Suleiman and the Ottoman peak
The empire reaches Vienna, dominates the Mediterranean, and codifies its law.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 163 years
- Known to
- ± 2 years
- Era
- Early Modern, Holocene
Suleiman rules from 1520 over an empire spanning southeast Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, besieging Vienna in 1529 and taking Rhodes, Belgrade and Baghdad. Known in Turkish as the Lawgiver, he systematises the secular law alongside religious law. Ottoman naval power in the Mediterranean is checked at Lepanto in 1571 and the second failure at Vienna in 1683 begins a long territorial retreat.