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| 1561 |
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| Death of Ahmed Tashkopruluzade (b. 1495), the greatest scholar of Suleyman's reign. His works, written mostly in Arabic, included an encyclopedic compendium of the state of knowledge at his time (Miftah al-sa‘ada) and a biographical dictionary (Shaqa'iq al-nu‘maniyya) covering some 600 learned men of the previous century, which was updated by later scholars. | 1 |
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| 1563 |
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| Death of Lutfi Pasha (b. 1488), one of the ablest and most cultured Ottoman grand vezirs. He is famous for his administrative reforms and for his treatise Asafname, in which he offered guidance on good governance and analyzed the sources of administrative disorder in the empire. | 2 |
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| 1565 |
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| Ottoman siege of Malta (May 20–Sept. 11). | 3 |
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| 1566, April |
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| The Ottoman navy captured the isle of Chios from the Genoese. | 4 |
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| 1566 |
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| Suleyman's last Hungarian campaign. Following increasing border tensions with the Habsburgs, Suleyman left Istanbul in May at the head of an army. His forces captured Szigetvar and the strategic fort of Gyula, but he himself fell ill and died in the midst of the campaign (Sept. 7) (See 1564–76). | 5 |
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| 1566–74 |
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| SULTAN SELIM II. Suleyman's only surviving son, often known as Selim the Sot for his love of drinking, was not an active ruler. He retired to the pleasures of the harem while his able grand vezir, Mehmed Sokullu, ran the state, with growing input from the palace women. Selim kept the princes in the harem rather than placing them, as was customary until then, in military and administrative posts that would gain them the experience needed to rule. His practice, followed by subsequent sultans, weakened the quality of the rulers. | 6 |
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| 1567–70 |
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| Anti-Ottoman revolt in Yemen led by the Zaydi imam, who captured almost the whole country except Zabid (1567). Sultan Selim II unified the two provinces in Yemen under one governor (April 1568) and sent an expedition that by 1570 regained the lost territories. The Zaydis retained their control in the mountains. | 7 |
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| 1567 |
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| An Armenian press was established in Istanbul by Apkar of Sivas, a priest who had studied typography in Venice. | 8 |
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| 1567 |
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| Death of Moshe Hamon, member of a notable Jewish family of Spanish origin who served as physician to Selim I and Suleyman I and enjoyed considerable influence in the Jewish community and in the Ottoman court. His son Joseph (d. 1577) and other members of the Hamon family also gained prominence during the 16th century. | 9 |
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| 1568, Feb. 17 |
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| Peace agreement with the Habsburgs, after a year of hostilities on the frontier. The peace was renewed periodically (Oct. 3, 1573; Jan. 1, 1577; Nov. 29, 1590). | 10 |
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| 1569, Oct. 18 |
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| A new capitulations agreement with France, which helped establish French commercial and political preeminence in the region. It allowed free passage for French ships into Ottoman waters and required vessels from other western European countries to fly the French flag in order to enjoy the same privileges. The capitulations were renewed several times (July 1581, Feb. 1597, May 1604, June 1673, and May 1740). | 11 |
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| 1569–74 |
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| Construction of the Selimiye mosque in Edirne, the greatest monument designed by the architect Sinan. | 12 |
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