AROUND THE WORLD
www.amrapaali.org
In Search
of the
Sultan’s
Heart
11
Contents
By SYEDA AFJALINA WASI
Photo Courtesy: wikipedia.org
Suleiman in a portrait attributed to Titian c.1530
Sultan
Süleyman the Magnificent, died at
the age of 71, during the famous siege of the
Szigetvar Fortress on Sept 6, 1566 – a day
before his Ottoman Turkish army emerged
victorious.
the whereabouts of the sultan’s heart. But
before we plunge into investigating the finds
around this mystery, let us try to unveil why
it is so important to the Turks to find the
sultan’s heart.
Although the Sultan’s body was buried in
Constantinople (former Istanbul), his heart
and other internal organs were removed and
believed to have been buried in a golden
casket beneath the tent where he succumbed
to his illness. His son Selim II, who took over
after his father died, constructed a shrine
sometime around 1570s at his father’s tomb
near Szigetvar, to immortalize his father’s
contributions.
Sultan’s demise marks the end o