SOLYMAN (SULEIMAN) II., surnamed " MAGNIFICENT," the greatest of the Turkish sultans. was b. in 1496; and iu Sept., 1520. succeeded his father, Sam I. (q.v.), who had carefully initiated him into the secrets of Ottoman policy. At the commence ment of his reign, he restdred a large amount of unjustly confiscated property, and removed from office all who were unfit for the proper dischar!re of their duties. After having suppressed the revolt o' the with of Syria, lie exterminated the Egyptian Matnehikes, and concluded a treaty with Persia. The foolish insolence of the Hungarian conrt next drew him thither with a powerful army, and Belgrade, the key of that coun try, was captured (1521). Ife next drove the knights of St. John from Rhodes (1522); and for 3 years following devoted himself to improvements in the administration; but his attempts at military reform provoked a rebellion of the janh.aries, which he saw no other means of quelling than by engaging them in a war with Hungary. He gained the signal victory of Manz (1526), and continuing his resistless course, took Buda and Pesth; but he was recalled by the news of a rebellion in the e.. and retreated down the Danube to Constantinople, committing frightful ravages on the way. In 1529 he was summoned to Hungary iu aid of his protege, king John Zapolya, who was contesting the crown with Ferdinand, and accordingly invaded that country with a mighty army, capturing and destroying as he weld, amr laid siege to Vienna. but after varioas unsuc cessful assaults, he was compelled to retreat. Two years afterward (1531). he again
appeared in Hungary; but his progress this time was checked by Charles V. in person, who had conic with the imperial army of 250,000, in aid of his brother. In 1535 he con cluded with Francis I. the famous treaty which opened the commerce of the Levant to the French flag alone. In 1540 the long and desultory contest between the Turks and Imperialists for lluugary was ended in long of the former, who took complete posses sion of the country. After tins, the alliance between the French and the Turks began to bear fruit; the combined fleets ravaged the Italian coasts, and pillaged Nice (1512); but peace was again restored with Germany in 1547. The Turks were now supreme in the Mediterranean; Gozzo and Tripoli fell into their hands, and the conquest of the Banat of Temeswar (1551) assured them a firm hold over Hungary. A second and third war with Persia, which was now in a state of scini-subjug,ation, the bloodthirsty ambi tion of his favorite wife Iloxolana, who succeeded in persuading him to put to death the children of his other wives, a brilliant naval victory (1561) over the knights of Malta and their allies the Spaniards, an unsuccessful blockade of Valetta in Malta (1565), and a fresh expedition to Hungary (1566), were the chief events of the remainder of his reign. During tins last expedition, while besieging the little town of Szigeth or Szegedin, which resisted all his attacks, he died on Sept. 5, 1566.