Istanbul Under Suleiman the Magnificent, 1520–1566 | Calm Bedtime History

It is the autumn of 1520, and the body of Sultan Selim I has barely reached Istanbul when his only surviving son, Suleiman, twenty-six years old, enters the city through the ancient walls to claim the throne. The capital he inherits already holds perhaps four hundred thousand souls, making it the largest city in Europe, larger than Paris, larger than Venice at the height of her power. From the Arsenal on the Golden Horn to the Asian shore at Üsküdar, from the dried-cypress grounds of the old Byzantine hippodrome to the new palace rising on Seraglio Point, this is the city Constantine built, Mehmed conquered, and which now, under Suleiman, will become the seat of the most powerful empire the Mediterranean world has known.