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THE

STORY OF 'TURKEY

I
BY

STANLEY LANE-POOLE

ASSISTED BY

E. J. W. GIBB AND ARTHUR OILMAN

NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN
1897

^ti

By G. p. Putnam's Sons

1888

Entered nt Stationers' Hall^ London

By T. Fisher Unwin

Press of

G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York

PREFACE.

The history of Turkey has yet to be written. The
standard authority is Von Hammer's Gesdiichte des
Osmanischen Reiches, of which there is a French trans-
lation, and from which many books have been com-
piled in many languages. In English, Von Hammer
found an able condenser in Sir Edward Creasy, whose
History of the Ottoman Turks is the best concise work
we possess on the subject. Von Hammer, however, is
not always accurate, despite his laborious research,
and he is generally dull. A Turkish scholar, possessed
of a sense of literary form, who would take the Aus-
trian's facts, collate them with the native annalists and
historiographers, and present them with all the advan-
tages of skilful arrangement and charm of style, would
render a real service to historical literature.

The present volume, however, makes no pretensions
to fill the gap. All that is here attempted is to draw
the main outlines of Turkish history in bold strokes,
and thus try to leave a connected impression on the
reader's mind. In so small a compass it is impossible to
be detailed. Those who desire more than can here be

VI 11 PREFACE.

given should turn to Sir E. Creasy, or to the Vte.
A. de la Jonquiere's Histoire de V Empire Ottoman, in
Duruy's series ; and thence, if still ambitious, to Von
Hammer. In these pages clearness and brevity
have been the main considerations ; and, while
striving to escape the charge of prolixity, I have
carefully avoided the sin of moralizing. Many in-
structive morals have been drawn from the past
and present state of Turkey ; but these appear to
depend so much for their point and application upon
the political bias of the writer that, on the whole, they
are best omitted. We have all heard about the " sick
man " and the " armed camp : " but, if we are Con-
servatives, we palliate the disease, and call the encamp-
ment an innocent review ; if we are Radicals, we send
for the undertaker for the one, and call for the expul-
sion of the other, that it may no longer menace the
peace of Europe. Between these extremes, the reader
may take his choice.

The naval history of Turkey, a subject of peculiar
interest, has been barely touched upon here, because
it is so closely interwoven with the exploits of the
Barbary buccaneers, that it will be more satisfactorily
traced in the Story of the Corsairs, \\h.\ch. I am writing
for the same series. Another subject which has been
omitted is the history of Egypt under Turkish rule :
for this belongs to the special volume on Modern
Egypt, now in preparation.

I owe special thanks to Mr. E. J. W. Gibb, not only
for the chapters on " Ottoman Literature," " Stambol,"
and " Ottoman Administration," for which he is almost

PREFACE. IX

entirely responsible, but also for many suggestions and
additions in other parts of the book, the whole of
which has had the advantage of his revision. Mr.
Oilman has also contributed to a part of the subject
which was less familiar to Mr. Gibb and myself ; and
I am indebted for valuable assistance to Mr. H. H»
Howorth, M.P., and to Mr. W. R. Morfill, whose
advice has been followed in the systematic spelling
of Russian names.

STANLEY LANE-POOLE.

BiRLiNG, Sussex,

January 17, 1888.

CONTENTS.

The King's Front. 125 0-1326

1-24

The thirteenth century an epoch in European history, i — and
in Asia, 2 — The Mongols, 2 — The Turks, 4 — The Seljuks, 5
— The Mongols again, 6 — The distribution of the Turks, 6 —
Seljuks of Iconium, 8— Battle of Angora, 8 — Establishment
of Ertoghriil and the Turks, 9 — Sultanoni, 10 — Birth of Olh-
man, 13— His dream, 14, and marriage, 15 — Extension of
the Ottoman dominion, 16 — War with the Eastern Empire, 19
■ — Conquest of Brusa, 23— Death of Othman, 23.

II.

Across the Hellespont. 1326-1380

25-41

Orkhan, 25 — Conquest of Nicomedia, Nicaea, and Pergamon,
25 — Organization of the state and army, 26— The Janissaries,
27 — Sipahis, 31 — Causes of the success of the Ottomans, 32 —
Relations with the Eastern Empire, 33 — The Turks land in
Europe, 34 — Capture of Gallipoli, 34 — Murad I., 35 — The
Slavs, 36 — War with Hungarians, Serbians, &c., 36 — Battle
of the Marilza, 36 -Advance of the Ottoman dominion in
Europe, 39— and in Asia, 40.

III.

Kosovo and Nicopolis. 1380-1402 . . . 42-59

War with the Serbians, &c., 42— Battle of Kosovo, 43—

Xll CONTENTS.

PAGB

Assassination of Murad I., 45 — BayezTd I., 46 — Despina, 49
— Subjugation of Serbia and Wallachia, 49, 50 — Crusade
against the Turks, 51 — Battle of Nicopolis, 55— Massacre of
prisoners, 57.

IV.

TiMtTR THE Tartar. 1402 . , . . 60-73

Bayezid's power, 60 — Timur, 63— Siege of Slwas, 65 — Second
battle of Angora, 66 — Captivity and death of Bayezld, 72 —
Apparent destruction of the Ottoman power, 73,

Mohammed the Restorer. 1402-142 i . . 74-84

Vitality of the Turkish rule, 74 — Causes, 75 — Organization
and education, 76 — Mohammed I., 78 — Civil war, 79 — Re-
storation of order and authority, 80 — Mohammed the "gen-
tleman," 83— His death, 83.

VI.

Murad II. and Hunyady. 1421-1451 . . 85-98

Murad XL, 85 — Siege of Constantinople, 86 — Hunyady, 87 —
Relief of Hermannstadt, 88 — Passage of the Balkan, 89 —
Treaty of Szegedin, 89 — Abdication of Murad, 89— Perfidy
of the Christians, 90 — Return of Murad, 91 — Battle of
Varna, 92 — Second battle of Kosovo, 96 — Death of Murad,
96 — Siege of Belgrade, 97 — St. John Capistran, 97 — Death
of Hunyady, 98.

VII. •

The Fall of Constantinople. 1451-1481 . 1 01-139

Mohammed II., loi — Quarrel with Constantine Palaeologus,
107 — Sieges of Constantinople, 108 — The final siege, 108 —

CONTENTS, Xiii

PAGE

Death of Constantine, 125 — Capture of the city, 129 — War
in the north, 133 — Scanderbeg, 133 — War with Venice, 135
— Negropont, Crimea, Rhodes, 136— Conquest of Otranto
and death of Mohammed II., 139.

VIII.

Prince Jem. 1481-1512 .... 140-151

Bayezid II., 140 — H's inaction and deposition, 140-1 —
Prince Jem, 141 — Takes refuge with the Knights of Rhodes,
and is made prisoner, 142 — Transferred to Nice, 145, and
Rome, 146, and is probably poisoned by the Pope, Alexander
Borgia, 149-150.

IX.

The Conquest of Egypt. 1512-1520 . . 152-164

Sellm II., •• the Grim," 152— Murder of his kindred, 152 —
His literary talent, 153 — His policy, 153 — Persian history,
154 — Shia?, 155 — Selim massacres the heretics, 155 — War
with Shah Ismail, 156 — Battle of Chaldiran, 157 — The Mam-
luk Sultans of Egypt and Syria, 158 — Their valour, 159 —
Their mosques and palaces, 160 — Selim marches against them,
161 — Battles of Marj Dabik, Gaza, and Reydaniya, 161 —
Conquest of Egypt, 162 — Selim becomes Khalif, 162, and
dies, 163.

SULEYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT. 1 5 20-1 5 66 . 1 65-204

A great epoch, 165 — Suleyman and his contemporaries, 166
—His character, 169— Capture of Belgrade, 169— Conquest of
Rhodes, 170— Ibrahim the Grand Vezir, 173— Invasion of
Hungary, 174— Battle of Mohacs, 179— Fall of Buda, Pesth,
Gran, Comorn, Raab, and Altenburg, 180— Advance on
Vienna, 183— The defence, 184— The siege, 187— The re-
treat, 190— Peace of Constantinople, 191 — Siege of Sziget-
var, 192— Nicholas Zriny, 192— Death of Sukyman, 192 —
Roxelana, 195— Turkish admirals, Barbarossa, Dragut, Piali,
196 — Suleyman's Empire, 196.

XIV CONTENTS.

PAGE
XI.

The Downward Road. 15 66- 1640 . . 205-220

The turn of the tide, 205 — Causes of the decline, 206 —
Selim the Sot, 208 — Sokolli Mohammed, 208 — Sinan Pasha,
208 — Expedition to Astrakhan, 208 — Conquest of Cyprus,
208-9 — Battle of Lepanto, 209 — Don John of Austria, 209 —
Uluj All, 210 — Peace with Venice, 210 — Murad III. and
Mohammed III., 213 — Safia, 213— Count Cicala, 213 —
Battle of the Keresztes, 213 — Ahmed I., 214 — English em-
bassy, 214— Mnrad IV., 217 — Conquest of Georgia, 217 —
Mutiny of Sipahl>, 218 — Severity of the Sultan, 219 — Con-
quest of Baghdad, 219 — Death of Murad IV., 220.

XII.

The Rule of the Vezirs. 1640-1757 . 221-242

The Koprili family, 221 — Koprili Mohammed, 221 — Koprili-
zada Ahmed, 222— Battle of St. Gotthard, 222 — Montecuculi,
222 — Conquest of Candia, 225 — Morosini, 225 — War with
Poland, 225 — John Sobieski, 225 — Battles of Choczim and
Lemberg, 225— Kara Mustafa, Grand Vezir, 226 — Invasion of
Austria, 227^ — Second siege of Vienna, 228 — Sobieski comes
to the relief, 231 — Defeat of the Turks, 236 — Vienna saved,
237 — Mohammed IV., the sportsman, 237 — Treatment of am-
bassadors, 238— Second battle of Mohacs, 239 — Buda retaken
by the Christians, 239 — Morosini in Greece, 239 — Koprili-zada
Mustafa, 240 — War with Austria, 240 -Battle of Slankamen,
240 — Mustafa II., 240— Battle of Zenta, 241 — Mediation of
Lord Paget, 241 — Peace of Carlowitz, 241— Prince F^ugene
takes Belgrade, 241 — Peace of Passarowitz, 241 — Turkey no
longer a menace to Christendom, 242.

XIII.
The Rise of Russia. 1696- 1812 . . . 243-259

Traditional origin of the Russians, 243 — Novgorod, 244 —
Rurik, 245 — Kiev, 245— Olga Ijecomes a Christian, 246 —
Vladimir the Great, 246 — Moscow, 246 — Incursions of Tartars,
247— Batu at Liegnitz, 247— The Golden Horde, 248— Alex-
ander Nevski, 248— Ivan the Great, 249 — Diplomatic inter-

CONTENTS, XV

PAGE

course with Turkey, 248— Early attacks on the Bosphorus,
250 — Ivan the Terrible, 251 — The Astrakhan expedition, 251
— Peter the Great, 252 — The Sultan protects Charles II. of
Sweden, 253 — Peter surrounded at the Pruth, 253 — Peace of
Belgrade, 254 — Treaty of Kaynarji, 254 — Catherine the Great,
254, vis'ts the Crimea, 255 --Siege of Ochakov, 256 — Suvo-
rov, 256— Treaty of Yassy, 256— Tilsit, 2S7— Sir Robert
Adair, 258 — Stratford Canning, 258 Treaty of Bucharest,
259 — Its effect upon Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, 259.

XIV.
Stambol 260-301

Site, 260 — Christian suburbs, 265 — Palaces of the Sultan, 266
— The Old Seraglio, 267 — The treasury, 273 — Relics, 275 —
The cage, 275— The harem, 276— Officers of the Seraglio, 276
— Ladies of the harem, 291 — Abdul-Aziz's privy purse, 293 —
A medieval embassy, 294.

XV.

O'lTOMAN Literature 302-323

Characteristics, 302 — Monorhyme, 303 — Ghazel, 303 — Sej,
303 — GhazI Fazil, 304 — Sheykhl, 304 — Vaziji-oghlu's Moham-
mediya — History of the Forty Vezirs — Mir All Shir Nevayi,
309— Ahmed Pasha, 309— Sinan Pasha, 309 — Nejati and ZatI,
Zeyneb, Mihri, 310 — Poetry of Selim I., 310 — Ibn-Kenial,
311 — ^Joseph and Zuleykha, 311 — Mesihi, 311 — Fuzull, 312 —
Baki, 314— Nef'!, 315— SabrI, 315 — NabI, 318 — Raghib Pasha
and Sami, 318-NedIm, 318 — Prose since the conquest of
Constantinople, 320 — Sa'd-ud-din. 320 — Na'ima, 320 — Evliya,
321 — Haji Khalifa, 321— Sheykh Ghalib, 321— Transition
period, 321— Wasif, 322- Modern school, 322— Akif and
Reshid Pasha, 323 — ShinasI, Kemal, Ekrem, and Hamid
Beys, 323.

XVI.

The Ottoman Administration . . . 324-339

The Sultan, 324— State functionaries, 327— Companions of
the Pen, 327— The Tughra, 329— Companions of the Sword,

XVi CONTENTS.

PAGE

330 — Ducal government, 331 — Men of Law, 333 — The Divan,
or Council, 335 — The Kapudan Pasha, 336 — The Grand
Vezir, 336 — Declaration of War, 336 — State robes, 339 —
Modern innovations, 339.

XVII.
The Sick Man. 181 2- 1880 .... 340-365

Characteristics of the recent Turkish history, 340 — Turkish
military strength, 340 — Changes in the present century, 341 —
Mahmud II., 343 — The growth of local power, 343 — Mo-
hammed AH in Egypt and All Pasha of Janina, 343 — Destruc-
tion of the Janissaries, 344 — The Greek rebellion, 345 —
Navarino, 346 — Russian war, 346 — Treaty of Adrianople, 349
— War with Egypt, 349 — Hunkiar Iskelesi, 349 — Treaty of
1841, 350 — Abd-ul-Mejid, 350 — Sit Stratford Canning, 350 —
Reform in Turkey, 352 — The Hungarian refugees, 354 — The
Holy Places, 355 — The Crimean war, 356 — Treaty of Paris,
358 — Repudiation by Russia of Black Sea clause, 359 —
Rumania, 359 — Abd-ul-AzIz, 360 — Murad V., 360 — Abd-ul-
Hamld II., 360 — The Bulgarian atrocities, 360 — The latest
Russo-Turkish war, 361 — Plevna, 361 — The Treaty of Berlin,
362 — Shrunken dimensions of the Ottoman Empire, 363 —
Conclusion, 364.

Index 367

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE .... Frontispiece

ROCK MONASTERY, ANATOLIA . . . . . II

A TURKISH MERRY-MAKING \^

BRUSA 21

JANISSARIES AND MUSICIANS 29

GREEKS 37

TURKISH FUNERAL 47

NICOPOLIS o ... 53

MANUEL PALAEOLOGUS 61

A TURKISH MEAL ^1

A VENETIAN GALLEY 8 1

JANISSARY IN MUFTI ..93

BELGRADE 99

MEDAL OF MOHAMMED II I04

MEDAL OF MOHAMMED II. (REVERSE) . . . • I05

PLAN OF CONSTANTINOPLE . e . . . • I09

SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE I '5

SANTA SOPHIA 127

RHODES ' - '^yj

BATTLE WITH PRINCE JEM 143

PALACE OF THE GRAND MASTERS, RHODES . . .147

XVlll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

SULEYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT (IN YOUTH) . . . 167

SIEGE OF RHODES I7I

COUNCIL HALL, RHODES I75

PRIORY OF FRANCE, RHODES . , • • . » 177

SULEYMAN ON THE WAR-PATH , ♦ • , , 18I

VIENNA (1483) 185

SULTAN SULEYMAN .193

ROXELANA I97

GROWTH OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE . • • , 202

DECLINE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE . • • , 203

SULEYMANIYA MOSQUE, 1 556. . . . • , 211
THE GRAND SIGNIOR IN ROBES OF STATE . • .215

THE GRAND VEZiR , . 223

ST. STEPHEN'S CATHEDRAL, VIENNA .... 22g

SERAGLIO POINT , . 263

GATE OF FELICITY IN THE SERAGLIO . . . . 27I

GREEK TRADERS 289

ST. SOPHIA 307

MOSAIC IN ST. SOPHIA , , 325

TUGHRA OF ABD-UL-AZIZ 329

IN THE HAREM . . . . • . • . 337

BATTLE OF NAVARINO 347

Some of the above are copied from a curious work of P. Coeck, Les
Moeurs, etc., des Turcz (1553), which vSir W. vStirling Maxwell ediietl
in 1873 under the title of The Turks in 1533. The original is in the
British Museum. Others are reproductions of some of the cuts in the
Recueil de cent estampes ^iiravi'cs stir Ics tableaux pdnts ifaprcs nature
en 1707 et 1708, par les ordres de M. de ferriol^ anibassadtur du rot
a /a Forte (1714).

GENEALOGICAL TREE OF THE OTHMANLI
SULTANS.

I. 'Othman I., 1299

2. Orkhan, 1326

3. Murad I., 1360

4. Bayezid I., 1389

I \ —\ 410.

Prince Suleyman, 1403. 5. Mohammed L, 1402. Prince Musa, 1

6. Murad II., 1421

7. Mohammed II., 1451

8. Bayezid II., 1481

9. Selim I., 1512
10. Suleyman I., 1520

II. Selim II., 1566

12. Murad III., 1574

13. Mohammed III., 1595

14. Ahmed I., 1603 15. Mustafa I., 1617. (2) 1623.

1 J ^1

16. 'Othman II., i6i8. 17. Murad IV., 1623. 18. Ibrahim, 1640

I I I

19. Mohammed IV., 1648. 20. Suleyman II., 1687 21. Ahmed II,, 1691.

22. Mustafa II., 1695. 23. Ahmed III., 1703

24. Mahmud I., 1730. 25. 'Othman III., 1754.

26, Mustafa III., 1757 27. 'Abd-ul-Hamid I., 1773

J. Selim III., 1789. 1 ~~~ I

29. Mu§tafa IV., 1807. 30. Mahmud II., 1808.

31. 'Abd-ul-Mejid, 1839. 32. 'Abd-ul-'Aziz, i86i.

33 Murad V., 1876. 34. 'Abd-ul-Hamid II. (regnant), 1876.

THE STORY OF TURKEY.

(1250-1326.)

The thirteenth century was an eventful epoch for
all Europe. The overshadowing power of the Empire
was waning, separate states were springing up in
Italy and Germany, and the growth of civil liberty
was bringing its fruit in the enlargement of ideas and
the founding of universities. In England, the Nor-
man and Saxon were at last one people, and the
business of the natior was to strengthen the bond
which united them ; Magna Charta was signed, and
the first Parliament was summoned. In the East the
long struggle for the Holy City had ended in the dis-
comfiture of the Christians, and the last of the Crusades
was led by Saint Louis against the Mamluks of Egypt,
where the king and his army were taken captive.
What was lost in the East was gained in the West :
Ferdinand of Castile was winning city after city
from the Moors in Spain, who were now fortifying

2 THE KING'S FRONT,

themselves in their last stronghold at Granada, where
they held out for two centuries more. Sicily, which
had once been a favourite province of the Saracens,
was the scene of a series of tragedies : Manfred was
killed by Count Charles of Anjou, whose tyranny led
to the fatal " Vespers " and the foundation of the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. All Europe was heated
with the strong wine of political change.

In this same eventful century Asia was passing
through a still more sudden and subversive revolu-
tion. The Mongolian hordes of Chingiz Khan had
been let loose from their plains of Central Asia, and,
like the bursting of long pent up waters, had poured
in a swift whirling flood over all the countries of the
East, and carried ruin and devastation whithersoever
they went. Chingiz himself died in the earlier part
of the century, but his sons and grandsons proved
themselves worthy disciples of their terrible sire. The
famous Khalifate of Baghdad, which during half a
millennium had been the inheritor of the most sacred
traditions of Islam, now fell for ever before the on-
slaught of Hulagu Khan. The fair provinces which
had owned the victorious sway of Saladin and his
house, and were now the appanage of those gallant
Mamluk chiefs whose wealth and taste placed Cairo
and Damascus on the pinnacle of renown, were
menaced and partly overrun by the barbarian ; and
the mountain passes of Anatolia, which for generations
had suffered no sovereign tread save that of the Sel-
juk Sultan of Iconium, now shook under the tramp
of the Tartar's horse. A Mongol army even pene-
trated Europe as far as Germany, ravaged Hungary,

THE MONGOLS. 3

routed the Teutonic knights at Liegnitz, and then con-
tentedly returned to their Eastern deserts, as though
contemptuous of the attractions of Europe.

It was fortunate that the Mongols were possessedv
by the migratory spirit too strongly to think of]
settling in cities and founding empires ; the wave ofl
barbarism flowed, but happily it also ebbed. In the(
far East its influence was more enduring ; the
descendants of Chingiz were for many generations
Yuen emperors of China, Khans of Turkistan, chiefs
of the Golden Horde, of the Crimea, and of Kazan,
whence for centuries they dominated and curbed the
rising power of Russia. All these dynasties reigned
in the domain of barbarism : they left no lasting im-
press on the civilized lands of the Khalifate, where
Arab, Persian, and Turk had each in turn put forth
the best of his genius, and had assimilated and de-
veloped what elements of philosophy, art, and science,
had come within his reach.

To trace the pedigree of the Ottoman Turks we i^^
must look back into remote antiquity. In the early
history of Central and Eastern Asia everything is more
or less conjecture, but this at least is certain, that
among the numerous nomad tribes who roamed the
plains of Sungaria and the great desert of Gobi, and
from time to time broke loose in one of those great
waves of migration which paralyzed the peoples of\
Europe and of Western Asia, there were two races 1
whichalternately filled the rS/e of '^ the scourges of
God7~the Mongols anTlhe~Turks7 ' The Alongols
first appear on the scene under the name of Hiong"^
Nu as dominating the nomad world in the days of

4 THE KING'S FRONT.

the Chinese dynasty of the Han, and dominating
especially tlie two great branches of the Turkish
race known as Uighurs and Turks properly so called.
The Uighurs eventually became free from this domi-
nation, and under the names of Yueh chi and
White Huns broke in pieces the Greek kingdom
of Bactria, and founded a famous empire, with its
capital at Balkh, which became the scourge of the
Sassanians on the one hand, and filled a more re-
markable place in Indian history than is generally
suspected on the other. The power of the Hiong
Nu was destroyed by the Chinese ; it revived again
presently under the Jouan-Jouan, who were masters of
all the steppes from the Volga eastwards. A revolt
took place against the Jouan-Jouan in the beginning of
\the sixth century when the Turks eo nomine are for
the first time heard of in history. They founded an
empire which stretched from the borders of Manchuria
to the Carpathians, and commanded also Trans-
oxiana and the country as far as the Indus Their
power south of the Sihun or Jaxartes was sapped and
eventually destroyed by the Arabs, who founded the
Samani dynasty ; but the Turks remained masters of
the steppes, and supplied the Samanis, and even the
Khalifs, with mercenary troops whose leaders pre-
sently supplanted their masters and founded a famous
Turkish dynasty at Ghazni, while somewhat later
fresh hordes under their own leaders planted them-
selves in Khorasan and created the splendid empire
of the Seljuks, who from the eleventh to the thirteenth
century governed the greater part of the Khalifs'
dominions in Asia, and advanced the Mohammedan

THE SELJUKS. 5

rule into the mountain ranges of Anatolia, and thus
prepared the way for the Ottomans, their successors.
By this time the empire of the Khalifs was full of
Turks. They were introduced first as captives, whose ^
fair beauty speedily commended itself to the Arab
princes, and whose martial vigour marked them out
as a fit body-guard for the Khalif against his unruly
subjects in Persia. First as slaves, then as a military
aristocracy, and theri as^eljul<iarpSultans,the Turks
pressed forwards and absorbed all the power which
had once belonged to Arab and Persian, from the
river Oxus to the borders of Egypt and the Asiatic
frontier of the Byzantine Empire.

i he Seljuks of Khorasan and Persia were displaced
by their own vassals, the Shahs of Khuwarezm
or Khiva, who were supported by hordes of the
Kankalis from the country north of the Sea of Aral,
and who were the ancestors of the modern Turko-
mans. The Shahs of Khuwarezm step by step
succeeded to the dominion of their late masters,
and at one time, at the beginning of the thirteenth
century, threatened to gather under their authority
the whole Asiatic empire of Islam. But when they
were about to realize their utmost dreams of supre-
macy a sudden blow crushed them, and the king-
dom of Khuwarezm was blotted out from the list
of principalities and powers. The resources of the
steppes of Tartary were not yet exhausted : there were
still whole nations of barbarians ready to emerge from
obscurity, and swoop down upon the rich territories
of the earlier emigrants. This time it was the Mongol
race that Asia again poured forth to terrify the West.

THE KING S FRONT,

Chingiz Khan, as has been said, surrounded by a family
of born soldiers, and followed by hordes of nomads
like the sands of the sea without number, overran the
dominions of the Khuwarezm Shah, and sweeping
over the empire of the Khalifate and of the Seljuks
appeared ready and able to make a tabula rasa of all
existing authority. His armies even spread into
Europe, and but for the valour of the Teutonic
Knights might have arrested for awhile the dawning
civilization of the West. Of this tremendous inva-
sion the only trace which remains in Europe is to be
found in Russia, whose history was shaped and whose
political and moral characteristics are largely trace-
able to the long domination of the Tartars.

The Turks, however, remained masters of the west
of Asia, and the Mongol tide only swept them further
soiTflT^and west on its boisterous crest. Driven from
Khuwarezm on the downfall of that kingdom, they
fled south. Some of them took a prominent part in
Persian and Syrian history in the fourteenth and
fifteenth century under the names of Turkomans of
the White and the Black Sheep. Others wan-
dered further south and came into conflict with the
Mamluk Sultans of Egypt, who were also members
of the great Turkish family ; and when they were
beaten back, turned north and joined their kinsmen
of the race of Seljuk in Asia Minor. One of these
tribes who had been set wandering by the rude shock
of the Mongol invasion, and who eventually came to
join the Turks of Anatolia in the curious manner we
have related after the battle of Angora, was that of
vErtoghrul, which afterwards became famous under

THE TURKS. y-

the victorious name of the Ottomans. When they
joined their kinsmen in Lesser Asia almost all the
Mohammedan world was in the hands of the nomad
tribes of the steppes. Turks ruled in Asia Minor,
Turks governed Egypt, Turks held minor authority
under the Mongols in Syria and Mesopotamia, while
the descendants of Chingiz had succeeded to the
dominion of the Khalifs in Persia, had assumed
all the dignity of sovereignty in the wild regions of
the Volga and the Ural Mountains, in the lands of
the Oxus, and the deserts of Tartary, had spread
across Central Asia and had founded an empire in
China, and were preparing to establish the long line of
Mongol emperors in Hindustan whom we know by
the name of the Great Moguls.^

It was reserved for the Turkish race to be lord of the
countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The Turks
were there before the Mongols, and the Turks are
there still. The Mamluks of Egypt, mainly of Turkish
blood, withstood the Mongol tide which was breaking
upon their marches ; the Turkish Sultans of Iconium,
of the lineage of Seljuk, breasted for awhile the swell-
ing surge of barbarism ; and their successors, the
Turks of Othman's line, drove the Mongols inch by
inch out of the Lesser Asia, and taking to themselves
the whole of the eastern and southern coasts of the
Mediterranean, and turning the Black Sea into a
Turkish lake, tamed and bitted the descendants of
the great Chingiz himself in the Crimea. The

^ I am indebted to our greateist authority on the history of the Mongol
and Turkish races, Mr. H. H. Howorth, M.P., for valuable suggestions
on the migrations of the Turkish tribes.

8 THE king's front.

Ottoman Turk now sits in the seat of Hulagu at
Baghdad ; he has long owned the territories of the
Seljuks, the empire of Saladin, and the slim river
valley of the Mamluks. The dominion of the Sara-
cens, which the Mongols in vain essayed to grasp,
passed into the hands of the Turks, and the stock to
whom this wide empire still belongs, shorn as it is of
its ancient renown, had its origin in the throes of the
Mongol invasion ; the struggle between the invaders
and the old masters of Anatolia was commemorated
by the birth of the Ottoman Turk.

The thirteenth century had run half its course
whetTXay-Kubad^ the Seljuk Sultaii oTTconlum, was
one day hard beset near Angora by a Mongol
arm3^ The enemy was rapidly gaining the mastery,
when suddenly the fortune of the day was reversed.
A small boHy of unknown horsemen charged upon
the toeT^ancT Victory ^^darecifox lhe_Seljuk__The
cavaTIers who had thus opportunely- come to the
rescue knew not whom they. had_ assisted, nor did the
Seljuks recognize their allies. Themeetmg^jivas_one
of those~"remafkabTe accidents which sometimes shape
the future of nations. Ertoghrul, son of Suleyman —
a mernber of the Oghuz family of Turks, which the
Mongol avalanche had dislodged from its old camping
grounds in Khorasan and had pressed in a westerly
direction — was journeying from the Euphrates' banks,
where he had halted awhile, to the more peaceful se-
clusion of Anatolia, when he unexpectedly came upon
the battlefield of Angora. With the nomad's love of a
scrimmage, and the warrior's sympathy for the~weaker
side, he led his four hundred riders pell-mell into the

BATTLE OF ANGORA. g

fray and won the day. He little thought that by his
impulsive and chivalrous act he had taken the first
step towards founding an empire that was destined
to endure in undiminished glory for three centuries,
and which even now, when more than six hundred
years have el apsed and many a fair province has
been wrested_or inveigled out of its grasp, still stands
lord over wide lands, and holds the allegiance of many
peoples of divers races and tongues. From Ertogh-
rul to the reigning Sultan of Turkey, thirty-five
princes in the male line have ruled the Ottoman Em-
pire without a break in the succession. There is no
such example of the continuous authority of a single
family in the history of Europe.

The Seljuk Sultan was not slow to reward his
unexpected allies. The strangers were granted their
wish and established themselves in the dominions of
Kay-Kubad ; their summer camp was on the Ermeni
mountains, which form the southern rampart of the
Roman province of Bithynia, wherein were the great
Greek cities of Brusa and Nicaea ; and in winter they
drove their Hocks from the southern slopes to the valley
of the Sangarius (Sakariya), where the city of Sugut,
which the Greeks called Thebasion, was given them
as their capital. Behind was Angora, where they had
made their first appearance on a great battlefield ; in
front of them lay Brusa, near which they soon dis-
played again their valour and generalship against a
combined army of Greeks and Mongols. Skilfully
manoeuvring a body of light horse in the van of the
battle, Ertoghrul contrived so to mask the Sultan's
main attack that after three days and nights of sore

10 THE KING S FRONT.

fighting the Seljuks triumphed over their adversaries
and drove them headlong to the sea coast. This de-
fence of the Pass of Ermeni brought high renown to the
leader of the Turks, who had fought all through the
battle in front of the Sultan's guard, and Ertoghrul
was given in perpetuity the district of Eskishehr
(the Dorylaeum of the ancients), which, in memory of
' his foremost position in the engagement, received a
new name, and was henceforth known as Sultan(5ni,
" the King's Front," as it is in the present day.

Sultanoni was a precious and responsible charge to
the new-comers. It formed the barrier between the
dominions of the Christian and those of the Moslem
on the Bithynian marches. Hence could the soldiers
of Islam best wage the Sacred War against the en-
feebled outworks of the Eastern Empire. The vant-
age ground of Sultanoni furnished the Ottomans with
the needful ttoO (ttco whence to subdue the vast em-
pire which long owned their sway. Pasturing their
herds on the slopes of Ermeni and Temnos, or in the
plains watered by the Sakariya, the strangers grew in
number, wealth, and strength ; and though it was
not at once nor without many a struggle that they
imposed their authority upon the semi-independent
chiefs of the district, yet they were already masters
in name of a rich and fertile land and of populous
and wealthy cities : Eskishehr, with its gardens and
vineyards, its baths and hostelrics ; Sugut, Ertogh-
rul's capital, where his grave is still shown ; and other
strong places, besides hamlets, formed part of the
district in which the cradle of the Ottoman Empire
was first securely set.

ROCK MONASTERY, ANATOLIA.

OTHMAN. 13

At Sugut in 1258 was born Othrhan/ son of Erto-
ghrul, from whom, since he was the first ruler of the
line who ventured to assert his absolute independence,
his descendants took the name of Othmanlls, or as we
call them '' Ottomans." it was their special and proud
title, and until lately they never degraded themselves
by the appellation of " Turk?* Othman was worthy
to be the eponymous hero of a warlike race. Long
years of peace, during which his father strengthened
the hold of the clan upon the province entrusted to
his rule, gave the son time to prepare for the epoch
of conquest which crowned his later years. The first
important event in Othman's life was as domestic as
it was natural : he fell in love. At the little village
of Itburuni, near Eskishehr, dwelt a learned doctor
of the law, Edebali, with whom Othman loved to
converse, not the less because the good man had a
daughter fair to see, whom some called Mai Khatun,
" Lady Treasure," and others Kamarlya, " Moon-
bright," from her surpassing beauty. But the family
of Othman was as yet new to the country, and its
authority was not recognized by the surrounding
chieftains of the Anatolian aristocracy. Other
young men of higher rank might bring their court
to the fair damsel, and her father discouraged
the suit of the son of Ertoghrul. At last he was
convinced by an argument which has ever been
potent among the superstitious peoples of the East .
a dream dispelled his doubts. One night Othman
as he slumbered thought he saw himself and the old
man his host stretched upon the ground, and from

* Pronounced, in Turkish, Osman.

14 THE KING'S FRONT,

Edebali's breast there seemed to rise a moon, which
waxing to the full, approached the prostrate form of
Othman and finally sank to rest in his bosom
Thereat from out his loins sprang forth a tree, which
grew taller and taller, and raised its head, and
spread out its branches, till the boughs overshadowed
the earth and the seas. Under the canopy of leaves
towered four mighty mountains, Caucasus and Atlas,
Taurus and Haemus, which held up the leafy vault
like four great tent poles, and from their sides flowed
royal rivers, Nile and Danube, Tigris and Euphrates.
Ships sailed upon the waters, harvests waved upon
the fields, the rose and the cypress, flower and fruit,
delighted the eye, and on the boughs birds sang
their glad music. Cities raised domes and minarets
towards the green canopy ; temples and obelisks,
towers and fortresses, lifted their high heads, and on
their pinnacles shone the golden Crescent. And
behold, as he looked, a great wind arose and dashed
the Crescent against the Crown of Constantine, that
imperial city which stood at the meeting of two seas
and two continents, like a diamond between sapphires
and emeralds, the centre jewel of the ring of empire.^
Othman was about to place the dazzling ring upon
his finger, when he awoke. He told Mai Khatun's
father what he had seen, and, convinced of the great
future that was thus foretold for the offspring of Oth-
man and the Moon-faced damsel, Edebali consented
to their union. Their son Orkhan was born in 1288
and Ertoghrul died the same year, leaving Othman
head of the clan and lord of Eskishehr, to which the

* Von Hammer, "Geschichte des Osmanischen Keichs," i. 66-7.

OTHMAN.

Seljuk Sultan added in 1289 Karajahisar (Melangeia).
Othman's first care was to build a mosque at Eski-
shehr, and to appoint the necessary officers for the
administration of the law and the performance of the
ritual of Islam. Firm and impartial justice formed
the forefront of his policy, and largely contributed
to the spread of his authority. All these peaceful
occupations, however, were soon set aside for the
fascinations of war. There had been a time when
the clansmen were content to feed their flocks on the
hillside, to gather their honey and weave their carpets,
and lead the simple unambitious life of the shep-
herd ; but soon they left these familiar paths for new
and daring ascents. One by one they reduced the
smaller chieftains of the province to obedience ; one
after the other they captured the outlying forts of the
Greek Empire, till their power extended to Yenishehr,
and they were thus almost within sight of Brusa and
Nicaea, the two chief cities of the Greeks in Asia.
The acquisition of so important a situation as
Yenishehr was the result of craft outwitting craft.
A wedding at Bilejik in 1299 was selected as a
rendezvous for a number of Othman's rivals, who
plotted to capture him and put an end to his power.
Warned of the conspiracy, forty women of the Otto-
man clan were admitted on a pretext to the castle*
where preparations were being made for the wedding.
When both garrison and guests were absorbed in the
ceremonies, the forty women cast away their disguise
and proved to be none other than forty of Othman's
bravest warriors. They speedily possessed them-
selves of the fort and the bride, a beautiful young

1 6 THE king's front,

Greek named Nenuphar ("Lotus-bloom "), afterwards
the mother of Murad I. Before the ruse got wind,
Othman swept like the lightning upon Yarhisar,
and seized it, while another band of his followers took
possession of Aynegol. Thus he extended the dominion
of the Ottomans from the Ermeni range to Mount
Olympus. The Turk now set his capital at Yenishehr,
which he used as a stepping-stone to Brusa and
thence eventually to Constantinople. Even with this
addition, however, the Ottoman territory corresponded
only to one of the seventeen sub-divisions of Rum,
which was itself but one of the twenty-five provinces
into which the great empire of Suleyman the Mag-
nificent was in later times divided.^

More than half a century had passed since the
Ottoman Turks first settled in Sultanoni, yet their
borders were still narrow. When the wave of advance
was once undulating, however,it proceeded with accele-
rated speed. Like the circling ripple that springs up
in a pool when a stone is dropped into its midst, the
sway of the Turk spread in ever- enlarging rings.
A powerful impulse was given to their progress
by the extinction of the Seljuk dynasty at the end
of the thirteenth century. Ten several states, of
which Sultanoni was one, succeeded to the authority
of the Seljuks and divided their territory among
them. Henceforward there was no supreme and
sovereign power to repress the ambitions of the
Turks, — only rivals who could be fought and subdued
with no disloyalty to the king who had first given
them a hospitable welcome to his dominions. All

* Von Hammer, i. 75.

THE SELJUKS SUCCESSORS, I9

these states were eventually swallowed up in the
empire of the House of Othman, but this did not
happen till many years after its founder's death.
The prince of Karaman was the strongest of the ten,
and many long wars were fought with him before his
lands were annexed to the Turkish dominions. In
the early days of which we are writing, the Kara-
man ian state was too powerful for the Ottoman to
attempt an advance in this direction ; and the chief
extension of their territory in the beginning of the
fourteenth century was towards Europe, where the
feeble representatives of the once mighty Emperors of
the East offered an easy prey to the hardy warriors of
Sultanoni. From his stronghold at Yenishehr, Oth-
man sent out expeditions against the nearest Greek
towns, and captured many fortresses before the armies
of the emperor moved out against him. When at
length he met the Byzantine army at Baphoeum, he
put it to utter rout and ravaged the whole of Bithynia,
so that the Greeks dared not venture outside the walls
of Nicaea.^ Encouraged by such successes Othman
pushed his forces nearer the sea, and emulated the
example of the princes of Aydin and Saru-Khan,
whose fleets had ravaged the Greek islands and thus
inaugurated the terrible scourge of the Corsair.
Gradually he hemmed in the second city of the
empire, Nicaea ; slowly he brought up his armies
against Brusa, and erected two forts over against
the city, whence for ten years he pressed the
siege. " The method employed by the Ottomans to
gain possession of the large, populous, and well-
' Finlay, ''History of Greece," iii. 387. .

20 THE KING S FRONT.

fortified cities, inhabited by the wealthy but unwarHke
Greeks, was not unlike that employed by the Dorians
in the early ages of Greece. Indeed it is almost the
only way by which the courage and perseverance of a
small force can conquer art and numbers. Instead of
attempting to form a regular blockade of the city
against which they directed their operations, and
thereby compelling the inhabitants to exert all their
unbroken power to deliver themselves from the attack,
the Ottoman Turks established strong posts in the
vicinity of the city, ravaged the fields, carried off
cattle and slaves, and interrupted the commercial
communications of the inhabitants. The devastation
of the country and the insecurity of the roads gradu-
ally raised the price of provisions and caused emigra-
tion and famine. In this way Nicaea, the cradle of
the Greek Church, and which had been for two genera-
tions the capital of the Greek Empire, was closely block-
aded." ^ Meanwhile Othman's flying cavalry ravaged
the country as far as the Bosphorus and Black Sea :
the Emperor, standing on the towers of his palace at
Constantinople, could see the flames of the burning
villages across the Bosphorus ; the Turk's vessels
[harried the coast ; the whole country trembled before
yhis unwearied and ubiquitous onslaught. He had
laid his plans well, and the ten years leaguer of Brusa
produced its result. The great city capitulated in
JLS^§S Orkhan planted the Ottoman flag on its walls,
and hastened to Sugut in time to tell the good news
to his father. Othman lived to hear of the victory,
and then died contented, at the age of seventy, after a

' Finlay, iii. 423-4.

(l^-

CONQUEST OF BRUSA. 23

reign of twenty-six years. His last wish was to be
buried at__Brusa, the new capital of the growing
state ; and thither was he reverently borne, and there
did his sepulchre stand to the present century. His
sword is still preserved at Constantinople, and each
successive Sultan of his posterity is solemnly invested
with the founder's blade by way of coronation.

The Turks with reason hold Othman to be their
first Sultan. Ertoghrul indeed established the clan in
Asia Minor, but he did not achieve independence or
raise his dignity to more than that of a petty prince.
Othman was the first to dream of empire, and though he
did not wholly realize his dream, and view the proud
city of Constantine at his feet, he pushed his conquests
to the very verge of the Hellespont, set his son upon the
throne at Brusa, and prepared the way for the imme-
diate conquest of Nicaea and Nicomedia and the firm
establishment of the Turkish sway upon the shores of
the Bosphorus He inaugurated the career of victory
which his descendants completed ; his wars against
Greeks and Mongols, and the Turkish emirs who had
succeeded the Seljuks, set an example which his son
and grandson knew how to follow ; and Othman's
commanding influence was felt long after his death.

Personally, like the first Khalifs of the Arabs, he
was simple and primitive in his tastes and habits.
He left neither silver nor gold behind him ; but only
a salt-bowl — symbol of hospitality, — a spoon, a braided
coat and white linen turban, his standards, a fine
stud of horses, a yoke of oxen, and some flocks of
sheep, whose descendants still browse upon the
pastures of Brusa. Simple as was his dress, his figure

THE KING'S FRONT.

was imposing. Like Artaxerxes " Longimanus," his
arms reached below his knees, his thighs were those
of a horseman, and his prominent nose, black hair
and beard, and swarthy hue, procured him the name
of " Black Othman," for black is a colour of honour
in the East, and indicates strength of character as
well as bodily vigour and energy. Black Othman
transmitted his physical characteristics to several
generations of his successors, and for at least three
hundred years there sat no Sultan on the Ottoman
throne who was not distinguished for personal courage.
Bravery is the heritage of the Turk.

11.

ACROSS THE HELLESPONT.
(1326-I380.)

When Orkhan came to the throne, one of the chief
stroTigholds of the Greeks in Asia had fallen : the
rest were not slow to succumb to the young vigour of
the Turks. Nicomedia followed Brusa in the same
year (1326). The Emperor Andronicus marched in
1329 against the invaders, but was wounded, and his
camp at Pelecanon fell into the hands of Orkhan ;
Hicaea surrendered in 1330, and in 1336 Pergamon,
the capital of Mysia, was taken from the prince of
Karasi and added to the Ottoman realm. The people
of Nicaea were permitted to emigrate and take with
them all their goods, archives, and relics, and such
moderation greatly strengthened the position of the
conqueror. The little clan of shepherds, who had been
graciously permitted to settle in the kingdom of the
Seljuks, had now possessed themselves, in two genera-
tions, of the whole of the north-west corner of Asia
Minor, where they commanded the eastern shore of
the Bosphorus. Here for the moment they were
content to rest. The Greek emperor was glad to
make peace, and the Turks were anxious to gain

26 ACROSS THE HELLESPONT,

time to organize their new dominions and prepare
for the great struggle which they knew was before
them.

For twenty years tranquility reigned undisturbed
throughout the land of the Turks, and during these
twenty years Orkhan and his elder brother Ala-ud-
din, the first Turkish Vezlr,i laboured at the orga-
nization of the State and the army. The insignia of
sovereignty were now assumed : Orkhan issued money
in his own name as independent Sultan. But
the assumption of royal dignity could be but an
empty form unless means were taken to defend it
against the hostile forces that lay all around. To
this end Ala-ud-dln, who was the true founder of
the Ottoman Empire in so far as it depended
upon military organization, began to reform the
army. Instead of leading their mounted followers
in the old manner of the clan, when the chief sent
messages through the villages to summon his kindred
and liegemen to the fight (where they rode in a serried
wall, without infantry support), and afterwards let
them depart to their homes, the Ottoman Sultans in
future would have permanent regiments to trust to —
the first standing army of modern times. Instead of
volunteers there was now to be a paid army. This
was the natural result of the change which had taken
place in the Ottoman State. It was no longer aquestion
of leading four hundred clansmen to battle ; the Otto-
mans now included a vast number of the Seljuks and
• other Turkish tribes, who yearly flocked from a dis-

* Vezir means " burden bearer," he who carries the burden of State
aflfairs : hence, Prime Minister.

THE JANISSARIES, 27

tance to their standards in hope of victorious spoil,
or from a knowledge of the superior order and security
of life under the Ottoman rule. The Ottomans had
already become a very mixed race ; and the armies
that were soon to subdue a large part of Europe
were composed chiefly of the tribes of Asia Minor,
though the true Ottomans retained the high com-
mands and formed a sort of aristocracy at the
head. To organize these miscellaneous followers,
a corps of regular infantry, called, Piyade, was first
embodied and well paid, and given lands on condition
of armed service and repair of the military roads ;
then, with a view to holding these in check, a rival
body was formed by enrolling a thousand of the finest
boys from among the families of the Christians con-
quered in the campaigns against the Greeks. Every
year for three centuries a thousand 'Christian chil-
dren were thus devoted to the service of the Otto-
man power ; when there were not enough prisoners
captured during the year, the number was made up
from the Christian subjects of the Sultan ; but after
1648 the children of the soldiers themselves were
drawn upon to recruit the force.

