Selim, whose victories over the Safavids and…

Selim, whose victories over the Safavids and the Mamluks have made him in effect the ruler over all of Islam, has resurrected and assumed the title of caliph, which makes the Ottoman sultan the spiritual as well as the temporal ruler of the Muslim world.

He has spent the last few years in Istanbul solidifying the supremacy of the sultanate, exploiting the prestige and revenues that have resulted from his Eastern victories.

A great patron of Islamic art and literature and himself a poet, he dies at fifty September 22, 1520, at Çorlu; Süleiman, the only of Selim’s son that had survived his father’s massacre of all his relatives upon ascending the Ottoman throne, succeeds him with a position unequaled by any sultan before or after.

He is left without opposition and with a great deal of control over the devsirme class, as well as over the remnants of the Turkish notables.

The conquest of the Arab world has doubled the revenues of the treasury without imposing important additional financial obligations, leaving Süleyman with wealth and power unparalleled in Ottoman history.