Suleiman the Magnificent

The people think of wealth and power as the greatest fate, But in this world, a spell of health is the best state. What men call sovereignty is worldly strife and constant war; Worship of God is the highest throne, the happiest of all estates.

Suleiman I (Ottoman Turkish: سليمان اول, romanized: Süleyman-ı Evvel; Turkish: I. Süleyman; 6 November 1494 – 6 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver (Ottoman Turkish: قانونى سلطان سليمان, romanized: Ḳānūnī Sulṭān Süleymān) in his realm, was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until his death in 1566.

Quotes

• The people think of wealth and power as the greatest fate,
  But in this world, a spell of health is the best state.
  What men call sovereignty is worldly strife and constant war;
  Worship of God is the highest throne, the happiest of all estates.
  • Quoted by Mansel, Philip, Constantinople: city of the world's desire 1453-1924 (1995), p. 84

• The green of my garden, my sweet sugar, my treasure, my love who cares for nothing in this world.
  My master of Egypt, my Joseph, my everything, the queen of my heart's realm.
  My Stanbul, my Karaman, my land of the Roman Caesars,
  My Badakhshan, my Kipcak, my Baghdad, and Khorasan.
  O my love of black hair with bow-like eyebrows, with languorous perfidious eyes.
  If I die you are my killer, O merciless, infidel woman.
  • Quoted by Mansel, Philip, Constantinople: city of the world's desire 1453-1924 (1995), p. 84
  • Written to his wife - see the article Hurrem for another translation of this verse.

External links

Encyclopedic article on Suleiman the Magnificent on Wikipedia