In September 1520 Sultan Selim, feared as "the Grim", died on the road to Edirne. His only surviving son, Suleiman, was governor of Manisa, a quiet province on the Aegean coast.
Suleiman rode to Istanbul and was girded with the sword of Osman. Foreign envoys expected a gentle ruler. Within two years he had taken Belgrade and the island of Rhodes, which had resisted the Ottomans for generations.
At home his subjects would remember him by another name: Kanuni, the Lawgiver, for the codes of law his officials drew up in his name.
