The Lion House

September 26, 2022
Historian and journalist de Bellaigue (Rebel Land) delivers an intricate and evocative account of 16th-century Ottoman ruler Suleyman I’s rise to power. The son of Selim I, who conquered the Mamluk Sultanate in 1517 and declared himself Caliph, or “leader of the world’s Muslims,” Suleyman survived his father’s assassination attempt via poison-dipped robe and became sultan after Selim’s death in 1520. De Bellaigue sheds light on the relationship between Suleyman and his intimate friend and adviser, the Grand Vizier Ibrahim, a former Christian slave who made the fatal mistake of “believ himself to be indispensable.” Also spotlighted are Suleyman’s mother, Hafsa, who stopped him from trying on the poisoned robe, and Hurrem, the shrewd Ruthenian slave and concubine who became his wife. Excerpts from Hurrem’s letters provide an intimate look into court life and glimpses of Suleyman’s personality, but his motivations and the origins of his willingness to overturn tradition remain somewhat mysterious. Still, de Bellaigue’s punchy, present-tense prose and use of imagined dialogue endow the complex power plays and diplomatic intrigues with a sense of immediacy, and though the narrative ends 30 years before Suleyman’s death and doesn’t include many of his most significant accomplishments, the threat he posed to European dynasties is made clear. This is an incisive portrait of a ruler on the cusp of greatness.