The Mental Floss History of the World by Erik Sass

Author:Erik Sass
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
Published: 2008-10-28T07:00:00+00:00

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Ottoman power peaked under Suleiman the Magnificent (one of history’s best names). Coming to power in 1520, he is known in the Muslim world as “the Lawgiver” because of the code of law he issued in 1501, which is an amalgam of Islamic Shari’a and good old-fashioned Turkish tribal law.

Suleiman also dispensed a substantial amount of whup-ass. He laid siege to the great Christian city of Vienna, Austria, in 1519, forcing the Holy Roman emperor Charles V to summon troops from all over Christendom to defend the city. The siege failed, but Suleiman picked up the Balkan Peninsula as a consolation prize. He also conquered Iraq, Armenia, Libya, and Algeria.

Unfortunately many of Suleiman’s successors sucked. In fact, his son Selim II is remembered as “the Drunk”—a nickname that speaks for itself. Meanwhile, newcomers called the Portuguese were already scheming against one of the Ottomans’ main sources of revenue: customs duties on spices from Asia.

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