In the first three hundred years of the Osmanli dynasty, ten sultans, culminating with Suleiman, built an empire of thirty million people, encompassing twenty different languages. All of it was won in battle from the saddle of a horse. Suleiman’s reign marked the apogee of Ottoman grandeur. After his death, the empire was corroded by palace intrigues and corruption. The sultans who followed Suleiman were weak and decadent. Selim II, known as ‘Selim the Sot’, was by far the least capable of Suleiman’s sons.
