Who was the Ottoman sultan under whom the empire reached its greatest extent and cultural peak?
Suleiman I — called *Kanuni* ('the Lawgiver') in Turkish and *Magnificent* in European usage — reigned for 46 years, the longest of any Ottoman sultan. The empire under him reached its greatest extent (Hungary, North Africa, Mesopotamia, the Persian Gulf), produced its mature legal and administrative system, and built most of the great Ottoman mosques (Sinan's architectural career was Suleimanic). Mehmed II took Constantinople in 1453; Selim I conquered Egypt in 1517; Murad IV reigned much later.
Read the full facts →The Ottoman Empire was a Turkish-Muslim state that ruled much of southeastern Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa from approximately 1299 to 1922. It was one of the longest-continuous empires in world history and the dominant Islamic power for most of its existence.
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