But it wasn't to be. None survived, but their weeks of bitter resistance cost the Turks more than 20, men and stopped their march to Vienna in its tracks. More than a century would pass before the Ottomans would try to capture Vienna again. The night before the castle fell, the ailing sultan died in his tent, two months shy of his 72nd birthday.
Although the sultan's body was taken to Constantinople for burial, it was said that his heart remained behind in Hungary, buried with his other organs in a golden casket beneath the campaign tent in which he died. His proposal to find the lost tomb fired the imagination of Turkish authorities. It also set the stage for an intriguing mystery that endures to this day. But that was not going to be an easy secret to keep.
They were not back home in the closely guarded privacy of the palace, where there were ways and means to keep a body sealed away and out of sight. They were in a tent on a battlefield in Hungary, surrounded by marshland.
It was late summer. The weather was warm, and there were a lot of bugs. Corpses don't keep well such conditions. As for the crown prince, he was more than a thousand miles away, governing a province in Anatolia. It could take weeks to get a message to him, and more weeks for him to travel back and take command of his late father's army. Legend has it that, forced by circumstances, the Grand Vizier broke with Islamic tradition and had the sultan's body secretly embalmed—in fine storybook style, even going so far as to have the sultan's physician and the embalmers strangled to seal their lips.
Sometime during the s, a shrine was erected over the supposed burial spot. Over the next century it became a popular pilgrimage site, with a small but prosperous settlement springing up around it to serve the needs of the stream of travelers who passed through. So completely did they obliterate the settlement that within a few generations its very existence had lapsed into folklore.
In their quest, Pap and his team pored over centuries' worth of crop and climate records, scoured old military maps, and read hundreds of musty old letters and firsthand accounts of the battle and descriptions of Turbek in Turkish, Latin, Croatian, Hungarian, and German. There, buried beneath a patchwork of vineyards and gnarled fruit trees, they found what appear to be the ruins of an old Ottoman settlement—possibly Turbek. Indeed, archaeological test trenches dug last summer turned up copious amounts of old Ottoman brick and tile, plus intriguing remnants of 16th-century luxury goods from the East: Persian faience, Chinese porcelain, Islamic tiles, silver coins, and glass--indications that this place, whatever it was, was clearly a place of some wealth and importance.
The find is all the more remarkable because the Turks were never known to have established new settlements on the lands they conquered. Not surprisingly, the discovery of what may be the ruins of a 16th-century Ottoman town and—just possibly—the lost tomb of a great sultan has drawn a lot of interest from many quarters. Within a few moments of our arrival in the old vineyards, a carload of police arrived. They were all business, but relaxed when they realized the visitors were just Professor Pap and his team.
The latest discovery, of what may be Turbek, has sparked fresh imaginings of a golden casket containing the sultan's heart lying beneath the earth. And so, as far as the heart goes, there might not be much of anything for us to find. Selim is said to have died in after slipping and banging his head in a hammam while drunk. Its glamorous costumes, sumptuous interiors, and the endless conniving and plotting among the women of the harem have fed the resurgent local interest in the Ottoman Empire.
They led me to an inner vestibule, where I was divested of my cloak and shoes and regaled with refreshments. Presently an elderly woman, very richly dressed, accompanied by a number of young girls, approached me, and after the usual salutation, informed me that the Sultana Asseki was ready to see me.
All the walls of the kiosk in which she lives are covered with the most beautiful Persian tiles and the floors are of cedar and sandalwood, which give out the most delicious odor. At the entrance to the apartment in which the Sultana consented to receive me, the elderly lady who had accompanied me all the time made me a profound reverence, and beckoned to two girls to give me their aid; so that I passed into the presence of the Sultana leaning upon their shoulders.
The Sultana, who is a stout but beautiful young woman, sat upon silk cushions striped with silver, near a latticed window overlooking the sea.
Numerous slave women, blazing with jewels, attended upon her, holding fans, pipes for smoking, and many objects of value. She asked many questions concerning our country and our religion, of which she knew nothing whatever, and which I answered as modestly and discreetly as I could. I was surprised to notice, when I had finished my narrative, that the room was full of women, who, impelled by curiosity, had come to see me, and to hear what I had to say.
When the dancing and music were over, refreshments were served upon trays of solid gold sparkling with jewels. As it was growing late, and I felt afraid to remain longer, lest I should vex her, I made a motion of rising to leave. She immediately clapped her hands, and several slaves came forward, in obedience to her whispered commands, carrying trays heaped up with beautiful stuffs, and some silver articles of fine workmanship, which she pressed me to accept.
