It’s not hard to see how Selim I, the 16th-century Ottoman sultan, acquired his nickname of Selim the Grim. He deposed and probably poisoned his father and, in the course of his accession to the throne, had his elder brothers garrotted and an untold number of nephews done away with. One infant, abandoned in his nursery by his royal father, Selim dispatched himself, making the point that he regarded male relatives as unhelpful to his imperial project. Selim I, ruler from 1512-20, was equally remorseless — or far-sighted, if you take a hard-headed perspective — once he had established himself in Topkapi Palace, the imperial seat overlooking the Bosphorus. The Ottomans nowadays have a reputation for cultivating religious tolerance, with Christians, Jews and others coexisting

Source: The Times August 28, 2020 16:06 UTC