Selim I

Selim I, called Yavuz — the Grim — was born on 10 October 1470. His father was Sultan Bayezid II, his mother Gülbahar Hatun, who came from the principality of the Dulkadiroğulları. Selim was tall and broad-shouldered, heavy-boned, wide between the shoulders, round-headed and ruddy-faced, with a long moustache; a valiant sultan, harsh by nature and brave. He was well educated.

After his father Bayezid II became sultan, he appointed Prince Selim governor of the district of Trabzon so that he might learn the conduct of armies and the government of the state.

At Trabzon, alongside affairs of state, Prince Selim occupied himself with learning and followed the lessons of the great scholar Mevlâna Abdülhalim Efendi. Governing Trabzon very well, he also concerned himself in the meantime with the neighbouring states.

During his governorship he made three campaigns against the Georgians, who gave the people of Trabzon no peace. In the most important of them, the Kutaisi campaign, he conquered the provinces of Kars, Erzurum and Artvin and many other places and added them to Ottoman territory (1508).

He rode very well and used a sword well enough to overcome the most famous swordsmen of the age. He was a master at wrestling, archery and drawing the bow. Though he was fond of war, he also had a very fine spirit. A modest man, Selim ate a single dish at each meal and used wooden plates.

He disliked display and did not squander the property of the state. The already sufficient treasury he inherited from his father he filled to the brim. After sealing the door of the treasury he left this testament:

"Let whichever of my descendants can fill the treasury I have filled with gold seal it with his own seal; otherwise let the Imperial Treasury be sealed with mine."

The testament was kept. Since none of the sultans who came after him could fill the treasury, its door was always sealed with Selim's seal.

Although his forefathers all wore beards, Selim shaved his. To those who asked why, he is said to have replied, "I cut it so that it cannot be seized." He died on 22 September 1520, at only fifty years of age, from a boil known as the "lion's claw".

In his last moments he was reciting the Sura Yasin. Süleyman the Magnificent, after leading his father's funeral prayer at the Fatih Mosque, had him buried in the tomb in the courtyard of the Sultan Selim Mosque. Historians have judged Selim I a great sultan who fitted eighty years of work into eight.

• Sons: Süleyman the Magnificent
• Daughters: Hatice Sultan, Fatma Sultan, Hafsa Sultan, Şah Sultan

Source: Osmanlı Tarihi Interaktif CD-ROM (Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları XXXI. Dizi-Sa.2)