After the usual salutations the old woman who first escorted me into the imperial presence conducted me out, and I was led from the room in precisely the same manner in which I had entered it, down to the foot of the staircase, where my own attendants awaited me. I was very glad to observe a lady that had been distinguished by the favor of an emperor, to whom beauties were every day presented from all parts of the world. But she did not seem to me to have ever been half so beautiful as the fair Fatima I saw at Adrianople; though she had the remains of a fine face, more decayed by sorrow than by time.
She wore a vest called donalma, and which differs from a caftan by longer sleeves, and folding over at the bottom. It was of purple cloth, straight to her shape, and thick-set, on each side, down to her feet, and round the sleeves, with pearls of the best water, of the same size as their buttons commonly are.
This habit was tied at the waist with two large tassels of smaller pearl, and round the arms embroidered with large diamonds: her shift fastened at the bottom with a great diamond, shaped like a lozenge; her girdle as broad as the broadest English ribbon, entirely covered with diamonds.
Round her neck she wore three chains, which reached to her knees: one of large pearl, at the bottom of which hung a fine colored emerald, as big as a turkey-egg; another, consisting of two hundred emeralds, close joined together of the most lively green, perfectly matched, every one as large as a half-crown piece, and as thick as three crown pieces; and another of small emeralds, perfectly round.
But her earrings eclipsed all the rest. They were two diamonds, shaped exactly like pears, as large as a big hazelnut. Round her talpoche she had four strings of pearl, the whitest and most perfect in the world, at least enough to make four necklaces, every one as large as the Duchess of Marlborough's, and of the same size, fastened with two roses, consisting of a large ruby for the middle stone, and round them twenty drops of clean diamonds to each.
Beside this, her headdress was covered with bodkins of emeralds and diamonds. She wore large diamond bracelets, and had five rings on her fingers, all single diamonds, except Mr.
Pitt's the largest I ever saw in my life. It is for jewelers to compute the value of these things; but, according to the common estimation of jewels in our part of the world, her whole dress must be worth above a hundred thousand pounds sterling.
This I am very sure of, that no European queen has half the quantity; and the Empress' jewels, though very fine, would look very mean near hers. But the magnificence of her table answered very well to that of her dress. The knives were of gold, the hafts set with diamonds but the piece of luxury that gripped my eyes was the tablecloth and napkins, which were all tiffany, embroidered with silks and gold, in the finest manner, in natural flowers. It was with the utmost regret that I made use of these costly napkins, as finely wrought as the finest handkerchiefs that ever came out of this country.
You may be sure that they were entirely spoiled before dinner was over. The sherbet which is the liquor they drink at meals was served in china bowls; but the covers and salvers were massy gold.
After dinner, water was brought in a gold basin, and towels of the same kind as the napkins, which I very unwillingly wiped my hands upon; and coffee was served in china, with gold sou-coupes. I did not omit this opportunity of learning all that I possibly could of the seraglio, which is so entirely unknown among us. She never mentioned her husband without tears in her eyes, yet she seemed very fond of the discourse. Yet I cannot forget that I was beloved by the greatest and most lovely of mankind.
I was chosen from all the rest, to make all his campaigns with him; I would not survive him, if I was not passionately fond of my daughter. Yet all my tenderness for her was hardly enough to make me preserve my life.
When I lost him, I passed a whole twelvemonth without seeing the light. Time has softened my despair; yet I now pass some days every week in tears, devoted to the memory of my husband. It was easy to see she was in a deep melancholy, though her good humor made her willing to divert me. She asked me to walk in her garden, and one of her slaves immediately brought her a pellice of rich brocade lined with sables.
I waited on her into the garden, which had nothing in it remarkable but the fountains; and from thence she showed me all her apartments. In her bed chamber her toilet was displayed, consisting of two looking-glasses, the frames covered with pearls, and her night talpoc1te set with bodkins of jewels, and near it three vests of fine sables, every one of which is, at least, worth a thousand dollars two hundred pounds English money.
I don't doubt these rich habits were purposely placed in sight, but they seemed negligently thrown on the sofa. When I took my leave of her, I was complimented with perfumes, as at the grand vizier's, and presented with a very fine embroidered handkerchief. Her slaves were to the number of thirty, besides ten little ones, the eldest not above seven years old.
These were the most beautiful girls I ever saw, all richly dressed; and I observed that the Sultana took a great deal of pleasure in these lovely children, which is a vast expense; for there is not a handsome girl of that age to be bought under a hundred pounds sterling.
They wore little garlands of flowers, and their own hair, braided, which was all their headdress; but their habits all of gold stuffs. He reformed the law and created a single legal code. The Ottomans were known for their achievements in art, science and medicine. Istanbul and other major cities throughout the empire were recognized as artistic hubs, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. Which was an achievement of Suleiman I?
He led the Ottoman Empire into Eastern Europe.
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