Thus was formed the famous corps of the Janis-
saries, or " New Troops," which for centuries con-
stituted the flower of the Ottoman armies, and even-
tually obtained such preponderating influence in
the state, and abused it so wantonly, that they had
to be summarily exterminated in the present century
by Sultan Mahmud II. The children who were taken
from their parents to be enrolled as Janissaries were
generally quite young ; they were of course compelled

28 ACROSS THE HELLESPONT.

to become Moslems, and their training for a life of
arms was carefully regulated. Their discipline was
severe, and fortitude and endurance were inculcated
with Spartan rigour ; but zeal and aptitude were in-
variably rewarded, and the Janissaries were sure of
rapid promotion and royal favour. " Cut off from
all ties of country, kith, and kin, but with high pay
and privileges, with ample opportunities for military
advancement, and for the gratification of the violent,
the sensual, and the sordid, passions of their animal
natures amid the customary atrocities of successful
warfare, this military brotherhood grew up to be the
strongest and fiercest instrument of imperial ambition,
which remorseless fanaticism, prompted by the most
subtle statecraft, ever devised upon earth." ^

Orkhan led his thousand boys before a saintly
dervish, and asked him to bless them, and give them
a name ; whereupon Hajji Bektash flung the sleeve of
his robe over the head of the leading youth and said
" Be the name of this new host Ye/ii Cheri. May God
the Lord make their faces white, their arms strong,
their swords keen, their arrows deadly, and give them
the victory ! " This is the origin of the white woollen
dervish's cap, with the sleeve-like pendant behind, which
always formed part of the uniform of the Janissaries.
. Besides the Piyade and Janissaries, the Ottoman
army included a body of irregular light infantry, who
were employed as skirmishers, and used to receive the
nrst fury of the enemy, before the Janissaries were

/ordered to advance over their bodies to the attack ;

I and also six squadrons of Horse Guards, numbering at

* Sir E. Creasy, " History of the Ottoman Turks," 15.

THE SI PAH IS, 31

first 2,400, but afterwards many more. One of these
squadrons received the well-known name of Sipahis,
which is the same word as the Indian "sepoys."
The feudal system was extended to the cavalry ; some
cohorts were settled on lands which they held on
condition of military service. There was also a corps
of irregular cavalry, called Akinji, or Raiders, who
were unpaid, and depended for their living on plunder
and booty. ,

At the head of an army such as this, well disci-
plined, highly paid, and devoted to a sovereign who
knew how to lead them where honours and rewards
were to be won, Orkhan was now able to survey the
kingdoms around him, and to weigh the chances of
the coming struggle. Behind were the small but not
yet innocuous states which had sprung up on the
decay of the Seljuk power ; they were Turks, and
therefore, in some sort, kinsmen ; they were good
fighters, and, above all, they were poor. The Sultan
was not attracted by the prospect of conquest without
spoils, nor was it until many years later that Bayezld
made a sweep of the petty principalities of Asia
Minor. A much more valuable prize lay in front. The
wealthy provinces of the Byzantine Empire, already
falling to pieces, divided by strife among their rulers,
were before Orkhan's eyes. As he stood on the shore
of the Bosphorus he could see the domes and palaces
of Constantinople. This was a quarry well worthy of
pursuit, and the Ottoman directed his first attack
against the effete empire of the Palaeologi.

He had already prepared the way by moral force.
The firm and equitable government of the Turk had

32 ACROSS THE HELLESPONT,

produced a strong impression upon the Greeks of
Asia, who found themselves better off, more Hghtly
taxed, and far more efficiently protected, than they
had been under the rule of the Byzantine emperor,
whose persistent and perfidious intrigues, joined to
the insensate jealousies of the nobles, and the demands
of such foreign mercenaries as Roger de Flor and his
Catalans, put any approach to good and impartial
government out of the question. The civil wars be-
tween the rival emperors had reduced the empire
to a mere shadow of its former extent. " Many
provinces were lost for ever, and the Greek race
was expelled from many districts. The property
of the Greeks was plundered, their landed estates
were confiscated, and even their families were often
reduced to slavery. . . . The landed property and the
military power, with the social influence they con-
ferred, passed into the hands of the Serbians, the
Albanians, the Genoese, and the Ottoman Turks ;
and after the middle of the fourteenth century we
find foreign names occupying an important place in
the history of Macedonia, Epirus, and Greece, and
Serbian and Albanian chiefs attaining a position of
almost entire independence. ... In Asia the empire
retained little more than Skutari and a few forts ; in
Thrace, it was bounded by a line drawn from the
Gulf of Burgas carried north of Adrianople to Cavala
on the Aegean ; in Macedonia, it retained Thessa-
lonica and the adjoining peninsulas, but the Serbians
completely hemmed in this fragment on the land side ;
it also held portions of Thessaly and Epirus, and the
Peloponnesus. The remaining fragments of the em-

THE BYZANTINE E'MPmE.^^^ 33

pire consisted of a few islands in "the Aegean Sea
which had escaped the domination of the Venetians
the Genoese, and the Knights of St. John ; and of the
cities of Philadelphia and Phocaea, which still recog-
nized the suzerainty of Constantinople, though sur-
rounded by the territories of the emirs of A)^din and
Saru-Khan. Such were the relics of the Byzantine
Empire, which were now burdened with the main-
tenance of two emperors, three empresses, and an
augmented list of despots, sebastocrators, and salaried
courtiers." ^

In all these twenty years of peace there had been
a fri-endly understanding between Orkhan and the
Emperors Andronicus and Cantacuzenus,and the latter
had — with that curious contempt for the decencies
of family relations which characterized the Christians
during the whole period of Ottoman triumph —
given his daughter Theodora in marriage to the
sexagenarian Moslem, despite the differences of
creed and age. Cantacuzenus and Anne the Em-
press-Regent stopped at nothing to conciliate the
Ottoman Sultan and win his aid in their domestic
struggles. Their usual fee was to allow the Turk to
ravage one of their provinces, and carry off into
slavery as many Christians as he pleased. Ducas the
historian says that the empress purchased Orkhan's
assistance by allowing him to transport Christians
to Skutari for sale in Asia, " thus rendering the
Asiatic suburb of Constantinople the principal depot
of the trade in Greek slaves." ^ Orkhan visited his
father-in-law at this convenient mart, which still be-

» Finlay, iii. 446 8. ^ Ibid., iii. 443. •

34 ACROSS THE HELLESPONT.

longed to the emperor, and there seemed little prospect
of a rupture in their amity.

An opportunity however occurred very soon. The
struggle which was then going on between the two
great maritime powers of the Mediterranean, the Vene-
tians and the Genoese, found a frequent meeting-place
on the Bosphorus, where the latter held Galata, a
suburb of Constantinople. The Venetians, who were
destined for centuries to be the most determined foes
of the Turks, had already aroused Orkhan's anger, and
he lost no time in giving his support to their rivals.
Out of this alliance came the first entrance of the Turk
upon European soil. Suleyman Pasha, Orkhan's eldest
son, who had already operated with success in the
Balkan provinces, crossed the Hellespont on a couple
of rafts, with eighty followers, and surprized the castle
of Tzympe. In a few days it was garrisoned by three
thousand Ottoman soldiers. Cantacuzenus was too busy
with the hostility of his son-in-law, John Palaeologus,
to resist this unprovoked invasion ; he even sought the
assistance of the Sultan against his rival. More Turks
were accordingly sent over to reinforce Suleyman's
command ; Palaeologus was beaten ; but the Ottomans
had won their foothold in Europe. In 1358 an earth-
quake overthrew the cities of Thrace ; houses crumbled
to the ground, and even the walls and fortifications fell
upon the trembling earth, while the terrified inhabi-
tants fled from their shaking homes. Among the rest,
the walls around Gallipoli fell down, the people de-
serted the city, and over the ruins the Turks marched
in. The Emperor in vain protested ; Orkhan declared
that Providence had opened the city to his troops, and

DEATH OF ORKHAN. 35

he could not disregard so clear an instance of divine
interposition. The civil war which still raged left
Cantacuzenus small leisure for attending to anything
but the attacks of Palaeologus. The shore of the
Hellespont was quickly garrisoned with Ottoman
soldiers, and the first fatal step had been permitted
which led to the conquest of the empire, and the
perpetual menace of Europe for several centuries.

Orkhan died in 1359. He had lived to carry his
arms to the confines of Asia Minor, and had even
seen his horse-tails flying on the western shores of
the Hellespont. His son Murad I.,^ who succeeded
him (for Suleyman, the elder brother, had died before
his father), was to lead the Ottoman armies as far as
the Danube.

A native satirist said of the Greeks : " They are
formed of three parts : their tongue speaks one thing,
their mind meditates another, and their actions accord
with neither." Had there been but the Greek Empire
to subdue, it is possible that the fourteenth century
might have seen the fall of Constantinople. Adrian-
ople (1361) and soon after, Philippopolis succumbed
upon the onslaught of Murad, and Macedonia and
Thrace, or the modern Rumelia, were now Ottoman
provinces. The Republic of Ragusa concluded a com-
mercial treaty with the Ottomans in 1365, by which it
placed itself under their protection ; and it is said that
Murad signed the treaty, for lack of a pen, with his
open hand, over which he had smeared some ink, in

' Murad is often written Amurath by Europeans. So Bayezid
(Bajazet), Suleyman (Soliman), Mohammed (Mahomet), &c. We
have retained the correct spelling.

36 ACROSS THE HELLESPONT.

the manner of Eastern seals. This veritable sign-
manual is believed to be the origin of the tiighra or
Sultan's cipher, which has ever since appeared on the
coinage and the official documents of the Turks.

But the Sultan had other foes to reckon with
besides worn-out imperialists and time-serving re-
publics. To say nothing of danger from behind, in
Asia, there was a belt of warlike peoples beyond the
Balkan, who were made of very different stuff from
the emasculate Greeks. Behind the empire were
ranged the vigorous young Slavonic races of Serbia
and Bosnia, the Bulgarians, and the Vlachs, with
their traditions of Roman descent, the Skipitars of
Albania, a hardy race of mountaineers, and, above
all, the Magyars of Hungary, who, with their neigh-
bours the Poles, formed for three centuries the chief
bulwark of Christendom against the swelling tide of
Mohammedan invasion. In 1364 the first encounter
between the northern Christians and the invaders
took place on the banks of the Maritza, near Adria-
nople, whither Louis I., King of Hungary and Poland,
and the princes of Bosnia, Serbia, and Wallachia,
pushed forward to put an end once for all to the rule
of the Ottoman in Europe. Lala Shahln, Murad's
commander in chief, could not muster more than
half the number of troops that the Christians brought
against him ; but he took advantage of the state of
drunken revelry in which the too confident enemy
was plunged to make a sudden night attack, and
the army of Hungary, heavy with sleep after its
riotous festivities, was suddenly aroused by the beat-
ing of the Turkish drums and the shrill music of their

BATTLE OF THE MARITZA,

fifes. The Ottomans were upon them before they
could stand to arms. "They were like wild beasts
scared from their lair," says the Turkish historian,
Sa'd-ud-din ; "speeding from the field of fight to the
waste of flight, those abjects poured into the stream
Maritza and were drowned." To this day the spot is
called Sirf Sindughi, " Serbs' rout."

For the present the Turks were satisfied with re-
pelling the enemy ; but before long they resolved
upon carrying the war into the territories of their
foes. Thus far the Ottomans had only possessed
themselves of less than a quarter of modern Turkey.
Leaving Albania for the present out of the question,
we may compare the eastern and greater part of
Turkey in Europe to a flag bearing a St. George's
cross. From east to west, the range of Haemus, or
the Balkan, divides it into two well-marked divisions,
and the arms which these mountains stretch forth
to the north and south complete the cross. Of
the two upper quarters, that to the west was an-
ciently known as Upper Moesia, and had become the
kingdoms of Serbia and Bosnia ; that to the east was
Lower Moesia, or Bulgaria. The lower squares repre-
sent Thrace and Macedonia, and together form what
was known as Rumelia. Of these four portions, the
Ottomans so far possessed only the south-eastern, or
Thrace, the whole of which, with the exception of the
country immediately surrounding Constantinople, now
owned their sway. In 1373, however, by the capture of
Cavala, Serez, and other places, they annexed most
of Macedonia, and pushed their frontier almost up
to the great mountain range which divides Rumelia

40 ACROSS THE HELLESPONT.

from Albania. Two of the four quarters of the square
had thus been subdued, and in 1375 the Ottoman
armies marched north to reduce the rest Crossing
the Balkan they took Nissa, the birthplace of Con-
stantine the Great and one of the strongest fortresses
of the Byzantine Empire. After a siege of twenty-five
days the city capitulated, and the Despot of Servia,
attacked in the heart of his kingdom, obtained peace
on condition of his paying an annual tribute of a
thousand pounds of silver, and furnishing a thousand
horsemen to the Ottoman armies. The Krai of Bul-
garia did not wait to be conquered, but humbly begged
for mercy, which was granted on his paying, not tri-
bute, but what he preferred — his daughter. Thus
was the greater part of the two northern quarters
made tributary to the Sultan. The Greek Emperor,
who had not scrupled to become a convert to the
Latin Church in order (as he vainly hoped) to secure
the aid of the Pope and the Catholic Powers, finding
the Ottomans irresistible, declared himself a vassal of
Murad.

At the same time a further addition was made,
in a peaceful manner, to the Ottoman dominions in
Asia. Murad seized the opportunity of a period of
tranquility to solemnize the marriage of his son
Bayezld with the daughter of the prince of Kermiyan,
one of the ten states that had grown out of the
Seljuk kingdom. The bride brought the greater part
of her father's dominions as a dowry to the young
Turk, and the province of Kermiyan with its chief cities
was thus peacefully added to the Ottoman Empire.
The wedding was celebrated at Brusa with the utmost

ACQUISITIONS IN ASIA. 4 1

pomp. Representatives came from the remainder of
the Ten States, the lords of Aydin, of Kastamuni, of
Mentesha, and Karaman, and the rest ; and am-
bassadors arrived from the Sultan of Egypt. They
brought Arab steeds, Greek slave-girls, and the won-
derful silk stuffs of Alexandria. Gold plates filled with
gold coins, silver dishes full of silver coins, jewelled
cups and basins, were among the presents, all of
which were given away by the Sultan to his guests.
The keys of the castles of Kermiyan, however, he
accepted from the bride, and with these he did not
part. At the same time Murad purchased from its
ruler the territory of Hamid, with its cities of
Akshehr, Begshehri, and others, and thus united
under his rule four out of the ten Seljukian states.
Sultanoni, Karasi, Kermiyan, and Hamid now formed
part of the Ottoman territory ; and ten years later
BayezTd overran the whole of the remaining states
and reduced the entire kingdom of the Seljuks.

Ill,

KOSOVO AND NICOPOLIS.
(1 380-1402.)

Meanwhile the yearly drain of the Christians
to recruit the corps of the janissaries was exciting
the anger of the princes of the north. The Turks
had indeed reached the Danube ; but they were not
to remain undisturbed in their wide dominion. The
Slavs were not yet subdued. They determined on
another effort to expel the enemy from Europe.
Serbia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria led the crusade ; Al-
bania, Wallachia, Hungary joined ; Poland sent her
contingent. The rest of Europe was too closely
occupied with its own affairs, or too much a prey to
ignoble rulers, to spare any interest for the struggle
that was going on in the Balkan Peninsula. Still
the confederates were able to muster a formidable
array, and their first move was a success. They fell
upon an Ottoman army in Bosnia in 1388, and
killed three-fourths of its twenty thousand men.
Murad was not disposed to sit still under this affront,
and his general, All Pasha, forthwith crossed the
Balkan by the Derbend Pass, descended upon
Shumla, seized Tirnova, and brought Sisvan the Krai

BATTLE OF KOSOVO.

of Bulgaria to his knees. Besieged in Nicopolis, the
prince surrendered, and Bulgaria was immediately
annexed to the Ottoman Empire, of which the Danube
now formed the northern frontier.

Lazarus the Serbian, though deprived of his Bulgarian
ally, was not yet daunted. He challenged Murad to
battle, and the opposing forces met (1389) on the plain
of Kosovo by the banks of the river Shinitza. Serbs,
Bosnians, Skipitars, Poles, Magyars, and Vlachs were
massed on the north side of the stream ; on the
south were the Ottomans under Murad himself, sup-
ported by his vassals and allies of Europe and Asia.
The Sultan spent the night before the battle in
prayer for the help of God and a martyr's death,
for like all true Moslems he coveted the crowning
glory of dying in fight with the Infidels ; and in the
morning he saw an answer to his petitions in the
rain which laid the clouds of dust that were driving
blindingly in the faces of the Turkish troops. When
the sky cleared, the two armies came forward and
were drawn up in battle array. Lazarus commanded
the centre of the Christian line, his nephew Vuk
Brankovich the right, and Tvarko the king of
Bosnia the left. On the Turkish side, Murad himself
was in the centre, his sons BayezTd and Ya'kub com-
manded the right and left wings, and Haydar ranged
his artillery on the brow of the hill behind the main
body. The battle was long and obstinately con-
tested ; at one time the left wing of the Turks
wavered, but its courage was restored by the charge
of Bayezid, whose rapidity of action had earned him
the name of Yildiriin, "Thunderbolt" He raged

44 KOSOVO AND NICOPOLIS.

through the ranks of the enemy, brandishing a
mighty iron mace, and felling all who came in his
way. With such fury did he renew the fight, that the
" Turks, which before as men discouraged fled in the
left wing, began now to turn again upon their
enemies ; and the Christians, having as they thought
already got the victory, were to begin a great battle.
In which bloody fight many thousands fell on both
sides ; the brightness of the armour and weapons
was as it had been the lightning ; the multitude of
lances and other horsemen's staves shadowed the light
of the sun ; arrows and darts fell so fast that a
man would have thought they had poured down
from heaven ; the noise of the instruments of war,
with the neighing of horses and the outcries of men,
were so terrible and great, that the wild beasts of
the mountain stood astonied therewith ; and the
Turkish histories, to express the terror of the day,
vainly say that the angels in heaven, amazed with
that hideous noise, for that time forgot the heavenly
hymns wherewith they always glorify God. About
noontide of the day, the fortune of the Turks prevailing,
the Christians began to give ground, and at length
betook themselves to plain flight : whom the Turks
with all their force pursued and slew them down-
right, without number or mercy." ^ The field, says
the Turkish chronicler, was like a tulip bed, with its
ruddy severed heads and rolling turbans.

But the battle was not to end without an irreparable
loss to the Turks. Milosh Kobilovich, a Serbian
warrior, made his way to the Sultan's presence, on

* Knolles and Rycaut, *' The Turkish History," i, 138.

ASSASSINATION OF MURAD I. 45

pretext of important tidings to be communicated
to his private ear ; and, when he was brought before
him, suddenly plunged his dagger into the Sultan's
body. The assassin was hewn to pieces by the
guard ; but his work had been effectual. Murad
died in his tent, after ordering the charge of his
reserve which completed the victory. With his
dying voice he ordained the execution of Lazarus
the Serbian king, who had been made a prisoner.
Milosh Kobilovich, for this treacherous assassina-
tion, has ever since been regarded as a Serbian hero.
As with Harmodius and Aristogiton in ancient Greece,
and Charlotte Corday in modern France, the igno-
miny of betrayal has been absolved by posterity in
consideration of the utility of the result. An assassin
thus becomes a sort of inverted hero.

In consequence of this misfortune, a rule has ever
since been prescribed in Ottoman etiquette that no
stranger shall be presented to the Sultan save led
by two courtiers, who hold him by the arms, and
thus prevent any treacherous attempt. The precau-
tion is no longer insisted on ; but even in the present
century foreign ambassadors were not permitted
to approach the Sultan too closely.
\ " This [Murad or] Amurath was in his superstition
tnore zealous than any other of the Turkish kings ; a
man of great courage, and in all his attempts fortu-
nate ; he made greater slaughter of his enemies than
both his father and grandfather ; his kingdom in
Asia he greatly enlarged by the sword, marriage, and
purchase ; and, using the discord and cowardice of
the Grecian princes to his profit, subdued a great

46 KOSOVO AND NICOPOLIS,

part of Thracia, called Rumania, with the territories
thereto adjoining, leaving unto the Emperor of Con-
stantinople little or nothing more in Thracia than
the imperial city itself, with the bare name of an
emperor almost without an empire ; he won a great
part of Bulgaria and entered into Serbia, Bosnia,
and Macedonia ; he was liberal and withal severe,
of his subjects both beloved and feared, a n\an of
very few words and one that could dissemble deeply.
He was slain when he was three score and eight
years old and had therefore reigned thirty-one, in
the year of our Lord [1389]. His dead body was
by Bajazet conveyed into Asia, and there royally
buried at Brusa in a fair chapel at the west end of
the city, near unto the baths there, where upon his
tomb lieth his soldier's cloak, with a little Turkish
tulipant, much differing from those great turbans
which the Turks now wear. Near unto ^he same
tomb are placed three lances with three horse-tails
fastened at the upper end of them, which he used
as guidons in his wars." ^ On the plain of Kosovo
three stones still mark the spots where Milosh
Kobilovich thrice freed himself from the onslaught
of the encircling guard, and a chapel shows the place
where Murad fell.

On the battle-field, BayezTd, the " Bajazet " of old
Knolles, was saluted Sultan by the army ; and in sight
of the dead body of his father, the new ruler imme-
diately slew his brother Ya'kub, who had fought
gallantly throughout the day. The murder of their
brothers was henceforward to be a principle of

* Knolles, i. p. 139.

BAYEZID I. 49

Ottoman succession. Murad himself had cruelly put
to death his son Saveji, when he rebelled against him ;
and Bayezld was equally determined to have no rivals
to disturb his state. " Sedition is worse than slaughter/'
says the Koran, and acting on that adage the Sultansi
of Turkey for centuries provided against revolution \
by putting out of the way every male heir who could
possibly be a candidate for the throne. The custom
was barbarous enough, but it at least procured the
desired result ; and for five hundred years the Otto-
man Empire has suffered little from civil strife among
relations.

BayezTd soon brought the Serbian war to a close. His
armies pushed on to Vidin, and, turning south, took
Karatova with its valuable silver mines, and placed a
Turkish colony in Uskub. Stephen, the son of Lazarus,
was eager to conclude peace, and a treaty was arranged
by which the Serbian king agreed, as vassal of the
Ottoman, to furnish a contingent to his wars, to give
his sister to wife to the Sultan, and to pay a yearly
tribute from the proceeds of the silver mines. The
Lady Despina soon came to exercise a great influence
over her Turkish husband : " Of all his wives he held
her dearest, and for her sake restored to her brother
Stephen the city and castle of Semendria and Colum-
barium in Serbia ; she allured him to drink wine,
forbidden the Turks by their law, and caused him to
delight in sumptuous banquets, which his predecessors
never did." ^

Serbia was now no longer exposed to Ottoman
incursions ; but there was not yet peace on the Danube,
' Knolles, i, 143.

50 KOSOVO AND NICOPOLIS,

In the following year, Bayezid overran Wallachia, and
its prince, Myrche, submitted in 1 392, when his province
became tributary to the Turks. Recalled to Asia by
an attack from the Prince of Karaman, Bayezid swept
like a whirlwind over the provinces of Asia Minor, and
brought all the land to his sway. Master of the whole
of the Seljuk kingdom of Rum, and of most of the
country between the Bosphorus and the Danube,
he was solemnly invested with the title of " Sul-
tan " by the Abbaside Khalif — who was maintained in
puppet state at the Mamluk Court at Cairo, and exer-
cised what remained of the spiritual authority of the
once mighty Khalifs of Damascus and Baghdad.'
Intoxicated by success, the Sultan now gave himself
up to the pleasures of sense ; he drank the forbidden
wine, and indulged in the gross vices that have too
constantly degraded the rulers of the Ottoman Empire,
yet all his sensuality could not quench the general and
soldier in him. Hearing that a new and formidable
combination was forming against him in Europe, he
shook off his sloth and luxury, and crossed the Bos-
phorus with all the ancient energy which had procured
him his title of " Thunderbolt." It is a singular fact>
that however indolent and besotted a Turk may
appear, you have but to put a sword in his hand, and

* It is commonly stated that Bayezid was the first to adopt this title ;
but coins still preserved in the British Museum and elsewhere, prove
that both Orkhan and Murad I. styled themselves Sultan on their
official currency. Of Othman there are no coins in existence, and it is
probable that the right to coin was first assumed by Orkhan. Bayezid 's
assumption of the title of Sultan was only so far novel that it re-
ceived the sanction of the titular head of the Mohammedan reli-
gion.

THE CATHOLIC CRUSADE. 5 1

he will fire up and fight like a hero. The fighting
spirit seems to be inherent in the race.

The league that was gathering against him was
indeed enough to dismay any sovereign. Sigismund
of Hungary was not the man to sit still after defeat.
He had been disgracefully routed in 1392, when
he had invaded Bulgaria, and Kosovo and the humi-
liation of Serbia were events too recent to be easily
forgotten. The Hungarians were not, like some of
the other adversaries of the Turks, members of what
they considered the heretical, or as it styles itself the
" Orthodox," Greek Church. So long as the Turks
waged war upon such heretics, the Latin Church was
content to let them alone. But Hungary was Catholic, \y'
and at Sigismund's request the Pope took up the
cause, and in 1394 proclaimed a crusade against the
Moslems. All the Courts of Europe were besieged
with demands for volunteers in the Holy War.
France sent a body of men-at-arms under the Count
of Nevers to the support of the King of Hungary, and
many knights of renown came with their retainers to
join in the crusade. They were to defeat the Turks,
cross the Hellespont, and rescue the Holy Land from
the infidels. Among them were the Count de la
Marche, three cousins of the French king, Philippe
of Artois, Count of Eu and Constable of France, and
many more of the flower of the French chivalry. The
Count of Hohenzollern and the Grand Master of the
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem came with their
followers. The Elector Palatine brought a company
of Bavarian knights ; Myrche with his Vlachs and
Sisman with his Bulgarians joyfully threw off the

52 KOSOVO AND NICOPOLIS.

Turkish yoke, broke all their vows, and joined the
league.

y The allies marched through Serbia, whose king
alone remained true to his treaty with BayezTd, and
his lands were therefore plundered ; they took
Vidin and Orsova, and, mustering sixty thousand
men, sat down before the strong city of Nicopolis,
which, with Vidin, Sistova, and Silistria, formed the
four great frontier fortresses on the Danube. They
were held by Turkish garrisons, and to re-take them
was now the ardent desire of the Christian army.

^ Vidin had already surrendered ; Nicopolis was the
next to be attacked. Six days they pressed the siege
by land and river, yet the Ottoman governor refused
to surrender. The French knights, however, were not
disturbed by this obstinacy, which was of the utmost
value in detaining the invading army until the Sultan
should come up with them ; they ridiculed the mere
thought of Bayezid's advance, declared that he would
not dare to cross the Hellespont, and, betaking them-
selves to the wine and women that they had brought
in shiploads down the Danube, they boasted in their
cups that were the sky to fall they would hold it up
with their spears.

When scouts brought word that the Sultan was
within six hours' march of Nicopolis, the jovial boon-
fellows laughed them to scorn, and Marshal Boucicault
threatened to have the bearers' ears cut off for raising a
false alarm. Bayezld heard of these " brave words," and
in return swore that he would stable his horse at the high
altar of St. Peter's at Rome. He was upon the allies
before they could credit their eyes. When the Turkish

ll|||l|l!l!!IIIIIilllllfl!(ll(lllllll(l!H[|||ll(lll(ll(I|

llllllllllllllilllllllillllllllll

BATTLE OF NICOPOLIS. 55

troops were seen advancing in their usual perfect disci-
pline, the young French nobles, full of wine and conceit*
clamoured to begin the fight, and disregarding the coun-
sel of Sigismund, who knew that the practice of the
Turks was to put their worst troops in the van of
battle, the hot-headed Frenchmen charged madly upon
the foe, after first celebrating the occasion by a mas-
sacre of Turkish prisoners who had vainly trusted to
their word of honour. Down they charged upon the
Turkish front, and falling like a whirlwind upon the
luckless skirmishers, whom Bayezld had thrown for-
ward, cut them in pieces. Hacking right and left; the
chivalry of France rode over their bodies, till they
reached the Janissaries who were drawn up behind
them ; ten thousand of the flower of the Turkish army
fell, before the Janissaries took refuge under cover of
the cavalry. Still unchecked, the triumphant cavaliers
rode pell-mell at the famous squadrons of the Sipahls,
and five thousand horsemen went down before their
stormy charge. Right through the third line of the
enemy they rode, exulting in their victory; and ascend-
ing the high ground beyond, where they expected to
see but the flying ruck of the Ottomans — they suddenly
found themselves confronted by a forest of forty thou-
sand lances, the main body of the Turkish army. Then
they remembered, too late, the counsel of Sigismund ;
and seized with panic fear, the knighthood of France
broke up and fled for its very life, pursued by the
horsemen of Asia. Admiral Jean de Vienne, brave
man, bethought him of the shame as he was hurrying
away ; and gathering his twelve knights about him he

' See " The Story of Hungary," by Prof. Vambery, 183.

56 KOSOVO AND NICOPOLIS.

cried, " God forbid that we should save our lives at the
cost of our honour ; " so they plunged into the thick
of the enemy, and died the death of the soldier.

The Christian infantry could not witness this
fearful flight without dismay ; the Hungarians and
Vlachs on the right and left wings of the main
body took to their heels. The centre alone stood
firm, where the king's own Magyar followers, the
Styrians under Hermann Count of Cilli, and the
Bavarians under the Elector, covered the retreat of
the French cavaliers, and advanced in serried ranks,
twelve thousand strong, against the Turks. Despite
their scanty numbers, they drove back the Janissaries
and came to close combat with the Sipahls, whom
they threatened to overthrow, when Stephen of Serbia,
faithful to his oath, led his five thousand Slavs upon
the Christians and won the day for his master the
Sultan. The battle was at an end ; the remnant of
the Christian army was cut down round the royal
standard, and Sigismund was dragged away from the
fatal field by the Count of Cilli and hurried into a
boat by which he reached the Venetian fleet which
was waiting to cooperate with the army at the mouth
of the Danube. Instead of joining in attack, the
task of the Venetians was narrowed to saving the few
surviving leaders of a vanished host.

BayczTd was left victorious on the hard won field.
As he rode among the mountains of the slain he wept
tears of rage to see how many of his bravest warriors
had fallen before the furious onslaught of the French
and the steady desperation of Sigismund's attack-
He resolved to avenge their death by a fearful retri-

MASSACRE OF PRISONERS, 57

bution upon the captives. Ten thousand prisoners of
war were brought before him the next day, and, after
summoning the Count of Nevers to witness his
vengeance, and permitting him to select twenty-four
knights for ransom, he gave orders that the rest
of the captives should be slaughtered. Company
after company, the stout knights and squires of
France, the soldiers of Germany, of Bavaria, of Styria,
of Hungary, were led before the Sultan, and there, in
the sight of the Count of Nevers and his twenty-
four companions, were pitilessly butchered. One
Schildberger, who was himself present, saved by the
intercession of Bayazld's son, and who lived to re-
turn to his native Munich after thirty years of cap-
tivity, tell us how he saw his comrades massacred in
heaps by the Janissaries and the common executioners;
from daybreak till four in the afternoon the Sultan
sat watching the agonies of his enemies, till at last
his own officers, moved perhaps by pity and disgust,
or else by regret at the loss of so many marketable
slaves, begged him to make an end of the butchery
and send the remainder of the prisoners into captivity.
Thousands however had already paid the penalty
of death, and among them, as Froissart says—

" ^{jen tf)e^ \^tvt all brougljt liefore ILamora--
baqtip naketi in tljeiu ^Ijprte^, anti Ijt beljeltie tljem
a Iprell anti tljaix mrneti fco rljem toa^rtie, aati niatic
a (S})^nt tljat tlje^ sJljultie lie all gdapne, aud 00 tljep
Vnere tirouffljt tljrouglj tlje 0ara^^n0 tljat IjaD reti^
nalictJ 5\Dortie0 in tljeir Ijantieei, anti 00 0la^ne anti
Ijevoen all to pecesf VDitljout mtttv. %W cruell

58 KOSOVO AND NICOPOLIS.

iu0tpce tiiti ilamorabaqup tljat tia^e, bp t^e toljiclje
mo t^an tljre liuntireD gentlemen of tipbet^f nacpon^
toere tourmenteD anti 0lapne for tbe lote of pH, on
iD^og^e 0oule0 3]e0u Sate merc^/'

In the following year the Count of Nevers and the
surviving knights were ransomed. Froissart tells the
story of their leavetaking with the Sultan. When the
Count approached to thank him for his kindness and
courtesy during their captivity, Bayezid said, through
an interpreter —

"3|oSan, 31 feno\x)e Voell tl)ou arte a peat lortie in
tljp countre^, anti 0onne to a great lorue ; t^ou art
^onge, anti peratiuenture 0ljaU beare 0ome blame
anti 0bame tbat tljfs atiuenture b^tti fallen to tlje
in tbp f^r^te clj^balrp ; anti to e;rcu0e tljp^elfe of
tt)i0 blame anti to recouer tljpne bonour, peratiuen-.
ture tbou Voplt a^^emble a pup00aimce of men, anti
come anti make Voarre agapn^t me ; if 3| \xiere in
Doute or feare tberof, or tljou tieparteti 3 0bwltie
tm0t tlje 07 ere bj) tb? laVoe anti faptbe tbat neuer
tjou nor none of tij? compan)^ 0b«ltie beare armure
or make loarre agapn^t me ; but 3| \dpII notbec
make tbe nor none of tb^ company to make anp
0ucbe otbe or prome^^e, but 31 \^}>\l tbat \x^[)m tbou
arte retourneti anb arte at tb? pleasure, raptfe \obttt
pup00aunce tbou toplte, anb 0pare nat, but come
agapn^t me •, tbou ^b^lt fpntie me alvoapetf rebp
to rece^ue tbe anb tlj^ company in tbe felbe in
plapne batajle ; anb tbi0 tbat J sap, 0bctoe it to
Vobome tb? Ip^te, for 31 am able to bo tim^ of

bayezid's defiance.

arrne^, anti euer retip to conquere furtJier into
crp0teationu ^^e^se ^pfflj \j)ortie0 ttie tvlt of
iPeuer^ bntier^totie Voell, and 00 tipti !)i0 companp ;
tjep t^ougjt on it after a0 long a^ tlje? IjueD/'

IV.

TiMUR THE TARTAR.

(1402.)

The battle of Nicopolis had placed BayezTd at the
summit of power. He issued boastful despatches
to the chief potentates of the East announcing his
triumph, and, in order to convince them of its verity
by tangible evidence, he sent them by his mes-
sengers presents of Christian slaves taken from the
conquered nations. Nothing now could exceed the
pride and arrogance of the Turkish Sultan. Lord
of the lands of the Greek Empire as far as the
Danube, and of Asia to the banks of the Euphrates, he
dreamed of world-wide conquest, and even thought of
realizing his threat of stabling his charger at the altar
of St. Peter's at Rome. Not content while any part
of the Eastern Empire remained unsubdued, he carried
his arms southward through Thermopylae, which had
no Leonidas to contest the pass, and with little
opposition established his authority over the Pelo-
ponnesus and set up the crescent upon the Acropolis
of Athens. The Greek P^mperor was already his
humble vassal, and had even consented to the building
of a mosque in Constantinople, in order to appease the

.\1A.\UEL I'ALAEOLOGUS.

TIMUR OR TAMERLANE. 63

wrath of his imperious suzerain. Saladin the Great
and others had extorted similar concessions ; but in
the present instance to the mosque was added a
Mohammedan college, and a Moslem judge or Kadi
was appointed to administer the laws of Islam in a
quarter specially set apart for Musulmans in the metro-
polis of Orthodox Christianity.

The Turks had indeed obtained a fatal hold upon

the capital of the empire, and now Bayezld, not

satisfied with the humiliations to which the emperor

had submitted, demanded the surrender of the city

itself. Manuel scoured Europe In search of allies, but

in vain. Even when he descended so low as to beg

the assistance of his immemorial rival the Pope, no

aid was to be found ; and the Turkish armies, after

\ beleaguering Constantinople for six years, seemed on

ithe point of effecting the conquest, when a new and

/ terrible figure appeared upon the scene, and Bayezld

^ was forced to turn his forces elsewhere.

Just at the moment when the Sultan seemed to ^
have attained the pinnacle of his ambition, when his
authority was unquestioningly obeyed over the greater
part of the Byzantine Empire in Europe and Asia,
when the Christian states were regarding him with
terror as the scourge of the world, another and a
greater scourge came to quell him, and at one stroke
all the vast fabric of empire which Bayezld had so
triumphantly erected was shattered to the ground.
This terrible conqueror was Tjmur the Tartar, or as
we call him '* Tamerlane."

Tlmur was of Turkish race, and was born near
Samarkand in 1333 He was consequently an old

64 TIMUR THE TARTAR.

man of nearly seventy when he came to encounter
Bayezid in 1402. It had taken him many years to
establish his authority over a portion of the numerous
divisions into which the immense empire of Chingiz
Khan had fallen after the death of that stupendous
conqueror. Timur was but a petty chief among many
others : but at last he won his way, and became ruler
of Samarkand and the whole province of Transoxiana,
or " Beyond the River " (Ma-wara-n-nahr), as the
Arabs called the country north of the Oxus. Once
fairly established in this province, Timur began to
overrun the surrounding lands, and during thirty
years his ruthless armies spread over the provinces of
Asia, from Dehli to Damascus, and from the Sea of
Aral to the Persian Gulf The sub-division of the
Mohammedan Empire into numerous petty kingdoms
rendered it powerless to meet the overwhelming
hordes which Timur brought down from Central Asia.
One and all, the kings and princes of Persia and
Syria succumbed, and Tlmiir carried his banners
triumphantly as far as the frontier of Egypt, where
the brave Mamluk Sultans still dared to defy him.
He had so far left Bayezid unmolested ; partly
because he was too powerful to be rashly provoked,
and partly because Timur respected the Sultan's
valorous deeds against the Christians : for Timur,
though a wholesale butcher, was very conscientious
in matters of religion, and held that Bayezld's fighting
for the Faith rightly covered a multitude of sins.

But when two great empires march together, as did
those of the Tartar and the Turk, and when each of
them has been built up at the expense of a number of

FALL OF SI WAS. 65

petty dynasties, every prince of which naturally sought
an asylum at the Court of the rival emperor, the
relations of the two Powers are apt to become
strained. So it proved in the present case. Bayezld
had sheltered some of the princes of Mesopotamia
whom Timur had overthrown : Timur had welcomed
to his Court the petty rulers of Asia Minor whom
Bayezld had expelled. Of course the refugees on
either side, in hope of restoration, lost no opportunity
of exciting the jealousy and irritability of the rival
tyrants. The result was that, after an interchange of
embassies which only embittered the minds of both
sovereigns, and in which the Turk displayed more
than his wonted insolence, Timur advanced to Siwas,
the ancient Sebaste, in Cappadocia, an important city
which had recently acknowledged the authority of the
Turk along with most of the towns of Asia Minor,
and after a determined siege stormed the place and
put the garrison to the sword. Among the rest,
Prince Ertoghrul, a son of Bayezld was executed
(1400).

The Sultan was laying siege to Constantinople
when he heard the news of the fall of Slwas and the
death of his son. He hurried over to Asia, at the
head of his veteran troops, who had for years borne
the brunt of war against the chivalry of Serbia,
Hungary, and France, on such fields as Kosovo and
Nicopolis ; but when he arrived Timur was gone : he
had marched south to menace the Mamluks of Egypt.
It was not till the next year (1402) that the two forces
met, and in the interval Bayezld had lost prestige with
his soldiers. Timur's spies had been at w^ork, sowing

66 TIMUR THE TARTAR,

disaffection among their ranks, and the Sultan's
notorious meanness and avarice gave only too much
colour to the insinuations of these emissaries; the
Turkish troops became less hostile to Timur when
they found how liberal he was to his followers. Still
Bayezid did nothing to allay the growing murmurs of
his men, and advanced to meet his adversary with an
army estimated vaguely at 120,000. Timur, who is
fabled to have commanded six times this number,
outmanoeuvred him and secured an open field at
Angora, where his superior force could be used to the
best advantage.

So far was Bayezid from manifesting even common
caution in the presence of the enemy, that out of mere
bravado he employed his army in a grand hunt in the
neighbourhood of Angora. His hunting was ill chosen
as to place as well as time, for there was no water,
and it is said that no less than five thousand Turks
perished from mere thirst, with never a Tartar arrow
to speed them. When the infatuated Sultan returned
to his camp, he found that Timur had seized it in his
absence, and had poisoned the stream that would have
refreshed the weary Turks. In this position the
Ottoman led his dispirited men against the enemy.
On the one side were men thirsty and exhausted,
inferior in numbers, and discontented with their
leader : on the other, a vast host, strongly posted,
splendidly generalled, neglecting no precaution of
war, and possessing every advantage of numbers,
discipline, and physical condition. The result could
not be doubtful. In the battle many of Bayezld's
troops, among whom were forced contingents from the

BATTLE OF ANGORA, 69

recently annexed states of Asia Minor, went over to
the enemy, and only the Janissaries who formed the
centre, and the Serbian auxiliaries under their king,
Stephen Lazarevich, on the left, gave anything like a
soldier's account of themselves on that memorable
day. The valour of the Janissaries and the Serbs
could avail little against Timur's numbers, and the
end was utter rout.

Old Knolles tells the story in his quaint and graphic
style : " The next day the two armies drew near
together and encamped within a league one of the
other; where all the night long you might have heard
such noise of horses as that it seemed the heavens
were full of voices, the air did so resound ; and every
man thought the night long, to come to the trial of
his valour and the gaining of his desires. The
Scythians talked of nothing but the spoil, the proud
Parthians of their honour, and the poor Christians of
their deliverance, all to be gained by the next day's
victory: every man during the night speaking accord-
ing to his own humour. All which Tamerlane,
walking this night up and down in his camp, heard,
and much rejoiced to see the hope that his soldiers
had already in general conceived of the victory.
Who, after the second watch, returning unto his
pavilion, and there casting himself upon a carpet, had
thought to have slept awhile : but his cares not
suffering him to do so, he then, as his manner was,
called for a book wherein was contained the lives of
his fathers and ancestors and of other valiant worthies,
the which he used ordinarily to read, as he then did ;
not as therewith vainly to deceive the time, but to

7.0 TIMUR THE TARTAR.

make use thereof by the imitation of that which was
by them worthily done, and declining of such dangers
as they by their rashness or oversight fell into. . . .

" Now was Tamerlane by an espy advertised that
Bajazet, having before given orders for the disposing
of his army, was on foot in the midst of thirty
thousand Janissaries, his principal men of war and
greatest strength, wherein he meant that day to fight,
and in whom he had reposed his greatest hope. . . .
His army marching all in one front, in form of a half
moon (but not so well knit together as was Tamerlane's
whose squadrons directly followed one another) seemed
almost as great as his ; and so with infinite numbers
of most horrible outcries still advanced forward ;
Tamerlane and his soldiers all the while standing fast
with great silence.

" There was not possible to be seen a more furious
charge than was by the Turks given upon the Prince
of Ciarcan, who had commandment not to fight before
the enemy came up to him : neither could have been
chosen a fairer plain, and where the skilful choice of
the place was of less advantage for the one or the
other ; but that Tamerlane had the river on the left
hand of his army, serving him to some small
advantage. Now this young Prince of Ciarcan with
his forty thousand horse was in this first encounter
almost wholly overthrown, yet having fought right
valiantly and entered into them, even into the midst
of the Janissaries (where the person of Bajazet was),
putting them in disorder, was himself there slain.
About which time Axalla set upon them with the
avantguard, but not with like danger ; for having

BATTLE OF ANGORA. yi

overthrown one of the enemy's wings, and cut it all to
pieces, and his footmen coming to join with him as
they had been commanded, he faced the battalion of
the Janissaries, who right valiantly behaved themselves
for the safety of their prince.

" This hard fight continued one hour, and yet you
could not have seen any scattered, but the one still
resolutely fighting against the other. You might
there have seen the horsemen like mountains rush
together, and infinite numbers of men die, cry, lament,
and threaten, all in one instant. Tamerlane had
patience all this while, to see the event of this so
mortal a fight ; but perceiving his men at length to
give ground, he sent ten thousand of his horse to join
again with the ten thousand appointed for the rearward,
and commanded them to assist him at such time as
he should have need of them ; and at the very same
time charged himself and made them to give him
room, causing the footmen to charge also, who gave a
furious onset upon the battalion of the Janissaries.
Now Bajazet had in his army a great number of
mercenary Tartars [of the Seljiakian States]. . . .
These Tartarians and other soldiers, seeing some
their friends, and other some their natural and loving
princes in the army of Tamerlane, stricken with the
terror of disloyalty and abhorring the cruelty of the
proud tyrant, in the heat of the battle revolted from
Bajazet to their own princes, which their revolt much
weakened Bajazet's forces. Who, nevertheless, with
his own men of war, and especially the Janissaries,
and the help of the Christian soldiers brought to his
aid from Serbia and other places of Europe, with

72 TIMUR THE TARTAR,

great courage maintained the fight : but the multitude
and not true valour prevailed ; for as much as might
be done by valiant and courageous men was by the
Janissaries and the rest performed, both for the
preservation of the person of their prince and the
gaining of the victory. But in the end, the horsemen,
with whom Tamerlane himself was giving a fresh
charge, and the avantguard wholly knit again to him
reinforcing the charge, he with much ado obtained the
victory." ^

So on the field of Angora, where the Ottomans
had won their spurs in their first combat by the side
of the Seljukian Turks a hundred and fifty years
before, now was their empire shattered to the ground.
Bayezld himself, with one of his sons, was taken
prisoner, and the unfortunate Sultan became a part
of his victor's pageant, and was condemned in fetters,
to follow his captor about in his pomps and cam-
paigns. The fact that he was carried in a barred
litter gave rise to the well-known legend that he
was kept in an iron cage.^ He died eight months
later, and Timur survived his humbled prisoner
but two years. In that time, however, he had
overrun the Turkish Empire in Asia, had occupied
Nicaea, Brusa, and the other chief cities of the

* Knolles, i. 152.

