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Events on Thursday 30 September 1520 1
1520Accession -- 30 September 1520Selim I dies suddenly of illness on 22 September 1520 near Edirne. Suleiman is informed privately; the death is concealed for eight days while a messenger rides to Manisa. Suleiman arrives in Istanbul on 30 September and accedes without opposition -- he has no brothers to contest his claim. His first acts are deliberately conciliatory: he releases political prisoners held by Selim, dismisses some of Selim's most brutal officials, and pays the traditional accession gift to the Janissaries. European ambassadors who meet him are impressed: the Venetian Bartolomeo Contarini writes that he is 'young, of fine complexion and slender, with a thin beard... said to be a wise lord, fond of study and knowledge.'