Sultan Suleyman I (1494-1566); also known as 'Suleyman the Magnificent' and 'Suleyman the Lawmaker'; was the 10th and longest reigning sultan of the Ottoman empire. He personally led his armies to conquer Transylvania; the Caspian; much of the Middle East and the Maghreb.

Suleyman intoduced sweeping reforms in Turkish legislation; education; taxation and criminal law; and was highly respected as a poet and a goldsmith. Suleyman also oversaw a golden age in the development of arts; literature and architecture in the Ottoman empire.