strengthen Turkish power in the Red Sea and to drive the Portuguese out of India. On his way out, he conquered Aden and Yemen, but failed in India for lack of support.
Khadim see Suleyman Pasha
The Eunuch see Suleyman Pasha
Suleyman Pasha (Khadim -- “the eunuch”) (d.1548). Ottoman general and Grand Vizier. From 1524 until 1534, he was governor of Egypt, and the first to send the yearly revenue, the so-called Egyptian treasure, to Istanbul. In reply to the appeal to Bahadur, the sultan of Gujarat (r.1526-1537), he was ordered by Sultan Suleyman II to equip a fleet to strengthen Turkish power in the Red Sea and to drive the Portuguese out of India. On his way out, he conquered Aden and Yemen, but failed in India for lack of support.
Khadim see Suleyman Pasha
The Eunuch see Suleyman Pasha
Suli, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-
Suli, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-(Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Suli) (al-Suli) (c.880-946). Chess-player, historian and man of letters of Turkish origin. At the court of the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Muktafi bi-‘llah he defeated the leading chess-player of his time al-Mawardi. He wrote a history of the ‘Abbasids, a handbook for clerks in the chancelleries, and compiled a collection from ‘Abbasid poets. Criticized for his plagiarism and vanity, his compilations nevertheless had influence on later literature.
Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Yahya al-Suli was a nadim (boon companion) of successive Abbasid caliphs. He was noted for his poetry and scholarship and wrote a chronicle called Akhbar al-Radi wa'l-Muttaqi, detailing the reigns of the caliphs al-Radi and al-Muttaqi. He was a legendary shatranj (an ancestor of chess) player, still remembered to this day.
Upon the death of al-Radi in 940, al-Suli fell into disfavor with the new ruler due to his sympathies towards Shi'a Islam and as a result had to go into exile at Basra, where he spent the rest of his life in poverty. Al-Suli's great-grandfather was the Turkish prince Sul-takin and his uncle the poet Ibrahim ibn al-'Abbas as-Suli.
Al-Suli's chronicle has long been in the shadow of more famous chronicles such as those of al-Mas'udi and Miskawayh, perhaps because al-Suli was seen as a nadim and not a serious scholar. However, the account is significant for offering an eyewitness account of the transition to Buyid rule. It was during al-Radi's caliphate in 936 that the position of "amir al-umara" was created, which allowed for the transfer of executive power from the caliph to an "amir", a position that the Buyids later used to establish a new dynasty alongside the Abbasids. After this point, the Abbasids never regained their full power. However, al-Suli's account makes it clear that not all power was transferred to the amirs. He treats the period as a time of crisis, but not the end of the Abbasid caliphate.
Al-Suli came to prominence as a shatranj player sometime in between 902 and 908 when he beat al-Mawardi, the court shatranj champion of al-Muktafi, the Caliph of Baghdad. Al-Mawardi was so thoroughly beaten he fell from favor, and was replaced by al-Suli. After al-Muktafi's death, al-Suli remained in the favor of the succeeding ruler, al-Muqtadir and in turn ar-Radi.
Al-Suli's shatranj-playing ability became legendary and he is still considered one of the best Arab players of all time. His biographer ben Khalliken, who died in 1282, said that even in his lifetime great shatranj players were said to play like al-Suli. Documentary evidence from his lifetime is limited, but the endgames of some of the matches he played are still in existence. His skill in blindfold chess was also mentioned by contemporaries. Al-Suli also taught shatranj. His most well known pupil is al-Lajlaj ("the stammerer").
One of his most prominent achievements is his book, Kitab Ash-Shatranj (Book of Chess), which was the first scientific book ever written on chess strategy. It contained information on common chess openings, standard problems in middle game, and annotated end games. It also contains the first known description of the knight's tour problem. Many later European writers based their work on modern chess on al-Suli's work. Apart from his chess book he also wrote several historical books.
