← Fame through time1500-1599
The 16th century
Whose working lives fell in the 16th century. Books are measured from 1800 and readers from 2015, so for this period we can say who lived then, not who was talked about then.
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in the 16th century, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Suleiman the Magnificent11 decades - 2
Selim I11 decades - 3
Selim II18 decades - 4
Murad III6 decades - 5
Hayreddin Barbarossanot measured- - 6
Mimar Sinan1 decades - 7
Pargalı Ibrahim Pashanot measured- - 8
Hurrem Sultan0 decades - 9
Nurbanu Sultan0 decades - 10
Şehzade Mustafa0 decades - 11
Mahidevran0 decades - 12
Piri Reis4 decades - 13
Hafsa Sultan0 decades - 14
Şehzade Bayezidnot measured- - 15
Sokollu Mehmed Pasha0 decades - 16
Rüstem Pasha0 decades - 17
Şehzade Mehmed0 decades - 18
Dragut18 decades - 19
Şehzade Cihangirnot measured- - 20
Isaac Luria6 decades - 21
Kılıç Ali Paşanot measured- - 22
Oruç Reis0 decades - 23
Lala Kara Mustafa Paşanot measured- - 24
Lutfi Pasha0 decades - 25
Joseph ben Ephraim Karo4 decades
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.