Suleiman I ascended to the Ottoman throne at age 25 upon the death of his father, Selim I, inheriting an empire already vastly expanded by conquest. Known in the West as 'the Magnificent' and to Ottomans as 'the Lawgiver,' he would expand Ottoman territory into Hungary and the Mediterranean, reform the legal code, and preside over a flourishing of architecture and culture. His reign is widely considered the zenith of Ottoman power.
When news reached Suleiman that his father Selim I had died, he moved swiftly to Constantinople and, on or around May 20, 1520, ascended the Ottoman throne at just 25 years old. He inherited an empire that had already tripled in size under his father and grandfather's conquests, but few could have predicted that Suleiman's own 46-year reign—the longest of any Ottoman sultan—would push the empire to its absolute territorial and cultural zenith.
Europeans called him 'the Magnificent' for the splendor of his court and the sweep of his military campaigns, which brought Belgrade, much of Hungary, and Rhodes under Ottoman control and pushed as far as the gates of Vienna in 1529. His own subjects, however, knew him as 'Kanuni'—the Lawgiver—for his sweeping legal reforms that harmonized Ottoman civil law with Islamic sharia and reorganized the empire's administration with lasting effect.
Suleiman's reign also produced an extraordinary cultural flowering: the architect Mimar Sinan built masterpieces including the Süleymaniye Mosque, while poetry, miniature painting, and textile arts thrived under royal patronage. His famed romance with and eventual marriage to Hürrem Sultan, a former slave who became one of history's most powerful Ottoman consorts, scandalized and fascinated the court in equal measure, reshaping the politics of succession for generations.