ABSTRACT
A subtly different image of the sultan suleyman begins to appear towards the end of Suleyman's reign in a form of literary historiography consciously developed under his auspices. In origin a celebration of the glories of war, the sehname evolved into a cross between court history, panegyric, and elegant literature. Ottoman historians of Suleyman's era naturally dealt with controversial issues within the same exemplary and moralistic framework as they did achievements. The chief features of Rustem's grand vezirate generally quoted by later Ottoman historians, and which overshadow his positive achievements, are his involvement in the execution of sehzade Mustafa in 1553. Suleyman's architectural projects and their associated evkaf were the dominant physical symbols of his status as supreme Muslim ruler and benefactor of his people. It is significant that the two major histories of Suleyman's reign - Celalzade's Tabakatu'l-memalik and Arif's Suleymanname both originated largely in the troubled decade of the 1550s.
