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SELIM I
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See also:SELIM I . (1465-1521) succeeded in 1512 his See also:father Bayezid II., whom he dethroned, and whose See also:death, following immediately afterwards, gave rise to suspicions which Selim's See also:character certainly justified. He signalized his See also:accession by putting to death his See also:brothers and nephews; and gave See also:early See also:proof of See also:resolution by boldly cutting down before their troops two See also:officers who showed signs of insubordination. A bigoted Sunni, he resolved on putting See also:dawn the Shiite See also:heresy, which had gained many adherents in See also:Turkey: the number of these was estimated as high as 40,000. Selim determined on See also:war with See also:Persia, where the heresy was the prevalent See also:religion, and in See also:order that the See also:Shiites in Turkey should give no trouble during the war, " See also:measures were taken," as the See also:Turkish historian states, which may be explained as the reader desires, and which proved fully efficacious. The See also:campaign which followed was a See also:triumph for Selim, whose firmness and courage overcame the pusillanimity and insubordination of the See also:Janissaries. See also:Syria and See also:Egypt next See also:fell before him; he became See also:master of the See also:holy cities of See also:Islam; and, most important of all, he induced the last See also:Caliph of the Abbasid See also:dynasty formally to surrender the See also:title of caliph (q.v.), as well as its outward emblems, viz. the holy See also:standard, the See also:sword and the See also:mantle of the See also:prophet. The dignity with which the See also:Ottoman sultans have thereby become invested lends them that See also:prestige throughout the Mussulman See also:world which is of such importance to the See also:present See also:day, and which has thrown into oblivion the See also:condition that the caliph ought to be an Arab of the tribe of Koreish. After his return from his See also:Egyptian campaign, he was preparing an expedition against See also:Rhodes when he was overtaken by sickness and died, on the 22nd of See also:September 1521, in the ninth See also:year of his reign, near the very spot where he hadattacked his father's troops, not far from See also:Adrianople. He was about fifty-five years of See also:age. He was bigoted, bloodthirsty and relentless, though one Turkish historian praises his humanity for having forbidden the cutting up alive of .condemned persons, or the roasting of them before a slow See also:fire; and at one See also:time he was with difficulty dissuaded from ordering the See also:complete extirpation of all the Christians in Turkey. His ambition was insatiable; he is said to have exclaimed when looking at a See also:map that the whole world did not See also:form a See also:sovereignty vast enough for one monarch. His four months' victorious campaign against Persia was undertaken and successfully carried through contrary to the See also:advice of his ministers, several of whom he executed for their opposition to his plans; and he achieved an enterprise which neither Jenghiz See also:Khan nor Timur was able to carry out. It is said that he contemplated the See also:conquest of See also:India and that he was the first to conceive the See also:idea of the See also:Suez See also:Canal. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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