I just found on the internet that the tomb of Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire has been discovered. I have seen kids school textbooks where he is considered to be a great man, the fountain of justice and a symbol of the power and prestige of Islam.
Anyways, I just did a quick search on Wikipedia, and I was shocked to find that there was a tradition of fratricide under a framework of Islamic Law in the Ottoman Empire. In addition, the Sultan also killed his sons!!
Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
One example of Kanun was the "law of fratricide", which required the new sultan to kill all his brothers upon ascending the throne, and had been enacted for fear of a repetition of the fratricidal conflicts that had plagued early successions.
Can someone explain, what was this law of fratricide in the Ottoman Empire and why it was created? More importantly, how was this even acceptable anyway?
Bonus Question: Why did the Sultan kill his sons?
I am really curious how populace reacted to this when it was introduced. And was this kind of ordered killing even practiced before?(Maybe during Seljuk Empire?)
Thank the Byzantines.
Essentially, prior to fratricide, every time their leader died they descended into civil war, with external powers meddling to exacerbate the problems, especially the Byzantines (who were holding on for dear life).
Fratricide happened to be much cleaner, ironically.