' Racine, in his tragedy " Bajazet," made the story of this Sultan the
means of familiarizing his generation with the history and habits of a
people with whom they were little acc}iiainted ; and Bayezld appears
also in Marlowe's " Tamburlaine the Cireat." In the latter he actually
beats his brains out against the iron bars of his cage. The English
Rowe and the French I'radon also based tragedies on the same fruitful
theme.

FALL OF BAYEZID. 73

coast, had wrested Smyrna from the valiant Knights
of St. John, and had restored the various petty princes
of Asia Minor to their former possessions. The
empire of the Turks, built up with so much skill and 1
bravery, till it had become the terror of Europe, I
crumbled to dust before the Asiatic despot, who well/
earned his title of "The Wrath of God." The history!
of the Ottomans seemed to have suddenly come to',^
an end. Seldom has the world seen so complete, so \
terrible, a catastrophe as the fall of Bayezld from the \
summit of power to the shame of a chained captive. 1

MQHAMMED_THE RESTORER.
(1402-1421.)

The Ottoman power seemed gone for ever. At
one blow Timur, the "Noble Tartarian," had ap-
parently swept it out of Asia, and there were too
many foes waiting their opportunity in Europe to
make the hold of the Turks upon their European
provinces anything but precarious. Hungarians,
Poles, Bulgarians, Albanians, Vlachs, and many
more hovered on the brink of the Turkish provinces,
or were ready to rise in revolt within their borders.
Their enemy was fallen they thought for ever.

The most astonishing characteristic of the rule of
the Turks is its vitality. Again and again its doom
has been pronounced by wise prophets, and still it
survives. Province after province has been cut off
the empire, yet still the Sultan sits supreme over
wide dominions, and is reverenced or feared by sub-
jects of many races. Considering how little of the
great qualities of the ruler the Turk has often
possessed, how little trouble he has taken to con-
ciliate the subjects whom his sword has subdued,
it is amazing how firm has been his authority,

VITALITY OF TURKISH RULE. 75

how unshaken his power. At the moment when
Timur's armies were ravaging the southern shores
of the Bosphorus and the Greek Empire was almost
rousing from its long sleep and retaking its lost
provinces in Europe, the Turkish power might well
be said to be annihilated ; yet within a dozen years
the lost provinces were reunited under the strong and
able rule of Mohammed I., and the Ottoman Empire,
far from being weakened by the apparently crushing
blow it had received in 1402, rose stronger and more
vigorous after its fall, and, like a giant refreshed,
prepared for new and bolder feats of conquest.

Mr. Finlay, the gifted historian of medieval and
modern Greece, has been to some pains to investigate
the reason of the strange phenomenon presented by
the progress of the Ottoman power. The same
causes which produced their first success must account
for their even more astonishing resurrection. "The
establishment of the Ottoman Turks in Europe," he
says, " is the last example of the conquest of a nu-
merous Christian population by a small number of
Musulman invaders, and of the colonization of
civilized countries by a race ruder than the native
population. The causes which produced these results
were in some degree similar to those which had
enabled small tribes of Goths and Germans to occupy
and subdue the Western Roman Empire ; but three
particular causes demand especial attention. First, the^
superiority of the Ottoman tribe over all contemporary ;
nations in religious convictions and in moral and
military conduct. Second, the number of different
races which composed the population of the country

76 MOHAMMED THE RESTORER,

between the Adriatic and the Black Sea, the Danube
and the Aegean. Third, the depopulation of the
Greek Empire, the degraded state of its judicial and
civil administration, and the demoralization of the
Hellenic race." ^

/ As Mr. Finlay goes on to explain, the respect with
^ which Othman and his successors were regarded by
the countless Mohammedan and Christian tribes,
subjects who flocked to their standard and gladly
submitted to their authority, is a sure proof of real
superiority. Other barbarous races have risen to power
and conquered rich provinces, only to succumb to the
vices of luxury and demoralization. The Ottomans

1 long retained their pristine vigour and morality. The
cause of this is to be sought to a great extent in
the extraordinary skill with which Orkhan and his
brother Ala-ud-dln organised their new state ; the
admirable administration of justice; and the sys-
tematic education in the household of the Sultan,
both for civil and military purposes, of the Christian
tribute-children who formed the nucleus of the Otto-
man power, and who, deprived of the natural ties
of country and family, became devoted to the Sultan
to whom they owed their judicious training and
subsequent advancement : " It was by their mental
as well as physical power that a vast variety of races
both Mohammedan and Christian were held together
by as firm a grasp as that by which imperial Rome
held her provinces ; and the standard of the Sultan
was carried victoriously into the heart of Europe and
Asia, and far along the shores of Africa. Never was

* *• History of Greece," iii. 475.

SUPERIORITY OF THE OTTOMANS, 77

SO durable a power reared up so rapidly from such
scanty means as were possessed by Orkhan and his
Vezir, when they conceived the bold idea of exter-
minating Christianity by educating Christian children."

The same sound education which was given to the
tribute-children was shared by the Ottoman princes
of the blood, and the result was that the early rulers
of the Turkish Empire were men of sagacity and
progressive views, always ready to improve the ad-
ministration and the army, and to introduce new
inventions and combinations. Sultans possessed of so
wise a spirit were dangerous opponents of the shifty
and unprincipled Greek emperors, and their ably
organized and educated followers were infinitely the
superiors of the disunited and corrupt subjects of the
Palaeologi. These subjects, moreover, belonged to
various hostile and jealous races ; they were Slavs,
Greeks, Bulgarians, Vlachs, Albanians, and all degrees
or*Ynixture, nor were the several races collected to-
gether, but scattered in various quarters of the em-
pire. And that empire itself was so degraded and
corrupt in its government that it possessed no power
of uniting its motley subjects or stemming the tide
of demoralization that was swamping the whole
population. The road was open to the Ottomans,
and they were prepared to take it : they had served
a worthy apprenticeship to the trade they were to
follow.

Such causes led to the success of the Turks
against the empire, and though the temporary over-
throw of the Ottoman power by Timur checked their
progress for the moment, the elements of success

yS MOHAMMED THE RESTORER,

were not abolished. The Ottomans were still the
trained, educated, disciplined force, civil and military,
^ they had ever been. The Greek Empire was not the
less decrepit because its antagonist was for an instant
laid low. It needed but a wise and patient sovereign
to retrieve the disaster and restore the Ottoman power
to its former supremacy and renown.

Such a ruler was Mohammed I., the son of Baye-
zld. The Greeks described him as " persevering as
a camel," and to his prudence and sagacity the Otto-
man Empire owed as rniich as it did to the fighting
qualities of his predecessors and successors. No other
dynasty can boast such a succession of brilliant sove-
reigns as those who conducted the Ottomans to the
height of renown in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and six-
teenth centuries. Orkhan, the taker of Nicaea and
founder of the Janissaries ; Murad L, the conqueror
at Kosovo ; BayezTd I., the victor of Nicopolis ; Mo-
hammed I., the restorer of the shattered empire ;
Murad II., the antagonist of Hunyady and of Skan-
derbeg ; Mohammed II., the conqueror of Constanti-
nople ; SelTm I., who annexed Kurdistan, Syria, and
Egypt ; and Suleyman the Magnificent, the victor on
the field of Mohdcs and the besieger of Vienna.
Never did eight such sovereigns succeed one another
(save for the feeble Bayezld II.) in unbroken succes-
sion in any other country ; never was an empire
founded and extended during two such splendid
centuries by such a series of great rulers. In the
hour of dismay, as well as in the moment of triumph,
the Turkish Sultan was master of the situation.

It was in the hour of dismay that Sultan Moham-

RIVAL CLAIMANTS, 79

med^I. displayed his statesmanlike qualities. He
began without an empire, and the least encouraging
sign of the times was the jealousy which prompted
his brothers, aided by the crowd of jealous Seljuk
nobles and princes, to dispute with one another for
the throne. Mohammed was the youngest son of
Bayezld, and his elder brothers naturally asserted
their prior right to the crown. While he set up a little
shadow of a principality at Amasia, Prince Suleyman
raised his standard at Adrianople and claimed the
homage of the Turkish subjects in Europe ; Prince
Isa established himself at Brusa, and seized part of
the Asiatic provinces ; while Prince Musa, after bring-
ing his father's body to Brusa to be buried, joined in
the race for power. Suleyman, who had made him-
self odious to his troops by his savage cruelty and
debauchery, was deserted by his army and killed
(1410). Musa, who reaped the advantages of his
brother's death and emulated his brutality, waged a
campaign against the Serbians, in which he ravaged
the country with all the ruthlessness that a Turkish
army can display, and is said to have feasted his
officers upon tables constructed of the corpses of three
Serb garrisons. He then laid siege to Constanti-
nople, and the emperor called Mohammed to his aid.
After several reverses Mohammed, assisted by Ste-
phen, king of Serbia, the old ally of Bayezid, routed
the besieging army, and in the flight Musa was killed.
Prince Isa had meanwhile disappeared into obscurity,
and Mohammed I. was now (141 3) sole Sultan over
the undivided Turkish Empire,

His reign as absolute Sultan lasted only eight

8o MOHAMMED THE RESTORER.

years, but in that brief space he worked wonders.
He did not indeed attempt the warlike achievements
of his father, though he was prompt to resist any
encroachment upon his dominions. He suffered
I more than one defeat from the Christians of his
' northern frontier, and his fleet was severely beaten
off Gallipoli by the Venetians under Admiral Lore-
Idano. Mohammed had, however, clearly grasped his
position, and had realized that his policy must be
steady consolidation rather than extension ; and he
did not allow a few trifling reverses to tempt him
into dangerous campaigns. What he aimed at he
accomplished : to maintain the boundaries of his em- '
pire and strengthen the ties between the sovereign
j and his subjects, which the disaster at Angora must
/have sorely strained. With this object his chief i
y desire was for peace, and he made the Greek emperor
his friend, first by supporting him against Musa, and
then by surrendering to him certain places on the
Black Sea and some fortresses in Thessaly. He
received ambassadors from the rulers of Serbia,
Wallachia, and Albania, with assurances of good- will,
and concluded a treaty of amity with Venice. In
Asia his authority was established with more diffi-
culty, for the prince of Karaman, who had been
reinstated by Timur, asserted his ancient indepen-
dence and, not being an effete Greek, but a plucky
Turk, seized the moment of anarchy to invade the
chief cities of the Ottoman dominion in Asia. Mo-
hammed defeated him, but wisely refrained, in the
convalescent state of the empire, from endangering its
complete recovery by any very stringent measures

against the petty dynasties of Asia Minor. He re-
ceived their homage, but left it to his successor to
reduce them once again to the position of Turkish
provinces to which Bayezld had brought them shortly
before his fall.

A revolt of the dervishes, and the appearance of a
pretender to the throne, further disturbed the Sultan's
pacific designs ; but they were suppressed, and he
was able to devote himself again to those measures
of consolidation and to those cultivated tastes for
poetry and literature for which he was distinguished.
He was called Chelebi Mohammed, " Mohammed
the Gentleman " ; and no name could better express
the refinement and humanity of his character. It is
recorded to his discredit that he caused his only
surviving brother Kasim to be blinded, and killed
the child of Suleyman ; but it must be remembered
that Mohammed had experienced too terribly the
evils of rival claimants to the throne to be prone to
suffer the empire to be again plunged into the intes-
tinal troubles which had marked the beginning of
his own reign. It appears to be the rule that a
Turkish prince is never satisfied with anything short
of the Sultanate ; and it becomes a matter of sheer
necessity, and not a question of jealous suspicion, to
make it impossible for him to attain his ambition.
In the present day this is done by imprisoning him
in the seraglio till he becomes almost idiotic. The
old, and perhaps the more merciful, way was to kill
him outright.

Mohammed I. died in the spring of the year 142 1,
and was buried near the beautiful mosque which he had

MOHAMMED THE RESTORER.

built at Brusa, known as the Green Mosque, from the
colour of the tiles that adorned its domes. Brusa was
no longer the capital of the Turks. Mohammed had
taken an ominous step : he had transferred his
capital to Europe. Adrianople was the metropolis of
the Ottomans.

VI.

MURAD II. AND HUNYADY.

(1421-1451.)

The new Sultan, Murad II., who succeeded in;
142 1, possessed all the clemency and prudence that!
characterized Mohammed the Gentleman ; but his/
temper was of that ambitious adventurous order
which the state of the empire at that time demanded.
Mohammed's conciliatory disposition, his peaceful and
consolidating policy, had been of the utmost service
to the State. The Turks were now ready to resume 1
the career of conquest which had been interrupted by /
the thunderstorm of Angora, and Murad was the very
leader they wanted. He lost no time in giving
abundant proofs of his mettle. The Greek emperor,
forgetful of his old ties with Mohammed, and con-
temptuous of the stripling of eighteen years who now
ascended the Ottoman throne, let loose a supposititious
son of Bayezld, Mustafa, who had claimed the throne
some years before, and had ever since been kept in
close custody at Constantinople. Mustafa enjoyed a
transitory gleam of triumph, and subdued the Euro-
pean provinces for awhile ; but he was soon found
wanting, and Murad had him hanged " to convince

S6 MURAD IL AND HUNYADY,

the world that he was an impostor." Murad then
resolved to punish the duplicity of Manuel, and laid
siege to the imperial city. Already had Yildirim
BayezTd sat down before the city of Constantine,
but he had been recalled to Asia by the coming of
Timur. In like manner Murad had made some
progress in the siege ; he had drawn his lines from
the "Golden to the Wooden Gate, and an assault had
been attempted and vigorously repulsed by the
defenders, when a revolt in Asia Minor put an
end to the attack, and Murad hastily crossed the
Bosphorus to put down a brother's insurrection. On
his return he did not recommence the siege, but
accepted a heavy tribute from the emperor, and left
him in possession of Thessalonica (until 1436), and
some forts in Thrace and Thessaly. To prevent
any further opportunities for the disaffected in Asia,
Murad finally annexed most of the various petty
states which Timur had resuscitated, and henceforth
we hear little of wars with the dynasties that had
once been the rivals of the Ottomans in the suc-
cession to the kingdom of the Seljuks.

Murad's fighting qualities were soon to be put to
such a test as no Asiatic prince could offer him. The
Christian states were again in arms, and they had
found a leader whose name is famous in the front
rank of European generals. So long as Stephen
Lazarevich lived, the treaty which bound Serbia to
alliance with the Turks was faithfully observed ;
but on his death in 1427 a new king arose, George
Brankovich, who knew not Murad, and who began
to collect the forces of Serbia, Bosnia, Hungary,

THE WHITE KNIGHT, J 8y

Poland, Wallachia, and Albania, against the common
enemy.

Hunyady was the name the Christians conjured
with. When King Sigismund of Hungary was flying
from one of his unsuccessful engagements with the
Ottoman armies, he met and loved the beautiful
Elizabeth Morsiney, at the village of Hunyade, and
John Hunyady was believed to be the fruit of this
consolatory affection. " Whatsoever his parents
were," says KnoUes, " he himself was a politic,
valiant, fortunate, and famous captain, his victories so
great as the like was never before by any Christian
prince obtained against the Turks ; so that his name
became unto them so- dreadful that they used the
same to fear their crying children withal." Hunyady
had won his spurs in the wars in Italy, where his
silver armour had gained him the sobriquet by which
De Commines styles him, " the White Knight of
Wallachia." Returning to his own country, he- was
chosen Ban of Szoreny and Voyvode of Transyl-
vania, and soon displayed his prOwess. " This worthy
captain," again to quote Knolles, " began to keep the
Turks short by cutting them off whensoever they pre-
sumed to enter into his country, and also by shutting
up the passages whereby they were wont to forage the
country of Transylvania ; and when he had put his
own charge into good safety, he entered into Moldavia,-
and never rested till he had won it quite out of the
Turks' hands. And not contented with this, passed
many times over Danubius into the Turks' dominions,
making havoc of the Turks, and carrying away with
him great booty, with many captives." For twenty

88 MURAD II. AND HUNYADY,

years he was the terror of the Ottomans and the
saviour of the kingdom of Hungary, of which, during
the minority of Vladislaus V., he was chosen governor.
The great events in his career were the battles of
Hermannstadt and Nissa, the passage of the Balkan,
the defeat at Varna, and the storming of Belgrade.^

The first of these encounters took place during
the siege of Hermannstadt, in Transylvania, which
Murad's general, Mezld, was pressing as some compen-
sation for a repulse which the Ottoman troops had
recently received at Belgrade. Hunyady came to
the rescue of the beleaguered city with a small force
in 1442, and aided by a sally of the garrison totally
routed the Turkish army, killed 20,000 of the enemy,
and having taken their general prisoner had him
publicly hacked to pieces. Hunyady was as cruel
and bloodthirsty as even the traditional Bashibozuk.
It was his delight to have his banquets accompanied
by the sight of the slaughtering of his enemies, just
as other princes prefer to eat their dinner to the
sound of music ; but Hunyady's music was the shriek
of a dying prisoner. Soon after his success at Her-
mannstadt, he heavily defeated the Turks at Vasag,
or Vaskapu, and in 1443 commanded a magnificent
army, composed of the flower of Hungary, Serbia,
and Wallachia, together with a band of crusaders
from Italy whom the Pope had excited to the holy
war. King Vladislaus of Hungary was present,
and Cardinal Julian brought the weight of papal
authority. They met the Ottoman troops on the

* For some account of tlie career of the Hungarian hero see " The
Story of Hungary," chap. ix.

THE PASSAGE OF THE BALKAN, 89

banks of the Morava, near Nissa, and routed them
completely. The Turks fled over the Balkan, and
Hunyady pursued them.

To cross the Balkan in winter from north to south
against armed opposition is a feat rarely accom-
plished. Diebitsch and Gourko are the only generals
besides Hunyady who have achieved it. The Turks
had skilfully barricaded the passes, and poured water
down the approaches, which froze into an icy wall
during the night. The passage seemed impracticable.
Yet nothing daunted, and braving the weapons of the
Turks with the same inflexibility as the rigours of
the cold, the Hungarians forced the pass of Isladi,
and kept Christmas on the southern slope of the
famous range. In the plain below they once again
inflicted a defeat upon the discomfited Ottomans. It
seemed as though the Turkish Empire in Europe was
at the feet of the intrepid general, and we read with
amazement that instead of advancing upon Adrianople
Hunyady abandoned the fruits of his triumphant cam-
paign and returned to Buda, there to display his booty
and his captives to his admiring countrymen. Murad
seized the opportunity to offer terms of peace, and the
Treaty of Szegedin, by which Serbia regained her in-
dependence and Wallachia was annexed to Hungary,
was solemnly sworn upon the Gospel and the Koran,
and peace was concluded for ten years.

Murad, like Charles V., had already tasted enough
of the joys and the sorrows of empire, and the
death of his eldest son so sorely afflicted him that
he longed for the peace and retirement which he
could never attain upon the throne. He abdicated

90 MURAD IT. AND HUNYADY,

in 1444, soon after the conclusion of the Treaty of
Szegedin, and his son Mohammed II. reigned in his
stead. Murad contentedly retired to Magnesia, where
he intended to enjoy what remained of his life in
cultivated leisure.

No sooner were the Christians aware of the abdi-
cation of the famous Sultan, whose generalship,
despite the reverses his Pashas had received at the
hands of Hunyady, was still an article of faith with
his foes, than they resolved to forsake their treaty.
The Pope and the Greek Emperor used their spiritual
influence to induce Hunyady to break his oath, and
Cardinal Julian employed the celebrated and in-
famous argument which Cardinal Ximenes with equal
success urged upon the conscience of Isabella of Castile
— that oaths are not to be kept with infidels. Hun-
yady was with difficulty persuaded, but the promise of
ithe kingship of Bulgaria was too much for his honour,
and he agreed to perjure himself. The treaty had
hardly been sworn a month when this perfidy was afoot ;
but the conspirators waited till the Turks had loyally
carried out their part of the bond and had evacuated
the forts of Serbia, before they began to disclose their
plans.

Nothing more derogatory to the chivalry of Europe
and the fame of a great general could be imagined
than the manner in which this treachery was carried
out. As soon as they had obtained the full advan-
tages of the treaty they were about to disown, by the
retirement of the Ottoman garrisons, Hunyady, with
the King of Hungary, and Cardinal Julian, marched
upon the unsuspecting Turks, and with only 20,000

THE EVE OF ST. MATHURIN. 9I

men began to invade the Ottoman dominions. They
took many strong places, and massacred the garri-
sons or threw them over precipices. Reaching the
Black Sea, they turned south, and had advanced
as far as Varna, which surrendered to their siege,
when they learned that Murad had been roused from
his retreat, had resumed the sceptre, and collected an
army of 40,000 veterans, who were then being con-
veyed across the Bosphorus for a ducat a man in
Genoese vessels. By forced marches the Sultan
pressed forward, and soon the news was brought that
he was close at hand.

Hunyady, notwithstanding the smallness of his
force, and the awe which the Sultan's name inspired,
was not dismayed. He was confident of victory, and,
refusing to entrench his camp, declared he would
fight in the open field.

" On the eve of the feast of St. Mathurin," says
Sir Edward Creasy, "the loth of November, 1444,
the two armies stood arrayed for battle. The left
wing of the Christian army consisted chiefly of
Wallachian troops. The best part of the Hungarian
soldiery was in the right wing, where also stood>
the Prankish crusaders under Cardinal Julian. The
king was in the centre, with the royal guard and
the young nobility of his realms. The rearguard of
Polish troops was under the Bishop of Peterwaradin.
Hunyady acted as commander-in-chief of the whole
army. On the Turkish side the two first lines were
composed of cavalry and irregular infantry, the Beg-
lerbeg of Rumelia commanding on the right, and the
Beglerbeg of Anatolia on the left. In the centre,

92 MURAD II. AND HUNYADY.

behind their h'nes, the Sultan took his post, with his
Janissaries and the regular cavalry of his bodyguard.
A copy of the violated treaty was placed on a lance-
head and raised on high among the Turks as a
standard in the battle and a visible appeal to the
God of Truth, who punishes perjury among man-
kind.

"At the very instant when the armies were about to
encounter, an evil omen troubled the Christians. A
strong and sudden blast of wind swept through their
ranks, and blew all their banners to the ground, save
only that of the king. Yet the commencement of
the battle seemed to promise them a complete and
glorious victory. Hunyady placed himself at the
head of the right wing, and charged the Asiatic
troops with such vigour that he broke them and
chased them from the field. On the other wing, the
Wallachians were equally successful against the
cavalry and Azabs of Rumelia. King Vladislaus
advanced boldly with the Christian centre, and Murad,
seeing the rout of his two first lines and the disorder
that was spreading itself in the ranks round him, des-
paired of the fate of the day, and turned his horse for
flight.

" Fortunately for the house of Othman, Karaja, the
Beglerbeg of Anatolia, who had fallen back on the
centre with the remnant of his defeated wing, was
near the Sultan at this critical moment. He seized
his master's bridle, and implored him to fight the
battle out. The commandant of the Janissaries,
indignant at such a breach of etiquette, raised his
sword to smite the unceremonious Beglerbeg, when

JANISSARY IN MUFTI,

'as^^^

BATTLE OF VARl^^ C^)^^ 95

he was himself cut down by a Hungarian sabre.
Murad's presence of mind had failed him only for a
moment, and he now encouraged his Janissaries to
stand firm against the Christian charge. King Vladis-
laus, on the other side, fought gallantly in the thickest
of the strife ; but his horse was killed under him, and
he was then surrounded and overpowered. He wished
to yield himself a prisoner, but the Ottomans, indig-
nant at the breach of the treaty, had sworn to give no
quarter. An old Janissary cut off the king's head,
and placed it, helmeted in silver, on a pike — a fearful
companion to the lance on which the violated treaty
was still reared on high.

" The Hungarian nobles were appalled at the sight,
and their centre fled in utter dismay from the field.
Hunyady, on returning with his victorious right wing
vainly charged the Janissaries, and strove at least to
rescue from them the ghastly trophy of their victory.
At last he fled in despair with the wreck of the troops
that he had personally commanded and with the
Wallachians who collected round him. The Hun-
garian rearguard, abandoned by their commanders,
was attacked by the Turks the next morning, and
massacred almost to a man. Besides the Hungarian
king. Cardinal Julian, the author of the breach of
the treaty and the cause of this calamitous campaign,
perished at Varna beneath the Turkish scimitar,
together with Stephen Bahory, and the bishops of
Eilau and Grosswardein." ^

The result of this decisive victory was the complete
subjugation of Serbia and Bosnia, which were the more

^ Creasy, 69-70.

g6 MURAD II, AND HUNYADY,

willing to re-enter the Moslem dominion as they had
been threatened with persecution and forcible conver-
sion to the Latin faith in the event of the triumph of
Hunyady. Murad again retired to Magnesia; but
his son was still too young to manage the empire,
and a revolt of the Janissaries recalled the father to
his responsibilities. He did not retire a third time,
but reigned for six years in undiminished glory, and
ionce more defeated his old enemy Hoayady at a
'second long contested battle at Kosovo.

Atlasthedied in 1451. "Thus lieth great Amurath,"
writes Knolles, compelled into a sort of enthusiasm as
he contemplates the death of the mighty Sultan, " erst
not inferior unto the greatest monarchs of that age.
• . . Who had fought greater battles ? who had gained
greater victories, or obtained more glorious triumphs
than had Amurath ? who by the spoils of so many
mighty kings and princes, and by the conquest of so
many proud and warlike nations, again restored and
embellished the Turks' kingdom, before by Tamerlane
and the Tartars in a manner clean defaced ? He it
was that burst the heart of the proud Grecians,
establishing his empire at Hadrianople, even in the
centre of their bowels : from whence have proceeded
so many miseries and calamities unto the greatest
part of Christendom as no tongue is able to express.
He it was that subdued unto the Turks so many
great countries and provinces in Asia ; that in plain
field and set battle overthrew many puissant kings
and princes, and brought them under his subjection ;
who, having slain Vladislaus, the King of Polonia and
Hungary, and more than once chased out of the field

ST. JOHN CAPISTRAN, 97

Hunyady that famous and redoubted warrior, had in
his proud and ambitious heart promised unto himself
the conquest of a great part of Christendom. . . .
Where is that victorious hand that swayed so many
sceptres ? where is the majesty of his power and
strength that commanded over so many nations and
kingdoms ? He Heth now dead, a ghastly carcase, a
clod of clay unregarded, his hands closed, his eyes
shut, his feet stretched out, which erst proudly traced
the countries by him subdued and conquered."

But the clod of clay was not quite unregarded :
it was buried with great solemnity at Brusa, where
" he now lieth in a chapel without any roof, his grave
nothing differing from the manner of the common
Turks : which they say he commanded to be done in
his last will, that the mercy and blessing of God
might come unto him with the shining of the sun and
moon and falling of the rain and dew upon his
grave." ^

Hunyady survived the Sultan whose armies he had
so often met. Five years after Murad had gone to
sleep with his fathers at Brusa, his son Mohammed
laid siege to Belgrade — the Gate of Hungary. Then
came the crowning triumph of Hunyady's career.
He stirred up th<3 garrison to a valiant defence, at
first by his single efforts ; but soon with the aid
of a no less heroic spirit. John Capistran came
to his aid, followed by a fiery band of 60,000 Cru-
saders, whom the monk's martial ardour and zeal
for the faith had gathered together to fight for Chris-
tendom in this hour of its sore distress. At the

* Knolles, i. 227.

98 MURAD 11. AND HUNYADY,

moment when the Janissaries had forced their way
into the devoted city, Hunyady and the gallant old
priest fell upon them with the fury of despair ; and so
fierce was the charge that the Turks fell back.^
Then the holy man, leading his Crusaders with a
glorious recklessness straight to the tent of the
$ultan, and followed by Hunyady and the inspirited
garrison, routed the Ottomans so utterly, that they
pven abandoned their camp and artillery to the
Christians and fled for dear life. Mohammed himself
was wounded, and 25,000 Turks lay stretched upon
the field. Twenty days after this, Hunyady, the hero
of many fields, died, and two months later was fol-
lowed to the grave by John Capistran, who had
:^een his threescore years and ten, and had ended
them in a flash of glory. He was canonized at Rome,
and all Christians must agree that the noble old monk
had well earned the veneration of all the churches of
Europe.

* See Vambery, "TheStoryof Hungary," for the Hungarian account
of the siege.

lif

liliillliiilliiilili

VIL

THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

(1451-I48L)

Murad's long reign of thirty years was soiled by
no breath of dishonour ; his character was as noble as
It was commanding. His son and successor Moham-
med II., reigned also thirty years, but his rule was
marked by violence and treachery, and the new
Sultan, though possessed of surpassing ability and
intelligence, had none of the high moral qualities
that distinguished his father. Again and again he
emulated the perfidy of the Hungarians and broke a
solemn pledge ; again and again garrisons confided
in his honour only to meet with ruthless slaughter.
His first act was to murder his baby brother,
whose powers of hostility could hardly yet be
^langerous ; and it is difficult to imagine the state of
mind of a sovereign who, granting the wisdom of
removing possible pretenders to the throne, could
consistently carry out the principle on the person of
an infant at the breast.

Cruel, perfidious, and sensual, the new Sultan was
yet, as is not uncommon with Eastern tyrants, a

102 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

very cultivated man, devoted to the making of verse
and the society of men of learning. Thirty Otto-
man poets received pensions from this Turkish Maece-
nas, and he even sent handsome presents every year to
the Indian Khoja-i-jihan and the Persian Jam!; while
his liberality towards colleges and pious foundations
was so great that he was given the surname " Father
of Good Works" as well as "Sire of Victory." His
bounty and poetic talent were emulated by his great
officers ; and Mahmud Pasha, the conqueror of Negro-
pont, was a founder of colleges and a writer of verse.
It was natural that the source of all this poetic culti-
vation should be praised in song ; and we learn from
panegyrists that the countenance of Mohammed 11. was
decorated with a pair of red and white cheeks, full and
round, a hooked nose, and a resolute mouth — as we see
in the medal (p. 104) ; his moustachios were " like leaves
over two rosebuds, and every hair of his beard was as a
thread of gold ! " ^ Such encomiums sound oddly in
European ears ; but when the poets extolled Moham-
med's military genius they were on firmer ground. As a
general he was superior even to his father ; and his
famous reply to one who asked him on a campaign
what were his plans — " If a hair of my beard knew
them I would pluck it out " — gives the key-note of his
success : absolute secrecy and lightning rapidity ot
action.

Mohammed II. fought many battles and laid siege
to many cities, but the siege which procured him the
name of " the Conqueror " was that of Constantinople
in 1453. It seemed as if the Greek Empire were

' E. J. W. Gil)b, " Ott. Poems," 171-2.

MEDAL OF MOHAMMED II.

MEDAL OF MOHAMMED 11. (rEVERSE).

THE BYZANTINE EMPEkORS. I07

doomed to precipitate its end by signal acts of folly
whenever a new Sultan came to the throne. The
Christians had lost their opportunity when the Turks
lay prostrate under the heel of Timur, and Europe
might have expelled the invaders once and for ever.
Europe preferred to wait till the Ottomans had re-
covered all their pristine vigour, and then, on the
accession of Murad II., Manuel the Emperor, com-
mitted the folly of setting up Mustafa as a claimant
to the throne. But for disturbances in his Asiatic
provinces, Murad would probably have taken Con-
stantinople then and there. As it was the Emperor
received a lesson that should hardly have needed
repetition. Nevertheless, after thirty years, during
which the Turks were continually growing in power
and military prestige, the new Emperor Constantine
Palaeologus, last of his line, impelled by some fatal
frenzy, seized the occasion of Murad's death to emu-
late the insanity of Manuel. He threatened to
establish on the throne of Adrianople a grandson-of
that Prince Suleyman who had once reigned there so
gaily among his wine-cups. Constantine was a brave
man, as we shall see, but he was not a wise one, and
in this instance he had laid too much stress upon the
fact that, when Murad had abdicated, the lad Moham-
med had shown himself unequal to the task of ruling
the wide empire of the Ottomans. Six or seven years,
however, had made a great difference in the spirit and
resolution of the young Sultan, as Constantine was
soon made to understand.

The Turks had longed for the possession of the
imperial city ever since Othman had dreamed that he

Io8 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

grasped it in his hand. " Thunderbolt " BayezTd
• had besieged it ; Musa had pressed it hard ; Murad
II. had patiently planned its conquest There was
^little to be won beside the city itself, for all the
province round about had long been subdued by the
- Ottomans ; but the wealth and beauty, the strength
and position, of the capital itself were quite enough
to make its capture the crowning ambition of the
Turks. Mohammed eagerly seized the opportunity
offered him by the hostility of the unwary emperor,
and immediately began to build a fortress outside the
gates of Constantinople, as the manner of the Turks
was. Mohammed I. had already erected the fortress
known as Anadolu Hisar, "The Castle of Anatolia,"
on the Asiatic shore, to overawe the Emperor Manuel.
Mohammed II. set up the Rumeli Hisar, " Castle of
Rumelia," on the opposite side, as a preparation for the
conquest of Constantinople, and tothcgreat terror of the
emperor. A thousand masons and a thousand labourers
were devoted to the work ; altars and pillars of Chris-
tiaTncTfiiTches 'were used for the walls, which were lliirty
feet thick ; and the castle was finished in three months.
On the chief tower heavy ordnance was placed in
^^ position, which cast stone balls of six hundredweight,
an3"a"garfison_of four hundred men was established
with orders to take toll from all passing vessels. The
CasHc~orRunnielia stands to this da}-, facing its fellow
across the l^osphorus, and lax-pini;- qiiardo\cr thestrait.
The Turkish annalist Sa'd-ud-din describes the
approach of the besieging army in his turgid rhymed
prose, the effect of which is preserved in the following
translation by Mr. Gibb : —

SA'd-UD-DIN, III

" One morn, of fortune bright, when the van of the
King of the skies ^ had appeared with the hosts of
light, from forth the horizon tower, from behind the
orient veil, the castle of night to assail, did the victory-
shaded avant-guard of the high and lofty Lord ^ like-
wise attain to the foot of the city-wall. And behind,
like a boundless sea, like a hurrying stream, the Im-
perial host, the victory-tended army, rolled, and did
the city on the land-side enfold. With such sternness
and such firmness did they that defended burgh, which
of burghs is the mightiest, affray, that the footsteps of
the courage of the burghers went astray, and the wit
and understanding of the wardens passed away."

The^greatest of English historians] has told the
story of the conquest of Constantinople in such a
manner, that subsequent research has succeeded in
modifying almost nothing of his famous narrative.
After careful and detailed preparations, the siege of
the Eastern metropolis began on April 6, 1453. We
quote from Gibbon;^

"Of the triangle which composes the figure of
Constantinople, the two sides along the sea were
made inaccessible to an enemy ; the Propontis by
nature, and the harbour by art. Between the two
waters, the basis of the triangle, the land side was
protected by a double wall and a deep ditch of the
depth of one hundred feet. Against this line of
fortification, which Phranza, an eye-witness, prolongs
to the measure of six miles, the Ottomans directed
their principal attack ; and the emperor, after distri-
buting the service and command of the most perilous

* The sun. = The Sultan. 3 Milman's ed. viii. 159 ff.

112 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

stations, undertook the defence of the external wall.
In the first days of the siege, the Greek soldiers de-
scended into the ditch or sallied into the field; but they
soon discovered that in the proportion of their numbers,
one Christian was of more value than twenty Turks ;
and after these bold preludes, they were prudently
content to maintain the rampart with their missile
weapons. Nor should this prudence be accused of
pusillanimity. The nation was indeed pusillanimous
and base ; but the last Constantine deserves the name
of a hero ; his noble band of volunteers was inspired
with Roman virtue ; and the foreign auxiliaries
supported the honour of the Western chivalry. The
incessant volleys of lances and arrows were accom-
panied with the smoke, the sound, and the fire of their
musketry and cannon. Their small arms discharged
at the same time either five or even ten balls of lead,
of the size of a walnut ; and, according to the closeness
of the ranks and the force of the powder, several
breastplates and bodies were transpierced by the
same shot. But the Turkish approaches were soon
sunk in trenches or covered with ruins. Each day
added to the scene of the Christians ; but their inade-
quate stock of gunpowder was wasted in the operation
of each day. 'Their ordnance was not powerful,
either in size or number ; and if they possessed some
heavy cannon, they feared to plant them on the walls,
lesTth'e~aged stnJcfu re" should be shaken and over-
fhrown by the explosion. The same destructive
secreThad been revealed to the Moslems, by whom it
was employed with the superior energy of zeal, riches,
and despotism. The great cannon of Mahomet — an

BEGINNING OF THE SIEGE. II3

important and visible object in the history of the
times — was flanked by two fellows almost of equal
magnitude ; the long order of the Turkish artillery
was pointed against the walls ; fourteen batteries
thundered at once on the most accessible places.

" The first random shots were productive of more
sound than effect ; and it was by the advice of a
Christian that the engineers were taught to level their
aim against the two opposite sides of the salient
angles of a bastion. However imperfect, the weight
and repetition of the fire made some impression on
the walls ; and the Turks, pushing their approaches to
the edge of the ditch, attempted to fill the enormous
chasm, and to build a road to the assault. Innumer-
able fascines, and hogsheads, and trunks of trees were
heaped on each other ; and such was the impetuosity
of the throng, that the foremost and the weakest were
pushed headlong down the precipice, or instantly buried
under the accumulated mass. To fill the ditch was
the toil of the besiegers ; to clear away the rubbish
was the safety of the besieged ; and, after a long and
bloody conflict, the web that had been woven iA the
day was still unravelled in the night. The next
resource of Mahomet was the practice of min~es :~5ut
tlTe soil was rocky ; in every attempt he was stopped
and undermined by the Christian engineers ; nor had
the art been yet invented of replenishing those sub-
terraneous passages with gunpowder, and blowing
whole towers and cities into the air. A circumstance
that distinguishes the siege of Constantinople is the
reunion of the ancient and modern artillery. The
cannon were intermingled with the mechanical engines

114 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

for casting stones and darts ; the bullet and the
battering-ram were directed against the walls. Nor
had the discovery of gunpowder superseded the use
of the liquid and unextinguishable fire. A wooden
turret of the largest size was advanced on rollers ;
this portable magazine of ammunition and fascines
was protected by a threefold covering of bulls' hides ;
incessant volleys were securely discharged from the
loopholes ; in front, three doors were converted for
the sally and retreat of the soldiers and workmen.
They ascended by a staircase to the upper platform ;
and, as high as the level of that platform, a scaling-
ladder could be raised by pulleys to form a bridge,
and grapple with the adverse rampart. By these
various arts of annoyance, some as new as they were
pernicious to the Greeks, the tower of St. Romanus
was at length overturned ; after a severe struggle, the
Turks were repulsed from the breach, and interrupted
by darkness ; but they trusted that with the return
of light, they should renew the attack with fresh
vigour and decisive success. Of this pause of action,
this interval of hope, each moment was improved by
the activity of the Emperor and Justiniani, whoj>assed
the nii;ht on the spot, and urged the labours, which
involved the safety of the church and city. At the
dawn of day, the impatient Sultan perceived with
astonishment and grief, that his wooden turret liad
been reduced to ashes ; the ditch was cleared and
restored^; and the tower of St. Romanus was again
srfong and entire. He deplored the failure ot his
design, and uttered a profane exclamation, that the
word of the thirty-seven thousand prophets should

. PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE. II7

not have compelled him to believe that such a work
in so short a time could have been accomplished by
the infidels."

At thjs point five Genoese ships forced the Turkish
blockade, and brought provisions and relief to the
garrison.

" The introduction of this supply revived the hopes
of the Greeks, and accused the suspicions of their
Western allies. Amidst the deserts of Anatolia and
tlie rocks of Palestine, the millions of the Crusades
had buried themselves in a voluntary and inevitable
grave ; but the situation of the imperial city was
strong against her enemies and accessible to her
friends ; and a rational and moderate armament of
the maritime states might have saved the relics of the
Roman name, and maintained a Christian fortress in
the heart of the Ottoman Empire. Yet this was the
sole and feeble attempt for the deliverance of Con-j
stantinople. The more distant powers were insensible
of its danger ; and the Ambassador of Hungary, or
at least of Huniades, resided in the Turkish camp,
to remove the fears, and to direct the operations of
the Sultan.

" The reduction of the city appeared to be hopeless,
unless a double attack could be made from the har-
bour as well as from the land ; but the harbour was
inaccessible ; an impenetrable chain was now de-
fended by eight large ships, more than twenty of
a smaller size, with several galleys and sloops ; and
instead of facing this barrier, the Turks might appre-
hend a naval sally, and a second encounter in the
open seas. In this perplexity, the genius of Mahomet

Il8 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE*

conceived and executed a plan of a bold and marvel
lous cast, oT transporting- by land his lighter vessels
and military stores from the Bosphorus into the Higher
parFonKe* harbour. The distance is about ten miles ;
the ground is uneven, and was overspread with thickets,
and as the road must be opened behind the suburb of
Galata, this free passage or total destruction must de-
pend on the option of the Genoese. But these selfish
merchants were ambitious of the favour of being the
last devoured ; and the deficiency of art was supplied
by the strength of the obedient myriads. A level way
was covered with a broad platform of strong and solid
planks ; and to render them more slippery and smooth,
they were anointed with the fat of sheep and oxen.
Fourscore eight galleys and brigantines of fifty and
thirty oars were disembarked on the Bosphorus shore,
arranged successively on rollers, and drawn forwards
by the power of men and pulleys. Two guides or [)ilots
were stationed at the helm and the prow of each vessel;
the sails were unfurled to the winds ; and theTabour
was cheered by song and acclamation. In the course
of a single night, this Turkish fleet painfully climbed
the hill, steered over the plain, and was launched from
the declivity into the shallow waters of the harbour, Tar
above the molestations of the deeper vessels of the
Greeks. The real importance of this operation was
magnified by the consternation and confidence which
it inspired ; but the notorious, unquestionable fact was
displayed before the eyes, and is recorded by the pens,
of two nations. A similar stratagem has been re-
peatedly practised by the ancients. The Ottoman
galleys (1 must again repeat) should be considered as

7 VJS FLEET CARRIED OVER. Iig

large boats, and if we compare the magnitude and the
distance, the obstacles, and the means, the boasted
miracle has perhaps been equalled by the industry of
our own times. As soon as Mahomet had occupied
the upper harbour with a fleet and army, he con-
structed, in the narrowest part, a bridge, or rather
mole, of fifty cubits in breadth, and one hundred in
length ; it was formed of casks and hogsheads, joined
with rafters, linked with iron, and covered with a solid
floor. On this floating battery he planted one of
his largest cannon, whilst the fourscore galleys, with
troops and scaling ladders, approached the most ac-
cessible side, which had formerly been stormed by the
Latin conquerors. The indolence of the Christians
has been accused for not destroying those unfinished
works ; but their fire, by a superior fire, was controlled
and silenced ; nor were they wanting in an nocturnal
attempt to burn the vessels as well as the bridge of the
Sultan. His vigilance prevented their approach, their
foremost galliots were sunk or taken ; forty youths,
the bravest of Italy and Greece, were inhumanly mas-
sacred at his command, nor could the emperor's grief
be assuaged by the just though cruel retaliation of
exposing from the walls the heads of 260 Musul-
mahcaptives. After a siege of forty days the fate
of Constantinople could no longer be averted. The
diminutive garrison was exhausted by a double
attacF: the fortifications, which had stood for ages
against hostile violence, were dismantled on all
sides by the Ottoman cannon. Many breaches were
opened, and near the gate of St. Romanus four towers
had been levelled with the ground. For the payment

120 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

of his feeble ajid mutinous troops, Constantine was
compelled to despoil the churches with the promise of
a fourfold restitution ; and his sacrilege offereTa new
reproach to the enemies of the union. A spirit of
discord impaired the remnant of the Christian strength ;
the Genoese and Venetian auxiliaries asserted the
preeminence of their respective service, and Justiniani
and the great duke, whose ambition was not extin-
guished by the common danger, accused each other of
treachery and cowardice." . . .

Such ''was the state of the Christians, who,
with loud and impotent complaints, deplored the
guilt, or the punishment of their sins. The celestial
image of the Virgin had been exposed in solemn pro-
cession ; but their divine patroness was deaf to their
entreaties. They accused the obstinacy of the em-
peror for refusing a timely surrender ; anticipated the
horrors of their fate, and sighed for the repose and
security of Turkish servitude. The noblest of the
Greeks and the bravest of the allies were summoned
to the palace, to prepare them on the evening of the
28th for the duties and dangers of the general assault.
The last speech of Palaeologus was the funeral o^ration
of the Roman Empire: he promised, he conjured, and
he vainly attempted to infuse the hope which was ex-
tinguished in his own mind. In this world all was
comfortless and gloomy, and neither the gospel nor the
Church have proposed any conspicuous recompense
to the heroes who fall in the service of their country.
But the example of their prince and the confinement
of a siege had armed their warriors with the courage
of despair, and the pathetic scene is described by the

DISTRESS OF THE BESIEGED. 121

feelings of the historian Phranza, who was himself
present at this mournful assembly. They wept, they
embraced each other ; regardless of their families and
fortunes they devoted their lives ; and each commander,
departing to his station, maintained all night a vigilant
and anxious watch on the rampart. The emperor,
and some faithful companions, entered the dome of
St. Sophia, which in a few hours was to be converted
into a mosque, and devoutly received with tears and
prayers the sacrament of the holy communion. He re-
posed some moments in the palace, which resounded
with cries and lamentations, solicited the pardon of all
whom he might have injured, and mounted on horse-
back to visit the guards and explore the motions of the
enemy. The distress and fall of the last Constantine are
more glorious than the long prosperity of the Byzantine
Caesars.

" In the confusion of darkness an assailant may
sometimes succeed, but in this great and general
attack the military judgment and astrological know-
ledge of Mahomet advised him to expect the morning,
the memorable 29th May, in the fourteen hundred
and fifty-third year of the Christian era. The pre-
ceding night had been strenuously employed ; the
troops, the cannon, and the fascines were advanced to
the edge of the ditch, which in many parts presented
a smooth and level passage to the breach, and his
fourscore galleys almost touched with the prows
and their scaling-ladders the less defensible walls of
their harbour. Under pain of death silence was
enjoined, but the physical laws of motion and sound
are not obedient to discipline or fear, each individual

122 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE,

might suppress his voice and measure his footsteps,
but the march and labour of thousands must in-
evitably produce a strange confusion of dissonant
clamours, which reached the ears of the watchmen
of the towers.

