Religious And Political Alliances In Suleyman

Religious and political alliances
Suleyman’s reign was known for creating alliances across religious and political groups. Contrary to what many people assume, the relationship between Christians and Ottomans during Suleyman’s reign was not characterized by conflicts and hostility. The success of Suleyman can be traced back from his ability to mobilize and assimilate local Christian elites. Suleyman went to the extent of forming institutions with the aim of employing Christians within the state apparatus. Furthermore, Suleyman gathered young Christian boys from different villages and enlisted them into the military structure. In doing so, he wanted to build a military unit made up of loyal men as opposed to frontier warriors whose loyalty
In fact, it is a fallacy that the European states were a constant threat to the Ottomans and vice versa. It was the desire of Suleyman to transfer ideas, goods, and technologies in addition to putting in place commercial treaties and military alliances with European states. Even in instances where the Ottomans were fervent rivals with a particular European state, it was always the desire of Suleyman to develop a mutual understanding to a certain extent. The need to form alliances with European states was informed by a grand strategy the Ottomans developed that, and which was useful in shaping their foreign policy (Necipoglu, 1989). Therefore, Suleyman was very careful before initiating any form of military action because they had to assess the logistics and capabilities of the intended action. The Ottoman foreign policy largely hinged on these assessments as opposed to that which was influenced by religious or cultural convictions. The same case applied with European states whereby in spite of the deep divisions that existed among themselves, they often preferred to engage with Ottomans when they were in need of diplomatic and military
The last years of his reign saw the Ottoman Empire suffer from dispossession and economic stagnation, as peasants were not in a position to pay their taxes due to low agricultural production and high rates of unemployment. This was largely due to his poor economic policies, which saw a significant portion of the resources, used to build mosques and finance military activities. The Ottoman Empire suffered a low decline because it failed to conquer Europe; hence, they were not able to acquire new wealth, which led to loss of momentum. Furthermore, Suleyman’s empire is not worthy of the ‘Golden Age’ title because his reign saw an influx of cheap products from the Far East. It is possible to argue that as Suleyman continued with his expansion plans, they posed a real threat to Islam because the Islamic world continued to shrink. However, in as much as Suleyman conquered European territories, this does not drive away the fact that he annexed or invaded Islamic territory. It keeps one wondering how Suleyman was protecting Islam while at the same time he was conquering Islamic territory; hence, he is not the type of leader to be credited with the ‘Golden