The View from the Bridge - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 10

Conquest, bringing in Turks, Greeks and Armenians from Asia Minor
and Thrace and settling them in Stamboul and Galata. Later in that
century large numbers of Jewish refugees from Spain were welcomed
to the Ottoman Empire by Fatih's son and successor, Beyazit II, and
many of them settled in Istanbul. By the beginning of the sixteenth
century, then, Istanbul was a thriving and populous city, once again
the capital of a vast empire.
During the first century after the Conquest, Turkish armies swept
victoriously through the Balkans and the Near East, while buc-
caneering Ottoman fleets dominated the Mediterranean. By the
middle of the sixteenth century the Ottoman Empire stretched from
Baghdad in the east to Algiers in the west, and from lower Egypt
to the southern borders of Russia, rivalling in extent the Byzantine
Empire in the days of Justinian. The Empire reached the peak of
its power during the reign of Süleyman the Magniicent, who ruled
from 1520 till 1566. Süleyman personally led his armies in a dozen
victorious campaigns, failing only in his attempts to take Vienna and
Malta, which thereafter set the limit to Turkish expansion to the north
and west in Europe. The loot from these campaigns and the tribute
and taxes from the conquered territories enormously enriched the
Empire, and much of this wealth was used by Süleyman and his vezirs
to adorn Istanbul with mosques, palaces and pious foundations. The
grandest and most beautiful of these structures was the Süleymaniye,
the mosque which was completed for Süleyman in the year 1557 by
his Chief Architect, the great Sinan. his magnificent edifice stands
on the crest of the ridge above the Golden Horn to the west of the
Stamboul end of the Galata Bridge, dominating the whole skyline
of the city. The Süleymaniye is the symbol of the golden age of the
Ottoman Empire, just as Haghia Sophia represents the triumph
of Byzantium in the days of Justinian. These two great buildings,
separated in foundation by more than 1,000 years of history, stand
only a mile apart in Stamboul. Looking at them both at once from
the Galata Bridge, we are reminded that this old town was twice the
capital of a world empire.
This second golden age lasted longer than did the first, for the
Ottoman Empire was still vigorous and expanding as late as the middle