Lecture Date: January 26, 2021
The Fredericksburg Savings Charitable Foundation Lecture
Commonly seen as ruling over the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power, the celebrated Sultan Süleyman the Magnificient (r. 1520-1566) left behind a number of compelling legacies for his family, state, empire, and government. In the course of his long reign, the empire expanded well into Southeastern Europe, Iraq, North Africa, and the Indian Ocean; governance grew increasingly professionalized and bureaucratized; and the Ottomans put forth credible claims for universal empire. His personal life was marked by a mixture of overt romance and tragedy, complete with an unstable inheritance from his father, unorthodox concubine marriage, two occasions where he ordered the execution of his own sons, his own dramatic death while on campaign, and an inauspicious transfer to his least beloved son. One of the giants of early modern monarchy, Süleyman, known as the “Lawgiver” in the Islamic World and the “Magnificient” in the West, certainly lived a life worth inclusion as one of the greats.
For further reading on Süleyman the Magnificent, see an op-ed by Nabil Al-Tikriti, published in the Free Lance-Star on January 24, 2021.
Speaker: Nabil Al-Tikriti
Nabil Al-Tikriti is Associate Professor of Middle East History at the University of Mary Washington. He is currently a member of the editorial board of Middle East Report, and was a member of the MSF/Doctors Without Borders USA Board of Directors from 2011 to 2017. He has served as a consultant, election monitor, and relief worker at a number of field locations in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Dr. Al-Tikriti earned a bachelor’s degree in Arab Studies from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University and a doctorate in Ottoman History from the University of Chicago in 2004. He has also studied at Boğaziçi Üniversitesi in Istanbul, the Center for Arabic Studies Abroad in Cairo, and the American University in Cairo. He is the recipient of several grants and scholarships, including three Fulbrights, a U.S. Institute of Peace Fellowship, and a NEH/American Research Institute in Turkey grant.