How do I turn off split screen in safari on my iPad?

If your not going to fix being able to turn off split screen, this will be my last. At least give us the option to turn it off. I hate it.

Spit screen is not restricted to Safari, but is but one element of iPadOS multitasking - available systemwide by all Apps that support it. In iPadOS15.x, multitasking cannot be disabled - but can be used selectively.

Information about using multi-tasking can be found in this support page:

Use multitasking on your iPad - Apple Support

The iPad User Guide is also a rich source of information about using iPad and its many features. The Guide is available both online using a web browser (such as Safari), or as an Apple Books download:

iPad User Guide - Apple Support

https://books.apple.com/book/id1567104892

Other than the site Moderators, who ensure that we all remain within the Terms of Use that govern participation within the Apple Support Communities, Apple do not monitor or draw feedback from these discussions.

This is a user-to-user technical forum - we are all end users, just like you. Contributors here have absolutely no input to Apple’s product design or software development processes. In posting your feelings here, Apple will not see or be influenced by your comments.

Apple do invite submission of constructive comments and feature requests via their Product Feedback portal. This would, perhaps, be the most appropriate channel through which to make your feedback known to Apple. While you may not receive a personal reply, we understand that all feedback is analysed and fed-back to the appropriate teams:

Feedback - iPad - Apple

Last question first… why?

Apple’s software design and development decisions are known only to Apple - but consider that iPadOS, whilst based upon iOS, adds significant flexibility and functionality to the platform. Presumably, being able to fully disable multitasking would fundamentally break something upon which the enhanced OS relies.

As for the little windows, you have now encountered the “Shelf” - this being a new feature of the now revised iPadOS multitasking environment.  iPadOS permits you to have multiple “instances” of the same App - each instance being self contained. The shelf, when triggered, shows a thumbnail of each running instance of an App. 

For example, if you have three running instances (or pages) of Safari, each with its own set of open tabs, you will see three thumbnails corresponding to each running instance of Safari - plus a button to open a new instance of Safari. Simply tapping a thumbnail will switch directly to that running instance of Safari. Each App - such as Mail, Safari, Notes, Calendar, etc. - has its own corresponding shelf.

Individual open instances of an App can be closed directly from the Shelf; just swipe the unwanted thumbnail off the top of the screen. Note however, that Multitasking and associated Shelf functions cannot be disabled.

This article from Appleinsider has a useful explanation of this new feature along with many of the updates to multitasking:

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/08/12/how-to-master-multitasking-on-ipad-and-ipad-pro-in-ipados-15

As already outlined, the iPad User Guide is a rich source of frequently overlooked information - and is essential reading if you are to both understand and benefit from the many enhancements within iPadOS.

Established users of iPadOS14 and earlier often find the revised User Interface (UI) and its many new functions to be alien. With understanding - and admittedly a little practice - it becomes both second nature and quite intuitive.

You may also find this video from 9to5 of Mac to be particularly enlightening and instructive:

https://9to5mac.com/2021/12/27/50-ipad-multitasking-tips-for-ipados-15-do-you-know-them-all-video/