Sir, – Daniel McLaughlin describes Suleiman the Magnificent, whose tomb has been discovered in Hungary, as presiding over "a golden age of artistic achievement and legal reform which earned him the moniker Suleiman the Lawgiver in the Islamic world" ("'Islamophobic' Hungary's Ottoman past recalled", January 6th). He makes it sound as though Vienna was unlucky not to be conquered by the great sultan in his 1566 campaign to capture the city.
As well as an unknown number of concubines, Suleiman the Magnificent had two official wives. His first wife bore him his eldest son, the intelligent and talented Mustafa. He had seven younger sons with his second wife, a Ukrainian former concubine, who remained in his favour. According to the rules of the harem, if Mustafa became sultan, he would have all his half-brothers killed to prevent them from trying to overthrow him. To prevent this, Suleiman summoned his eldest son to his tent, and had the 38-year-old strangled to death in front of him. This left the path clear for Selim to come to the throne. Unfortunately, Selim had none of the good qualities of his half-brother, and is remembered in history as “Selim the Drunkard”. Whatever about his accomplishments in the arts and the law, Suleiman’s understanding of family values was unwelcome in 16th-century Europe. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Vienna.