"At daybreak, without the customary signal of the
morning gun, the Turks assaulted the city by sea and
land, and the similitude of a twined or twisted thread
has been applied to the closeness and continuity of
their line of attack. The foremost host consisted of
the refuse of the ranks, a voluntary crowd who fought
without order or command, of the feebleness of age
or childhood, of peasants and vagrants, and of all who
had joined the camp in the blind hope of plunder and
martyrdom. The common impulse drove them on-
wards to the walls. The most audacious to climb
were instantly precipitated ; and not a dart, not a
bullet, of the Christians was idly wasted on the accu-
mulated throngs. But their strength and ammunition
were exhausted in this laborious defence. The ditch
was filled with the bodies of the slain ; they supported
the footsteps of their companions, and of this devoted
vanguard the death was more serviceable than the
life. Under their respective pashas and sanjak-begs
the troops of Anatolia and Rumelia were successively
led to the charge : their progress was various and
doubtful, but after a conflict of two hours the Greeks
still maintained and improved their advantages, and
the voice of the emperor was heard encouraging his
soldiers to achieve, by a last effort, the deliverance of
their country. In that fatal moment the Janissaries
arose, fresh, vigorous, and invincible. The Sultan him-

THE ASSAULT, 123

self on horseback, with an iron mace in his hand, was
the spectator or judge of their valour. He was sur-
rounded by 10,000 of his domestic troops, whom he re-
served for the decisive occasions, and the tide of battle
was directed and impelled by his voice and eye. His
numerous ministers of justice were posted behind the
line, to urge, to restrain, and to punish ; and if danger
was in the front, shame and inevitable death were in the
rear of the fugitives. The cries of fear and of pain were
drowned in the martial music of drums, trumpets, and
attaballs, and experience has proved that the mecha-
nical operation of sounds, by quickening the circulation
of the blood and spirits, will act on the human machine
more forcibly than the eloquence of reason and honour.
From the lines, the galleys, and the bridge, the Ottoman
artillery thundered on all sides ; and the camp and city,
the Greeks and the Turks, were involved in a cloud of
smoke, which could only be dispelled by the final de-
liverance or destruction of the Roman Empire. The
signal combats of the heroes of history or fable amuse
our fancy and engage our affections ; the skilful evo-
lutions of war may inform the mind, and improve a
necessary though pernicious science ; but in the uni-
form and odious pictures of a general assault, all is
blood, and horror, and confusion ; nor shall I strive,
at the distance of three centuries and 1000 miles, to
delineate a scene of which there could be no spectators,
and of which the actors themselves were incapable of
forming any just or adequate idea.

"The immediate loss of Constantinople may be
ascribed to the bullet, or arrow, which pierced the
gaunflet'dfjohn Justiniani. The sight of his blood,

124 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

and the exquisite pain, appalled the courage of the
chief, whose arms and counsels were the firmest
ramparts of the city."

Sa'd-ud-dln glories over the overthrow of this brave
captain in his flowery manner : —

" When the Bicorned Lord i of the fourth throne,
having risen from the glooms of the west, had himself
addressed to subdue the castle of the sphere, and had
routed the cohorts of the stars with his sabre and his
spear, did the chief of the losel Franks, who, charged
with the guard of that rampart rent, thought to war
and to fight with the holy ranks, mount on the city-
wall, meaning the holy legions to repel. Thereon did
a youth nimble and brave, letting his ne'er oppressing
glaive hang like the new moon in the sky, climb
spider-wise, by the rope of emprize, the city-rampart
high. Then he raised his remorseless brand, and
made that awful flame the doom of yon infernal's
fearful frame ; thus making the gates of death, before
his hapless face, gape wide, even as the rents in the
city's side ; and putting to flight with only one blow,
the owl, his soul, from its nest of woe ; and cutting
short, with his life, the thread of his thought, and
making his unseemly visage black as his disastrous
lot. Soon as the Prankish crew saw their chief assume
this hue, did the fray tea:* its skirt from their clutch
away ; and each sped along upon flight's highway,
and turned his face to face dismay ; and they sought

'Alexander the Great, so called on account of the two horns on his
coins. Here the Sun is meant, as being tiie Ruler of the Fourth Sphere,
in the old Ptolemaic astronomy.

DEATH OF CONSTANTINE. 125

their ships in woe, running toward the sea, like a river
swift of flow."

" The number of the Ottomans," continues Gibbon,
" was fifty, perhaps a hundred, times superior to that of
the Christians ; the double walls were reduced by the
cannon to a heap of ruins ; in a circuit of several miles
some places must be found more easy of access or more
feebly guarded ; and, if the besiegers could penetrate
in a single point, the whole city was irrecoverably
lost. The first who deserved the Sultan's reward was
Hasan the Janissary, of gigantic stature and strength.
With his scimitar in one hand and his buckler in
the other, he ascended the outward fortifications ; of
the thirty Janissaries who were emulous of his valour
eighteen perished in the bold adventure. Hasan and
his twelve companions had reached the summit ; the
giant was precipitated from the ramparts ; he rose on
one knee, and was again oppressed by a shower of
darts and stones. But his success had proved that
the achievement was possible ; the walls and towers
were instantly covered with a swarm of Turks ; and
the Greeks, now driven from the vantage ground
were overwhelmed by increasing multitudes. Amidst
these multitudes the emperor, who accomplished all
the duties of a general, and a soldier, was long seen,
and finally lost. The nobles who fought round his
person sustained till their last breath the honourable
names of Palaeologus and Cantacuzene ; his mournful
exclamation was heard, ' Cannot there be found a
Christran to cut off my head ? ' and his last fear was
that of falling alive into the hands of the infidels. The
prudent despair of Constantine cast away the purple ;

126 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

amidst the tumult he fell by an unknown hand, and
his body was buried under a monument of the slain.
After his death resistance and order were no more ;
the Greeks fled towards the city, and many were
pressed or stifled in the narrow pass of the Gate of St.
Romanus. The victorious Turks rushed through the
breaches of the inner walls ; and, as they advanced
into the streets, they were soon joined by their
brethren, who had fought and forced the gate of
Phenar on the side of the harbour. In the first heat
of the pursuit about 2,000 Christians were put to the
sword, but avarice soon prevailed over cruelty ; the
victors acknowledged that they should immediately
have given quarter if the valour of the emperor and
his chosen bands had not prepared them for a similar
opposition in every part of the capital. It was thus,
after a siege of fifty-three days, that Constantinople,
which had defied the power of Chosroes, the Chakan,
and the Caliphs, was irretrievably subdued by the
arms of Mahomet II. Her empire had been sub-
verted by the Latins; her reflgion was trampled in
the dust by her Moslem conquerors. . . .

" On the assurance of this public calamity the
houses and convents were instantly deserted, and
the trembling inhabitants flocked together in the
streets like a herd of timid animals, as if accumulated
weakness could be productive of strength, or in the
vain hope that amid the crowd each individual might
be safe and invisible. From every part of the capital
they flowed into the church of St. Sophia ; in the
space of an hour the sanctuary, the choir, the nave,
the upper and lower galleries, were filled with a mul-

A CAPTIVE CITY, I29

titude of fathers and husbands, of women and children,
priests, monks, reh'gious virgins ; the doors were barred
on the inside, and they sought protection in the sacred
dome.

*' While they expected the descent of the tardy angel
the doors were broken with axes, and, as the Turks
encountered no resistance, their bloodless hands were
employed in selecting and securing the multitude of
their prisoners. Youth, beauty, the appearance of
wealth, attracted their choice ; and the right of property
was decided among them by a prior seizure, by per-
sonal strength, and by the authority of command in
the space of an hour. Male captives were bound with
cords, the females with their veils and girdles ; the
senators were linked with their slaves ; the prelates
with the porters of the church ; and young men of a
plebeian class with noble maids, whose faces had been
invisible to the sun and their nearest kindred, and
in this common captivity the ranks of society were
confounded, the ties of nature were cut asunder, and
the inexorable soldier was careless of the father's
groans, the tears of the mother, and the lamentations
of the children. The loudest in their wailings were
the nuns, who were torn from the altar, with naked
bosoms, outstretched hands, and dishevelled hair ;
and we should piously believe that few could be
tempted to prefer the vigils of the harem to those of
the monastery. Of these unfortunate Greeks, of these
domestic animals, whole strings were rudely driven
through the streets ; and, as the conqueror was eager
to return for more prey, their trembling pace was
quickened with menaces and blows. At the same

130 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE,

hour a similar rapine was exercised in all the churches
and monasteries, in all the palaces and habitations of
the capital ; nor could any place, however sacred or
sequestered, protect the persons or the property of the
Greeks. Above 60,000 of this devoted people were
transported from the city to the camp or the fleet;
exchanged or sold, according to the interest or caprice
of their masters, and dispersed in remote servitude
through the provinces of the Ottoman Empire.

" From the first hour of the memorable 29th of May
disorder and rapine prevailed in Constantinople till
the eighth hour of the same day, when the Sultan
himself passed in triumph through the gate of St.
Romanus. He was attended by his vezTrs, pashas,
and guards, each of whom (says a Byzantine historian)
was robust as Hercules, dexterous as Apollo, and
equal in battle to any ten of the race of ordinary
mortals. The conqueror gazed with satisfaction and
wonder on the strange though splendid appearance of
the domes and palaces, so dissimilar from the style
of Ottoman architecture. In the hippodrome, or
At-Meydan, his eyes were attracted by the twisted
column of the three serpents, and, as a trial of his
strength, he shattered with his iron mace or battle-
axe the under jaw of one of those monsters, which
in the eyes of the Turks were the idols or talismans
of the city. At the principal door of St. Sophia he
alighted from his horse and entered the dome ; and
such was his jealous regard for that monument of his
glory that, on observing a zealous Moslem in the act
of breaking the marble pavement, he admonished him
with his scimitar that if the spoil and captives were

ST. SOPHIA : A MOSQUE. I3I

granted to the soldiers, the public and private build-
ings had been reserved for the prince. By his command
the metropolis of the Eastern church was transformed
into a mosque ; the rich and portable instruments of
superstition had been removed ; the crosses were
thrown down low ; and the walls, which were covered
with images and mosaics, were washed and purified,
and restored to a state of naked simplicity. On the
same day, or on the ensuing Friday, the muezzin, or
crier, ascended the most lofty turret, and proclaimed
the azan or public invitation in the name of God and
His Prophet, the Imam preached, and Mahomet II.
performed the 7iamdz thanksgiving on the first altar,
where the Christian mysteries had so lately been cele-
brated before the last of the Caesars. From St. Sophia
he proceeded to the august but desolate mansion of
one hundred successors of the great Constantine, but
which in a few hours had been stripped of the pomp
of royalty. A melancholy reflection on the vicissi-
tudes of human greatness forced itself upon his
mind, and he repeated an elegant distich of Persian
poetry : " — ^

" Now the spider draws the curtain in the Caesars' palace hall,
And the owl proclaims the watch beneath Afrasiab's vaulted dome."

The Turkish historian's 2 account of the fall of Con-
stantinople has been faithfully rendered by Mr. Gibb.
A few extracts will suffice : —

" When by the aidance of the One beyond gainsay

* " The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chap. Ixviii.
' Sa'd-ud-din, "The Capture of Constantinople," Glasgow, 1879
(revised by the translator).

132 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

the strength of the defenders of the burgh was passed
away, and the happy tidings : * Verily, our hosts, the
conquerors are they ! ' ^ were become the stock of the
support of the victory- crowned array, the gladness-
fraught address, * Enter ye in peace ! ' ^ sounded in
the ear of the army of the Fay. With leave from the
threshold of the world-conquering King to plunder
and to spoil, did those eager after booty into the city
sweep, where, laying hands on their families and their
wealth, they made the worthless misbelievers weep.
They acted by the order : ' Slaughter their elders and
capture their youth ; ' and those profitful properties,
which in the days of old, the years that are told, had
been unstrick^n of the hand of profligacy, became the
portion of the champions of the Truth. And that fair
and fruitful site, through the advent, twin of delight,
of the Sovereign, just of spright, became the home of
flashing light, of the stead of the Faith of Right. . . .
" And so that spacious land, that city strong and
grand, from being the seat of hostility, became the
scat of the currency ; and from being the nest of the
owl of shame, became the threshold of glory and of
fame. Through the fair efforts of the Moslem King,
in the place of the ill-toned voice of the graceless
paynim's bell, were heard the Mohammedan screed,
and the five-fold chant of the Ahmed! creed, noble of
rite ; and the harmony fair of the call to prayer on
the ears of all men fell. . . . The temples of the
paynims were made the mosques of the pious ; and
the rays of the radiance of Islam drave the hordes of
gloom forth from that ancient home of the heathen

* Koran, xxxvii. 173. ' Ibid. xv. 46, and 1. ^^.

SKANDERBEG. I33

reprobate, and the gleaming of the dawn of the Faith
did the darkness of the tyranny of the accursed dissi-
pate ; and the mandate, strong as fate, of the Sultan
fortunate, was supreme in the ordinance of that new
estate."

The conquest of Constantinople is the great event
of Mohammed's reign. Yet it was by no means his
sole achievement. He overthrew the Wallachian
tyrant, Ylaj^^he Impaler, and completed the final
annexation of Serbia and Bosnia. The king of Bosnia
and his sons capitulated on promise of their lives being
spared ; but Mohammed had this promise annulled
by the chief Mufti or Mohammedan judge ; and this
spiritual magistrate actually hacked the king down in
the Sultan's presence, with the treaty of capitulation
in his hand.

It was the violation of the Szegedin Treaty re-
versed. Mohammed, however, did not greatly ad-
vance the Ottoman frontier in the north. He laid
siege to Belgrade, but was ignominiously repulsed by
Hunyady and St. John Capistran, as has been already
related, and after Hunyady 's death his son Matthias
Corvinus, at the head of his famous " Black Troop,'
was strong enough to hold the Turks at bay. In
Albania, too, the Sultan met opposition which neither
his father nor he was able to overcome. For in Epirus
had risen a patriot warrior, no less famous and valiant
than Hunyady. This was Skanderbeg, the national
hero of the Epirots. His proper name was George
of Castriota, and he belonged to a princely family
of Epirus. As a boy he had been sent as a hostage
to the court of Murad II., where his high bearing and

134 ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ CONSTANTINOPLE,

courage soon won him the Sultan's favour. He was
converted to Islam, and Murad treated him like his
own son and advanced him to high rank in the army,
where he acquired the name of Skanderbeg (properly
Iskender Beg), or " Prince Alexander."

Skanderbeg, however, though petted by the Sultan,
was not satisfied with being sent in chief command of
an army into Asia, or with holding high posts in the
wars with Hungary : he wished to rule his own country,
and he ungratefully seized an opportunity to desert
from the Sultan's forces, and to obtain by stratagem
possession of Croia, the chief city of Epirus. He privily
seized the Sultan's secretary, made him write in his
master's name an order to the governor of Croia to
surrender the place, and then ran the luckless scribe
through the body. The governor suspected nothing
and surrendered the keys, and Skanderbeg, once in
command of the town, massacred the Turks, renounced
Mohammedanism, and called the Epirots to arms.
During the rest of the reign of Murad, and most of
his successor's, Skanderbeg held the mountains of
Epirus against all comers. Murad sent three Turkish
armies against him, and all three were disgracefully
routed. The old Sultan himself had experienced the
like misfortune when his mortal illness seized him at
Adrianople. Mohammed was no more successful than
his father ; but personal admiration and perhaps old
ties of friendship may have made the attacks of both
Sultans somewhat half-hearted. It is certain that they
would willingly have left Skanderbeg alone in consider-
ation of a payment of tribute. The Epirot, however,
declined to pay tribute ; on the contrary, he exacted a

WAR WITH VENICE. I35

handsome revenue out of the terrified towns of Mace-
donia and Thessaly. Eventually Mohammed, after
fruitless endeavours to oust the rebel from the fast-
nesses he knew so well how to defend, was forced to
make a treaty by which he acknowledged Skanderbeg
as prince of Epirus and Albania. This was in 1461 ;
and six years later the gallant condottiere died, worA
out with a quarter of a century of perpetual warfare
He died game ; for his last act was to defeat an army
which Mohammed had sent out against him with
positive instructions to conquer the land. After
Skanderbeg's death, the Sultan easily subdued
Albania, though the lawless character of the people
has made it a difficult country to rule to this present
day.

The work of Skanderbeg was important, not so much
in its local influence, as in the bulwark it set up against
Ottoman advance in the direction of Italy. Just as
Hunyady and St. John Capistran set a northern
limit to the Turks for a while, so Skanderbeg fixed
their boundary on the west. No sooner was the
barrier removed than we find them contemplating the
invasion of Venice. The maritime Republic had long
cringed before the Turkish Sultan, and had signed a
humble peace in 1454 ; but the successes of Skanderbeg
had roused its spirit, and after his death it was
punished for its temerity. After six years' war the
Ottoman troops in 1477 pushed so far west that they
crossed the Tagliomento and reached the banks of the
Piave. The smoking ruins that marked their progress
could be seen from the palaces of the Queen of the
Adriatic. Venice hastily concluded a treaty offensive

136 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

and defensive with Mohammed in 1479, but he had
already taken from her the island of Euboea or Negro-
pont, the governor of which surrendered the citadel
after a long and desperate siege by Mahmud Pasha in
1470, on condition of safety to the garrison ; whereupon
Mohammed, after his treacherous manner,had marched
the garrison out and put them to death, sawed the
governor in two, and murdered his daughter because
she refused dishonour. Greece and the islands of the
Aegean were now mainly in the power of the Turks ;
on the Black Sea, Sinope and Trebizond had been
Iconquered, and David Comnenus, who reigned in
the latter city, had been treacherously executed ;

iand in 1475 the Crimea was taken from the descend-
ants of Chingiz Khan, by Mohammed's admiral,
the Grand VezTr Gedik Ahmed. Rhodes was besieged
in 1480, but the Knights were better prepared than
they had been when Timur expelled them from
Smyrna. After a tedious siege the Turks made
their great assault ; but, either discouraged by the
obstinacy of the Knights, or irritated by the pro-
clamation that the spoils of the city were to be
reserved for the Sultan himself, the soldiery wavered,
and the Knights, driving them furiously back, forced
Ithem to raise the siege. Nevertheless, the command
lof the seas rested to a large extent with the Turks.
They had most of the Levantine islands ; their
castles commanded the Hellespont and the Bos-
phorus, so that Loredano vainly sought to force a
passage. The Sea of Marmora was closed to European
vessels, and the Genoese ports in the Crimea and Sea
of Azov were of little value now that their communi-

OTRANTO. 139

cations were severed ; and, as Admiral Jurien de la
Graviere observes,^ it was hardly necessary for Mo-
hammed to send a fleet of three hundred sail to eject
them in 1475. With such advantages, the Turks were
able to contest the seas with the galleys of Venice and
Rhodes.

The day that saw the failure of the storming of
Rhodes was rnarked by a notable event further west.
Gedik Ahmed, on the 28th of July, 1480, landed on
the southern coast of Italy and stormed the castle of
Otranto, near Brindisi, a fortnight later. Most of the
inhabitants were massacred, and the Ottoman foot was
planted in the Western Empire. Next year Moham-
med was preparing an immense expedition, whither
destined no man knew but he, when he suddenly died.
It is hard to say what might have happened had he
lived another year. The capture of Otranto might
have been followed by the sack of Rome. Sed Dis
aliter visum. The death of the Conqueror saved
Europe.

* " Doria et Barberousse," 32.

VIII.

PRINCE JEM.

(1481-1512.)

The long reign of BayezTd II. (1481-1512) which
surpassed that of his father and grandfather, so that
the three together nearly completed a century, was
marked by a general lethargy and incapacity on the
part of the Turkish Government. Bayezld himself
possessed none of the energy and ambition of
Mohammed, and was not only unequal to the task
of carrying on his father's plans, but had enough
to do to keep what he had inherited. His authority
was weakened by the attacks of the Mamluks of
Egypt, who for fiv^e years waged successful war upon
the Turks in Asia ; and by insurrections in Karaman
and other parts, where the Shia doctrines of the new
Sufi dynasty of Persia found adherents in the dis-
contented descendants of the Seljuk princes. BayezTd
made no attempt to extend his boundary in the
direction of Hungary ; and though Lepanto and
Modon, in Greece, were added (in 1500) to the
Turkish Empire, and two castles were built to com-
mand the Gulf of Patras, the bold adventure that had
planted the Turkish flag on Italian soil was rendered

BAYEZID II, 141

nugatory by the recall of Gedik Ahmed and the loss of
Otranto. The Sultan's later years were disturbed by
the rivalries and insubordination of his three sons, of
whom the most unscrupulous managed to induce his
incompetent old father to abdicate in his favour, and
the victorious Sellm accordingly ascended the throne I
in 1 5 12. Family dissensions were indeed the leading
incidents of Bayezld's reign, and for many years he
was kept in a state of anxious uncertainty by the
ingenious intrigues of the Christian Powers concern-
ing the custody of his brother, the unfortunate Prince
Jem.

The adventures of Prince Jem (the name is short
for Jemshid, but in Europe it has been written Zizim)
cast a very unpleasant light upon the honour of the
Christians of his time, and especially upon the
Knights of Rhodes. Of the two sons of Mohammed
II. Jem was undoubtedly the one who was by nature
fitted to be his successor. Instead of the melancholy
dreamy mystic who was incapable of walking in the
proud steps of his father, this other son had all
Mohammed's energy and vigour, his grace and cul-
ture, his ambition and imperious pride ; and but
for the accident that Bayezld was the first to reach
Constantinople after the death of the Conqueror, and ;
was thus able to secure the support of the Janissaries \
with the customary largesse, it might have been that \
in the hands of Jem the Ottoman Empire would have
continued on its triumphant course and pushed its
conquests in Europe in the same spirit that had
animated his ancestors. Jem, however, was not the
first to hear of his father's death, and a year's warfare

142 PRINCE JEM.

against his brother ended in his own defeat. The
younger prince then sought refuge with the Knights
of Rhodes, who promised to receive him hospitably
and to find him a way to Europe, where he intended
to renew his opposition to his brother's authority.

D'Aubusson, the Grand Master of Rhodes, however,
was too astute a diplomatist to sacrifice the solid
gains that he perceived would accrue to his Order
for the sake of a few paltry twinges of conscience ;
and he had no sooner made sure of Prince Jem's
person, and induced him to sign a treaty, by which,
in the event of his coming to the throne, the Order
was to reap many sterling advantages, than he ingen-
iously opened negotiations with Sultan BayezTd, with
a view to ascertain how much gold- that sovereign was
'.willing to pay for the safe custody of his refractory
brother. It is only fair to say that Bayezld, who had
no particle of cruelty in his nature, did all he could
to come to terms with Jem. He had indeed been
stern and uncompromising while his brother was in
open hostility, and to the entreaty of their grand-
aunt that he would be gentle and accommodating
to his own flesh and blood, he had replied that
" there is no kinship among princes ; " yet had he
offered to restore to his brother the profits, though
not the power, of the province of Karaman, whi^h Jem
had formerly governed, on condition that he should
retire and live peaceably at Jerusalem. Jem, hcwcver,
would have nothing less than independent authority^
and this the Sultan could not be expected to allow.
" Empire," said he, " is a bride whose favours r.annot
be shared." Ail negotiation and compromise having

BATTLE WITH PRINCE JEM.

THE GRAND MASTER OF RHODES, 145

proved ineffectual, he listened to the proposals of the
crafty Grand Master, and finally agreed to pay him
45,000 ducats a year, so long as he kept Jem under
his surveillance.

The Knights of St John possessed many com-
manderies, and the one they now selected for Jem's
entertainment was at Nice, in the south of France.
In 1482 he arrived there, wholly unconscious of
the plots that were being woven about him. Here, |
being something of a poet, he wrote his famous ode
beginning —

*' Quaff, O Jem, thy Jemshid beaker ; lo, the land of Frankistan !
This is fate j and what is written on his brow shall 'tide to man." *

He desired to start at once for Hungary, whence
he proposed to raise his adherents in Turkey. But/
he was gently restrained from his purpose. On one
pretext or another the knights contrived to keep their
prisoner at Nice for several months, and then trans-
ferred him to Rousillon, thence to Puy, and next to
Sassenage, where the monotonies of captivity were
relieved by the delights of love, which he shared with
the daughter of the commandant, the beautiful Phili-
pine Helene, his lawful spouse being fortunately away
in Egypt. The last device of the knights, when such
friendships made captivity precarious, was to build a
lofty tower for their valuable prey, of which the seven

* E. J. W. Gibb, " Ottoman Poems," 175 (revised). The reader may
be interested to see the original —

** Jam-i-Jem nush eyle, ey Jem, bu Firankistan dir ;
Her kulun bashina yazilan gelir, devran dir."

146 PRINCE JEM,

Stories were entirely arranged with the object of the
prisoner's safe custody.

Meanwhile, Grand Master D'Aubusson was driving
a handsome trade in his capacity of jailor. All
the potentates of Europe were anxious to obtain
possession of the claimant to the Ottoman throne,
and were ready to pay large sums in hard cash to
enjoy the privilege of using this specially dangerous
instrument against the Sultan's peace. D'Aubusson
was not averse to taking the money, but he did not
wish to give up his captive ; and his knightly honour
felt no smirch in taking 20,000 ducats from Jem's
desolate wife (who probably had not heard of the fair
Helene) as the price of her husband's release, while
he held him all the tighter. Of such chivalrous
stuff were made the famous knights of Rhodes :
and of such men as D'Aubusson the Church made
cardinals !

A new influence now appeared upon the scene of
Jem's captivity. Charles VIII. of France considered
that the Grand Master had made enough profit out
of the unlucky prince, and the king resolved to work
the oracle himself His plan was to restore Jem to a
nominal sultanate by the aid of Matthias Corvinus^
Ferdinand of Naples, and the Pope. He took Jem
out of the hands of the knights and transferred
him to the custody of Innocent VIII., who kindly
i consented to take care of the prince for the sum
of 40,000 ducats a year, to be paid by his grateful
brother at Constantinople. Bayezld was greatly im-
pressed by the Pope's friendly feeling, and received
his ambassador with enthusiasm. All the time these

^^^^i

mm^mmmm

^-^

INNOCENT VIII, 149

negotiations were proceeding the good Pope, like
many worthy knights and holy prelates before, had
condoled with Prince Jem on his unhappy fate, and
had drawn him bright pictures of the future, when he
should stand side by side with Matthias Corvinus,
the gallant king of Hungary, in the great campaign
that was to be made against the Turks in order to
set the injured prince upon his father's throne at
Constantinople. Nothing could be more consolatory
than the promises and hopes of all the kindly Chris-
tian kings and princes who visited Jem in his thirteen
long years of captivity ; but none of them reaped,
though all sought, so rich a reward as the large-
minded and large-pocketed Grand Master of Rhodes
and the solicitous and amiable Pope. Unfortunately
Innocent did not live long enough to turn Jem to all
the account he had anticipated ; but his successor,
Alexander Borgia, was not the man to be cheated
out of his bargain by such an accident as death. He
began negotiations at Constantinople, whither he
sent a special ambassador, to extract a capital sum
in return for Prince Jem's proposed removal to a
world more congenial to his many virtues ; he en-
deavoured, in short, to get the lump sum of 300,000
ducats for the assassination of his prisoner. Just at
this point of the negotiations, Charles, the king of
France, invaded Italy, entered Rome, and, among
other terms, demanded the cession of Jem, who(
was accordingly, with a very wry face, given up to
him. But poor Jem was not destined much longer
to be tossed about from jailor to jailor. The
Pope, either in pursuance of an agreement with

150 PRINCE JEM.

BayezTd, or more probably because a Borgia could
not help it, had the unfortunate Turk poisoned be-
fore he left the country. How it was done is not
certain — the scratch of a poisoned razor, or a harm-
less white powder introduced into his sherbet, are
two of the theories ; but some there are who say
that he died of mere misery and weariness of life —
such weariness as he expresses in his melancholy
verse : —

*' Lo ! there the torrent, dashing 'gainst the rocks, cloth wildly roll ;
See how all nature rueth on my worn and wearied soul !
Through bitterness of grief and woe the morn hath rent its robe ;
liehold, in dawning's stead, the sky weeps blood beyond control !
Tears shedding, o'er the mountain tops the clouds of heaven pass ;
List, deep the bursting thunder sobs and moans through stress of
dole ! " »

The balance of probability, however, inclines towards
poison, and Alexander Borgia has so many crimes
on the place where his conscience should have been,
that it can do him no harm to bear one murder more.
The curious conclusion one draws from the whole
melancholy tale is that there was not apparently a
single honest prince in Christendom to take compas-
sion upon the captive ; nor one to reprobate the un-
generous and venal intrigues of the Grand Master,
the Pope, and Charles VIII. Each contended with
the other for the prize of perfidy and shame. BayezTd
may be excused for his desire to see his brother in
safe keeping ; but what can be said for the head of
the Christian Church, and the leader of an Order of
! religious knights, who eagerly betrayed a helpless

1 » E. J. W. Gibb, " Ott. Poems," 20 (revised).

CHRISTIAN CHIVALRY?

151

refugee for the sake of the infidel's gold ? When we
come to read of the heroism of the Knights of Rhodes
and Malta, it may be well to recall the history of
Prince Jem, and to weigh well the chivalry that
could fatten upon such treason.

IX.

THE CONQUEST OF EGYPT.

(1 5 1 2-1 520.}

When Sellm I. had deposed his father BayezTd,
who did not long survive his humiliation, he re-
solved that the trouble and anxiety of another
Prince Jem should not disturb his own reign. His
father had had eight sons, of whom two, besides
himself, were still alive, and, including grandsons,
there were no less than eleven dangerous persons to
be made away with. " Sellm the Grim," as the Turks
still call him, did not shrink from the task ; he
delighted in blood, whether it were that of animals
slain in the chase, to which he was passionately
addicted, or that of his enemies on the battle-field ;
and the bloodless slaughter by the bow-string,
which is the privilege of the progeny of Othman,
was hardly sufficiently exciting for this sanguinary
tyrant, whose fierce blazing eyes and choleric com-
plexion well accorded with his violent nature. He
watched from an adjoining room the ghastly scene,
when the mutes strangled his five orphan nephews,
and the resolute resistance of the eldest and the
piteous entreaties of the little ones could not move

SELIM THE GRIM. I53

him from his cruel purpose. The rest, save two, were
soon captured and strangled. His brother, Prince
Korkud, begged for an hour's grace, and spent it in
composing a reproachful poem addressed to Sellm,
which the Sultan afterwards perused with tears. It
was no doubt the elegance of the verse that moved
him, rather than the fate of the poet ; for Sellm, like
so many of his race, was devoted to letters and poetry.
He wrote a volume of Persian odes, liberally rewarded
men of learning, and when he went on a campaign
liked to take with him historians and bards, who
should record the events of the war and cheer its
progress by reciting the great deeds of yore. The
combination of a high degree of intellectual culture
with cruel and savage barbarity is one of the com-
monplaces of history.

Sellm had no intention of pursuing the inactive
policy of his father ; but he turned his eyes in a
different direction from his remoter predecessors.
Murad, BayezTd, and Mohammed had pushed the
frontier to the north and the west ; Sellm would
conquer the east and the south. He received cour-
teously the ambassadors who came to offer him
congratulations on the part of the Doge of Venice,
the King of Hungary, the Czar of Russia, and the
Mamluk Sultan of Egypt. He had no intention for
the present of quarrelling with any of them. His
care was first directed to the state of affairs on his
eastern frontier, where there was imminent danger
of a serious invasion. The Sefevi Shah Ismail,
founder of the Sufi line, had triumphed over the
various local dynasties that had partitioned the pro-

154 THE CONQUEST OF EGYPT,

vinces of Persia among themselves, ever since the
break up of the Mongol kingdom.

Hulagu, the conqueror of Baghdad, and grandson of
Chingiz Khan, had in the thirteenth century exter-
minated the Abbaside Khali fate in all but name, and
substituted his own sway for that of the numerous
petty dynasties who at that time held rule in Persia
and the country round about. His dynasty, called
the Ilkhans, lasted about one hundred and fifty years,
and their dominions then became a prey to the feuds
between various Tartar and Kurdish chiefs, of whom
the Jelayirs and the Turkomans of the White and of
the Black Sheep were the most prominent. Tlmijr had
overrun their territory at the beginning of the fifteenth
century; but the "noble Tartarian's" descendants
proved unable to retain his vast dominion, and the
Kurds and Turkomans and other tribal chiefs soon
re-established their authority in the lands bordering
the Euphrates. Shah Ismail, the Sefcvi, now appeared
upon the scene, and after a long and obstinate
struggle, succeeded in winning the Persian provinces
from the descendants of Timur and in subduing the
lesser houses of Turkomans and Kurds.

The Persian dominions now marched with those of
the Ottoman, and friction was the more certain and
irritating because the two parties belonged to two
hostile sects of Islam. The Turks were orthodox
Snnfiis, or believers in the conventional doctrine of
pe Koran and in the Traditions handed down by the
Respectable divines of the orthodox school. The
Persians, on the other hand, were Shias, or believers
n a somewhat mystical variety of Islam, which per-

SUNNIS AND SHI AS. I55

sentoJ many and important differences from the
orthodox teaching, and offered not a few temptations
to political ni^ well as religious revolution. Wherever
Shii'sm exists, there is always a chance of insurrection
against the powers that be. The pernicious doctrine
had penetrated the Ottoman dominions in Asia. A
carefully organised system of detectives, whom Selim
distributed throughout his Asiatic provinces revealed
the fact that the number of the heretical sect reached
the alarming total of seventy thousand. Sellm
determined to crush the heresy before it came to
even more abundant fruit. He secretly massed his
troops at spots where the heretics chiefly congre-
gated, and at a given signal, forty thousand ot
them were massacred, or imprisoned. Christian
ambassadors at the Porte, not only expressed no
horror at the work, but endorsed the title of " The
Just," by which Sellm was now styled in compliment
o his severe vindication of orthodoxy.^ According
to them, the massacre of heretics was always a proof
pf justice.

Having got rid of the enemy within his gates, Sellm
rfow proceeded to attack the head of the Shias, the
great Shah Ismail himself In such slight engage-
ments as had already occurred, Ismail had gained a
trifling advantage. He had also committed the un-
pardonable sin of harbouring three of Sellm's nephews,
who had been lucky enough to escape from the general
slaughter of his kindred by which his accession had
been celebrated. The Sultan sent various epistles to
the Shah, couched in that bombastic language to

* Von Hammer, i. 710.

156 THE CONQUEST OF EGYPT.

which Oriental potentates are addicted, and meanwhile
collected a great army, with which he prepared to
invade the territories of his rival. Ismail does not
appear to have been adequately impressed either by
the correspondence or the preparations for the attack.
To Sellm's vainglorious letters, he replied that he
had given him no provocation, and desired not war,
and that he could only imagine that the epistles were
the result of an extra dose of opium taken by one of
the Sultan's secretaries, to whom he therefore presented
a box of the favourite drug. As Selim particularly
prided himself on his literary skill, and with reason,
this reply only increased his rage, and the circumstance
that he was himself rather too fond of opium did not
make the gift of the box any the more palatable. The
sarcasm went home, and Sellm prepared for mortal
conflict.

It was no light task that he was undertaking.
Ismail, when the contest became inevitable, had laid
waste the whole country that intervened between his
capital, TebrTz, and the Ottoman headquarters ; and
the Turks would be compelled to traverse a desert
land. So serious was the campaign felt to be, that
when the Sultan informed his council of Vezirs what
his intentions were, they all kept silence, and on his
repeating his purpose, again not one made answer,
till the very sentry who guarded the door, catching
the Sultan's enthusiasm, fell at his feet and cried that
he would lay down his life for him against the Persians.
That Janissary was made a Bey on the spot. Despite
the warnings of his ministers, Sellm set forth with an
army estimated at over 140,000 men, 80,000 of which

BATTLE OF CHALDIRAN. I57

were cavalry, and after making every possible prepara-
tion for transport and commissariat, entered upon the
long and arduous marches which the Persians had
rendered doubly difficult by their previous forays
The soldiers, afflicted with hunger and thirst, began
to murmur ; but Ssllm harangued them, and bade such
as were cowards to step out of the ranks and go home,
for he would only lead brave men against the heretics.
Then he gave the order to march, and not a man
dared leave the ranks. At last, after weary and
painful marching, the Ottomans forced Ismail to give
battle at Chaldiran. The Persians had only cavalry,
and no cannon ; but they were fresh, while the Turks
were exhausted with their long tramp across the
desert : the Shah had no fears for the upshot. The
Janissaries, however, had not forgotten how to fight,
and Selim and his chief commander, Sinan Pasha,
knew how to marshal the battle. The Persians
charged gallantly, but Sinan let his Azabs or light
infantry fall back between his artillery, and when the
Persians rashly followed the retreating squadrons, the
guns opened upon them so deadly a fire that the day
was practically won. It had been fatal to many on both
sides, the Turks lost fourteen Sanjak-Begs, and the
Persians an equal number of Khans of high rank. The
Shah himself was wounded and thrown from his horse,
and was only saved from capture by the devotion of
one of his soldiers, who gallantly personated his .
master, and took his fate. The Sultan entered Tebriz
in triumph, massacred all his prisoners, except the j
women and children, and sent back to Constantinople
a trophy in the shape of a thousand of the skilful

158 THE CONQUEST OF EGYPT,

workmen for which Tebriz had long been famous,
and who had supplied architects, carvers, and workers
in metal and on the loom, to Cairo, Damascus, and
Venice, and all places where fine workmanship was
prized. The artisans were estabHshed at Constanti-
nople, where they continued to ply their trades with
success in embellishing the Turkish capital.

The victory of Chaldiran (15 14) might have been
follow.^d by the conquest of Persia, but the privations
which the soldiery had undergone had rendered them
unmanageable, and SelTm was forced to content him-
self with the annexation of the important provinces
of Kurdistan and Diyarbekr, which are still part of the
Turkish Empire ; and then turned homewards, to
prosecute other schemes of conquest. No peace,
however, was concluded between him and the Shah,
and a frontier war continued to be waged for many
years.

During the campaign against Persia, the Turks had
been kept in anxiety by the presence on their flanks
of the forces of the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt and
Syria, whose frontiers now marched with the territory
of the Ottomans, and who were regarding the opera-
tions of Sellm in Diyarbekr with no little apprehen-
sion. They had indeed waged successful warfare with
Bayezld II., but they recognized a very different
leader in SelTm, and began to tremble for their old
supremacy. The Mamluk Sultans had long borne a
very high renown as soldiers and rulers. Mamluk
means " owned," " a slave," and the origin of this cele-
brated dynasty, or rather the two dynasties into which
they were divided, is found in the bodyguard of pur-

THE MAMLUK SULTANS. I59

chased white slaves with whom the Ayyubl Sultan
Es-Salih, grandnephew of Saladin, surrounded his
state in the middle of the thirteenth century. Es-Salih
found such protection necessary, not only against the
Franks who were threatening his kingdom in one of
their crusading manias, but also against his own kins-
men, who were at once too numerous and too powerful
for his peace of mind. Like most great conquerors,
Saladin had left his empire to be fought for by a
numerous progeny and kindred, and the result was
that individual weakness which seeks to support itself
on mercenary arms, and is eventually compelled to
yield to the very power which it has called in to its
aid.

The MamlQks of Es-Salih were a fine body of
Turkish soldiers, recruited by capture or purchase
from various parts of the Mohammedan territories,
and reinforced from the same regions. They were
loyal servants while their master lived ; their brilliant-
charge under Beybars put the French to route at
Mansura, and brought about the surrender of the king,
St Louis himself In the troubles that succeeded upon
the death of Es-Salih, when the intrigues of the beauti-
ful Queen with the picturesque name of Shejer-ed-
durr, or " Tree of Pearls," roused hot blood among
the grandees, the dynasty of Saladin came to an end,
and for two centuries and a half the throne of Egypt
and Syria was occupied by a series of Mamliik chiefs.
These rulers, who often bore no relationship to each
other, but succeeded to power by force of arms and
factious influence, were among the best that Egypt
ever had. They valiantly repulsed the Mongols

l6o THE CONQUEST OF EGYPT.

and Tartars in many a sanguinary field : they drove
the Christians from the Holy Land, and they made
Cairo and Damascus, their two capitals, homes of
civilization, art, and literature. These apparently
rude soldiers, " merciless to their enemies, tyrannous
to their subjects, yet delighted in the delicate refine-
ments which art could afford them in their home life,
were lavish in the endowment of pious foundations,
magnificent in their mosques and palaces, and fas-
tidious in the smallest details of dress and furniture :
the noblest promoters of art and literature and of
public works that Egypt has known since the time of
Alexander the Great." '

At the time at which we have arrived, the Mamluks
had lost little, if anything, of their character as patrons
of art and learning. The great Sultan Kait Bey was
but lately dead, who had covered Cairo with his stately
mosques and other buildings, and whose encourage-
ment of men of letters was not less marked. The
Sultan who surveyed Sellm's progress in Persia was
an old man, Kansu El-Ghilrl, the same whose two
mosques in the principal street of Cairo are familiar
sights to every traveller in Egypt. He posted an
army of observation on his Syrian frontier, to watch
the course of the Ottoman advance. Sellm took this
as a menace, and consulted his VczTrs as to what was
to be done. His secretary, Mohammed, urged him to
make war upon the Mamluks, and the Sultan was so
delighted with this spirited proposal, that he made the
secretary Grand Vezir on the spot, though it was found
necessary to administer the bastinado to the excellent

* S. Lane -Poole, "The Art of the Saracens in Egypt," 12-40.

DEFEAT OF THE MAMLUKS, l6l

man before he consented to accept so dangerous a
dignity. Sellm was famous for executing his Vezirs,
and it was a common form of cursing at the time to
say, " Mayest thou be SelTm's Vezir," as an equivalent
for "Strike you dead ! " Acting upon the advice of
the new VezIr, Sellm set out in 15 16 for Syria, and
meeting the Mamluk army on the field of Marj Dabik
near Aleppo, administered a terrible defeat, in which
the aged Sultan El-Ghurl was trampled to death.

He found a brave successor in TQman Bey, but in
the interval the Turks had mastered Syria, and were
advancing to Gaza. Here the Mamluks made another
stand, but the generalship of Sinan Pasha was not to
be resisted any more than the preponderance of his
forces. The final battle was fought at Reydaniya, in
the neighbourhood of Cairo, in January, 15 17. The
tremendous charge of the Mamluks, which had been
their strong point for three centuries, almost secured
the person of Sellm, who was saved only by their mis-
taking Sinan Pasha for the Sultan. The great general
was speared, many pashas and nobles were cut down,
and the Mamluks rode out of the mei^e almost
unhurt ; but they had not achieved their object, and
" the efforts of this splendid cavalry were as vain
against the batteries of SelTm's artillery as were in
after times the charges of their successors against the
rolling fire of Napoleon's squares." ^

Twenty-five thousand Mamluks lay stark upon the
field, and the enemy occupied Cairo. There a succes-
sion of street fights took place ; the houses were
defended by the Mamluks, and only step by step did

* Sir E. Creasy, 143.

1 62 THE CONQUEST OF EGYPT.

the Turks reach the citadel. But treason was at work
among the followers of Tuman Bey, and a traitor
advised Sellm to offer an amnesty to all who would
lay down their arms. Thereupon a truce was made,
which Sellm celebrated by beheading the eight
hundred Mamluks who had trusted to his good
faith, and by delivering up the unfortunate city to
massacre. One of the bravest of the chiefs, whose
name was Kurt Bey, or " Sir Wolf," was induced to
come before the Sultan with promises of safe con-
duct, and after a colloquy, in which the Bey made
spirited answer alike to the Sellm's promises and
threats, his head was cut off before the enraged
tyrant's eyes. Tuman Bey, after some further resis-
tance, was captured and executed, and Egypt became
a Turkish province. Twenty-four Mamluk Beys were
constituted a sort of commission for the government
of the country, and the traitor Kheyr Bey was ap-
pointed Pasha of Egypt.

Sultan Sellm returned to Constantinople in 1518, a
much more dignified personage than he had set out.
By the conquest of the Mamluk kingdom he had also
succeeded to their authority over the sacred cities of
Arabia, Mekka and Medina, and in recognition of this
position, as well as of his undoubted supremacy among
Mohammedan monarchs, he received from the last
Abbaside Khalif, who kept a shadowy court at Cairo,
the inheritance of the great Pontiffs of Baghdad.
T\\Q faineant Khalif was induced to make over to the
real sovereign the spiritual authority which he still
affected to exercise, and with it the symbols of his
office, the standard and cloak of the Prophet Mo-

SEUM THE KHALIF. 163

hammed. Selim now became not only the visible
chief of the Mohammedan State throughout the wide
dominions subdued to his sway, but also the revered
head of the religion of Islam, wher^oever it was
practised in. its orthodox form. The heretical Shias
of Persia might reject his claim, but in India, in all
parts of Asia and Africa, where the traditional Khali-
fate was recognized, the Ottoman Sultan henceforth
was the supreme head of the church, the successor
to the spiritual prestige of the long line of the Khalifs.
How far this new title commands the homage of
the orthodox Moslem world is a matter of dispute ;
but there can be no doubt that it has always added,
and still adds, a real and important authority to the
acts and proclamations of the Ottoman Sultan.

The last year of his life was spent by Sellm in
immense preparations, both naval and military. His
object was concealed, but Rhodes was believed to be
his intended victim. He superintended every detail
of the arming and building of his navy with unceasing
diligence, until his health began to give way, and he
felt the approach of the fatal disorder which carried
him off on the 22nd of September, 1520. He looked
sadly upon his great muniments of war, and said,
" For me there is no journey, save that to the Here-
after."

Selim the Grim was fifty-four years old when he died,
and he had reigned less than nine years ; yet in that short
space he had nearly doubled the extent of his empire.
Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and large tracts in the Euphrates
valley were the fruits of his campaigns. On land the
Turks had shown themselves invincible. Sehm was

164 THE CONQUEST OF EGYPT,

preparing to prove them equally so on sea, when his
career was arrested. Death, however, did not check
the preparations he had made, nor diminish the stores
of war materials he had collected. Like another
Philip he had made ready the way for a second
Alexander, and in his son Suleyman the Magnificent
such an imperial conqueror was now found.

SULEYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT.

(15 20- 1 566.)

The long reign of Suleyman the Magnificent, who
ascended the throne at the age of twenty-six, in 1520,
and ruled in unequalled glory for nearly half a century,
is fraught with significance to Europe, and teems with
so many events of the first importance that it deserves
a volume to itself. We can only give a bare outline
of the great wars and sieges that signalized this re-
markable epoch : such scenes as the terrible battle of
Mohacs, the conquest of Rhodes, the siege of Vienna,
and of Szigeth, and the repulse at Malta, might well
engage each a chapter to itself; but here they must
be depicted in outline, and the best will have been
attained if the student is incited to read the fuller
records which have been written of them in larger
works.

Suleyman lived at a wonderful epoch. All Europe,
as well as the East, seemed to have conspired together
to produce its greatest rulers in the sixteenth century,
and to make its most astonishing advances in all fields
of civilization. The age which boasted of Charles V.,
the equal of Charlemagne in empire ; of Francis I. of

1 66 SU LEY MAN THE MAGNIFICENT.

France; of our notable Henry VIII., and Elizabeth,
queen of queens ; of Pope Leo X. ; of Vasili Ivanovich,
the founder of the Russian power ; of Sigismund of Po-
land ; Shah Ismail of Persia ; and of the Moghul Em-
peror Akbar, could yet point to no greater sovereign
than Suleyman of Turkey. The century of Columbus, of
Cortes, of Drake and Raleigh, of Spenser and Shake-
speare, the epoch that saw the revival of learning in
Italy by the impulse of the refugees from Constanti-
nople, and which greeted at once the triumph of
Christianity over Islam in Spain and the opening of
a new world by Spanish enterprise, was hardly more
brilliant in the West than in the East, where the un-
ceasing victories of Suleyman, and the successes of
Turghud and Barbarossa, formed a worthy counter-
part to the achievements of the great soldiers and
admirals of the Atlantic. Even the pirates of this
age were unique : they founded dynasties.

But the most remarkable feat that the Turks
achieved during this glorious century was — that they
survived it. With such forces as were arrayed against
them, with a Europe roused from its long sleep, and
ready to seize arms and avenge its long disgrace upon
the infidels, it was to be expected that the fall of the
Ottoman power must ensue. Instead, we shall see that
this power was not only able to meet the whole array
of rejuvenated Europe on equal terms, but emerged
from the conflict stronger and more triumphant than
ever.

Suleyman ascended the throne surrounded by the
glamour which belonged to his youth and charm of
manner, and to the affection which his gracious rule

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SULEYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT (iN YOUTH).

LORD OF THE AGE, 169

in more than one provincial government had inspired ;
but he owed something to the detestation which
Sellm's cruel character had evoked from all classes.
The son differed by the whole heaven from his father.
He was already renowned for his justice and clemency,
and his first acts were calculated to strengthen the
good opinion which had early been formed of his
character. He began by punishing evildoers, and
especially such of the officers and pashas who were
proved to have been guilty of corruption and par-
tiality. His greatest object was the same as that of
the founder of the Ottoman Empire ; he desired to
see even-handed justice administered throughout the
length and breadth of his vast dominions.

" Saulen seines Thron's sind Milde, Biedersinn, und Redlichkeit,
Und von seinem Wappenschilde strahlet die Gerechtigkeit."

The people rejoiced to see once more a Sultan
they could love as well as fear, and welcomed Suley- '
man as another Murad.

He had not been long seated on the throne when
the occasion arrived for him to vindicate that title of
" Lord of the Age " which his courtiers bestowed on
him, and which was recorded on his official documents.
The Hungarians had insulted and tortured his envoy,
and vengeance must follow. All the materials for a
campaign were ready ; Selim had left him a ripe fruit,
and he had only to pluck it.^ In 1521 he took the
old familiar road of Turkish generals, and marched
upon Hungary. Belgrade, which had repelled Mo-
hammed the Conqueror, yielded to his even greater
^ Jurien de la Graviere, " Doria et Barberousse, " chap. vii. ff.

-H

170 SULEYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT.

successor. The church was turned into a mosque, the
fortifications strengthened, and, to the days of Prince
Eugene, "der edle Ritter," the key of the Danube
formed a jewel in the Ottoman crown. The effect of
the victory was immediate : Venice, in consternation,
humbled herself as the Sultan's vassal, and paid him
twofold tribute for Zante and Cyprus. It was only
the first rumble of the storm, however. In the follow-
ing year, 1522, an even more renowned place f&ll before
Suleyman's assault. Rhodes, where Mohammed II.
had received a second repulse, was now besieged by
Suleyman with all the strength of his empire. A hun-
dred thousand troops by land, and ten thousand by sek,
encompassed the devoted island ; and all the efforts
of the heroic Grand Master, Villiers de L'Isle Adam,
could not avail to prevent the fall of the stronghold
of the Knights of St. John. For close upon five
inontlTslHey mH" mme~with countermine, and repelled
four tremendous assaults with heavy loss ; but no
garrison, without any prospect of a relieving force,
could withstand for ever the skilful engineering of the
Turks, who were the masters of Europe in the art of
making regular approaches against a fortified position,
and possessed the best artillery in the world. At last,
seeing the hopelessness of the contest,Jtlie^_^Grand
Maste'r'and his brave Knights accepted the honourable
terms which Suleyman had offered them, but which
they had before refused. The Sultan was no breaker
of his word. They were allowed twelve days to leave
the island with their property and arms ; the people
of Rhodes were to have full privilege of the exercise
of their religion, and to be free from tribute for five

SIEGE OF RHODES.

CONQUEST OF RHODES. I73

years. So deeply were the Turks impressed by the
v&.lour of the Knights, that even their armorial es-
cutcheons, which stood over their houses, were left
undisturbed, and may be seen there to this day.

The first year's campaign had ended in the capture V
of Belgrade, the second had brought the surrender of N
Rhodes ; the one had opened Hungary, the other had
delivered up the Levantine waters to the Ottoman
fleets. Now for two years the Sultan busied himself
in the internal administration of his empire and in
putting down a revolt in Egypt. He soon found out his
mistake in intermitting the annual expeditions which
had kept his large standing army in good temper \
The Janissaries began to mutiny, and though the
Sultan at first tried the effect of boldness, and with
his own hands slew two of the leaders of the insurrec-
tion, he found himself forced at last to pacify them by
a large bribe, like Sultans before and since, to the great
damage of the imperial authority and impoverishment
of the treasury. It became necessary to gratify the
soldiers' love of war ~^and" 'booty, and Suleyman
resolved on a campaign in Hungary, being the more
encouraged to it by the advice of the ambassador sent
to the Porte by Francis I, of France, who was anxious
to divert his great rival Charles V. from further
designs in the west.

The decision was due, however, as much to another
voice as to the machinations of the French king.
Suleyman, great as he was, shared his greatness with/
a second mind, to. which his reign owed much of its
brilliance. The Grand VezTr Ibrahim was the
counterpart of the Grand Monarch Suleyman. He

174 SULEYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT.

was the son of a sailor at Parga, and had been
captured by corsairs, by whom he was sold to be
the slave of a widow at Magnesia. Here he passed
into the hands of the young prince Suleyman, then
governor of Magnesia, and soon his extraordinary
talents and address brought him promotion. The
Turks have a proverb : " When God gives office,
he gives also the ability to fill it : " and it was so
with the young man who, from being Grand P'al-
coner on the accession of Suleyman, rose to be first
-minister and almost co-Sultan in 1523. He was- the
object of the Sultan's tender regard : an emperor knows
better than most men how solitary is life without
friendship and love, and Suleyman loved this man
more than a brother. Ibrahim was not only a
friend, he was an entertaining and instructive com-
panion. He read Persian, Greek, and Italian ; he
knew how to open unknown worlds to the Sultan's
mind, and Suleyman drank in his VezTr's wisdom with
assiduity. They lived together : their meals were
shared in common ; even their beds were in the same
room. The Sultan gave his sister in marriage to the
sailor's son, and Ibrahim was at the summit of power..
"La douce et feconde union! L'Empire en ressent
d'heure en heure le bienfait. Elle dure depuis six
ans : puisse-t-clle, pour le salut de la Chretiente, ne
pas etre eternelle!"^ Ibrahim deserved his success.
He was great in war and in peace. He alone knew
how to appease the Janissaries ; and he counselled
and led the expedition against Vienna.

Accordingly in 1526 the Ottoman army, mustering

* Jurien de la Graviere, ** Doria et Barbcroussc," 114.

COUNCIL HALL, RHODES.

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BATTLE OF MOHACS. lyg

at least icx),ooo men and three hundred guns, marched
north headed by the Sultan in person. Louis II. of
Hungary met him on August 29th on the fatal field of
Mohacs with a far inferior force, and the result was
disastrous to the Christians. The king, and many of
his nobles and bishops, and over 20,000 Hungarians
fell on the fatal spot, where the encounter is known as
" The Destruction of Mohdcs." ^ Buda and Pesth
were occupied, the whole country roundabout ravaged,
and 100,000 captives were driven back to be sold as
slaves. The spoils of the palace of Matthias Corvinus
and its famous library were added to those of the
Palaeologi in the Seraglio at the Golden Horn. For
over a century Hungary had been the rampart of
Europe against the Turks. | The campaign of Mohacs
made Hungary an Ottoman provmce'foF a hundred
and forty yearsi

The ruling influence which the Sultan exercised over
the appointment of his deputy, the nominal king of
Hungary took him northward again in 1529 to place
his own candidate upon the throne — Zapolya, formerly
Voyvode of Transylvania, who had withheld his
help from Hungary at the battle of Mohacs. The
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, brother of Charles V.,
however, claimed the throne, and Suleyman had to
interfere in the civil war. Ferdinand in vain sent
ambassadors to arrange a truce, and make terms with
the indignant Sultan. The messengers were dismissed,
and Ferdinand was told that the Sultan was coming,
and would expect to meet him at Mohacs or at Pesth,
or should he fail to appear, he would breakfast with

^ See " The Story of Hungary," pp. 286-336.

1 8*0 SU LEY MAN THE MAGNIFICENT,

him at Vienna itself. And he came with a vengeance,
bringing a quarter of a million of men at his heels.
In September, 1529, the army retook Ofen (Buda)
from Ferdinand's garrison, not without treason from
within. Zapolya was restored, and the Sultan pro-
ceeded to execute his threat of advancing upon Vienna.
It is worth recording that Suleyman released the
commander of Buda on parole that he would not- fight
against the Turks during the campaign, and this
generous act was done in spite of the murmurs of the
Janissaries, who were enraged at not being allowed to
pluiriderThe Hungarian capital, and even against the
urgent representations of the Hungarians of Zapolya's
party, who were now ranged with the Sultan ready to
attack their countrymen and besiege Vienna. For
a century and a half the capital of Hungary remaiiTed
a Turkish outpost.

On September 21st Suleyman crossed the Raab at
Altenburg, and let loose his terrible troops of irregular
cavalry or " Sackmen," as they are called in contem-
porary German records, upon the stricken land. Far
and wide these fierce riders forayed, under their savage
leader Mikhal Oglu, who was a descendant of Scant-
Beard Mikhal, a close ally of the first Othman.
They carried devastation and misery among the
villages, destroying and burning everything, and bear-
ing off into captivity men, v^omen, and children. Place
after place surrendered, in terrpr of the Ottoman
army and the scourge of the Sickmcn. Pesth fell
without a blow. The Archbishop of Gran surrendered
his city, and sought refuge in the Sultan's camp. Co-
morn was abandoned : Raab was burned : Altenburg

SOLIMANVS -IMPEFATOF.
•TVRCHAR-VM

SULEYMAN ON THE WAR-PATH.

INVASION OF HUNGARY, 183

betrayed. Briick, however, made a stout defence, and
the Sultan, always pleased with a show of courage,
accorded the garrison the lenient condition that they
should only do him homage after the fall of Viennal

Meanwhile Austria was striving to collect some
adequate force wherewith to meet the overwhelming
hosts of the Turks. Every tenth man was called out
for service, and the neighbouring states sent contribu-
tions to the army, but it was still miserably unequal
to the demand which was to be made upon its valour.
Ferdinand implored aid of the empire, and the Diet
of Spires, moved by the rumour that Suleyman had
sworn not to stop short of the Rhine, voted a puny
force of 12,000 foot and 4,000 horse. Even this was
not granted without interminable discussion, and the
choice of a commander still remained a hotly debated
question, when the Turks were already over the Save
and had won their way into Pesth. "There were not
wanting men hard of belief, pedants of the true German
stamp, who maintained that mere apprehension had
exaggerated the danger ; and finally it was agreed at
Ratisbon, to which city the assembly had transferred
itself, to send a deputation of two persons to Hungary
to investigate the state of affairs on the spot. They
went, and having the good fortune to escape the hands
of the Turks, returned with evidence sufficient to
satisfy the doubts of their sagacious employers." ^

It soon became evident that Austria could not
muster an army of any service, in time to check the
Turkish advance ; and the efforts of the Christians
were now devoted to the defence of the capital. " In

' Schimmer, "Two Siegesof Vienna by the Turks" (Eng. trans.), 15.

184 SULBYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT.

Vienna, the necessary preparations had been made
with almost superhuman exertion, but in such haste
and with so little material, that they could only be con-
sidered as very inadequate to the emergency. The
city itself occupied the same ground as at present, the
defences were old and in great part ruinous, the walls
scarcely six feet thick and the outer palisade so frail
and insufficient that the name Stadtzaun,or city hedge,
which it bears in the municipal records of the time,
was literally as well as figuratively appropriate. The
citadel was merely the old building which now exists
under the name of Schweitzer Hof All the houses
which lay too near the wall were levelled to the ground ;
where the wall was specially weak or out of repair
a new entrenched line of earthen defence was con-
structed and well palisaded ; within the city itself,
from the Stuben to the Karnthner or Carinthian gate,
an entirely new wall twenty feet high was constructed
with a ditch interior to the old. The bank of the
Danube was also entrenched and palisaded, and from
the drawbridge to the Salz gate protected with a
rampart capable of resisting artillery. As a precau-
tion against fire, the shingles with which the houses
were generally roofed were throughout the city
removed. The pavement of the streets was taken
up to deaden the effect of the enemy's shot, and
watchposts established to guard against conflagra-
tion. Parties were detached to scour the neighbour-
ing country in search of provisions, and to bring in
cattle and forage. Finally, to provide against the
possibility of a protracted siege, useless consumers,
women, children, old men, and ecclesiastics, were as

SIEGE OF VIENNA. 1 87

far as possible forced to withdraw from the city," '
too often only to fall into the ruthless hands of the
Sackmen.

Behind these hastily improvised defences, the veteran
Count of Salm, who had seen half a century of
service in the field, posted his garrison of 20,000
foot, 2,000 horse, and 1,000 volunteer burghers, and
manned the seventy guns which formed the artillery
of the city. At the last moment, when the Turks,
having taken Briick and Altenburg, were almost upon
the capital, the order was given to destroy the suburbs,
lest they should afford cover to the besiegers. The
unfortunate inhabitants deprived of their homes thus
late, had no time to escape from the harries of the
Sackmen, who now spread over the whole country
40,000 strong, burning and slaying wherever they
went, murdering unborn children, and brutally de-
stroying helpless girls, whose insulted bodies lay
unheeded upon the roads : " God rest their souls, and
grant vengeance upon the bloodhounds who did this
wrong ! " as a writer of the day indignantly ex- ■
claims. It was stated at the time that scarcely 1 i
third of the inhabitants of Upper Austria survived
this calamitous invasion.

On the 27th of September, the Sultan and his
Grand Vezir Ibrahim brought the main army before
the city. "The country within sight of the walls
as far as Schwechat and Trautmannsdorf was co-
vered with tents, the number of which was cal-
culated at 30,000, nor could the sharpest vision from
St Stephen's tower overlook the limit of the

* "Tv\o Sieges of Vienna," 16-17.

l88 SU LEY MAN THE MAGNIFICENT.

circle so occupied. The flower of the Turkish force,
the Janissaries, took possession of the ruins of the
suburbs, which afforded them an excellent cover
from the fire of the besieged. They also cut loop-
holes in the walls still standing from which they
directed a fire of small ordnance and musketry on
the walls of the city. The tent of Suleyman rose in
superior splendour over all others at Simmering.
Hangings of the richest tissue separated its numerous
compartments from each other. Costly carpets and
cushions and divans studded with jewels formed the
furniture. Its numerous pinnacles were terminated
by knobs of massive gold. Five hundred archers of
the royal guard kept watch there night and day.
Around it rose in great though inferior splendour
the tents of ministers and favourites ; and 12,000
Janissaries, the terror of their enemies, and not un-
frequently of their masters, were encamped in a circle
round this central sanctuary." ^

While this immense army of a quarter of a million, of
which, however, probably not more than a third was
fully armed, invested the city, the circuit was completed
by means of the four hundred vessels, which con-
stituted the marine part of the siege, on the Lobau.
The work of approaching the walls now began. The
Turks had been compelled by heavy rains to leave
their siege guns behind them, and tlic}- had only
field pieces and musketry. Accordingly mines were
the chief weapon in which they trusted. For a
fortnight they exerted all their noted skill in burrow-
ing under the walls and towers and laying mines in

' '* Two Sieges of Vienna," 26.

SIEGE OF VIENNA, 1 89

the most propitious positions ; but all to no purpose.
The besieged kept a watchful eye upon every approach,
and no sooner was a mine carefully laid, than it was
destroyed by a counter mine, or its powder was ex-
tracted by an exploring party working from the
cellars within the city. The Viennese were in good
spirits and even ventured to indulge in jokes at the
Sultan's expense. Suleyman had vowed to take his
breakfast in Vienna on the 29th of September, and when
the morning arrived, and the city was unsubdued, the
inhabitants sent out prisoners to his tent, to tell him
that his breakfast was getting cold, and they were
afraid they had no better cheer to offer him but the
produce of the guns on the battlements. Such
pleasantries relieved the tedium of mines and counter-
mines, varied by the occasional sallies which the
besieged made from time to time without much result.
On October 9th the Turks effected a broad breach
by the side of the Karnthner gate, but three successive
storming parties were repulsed, and the breach was
repaired. On the 1 1 th another and greater breach
was made, and for three hours the assailants fought
hand to hand with the defenders, till at midday they
were forced to abandon the assault. All the next
day the walls were the scene of protracted conflicts
between the storming parties and the besieged, who
still manfully resisted every effort of the Turks to
gain a footing inside the defences. The Sultan was
enraged, and his troops afflicted by the severe weather
and bad food, and weary of daily defeat, became
more and more discouraged, so that they had to be
driven to the assault by their officers' swords and

igO SULEYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT.

whips. At last, on the 14th, a final attempt was
made. Every preparation had been made by both
sides, and at nine o'clock the Janissaries and the
flower of the Ottoman army came on to the attack.
The soldiers however were dispirited, and when the
Vezir and his officers urged them on with stick and
sabre, they cried that they would rather die by the
hands of their own officers than face the long muskets
of the Spaniards and the German spits, as they called
the Lanzknechts' long swords. Still when a breach
had been made twenty-four fathoms wide the Turks
were forced to the assault. The efforts of such un-
willing men were of no avail against the resolute
defence of the Spaniards and Germans of the garrison.
As an instance of the courage of the besieged a story
is told of a Portuguese and a German, of whom one
had lost his right arm and the other his left in repell-
ing the assault : the two then stood together side close
to side, and thus made up a whole man between them.
When even the halves of soldiers can fight, such
exhausted energies as were left to the Turks might
well succumb. The last assault had f^iiled, and
Suleyman ordered a retreat. The Janissaries set fire
to their camp, and flung into the flames — it is to be
hoped without the Sultan's knowledge — the old
people and children who were prisoners, and cut to
pieces the remainder. After this disgusting and use-
less revenge, they set out on their retreat, to the
music of the salvo of artillery which the delighted
garrison now discharged from the ramparts of Vienna,
and the ringing of all the bells which during the siege
had been silenced. Had they been nearer they would

RETREAT OF THE rC//?A:S.^*i«— i*"^ I9I

have heard the solemn strains of the Te Deum which
was being celebrated in St. Stephen's, where the
defenders were rendering their glad thanks for the
victory. """^ —

Suleyman pursued his way, harassed by skirmishing
bodies of Austrian cavalry, till he reached Pesth, and
thence departed for Constantinople, where he made a
triumphant entry, and proclaimed that he had par-
doned the infidel, and that, as the city of Vienna was so
far from his frontiers, he had not deemed it necessary
to " clear out the fortress, or purify, improve, and put
it into repair." Such was the view sedulously in-
culcated into the minds of his subjects, when the
disastrous siege of Vienna was spoken of Of the
20,000 or 30,000 men who fell in the siege, Suleyman
would probably not be expected to say much.

The 14th of October which saw the abandonment of
the siege of Vienna, and the limit set to the rush of
Turkish advance, is a famous day in German history :
it is the anniversary of the peace of Westphalia and
of Vienna, the battles of Hochkirchen, Jena, and Leip-
zig, and of the capture of Ulm.

Thre3 years later Suleyman returned to the attack,
followed by an even larger army ; but the Emperor
Charles V. had now taken up the gauntlet, and his
forces were too considerable for a rash engagement.
Suleyman did not care to risk his long tide of success,
already once broken by his failure at Vienn*a,~upon so
hazardous a chance as an open battle with Charles ;
and after again ravaging the country with the lawless
bands of Akinji,made peace at Constantinople in 1533;
Hungary was divided between the two claimants,

192 SV LEY MAN THE MAGNIFICENT.

Ferdinand and Zapolya, and the Sultan retained his
advantages. The peace was, however, very transitory,
for in 1 541 the Sultan led his ninth campaign, and after
gaining many advantages over the Austrians com-
pelled Charles V. and Ferdinand to sue for peace, so in
1547 a truce was signed for five years. The Archduke
Ferdinand was to pay a tribute of 30,000 ducats a
year to his master the Sultan, and was proud to be
addressed as the brother of his master's Vezir. Sulcy-
man retained all Hungary and Transylvania, and
had certainly come out of the long struggle with the
honours of war. Many of the Hungarian cities, how-
ever, stoutly resisted his domination, and their
defenders performed prodigies of valour. When the
five years were over, hostilities were punctually re-
sumed, and continued unceasingly and unproductive!/
until Suleyman's death in 1566.

He died in his tent 6th September, while superin-
tending, the siege of Szigetvar, which was heroically
defended by Nicholas Zrinyi. The great Sultan expired
tranquilly of mere old age, after a reign of forty-six
years,filled with a militaryglory which no similar period
could show. As he lay in his tent, while his death was
studiously concealed from his troops, Zrinyi made his
final sally. He had vowed never to surrender, and had
used the Sultan's summons as wadding for his musket.
Now seeing that further defence was hopeless, he led
the last charge. The Turks were pressing forward along
a narrow bridge wh ichTeH t6"tHe castle when the gates
were flung open, a mortar filled with broken iron_was
fired into their midst, and through the smoke ancicar-
nage" Zrinyried his men to their death. Like the

SULTAN SULEYMAN.

ZRINYI'S HEROISM. I95

famous Light Brigade, the number of these devoted
horsemen was six hundred ; their leader tied the keys
of the castle to his belt, and the banner of the empire
was borne above his head. Zrinyi fell pierced by two
musket shots and an arrow, and the Turks entered the
castle of Szigctvar, only to find that a slow match
had been applied to a mine containing 3,000 lbs. of
gunpowder, which speedily sent as many Turks to
paradise. The castle still remains a ruin : a monument
of the death of a Leonidas and of an Alexander.

Suleyman is perhaps the greatest figure in Turkish!
history. His personal qualities were superb : his wis-j
dom, justice, generosity, kindness, and courtesy were,
a proverb, and his intellectual gifts were the counter-'
part of his fine moral nature. His reign had not
passed without its blots ; he had done more than one
cruel deed : he had sacrificed his dear friend and
peerless minister Ibrahim in a fit of jealousy in 1536,
and never ceased to find cause to regret his fault ; and
spurred on by a clever and unscrupulous Russian wife,
who rejoiced in the name of Khurrem or Joyous, and
whom all the nations of Europe have adopted
under the name of Roxelana, he had killed the
most hopeful of his sons, his first-born, Mustafa,
who showed such promise of rivalling his father that
Khurrem deemed the chances of her own son Sellm
unsafe while the splendid young prince survived ; and
other executions had stained his career. But these
were the rare exceptions. The rule was justice, pru-
dence, and magnanimity, and Suleyman deserves all
the praises that have been lavished upon him by his-'
torians of every nationality. He left his century the

196 SV LEY MAN THE MAGNIFICENT,

better for his generous example. He left the Turkish
arms respected by land and sea. While the horsetails
had waved before Vienna, the Sultan's galleys had
swept the seas to the coasts of Spain. It was the age
of great admirals, and Charles V/s splendid Doria
found a rival in Kheyr-ed-din Barbarossa, the corsair
of Tunis, and victor over Pope, Emperor, and Doge
at the battle of Prevesa (1538) ; — in Dragut (Torghud),
who finished his daring career at the fatal siege of
Malta — when, despite the corsair's valour, the Knights
wrought golden deeds of heroism, and dealt as deadly
a blow at Turkish prestige as even the Count of Salm
had struck from the walls of Vienna ; — and in Piali
the conqueror of Oran and worster of Doria himself
Most of the Turkish naval successes were the work of
semi-independent adventurers, pirates, or buccaneers,
whose venturesome exploits belong rather to the
" Story of the Corsairs " than to the legitimate history
of Turkey.

" Sultan Suleyman left to his successors an empire
to the extent of which few permanent additions were
ever made, except the islands of Cyprus and Candia,
and which under no subsequent Sultan maintained
or recovered the wealth, power, and prosperity which
it enjoyed under the great lawgiver of the house of
Othman. The Turkish dominions in his time com-
prised all the most celebrated cities of Biblical and
classical history, except Rome, Syracuse, and Perse-
polis. The sites of Carthage, Memphis, Tyre,
Nineveh, Babylon, and Palmyra were Ottoman
ground ; and the cities of Alexandria, Jerusalem,
Smyrna, Damascus, Nice, Prusa, Athens, Philippi, and

ROXELANA.

SULEYMAN'S EMPIRE. igg

Adrianople, besides many of later but scarce inferior
celebrity, such as Algiers, Cairo, Mekka, Medina,
Basra, Baghdad, and Belgrade, obeyed the Sultan of
Constantinople. The Nile, the Jordan, the Orontes,
the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Tanais, the Borysthenes
the Danube, the Hebrus, and the Ilyssus, rolled their
waters 'within the shadow of the Horsetails.' The
eastern recess of the Mediterranean, the Propontis,
the Palus Maeotis, the Euxine, and the Red Sea,
were Turkish lakes. The Ottoman crescent touched
the Atlas and the Caucasus ; it was supreme over
Athos, Sinai, Ararat, Mount Carmel, Mount Taurus,
Ida, Olympus, Pelion, Haemus, the Carpathian and
the Acroceraunian heights. An empire of more than
forty thousand square miles, embracing many of the
richest and most beautiful regions of the world, had
been acquired by the descendants of Ertoghrul, in
three centuries from the time when their forefather
wandered a homeless adventurer at the head of less
thg^ five hundred fighting men." ^

» Sir E. Creasy, 197 (ed. 1877).

200 NOTE TO MAP,

NOTE.

The accompanying plan shows in rough outline the growth and
the decrease of the Ottoman Empire. Vertically it is measured by
years, an inch to a century. Horizontally it is divided into three chief
sections, representing Europe, Asia, and Africa, within which the prin-
cipal provinces are indicated at the time when they became part of the
Turkish Empire, and again when they ceased to be Ottoman. The
shaded portion represents the dominion of the Turks, whether under
their immediate control or under the rule of a vassal king (as Serbia in
the earlier period). Thus we see the small beginning of the Ottoman
power in Asia ; its spread over Bithynia in the first half of the four-
teenth century ; its progress in Europe during the second half, through
Rumelia and Bulgaria to Serbia and Wallachia ; its sudden extension in
Anatolia at the close of the century, and its equally sudden repression
i)y Timur ; and then the steady enlargement indicated by such names as
Greece, Constantinople, Albania, Moldavia, Hungary, &.<:., on the
European side, and Karamar^' Armenia, Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Algiers,
Tripoli, and Tunis on the Asiatic and African side, until, in the last
quarter of the sixteenth century, the greatest extent is attained. Then,
in the second part of the plan, we see Algiers becoming semi-indepen-
dent l)efore the seventeenth century was half gone ; Tunis following,
and Hungary lost by 1700 ; Russia despoiling the Porte of the Crimea ;
Mohammed Ali virtually independent in Egypt ; various vStates rising
in the Balkan Peninsula, — Greece, Bosnia, Serbia, Rumania ; France
in Algiers and Tunis, and Russia encroaching in Asia Minor, after the
last Russo-Turkish war.

The plan is a modification of a table contributed by Mr. E. J. W.
Gibb to my " Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the British Museum,"
vol. viii.

THE DOWNWARD ROAD.
(1566-164O.)

The reign of Suleyman the Great forms the ch'max.
of Turkish history. In three centuries the little clan
of Othmanlis had spread from their narrow district
in Asia Minor till they had the command of the
Miediterraneaii, the Euxme, and the Red Sea. Their
dominions now extended from Mekka to Buda, from
Baghdad to Algiers. Both the northern and southern
shores of the Black Sea were theirs ; a large part
of modern Austria- Hungary owned their sway ; and
North Africa from the Syrian frontier to the boundary
of the Empire of Morocco had been subdued by their
arms.

The three centuries that remain to be described
consist of one long decline, relieved indeed now and
then by a temporary revival of the old warlike spirit
of the people, but nevertheless a steady and inevitable
decline. The causes of this downward course are
partly external and partly depend upon the gradual
deterioration of the Turks themselves. The growth
of Russia and the combination of a group of brilliant
leaders in Hungary, Poland, and Austria, are the

206 THE DOWNWARD ROAD,

most important of the outward causes which led to
the narrowing of the Turkish boundaries : but these
by themselves would hardly have sufficed to reduce
the Ottoman Empire to its present decrepit condition,
had there not been internal cankers which sapped its
ancient vigour. The very nature of the empire de-
manded extraordinary energy and wisdom to ensure
its continuance. A power founded upon military
predominance and exercised upon numerous alien
races and hostile creeds needed peculiar care, both
in maintaining the efficiency of the army and in
conciliating the prejudices and winning the respect, if
not the affection, of the Christian subjects who formed
the majority of the European population.

The Turkish Government, however, cared for none

of these things. When the energy and genius of a

series of great rulers had brought the empire to the

height of renown, the too common result ensued ; a

line of weak and vicious Sultans succeeded to the

vast dominions which had been won by their ancestors*

swords and retained by their administrative skill, and

these degenerate scions of a heroic stock, thought

only of the enjoyments which their great possessions

' permitted, not of the conditions which might ensure

- their permanence. The army, deprived of the valiant

iSultans who once led them to battle, lost all respect

Tor the idlers who preferred the ignoble luxury of the

harem to the fierce joys of war; and a disaffected

soldiery, soon learning its power, set up and deposed

j Sultans as seemed good to it, and extorted heavy

■ bribes from each successive puppet of its choice. The

unbounded exercise of capricious power quickly led to

DECAY OF THE ARMY. 2oy

licence and corruption, and the ]anissarig.§. by degrees
lost their martial character and could not be trusted
as of old in the field. A bribe was of more conse-
quence to them than a victory. No efforts, besides,
were made to keep pace with the improvements which
other nations were introducing in the weapons and
tactics of war, and even if their mettle had been as
finely tempered as of old, the Turkish troops were
not equipped as they should have been when they
met the battalions of Prince Eugene, of Sobie^ki, or
Suvorov. The worst feature of all was their ineffi-
cient officering. Their commanders were appointed
not for merit, but in consideration of bribes, and such
a system naturally entailed the deterioration of every
regiment, and its evil effects are visible to the present
day. With effeminate Sultans, incompetent officers,
and corrupt administrators, with a weak head and
corrupt members, indeed, it was to be expected that
the whole man should also become corrupt and power-
less,— the " sick man " for whom Russia prescribed a
euthanasia.

To tell the various stages of decay in detail would
only weary the reader with a catalogue of defeats,
varied by occasional reprisals ; a series of treaties of
peace, each involving loss or humiliation, each sworn
for ever and broken in a few years ; an inventory of
weak, corrupt, or misguided rulers and officers, whose
baseness and incompetence are cast into deeper shadow
by such rare apparitions as the family of the Koprilis,
as Sultans like Murad IV, and Mahmud II., or
generals like the Damad All, " the dauntless Vizier,"
the conqueror of the Morea, and the chivalrous Topal

208 THE DOWNWARD ROAD,

Othman, the antagonist of Nadir Shah. It will only
be possible to present a brief outline of the successive
events which marked the gradual shrinking of the
Turkish Empire to its present limits.
.^^ The inroads of Russia, not at first the most im-
portant, but growing in force and menace with each
succeeding war, are reserved for another chapter.
The other principal opponents of the Turks were
Austria ("aided \)y Hungary an^ Poland), Venice, and
Persia^

Venice was the first to dispute the supremacy of
Suleyman's empire. The great Sultan had been
succeeded by his son, who received the/too appropriate
sobriquet of Selim the Sot.] But it was not in the
nature of things that the splendid system organized
by Suleyman and his able officers should fall to the
ground in the hands of a single worthless successor.
Many of Suleyman's agents were still alive, and
especially the Grand Vezir Sokolli Mohammed spared
no pains to carry on the government in the spirit of his
master. Great mih'tary exploits were at first contem-
plated. Sinan Pasha reduced Arabia in 1570, and
prayers were said in the Holy City of Mekka for the
" Sultan of Sultans, Khakan of Khakans, lord of the
two seas and two continents, and the two sanc-
tuaries of Islam, Sellm Khan, son of Suleyman
Khan." ^ An expedition was sent to Astrakhan, as
will be related further on,^ but this was not among
the triumphs of the Porte ; only a fourth of the army
returned alive to Constantinople. The conquest of
Cyprus from the Venetians was the next venture.

* Von Hammer, ii. 398. " See page 251.

BATTLE OF LEPANTO. 209

It was entrusted to a rival of Sokolli, one Lala
Mustafa, who conducted it with equal rashness and
cruelty. It cost him fifty thousand men, and he
revenged himself in the hour of success by flaying
alive the gallant commandant Bragadino.

The rule of the sea, thus materially strengthened,
was soon destined to receive a check. ( A great mari-
time league was formed by the Venetians, Spaniards,
Knights of Malta,) and others, and a fleet of two
hundred galleys and six huge galliasses was collected
by the confederates and placed under the command
of Don John of Austria, a young man famous for his
recent subjugation of the Moors in the Alpuxarras,i
and reputed the greatest general of the time. Against
this formidable array the Turks were able to bring
together an even larger fleet. Two hundred and forty
galleys, besides sixty smaller vessels, were riding in
the Gulf of Patras under the command of Muezzin-
zada, Uluj All, and other tried admirals, when, on
October 7, 1571, Don John brought his fleet out
of tTTe^'Gulf ot Le'panto and gave battle. He
formed his centre into a crescent under the command
of the celebrated Prince of Parma, and took post
himself in the van. The galliasses were ranged
like redoubts in front of the line. The Turks were
the first to open fire, and pressing forward suffered
severely from the broadsides of the tall galliasses
which they had to pass before they could come into
close action with Don John. The two chief admirals
on either sides locked their vessels together, and for
two hours a deadly fight went on from the decks. At

* See Lane-Poole, " The Story of the Moors in Spain," p. 278.

210 THE DOWNWARD ROAD,

last the Turkish commander fell, and his flag-ship was
boarded : the Ottoman centre was broken, and the
right wing gave way. The left, under Uluj All, gained
some successes over Doria, a nephew of the great ad-
miral of that name, and took some of the enemy's ships,
but when he saw the collapse of the centre and right
he fought his way out of the melley, and with forty
galleys, the remnant of a noble fleet, set sail for the
Bosphorus. Ninety-four Turkish ships were sunk or
burnt, at least a hundred and thirty were captured ;
the Turks lost 30,000 men, and 15,000 Christian galley
slaves were set free.^

The result of this tremendous defeat ought to have
been the annihilation of the Turkish command of the
seas ; but it was nothing of the kind. Its moral effect
in showing that the terrible Ottomans were not i%
vincible was lasting, but its immediate influence on
the balance of maritime power in the Mediterranean
was comparatively slight. The Christian confederates,
perfectly satisfied with their triumph, dispersed their
fleet, and began to give thanks for their victory and
indulge in their favourite jealousies, but the Turks
steadily set to work to repair their misfortunes.
In a few months, by incredible energy and devotion, in
which even the besotted Sultan took a share, a new fleet
of two hundred and fifty sail was fitted out ; and so
little did the victory of Lepanto encourage the Vene-
tians that they threw over their allies and sued for a
separate peace. They not only agreed that the Sultan
was to remain in possession of Cyprus, but were so
good as to repay him thecost of taking it! The

* Von Hammer, ii. 423.

..^-^

;

CICALA. ' 213

memory of I^e^anij^ was wiped out of the Turkish
mind.

There was comparative peace with the Venetians
for a quarter of a century after this, but it was as
much due to harem influence as respect for any treaty.
Murad III., who succeeded his father Selim in 1574,
was a feeble creature who let the offices of State be
sold by sycophants to the highest bidder, and himself
be ruled by his women ; but among the latter was fortu-
nately at least one lady of intelligence. Safla, a cap-
tured Venetian of the family of Baffo, governed her
imperial husband in the interests of her countrymen,
and when he died in 1595, and was succeeded by her
son, Mohammed III. — one of Murad's hundred and
two children, of whom nineteen were put to death
on their brother's accession — she found the power of
mother in no way inferior to that of wife. Her chief
ally was Cicala, a Genoese of noble birth who
had been made prisoner in his youth by the Turks.
His father. Count Cicala, had married a captive
"Turkess," and the son followed his example by
espousing a granddaughter of Suleyman the Great.
The combination of personal merit and backstairs
influence insured the young man's rise, and in due
time he obtained important commands, iln 1596 he
rendered a signal service to his adopted country.
Three days the imperial troops of Austria and Tran-
sylvania fought with the Turks on the plain of the
Keresztes. The Christians seemed about to triumph,
and twice the Sultan thought of flight. Then Cicala
swooped down upon them at the head of his horse-
men, and in half an hour archduke and prince were

214 THE DOWNWARD ROAD.

riding for dear life, followed by a panting mob of
what had once been soldiers, and leaving fifty thou-
sand corpses on the field.

[One such success, however, hardly relieved a reign
composed of military revolts, petty external wars,
provincial tyrants, and general disaffection. It was
a sign of the lowered status of the Turkish Empire
that a treaty was concluded with Austria, after the
usual campaigns, in the reign of the next Sultan,
Ahmed I., a boy of fourteen, in which the Porte was
treated as an ordinary equal instead of as a dreaded
master, and the Austrian tribute was discontinued.
Turkey was no longer the terror of Europe. Indeed,
had Christendom been less divided and absorbed in
, the Spanish wars at that time, it is a question whether
I the Ottoman Empire might not then have come to
\the end which has so often been predicted. England
had an ambassador at the Porte from the time of
Elizabeth (1583) who strenuously invited the Sultan
to join his mistress against Spain, but England was
in no condition to support the Grand Signior against
his hiany and powerful enemies, nor had our tradi-
tional policy in the East yet been formulated. The
Indian Empire and the preservation of our road
thither were in the future. Nothing seemingly but
their own divisions kept the Powers from partitioning
the Ottoman provinces at the beginning of the seven-
teenth century. Indeed, Sir Thomas Roe, who wrote
an interesting account of his mission to Turkey, looked
with confidence to the speedy collapse of the Otto-
man State.

But peace reigned for some time on the northern

THE GRAxND bl<

MURAD IV, 217

frontiers of Turkey. The emperor of Austria was
fully alive to the advantage of keeping on friendly
terms in the south when the Thirty Years' War was
raging in the north, and the Turks had no motive for
aggression, since they had so far retained their con-
quests. The new Sultan, Murad IV., who ascended
the throne in 1623, though fired with something of
the old warlike energy of his ancestors, preferred to
exert it in another direction, and concluded a fresh
peace with the emperor which ensured tranquillity to
the Turks on their northern marches during the first |
half of the seventeenth century. '•"-^

Murad was the last fighting Sultan of the race ofi
Othman. The enemy he chose for his attack was
I^ersia^. In the time of Murad III. there had been a|/
successful war with the Shah, which ended in a peac^
in 1590, whereby the Turks secured Georgia, Tebriz,
and some of the Persian provinces adjoining the
southern shores of the Caspian Sea. These acquisi- .
tions had again and again been disputed by the Persians,
and by a peace in i6ig the Shah had recovered his
losses and the boundary between the two kingdoms
had been restored to the limits which had been drawn
at the time of Sellm. Murad IV. resolved to regain
the conquests of his namesake. He had however to
contend with grievous obstacles. He was but a boy
of twelve when he came to the thro.ne, and never was
an empire more in need of a strong man's hand.
Disasters and rebellions vyere announced from all "il
quarters. The Persians were triumphant, Asia Minor\
was in revolt, the provincial governors were refractory;
the three Barbary states were practically independent;

2l8 THE DOWNWARD ROAD.

the treasury was empty, the people were starving, and
the army was both turbulent and Hcentious.
y With the help of a capable mother the young Sultan
contrived to maintain his authority in some sort in
the face of such difficulties, but not without many a
painful humiliation. In the ninth year of his reign
the Sipahis mutinied, and gathering together in the
Hippodrome demanded the heads of some of the
officers of state, and especially of Hafiz, the Grand
Vezir. They pressed into the courts of the Seraglio,
crying, " Give us the seventeen heads ! " The choice
lay between submission and abdication. The Sultan
vainly used every argument and entreaty. At
last he sent for the Grand Vezlr. Hafiz did not
shrink from the sacrifice. " I have seen my fate in a
dream to-day," he said, " and I am not afraid to die."
He would not however allow the guilt of his blood to
rest on his sorrowing master's head, but resolved to
seek death in open conflict with the mutineers. " My
Padishah," he said, " may a thousand slaves like Hafiz
die for thee :" and after reciting some verses from the
Koran, he strode forth into the court, while the Sultan
and his retinue sobbed and wept Hafiz struck down
the first assailant, and then fell pierced by seventeen
wounds. The Sultan did not leave the ghastly scene
without uttering ominous words to the murderers.
" So help me God," he said, " ye men of blood, who
fear not God nor are ashamed before God's Prophet,
>y a terrible vengeance shall overtake you."

Gathering together some loyal troops the stern young
prince kept his word. The mutineers were slain in
every province ; the Bosphorus floated thick with the

CONQUEST OF BAGHDAD, 219

bodies of Sipahis and Janissaries ; while the terrible
Sultan, who had {ew rivals in sword or bow, patrolled
the streets himself and often carried out his sanguinary
sentences with his own strong hand. The death of
Hafiz was avenged tenfold, and the authority of his
master was established on the foundation of terror.
His severity indeed outshot the mark ; hundreds of
innocent people were ruthlessly butchered to gratify
the suspicions or even the caprices of the tyrant, in
whom the taste of blood seemed to generate that
fascinating appetite which it creates in beasts of prey.
It is said that a hundred thousand persons paid the
last penalty by his order. An inordinate addiction to
wine still further hardened his fierce temper, but no
habits of indulgence seemed to shake his iron will or
enfeeble his martial frame. He watched over every
department of his administration with vigilant eyes :
law and justice, order and discipline, everywhere pre-
vailed as they had not been known since the days of
the Great Suleyman : tyrant he was, but he allowed no
other man to tyrannize, and the people realized that
the tyranny of one is liberty compared to the aimless
tyranny of the many.

As soon as he could safely leave the capital, Murad
set forth to restore order and peace on his Asiatic
frontiers. In 1635 he reconquered Erivan, and visited
the local governors of Asia Minor with stern punish-
ment for their disaffection. For months his only
pillow was his saddle and his coverlet a horsecloth.
In 1638 he marched to retake Baghdad, which the
Persians had recovered since its first capture by Suley-
man. The garrison made a desperate resistance. But

220 THE DOWNWARD ROAD.

Murad led his men in person, worked in the trenches
with his own hands, and, when the Persians sent out a
stalwart champion to defy the besiegers to single com-
bat, it was Murad himself who took up the gauntlet and
after a hard fight clove the giant's skull from pate
to chin. The chain armour in which he fought, a
.beautiful suit of interwoven steel and gold links, is still
tQj)e seen in the Treasury at Constantinople. Bagh-
dad fell and a fearful butchery ensued, in which only
three hundred of the thirty thousand men of the garrison
escaped, nor did the unarmed inhabitants fare better.
Peace was made with Persia on the basis of Suleyman's
treaty of 1555 ; Erivan was restored to the Shah, but
Baghdad has remained ever since in the hands of the
Turks. Murad made his triumphal entry into Con-
stantinople amid the shouts of the people, while the
Bosphorus and Golden Horn blazed with salutes.

The following year (1640) he died at the age of 28,
the last of the warrior Sultans of Turkey.

XII.

THE RULE OF THE VEZIRS.
(1640- 1757.)

