Magnificent Era: Selim the Grim: A fictional series inspired from historical characters of the Suleiman the Magnificent era

Panagiotis Sparis

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This first book of the five historical book series is devoted to the deeds of Sultan Selim I, the so called Selim the Grim by the Westerners, or Selim the Just by his subjects. Selim had Alexander the Great as his role model. With the help of the Janissary Corps he forced his father to abdicate because Bayezid was religious and peaceful. Immediately after the "coronation" of Selim I in 1511, his deposed father died suddenly on his way to Edirne, possibly by poisoning. Thereafter, Selim's older brothers Ahmet and Korkut were strangled together with their six children, as well as Selim’s three of his four legal sons, keeping alive only Suleiman.
With his diplomatic skills Selim managed to unite the Turcoman and Tatar tribes under his banner. Then, he achieved a decisive victory against the Shah Ismail of Persia in the battle of Chaldiran in 1514, crushing the superior enemy cavalry with his artillery. Subsequently, he attacked the second major military power in Middle East, the Mamelukes of Egypt winning several battles, conquering within a year all the major cities Aleppo, Damascus, Jerusalem and Gaza. The next year 1517 he crossed the Sinai Desert in thirteen days, and crushed the Mamelukes at Giza in front of the gates of Cairo, putting an end to the Mameluke dynasties that dominated the Middle East since the Crusades. As a result of the Egyptian conquest, Selim became the master of Mecca and Medina. In this way Selim became the “Protector of Islam”.
In this dramatic historic background, the events related to the beginning of a long friendship between an Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent and a remarkable Greek slave, Pargali Ibrahim are narrated freely on the basis of the existing vague historic outline. Considering the powerful people involved in these important events and the various national interests, there has been an effort by historians of whitewashing many personal details that could be embarrassing if they became known. Moral standards and ethics change considerably in time so discretion is critical before passing judgment.
The author feels that from the very beginning of the narration the reader should also be aware that in the Ottoman Empire founded on the ruins of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Sultan had the right to impose any kind of penalty he saw fit on his non-Muslim subjects. Only on Muslims he was obliged to seek the permission of religious authorities according to the Islamic Law. Thus, non-Muslim subjects called “raya” were basically what we call slaves in the modern West. Slaves had to follow orders or be punished severely to become examples other slaves should not follow. Slaves were also not allowed to ride horses. It goes without saying that the change of faith from Christian or Jewish to Muslim became a wide spread phenomenon in the Ottoman Empire.
On the other hand, Muslim law prohibited harsh punishments of slaves without reason and Ottoman state reworded slaves of exceptional abilities. It is characteristic that the highest administration offices, comparable to Prime Ministers, or Governors were traditionally given to ex-slaves of higher education or rare talents after they converted into Muslims. The Ottoman state also continued the Roman tradition of appointing eunuchs in high positions, because the lack of offspring removed one of the main reasons for embezzlement of state funds.
Muslims were not allowed to castrate slaves and only Christians or Jews performed this difficult operation. There is historical evidence that Selim Khan was very fond of a eunuch his Grand Vizier Hadim Sinan Pasha who died during the battle of Giza. Selim Khan, being such a strong personality, had great influence on the life of his son Suleiman, so without covering part of his life the reader will not make sense of many of his son’s actions.