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"Fate saw the jewel in me, and pawed the heart apart to have it." Suleiman arrives at his darkest hour.

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Suleiman the Magnificent - V: Slave of God - Extra History

Suleiman's empire stretches across the Mediterranean, but in the midst of his success, he suspects betrayal in his own house. His best friend, Ibrahim, and his most promising son, Mustafa, both seem to have designs upon the throne. Support us on Patreon! http://bit.ly/EHPatreon --- (Episode details below) Grab your Extra Credits gear at the store! http://bit.ly/ExtraStore Subscribe for new episodes every Saturday! http://bit.ly/SubToEC Watch the Suleiman the Magnificent series! http://bit.ly/1nBF8i9 Play games with us on Extra Play! http://bit.ly/WatchEXP Talk to us on Twitter (@ExtraCreditz): http://bit.ly/ECTweet Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/ECFBPage Get our list of recommended games on Steam: http://bit.ly/ECCurator ____________ Suleiman was alone in his garden, unable to escape the doubts and regrets that shadowed him... Suleiman and Ibrahim marched south upon the Safavid kingdom, where they met no resistance. Faced with an unbeatable Ottoman army, the Safavids simply yielded and scorched the earth behind them so Suleiman would not be able to hold the territory he took. Ibrahim suggested that he take on the role of sultan in this new territory so that he could govern it, but his words enraged Suleiman. Roxelana had been warning him that Ibrahim had grown ambitious and disrespectful, and now he saw it. He had Ibrahim assassinated and appointed a new chief vizier. But now his Western empire was in shambles. He allied with the French against his enemy, Charles of Spain, but they conducted their war in Italy, well beyond his usual sphere of control. The mismanaged war had to be called off after Charles and Ferdinand attacked Hungary in the wake of John Zápolya's death. Suleiman defeated them and annexed it officially. Again war called. This time he sent his troops south without him, only to hear word that they felt Mustafa was a better leader than he was and Mustafa didn't disagree. He joined them in the field and ordered Mustafa to come to him and prove his innocence, but it was a trap. He had Mustafa killed. The consequences rippled out. He killed Mustafa's son, his grandson. One of his own sons died from grief. Roxelana died of old age. His two remaining sons, Selim II and Bayezid, began to quarrel for the throne, and he ordered them both out of the capital. Bayezid hesitated, and Suleiman turned against him. Even after Bayezid fled to the Safavids, Suleiman pressed for his execution and bribed the Safavid sultan to carry it out for him. Now, he had only one son. ____________ ♫ Get the intro music here! http://bit.ly/1EQA5N7 *Music by Demetori: http://bit.ly/1AaJG4H ♫ Get the outro music here! http://bit.ly/23isQfx *Music by Sean and Dean Kiner: http://bit.ly/1WdBhnm

Comments

Winters King

say what you want about justinian and belisarius relationship. Justinian never executed the man that brought him victories upon victories. while he might not have trsuted him as much as he should have, he never had a man that was loyal to him until the last rewarded for his work, with execution out of hate or suspision.

Anonymous

Roxelane's power and the execution of Mustafa were the turning point for the rise of the ottoman empire. It would never really recover and be led by weak sultans except a few like Sultan Abdulhamid ll. Very good episode. Well explained but still entertained. Thx

E

Hey why did y'all not mention that the Hapsburgs got a slice of Hungary in the peace treaty.

Michael Waisfeld

To be perfectly honest, I don't see why they call him the magnificent. All I see is a borderline madman who would have achieved nothing if he didn't have hundreds of thousands of men to throw at every breach. Did he even have a battle where he didn't outnumber his opponent 5 to 1? I guess he did do those law reforms though...

Anonymous

It's not so easy to manage big armies and large lands. He was sultan for 46 years. This series just captures the red line and not the details. He increased the land from 6.5 million sqm to 14.9 million. It's also what other people call him from impression. He didn't call himself that really. His life also shows many issues of the ottoman empire.

Kyle Clark

I just knew bad things were going to happen when I saw the thumbnail...

Anonymous

It's true what they say apparently: it's easier after the first time. When your first order optimal strategy is assassinate anyone who disobey you it's easy to make mistakes. I want to say that this was an incredibly visually impressive episodes. Choices like making Suleiman's hat into a ragecanoe when he's angry and the angry green pea idea demon were marvelous visuals. You guys do so much with such a simple art style.

