Constantinople: The Story of the Old Capital of the EmpireHutton, William Holden
History
Constantinople: The Story of the Old Capital of the Empire
Hutton, William Holden
Istanbul (Turkey)
Even then the vengeance was not complete. The child of the murdered
Mustafa was stabbed at Brusa in his mother's arms. The horror that was
felt at these crimes became evident when the Janissaries demanded the
punishment of Rustem, and when Djihanghir, the son of Suleiman and
Roxelana, died of grief for the brother to whom he was devoted. The
new grand Vizier was sacrificed also: and not long afterwards the
beautiful Roxelana, Khurrem, passed away. The great Sultan gave her
the most beautiful of tombs. The art of the Mussulmans was centered in
that last home which the love of Suleiman could bestow.
"Without, the scented roses twine,
The Suleymanieh tow'rs o'erhead,
The flagstones, flecked with shade and shine,
Re-echo to the pilgrim's tread,
And soft grey doves their wings outspread
In the blue vault above the shrine."
If Roxelana was the evil genius of Suleiman, his reign was not more
happy after her death. Her two elder sons, Selim and Bayezid broke
into open war. Bayezid attacked Selim, and, betrayed, it would seem by
the basest of intrigues, he was defeated, and fled to Persia. Every
letter that he wrote to his father was suppressed, and the Persians
sold him to his brother by whom he and his four sons were put to
death. A few months later his fifth son, a child of three, was
strangled at Brusa by the Sultan's orders.
To the last, Suleiman led his troops to the field. He died on August
30, 1566, while he was conducting the siege of Szigeth, a small
fortress in Hungary. The grand Vizier concealed his death from the
army and sent messengers at once to Selim, who hastened to
Constantinople.
Suleiman left behind him a name more famous than any of his
predecessors save Mohammed the Conqueror. His lofty and enterprising
genius, his heroic courage, his strict observance of the laws of Islam
tempered at times by a wise tolerance, the order and economy which
were combined with his magnificence and grandeur, his love of
knowledge and the protection he extended to learned men, all mark him
out, says the historian of the Ottomans, among the noblest of his
race.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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