Henceforward, until we reach the present century
and the person of Mahmud IL, the names of the twelve
Sultans who succeeded Murad IV. upon the throne
of Turkey possess little interest or individuality for
us. Secluded in the Seraglio, and abandoned, with
few exceptions, to most of the worst vices that can
degrade body and soul, they left the care or neglect of
their empire to the Vezirs, and, accordingly as the
Prime Minister was a capable or an incapable man, the
empire was retarded or accelerated in its downward
course. At the beginning of the period upon which
we are now entering, the Porte was fortunate in the
possession of an Albanian family of remarkable
powers, whose influence checked for a while the dis-
astrous tendencies of the empire. Koprili Moham-
med, the first of this stock, was chosen Grand Vezir
(1656) at the age of seventy. His inflexible yet just
severity restored order in all parts of the empire. For
five years his eyes searched out treason and wrong-
doing in every corner of the Sultan's dominions, and
never was a strong will better obeyed than during this
epoch. Thirty-six thousand people were executed by

222 THE RULE OF THE VEZIRS.

his command, and the chief executioner admitted
that in these five years he had with his own hands
strangled over four thousand, or nearly three a day.
The old Vezir had previously borne the reputation of a
mild and humane man, but he saw that only strong
measures could restore tranquillity to the distracted
empire, and he did not shrink from the course which his
reason dictated. He died in 1661, and was succeeded
in his office by his even greater son Ahmed. For
/fifteen years Koprili-zada Ahmed was virtual Sultan,
j and he is admittedly the greatest statesman of Turkey.
He had as firm a will and as stern a sense of duty as
Mohammed, but he had the advantage of a better edu-
cation and all the added power and experience due to
his father's example. As a civil administrator he was
unequalled, but as a general in the field he was doomed
to suffer heavy reverses.

The constant intrigues which marked the changes
of succession in Hungary and Transylvania once more
embroiled the Porte with Austria, and it fell to Koprili-
zada Ahmed to lead the armies of Turkey to the
Danube. In the battle of St.Gotthard (1664) he received
a terrible defeat at the hands of Raymond, Count of
Montecuculi. The Christians were outnumbered in
the proportion of four to one, and the contempt of the
Turks was increased when they saw the French con-
tingent come riding down with their shaved cheeks
and powdered perukes. They ridiculed the charge of
the "young girls ;" but the "girls" and Montecuculi
were too strong for their tried veterans : — ten thousand
Turks were left on the field, and the VezIr was com-
pelled to beat an ignominious retreat.

miL GRAND VEZIR.

CRETE : CHOCZIM. 225

Some compensation for this disaster was found in
the success which at length attended the operations of
the Ottomans against the island of Candia, or Crete.
The Turks were still renowned for their siege works, and
though it took them more than twenty years to subdue
the determined resistance of the Venetians under
their gifted leader Morosini, at last, in 1669, the island
was theirs. During the last three years they had
made fifty-six desperate assaults, and the garrison had
replied with ninety sorties ; more than thirteen hun-
dred mines had been fired on both sides, thirty thou-
sand Turks had fallen, and nearly half as many
Venetians. The successful termination of this memor-
able siege did much to restore the waning confidence
of the Porte.

It was, however, but a gleam of sunshine in an
Erebus of gloom. A new and formidable enemy
appeared in the north. The Cossacks of the Ukraine,,
had been claimed as Polish subjects by the king of|
Poland against their will, and the Porte proceeded t(
defend them. The struggle was short ; the kin|
quickly abandoned his pretensions, agreed to pay
tribute, and even surrendered Podolia as well as the
Ukraine to Turkey. The Polish nobles, headed by
John Sobieski, a name which stands in the front rank
of European generals, refused to abide by these terms,'
and, leading their forces against the Turks, adminiJ
stered two crushing defeats, at Choczim in 1673, and
at Lemberg in 1675. The Turks, however, were\
better able to carry on a long war than the Polish
nobles, and in spite of their victories, the latter were
glad to come to terms, by which the Ottomans re-

226 THE RULE OF THE VEZIRS.

tained the advantages which they had previously-
secured.

A defeat followed by an accession of territory was
no very calamitous ending to Koprili's-zada Ahmed's
life, though the Ukraine had soon afterwards to be
ceded to Russia. But when the gifted family which
had already supplied two eminent men to the highest
office in the State suffered a passing eclipse, and anew
and temerarious Vezir was appointed, disasters of a
less chequered character poured upon the Turkish
I arms. The policy of Austria towards Hungary had
I lately become more and more severe and unconcili-
'atory. The Protestant Magyars especially resented
the proselytizing efforts of the Jesuits and the bigotry
of the Catholic party towards its unorthodox subjects.
Conspiracies were set on foot, and when discovered
were punished with unsparing severity ; but Hun-
gary remained, at least as disaffected to Austrian
supremacy as before. Indeed, it was known that the
nobles of Hungary preferred the rule of Mohammedans
to that of bigoted Catholics. The Porte was fully
informed of these matters, and a violent war party
sprang up at Constantinople ; they eagerly pressed
for an advance on Vienna at the moment when Hun-
gary might be counted upon as an ally.

Accordingly in 1682, the new Grand VezIr, Kara
Mustafa, seized this favourable opportunity of put-
ting an end once for all to the detested house of
Hapsburg, and marched northwards with a vast host
of 400,000 men, officered in part by French captains
and engineers, lent for the service by Louis XIV., who
was anxious to see the Imperial power humbled in

yoHN SOBIESKI. 227

the dust. It seemed as if there was nothing to arrest
the advance of the Turks. The Christians, as usual,
were wholly unprepared. When once the terrible
horsetails had been seen retreating towards the south,
it was the custom of the princes of Europe to disband
their armies and neglect their fortifications, and to
abandon themselves to all the delights of quarrelling
among themselves. Charles of Lorraine, indeed, who
had fought beside Montecuculi at the battle of St.
Gotthard, was ready to take his part in the defence ;
but he could only muster 33,000 men, and what
were they against so many, above all, when a large
number of them had to be told off to sundry fortresses
for garrison duty? Disaffected Hungary sought to
make peace with both sides by sending a miserable
contingent of 3,009 under Esterhazy. But for one
circumstance the triumph of the Turks might have
been predicted with certainty : this was a treaty of
alliance which had just been signed between the
Emperor Leopolc| and Sobieski, who was now king of
Poland. It is a significant fact that when these two
sovereigns bound themselves to make common cause
against the Turk, the memory of many past conventions
of the kind which had been dissolved by the Pope's dis-
pensation, recurred to their minds, and while they swore
an oath, sanctified by the Cardinal Legate, to stand
by one another, they appended a clause which stipu-
lated that this oath was not subject to retractation by
Papal dispensation. The combination of the Legate's
sacred office, with the guarding clause against its per-
jured misuse, is one of the curiosities of history.

John Sobieski, however, though he had sworn to

228 THE RULE OF THE VEZIRS,

help, and was known to be true to his word, was still
in Poland, and meanwhile the Grand Vezir was push-
ing on to Vienna. Despairing of succour in time, the
emperor and his court fled ignominiously to Bavaria.
The city was, in truth, very ill prepared to withstand
a siege, especially when conducted by such good
engineers as the Turks. The fortifications were in a
state of decay, and it will hardly be believed that the
very tools necessary for their repair were not to be
had in Vienna. It was a mere chance that the Grand
Vezir loitered somewhat on his way. Had he used
forced marches, he must infallibly have entered the
capital of the Holy Roman Empire without so much
as striking a blow.

The delay, little as it was, gave the people time
to prepare. Count Stahremberg, a true hero, was
appointed to conduct the defence, and the whole
population laboured incessantly at the work of repair-
ing the fortifications. Students of the University
and members of the trades-guilds formed themselves
into volunteer corps and drilled with might and main.
Out of the population of 60,000 (for half the people
had fled) some 20,000 were under arms at the dreaded
moment when the flames of burning villages and the
news of treacherous butchery told of the near ap-
proach of the invaders. At last the orders were given
for the burning of the suburbs, that they might
not serve as cover to the enemy ; and on the 14th
of July the siege began. The island suburb of
Leopoldstadt soon fell into the hands of the Turks,
and became a smouldering p)'rc. Assault after
assault was made and repulsed ; mine was answered

ST. STEPHEN S CATHEDRAL, VIFNNA.

SECOND SIEGE OF VIENNA. 23 1

by countermine ; but Stahremberg, as he looked down
upon the operations from the stone seat, which is still
to be seen in the lofty spire of St Stephen's, saw with
sadness that inch by inch the Turks were gaining
ground.

The assaults so far had indeed been fruitless, for the
Turkish scimitar was no match for the German hal-
berd, scythe, and battle-axe : but the mines were
creeping towards the walls, and sickness was raging
in the city. To sickness followed famine. Cats were
so valuable, that a chase after the animal over the
roofs became a recognized form of sport. The reliev-
ing army was indeed known - to be on the move, but
would it come in time, or would it succeed in driving
away the still immense, though diminishing, hosts of
the Turks ?

On the 6th of September, rockets announced that
Sobieski was indeed at hand. The people redoubled
their efforts when they knew of the presence of the
great captain. He had united the Polish, Saxon,
Austrian, Bavarian, and other contingents, to the num-
ber of some 85,000 men, and had occupied the Kahlen-
berg, the one strategic position essential for the relief
of the city. His men, moreover, were fresh, while the
100,000 troops whom the Vezir had still in camp
were exhausted by a two months' siege, and many
privations and labours. On the lOth, the sound of
guns was heard in the city. They proceeded from the
Kahlenberg. The great contest was beginning. How
the thundering of the cannon was listened to in
Vienna may be imagined. The people, trembling
with anxiety, were held in suspense for many

232 THE RULE OF THE VEZIRS.

hours. It was a supreme crisis in the history of
Europe.

Meanwhile Sobieski had taken his measures for its
relief.

"At sunrise of the T2th of September the crest of
the Kahlenberg was concealed by one of those
autumnal mists which give promise of a genial,
perhaps a sultry day, and which, clinging to the
wooded flanks of the acclivity, grew denser as it
descended, till it rested heavily on the shores and the
stream itself of the river below. From that summit
the usual fiery signals of distress had been watched
through the night by many an eye, as they rose
incessantly from the tower of St. Stephen, and now
the fretted spire of that edifice, so long the target of
the ineffectual fire of the Turkish artilleries, was
faintly distinguished rising from the sea of mist. As
the hour wore on, and the exhalation dispersed, a
scene was disclosed, which must have made those
who witnessed it from the Kahlenberg tighten their
saddle-girths, or look to their priming. A practised
eye glancing over the fortifications of the city could
discern from the Burg to the Scottish gate an interrup-
tion of their continuity, a shapeless interval of rubbish
and of ruin, which seemed as if a battalion might
enter it abreast. In face of this desolation a labyrinth
of lines extended itself, differing in design from the
rectilinear zigzag of a modern approach, and formed
of short curves overlapping each other, to use a com-
parison of some writers of the time, like the scales
of a fish. In these, the Turkish lines, the miner yet
crawled to his task, and the storming parties were

THE TURKISH LINES. 233

still arrayed by order of the Vezir, ready for a
renewal of the assault so often repeated in vain.
The camp behind had been evacuated by the fight-
ing men ; the horsetails had been plucked from
before the tents of the pashas, but their harems still
tenanted the canvas city ; masses of Christian cap-
tives awaited there their doom in chains ; camels
and drivers and camp followers still peopled the long
streets of tents in all the confusion of fear and sus-
pense. Nearer to the base of the hilly range of the
Kahlenberg and the Leopoldsberg, the still imposing
numbers of the Turkish army were drawn up in
battle array, ready to dispute the egress of the
Christian columns from the passes, and prevent de-
ployment on the plaiUo To the westward, on the
reverse flank of the range. Christian troops might be
seen toiling up the ascent. As they drew up on the
crest of the Leopoldsberg, they formed a half-circle
round the chapel of the Margrave, and when the bell
for matins tolled, the clang of arms and the noise of
the march was silenced. On a space kept clear round
the chapel a standard with a white cross on a red
ground was unfurled, as if to bid defiance to the
blood-red flag planted in front of the tent of Kara
Mustafa. One shout of acclamation and defiance
broke out from the modern Crusaders as this emblem
of a holy war was displayed, and all again was
hushed as the gates of the castle were flung open,
and a procession of the princes of the empire and
the other leaders of the Christian host moved forward
to the chapel. It was headed by one whose tonsured
crown and venerable beard betokened the monastic

234 ^^^ RULE OF THE VEZIRS.

profession. The soldiers crossed themselves as he
passed, and knelt to receive the blessings which he
gave them with outstretched hands. This was the
Capuchin Marco Aviano, friend and confessor to the
emperor, whose acknowledged piety and exemplary
life had earned for him the general reputation of
prophetic inspiration. He had been the inseparable
companion of the Christian army in its hours of diffi-
culty and danger, and was now here to assist at the
consummation of his prayers for its success. Among
the stately warriors who composed his train, three
principally attracted the gaze of the curious. The
first in rank and station was a man somewhat past
theprim^ of middle life, strong limbed, and of impos-
ing stature, but quick and lively in speech and
gesture; his head partly shaved, in the fashion of his
semi-Eastern country ; his hair, eyes, and beard, dark,
black coloured. His majestic bearing bespoke the
soldier-king, the scourge and dread of the Moslems,
the conqueror of Choczim, John Sobieski. . . .

" On his left was his youthful son. Prince James,
armed with a breastplate and helmet, and, in addition
to an ordinary sword, with a short and broad-bladcd
sabre, a national weapon of former ages ; on his right
was the illustrious and heroic ancestor of the present
reigning house of Austria, Charles of Lorraine.
Behind these moved many of the principal members
of those sovereign houses of Germany. At the side
of Louis of Baden was a youth of slender frame and
moderate stature, but with that intelligence in his eye,
which pierced in after years the cloud of many a
doubtful field, and swayed the fortunes of empires.

RELIEF OF VIENNA. 235

This was the young Eugene of Savoy, who drew his
maiden sword in the quarrel in which his brother had
lately perished. The service of high mass was per-
formed in the Chapel by Aviano, the king assisting at
the altar, while the distant thunder of the Turkish
batteries formed strange accompaniment to the
Christian choir. The prince then received the sacra-
ment, and the religious ceremony was closed by a
general benediction of the troops by Aviano. The
king then stepped forward, and conferred knight-
hood on his son, with the usual ceremonies, commend-
ing to him as an example of his future course the
great commander then present, the Duke of Lorraine.
He then addressed his troops in their own language
to the following effect: 'Warriors and friends!
Yonder in the plains are our enemies, in numbers
greater indeed than at Choczim, where we trod them
under foot. We have to fight them on a foreign
soil, but we fight for our own country, and under the
walls of Vienna we are defending those of Warsaw
and Cracow. We have to save to-day, not a single city,
but the whole of Christendom, of which that city of
Vienna is the bulwark. The war is a holy one. There
is a blessing on our arms, and a crown of glory for
him who falls. You fight not for your earthly
sovereign, but for the King of kings. His power has
led you unopposed up the difficult access to these
heights, and has thus placed half the victory in your
hands. The infidels see you now above their heads,
and, with hopes blasted and courage depressed, are
creeping among valleys destined to be their graves.
I have but one command to give — Follow me !

236 THE RULE OF THE VEZIRS.

The time is come for the young to win their
spurs.' " I

The Grand Vezlr's preparations for the fight were
very different from those of his Christian opponents.
He began, it is said, by slaughtering in cold blood the
thirty thousand captives who were confined in his camp.
The majority were women who had already been
subjected to the degradation of a place in the soldiers'
harems. The butchering accomplished, he posted his
men. Sobieski, however, had already discovered that
Kara Mustafa was no general, and there could be
little doubt as to the result of the contest. For many
hours the Turks fought bravely, for with all their
faults, cowardice in battle is unknown to them ; but
the dash of the Polish cuirassiers, the steady per-
sistence of the Saxons and Bavarians, above all, the
unerring strategy of Sobieski, won the day. With a
final rush, the Christians poured into the Turkish
camp, and then all was panic and confusion. The
Grand Vezlr was carried along in the flying crowd,
cursing and weeping by turns, the army melted like a
mist before the sun, and the luckless Janissaries who
were still in the trenches, forgotten by their flying
leaders, were massacred to a man. Over three
hundred pieces of artillery fell into the victors' hands,
besides nine thousand ammunition waggons, a hundred
thousand oxen, twenty-five thousand tents, and a
million pounds of gunpowder. The unlucky Vezlr
paid for his error with his head. Like the Cartha-
ginians, the Turks showed scant mercy to defeated
generals.

^ Schimmer, "Two Sieges of Vienna" (Eng. trans.), 136-138.

THE SULTAN^S HUNTS, 237

Thus was Vienna for a second time delivered out
of the hands of the Ottomans ; and never again
would the horsetails be seen from the steeple of St.
Stephen's church ; where the preacher triumphantly-
commented on the text, " There was a man sent from
God, whose name was John." It is, perhaps, useless
to speculate on the probable consequences of the
contrary event. Had Vienna been taken, as it almost
was, by the Turks, the course of European history
might possibly have been changed ; but it may be
questioned whether the Turks retained enough of
their pristine vigour to hold such a conquest in the
face of such powerful and brilliant leaders as the
states of Europe could then and afterwards bring
against it. Two centuries earlier it might have been
otherwise : Mohammed II. might have held Vienna
against the world. But Mohammed had slept the
last sleep for two hundred years, and no one now sat
in his seat at Constantinople who was worthy to wear
his armour or wield his sword. . At the end of the
seventeenth century, the Turks possessed no Sultan
or general who could withstand such men as Monte-
cuculi, Charles of Lorraine, Prince Eugene, or Marl-
borough.

The Sultan, who had been upon the throne for thirty-
five eventful years, was no sluggard, indeed ; but his
energies were wholly absorbed in the chase. " The long
reign of Mohammed IV. (1648-87) was the intermediate
epoch between the triumphs of the hero, the codes of
the legislator, and the pompous nullity of the caged
puppets of the seraglio ; and while the Ottoman stan-
dard was planting on * Troy's rival Candia,' the now

238 THE RULE OF THE VEZIRS.

unwarlike, but still spirited, Lord of Constantinople,
and successor of the Orkhans, Mohammeds, Sellms,
Murads, and Suleymans, was chasing the wild deer of
Pelion and Olympus, and displaying his sylvan pomp
at Larissa and Tirnova. To the remote scene of the
Sultan's recreations. Pashas, Generals, Vezlrs, and
Embassies, were seen hastening ; and the splendour
of the seraglio, with its ceremonial, was transferred to
mountain wastes and deserts ; amid untrodden forests
arose halls of Western tapestry, and of Indian texture,
rivalling in grandeur, and surpassing in richness, the
regal palaces of the Bosphorus. Brusa, the Asiatic
Olympus, the field of Troy, the sides of Ida, the banks
of the Maeander, the plains of Sardis, were the
favourite resorts of this equal lover of the chase and
of nature. But the places more particularly honoured
by his preference were Jamboli, in the Balkan, about
fifty miles to the north of Adrianople, and Tirnova.
Whenever he arrived or departed the inhabitants of
fifteen districts turned out to assist him in his sport ;
these festivities were rendered attractive to the people
by exhibitions and processions, somewhat in the spirit
of ancient Greece, as well as in that of Tartary, where
all the esnafs or trades displayed in procession the
wonders of their art, or the symbols of their calling,
and in which exhibitions of rare objects and grotesque
figures were combined with theatric pantomime."
*" But at home this sporting Sultan was less amiable,
or his ministers perhaps took too much upon them-
selves : for it was in his reign that a French Ambas-
sador was called a Jew by the Grand VezTr, struck in
the face, and beaten with a stool ; that a Russian

TREATMENT OF AMBASSADORS. 239

envoy was actually kicked out of the presence cham-
ber; and the Imperial dragoman repeatedly bastina-
doed. The Ottoman ministers refused to rise on
receiving a foreign representative ; yet the ambassa-
dors were regarded as guests at the Porte, and were
allowed so much a day for their keep. It was only in
the present century that this contemptuous bearing
towards Giaours was amended ; and as the Grand
Vezir persisted in remaining seated when an Ambas-
sador came for audience, a compromise was arranged,
whereby the minister and the envoy entered the
chamber simultaneously, by opposite doors, so that
neither had the opportunity to seat himself.^

Defeated at Vienna, the Turks did not retire from
Hungary without striking a blow at the over-confident
King of Poland, who in his hot pursuit forgot the
ancient valour of his foes and received a severe lesson
at Parkany. But this check only made the Imperialists
more careful, and the Ottomans found themselves
driven step by step from their northern possessions.
City after city was retaken by the enemy ; a defeat at
Mohacs, once a name of glory to the Turks, still
further discouraged them ; Buda was retaken after 145
years of vassalage (1686) ; the Austrians poured through
Hungary and took Belgrade (1688) ; Louis of Baden
entered Bosnia ; the Venetians invaded Dalmatia, and
their future Doge, the former defender of CandiayMoro-
sini, subdued the Peloponnesus. The great Athenian
temple, the Parthenon, after having served the By-
zantines as a church and the Turks as a powder maga-
zine, was finally shattered to ruins by the Venetians in
» Urquhart, " Spirit of the East," i. 341-345 (ed. 1838).

240 THE RULE OF THE VEZIRS.

this campaign. The Russians and Poles alone had
been kept at arm's length on the north-east frontier.
The Turkish dominions in Europe were now reduced
to half their former extent.

Again the Sultan had recourse to the famous

iamily that had already served his empire so well.
Coprili-zada Mustafa, a brother of the more cele-
)rated Ahmed/ was made Grand VezTr in i6<S9. He
aw the first necessity of conciliating the Christian
rayas, and this prudent policy prevented any rising of
the Greeks and Slavs in Turkey Proper. He was a
wise man, a great reader, and noted for his sincerity,
insomuch, that when he could not say a civil thing
honestly, he would hold silence for an entire audience.
Like his brother, he was more at home in the bureau
than the field, yet he led his troops valiantly against the
Austrians, marching on foot himself like any common
soldier. He drove back the Christians and retook
Belgrade and other places, and pushed forward the
Turkish frontier up to the Save. In the battle of
Slankamen (1691), however, he was killed, and his
army was put to the rout. Two other members of his
family afterwards succeeded to the chief office, but
neither of them attained the fame of Mohammed,
Ahmed, or Mustafa. Yet they served their country
well and loyally, and the fifty years of the rule of
this family served, like a strong anchor, to hold the
drifting ship of State.

A new Sultan, Mustafa H., in 1695 suddenly
called to mind the great deeds of his ancestors, and

^ It is Ahmed who is called Fazil Ahmed— Ahmed the Virtuous (/zV.
Excellent).

BATTLE OF ZENTA. 24I

inspired by such memories, boldly led forth his armies
against the Austrians. At first this unexpected re-
vival of the old traditions of Turkish glory inspired
the people with enthusiasm, and his standards were
followed by a large and eager force. But zeal was
not enough to secure the victory, when Prince
Eugene commanded on the other side, and of general-
ship the Sultan and his advisers had little to spare.
The Battle of Zenta in 1697 was a decisive blow:
twenty thousand Turks were slain and ten thou-
sand more were drowned in their flight. The
unhappy Sultan gave up his dream of military
glory.

At this juncture, England, in the person of Lord
Paget, her Ambassador at the Porte, offered her medi-
ation, which was accepted. The peace of Carlowitz,
a notable landmark in Turkish history, was the re-
sult. Here for the first time Russian and Turkish
envoys met in a European congress, and Turkey ad-
mitted once for all the principle of intervention by
disinterested Powers. By this treaty (1699; Austria
kept Transylvania and Hungary north of the Marosch
and west of the Theiss, with most of Slavonia ;
Poland recovered Podolia and Kaminiec ; Venice
retained Dalmatia and the Morea or Peloponnesus ;
Russia made an armistice which afterwards was
changed into a peace. Seventeen years later, after a
fresh outbreak of hostilities. Prince Eugene took Bel-
grade, and by the Peace of Passarowitz (17 18), in which
England again played the part of mediator, Austria
obtained possession of the rest of Hungary, and the
Turkish frontier on the north v/as drawn on very

242 THE RULE OF THE VEZIRS,

nearly the same line which obtained until the Treaty
of Berlin.

Henceforward the Ottoman Empire ceased to hold
the position of a dangerous military power : its armies
were never again a menace to Christendom. Its
prestige was gone ; instead of perpetually threatening
its neighbours on the north, it had to exert its utmost
strength and diplomatic ingenuity to restrain the
aggrandising policy of Austria and Russia. Turkey
was now to become important only from a diplomatic
point of view. Other Powers would fight over her,
and the business of the Porte would be less to fight
itself, though she can still do it well, than to secure
allies whose interests compelled them to do battle for
it. In the hundred and seventy years of Turkish
history which remain to be recorded, the chief ex-
ternal interest centres in the aggression of Russia, and
the efforts of English diplomacy and English arms to
restrain her. The internal changes of the empire, the
virtual severance of Egypt, the reforming administra-
tion of Sir Stratford Canning, the Russian wars, and
the growth of the Christian states, will bring the
chronicle up to the present date.

XIII.

THE RISE OF RUSSIA.
(1696-1812.)

While the Ottoman Empire had been growing for
centuries, there had been movements to the northward
in the region known to the Greeks as Scythia and
Sarn^atia, which threatened sooner or later to interfere
with its progress. Centuries earlier, in fact before
Krtoghrul had chivalrously interfered in favour of
the Sultan of Iconium, the steppes and seaboards of
the north had been under the sway of rulers whose
kingdoms had passed through several stages of de-
velopment, until, at the period which we have reached,
they were approaching union and strength.

The early history of this region is involved in the
mystery which obscures the first ages of a country.
In the Byzantine annals the inhabitants are represented
as cruel and filthy, terrible in battle, using the skulls
of their enemies as drinking-cups ; yet like the Arabs
hospitable to strangers. Other accounts picture them
as living in the idyllic innocence and happiness de-
scribed by the poets of Greece, who imagined that the
people beyond the north wind enjoyed peaceful lives
that stretched out to a thousand years. They werQ

244 ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ RUSSIA.

represented to be of noble presence, bearing instru-
ments of harmony instead of arms, and not even
knowing that such a material as iron existed out of
which swords might be forged. Travellers seldom
gain correct notions of strange lands, and we may
suppose that early visitors to the region that was
afterwards called Russia took their impressions from
the rhapsodies of the bards, in the one case, or, in the
other, came into conflict with the strong men who
wielded the battle-axe to protect the homes of wives
and children. Doubtless these northerners were
neither so fierce nor so mild as these conflicting
accounts would make them.

Through the steppes and among the mountain
ranges commerce had been carried on from a very
early period. The river Volga furnished the chief
means of communication between the distant east and
the Baltic region, in the route of which, on Lake Ilmen,
connected with Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland
by the rivers Volkhov and Neva, there rose an emporium
called Novgorod^hat became the first capital of the
future empire.i It is easy to appreciate the impor-
tance of a river system in a country like Russia, and
especially of such a river as the Volga. It not only
drains a vast region, but it falls little more than^ix
imndrfidJeetjn a course oijU\^onty fiv^c J;tundred miles ;
but its length and VGtyr slight fall are not the onl;
reasons why it was a help to commerce in early times
as it is to steam navigation in our own day. A glance
at the map shows that there is but a short land passage

* The importance of this capital is shown by the early Russian pro-
verb, " Who can resist God and the great Novgorod?"

RURIK. 245

from its head-waters to those of the Volkhov, as well
as to the Dnieper, through which the trader was able
to convey his merchandise in boats over most of the
long distance from the Caspian to the Black Sea and
the Mediterranean.

About a thousand years ago the inhabitants of this
great territory were harassed on the south by those
terrible Khazars who a century before had crossed the
Caucasus to fall upon the possessions of the Moslems.^
At the same time certain Northmen, who are said to
have belonged to the race which afflicted so many
lands in early times, attacked the dwellers about Lake
Ilmen and put them under tribute. These Northmen,
known as Variags or Varangians, were of the family
of Rus, and their leader was Rurik. With him came
his brothers, in the year ^62, and brought order to
the misruled and divided people.

For fifty years after the arrival of Rurik, Novgorod
was the chief city and the capital, and Russia rejoiced
in a heroic age. It came to pass in time, however,. |
that Igor son of Rurik was set upon a throne at Kiev, ;
which for nearly three centuries became the capital. \
There Christianity was first planted in the tenth \
century, though tradition asserts that St. Andrew the
Apostle first set the Cross up on its heights. On
the death of Igor, Olga his widow reigned during the
minority of her son, and it was in her day that
Christianity began to spread slowly throughout the
middle of the continent. In the year 955 when there
was peace from foreign and domestic enemies, this
queen sailed down the Dnieper and over the Black

* See Gilman, "The Story of the Saracens," 345, 346.

246 THE RISE OF RUSSIA.

Sea to Constantinople, and was there baptized with
much ceremony under the supervision of Constantine
Porphyrogenitus, and received the Christian name of
Helen.

Vladimir the Great, her grandson, received baptism
thirty-three years later, at Kherson, close to the modern
Sevastopol. The legend runs that when he was
besieging the place he said that if he took it he would
be baptized in the holy font excavated in the floor of
the ancient church there, and he kept his word. The
well is still to be seen. He supported the new faith
with zeal, and founded churches and schools. Accord-
ing to Gibbon, all who refused baptism were treated
as enemies of God and their prince, and accordingly
" the rivers were instantly filled with many thousands
of obedient Russians who acquiesced in the truth and
excellence of a doctrine which had been embraced by
the great duke and the boyars." ^

The descendants of Vladimir did not dwell in peace,
and the kingdom became in time a group of prince-
doms, which fought innumerable campaigns with each
other and with the barbarians. In the twelfth century
the titular capital was the city of Vladimir, on a river
between the Oka and the Volga ; Kiev and Nov-
gorod were among the most wealthy and prosperous
places on the continent ; and the new city of Moskva,
or Moscow, had been founded (1147).

For a century the confederated princedoms were
at war among themselves, and then a new and startling
danger arose in the south-east. The terrible Chingiz
Khan sent a portion of his troops to harass the

* " The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chapters lii., liv.

INVASION OF TARTARS. 247

Turkish tribes west of the Caspian Sea. They passed
through Georgia and over the Caucasus range yntil
they reached the steppes of Russia. There they
encountered forces that the Russians had raised to
oppose them, and won a complete victory, in 1224, on
the banks of a small river that empties itself into the
Sea of Azov near the present town of Mariupol. The
invaders had crossed the Don, and made considerable
progress into the domain of their enemies.

For a dozen years the common people were filled
with forebodings of the return of the Tartars, and
at the end of that time their fears were realized.
Batu, grandson of Chingiz, poured his Mongol hordes
upon the inhabitants, slaughtered men, women, and
children, and burned their dwellings and cities. . Mos-
cow and Vladimir became heaps of smoking ruins ;
all opposing armies were crushed by the tumultuous
Asiatics. N6vgorod saw the wild horde approaching
and expected the fate of its sister cities, but for no
reason that could be surmised, Batu turned back, and
swept southward to the steppes of the Don. The
next year he wasted Southern Russia and retreated to
a place of safety. In 1240, he appeared in front of
Kiev, which, though already devastated by civil war,
beckoned him with its promise of spoils. Soon the
bright domes became a prey to the flames, the palaces
were rifled ; the citizens were butchered or made
captive ; and smoking walls were all that remained
of the splendour that once was Kiev. Batu hurried
westward, but was defeated at Liegnitz (1241), in
Moravia, and forced to flee to the other side of the
Volga, where he laid the foundation of the famous

248 THE RISE OF RUSSIA.

city of Seray.^ There he pitched his golden camp,
or ordUy from which his followers afterwards received
the name "Golden Horde;" while the name of the
city is preserved in the word " seraglio," a palace.

Russia was completely cowed by these invaders,
and for more than two hundred years was in effect a
Tartar province. The waste places were, however,
cultivated again, and the cities slowly recovered from
their ruined condition ; but the hand of the Tartar
was heavy upon the people, and ever and anon the
fearful rumour passed from mouth to mouth that the
invaders were again at hand, and in the imagination
of the terrified folk the scenes of the time of Batu
were repeated in all their frightful horrors.

The yoke was not borne with resignation all this
long time. Alexander Nevski, the Russian national
hero and canonized Tsar, raised the spirits of his
northern subjects by a mighty victory over the Swedes
on the banks of the Neva in 1240, where St. Peters-
burg now stands. In 1378 and 1380, Demetrius IV.,
appointed grand prince by the Mongols, brought
against his masters a well -trained army and twice
routed them. In one conflict on the Don he killed,
they say, one hundred thousand Tartars; but, in 1381,
the irrepressible horde returned and burned Vladimir
and Moscow, slaying in the latter cit}^ alone, it is said,
twenty-four hundred persons. Peace was purchased at
a heavy sacrifice.

* This city is mentioned by Chaucer in the Squire's Tale — ** the
half-told tale of Cambuscan " —

** At Sarry. in the land of Tartarye,
Ther dwelte a kynge that werreyed Russye."

IVAN THE GREAT, 249

Nevertheless the importance of Moscow increased
as time passed, and in the next century Ivan III.,
the Great, taking advantage of the weakness which
followed the internecine wars which, in the time of
Tamerlane,! had devastated the Golden Horde, had
strengthened himself sufficiently to throw off the yoke.
His reign marks a new period in Russian history.
He united Novgorod, Moscow, and other states, and
a kingdom of Russia became for the first time a pro-
bability. He married a princess of Constantinople,
and expressed his share in the rights of blood-relation-
ship by placing a double-headed eagle upon his
escutcheon, instead of St. George and the Dragon,
which he had formerly borne.

Under Ivan the Great laws were improved and
taxes regulated. The Tartars were now broken up
into a number of small khanates — Krim, stretching
along the Don ; Kazan, on the Volga ; Astrakhan,
on the Lower Volga ; and others further east. In
1502 the golden city of Seray was taken and
destroyed.

The reign of Ivan first brought the Russian Court
into peaceful relations with the Porte. Certain Turks
had laid burdensome impositions on the Muscovite
merchants trading among them, and when, in 1492,
the facts came to the knowledge of Ivan the Great,
he wrote to Bayezid II. and proposed diplomatic
intercourse between the two empires.^ Three years

^ Timur ravaged South-enstern Russia in 1396, and threatened
Vladimir and Moscow, but unexpectedly retired.

^ Diplomacy in the modern acceptation of the term, was then in its
infancy. Though it is generally said to have become a science in the

250 THE RISE OF RUSSIA.

later the Tsar sent his first ambassador to the Golden
Horn.

Though this was the first diplomatic connexion
between Ottoman and Russian history, it was not
the beginning of conflict between Russia and Con-
stantinople. As early as 864, a Russian fleet had
appeared at the Golden Horn, and had with some
difficulty been repulsed. In 906 the city was panic-
stricken by the approach of land and water forces
under Oleg, guardian of Igor, the son of Rurik.
The inhabitants were plundered, tortured, and put
to the sword in great numbers. Again, in 941, Igor
himself went down with " thousands " of galleys and
ravaged the coasts, destroying towns and crucifying
the inhabitants. He was repulsed by the wonder-
ful "winged fire" which had discomfited the Sara-
cens centuries before. In 972, Svatoslav I. made
another expedition, but was defeated by the Em-
peror, John Zimiskes, in the Balkan, after a terrible
struggle, and lost his life before he was able to re-
gain his capital. Thus early began the Russians to
cast longing eyes upon the beautiful city on the
Bosphorus.

Moscow advanced in power. It was blessed with
cautious princes, who made a virtue of necessity by
bowing to the Tartars when they were too strong to
be resisted, but were ever ready to strike in earnest
when they had a chance. They contrived at the

reign of Henry IV. of France, under the head of his great minister
the Duke of Sully, it had been much cultivated by the Italian
republics, and Machiavelli {1467-1527) was ambassador to France as
early as 1500.

IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 25 1

same time to win the favour of the Greek Church,
and they had the support of the boyars or nobility.
The refractory Lithuanians were gradually subdued,
and though not yet Tsars, in the modern meaning,
the descendants of Rurik the Norseman were styled
"Grand Princes of All Russia." In 1552 the Tartars
of Kazan were conquered and made tributary, and
a realm comprising some thirty-seven thousand
square miles acknowledged the sway of Ivan IV.,
Grozni, "the Terrible." He in turn, despite his cruel
nature, increased his patrimony to more than a
hundred and forty thousand square miles, and during
the half-century of his reign accomplished more for
Russia than any previous sovereign.

The Krim Tartars were fierce foes of this first Tsar ^
of Russia. They were tributary to the Sultan, but he
did not take part in their strife with the Tsar. The
Turkish Vezir Sokolli was at that time anxious to
revive an enterprize often conceived and even at-
tempted in ancient times. This was the creation of
a water-route from Constantinople to the borders of
Persia, in the interests alike of commerce and of war.
It was to be accomplished by cutting a canal between
the Don and the Volga ; ships could then sail from
the Black Sea, through the Sea of Azov, up the Don
and down the Volga, to the Caspian. Astrakhan^at
the mouth of the Volga, then held by Russia, was an
essential part of the plan. A large force was sent out
to take it, but it was routed and obliged to return ;
and an army of Tartars which went to its assistance,
was also defeated by the Russians. The Tsar sent

^ Or Czar : a contraction of Caesar.

252 THE RISE OF RUSSIA.

an ambassador to Constantinople to complain of the
attack on Astrakhan, and a friendly alliance was
arranged. Russia was not yet strong enough to
display open resentment. In I57i,ayear after this
alliance, the Krim Tartars sent an expedition against
Moscow. The city was taken by storm and sacked ;
thousands of the inhabitants perished in the flames.
The Tsar, who had in the previous year been tormenting
his subjects in the most fearful manner on suspicion
of treason, fled ingloriously from his capital, and
found an asylum among his long-suffering people
elsewhere.

As the reign of the terrible Ivan wore slowly to its
close there was ostensibly peace between the Tsar
and the Grand Signior, and after his death came a
period of anarchy and rival claims which prevented
any attempt at foreign aggrandisement. After the
House of Romanov, however, had become fairly
established on the throne, the natural and constant
jealousies between the two peoples increased, and
actual conflict became imminent. The Tartars were I
a perpetual thorn in the side of Russia, and the 1
Cossacks were scarcely less irritating to Turkey. \
There were frequent petty wars in the latter part of
the seventeenth century. In 1696 Peter the Great
took Azov and gained a footing on the shores of the
Black Sea ; but the Peace of Cailowitz had dis-
couraged the Turks too much for resistance, and in
1700 a treaty of peace was concluded for thirty years.
Meanwhile the Tsar went on fortifying Azov, and the
Turks met his preparations by building the fortress
of Yenikale. The struggle with Charles XI L of

PETER THE GREAT. 253

Sweden diverted Peter from his designs upon Tur-
key, and when the former took refuge with the
Sultan after the defeat at Pultowa, Ahmed III. had
the courage to refuse to deh'ver him up to the Tsar.
War broke out between Russia and the Porte in
1 7 10, in spite of the thirty years' treaty, and Peter,
the Great found himself surrounded by a superior !
force of Ottomans beside the river Pruth. The Grand \
Vezir had the founder of Russian greatness in^
his power ; but the quick wit and heavy bribes of
Catherine extricated her consort and saved Russia.
Treaties of peace were common transactions between
the two Powers ; one followed in 1 7 1 1 , and another,
sworn for all eternity, in 1720. The Tsar and the
Sultan joined together in a scheme for the partition
of Persia, and eventually effected an advantageous
peace with the Shah.

It was but few years after this that the belief gained
ground in many parts of Europe that the Ottoman
Empire was tottering to its fall, a belief that has
strengthened with time. In our own century it found
its expression in the historic words of the emperor
Nicholas (in 1844) when, referring to the decline of
the Ottomans, he said to Sir Hamilton Seymour, " We
have on our hands a sick man, a very sick man." It
was at that date generally thought that the Turks
might be speedily driven from Europe and their
possessions divided afnong the Christian nations.

The humiliation of Peter the Great on the banks
of the Pruth was not forgotten. Resentment for this
disgrace was nursed by the sovereigns and the people
ever after. Peter II. massed materials of war at

234 ^^^ ^^SE OF RUSSIA.

convenient places, and was just ready for a campaiorn
when his death occurred in 1727. The enterprise
was hindered by circumstances until 1736, when the
Tsaritza Anne thought that the moment for revenge
had arrived, and in March of that year put her troops
in motion. In 1739 the Peace of Belgrade temporarily
closed a struggle that had been carried on with fre-
quent attempts at peace ; but it did not afford the
expected gratification of revenge. The terms were
much too honourable to the Ottomans to satisfy
Russia.

It was twenty-nine years, however, before the con-
flict was renewed. In 1768 indignation arose at
Constantinople against Russia on account of the
occupation of Poland by her troops, and the fraudu-
lent election of Poniatovski, the favourite of Queen
Catherine II., as king, events that resulted in the
*' dismemberment " of that unhappy state. War was
entered upon by the Sultan before he was prepared.
It was pursued with very indifferent generalship
on both sides, except when Rumiantzov led the
Russians, till 1774, and its two most interesting
features were the appearance of a Russian fleet,
largely officered by Englishmen, upon the coasts of
Greece, and the able defence of Silistria in 1773 by
the Turks. It was closed by the treaty of Kaynarji,
dated July 21st, by design of the Russians, since that
was the date also of the disgrace of the Pruth which
it was hoped to obliterate. By this treaty Russia
gained many advantages. The Crimean khanate
and the Danubian principalities were made practically
independent, and while resigning her conquests

CATHERINE THE GREAT. 255

Russia retained the strong fortresses on the Euxine and
Sea of Azov. The treaty of Kaynarji was a definite
step towards that dissolution of the Turkish Empire
which has long been the dream of the Slavs. One
of the empress's grandchildren was named Constan-
tine, and a gate at Moscow was designated " The
Way to Constantinople," as expressive of her faith
in Russian destiny.

The subsequent progress of the international
struggle is marked by the treaties of J assy, Bucharest,
Akkerman, and Adrianople. The Tartars of the
Crimea had by the treaty of Kaynarji been declared
an independent nation with the internal affairs of
which Russia had bound herself not to interfere. In
spite of this agreement, however, the empress had
laid her plans to take possession of the Crimea, even
before signing the treaty in which she so solemnly
declared that she would do nothing of the kind. Ini
1783, the region was accordingly annexed to he^
dominions, and Constantinople was again agitated.
England, however, was then dominated with the idea
of a great northern league against France, and would
not oppose Russia ; deprived of allies, the Sultan
was obliged to acquiesce in the new state of affairs.

In 1787, the empress Catherine visited her new
dominions in company with the emperor Joseph of
Austria, and set up a pompous inscription on a gate
of the city of Kherson, at the mouth of the Dnieper,
to the efi^ect that it opened towards Byzantium.'

' For an account of this visit see " Lettres du prince de Ligne a la
marquise de Coigny, pendant I'annee 1787, publiees avec un preface
par M. de Lescure," pp. xxi. 69. Paris, Librairiedes Bibliophiles, i886.

256 THE RISE OF RUSSIA.

Then the Ottomans could restrain themselves no
longer, but, though again unprepared, declared war.
In December, 1788, occurred the siege of Ochakov, a
strongly garrisoned place which was expected to hold
the northerners back from Moldavia and Wallachia.
The Russian soldiery, after an exhibition of Turkish
butchery in a neighbouring village, were incited to
the deepest desire for vengeance, and pressed forvvard
against all odds until the garrison was overcome.
Then they gave free reign to their appetite for pillage
and murder, and for three days the slaughter was merci-
less. Only some three hundred persons, chiefly women
and children, were left alive out of forty thousand.

The following year, Suvorov, the Russian general
to whom the success at Ochakov was due, was directed
to advance upon the still stronger fortress of Ismail
on the delta of the Danube, some forty miles from the
Black Sea. The place was taken by a night assault ;
but upon entering it the Russians found that the
severest fighting was yet before them, and the struggle
was continued in the streets. Throughout all the
following day butchery raged without mercy. For
three days after they were overcome, the inhabitants
were given up to the brutality of their conquerors, and
thousands were slain.

War closed with the pacification of Jassy, in January,
1792, a treaty being solemnly signed as usual " In the
name of the Almighty." In this document a sincere
desire was expressed on the part of the empress and
the Sultan to reestablish peace, friendship, and good
understanding, which had been interrupted by "trifling
considerations," and to make it enduring.

TILSIT.

257

In the treaty of Kaynarji (1774) the Russians
had managed to insert an article intended to make
Turkey acknowledge them as exercising in some sort
the office of protectors of the Christian subjects of
the Porte. In the treaty of Yassy (1791) an article
was inserted bearing in the same direction, for Cathe-
rine, like Peter the Great, saw the advantages that
would accrue to Russia if she could fix her power in
that quarter. She did not, of course, honestly feel
the sentiments that she expressed through her repre-
sentatives at Yassy, but went on with preparations
for the most formidable campaign that had ever been
planned against the Ottoman Empire. Death happily
interrupted her schemes in November 1796.

The plans of Russia were, however, simply inter-
rupted, they were' to be resumed again at the first
opportunity, and accordingly in 1806, we find her
armies at Yassy, and marching into Moldavia and
Wallachia without a declaration of war. Again there
was consternation and indignation at Constantinople.
War measures were adopted, but they effected nothing
decisive. Meantime a peace was determined at Tilsit
in June, 1807, between the Tsar and the Emperor of
the French, who theatrically embraced on a raft in the
middle of the river Niemen, swore eternal friendship,
and agreed that the Ottoman Empire should be at the
mercy of Russia.^ Such was the secret understanding :
the public treaty however professed to provide for the
evacuation by Russia of the Danubian principalities,
and the Tsar made some show of preparing to retreat.

^ The " eternal " friendship between Alexander and Napoleon lasted
five years.

258 * THE RISE OF RUSSIA.

Austria meanwhile was engaged in the disastrous war
with Buonaparte which ended in the battle of Wagram
and the Peace of Schonbrunn ; and, relieved from any
fear of Austrian interference, the Tsar resolved on
more active measures against Turkey.

A new and important influence had however arisen
at Constantinople. England had been formally at
war with the Porte in consequence of our alliance
with Russia. When the Tsar embraced Napoleon at
Tilsit this purely diplomatic rupture was no longer
necessary, and Sir Robert Adair negotiated the Peace
of the Dardanelles in 1809. In the following year he
left the Embassy, and Stratford Canning, then a young
man of 23, became Minister Plenipotentiary. In spite
of his youth and inexperience, and notwithstanding a
complete want of instructions from England during
the entire period of his mission, Canning set himself
to defeat the intrigues of the French, and succeeded.
Napoleon's object was to weaken Russia, upon whom
he was already meditating his attack, by prolonging
the war with Turkey, which had been continued in a
desultory manner for several years, without any con-
spicuous advantage to either belligerent. He bribed
\ Austria by a promise of a partition of Turkey, just as
he had bribed Russia at Tilsit. He threatened the
Turks with his high displeasure, the displeasure of the
one overwhelming sovereign of Europe, if they listened
to the voice of England — the voice of the one resolute
champion of liberty against universal despotism. He
promised the Porte his favour and protection if it would
prolong the war. Everything seemed in his favour,
and it appeared inconceivable that the Porte would
^:hrow over so powerful a patron.

