The Lion Home. By Christopher de Bellaigue. Classic; 304 pages; £20. To be revealed in America by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in November; $28
NOT FOR the primary or final time in historical past, the grasp of an authoritarian energy straddling Europe and Asia seemed west—and was reassured to search out his adversaries divided. Squabbles among the many rulers of western Christendom, theological, industrial and private, made it simpler for Sultan Suleiman to realize his grand goal.
He led his huge, multi-ethnic armies deep into European territory, in 1529 (and once more in 1532) stopping solely on the gates of Vienna. He had established Islam’s place on the continent. Within the 5 centuries since, the character and achievements of Suleiman the Magnificent have by no means ceased to puzzle and fascinate. Christopher de Bellaigue approaches him from an uncommon and intriguing angle.
Regardless of his dazzling charisma, facets of Suleiman’s life counsel a weak, even lamentable determine: a ruler who tried to be fractionally extra lenient than his predecessors however was caught up within the murderous calculus of palace politics. He liked and trusted two people, each of Orthodox Christian background. One was his erstwhile servant and falconer, Ibrahim, whom Suleiman met once they have been each round 20, and who proved to be a grasp of statecraft. The opposite was his favorite consort and spouse, Hurrem.
However this was not a cheerful trio. Hurrem helped persuade Suleiman (maybe accurately) that Ibrahim was flying too excessive and will grow to be a rival. One morning in 1536, within the bed room subsequent to the sultan’s, Ibrahim was discovered strangled. (A lot later, it appears, Hurrem induced Suleiman to kill his beloved son, born by one other lady.) Suleiman’s reign, as much as Ibrahim’s dying, gives the framework for Mr de Bellaigue’s vivid and compelling narrative.
This can be a new style for an creator who has written, in a journalistic and scholarly vein, concerning the modern and early-modern histories of Iran, Turkey and the broader Center East (and has reported for The Economist from that area). He presents his story like a novel, however it isn't fiction; each element has been diligently researched, for instance by perusing diaries in tough Venetian dialect. To study Suleiman’s accession ceremony, he studied an art work by a grasp miniaturist within the Topkapi Palace Museum.
Certainly it could be stated that ceremonies in all their selection are Mr de Bellaigue’s favorite factor. Obsessively however infectiously, he relates the finer factors of political, social and army rituals. Whether or not he's describing a lavish dinner for Italian retailers on the Bosporus, the stately progress of Suleiman’s armies via the Balkans or a mass circumcision, he has a watch for the colorful, absurd and ironic.
Holding up a mirror to Suleiman and his court docket, the narrative opens within the contrasting, however no much less ritualistic, world of Venice—an influence destined to compete with the Ottomans, but in addition to work together with them in mutually useful methods. Because the epitome of that ambivalent relationship, Mr de Bellaigue introduces Andrea Gritti, who turned doge (or ruler) of Venice in 1523. He had spent greater than 20 years within the Ottoman capital, first as a service provider, then as a diplomat, then as an incarcerated espionage suspect, and at last because the dealer of a Venetian-Ottoman peace treaty.
The ebook describes how certainly one of his sons, Alvise Gritti, settled in what right this moment is Istanbul and befriended each Suleiman and Ibrahim. Ultimately, in 1534, Alvise was captured and killed throughout a shady army assault on Transylvania. Earlier than that, it might be stated that a single, subtle household loved affect in each nice maritime powers.
By flashing between the Adriatic and the Bosporus, Mr de Bellaigue brings residence many such hyperlinks, comparisons and commonalities. Each of the port cities that he evokes brimmed with ostentatious wealth extracted from distant lands. However for all of the cynicism of its governance, Venice was a law-based state the place the election of the doge, for instance, concerned elaborate guidelines. The winner needed to pledge respect for the established system.
The sultan, in contrast, was not topic to any earthly checks or balances. As a consultant of God he might make his personal legal guidelines, and no man-made statute might constrain him. As this ebook reveals, residing within the penumbra of such supreme energy might be seductive and intoxicating. However the finish of the story is commonly tragic. ■
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