Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

Conquests
He had not been long seated on the throne when the occasion arrived for him to vindicate that title of ”Lord of the Age” which his courtiers bestowed on him, and which was recorded on his official documents. The Hungarians had insulted and tortured his envoy, and vengeance must follow. All the materials for a campaign were ready; Saleem had left him a ripe fruit, and he had only to pluck it. In 1521 he took the old familiar road of Turkish generals and marched upon Hungary. Belgrade, which had repelled Muhammad the Conqueror, yielded to his even greater successor. The church was turned into a mosque, the fortifications strengthened, and, to the days of Prince Eugene, ”deredle Ritter,” the key of the Danube formed a jewel in the Ottoman crown. The effect of the victory was immediateVenice, in consternation, humbled herself as the Sultan’s vassal, and paid him twofold tribute for Zante and Cyprus. It was only the first rumble of the storm, however. In the following year, 1522, an even more renowned place fell before Sulayman’s assault. Rhodes, where Muhammad II had received a second repulse, was now besieged by Sulayman with all the strength of his empire. A hundred thousand troops by land, and ten thousand by sea, encompassed the devoted island; and all the efforts of the heroic Grand Master, Villiers de L’Isle Adam, could not avail to prevent the fall of the stronghold of the Knights of St. John.
For close upon five months they met mine with countermine, and repelled four tremendous assaults with heavy loss; but no garrison, without any prospect of a relieving force, could withstand for ever the skilful engineering of the Turks, who were the masters of Europe in the art of making regular approaches against a fortified position, and possessed the best artillery in the world. They were allowed twelve days to leave the island with their property and arms; the people of Rhodes were to have full privilege of the exercise of their religion, and to be free from tribute for five years. So deeply were the Turks impressed by the valour of the Knights, that even
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their armorial escutcheons, which stood over their houses, were left undisturbed, and may be seen there to this day.3
The first year’s campaign had ended in the capture of Belgrade, the second had brought surrender of Rhodes; the one had opened Hungary, the other had delivered up the Levantine waters to the Ottoman fleets. Now for two years the Sultan busied himself in the internal administration of his empire and in putting down a revolt in Egypt. He soon found out his mistake in intermitting the annual expeditions which had kept his large standing army in goods temper. The Janissaries began to mutiny, and though the Sultan at first tried the effect of boldness, and with his own hands slew two of the leaders of the insurrection, he found himself forced at last to pacify them by a large bribe, like Sultans before and since, to the great damage of the imperial authority and impoverishment of the treasury. It became necessary to gratify the soldier’s love of war and booty, and Sulayman resolved on a campaign in Hungary, being the more encouraged to it by the advice of the ambassador sent to the Porte by Francis I of France, who was anxious to divert his great rival Charles V from further designs in the west.4
The decision was due, however, as much to another vice as to the machinations of the French king. Sulayman, great as he was, shared his greatness with a second mind, to which his reign owed much of its brilliance. The Grand Wazir Ibrahim was the counterpart of the Grand Monarch Sulayman. He was the son of a sailor at Parga, and had been captured by Corsairs, by whom he was sold to be the slave of a widow at Magnesia. Here he passed into the hands of the young prince Sulayman, then governor of Magnesia, and soon his extraordinary talents and address brought him promotion. The Tuiks have a proverb: ”When God gives office he gives also the ability to fill it”: and it was so with the young man who, form being Grand Falconer on the accession of Sulayman, rose to be first minister and almost co-Sultan in 1523.
He was the object of the Sultan’s tender regard; an emperor knows better than most men solitary is life without friendship and love, and Sula>man loved this man more than a brother. Ibrahim was not only a friend, he was as entertaining and instructive companion. He read Persian, Greek, and Italian; he knew how to open unknown
1 Lane-Poole, P 114

4 Lane-Poole. P 115

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Political and Cultural History of Islam
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Ottoman sea. The pirates of Rhodes were capturing large numbers of ships bringing grain and gold from the new Arab provinces and carrying pilgrims to and from the Holy Cities, thus threatening the sultan’s prestige as well as his pockets. Strategic as well as political reasons impelled Sulayman to neutralize Rhodes before moving into Central Europe.