Jim McGeehin

Mustafa's death has a fascinating little conspiracy theory. Rustem Pasha was sympathetic to Roxelana, and bold, popular Mustafa would be far harder to influence than Bayezid or Selim. Nevertheless, this would start the notion that the sultan's heir should come from the sultan's favored consort as opposed to other qualifications, and would herald the beginning of a long line of incompetent, decadent, and indulgent sultans. It was touched on a little bit, but Suleiman had a lot of fortune with a trade monopoly to East Asia, which the Portugese circumvented when they found the Cape of Good Hope usuable, and a Portugese-Ottoman conflict flared up in multiple locales in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It looks like the next episode is going to be the wars in the Mediterranean, where our old friends the Knights make their reappearance, and we see the battles of Djerba and Malta, the latter of which is one of my all-time favorite battles of the era. Beware a warrior monk of any stripe.

Anonymous

This was some Game of Thrones style crap. Suleiman went off the deep end

paul staber

It says something about a person when there only friends are there slaves.

paul staber

a lot of it is pretty normal for the ottomans, as they said it was traditional to kill off all but one of the heirs to the throne "to prevent civil war" I cant imagine what growing up in an environment like that would do to someone especially given how big some sultans families got having say 5 brothers and knowing from an early age THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE would have to create some psychotics and they are probably the ones who are most likely to survive.

Anonymous

What a difference one moment of mistrust makes.

Anonymous

It was more of seeds of doubt being fed and watered under a lense tainted by Roxelana. For once the lense you view a person through has been colored it is hard to wipe it clean. Especially when you're now looking at every little thing they do and say under a microscope. Humans are funny things. It is far easier to mistrust someone than to believe in them. Especially since Suleiman was getting older and he felt it. Doubt, fear, and insecurity; it is a potent, unstable, and disastrous concoction that has blown apart kingdom after kingdom throughout time.

Anonymous

Given how serious the episode is, I hesitate to say... I really enjoyed the Walpole Easter Egg.

Anonymous

What a complete 180. To be so carefree, than to have one crack break a person to the point of seemingly jumping at shadows.

Tempestfury

Even the Magnificent can fall to anger and hated...

Anonymous

This way of story telling through reminiscence, is it just something you wanted to try or you know that Suleiman was like this? I'm just wondering if you'll do this more often or if it is just in character. As always, amazing work :) Thank you

Anonymous

Suleiman sure is a grumpy guy.

The Cayute

"Fear leads to Anger. Anger leads to Hate. Hate...leads to suffering." - Yoda

Anonymous

Suleiman wanted to redress father's cruel rule and arbitrary execution of his advisers. Suleiman didn't want his sons to die in a succession struggle. Suleiman kills two of his sons and favorite adviser and personal friend out of suspicion. facepalm

Dmitry

Even given all of his "darkest hour", I imagine Suleiman was far more benevolent than nearly any other sultans before him.

Anonymous

Alas, even the Magnificent succumbs to man's worst enemy: Old age. Man, history is full of bittersweet endings.

Peter Melling

While I really enjoy the framing device of this Extra History series and the coverage of the battles, I find that it is woefully skewed towards talking about Suleiman's military accomplishments over his patronage of the arts and sciences. I do hope this is touched upon more in the final episode. Hopefully, the lies episode covers such topics as the naming of Roxelana/Hürrem Sultan (who was probably named Anastasia, then took on a Muslim name), Ibrahim's support of Sehzade's succession, the conspiring of Rustem Pasha, and how this series make Suleiman seem like a paranoid and ill-tempered ruler who hardly deserved the name "Magnificent" (maybe address issues with pacing in the lies episode, and talk about how compressing some narratives distorts the events).

Anonymous

Nearly brought me to tears. Great job EH Team.

ExtraCredits

NEARLY? Nearly brought you to tears? Oh, well then, we'll get you next time...

ExtraCredits

We all do agree with that, and in retrospect I can't help but wonder if he even deserved a Justinian style treatment of having his life split into two different series. As it was, six episodes wasn't enough to address his er, Magnificence. We had to look for a way to create a narrative thread that would pull us through the narrative of his entire life, and that wound up being his military exploits. We might address it in Lies, and we've also discussed doing one-off episodes that sort of "fill in" the importance of some of his other accomplishments, but nothing's decided yet.

