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SELIM II

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 606 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SELIM II . (1524–1574) was a son of See also:Suleiman I. and his favourite Roxelana, and succeeded his See also:father in 1566. He was the first See also:sultan entirely devoid of military virtues and willing to abandon all See also:power to his ministers, provided he were See also:left See also:free to pursue his orgies and debauches. Fortunately for the See also:country, an able See also:grand See also:vizier, Mahommed Sokolli, was at the See also:head of affairs, and two years after Selim's See also:accession succeeded in concluding at See also:Constantinople an See also:honourable treaty with the See also:emperor See also:Maximilian II., whereby the emperor agreed to pay to See also:Turkey an See also:annual " See also:present " of 30,000 ducats (Feb. 17, 1568). Against See also:Russia he was less fortunate, and the first encounter between Turkey and her future See also:northern See also:rival gave presage of disaster to come. A See also:plan had been elaborated at Constantinople for uniting the See also:Volga and See also:Don by a See also:canal, and in the summer of 1569 a large force of See also:Janissaries and See also:cavalry were sent today See also:siege to See also:Astrakhan and begin the canal See also:works, while an See also:Ottoman See also:fleet besieged See also:Azov. But a sortie of the See also:garrison of Astrakhan drove back the besiegers; 15,000 Russians, under Knes Serebianov, attacked and scattered the workmen and the Tatar force sent for their See also:protection; and, finally, the Ottoman fleet was destroyed by a See also:storm. See also:Early in 1570 the ambassadors of See also:Ivan the Terrible concluded at Constantinople a treaty which restored friendly relations between the sultan and the See also:tsar. Expeditions in the See also:Hejaz and See also:Yemen were more successful, and the See also:conquest of See also:Cyprus in 1571, which provided Selim with his favourite vintage, led to the calamitous See also:naval defeat of See also:Lepanto in the same See also:year, the moral importance of which has often been under-estimated, and which at least freed the Mediterranean from the corsairs by whom it was infested. Turkey's shattered fleets were soon restored, and Sokolli was preparing for a fresh attack on See also:Venice, when the sultan's See also:death on the 12th of See also:December 1574 cut See also:short his plans. Little can be said of this degenerate son of Suleiman, who during the eight years of his reign never girded on the See also:sword of See also:Osman, and preferred the clashing of See also:wine-goblets to the See also:shock of arms, See also:save that with the dissolute tastes of his See also:mother he had not inherited her ferocity.

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