STRATFORD CANNING, * 259

In face of these tremendous odds, Canning used
his diplomatic genius. It was all he had, for
military or naval support was denied him. Yet by
mere reasoning, by exposing the treachery of Napo-
leon, by revealing his successive schemes of partition,
by working upon the fears and prejudices of the
Turkish ministers with that consummate skill which
in after years gained him the title of "the Great
Elchi," he prevailed. He induced the Porte to make
peace with Russia, even at the sacrifice of territory.
A new frontier was drawn at the river Pruth by the
Treaty of Bucharest, signed in May, 18 12.

This treaty was wholly due to the indefatigable
efforts of the British Minister, and Canning had been
actuated not alone by the desire to spare the Porte the
defeat which must eventually have come upon it, but
by other reasons of high European policy. The one
chance of overcoming the domineering power of
France was to enable Russia to withstand her. There-
fore he worked day and night to release the Russian
army frpm its duties in Turkey, and he succeeded just
in time. Scarcely was the treaty of Bucharest signed
when Napoleon began his fatal march to Moscow, and
the action of Chichakov's army of the Danube upon
his flank was the coup de grace of the disastrous retreat.
English diplomacy finished the work of a Russian
winter.

XIV.

STAMBOL.

Constantinople stands on the finest site in
Europe. St. Petersburg with its noble river, Stock-
holm on its many islands, Venice the bride of the
sea, cannot rival the ancient city of the Eastern
Caesars. To see Rome and die is mere gratuitous
suicide when the other Rome, the beautiful city of
Constantine, remains to be visited. There is hardly a
scene in the world so replete with natural beauty, so
rich in storied recollections, as that enclosed betwixt
the Bosphorus and

** the dark blue water
That swiftly glides and gently swells
Between the winding Dardanelles."

We have left the Plain of Troy behind, and can
almost fancy that we saw the mound of Patroclus ;
there beyond is " many-fountained Ida," and opposite
stands the rocky island of Tenedos, where the Danai
moored their fleet during the ten weary years of the
siege. We are entering the Hellespont, where the
Theban maid fell from the golden ram, and perished
in the strait that bears her name. High on the right,

THE SEVEN TOWERS. 261

ever veiled with clouds, rises Bithynian Olympus,
beneath which, we know, cluster the green groves and
exquisite mosques of Brusa, the old Turkish capital,
invisible from the sea. We are in the enchanted land
of Byron when we look upon Abydos, and think of
the fatal night, —

** on Helle's wave,
When Love, who sent, forgot to save
The young, the beautiful, the brave ; "

and then suddenly we are carried back to the stormy
days of early Christian history, when an inlet in the
southern shore of the Propontis indicates the direction
of Nicaea, and the ruined site of Chalcedon comes into
view. But the islands that fringe the coast take us
once more to a new region of association, not ancient
history, nor yet romance, but modern politics ; for
these are the Prince's Isles, where the British fleet lay
during the critical weeks when the death warrant of
Turkey was being drawn up at St. Stefano exactly
opposite.

As the eye passes St. Stefano an imposing block of
grey walls and feudal-looking battlements comes into
the vision. This is the Castle of the Seven Towers,
where it was the usual custom of the Porte to incar-
cerate the minister of a foreign power upon declara-
tion of war. These grey walls, in triple ranks, are
part of old Byzantium ; there are stones here that
were laid in the time of Constantine, and renewed by
Theodosius. They enclose the whole city in a circuit
of twelve miles, and once they were nearly impreg-
nable. Now they are overgrown with shrubs and

262 STAMBOL.

creepers ; the towers are torn with gaping rents, the
breaches of many sieges are discernible in the crumb-
Hng ruins, and the scene is one of melancholy decay
and desolation.

The old walls run out to a point, and then wind
round to the north, bounding the harbour. The Point
is crowned by a group of irregular ruinous buildings,
and a few better preserved kiosques, which are all
that remain of the Seraglio of the Grand Signior.
Over them rise the bulbous dome and cupolas of St.
Sophia, with its Turkish minarets, and beyond are
other domes and minarets innumerable. Rounding
Seraglio Point, the vessel glides into the Golden Horn
— the wide inlet which forms the splendid harbour of
Constantinople, and divides the city into its European
and its Turkish quarters. On the left or west side is
Istambol,or Stambol, the ancient Byzantium, which is
now entirely inhabited by Mohammedans, as might be
guessed from the long line of mosques that fringes the
Seven Hills, from St. Sophia hard by the Seraglio to the
shrine of the conqueror Mohammed II. at the northern
extremity, near the picturesque village of EyyQb ; and
also from the dilapidated and irregul-ar style of the soft-
toned houses that crowd the slopes below and around
the mosques. On the right of the Golden Horn is
the European quarter, known as Galata near the
water's edge, and as Pera on the top of the steep hill
where the European colony has its houses and the
Embassies their town palaces. Galata is the mer-
cantile and shipping quarter ; Pera is the West End
of Constantinople in all but the points of the com-
pass. It has not many good looks to boast, how-

liH^^^^^^

THE R API A, 265

ever. Its high street or " Grande Rue " is sloped at the
angle of a roof, and in places is as narrow as an alley ;
the shops are, with few exceptions, poor and dirty, and
very few good houses are to be seen, though there are,
in reality, some comfortable mansions secluded behind
high walls and within dusty gardens.

Further to the east are the country houses of both
Turks andChristians,shelteredinthe combes that divide
the swelling downs that bound the Bosphorus on the
north. From the top of the hill of Pera, where the
hideous German Embassy enjoys one of the finest
views in the world, and where one can see the Golden
Horn and the Propontis laid out like a beautiful map, a
couple of miles downhill brings us to the little village
of Ortakoy, with a pretty mosque, and the best
caiques on the Bosphorus. Entering one of these
delicious boats, we round the slight promontory, and
find ourselves at Bebek, a lovely village, nestled in
trees up the bosom of a ravine, and forming a strange
contrast with the frowning Castle of Europe, which,
just beyond, rears its round towers against the sky,
as it did when Mohammed II. built it as a preliminary
to the conquest of Constantinople. Further on are
Therapia and Buyukdere. Therapia is the Richmond
of Pera. When the weather becomes hot, all who can
afford a country-house go to Therapia, where they can
enjoy the cool breeze that blows from the Black Sea.
The British Embassy looks straight down the Bos-
phorus to the mouth, where Jason found the
Wandering Rocks when he went to seek for the
Golden Fleece. It was in the old residence here that
the Great Elchi passed his summer after he had fought

266 STAMBOL.

his famous diplomatic duel with Prince Menshikov.
" Living close over the gates of the Bosphorus, he
seemed to stand guard against the North, and to
answer for the safety of his charge."

The whole tone of the country by night or by day
is lovely. As we see it we begin to understand
Byron's enthusiasm when he saw

" the land of the cedar and vine,
Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine ;
Where the light wings o( Zephyr, oppressed with perfume,
Wax faint in the gardens of Gul in her bloom ;
Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit.
And the voice of the nightingale never is mute ;
Where the tints o the earth and the hues of the sky,
In colour though varied, in beauty may vie,
And the purple of ocean is deepest in dye ;
Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine.
And all save the spirit of man is divine."

No scene more perfect can be conceived than the
Bosphorus by moonlight, with the red of the sunset
dying away into a pale yellow sheen over the minarets
of Stambol ; the hills, clothed with dark cypresses,
stand out like ramparts on either hand, ever and again
cleft with a deep ravine, where a few lights reveal the
presence of a little village ; along the shores are ranged
the white palaces of the Sultan and his race, many of
them deserted and ruinous, shining like pale but stately
ghosts in the cold beams of the climbing moon. Beg-
lerbeg and Dolmabaghche are no longer the homes of
the Grand Signior. He lives on the top of the hill of
Beshiktash, in his new mansion of Yildiz Koshki, or
" Star Kiosque," and the old palaces are left to go to

THE OLD SERAGLIO. 267

ruin, like many another fine old Turkish house which
overhangs the water, into which it must speedily fall,
a type of the history of the nation.

The Sultan, however, shows judgment in choosing
for his residence a height whence a magnificent view
is obtained, and where he is far removed from the bad
odours and dirt of Stambol. The old Seraglio is
incomparably picturesque, but when one approaches
it through the filthy streets, and sees the squalor and
mud and ruin that make up the Turkish quarter, one
ceases to wonder at the removal of the Sultan from
Eski Seray, until one finds oneself inside its enchanted
courts, when the dirt is forgotten, and one marvels
how any prince could wish for a nobler site wherein
to pass his days.

Among the groves of plane and cypress that clothe
the apex of the triangle on which the ancient city of
Constantinople is built, the domes and minarets of
the Seraglio ^ stand forth conspicuously still. Here
in the days of their glory dwelt the Othmanli Sultans,
surrounded by all the luxury and magnificence that
Oriental imagination could devise. This beautiful
palace-city, with its marble and gilded kiosques, its
gardens, flowers, and fountains, must have recalled
the enchanted palaces and fairy cities of the
Thousand and One Nights. But admiration must
have been touched with horror, for many a gloomy
oubliette and grim-looking pile awakened thoughts of

^ Europeans frequently use the word Seraglio as a synonym for
harem, i.e., that portion of a dwelling set apart for the use of the
women of the household. It really means the entire imperial residence,
being a corruption of the Eastern seray, or palace.

268 STAMBOL.

the hideous tragedies that were from time to time
enacted within those walls ; and in the end the
ghastly recollections which these monuments called
forth proved its ruin. Abd-ul-Mejid, gentlest of
Sultans, unable to endure the sight of a place so
haunted by the crimes of his ancestors, abandoned
the old Seraglio for one of those gay and cheerful
mansions which his father had erected on the shores
of the Bosphorus. Since that time the old palace of
the Sultans, deserted by its imperial masters, has fallen
to decay ; more than one terrible fire has swept across
the point on which it stands, and now little remains,
save the outer courts, of what was once the favourite
residence of some of the mightiest of monarchs.

In the latter half of the eighteenth century this
palace, which might perhaps be more correctly de-
scribed as a small town, consisted of a number of
independent buildings erected at different times on
the gardens situated at the point of land where the
Bosphorus enters the Sea of Marmora. On all sides
but one it was surrounded by the sea, from which it
was protected by a tower- flanked wall some thirty
feet in height, while another similar wall shut it in
from the city, the circuit of the whole being nearly
three miles. The buildings were, for the most part,
upon the rising ground that runs along towards the
Seraglio Point, while the gardens stretched down to
the sea on either side. A quay, on which were
mounted several large pieces of artillery, ran along
outside the whole length of the sea-wall, which, as
well as the city-wall, was pierced with a number of
gates, but one only was in general use. This was

THE SUBLIME PORTE, 269

the great gate of the Seraglio, the Bab-i Humayun
or Imperial Gate, that " Sublime Porte," from which
the Ottoman Government derives the name by which
it is best known. Piled up on one side, just without
this gate, were pyramids of heads, trophies of victory
over Greek or Serbian rebels, as ghastly as the skulls
that once bleached upon London Bridge or over
Temple Bar.

Entering under the lofty arch, where fifty Kapujis
or porters stood on guard, the visitor found himself in
the first of the four courts of the Seraglio. This
court, which, like the others, lay open to the sky, was
rather mean in appearance for the vestibule of a
palace. Several buildings stood on each side ; the
public treasury, the orangery, the infirmary, and the
bakery occupying the right, while the timber-yard, the
stables, the armoury, the mint, and several other
offices, were ranged along the left. The armoury,
which still exists, was an old Byzantine church
dedicated to St. Irene, but turned to its present use
by the Turks on their capture of the city. In it are
preserved the keys of many cities taken by the Otto-
mans in the days of their prosperity. To enter the
second court it was necessary to traverse a passage of
about fifteen feet in length, closed by a gate at either
end. This passage, which was hung with old arms,
trophies of Ottoman valour on many a hard-fought
field, was one of those places to which terrible
memories clung. Here Vezirs and other great men
who had forfeited their master's favour were arrested,
and shown the fatal warrant that contained their
doom ; and here they died by the bowstring.

270 ZTAHLOL,

The outer gate of this passage, which went by the
name of the Orta Kapu, or the Middle Gate, was
guarded by fifty porters. In the second court, which
none but the Sultan might enter on horseback, the
paths alone were paved, the rest of the ground being
laid out in grass plots surrounded by rows of cypresses,
and watered by fountains, while all round the court
ran a low gallery covered with lead, and supported by
marble columns, under which, on days of ceremony,
the Janissaries were drawn up. The whole of the
right side of this court was occupied by the offices
and kitchens, while on the left, among other buildings,
stood the Record Office, the Hall of the Divan, the
Office of the Grand Eunuch, and the Outer Treasury,
where was kept the store of those robes of honour,
which the Sultans used to bestow on such persons as
found favour in their eyes. On certain days in every
week a court of justice, presided over by the Grand
Vezir, was held in the Hall of the Divan, which was
open to every subject of the Sultan who had cause of
complaint against his neighbour. Here the dis-
putants came and personally pleaded their cause
before the highest tribunal in the empire, with a good
chance of a just settlement of their case ; for the
Vezirs never knew whether the Sultan himself might
not be watching them from the curtained gallery,
which communicated with the inner courts of the
Seraglio, and had been built in order that the Padishah
might be able to come unobserved and see what
manner of justice was administered in his name
Not far from the Divan -Khana stood the Hall
of the Ambassadors, where the Grand Signior

THE OLD SERAGLIO, 273

used to receive the representatives of foreign mon-
archs.^

These two courts, the first and second, formed the
outer portion of the Seraglio, and were almost of a
public character. They were attended during the day
by a vast number of officers, guards, and servants,
collectively known as the Aghayan-i Birun, or Mas-
ters of the Outside, not one of whom was permitted to
pass into the third court, where the private establish-
ment of the Sultan began. This inner division, which
was served by the Aghayan-i Enderun, or Masters of
the Inside, i.e., the Four Chambers of pages and the
two corps of eunuchs, was entered by a gate called
the Bab-i Sa'adet, or Gate of Felicity. On passing
through this doorway an entirely new scene presented
itself; instead of the rectangular courts which formed
the outer portion of the palace, there appeared an
extensive garden, studded with many buildings, large
and small, arranged in no apparent order, but all
glittering with gold and marble. Conspicuous among
the kiosques and fountains, some of which were of
extreme beauty, stood the pavilion of the Sultan, the
Seraglio mosque and library, the immense halls of the
pages — one for each of the Four Chambers — the apart-
ments of the eunuchs, a magnificent suite of baths, and
the imperial Treasury. In this last were preserved the
priceless art treasures of the Sultans, a dazzling array
of beautiful and costly objects, gifts of princely allies
and vassal kings, or trophies of many a devastated
land and plundered capital ; there, indeed,

^ The first and second courts of the Seraglio still exist in a nearly
complete condition.

274 STAMBOL,

*' Jewels wept from bleeding crowns,
Spoils of woful fields and towns."

The treasury was burnt down in 1574, and most of
its precious contents were destroyed. Whatever the
Turks had preserved of the treasures of old Byzan-
tium and the library of Matthias Corvinus doubtless
perished in the flames. But the collection which has
since been gathered together in the later building
gives one some idea of what the Sultan's treasure house
must have contained in the days of Suleyman
the Magnificent. Within the badly-lighted and ill-
arranged chambers of the modern treasury are such
gems and precious stuffs as could not be believed in
unless they were actually seen, as the author saw them
in 1886. Huge emeralds as large as the palm of one's
hand, garments positively plated with great table
diamonds, maces and daggers whose hilts held gems
as large as hen's eggs, jewelled aigrettes, and robes of
state standing up stiff with gold and precious stones.
The splendid gems which glow in every inch of the
glass cases are almost all uncut, as is the fashion of the
East, and their glittering brilliancy is thus concealed
within their formless outlines ; and the workmanship
of most of the thrones and other objects is rich and
elaborate rather than tasteful. Even the arms are
not so beautiful as might have been expected, though
the coat which Murad IV. wore at the siege of Bagh-
dad is a fine piece of chain armour. Art was never
a strong point with the Turks, except when they
employed others to work for them, or copied earlier
models ; but in magnificence, in solid wealth of gold
and precious stones, the Sultan's treasury leaves one

THE TREASURE HOUSE. 275

in a condition of dazed stupefaction. Nothing to
compare with its barbaric splendour exists in any
other European capital.

Jealously guarded in another building lay, and in-
deed still lie, the sacred relics of the Prophet Moham-
med. These, which passed into the possession of the
Ottoman monarchs when the last of the Abbasides
made over to SelTm I. the office and dignity of the
Khalifate, consist of a few seemingly trivial objects,
the most prominent among which are the mantle and
banner of the great reformer — the mantle which he
threw over the old Arab poet, Ka'b ibn Zubeyr, in
token of his delight with an ode which the latter im-
provised and which has ever since been famous as the
Poem of the Mantle ; — his banner, that Sanjak-i Sherif,
or Holy Oriflamme, under which in olden days Khalifs
and Sultans used to lead their hosts to victory. Near
the further end of this division of the Seraglio, in a
place called the Chimshirlik, or Boxwood Shrubbery,
were twelve pavilions, each containing several rooms,
and each surrounded by a high wall enclosing a little
garden. This was the Kafes, or Cage, the residence
of the imperial princes, sons of the Sultan. Each
prince, in his separate pavilion, from which he was not
allowed to come forth without the special permission
of his father, was attended by some ten or twelve fair
girls and a number of young pages ; and these were
the only companions whom he might see and converse
with, except the black eunuchs to whom his education
was confided.

Beyond this third division of the Seraglio, — se-
parated from it by a massive wall, pierced by a single

276 STAMBOL,

passage which was closed by four gates, two of bronze
and two of iron, whereat black eunuchs stood on guard
night and day — lay the imperial harem', another large
garden, stretching down to the sea-wall, and dotted,
like the former, with numerous detached buildings.
The harem was exclusively tenanted by the women of
the imperial household ; no man save the Sultan himself
was allowed to explore that paradise of earthly houris ;
even the Grand Eunuch must receive his imperial mas-
ter's permission before he ventured to pass through
the fourfold gate. In the middle of the harem garden
rose the Sultan's pavilion, blazing with cloth of gold
and hangings embroidered with precious stones. Each
of the Kadins, or wives of the Padishah, (there were
usually four,) had a pavilion containing ten or twelve
rooms and a suite of attendants of her own ; while
the other women were provided with apartments suited
to their respective positions. There were, of course,
besides these, numerous baths, kiosques, summer-
houses, and similar places, where the ladies of the
Seraglio, who were forbidden to pass beyond the
harem bounds except on certain stated occasions
might amuse themselves as best they could.

The palace officials consisted of the Aghayan
Birun, or Masters of the Outside, and the Aghayan-i
Enderun, or Masters of the Inside. The former
whose duties lay exclusively in the two outer courts
and who might never pass beyond the Gate of Felicity,
were divided into eight classes : the Ulema, or
Doctors ; the Rikab Aghalari, or Masters of the
Stirrup ; the Umena, or Intendants ; the Shikar
Aghalari, or Masters of the Hunt ; officers subor-

THE sultan's household. 277

dinated to the Grand Eunuch, officers subordinated
to the Kilar Kyahyasi, or Comptroller of the Buttery,
the Body-guards, and the Palace Guards.

The class of doctors consisted of five officers : the
Khoja, or titular Tutor of the Sultan, the First and
Second Imams or Chaplains, the Chief Physician,
the Chief Astrologer, the Chief Chirurgeon, and the
Chief Oculist. The duty of the cliaplains was to
replace the Sultan in the mosque at the Bayram
feasts, when, as head of the religion, he was supposed
to lead the public worship. The Chief Physician,
who had under his orders about eiorhteen members
of his craftj used to derive a considerable profit from
the preparation of ma'jun. This was a sort of sweet-
meat composed of essence of opium, aloes-wood,
ambergris, and other aromatics, which he composed
and sent in china vases at the Nev-ruz, or Festival
of the Vernal Equinox, to the Sultan and the
members of his family, to the Grand Vezir and other
great men of the state, from all of whom he received
handsome gifts in return. The Chief Astrologer's
business was to consult the stars as to the prospects
of any projected action, and to prepare an annual
almanac in which all the lucky and unlucky days
were indicated. The Chief Oculist was charged
with the preparation of the surma, or collyrium,
which the ladies of the harem rubbed upon their
eyelids.

The Masters of the Stirrup, so called because they
were supposed to attend the Sultan when he rode,
comprised five great officers : the Lord of the Banner,
the Chief Gardener, the First and Second Lords of

278 STAMBOL.

the Stable, and the Comptroller of the Porters.
Besides these functionaries there was a corps of
gentlemen, about five hundred strong, called the
Kapuji Bashis, or Chief Porters, who were all
reckoned among the Masters of the Stirrup. None
but the sons of Pashas or VezTrs were eligible for
admission into this select body, the members of
which acted as chamberlains on state occasions, when
they wore a long robe of cloth of gold trimmed with
sable and a curious-looking gilt head-dress sur-
mounted by an enormous crest of white plumes,
shaped somewhat like an umbrella. When a foreign
ambassador was admitted into the imperial presence,
it was by the Chief Porters that he was introduced.
One of their number stood on guard every night at
the Middle Gate, at the entrance to the Second
Court of the palace. The Lord of the Banner had
charge of the imperial standards and of the seven tughs,
or horsetails, of the Sultan. ^ He also commanded
the corps of Chief Porters, and was superintendent
of the military music of the palace.

One of the most influential officers of the court
was the Bostanji Bashi, or Chief Gardener. This
functionary was governor of the Seraglio and over-
seer of all the Sultan's gardens and summer- palaces.
The shores of the Bosphorus and Sea of Marmora,
from the entrance to the Black Sea as far as the
Dardanelles were all under his inspection ; and no

* The Tugh, or ensign of the Turkish tribes, was originally the tail of
a yak, but when the Ottomans left Central Asia, that of a horse was
substituted. Governors of provinces received one, two, or three tughs.
according to their rank ; the Sultan alone displayed seven.

THE CHIEF GARDENER, 279

one might erect, or even repair, any kind of building
on the land subject to his jurisdiction without his
permission, which had to be paid for. He was
ranger of the forests in the neighbourhood of Con-
stantinople, and had charge of the royal hunt and
fisheries. Among his duties was the steering of the
imperial barge whenever the Sultan went on the
waters over which he exercised control, an office
which afforded him many opportunities of confidential
communication. He had moreover to preside at the
execution of great men, when that took place within
the Seraglio precincts, and to superintend the prison
where suspected officials were put to the torture.
D'Ohsson tells us that the mere mention of this
dismal place, which was situated close to the Seraglio
bakeries and consequently called the Fur, or Oven,
was sufficient to inspire terror.

The First Lord of the Stable had under his orders
upwards of a thousand equerries, six hundred grooms,
a body of six thousand Bulgarians, known as Voy-
nuks, who acted as grooms to the army in time of
war, the Koru Aghas, or rangers of the parks, and
finally, all the saddlers, camel -drivers, and muleteers
Attached to the palace service. All the meadows and
;Kairies belonging to the Crown, that lay between
Adrianople and Brusa, were under his charge ; and
he was entitled to grant private individuals, on pay-
ment of a certain sum, the right of turning out their
horses to graze on the same. In times of peace the
Voynuks were usually employed in looking after the
Sultan's horses out at grass on these vast plains.

The Comptroller of the Porters received the written

28o STAMBOL.

petitions which were, and still are, presented to the
Padishah on his appearance in public. On p^ala days
he, in conjunction with 'the Chawush Bashi, or Chief
Herald, an officer belonging to the eighth class of the
Masters of the Outside, exercised the functions of
marshal of the court. When the Grand Vezir was
summoned to confer with the Sultan, these two
officials, dressed in long fur-trimmed robes and wear-
ing the tall white cylindrical head-dress known as
mujevveza, met him at the Seraglio gate and marched
slowly five or six paces in front of him, striking the
ground at regular intervals with the silver staffs which
they carried in their hands, till they reached the Gate
of Felicity where the minister was received by two
of the great officers of the household. The Second
Lord of the Stable had charge of the royal mews.

The Intendants also comprised five functionaries:
these were the Intendant of the City, the Intendant
of the Mint, the Intendant of the Kitchens, the In-
tendant of the Barley, and the Imperial Steward.
All these officials belonged to the body of Khojagan,
or Chancellors.

The five Masters of the Hunt were the Av Aghasi,
or Master of the Chase, the Chief Falconer, the Chief
Merlin-keeper, the Chief Hawker, and the Chief
Sparrow-hawker. These officers were latterly purely
.titular, as the Sultans had long ceased to be sports-
men.

In the fifth class, or officers subordinated to the
Grand Eunuch, we have four functionaries. The
Chief Tent-pitcher, who had under his orders a body
of eight hundred men whose duty it was to pitch the

OFFICERS OF STATE. 281

Sultan's tents wherever he might wish to pass the
day, whether in the SeragHo gardens or in one of his
numerous pleasaunces in the environs of Constanti-
nople. The meanest individuals of the corps of
tent-pitchers acted as executioners, and four or five
of these always stood at the Middle Gate in order to
be at hand should their services be required. (2) The
Chief Treasurer, who had charge of the old archives
of the finance department, and of the store of robes
of honour which were bestowed on favoured indi-
viduals, and of the satin covers in which the imperial
despatches were usually wrapped up — twenty store-
keepers obeyed his orders. (3) The Chief Merchant, who
had to procure the cloth, muslin, &c., required for the
imperial household. And lastly, the Chief Present-
keeper, who had charge of all the presents offered by his
subjects or by foreign ministers to the Grand Signior.
The sixth class, the officers subordinated to the
Comptroller of the Buttery, the head of the Third
Chamber of Pages, consisted of six members. The
Chief Assayer, or Taster, under whom were about
fifty assayers whose only duty was to wait upon the
Grand VezTr and other ministers when they dined in
the Hall of the Divan, which they usually did after
holding a court of justice. The title arose in old
times when kings and other great men used to have
an officer who first tasted their food to see if it was
not poisoned. The Chief Musician, who commanded
(under the Lord of the Banner) the military band of
the palace, which was composed of sixteen hautboys,
sixteen drums, eleven trumpets, eight kettle-drums,
seven pairs of cymbals, and four great tymbals. The

282 STAMBOL.

Chief Baker, who had about five hundred bakers
under him. The Master of the Buttery, who was
over one hundred servants. The Chief Cook, under
whom worked likewise a hundred of his craft. And
finally, the Chief Confectioner, who superintended
some five hundred comfit-makers. This great array
of cooks, confectioners, and so on, all wore the same
uniform, a green cloth robe and a pointed cap of white
felt, which in shape bore some resemblance to a large
champagne bottle.

The seventh class, the Body-guards, formed two
corps : the Solaks or Sinistrals, and the Peyks or
Couriers. The Solaks consisted of four companies of
Janissaries, of one hundred men each, under the com-
mand of a captain called the Solak Bashi or Chief
Sinistral, and two lieutenants. These soldiers were
richly dressed, their gilt headpieces being surmounted
by a lofty plume ; their officers wore robes of green
velvet trimmed with lynx fur. The Peyks or Couriers
formed a body of one hundred and fifty men under
the orders of an officer who bore the title of Peyk
Bashi or Chief Courier. Their uniform was not less
splendid than that of the Sinistrals ; they wore helmets
of gilt bronze adorned with a black crest, and were
armed with gilded halberds. Their costume is said to
have been borrowed from that of the body-guards of
the old Byzantine emperors, whose gorgeous court
doubtless furnished the model for many of the insti-
tutions which appeared in the Seraglio of their
successors. When the Sultan rode in state through
the streets, the Sinistrals and Couriers used to march
on foot round his horse.

PALACE GUARDS. 283

The Palace Guards, who formed the last class of the
Masters of the Outside, consisted of the following six
corps : the Bostanjis or Gardeners, the Khassekls or
Royals, the Baltajis or Halberdiers, the Zulfli Baltajis
or Tressed Halberdiers, the Chawushes or Heralds^
and the Kapujis or Porters. The Bostanjis or Gar-
deners, who numbered about two thousand five
hundred men, nominally formed part of the Ojak or
army-corps of the Janissaries. They were the real
guards of the Seraglio ; and to members of their body
was entrusted the protection of the various imperial
parks and pleasure grounds. They also acted as
gardeners, whence their name. One of their duties
was to row the imperial barge v/hen the Sultan was
on board. The Gardeners could be recognized by
their high cylindrical caps of red felt with a long flap
hanging down behind. The Bostanji Bashi or Chief
Gardener, whom we have already seen among the
Masters of the Stirrup, was the commander-in-chief of
this large and important corps ; he had under him a
number of officers whose special titles it is unnecessary
to enumerate here. The Khassekls or Royals formed
a body of three hundred men usually chosen from
among the Gardeners. They wore a red uniform and
were armed with a two-edged sword. The Baltajis or
Halberdiers, who numbered four hundred, were nomi-
nally the guards of the Queens and the imperial
princes and princesses; but the only occasions on
which they really attended those august personages
were when the Sultan took some of the members of
his harem to bear him company during a journey or
on a campaign. Then the Baltajis marched beside the

2o4 STAMBOL.

ladies' carnages and at night camped round their
tents. On these occasions they were armed with
halberds, whence they received their name. It was
they who carried the bier at the funeral of a Sultan or
a member of the imperial family. The Zulfli Baltajis
or Tressed Halberdiers, who were so called because
they wore two artificial tresses of hair which were
attached to their caps and hung down, one along each
cheek, numbered a hundred and twenty men, and were
appointed to serve the pages of the First or Royal
Chamber. The Chawushes or Heralds formed a corps
of six hundred and thirty men, divided into fifteen
companies ; they marched first in all the imperial pro-
cessions. Whenever the Sultan made his appearance
in state the Heralds shouted the Alkish or Acclaim,
the Turkish equivalent to Vive le Roi ; it was : "God
give long life to our lord the Padishah !" The Kapujis
or Porters, who formed the last division of the Palace
Guards, were eight hundred strong ; one of the oldest
of the corps always followed the Sultan when he
appeared in public, carrying a stool decorated with
silver, on which His Majesty placed his foot when
mounting or dismounting his horse.

Except those actually on guard, very few of this
army of Masters of the Outside passed the night in
the Seraglio ; during the day they attended, when
necessary, in the two outer courts, or played their
part in the gorgeous ceremonies and state processions
which were constantly occurring ; but most of them
were married and had houses in the city to which they
retired when the duties of the day were over. In this
they differed widely from the Masters of the Inside,

THE SWORD-BEARER, 285

none of whom could leave the inner division of the
palace without permission, or marry, or wear a beard.
All the officers and servants of the Imperial house-
hold, even the Sultan's sons and brothers, had to
shave their faces all but the moustaches; the Padishah
alone might wear a beard. Except in the case of the
Bostanjis and the Body-guards, this rule did not hold
with the Masters of the Outside, who were permitted
to let the beard grow, as was till a few years ago the
universal practice with all Turks, other than servants
and private soldiers and sailors.

The Aghas or Masters of the Inside, who formed
the private household of the Sultan, consisted of two
classes, pages and eunuchs. The pages were divided
into four companies called Odas or Chambers. The
first of these was the Khass Oda or Royal Chamber
which comprised forty members, the Sultan himself
being reckoned the fortieth. All the members of this
company were officers of high standing and great
influence. Their chief who commanded all the Four
Chambers and acted as major-domo of the palace,
bore the title of Silahdar Agha or Master Sword-
bearer, because he always followed the Sultan, carrying
the imperial scimitar in its scabbard over his shoulder,
grasping it near the point, so that the hilt was behind
his head. He wore a magnificent robe of scarlet and
gold brocade, and a very strange head-dress adorned,
like the cap of the Tressed Halberdiers, with two
locks of artificial hair. No one, except perhaps the
Grand Eunuch, was more intimate with the Sultan
than the Sword-bearer, who often possessed immense
influence, and was not unfrequently raised to the

286 STAMBOL.

Grand Vezlrship, Grand Admiralship, or some other
important office in the state. Sixteen of the other
officers of this chamber had titles indicative of the
services they performed about the Sultan's person ;
thus there were the Master Vesturer, one of whose
duties was to follow the Sultan in processions and cast
handfuls of silver coins among the people ; the Master
Stirrup-holder, who held the Sultan's stirrup when he
mounted his horse ; the Master of the Turban, who
had charge of the imperial turbans, one of which he
carried in the processions, inclining it slightly to right
and left as a salutation to the people ; the Master of
the Napkin ; the Master Ewer-keeper, who poured the
water on the Sultan's hands when he made the
ablutions ; the Private Secretary ; the Chief Turban-
winder ; the Chief Coffee-server ; the Chief Barber, and
so on.

The second company of pages was called the Khazlna
Odasi or Treasury Chamber, and was intended to
guard the jewels and art treasures of the Crown.
Among their officers were the Comptroller of the
Treasury, who had among other duties to keep the
accounts of the imperial household : the Aigrette-
keeper, who looked after the aigrettes or ornaments of
jewels and feathers with which the royal turbans were
decorated ; the Robe-keeper, who had charge of the
state robes which were never presented to the Sultan
without having first been perfumed with aloes-wood ;
the Elder of the Plate, to whose care were entrusted
the services of porcelain ; the Chief Nightingale-keeper
and the Chief Parrot- keeper, who had charge of the
Sultan's birds.

THE BUTTERY, 287

The Third Chamber was that of the Buttery, its chief
being called the Comptroller of the Buttery. The
duty of this division of pages was to look after the
bread, fruit, confections, sherbets, and other foods and
drinks required for the Sultan and his harem. The
Chief Assayer was one of their officers ; another was
the Chief Minstrel, who had charge of the music of the
interior of the palace, where stringed instruments —
lutes, mandolines, and rebecs, enjoyed the greatest
favour. The Sefer Odasi or Journey Chamber was
the fourth and last. In old times its members used to
accompany the Sultan when he went on a campaign ;
but latterly it became a sort of school for singing,
dancing, playing, &c.

Not one of the members of these Four Chambers was
a Turk. They were all sons of Christians, who had
been taken prisoner, kidnapped by brigands, or sent
as tribute by vassal princes. When the Turks re-
captured a rebel Greek town, when the Tartars made
a foray into Hungary or Poland, when the Algerines
took a Prankish vessel or surprised a French or Italian
village, — and such things were of very frequent occur-
rence a century or so ago — they invariably seized
as many little children of both sexes as they could
lay hands on, and sent the best to Constantinople,
sure of obtaining a high price or reward if they
were deemed of sufficient beauty and promise to be
received into the Seraglio. If such was their lot, the
boys were educated as Musulmans, either in a school
set apart for that purpose in the palace itself or in a
special establishment which existed at Galata. The
reason for preferring such persons to native Turks was

288 STAMBOL.

the idea that they would prove more faithful to their
master; ignorant of country and parents, brought up
with all the pride of Musulman and Turkish nobles,
and knowing no master or benefactor save the Sultan
who always made a point of treating them with kind-
ness and liberality, and frequently appointed members
of their body who displayed the necessary ability to
the highest offices in the state, it was thought that
they would naturally be more single minded in their
loyalty and devotion to his interests and person than
any natives, however well affected, who must have had
many ties and connections beyond the palace walls.
All the eunuchs were foreigners, and all the women of
the harem were foreigners, acquired as prisoners of
war or purchased from Georgian or Circassian parents ;
indeed there was not one Turk among all the crowd
who dwelt in the inner Seraglio save the Sultan and
the members of his family, and even these were always
the children of foreign mothers.

The Eunuchs formed two corps, the Black and the
White. The black eunuchs, who were all Africans,
numbered about two hundred, and were the special
guard of the imperial harem. Their chief, whose title
was the Kizlar Aghasi or Master of the Girls, was
one of the greatest men in the empire. He had
the rank of a pasha of three tails, and administered
the Holy Cities and the imperial mosques, from which
he derived an enormous income. He wore a white
robe trimmed with sable and a cylindrical head-dress
of white muslin twenty-five inches high. The white
eunuchs, eighty strong, who looked after the young
pages, obeyed a chief whose style was Kapu Aghasi

THE IMPERIAL HAREM, 29I

or Master of the Gate. Besides these, there were In
the inner division of the Seraglio a number of mutes
and dwarfs ; the former guarded the door of the room
or paviHon when the Sultan conferred with some great
man, an idle form, as every one in the palace under-
jtood and often made use of their peculiar language
of signs ; the dwarfs served as buffoons to divert the
Padishah and his household.

Penetrating now to the innermost sanctuary of the
Seraglio, the imperial harem itself, we find that an
organization not less systematic than that which pre-
vailed amongthe male inhabitants of the palace reigned
likewise among the ladies and their attendants. The
women of the Sultan's household were divided into
five classes : the Kadins or Ladies, the Gediklis or
Handmaids, the Ustas or Mistresses, the Shagirds or
Novices, and the Jarlyas or Damsels. Of these the
Kadins, whose number was usually four, were, so to
speak, the consorts of the Sultan, what Europeans
would call his Sultanas (a term unknown to the
Turks), and each had her own suite of apartments
and attendants. When a Kadin became the mother
of a son she received the title of Khassekl Sultan or
Royal Princess, when of a daughter, that of Khassekl
Kadin or Royal Lady. On the birth of a child the
harem was illuminated, and a number of brilliant
ceremonies took place. The Gediklis were a company
of girls on whom devolved the personal service of the
Sultan when he chose to visit or reside in the harem.
Twelve of the fairest of these, the elite of the harem,
held offices and titles corresponding to those of the
highest officers of the First Chamber of pages. It was

292 STAMBOL.

from among their ranks that the Padishah chose his
Ikbals or favourites. The Mistresses were girls attached
to the service of the Sultan's mother, a very important
personage in the harem, and to that of the Kadins
and their children. The Novices were children who
were educated to recruit the ranks of the Gediklis
and Mistresses. The Damsels were the servants of
all the others, and performed the manual work and
menial duties of the establishment.

The imperial harem contained as a rule about five
or six hundred women, Europeans, Asiatics, and
Africans, hardly one of whom knew whence she came.
They were under the orders of a Grand Mistress whose
title was Kyahya Kadin or Lady Comptroller, and
who was usually chosen by the Sultan from among
the oldest of the Gediklis. This lady vvas assisted by.
another called the Khazinadar Usta or Mistress
Treasurer, one of whose duties was to look after the
expenses of the harem.

Such, then, was the Seraglio in the old days of its
prosperity before the reforming hand of Sultan
Mahmud had swept away its medieval splendour.
The household of the Ottoman monarch of to-day, if
more in keeping with the spirit of the times, is very
commonplace beside that of last century. Nine-tenths
of the old offices and institutions have disappeared ;
stiff European uniforms have driven away the flowing
Eastern robes of silk and velvet, while all those
marvellous caps and turbans, by which more than by
anything else the rank of each man might have been
known, have vanished to be replaced by the charac-
terless and unvarying fez. Nevertheless the modern

THE PRIVY PURSE. 293

Seraglio is hardly an anchorite's cell. The late Sultan
Abd-ul-AzTz employed at least six thousand servants
and officials, and his privy purse cost two million
pounds a year. There were 300 cooks, 400 grooms,
400 boatmen, 400 musicians, and so forth ; while the
harem contained 1200 odaliks. Special officers at-
tended to the Sultan's pipe, his coffee, his wardrobe,
and his perfumed washing-basin. Somebody must
see to the imperial backgammon board, and another
to the august chin. ;^ 16,000 a year was spent on sugar.
There were 600 horses in the stables, and 1 50 coach-
men and footmen. Abd-ul-AzIz was fond of pictures
and jewellery, and spent a quarter of a million on
them annually. Ever}^ year saw him at least three-
quarters of a million deeper in debt for his private
expenditure.!

But, spend how he would, Abd-ul-AzTz could not at-
tain the splendour of the olden times. The Seraglio
system indeed, by its very nature, could not last ; all
the races of the earth were not created simply in
order to furnish slaves or toys to gratify the whims of
a Grand Signior; and even if no Sultan Mahmud had
abolished them, the Four Chambers must have passed
away or been altogether changed from sheer lack of a
legitimate supply of white men. The Sultans would
have to recruit their ranks with members of their own
race, and the moment this was done their old boasted
isolation was at an end.

We may gain some idea of a state ceremony in the
old days of the Seraglio from the following description
of a reception of imperial ambassadors by Sellm the

* " The People of Turkey," by a Consul's Daughter, i. 247-9.

294 STAMBOL.

Second. The old-fashioned language of Knolles be-
fits the subject :

" So accompanied in this honourable wise, the
Embassadors enter the first gate of the Great Turk's
Palace. This gate is built of marble in most
sumptuous manner, and of a stately height, with
certain words of their language in the front thereof,
engraven and guilt in marble. So passing through the
base court, which hath on the right side very fair
gardens, and on the left divers buildings, serving for
other offices, with a little Moschy, they come to the
second gate, where all such as come in riding must
of necessity alight ; here, so soon as they were entered
in at this second gate, they came into a very large
square court with buildings and galleries round about
it, the kitchens standing on the right hand, with other
lodgings for such as belonged to the Court, and on
the left hand likewise rooms deputed to like services.
There are, moreover, many halls and other rooms for
resort where they sit in Council, handling and execut-
ing the public affairs either of the Court or of the Em-
pire, with other matters where the Bassaes (Pashas)
and other officers assemble together. Entering in at
this second gate, in one part of the court, which seemed
rather some large street, they saw the whole company
of the Solaches (Solaks) set in a goodly rank, which
are the archers, keeping always near to the prison of
the Great Turk, and serving as his footmen when he
rideth ; they use high plumes of feathers, which are
set bolt upright over their foreheads. In another place
there stood the Capitzi (Kapuji) in array, with black
staves of Indian canes in their hands; they are the

AN EMBASSY. 295

porters and warders of the gates of the palace, not
much differing in their attire from the Janissaries,
who stood in rank likewise in another quarter. And
besides all these, with many more that were out of
order, as well of the Court as of the common people,
those knights of the Court which accompanied the
embassadors thither with other great ones likewise
of same degree, were marshalled all in their several
companies ; and among the rest the Mutarachaes
(Matrakjis), men of all nations and of all religions
(for their valour the only free men which live at their
own liberty in the Turkish Empire), stood there
apparelled in damask velvet and cloth of gold, and
garments of silk of sundry kinds of colours ; their
pomp was greater, for the turbants that they wore
upon their heads being as white as whiteness itself,
made a most brave and goodly show well worth the
beholding. In brief, whether they were to be con-
sidered all at once, or in particular, as well for the
order that they kept as for their sumptuous presence,
altogether without noise or rumour ; they made the
Embassadors and the rest of their followers there
present, eye-witnesses both of their obedience and of
the great state and royalty of the Othoman Court.
Passing through them the Embassadors were led into
the hall where the Bassaes and other great men of
the Court were all ready to give them entertainment,
they of their train being at the same time brought
into a room that stood apart under one of the afore-
said lodgings all hung with Turke}^ carpets. Soon
after (as their use and manner is) they brought in
their dinner, covering the ground with table-cloths of

296 STAMBOL,

a great length spread upon carpets, and afterwards
scattering a marvellous number of wooden spoons,
with so great store of bread, as if they had been to
feed three hundred persons ; then they set on meat in
order, which was served in forty two great platters
of earth full of rice pottage of three or four kinds,
differing one from another, some of them seasoned
with honey and of the colour of honey ; some with
sour milk, and white of colour ; and some with sugar;
they had fritters also, which were made of like
batter ; and mutton besides, or rather a dainty and
toothsome morsel of an old sodden ewe. The table
(if there had any such been) thus furnished, the guests
without any ceremony of washing sat down on the
ground (for stools there were none) and fell to their
victual, and drank out of great earthen dishes water
prepared with sugar, which kind of drink they call
zerbet (sherbet). But so having made a sort of repast,
they were no sooner risen up but certain young men
whom they call Grainoglans (Ajem-Oghlans), with
others that stood round about them, snatched it up
hastily as their fees, and like greedy Harpies ravened
it down in a moment. The embassadors in the
meantime dined in the hall with the Bassaes. And
after dinner certain of the Capitzies were sent for,
and twelve of the Embassadors' followers were ap-
pointed to do the great Sultan reverence ; by whom
(their presents being already conveyed away) they
were removed out of the place where they dined
and brought on into an under room, from whence
there was an ascent into the hall where the Bassaes
were staying for the embassadors, who soon after came

COURT CEREMONY. 297

forth, and for their ease sat them down upon the
benches, whilst the Bassaes went in to Se/j/mus, who
before this time had made an end of dinner, and was
removed in all his royalty into one of his chambers,
expecting the coming of the Embassadors. All
things now in readiness, and the Embassadors sent for,
they set forward with their train, and came to the
third gate which leadeth into the Privy-Palace of the
Turkish Emperor, where none but himself, his eunichs,
and the young pages his minions, being in the eunich's
custody, have continual abiding, into which inward
part of the palace none entereth but the Capitzi
Bassa (Kapuji Bashi) (who hath the keeping of this
third gate) and the Asigniers (that serve in the Turk's
meat) with the Bassaes and some few other great
men, and that only when they have occasion so to do
by reason of some great business, or sent for by the
Sultan. Being entered in at this gate, which is of a
stately and royal building, the Capitzi, by whom
they were conducted, suddenly caused them to stay,
and set them one from another about five paces in a
little room which, nevertheless, was passing delicate,
all curiously painted over with divers colours, and
stood between the gate and the more inner lodgings,
on both sides of which room, when all things were
whist and in a deep silence, certain little birds were
only heard to warble out their sweet notes, and to
flicker up and down the green trees of the gardens
(which all along cast a pleasant shadow from them)
as if they alone had obtained licence to make a noise.
Selyinus himself was in great majesty sat in an under-
chamber, parted only with a wall from a room wherein

298 STAMBOL,

the Embassadors' followers attended, vvhereinto he
might look through a little window, the portal of his
said chamber, standing in counterpart with the third
gate above mentioned. The Embassadors entering
in, were led single, and one after another, to make
their reverence to the Great Turk, and in the mean-
time certain of the Capitzi, with the presents in their
hands, fetching a compass about before the window,
mustered them in his sight All this while not the
least sound in the world being raised, but a sacred
silence kept in every comer, as if men had been going
to visit the holiest place in Jerusalem. Yet for all
that the Embassadors' followers, placed one after
another (as aforesaid) were not aware that the
great Sultan was so near, looking still when they
should have been led on forwards all together ; how-
beit they were set in one after another, neither did
they that were so set out return again into the room,
but having severally done their reverence, were all
(except the Embassadors that still staid in the cham-
ber) by one and one sent out another way into the
court ; neither could he that came after see his fellow
that went before him after he was once taken in to do
his reverence, but suddenly as the former was let out
the next was advanced forward to the door where
Jsman the Capitzi - Bassa and the Odda - Bassa,
taking him by both arms and by the neck, the one at
the right hand and the other at the left, and so leading
him apace by the way softly left his wrists with their
hands, lest peradventure he might have some soft
weapon in his sleeve. Yet were they all not thus
groped as Marc Antonio Pagasetta (the reporter of

AUDIENCE. 299

this negotiation) saith of himself and some others
also. However, this hath been, and yet is the manner
of giving of access unto the person of the Great Turk
ever since that Amurath the First was, after the battle
of Cassova, murdered by one of Lazarus the Despot's
men, who admitted in his presence in revenge of the
wrong done unto his master, with a short poniard
that he had closely hidden about him, so stabbed him
in the belly that he presently died. And thus like
men rather carried to prison by sergeants than to the
presence of so mighty a monarch, they were presented
unto his majesty ; he, sitting upon a pallet which the
Turks call mastal, used by them in their chambers to
sleep and to feed on, covered with carpets of silk, as
were the whole floor of the chamber also. The
chambers itself, being not very great, was but dark
altogether without windows, excepting that one
whereof we have before spoken, and having the walls
painted and set out in most fresh and lively colours
by great cunning, and with a most delicate grace ;
yet use they neither pictures nor the image of any-
thing in their paintings. The Visier's Bassaes, before
mentioned, were standing at the left hand as they
entered in at the chamber door, one by another in
one side of the chamber, and the Embassadors on the
right hand on the other side standing likewise and
uncovered. The Dragomans were in another part of
the chamber near the place where the Sultan sat,
gorgeously attired in a robe of cloth of gold all em-
broidered with jewels, when, as the Embassador's
followers by one and one brought before him (as is
aforesaid) and kneeling on the ground, a Turk stand-

3^0 STAMBOL.

ing on his right hand, with all reverence taking up
the hem of his garment, gave it them in their hands
to kiss. Selymus himself all this while sitting like
an image without moving, and with a great state and
majesty keeping his countenance, deigned not to give
them one of his looks. This done they were led back
again, never turning their backs towards him, but
going still backwards until they were out of his
presence. So after they had all thus made their rever-
ence, and were departed out of the chamber, the Em-
bassadors delivered unto Selymus all the Emperor's
letters, and briefly declared unto him their message ;
whom he, answering in four words as, 'that they
were to confer with his Bassaes ; ' presently they were
dismissed. And so coming out of the two inner gates
they mounted on horseback and took the way, lead-
ing towards their lodging, being at their return ac-
companied by the whole order of the Janissaries, with
their aga and other captains, among whom were
certain of their religious men called Haagi (which
used to follow the Janissaries) vho continually turning
about, and in their going, singing or rather howling
out certain psalms and prayers for the welfare of their
great Sultan, gave the Embassadors and their followers
occasion to wonder, that they either left not for weari-
ness or fell not down like Noddies for giddiness. All
these were sent, the more honourably to accompany
the Embassadors to their lodging ; and beside these,
many more on horseback than attended them at
their coming forth ; in regard whereof the Embas-

* Knolles, i, 563-4.

