Suleiman the Magnificent

The Ottoman victory against the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526 brought the Ottomans to within 100 miles of Habsburg Vienna.

Vienna would then become the Habsburgs primary defensive bulwark and it would not be long before the Ottomans besieged it under their Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.

Suleiman assembled a substantially sized army, but the strength of the Habsburgs, coupled with some good fortune with the weather and strained supply lines, caused the Ottomans to retreat.

With the Ottomans fended off, the Habsburgs wasted little time in redesigning Vienna's defences, and by the end of the 16th century, the city would be one of Europe's strongest fortress cities.

The battle brought the Ottomans to the doorstep of Vienna, by this time a significant Habsburg city.

The Habsburgs would now be the primary defenders of Christian Europe.

Under their great ruler, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottomans would advance on Vienna for the first time.

And as we learned earlier, the Habsburgs resisted the siege, sending the Ottomans back to their homelands empty-handed.

So, we see this in Jenkinson's voyage.

Jenkinson has already met Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman emperor.

He'll go on to meet Ivan the Terrible of Russia.

When he sets out in 1561 for Persia, his expedition is going to be different from the previous one that he's done that has led to him securing trading privileges with the Ottomans, because this time he'll carry an official letter from Elizabeth to the Persian ruler.

But in 1541, a massive fire destroyed the old palace.

And Herm Sultan, who was the famously powerful wife of Suleyman the Magnificent, she used the opportunity to move the harem here permanently.

She essentially moved the family into the Ottoman equivalent of the Pentagon.

She did.

That's an episode in and of itself, but...

Broadly speaking, could you take us to the siege that finally succeeds in 1453? Can you talk more about the purposes of Mehmed II, known in Turkish as Fatih Sultan Mehmed, Mehmed the Conqueror, what his aims are in the conquest?

Yeah, so it was a very interesting time.

I mean, by this time, Byzantium had really withered to the point where Constantinople was effectively an impoverished city-state.

And by the time we get to 1453, it's not really a surprise that the Byzantine Empire is conquered.

It's more surprising that it lasted as long as it did, because...

Sultans for about 100 years were trying to conquer the city.

And to call it the Byzantine Empire an empire at this point is being polite because it's basically one city with a few very meager land holdings on the outside, some islands.

Approaching the Damascus Gate on the north side of the city, it is the most beautiful of Jerusalem's 11 gates.

These walls were constructed in the 16th century by the Ottoman Turk Suleiman I.

This map indicates the current walls follow the line of the old walls from Jesus's day.

Making our way through the large gate, we continue to meet worshipers entering the city.

Approaching the Damascus Gate on the north side of the city, it is the most beautiful of Jerusalem's 11 gates.

These walls were constructed in the 16th century by the Ottoman Turk Suleiman I.

This map indicates the current walls follow the line of the old walls from Jesus's day.

Making our way through the large gate, we continue to meet worshipers entering the city.

Among them, the Stari Most in Mostar, an historic city in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The starry mast was designed by master builder Mimar Hayreddin for Suleiman the Magnificent, the most powerful sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Inspired and sustained by Islam and Islamic institutions, the empire stretched from Baghdad to Budapest, from Cairo to the Caucasus, reaching its peak under Suleiman's rule.

The starry mast utilized local limestone and was allegedly held together with metal pins and proteins from egg whites.