emperor of the Turks, surnamed the Magnificent, was the only son of Selim I. whom he succeeded in 1520. He was educated in a manner very different from the Ottoman princes in general; for he was instructed in the maxims of politics and the secrets of government. He began his reign by restoring those persons their possessions whom his father had unjustly plundered. He re-established the authority of the tribunals, which was almost annihilated, and bestowed the government of provinces upon none but persons of wealth and probity: "I would have my viceroys (he used to say) resemble those rivers that fertilize the fields through which they pass, not those torrents which sweep every thing before them."

After concluding a truce with Imael Sophy of Persia, and subduing Gozeli Bey, who had raised a rebellion in Syria, he turned his arms against Europe. Belgrade was taken in 1521, and Rhodes fell into his hands the year following, after an obstinate and enthusiastic defence. In 1526 he defeated and slew the king of Hungary in the famous battle of Mohatz. Three years after he conquered Buda, and immediately laid siege to Vienna itself. But after continuing 25 days before that city, and assaulting it 20 times, he was obliged to retreat with the loss of 80,000 men. Some time after he was defeated by the Persians, and disappointed in his hopes of taking Malta. He succeeded, however, in dispossessing the Genoese of Chio, an island which had belonged to that republic for more than 200 years.

He died at the age of 76, while he was besieging Szigeth, a town in Hungary, on the 30th August 1566.

He was a prince of the strictest probity, a lover of justice, and vigorous in the execution of it; but he tarnished all his glory by the cruelty of his disposition. After the battle of Mohatz he ordered 1500 prisoners, most of them gentlemen, to be ranged in a circle, and beheaded in presence of his whole army.

Soliman thought nothing impossible which he commanded: A general having received orders to throw a bridge over the Drave, wrote him, that it was impossible. The Sultan sent him a long band of linen with these words written on it: "The emperor Soliman, thy master, orders thee to build a bridge over the Drave in spite of the difficulties thou mayest meet with. He informs thee at the same time, that if the bridge be not finished upon his arrival, he will hang thee with the very linen which informs thee of his will."