Al-Suli created a shatranj problem called "al-Suli's Diamond" that went unsolved for over a thousand years. David Hooper and Ken Whyld studied this problem in the mid-1980s but were unable to crack it. It was finally solved by Russian Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh.
As this is a shatranj, the "queen" (counsellor) is a very weak piece, able to move only a single square diagonally. It is also possible to win in shatranj by capturing all pieces except the king.
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Sulisee Suli, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-
Suli, al- see Suli, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-
Suli, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-(Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Suli) (al-Suli) (c.880-946). Chess-player, historian and man of letters of Turkish origin. At the court of the ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Muktafi bi-‘llah he defeated the leading chess-player of his time al-Mawardi. He wrote a history of the ‘Abbasids, a handbook for clerks in the chancelleries, and compiled a collection from ‘Abbasid poets. Criticized for his plagiarism and vanity, his compilations nevertheless had influence on later literature.
Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Yahya al-Suli was a nadim (boon companion) of successive Abbasid caliphs. He was noted for his poetry and scholarship and wrote a chronicle called Akhbar al-Radi wa'l-Muttaqi, detailing the reigns of the caliphs al-Radi and al-Muttaqi. He was a legendary shatranj (an ancestor of chess) player, still remembered to this day.
Upon the death of al-Radi in 940, al-Suli fell into disfavor with the new ruler due to his sympathies towards Shi'a Islam and as a result had to go into exile at Basra, where he spent the rest of his life in poverty. Al-Suli's great-grandfather was the Turkish prince Sul-takin and his uncle the poet Ibrahim ibn al-'Abbas as-Suli.
Al-Suli's chronicle has long been in the shadow of more famous chronicles such as those of al-Mas'udi and Miskawayh, perhaps because al-Suli was seen as a nadim and not a serious scholar. However, the account is significant for offering an eyewitness account of the transition to Buyid rule. It was during al-Radi's caliphate in 936 that the position of "amir al-umara" was created, which allowed for the transfer of executive power from the caliph to an "amir", a position that the Buyids later used to establish a new dynasty alongside the Abbasids. After this point, the Abbasids never regained their full power. However, al-Suli's account makes it clear that not all power was transferred to the amirs. He treats the period as a time of crisis, but not the end of the Abbasid caliphate.
Al-Suli came to prominence as a shatranj player sometime in between 902 and 908 when he beat al-Mawardi, the court shatranj champion of al-Muktafi, the Caliph of Baghdad. Al-Mawardi was so thoroughly beaten he fell from favor, and was replaced by al-Suli. After al-Muktafi's death, al-Suli remained in the favor of the succeeding ruler, al-Muqtadir and in turn ar-Radi.
Al-Suli's shatranj-playing ability became legendary and he is still considered one of the best Arab players of all time. His biographer ben Khalliken, who died in 1282, said that even in his lifetime great shatranj players were said to play like al-Suli. Documentary evidence from his lifetime is limited, but the endgames of some of the matches he played are still in existence. His skill in blindfold chess was also mentioned by contemporaries. Al-Suli also taught shatranj. His most well known pupil is al-Lajlaj ("the stammerer").
One of his most prominent achievements is his book, Kitab Ash-Shatranj (Book of Chess), which was the first scientific book ever written on chess strategy. It contained information on common chess openings, standard problems in middle game, and annotated end games. It also contains the first known description of the knight's tour problem. Many later European writers based their work on modern chess on al-Suli's work. Apart from his chess book he also wrote several historical books.
Al-Suli created a shatranj problem called "al-Suli's Diamond" that went unsolved for over a thousand years. David Hooper and Ken Whyld studied this problem in the mid-1980s but were unable to crack it. It was finally solved by Russian Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh.
As this is a shatranj, the "queen" (counsellor) is a very weak piece, able to move only a single square diagonally. It is also possible to win in shatranj by capturing all pieces except the king.
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Sulisee Suli, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-
Suli, al- see Suli, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya al-
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