ExtraCredits

Yeah, we've kinda been on a roll of sad endings lately, haven't we? Except John Snow. That one worked out okay!

ExtraCredits

He certainly executed fewer viziers than his father, so he's got that going for him!

ExtraCredits

Turns out that actually being a ruler is more complicated (and more fraught with threats of betrayal) than the idealism of a young man can really understand. :\

ExtraCredits

If only Suleiman had been stranded on Dagobah. He probably would have just annexed it, though.

ExtraCredits

He did have his reasons - there were genuine reasons to suspect betrayal from all the folks he suspected might be betraying him - and you kinda don't want to be the guy who gets stabbed in the back by his closest friends and family. Then again, you also don't really want to be the guy who executes his closest friends and family so... sucks for him either way.

ExtraCredits

We're experimenting! We may use it again but it won't be the default for every series.

ExtraCredits

Those cracks were long developing, but when the strain finally got to be enough... people broke.

ExtraCredits

On the other hand, it also says soomething about a person when they can look past the label of "slave" and recognize the value in someone like Ibrahim or even Roxelana.

Tempestfury

Do think we should of split the tale in two in order to go into more detail. Honestly I doubt people will mind if you do it more often to fully tell a story. Hell, why not put it to vote and see what the pateron's decide about it? Should help you decide how exactly to handle the fact that this method of storytelling, which I do love, was focused on his miltary exploits, as well as possible problems in the future.

Tempestfury

Do think we should of split the tale in two in order to go into more detail. Honestly I doubt people will mind if you do it more often to fully tell a story. Hell, why not put it to vote and see what the pateron's decide about it? Should help you decide how exactly to handle the fact that this method of storytelling, which I do love, was focused on his miltary exploits, as well as possible problems in the future.

ExtraCredits

Yep, we're going to see those Knights come back for a stint next episode! And Suleiman's final siege of Vienna - sort of.

ExtraCredits

We are so lucky to have such brilliant artists. Time and again, we send them scripts I think are going to be impossible to bring to life and they send back drafts with the most brilliant little details that make it all work.

ExtraCredits

Maybe if the Habsburgs get their own series! There's always more to history than we can tell in 8 minute animated shorts, but that's why we do Lies and encourage people to look more into the subject on their own, to find those details and make their own judgments about what happened.

ExtraCredits

I'm glad you enjoyed it! It would have been interesting to see how things would have gone with Mustafa heading up the empire.

ExtraCredits

Execute no, strip of property and imprison - yes. I would certainly say that Justinian takes the better course here - he was able to restore Belisarius's property and free him later, whereas Suleiman could never bring Ibrahim back and regretted it the rest of his life - but neither ruler really manages to keep faith with their top general/advisor. There is, of course, a long history of such people betraying their ruler in the end, which doesn't make it easy to believe the guy who says "trust me!" when he has your entire army at his beck and call. And there's even a legend (which I don't believe to be true, for various reasons) that Justinian ordered Belisarius's eyes put out and made him a beggar at the Gates of Rome. Even though the truth of that story is very doubtful, the fact that it came into being shows just how far the relationship between even Justinian and Belisarius had deteriorated by the end. It is also a reflection of its time, buuuuut, that's a story for another day!

ExtraCredits

We are open to doing it more in the future, although at this point I'm not convinced we can go back and do it for Suleiman. Maybe, but it'd take some ingenuity! As I said up above though, we would consider fleshing out his other exploits through one-offs. I really want to be sparing with the super-long series, though, because I look at all the places we haven't even touched on (North or South America, Australia, China, India, Russia, and many, many more) as well as how we've only scratched the surface of the places we already have been, and it makes me itchy to think that one subject might take up two blocs when there's still so much to explore!

Tempestfury

Really wish I could reply to your comment... but aye. If we were to cover everything about these guys and the nusances involved, we'll be here for years I'm sure.

ExtraCredits

There should be a wee little arrow under my comment for a direct reply, but Patreon just updated their comments system so it may be bugged on some browsers. Anyway. For me the ideal case would be to have a bunch of focused history channels like our friends at the Great War Channel to give these topics the in depth coverage they deserve! Although I have to say, a lot of universities release their lectures as podcasts which is a pretty good way to get that thorough insight as well.