Peerless among Princes

Süleyman I has long been considered the epitome of Ottoman sultans, but the man behind the official persona remains elusive. Kaya Şahin is already author of standout studies of this reign and in this new work skillfully mines contemporary sources to reveal the joys and tribulations of a life increasingly shaped by the anxieties associated with the impending Islamic millennium. From his difficult youth to sickly old age, Süleyman’s life story is here reappraised in a dynamic and intimate narrative that will have wide appeal. * Caroline Finkel, author of Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire *One of history’s most fascinating leaders, known in Europe as ‘the Great Turk,’ comes vividly alive in this captivating book. Combining deep research with a light writing style, it tells not just the story of a sultan but of an epoch. Learning about Süleyman’s multi-talented wife, who rose from slavery to become arguably the most powerful woman in the world, is an added bonus. * Stephen Kinzer, author of Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds *This volume will serve as the standard English account of Süleyman’s reign and the model for how to write a biography of a sultan. * Choice *Kaya Şahin’s Peerless among Princes: The Life andTimes of Sultan Süleyman provides us with an in-depth investigation of the Ottoman sovereign’s life based on thorough research of a wide array of primary sources and comprehensive reading of studies in multiple languages. This ambitious undertaking has produced a cohesive study on one of the most noteworthy sovereigns not only of the Ottoman Empire but of the early modern world, which has been particularly needed in the Anglophone world. * Emire Cihan Yüksel, American Historical Review *Peerless among Princes is a significant achievement. Taken together with Leslie Peirce’s account of Süleyman’s wife Hürrem Sultan in Empress of the Orient (2017) and Erdem Çıpa’s The Making of Selim (2017), a study of Selim I’s career and of sixteenth-century Ottoman historiographical presentation of it, Şahin’s volume creates a solid foundation for study of the sultanate in this era. The book is well written, in an easy yet authoritative style, and will appeal to Ottomanists, students and general readers alike. Nicely produced and reasonably priced, it is illustrated with 16 colour plates (all but one taken from sixteenth-century Shahname-type manuscripts), 15 black and white figures, and 11 small but clear maps. It should immediately become the standard introduction to Süleyman’s reign, if not to sixteenth-century Ottoman history as a whole. * Christine Woodhead, Turcica 56 *

Kaya Şahin is Associate Professor of History and the Executive Associate Dean of the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University. He is the author of Empire and Power in the Reign of Süleyman: Narrating the Sixteenth-Century Ottoman World.

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