A MEDIEVAL EMBASSY.

301

sadors, when they were come to their lodging, to
requite their greedie courtesy, frankly distributed
amongst them above four thousand dollars, and yet
well contented them not." ^

XV.

OTTOMAN LITERATURE.

The literature of the Ottomans was, like their
civilization, borrowed from the Persians through the
Seljuks ; and it is natural that we should find a
close resemblance between their writings and those of
their Persian masters. We are not then surprized
when we see the same tone and sentiment, the same
figures of speech, and the same structure of verse,
in the literatures of the two peoples. In both
the poetry is superior to the prose. Persian and
Ottoman poems are, when at their best, marked by
extreme grace and finish, by great elegance of dic-
tion, and not unfrequently by a beautiful harmony-
But they are, on the other hand, highly artificial ;
the sentiment is often exaggerated, the ideas either
conventional or far-fetched, and the language dis-
figured by a variety of verbal conceits, too often of
a very childish description. If we except the long
narrative poems, the range of subjects sung by the
muses of Persia and Turkey is very limited. Love,
with its woes and its joys, naturally and by right
assumes the first place ; then we have the charms
of the springtide, the sweet song of the nightingale,
the beauty of the flowers, and other delightful things

THE GHAZEL. 303

of Nature, generally with an undertone of religious
mysticism audible throughout. And that is well-nigh
all. It is remarkable that the Turks, though essen-
tially a military people, had no war-poetry worthy of
the name ; the Persians had none (apart from their
epics), and so it never occurred to the Ottomans to
write any.

The long narrative poems already mentioned are
written in rhyming couplets ; but the most marked
feature in the rhyme-system of these Eastern litera-
tures is what is known as the monorhyme. A single
rhyme-sound, that of the first couplet, is carried
throughout the entire poem ; this rhyme is repeated
in the second line of each that follows, while their
first lines do not rhyme at all. Examples of this
system, which is very simple, will be seen in most of
the translated poems that occur in this chapter. The
favourite composition of the Ottoman poets is called
iki^ghazel; this is a short monorhythmic poem, usually
consisting of less than a dozen couplets, in the last
of which the writer generally inserts his name, as
though putting his signature to his little work.

The prose in its higher flights is generally bom-
bastic, often involved, and, like the poetry, bristles
with equivoques and other verbal tricks, which, though
frequently ingenious, are more or less trivial, and
always give a forced and unnatural appearance to the
style. A peculiarity of ambitious prose is the sej,
an embellishment which consists in making the last
words of the several clauses of a sentence rhyme
together, the result being a jingle rather irritating
than otherwise to Western ears. The extracts which

304 OTTOMAN LITERATURE.

are here translated from the old chronicler Sa'd-ud-din,
will give the reader some idea of the effect of the sej.
The simpler prose is more natural, and consequently-
more pleasing ; but it is apt to err in the opposite
direction, and become bald and uninteresting.

Ottoman literature is very extensive, writers of
every kind, but especially poets, having been at all
times both numerous and prolific. We shall have to
content ourselves here with making the acquaintance
of a few of the most eminent of those authors who
have won for themselves a high position in the literary
history of their country.

One of the earliest of Ottoman poets is GhazI
Fazil, a Turkish noble who crossed the Hellespont on
the raft with Prince Suleyman that night when the
Ottomans gained their first foothold in Europe (p. 34).
The following lines, evidently written after some
successful fight with the Byzantines, may possibly
refer to this expedition in which the warrior-poet
helped to win a new empire for his race : — '

*' We smote the paynim once again, our God did send us grace ;
The arrows of our holy- war were thorns in the foeman's face.
All spirits that are in the skies came down lo lend us might,
And from the earth arose to succour us our martyr race.
We look to God for aidance, they of holy-war we l^e,
And in the cause of God our lives and bodies offer we."

Some time after this, Sheykhl of Kermiyan wrote
a long narrative poem on the adventures of Shlrln,

^ In this fragment, as in all the other renderings of verse in this
chapter, besides translating almost literally and line for line, I have
retained the rhyme-movement and, as far as |x>ssible, the metre of the
original, hoping in this way to give the reader as accurate an idea as
I can of the general effect of Turkish poetry.

THE FORTY VEZIRS. 305

the favourite heroine of Persian romance ; and later
still Yaziji-oghlu composed a versified history of the
Prophet, which he named the Mohammediya. The
most interesting prose work of this early perici is
a collection of old popular tales, known as the
" History of the Forty VezTrs," compiled by an
author of the first half of the fifteenth century, who
calls himself Sheykh-zada or the Sheykh's son, and
whose personal name was probably Ahmed. The
following story, which is that told by the twentieth
Vezir, shows at once the character of the tales and
the simple unaffected style in which the book is
written :

" Of old time there was a great king. One day,
when returning from the chase, he saw a dervish
sitting by the way, crying, * I have a piece of advice ;
to him who will give me a thousand sequins, I will
tell it' When the king heard these words of the
dervish he drew in his horse's head and halted, and
he said to the dervish, ' What is thy counsel ? ' The
dervish replied, ' Bring the sequins and give me
them that I may tell my counsel' The king ordered
that they counted a thousand sequins into the dervish's
lap. The dervish said, ' O king, my advice to thee
is this : whenever thou art about to do a deed, con-
sider the end of that deed, and then act.' The
nobles who were present laughed together at these
words and said, ' Any one knows that.' But the
king rewarded that poor man. He was greatly
pleased with the words of the dervish, and com-
manded that they wrote them on the palace-gate
and other places. Now that king had an enemy, a

306 OTTOMAN LITERATURE,

great king ; and this hostile king was ever watching
his opportunity ; but he could find no way save this,
he said in himself, ' Let me go and promise the king's
barber some worldly good and give him a poisoned
lancet ; some day when the king is sick he can bleed
him with that lancet' So he disguised himself, and
went and gave the barber a poisoned lancet and
ten thousand sequins. And the barber was covetous
and undertook to bleed the king with that lancet
what time it should be needful. One day the king
Was sick, and he sent word to the barber to come
and bleed him. Thereupon the barber took that
poisoned lancet with him and went. The attendants
prepared the basin, and the barber saw written on
the rim of the basin, ' Whenever thou art about to
perform a deed, think on the end thereof.' When
the barber saw this he said in himself, * I am now
about to bleed the king with this lancet and doubtless
he will perish, then will they not leave me alive, but
will inevitably kill me ; after I am dead what use
will these sequins be to me?' And he took up that
lancet and put it in its place, and drew out another
lancet that he might* bleed the king. When he took
his arm a second time, the king said, * Why didst
thou not bleed me with the first lancet } ' The
barber answered, * O king, there was some dust on
its point.' Then the king said, ' I saw it, it is not
the treasury lancet ; there is some secret here, quick,
tell it, else I will slay thee.' When the barber saw
this importunity, he related the story from beginning
to end, and how he had seen the writing on the
basin and changed his intention. The king put a

AHMED AND SIN AN PASHAS, 309

robe of honour on the barber and let him keep the
sequins which his enemy had given him. And the
king said, ' The dervish's counsel is worth not one
thousand sequins, but a hundred thousand sequins.'" ^

But there is little work of real merit before the
capture of Constantinople in 1453. Not very long
after that event certain ghazels of Mir All Shir
Nevayl, a contemporary Tartar prince and poet,
found their way to the newly-won capital of the
Ottomans. There ihey were copied by Ahmed Pasha,
one of the Vezirs of Mohammed 11. Although they
possess no originality, many of them being little
else than translations from Nevayl, the poems
of this minister are among the landmarks in
Ottoman literary history. It was only after their
appearance that poetry began to be regularly culti-
vated, and they rendered important service in the
work of settling and refining the language. Sinan
Pasha, another of the Conqueror's Vezirs, was the
first who excelled in high-flown prose ; he is author
of a religious work entitled Tazarru'at " Supplica-
tions," the style of which, notwithstanding a lavish
use of the embellishments supplied by Persian
rhetoric, is remarkable for its lucidity and directness.
Here are one or two sentences from it :

" Thou art a Creator, such that nonentity is the
store for Thy creations ; Thou art an Originator, such
that nothingness is the material for Thy formations !
Far-sighted understanding cannot see the horizon of
the summit of Thy righteousness ; swift-winged en-

' " The History of the Forty Vezirs," translated by E. J. W- Gibb,
pp. 22CH323. (Redway, l8300

310 OTTOMAN LITERATURE,

deavour cannot reach the verge of the pavilion of Thy
mightiness. The soaring eagle, the human mind, to
which the existences, celestial and terrestrial, are ever
the prey of claw and beak, cannot open the wing and
fly for one moment in the air of Thy sublimity ; and
the peacock, mortal thought and understanding, which
strutteth day and night in the plain of domain and the
mead of might, cannot move one step on the road to
Thy divinity."

The lyric poets Nejati and ZatT, who follow Ahmed
Pasha, show a marked advance ; while the poetesses
Zeyneb and Mihrl deserve mention among the more
notable writers of the time of Mohammed II. As
we have seen in a previous chapter, that sovereign,
like most of his house, warmly patronized literature
and men of letters, was himself a poet, and some tole-
rable verses by him are preserved in the old antho-
logies. His grandson, Selim I , surnamed Yawuz,
" the Grim," was perhaps the greatest of the Ottoman
Sultans ; high as were his military and administrative
talents, they were hardly more remarkable than his
poetic genius. Of the four and thirty monarchs who
have occupied the throne of Osman, twenty-one have
left verses, and of these twenty-one Selim the First is
unquestionably the truest poet. His work is, however^
for the most part in the Persian language, a circum-
stance much to be regretted, as, had he chosen to
write in Turkish, his high talents could hardly have
failed to render valuable service to the language and
literature of his nation. The following is a translation
of one of the few Turkish ghazeis which this great
monarch wrote :

G HAZEL OF SELIM I. 3II

"Down in oceans from mine eyen rail the tears for grame and teen,
Acheth still my head for all the dolour that my feres have seen.
That the army of my visions o'er the flood, my tears, may pass.
Form mine eyebrows twain a bridge, one-piered, with arches two

beseen.^
Clad in gold-bespangled raiment, all of deepest heavenly hue,
Comes the ancient Sphere each night-tide, fain to play my wanton

quean. ^
Lonely had I strayed a beggar through the realms of strangerhood,
Had not pain and woe and anguish aye my close companions been.
O thou Sphere, until the Khan Selim had nine full beakers drained.
Ne'er did he, on all earth's surface, find a faithful friend, I ween. "3

Kemal-Pasha-zada Ahmed, often called Ibn-Kemal
a high legal functionary, distinguished himself during
this reign both in verse and prose ; among his works
are a poem on the romantic history of Joseph and
Zuleykha (as the Easterns name Potiphar's wife), and
a treatise called the Nig«aristan, similar in style to the
well-known Gulistan or " Rose-garden " of the Persian
Sa'dl. MesihT, another contemporary of Sellm I., is
chiefly known through one poem of great beauty,
which has gained for its author a European celebrity.
This is an ode on spring, consisting of eleven four-
line strophes, four of which I quote :

' Indulging in one of those quaint conceits, of which the old poets,
Western as well as Eastern, were so fond, the Sultan here conceives his
nose and eyebrows as forming a bridge for the fancies that throng in his
brain, while his tears represent the torrent that flows beneath.

^ In Ottoman poetry the Sphere represents our "fickle Fortune."
Here this personified Sphere is purposely confounded with the starry
sky.

3 The " nine full beakers " refer to the nine spheres of the Ptolemaic
astronomy. The couplet probably means that until the Sultan had
fathomed the mystery of the universe, he had not found the one true
Friend, i.e., God; but it is rather obscure, as a good deal of old
Ottoman poetry is too apt to be.

312 OTTOMAN LITERATURE.

"Hark, the bulbul's* blithsome carol: * Now are come the days of

spring ! '
Merry bands and shows are spread in every mead, a maze o' spring ;
There the ahiiond-tree bescatters silvern showers, sprays o' spring.
Drink, be gay ; for soon will vanish, biding not, the days o' spring !

Rose and tulip bloom as beauties bright o' blee and sweet o' show,
Who for jewels hang the dew-drops in their ears to gleam and glow.
Deem not thou, thyself beguiling, things will aye continue so.

Drink, be gay ; for soon will vanish, biding not, the days o' spring !

While each dawn the clouds are shedding jewels o'er the rosy land,
And the breath of morning's zephyr, fraught with Tartar musk, is bland.
While the world's delight is present, do not thou unheeding stand ;
Drink, be gay ; for soon will vanish, biding not, the days o' spring !

With the fragrance of the garden, so imbued the musky air,
Every dew-drop, ere \t reacheth earth, is turned to attar rare ;
O'er the garth, the heavens spread the incense-cloud's pavilion fair.
Drink, be gay ; for soon will vanish, biding not, the days o' spring ! "

Up to this time all Ottoman writings had been
more or less rugged and unpolished, but in the reign
of Sellm's son, Suleyman I. (i 520-1 566), a new era
began. Two great poets, Fuzull and Bakl, make their
appearance about the same time ; the one in the east,
the other in the west, of the now far- extending
empire. Fuzull of Baghdad, one of the four great
poets of the old Turkish school, is the first writer of
real eminence who arose in the Ottoman dominions.
None of his predecessors in any way approaches him ;
and although his work is in the Persian style and
taste, he is no servile copier ; on the contrary, he
struck out for himself a new path, one hitherto un-

* The bulbul is the nightingale.

FUZULL 313

trodden by either Turk or Persian. His chief cha-
racteristic is an intense and passionate earnestness,
which sometimes betrays him into extravagances; and
although few Turkish poets are in one way more
artificial than he, few seem to speak more directly
from the heart. His best known works consist of
his Divan or collection of ghazels, and a poem on the
loves of Leyll and Mejnun ; he has besides some
prose writings, which are hardly inferior to his verse-
His works are in a provincial dialect, which differs
considerably from the Turkish of Constantinople ;
and this is perhaps the reason why no school of poets
followed in his footsteps. The two following ghazels
will give an idea of Fuzuh's usual style :

*' O my loved one, though the world because of thee my foe should be,
'Twere no sorrow, for thyself alone were friend enow for me.
Scorning every comrade's rede, L cast me wildly midst of love ;
Ne'er shall foe do me the anguish I have made myself to dree.
Dule and pain shall never fail me, long as life and frame aby ;
Life may vanish, frame turn ashes : what is life or frame to me !
Ah, I knew not union's value, parting's pang I ne'er had borne ;
Now the gloom of absence lets ine many a dim thing clearly see.
Yonder Moon ' hath bared her glance's glaive ; be not unheeding, heart;
For decreed this day are bitter wail to me, and death to thee.

0 Fuzuli, though that life should pass, from Love's way pass not I ;
By the path where lovers wander make my grave, I pray do ye.

Whensoe'er I call to mind the feast of union 'twixt us twain.

Like the flute, I wail so long as my waste frame doth breath retain.

'Tis the parting day ; rejoice thee, O thou bird, my soul, for now

1 at length shall surely free thee from this cage of pine and pain.^
Lest that any, fondly hoping, cast his love on yonder Moon,
Seeking justice 'gainst her rigour, unto all I meet I plain.

^ " Yonder Moon " is, of course, the beautiful object of his love.
^ He is about to be parted from his beloved, consequently he will die^
and thus set free his soul f 1 om the cage of the body.

314 OTTOMAN LITERATURE.

Grieve not I whate'er injustice rivals may to me display ;

Needs must I my heart accustom Love's injustice to sustain.

Well I know I ne'er shall win to union with thee, still do I

Cheer at times my cheerless spirit with the hope as fond as vain.

I have washed the name of Mejniin ' off the page of earth with tears ;

O Fuzuli, I shall likewise fame on earth through dolour gain. "

Baki of Constantinople, though much inferior to his
contemporary Fuzuli, was like him far in advance
of any of his predecessors. His most celebrated
work, an elegy on Sultan Suleyman the First, is
unsurpassed in its style. It consists of a number of
monorhythmic stanzas, each closed by a rhyming
couplet ; I quote the first two, by way of specimen.
The reader is addressed in the opening lines :

" O thou, foot-tangled in the mesh of fame and glory's snare I

How long shall last the lust of earthly honour falsely fair ?

Aye hold in mind that day when life's sweet spring shall pass away;

Alas ! the tulip-tinted cheek to autumn leaf must wear !

And thy last resting-place must be, e'en like the dregs', the dust ; '

And mid the bowl of cheer must fall the stone Time's hand doth bear.3

He is a man in sooth whose heart is as the mirror clear ;

Man art thou ?— why then doth thy breast the tiger's fierceness share?

In understanding's eye how long shall heedless slumber bide ?

Will not war's Lion-monarch's lot suffice to make thee ware ?

He, Prince of Fortune's cavaliers, he, to whose gallant Rakhsh,*

' Mejnun is the Orlando Furioso of the Moslem East ; driven mad
by his hopeless passion for the lovely LeylT, he flies into the desert,
where he wanders about until he dies.

'^ It was customary to throw the dregs on the ground after drinking.

3 A pebble thrown into a beaker was a signal for a party to break
up ; and death, as coming after life, is sometimes likened to the end of
a banquet when the guests are gone and the lights put out.

^ Rakhsh. ?>., Lightning, is the name of the charger of Rustem, the
hero of the Shah-Nama, and the Hercules of all those lands where
Persian culture prevails. When the poet here styles the Sultan's steed
a Rakhsh, he, of course, intends the reader to infer that the rider was
a Rustem.

BAKI. 315

What time he caracoled and pranced, cramped was earth's tourney-
square — -
He, to the lustre of whose sword the Hunnish paynim bowed —
He, whose dread sabre's flash hath wrought the wildered Frank's
despair !
Like tender rose-leaf, gently laid he in the dust his face ;
And earth, the guardian, placed him like a jewel in his case.

In truth he was the radiance of rank high and glory great,

A king, Iskender-diademed, of Dara's armied state. ^

Before the ground beneath his feet the Sphere bent low its head;

Earth's shrine of adoration was the dust before his gate.

The smallest of his gifts the meanest beggar made a prince ;

Exceeding boon, exceeding bounteous a Potentate !

The court of glory of his kingly majesty most high

Was aye the centre where would hope of sage and poet wait.

Although he yielded to eternal Destiny's command,

A king was he in might as Doom, and masterful as Fate !

Weary and worn by yon vile, fickle Sphere deem not thou him ;

Near God to be, did he his earthly glory abdicate.

What wonder if our eyes no more liTe and the world behold.

His beauty sheen as sun and moon did earth irradiate !

If folk upon the sun do gaze, their eyes are filled with tears ;

For while they look yon moon-bright face before their mind
appears !"

During the reign of Ahmed I. (160 3- 1607) arose
the second great h'ght of old Turkish poetry. This
was Nefi of Erzerum, who is as much esteemed for
the brilliancy of his kasidas^ or eulogies, as Fuzuli
is for the tenderness of his ghazels. Like him, he
elaborated a style for himself, which found many
imitators, the most successful of whom was SabrT.
Unfortunately for himself, Nefi was an able satirist ;
his scathing pen drew down upon him the enmity of
certain great men, who prevailed upon Sultan Murad

* Iskender is Alexander the Gieat ; Dara, Darius.

3l6 OTTOMAN LITERATURE,

IV. to sanction his execution (1635). The following
is the opening of one of Nefl's most celebrated
kasldas. It is in praise of Sultan Murad IV., at
whose command the poet is said to have improvised
it as he stood in the royal presence, a story which
seems a little doubtful when we consider that the
poem is one of the most elaborate and artful in the
language. It is a good specimen of Turkish bacchana-
lian verse, and touches in a characteristic fashion on
the charms of the spring season, a theme in which the
Ottoman poets greatly delight :

*' The early springtide breezes blow, the roses bloom at dawn of day ;
Oh ! let our hearts rejoice ; cup-bearer, fetch the bowl of Jem, 1

pray. ^
The gladsome time of May is here, the sweetly scented air is clear,
The earth doth Eden-like appear, each nook doth Irem's bower display.'
'Tis e'en the rose's stound o' glee, the season of hilarity.
The feast of lovers fair and free, this joyous epoch l^right and gay.
So let the goblet circle fair, be all the taverns emptied bare.
To dance let ne'er a toper spare, what while the minstrels chant the

lay.
A season this when day and night the tavern eyes the garth wi' spite ;
Though drunk, he loved a winsome wight, excused were Mekka's

guardian gray.
Oh ! what shall now the hapless do, the lovelorn, the bewildered

crew ?
Let beauties fetch the bowl anew, to spare the which were shame to-
day.
Be bowl and lovesome charmer near, and so the hour will shine with

cheer ;
And he indeed will wise appear who maketh most of mirth and play.
That toper's joy in truth were whole who, drunken and elate of soul.
With one hand grasped the tulip bowl,3 with one the curling locks did

fray.

' Jem, or Jemshld, is an ancient Persian king, celebrated for his love
of splendour and festivity.

° Irem, the terrestial Paradise.

3 The wine makes the crystal bowl red like a tulip.

A KASIDA BY NEF'i, 317

Cup-bearer, lay those airs aside, give wine, the season will not bide,

Fill up the jar and hanap wide, nor let the beakers empty stay.

Each tender branchlet fresh and fine hath hent in hand its cup of

wine.^
Come forth, O cypress-shape,^ and shine ; O rosebud-lips, make glad

the way.
Of this say not 'tis joy or pain ; grieve not, but pass the bowl again ;
Submit to Fate's eternal reign ; and hand the wine without delay.
For wine of lovers is the test, of hearts the bane, of souls the rest,
The Magian elder's treasure blest, 3 th' adorn o' th' idol's festal tray.'*
'Tis wine that guides the wise in mind, that leadeth lovers joy to

find ;
It blows and casts to every wind, nor lets griefs dust the heart

dismay.
A molten fire, the wine doth flow ; in crystal cup, a tulip glow :
Elsewise a fragrant rosebud blow, new-oped and sprent with dewy

spray.
-So give us wine, cup-bearer, now, the bowl of Jem and Kay-Khusrau;5
Fill up a brimming measure thou, let all distress from hearts away.
Yea, we are lovers fair and free, for all that thralls of wine we be,
Lovelorn and stricken sore are we, be kind to us nor say us nay.
For Allah's sake a goblet spare, for yonder moon's that shineth fair.
That I with reed and page prepare the Monarch's praises to assay.
That Sun of empire and command, that Champion-horseman of the

land.
As blithe as Jem, as Hatim bland, ^ whom all the folk extol alway.
That Dread of Rum 7 and Zanzibar, who rides Time's dappled steed in

war,
Who hunts the foeman's hordes afar, Behram, Ferldun-fair in fray,"

^ I.e., the buds.

^ The cypress is the regular emblem for a graceful figure.

3 It is said that wine used to be sold by the Magians in medieval
Persia.

-» The "idol" is the beautiful cup-bearer whom all the revellers
adore.

5 Kay-Khusrau is Cyrus ; it is pronounced Key to rhyme with /Aey.

^ Hatim, an old Arabian chief, famed for his hospitality.

7 Rum is a general name for the lands that formed the Eastern Roman,
or Byzantine, Empire. Rum and Zanzibar stand for the countries in-
habited by the while and black races of mankind, t.e., the whole world.

^ Behram and Feridun are kings of old Persia.

3l8 OTTOMAN LITERATURE.

That Monarch of the Osman race, whose noble heart and soul embrace
Arabian Omar's saintly grace and Persian Perviz' glorious sway. ^
Sultan Murad, of fortune bright, who crowns doth give and kingdoms

smite ;
Both emperor and hero hight, the Age's Lord with Jem's display."

The next notable poet is Nabi, in the time of Sultans
Ibrahim (1640- 1 648) and Mohammed IV. (1648- 1687).
About this time the Persian Saib was introducing in
his own country a new style of ghazel-writing, marked
by a philosophizing, or rather a moralizing, tendency.
Nabi copied him, and consequently brought this new
style into Turkish literature. The greater portion of
his numerous writings are in a didactic strain ; and
some are so closely moulded on his Persian model
that it is difficult to tell that they are intended for
Turkish. He had many followers, among whom
Raghib Pasha and Sami are perhaps the most deser-
ving of mention.

During the reign of Ahmed III. (i 703-1 730)
flourished Nedim, the greatest of all the poets of the
old Ottoman school. Nedim has a style that is
entirely his own ; it is altogether unlike that of any
of his predecessors, whether Persian or Turkish, and
no one has ever attempted to copy it. Through his
ghazels, which are written with the most finished
elegance in words of the truest harmony, sings a
tone of sprightly gaiety and joyous lightheartedness,
such as is not to be found in any other poet of his
nation. His numerous kasldas, while they are more

' Omar is the second Khalif ; Khusrau Perviz, a renowned sovereign
of the Sassanian dynasty of Persia.

nedim's ghazels, 319

graceful, are hardly less brilliant than those of Nef'i,
and are at the same time in truer taste and less
burdened with obscure and far-fetched conceits.
Little is known regarding his life save that he resided
at Constantinople, where the Grand Vezir, Ibrahim
Pasha, appointed him custodian of the librar)^ which
he had founded, and that he was still alive in 1727.
These two ghazels are by Nedim :

"Love distraught, my heart and soul are gone for nought to younglings

fair,
All my patience and endurance spent on torn and shredcfed spare. ^
Once I bared her lovely bosom, whereupon did calm and peace
Forth my breast take flight, but how I wist not, nay, nor why nor

where.
F'aynim mole, and pcynim tresses, paynim eyes, I cry ye grac^ ;
All her cruel beauty's kingdom forms a Heathenesse, I swear.
Kisses on her neck and kisses on her bosom promised she ;
Woe is me, for now the Paynim rues the troth she pledged while-ere.^
Such the winsome grace where vvith she showed her locks from 'neath

her fez.
Whatsoever wight beheld her gazed bewildered then and there.
' Sorrowing for whom,' thou askest, * weeps Nedim so passing sore ? '
Ruthless, 'tis for thee that all men weep and wail in drear despair.

O my wayward fair, who thus hath reared thee sans all fear to be ?
Who hath tendered ihee that tlius thou humblest e'en the cypress-tree ?
Sweeter than all perfumes, brighter than all dyes, thy dainty frame;
One would deem some fragrant rose lad in her bosom nurtured thee.
Thou hast donned a rose-cnwroughten rich brocade, but sore I fear
Ltst the shadow of the bruidered rose's thorn make thee to dree. 3

^ I use the old-fashioned word " spare " to replace the Eastern giriban,
whiih means the opening in a garment from the neck, which enables it
to be put off and on. In this line Nedim means to say that the only
result of all his long-suffering is that he has been driven to tear his robe
through despair at the conduct of his beloved.

* He calls his beloved a Paynim because she has as little mercy as
the infidel foe.

3 So delicate is her skin.

320 OTTOMAN LITERATURE,

Holding in one hand a rose, in one a cup, thou earnest, sweet ;
Ah, I knew not which of these, rose, cup, or thee, to take to me.
Lo, there springs a jetting fountain from the Stream of Life, methought,
"When thou madest me that lovely lissom shape o' thine to see."

What may be called the classical period of old
Ottoman literature closes with Nedim ; its most
brilliant epoch is from the rise of Nefl to the death
of NedIm, or, roughly, from the accession of Ahmed I.
(1603) to the deposition of Ahmed III. (1730).
- Turning now to the prose literature, which we have
not looked at since the days of the Conqueror, we
find the Humayun-Nama, an elegant translation of
the Persian Anvar-i-SuheylT, made by All Chelebi for
Suleyman I. A little later Sa'd-ud-din wrote for his
pupil Murad III. (i 574-1 595), the Taj-ut-Tevarikh,or
" Crown of Chronicles," a history of the reigns of the
first nine Ottoman Sultans. This work, which forms
the first link in an unbroken chain of national annals,
is admired alike for its historical accuracy and for the
elaborate grace of its style. As several extracts from
it have been given in the chapter of this book which
tells the story of the capture of Constantinople, it is
unnecessary to offer any here. The work is written
from beginning to end in sej or rhymed prose, and is
embellished with numerous pieces of poetry, some-
times productions of the author himself, and some-
times quotations from the Turkish and Persian poets.
Of the imperial historiographers, Sa'd-ud-dln's suc-
cessors, Na'Ima calls for special mention ; his history,
which covers the period between 1 591 and 1659, is in
marked contrast, so far as style goes, to the " Crown
of Chronicles," being remarkably simple and direct.

&HEYKH GHALIB, 3^1

and at the same time very vivid and picturesque.
Evliya Efendi, the Sir John Mandeville of the Otto-
mans, travelled far and wide through the three con-
tinents of the old world, and then came home to
Constantinople, where he wrote the story of his
wanderings. The celebrated Hajl Khalifa, sometimes
called Katib Chelebi, who died in 1685, was the
author of a large number of valuable works on history,
chronology, geography, and other subjects. In 1728
appeared the first book printed in Turkey, a trans-
lation of an Arabic dictionary. The press had been
founded by Nedlm's patron, the Grand Vezir Ibrahim
Pasha, and was under the direction of an Hungarian
convert to Islam, who had assumed the name of
Ibrahim.

The last of the four great poets of the old Turkish
school was Sheykh Ghalib, who lived and worked in
the time of Sultan Selim III. (1789- 1807). His
Husn-u-Ashk, " Beauty and Love," an allegorical
romantic poem, is one of the finest productions of
Ottoman genius. Like FuzulT, Nefl, and Nedim,
Sheykh Ghalib successfully originated a style for
himself, which is distinct from that of any previous
writer.

The reign of Mahmud II. (1808- 1839) was a tran-
sition period in Turkish history ; old laws, old customs,
old institutions, were all more or less modified.
Literature did not remain unaffected by the spirit of
the time ; it was then that appeared the first indi-
cations of the modern or European school, destined
eventually to reign supreme. These indications,
however, were visible in prose earlier than in poetry.

322 OTTOMAN LITERATURE,

Among the more remarkable poets of this transition
time are Wasif who attempted to write verses in the
spoken language of Constantinople, Izzet MoUa, and
the poetesses Fitnet and Leyla.

Some thirty years ago a wonderful change began
to come over Turkish literature, and this change has
ever since been growing yearly more and more marked,
altering the whole tone and spirit, as well as the
external form of Ottoman literary work. It is not
too much to say that a poem or an essay by a great
author of to-day would have been barely comprehen-
sible, certainly not appreciated, by a writer of the first
quarter of the present century. This change is a result
of the study of the French language and literature,
which has become general only within the last twenty
years. Marvellous, indeed, have been its effects ; the
ambition of the modern Turkish aspirant after literary
fame is, while writing gracefully, to write naturally ;
the old se/ and the traditional conceits and tricks have
vanished, to be replaced by direct and simple words,
chosen for no other reason than that they best convey
the author's meaning. The drama, a form of literature
previously unknown in Turkey, has been introduced,
and has met with the highest favour from contem-
porary writers. In poetry likewise, Western forms have
well-nigh superseded the monorhythmic ghazels and
kasidas of the olden time. A corresponding change
has taken place in the language ; many old words
have been abandoned as useless, while many others
have had their meaning more or less modified to meet
the requirements of newly introduced conceptions
and ideas, for which no expressions exist in the

MODERN STYLE. 3^3

language as it formerly stood. Of course all these
changes have not been effected without opposition ;
many Turks of the old school, admirers of the Persian
style, and haters of all things Western, opposed them
bitterly, and some oppose them still ; but the battle
has virtually been fought, the victory won, and for
good or for ill Europe has conquered Asia, Paris has
replaced Shiraz.

Although its first distinct notes may be heard in
the writings of Akif and Reshid Pashas, it is to
ShinasI Efendi, who died in 1 871, more than to any
other that the merit of accomplishing this great
reform is due. ShinasI was ably supported by the
talented and accomplished Kemal Bey, . one of the
most gifted men of letters who have ev^er appeared in
Turkey ; and the poet Ekrem Bey, who holds at present
the position of Professor of Literature at the Ecole
Civile of Constantinople, and Hamid Bey, the most
illustrious of Turkish dramatists, deserve to be men-
tioned in the same sentence with Kemal.

The tone of the imaginative literature of modern
Turkey is very tender and very sad. The Ottoman
poets of to-day love chiefly to dwell upon such themes
as a fading flower, or a girl dying of decline ; and
though admiration of a recent French school may
have something to do with this, the fancy forces itself
upon us, when we read those sweet and plaintive
verses, that a brave but gentle-hearted people, looking
forward to its future without fear, but without hope,
may be seeking, perhaps unconsciously, to derive
what sad comfort it may from the thought that all
beautiful life must end in dismal death.

XVI.

THE OTTOMAN ADMINISTRATION.

Supreme head alike of Church and State, the
Ottoman Sultan has always been an absolute and
irresponsible sovereign, free to act as he pleases so
ong as he observes the commandments of the Koran.
To aid him in the government of the Empire, he
delegates his authority to two great officers : the
Grand Vezir, who is his lieutenant in all that per-
tains to the temporal administration, and the Muftl^
who is his representative in those matters connected
with the religion and the law. There is little of
interest in the Turkish Government of the present
day, which is conducted by a cabinet of ministers
chosen by the Sultan, and subject to his constant
control and interference, and we shall describe
only the old national system which existed down
to the time of the later Europeanizing reforms.

At first the Ottoman monarchs used to lead their
armies to battle, and personally superintend all affairs
of State ; but this activity gradually subsided, and,
shutting themselves up in their Seraglio, they left
everything in the hands of their ministers and
favourites. Such at least was generally the case, but

COMPANIONS OF THE PEN. 327

a great deal depended, and still depends, upon the
personal character of the ruler ; Murad IV., SelTm
III., and Mahmud IL. were anything but nonentities
in the Government, and the present Sultan takes an
active part in the State.

The Ottoman order of succession to the throne
differs from that which holds in Western Europe.
The Sultan's heir is his oldest male relative, not
necessarily his eldest son ; indeed it is more fre-
quently a brother or nephew who inherits the sove-
reignty. In old times it was customary for a Sultan
on succeeding to the throne to have all his brothers
put to death ; they are now usually kept in close
seclusion in the palace.

The functionaries of the State were divided into
three great classes : those of the Pen, those of the
Sword, and those of the Law. The first two of these
were under the Grand Vezir, the third was under the
Mufti.

The Ashab-ul-Kalem, or CompanJons of the Pen,
as they were called, consisted of three classes, the
first of which was styled the Rjjal. or Grandees, and
formed, so to speak, the Ministry of" the Empire.
Three great officers, the Kyahya Bey, the Rels
Efendi, and the Chawush Bashi, along with six under-
secretaries, made up»rj^e body of Rijal. Of ^ these,
the Kyahya Bey combined the functions of Minister
of War and Minister of the Interior; the Rels Efendi,
whose title was more correctly Reis-ul-Kuttab, or
Head of the Scribes, was at once Chief Secretary of
State and Minister of Foreign Affairs ; while the
Chawush Bashi was the Marshal of the Empire and

328 THE OTTOMAN ADMINISTRATION.

the Minister of Police. The six under-secretaries
were the Biyuk Tezkereji and the Kuchuk Tezkereji,
who drew up the orders of the Grand Vezir ; the
MektQbji, or First Secretary of the Grand VezIr ; the
Teshrlfatji, or Grand Master of Ceremonies ; the Bey-
Hkji, or Grand Referendary; and the Kyahya Katibi,
or Secretary of the Kyahya Bey. Among the innu-
merable subordinate officials who belonged to this
class of the Companions of the Pen were two^ who
deserve special mention : the Vak'a-nuwis, or Histo-
riographer ; and the Terjuman-i Divan-i Humayun,
or Interpreter of the Imperial Divan. To the histo-
riographers we owe that long series of annals which
forms so marked and interesting a feature in Otto-
man literature, and presents us with so complete and
vivid an account of the fortunes of the Empire. The
interpreters of the Divan were at first Europeans who
had embraced Islam ; but latterly the office became
a sort of apanage of certain noble Greek families of
Constantinople ; for no Turk till within the last sixty
years ever thought of learning a European language.

The second division of the Companions of the Pen
was that of the Khojas, or Clerks. These officials
were subdivided into four departments. AH matters
connected with the finances were entrusted to them.
Among the functionaries who formed the firs]: depart-
ment were the Defterdar, or Minister of Finance, and
the Nishanji Bashi, whose duty was to trace the
Tughra or cypher of the Sultan at the head of all the"
documents presented to him for that purpose. This
Tughra, with the appearance of which most of us arc
familiar from seeing it on Turkish coins and postage

THE sultan's TUGHRA. 329

stamps or on pieces of embroidery or inlaid mother-
of-pearl work, contains, ornamentally written as a
sort of monogram, the names of the reigning Sultan
and his father, together with the title Khan and the
epithet el-mnzaffar-ddimd, or " victor ever." The
Tughra is said to have originated in this way : Sultan
Murad I. entered into a treaty with the Ragusans, but
when the document was brought for his signature, he,

TUGHRA OF ABDUL-AZIZ.

being unable to write, wetted his open hand with ink
and pressed it on the paper. The first, second, and
third fingers were together, but the thumb and fourth
finger were apart. Within the mark thus formed the
scribes wrote the names of Murad and his father, the
title Khan, and the " victor ever." The Tughra, as
we now have it, is the result of this ; the three long
upright lines represent Murad's three middle fingers,
the rounded lines at the left side are his bent thumb,

330 THE OTTOMAN ADMINISTRATION,

and the straight ones at the right his little fingw.
The third department of the Khojas consisted of tlie
Intendants who formed the fourth class of the
Aghayan-i Birun of the Seraglio.

The third division of the Companions of the Pen
was that of the Aghas, which comprised, besides the
six Masters of the Stirrup and the Bostanji Bashi, or
Chief Gardener, all of whom were attached to the ser-
vice of the Seraglio, and whose duties will be found men-
tioned in the chapter describing the Imperial Palace,
the following officers among others : the Topji Bashi,
or Chief Gunner, who was the Grand Master of Artil-
lery; the Top Arabaji Bashi, who had charge of the
material of the artillery ; the Jebeji Bashi, who was
in command of the arsenal and armoury ; the La-
ghimji Bashi, who was chief of the corps of sappers
and miners ; the Khumbaraji Bashi, or Chief Bom-
bardier ; and the Mi'mar Bashi, or Chief Builder,
who was the Sultan's architect.

The second great class of State functionaries, that
of the Companions of the Sword, comprised the
governors of the provinces and their subordinates.
The Ottoman Empire was divided into provinces
styled eyalets, the number of which was constantly
varying, owing to administrative changes and the
fortunes of war ; these again were subdivided into
districts termed sanjak or liva, both words meaning
a flag. I The eyalets were governed by Pashas who

^ The Turl<ish Empire of to-day is divided into a number of province?
termed vilayets, each of which is under a governor-general, who has the
title of Wall ; these vilayets are sulxlivided into districts called sanjaks,
which in their turn are parcelled out into kazas or parishes. The adminis
trator of a sanjak is styled a Mutasarrif ; that of a kaza, a Kaimmakani.

PROVINCIAL GOVERNORS, 33I

held the rank of Vezirs, and had three Tughs, or
horsetails, as their standard.

These rulers lived in almost regal splendour in their
provincial capitals, and often shamefully oppressed
the people who were entrusted to their charge. The
expenses attendant on their position were very great ;
they had to make handsome presents to the principal
officers of the Court and Government at Constanti-
nople, not only at the time of their appointment, but
every now and again in order to secure the support of
pov/erful friends against the intrigues which their
enemies were constantly setting on foot, and the com-
plaints of their misgovernment which might from
time to time reach the capital. This, added to their
private extravagance, caused them to be constantly in
want of money, and of course their subjects had to
pay, or else to suffer for their obstinacy. If matters
became so bad that the people rose in revolt, an officer
called a Mufettish, or Inquisitor, was despatched from
Constantinople ; but he rarely did any good, for al-
though the Pasha might be deposed or bowstrung, and
his property confiscated, no one ever thought of re-
turning the plundered wealth to its proper owners, and
another Pasha was sent out as governor-general, who
in all probability walked in the steps of his predecessor.

The livas were under governers who bore the style
of Mir-i Liva, or Sanjak Beyi, two titles, both of
which mean Flag Lord. This name arose in early
times, before the institution of eyalets, when the
Ottoman possessions were portioned out into a num-
ber of small governments, the ruler of each of which
received on his appointment a Tugh or horsetail stan-

332 THE OTTOMAN ADMINISTRATION,

dard as the symbol of his authority. The provincial
governors had each a council with which he was
bound to consult on all matters connected with his
administration. A certain number of the members
of this council were prominent natives of the district
elected by the notables of the place. The object of
this arrangement was of course to giv^e the natives
some say in the government of their own district, and
to place some check on the Pasha should he incline
to act unjustly ; but these native councillors were
usually as corrupt as the governor himself, and quite
as ready as he was to get all they could for themselves
out of their fellow-citizens.

Besides these governors, and independent of them,
save in military matters, there was in the provinces an
ancient hereditary feudal aristocracy. These were old
families, the ancestor of which, as a recompense for ser-
vices against the enemy, had received a portion of the
land which he had helped to conquer. This territory,
in which he was practically supreme, and exercised all
signiorial rights, was to remain in the possession of his
representative for ever. In return he or his heir was
required to attend with a certain number of armed
and mounted followers whenever summoned by the
Sultan to take part in any military expedition. For
several centuries these feudal soldiers formed a large
proportion of the Ottoman armies, and during me-
dieval times they were at least a match for any
similar troops that the Christians could bring against
them ; but when the nations of Europe began to main-
tain regular standing armies, the Turkish feudal militia,
without modern arms or systematic training, was no

TIMARIOTES. ^^^

longer able to meet them upon equal terms. In con-
formity with one of the conditions on which they held
them, these Sipahls, as the Turkish feudal nobles were
called,! resided on their estates, where they occupied
themselves with hunting and military sports ; they
never left their old castles save when called upon by
the Padishah to muster outside the capital for a march
on Vienna, or Tebriz. They took no share in the
government of the province where their domains lay,
but in these domains they lorded it at their pleasure,
and neither Pasha nor Sanjak P>cyi had any jurisdiction
there. As we have seen, these feudal troops gradually
became useless ; the Sipahls obstinately opposed all
attempts at reform, so that their abolition became
necessary. This was accomplished by Mahmud II.,
who, as they no longer rendered any effective service
in the field, confiscated their properties and abolished
their rights. Thus the present century has witnessed
the close of two ancient feudal systems, which had
come down intact and unchanged through many cen-
turies : that of Turkey and that of Japan.

At the head of the third great class of State func-
tionaries, that of the Ulema, or Doctors of the
Law, stood the Sheykh-ul-Islam- or Elder of Islam,
the most important of whose duties was to interpret

* European writers generally call them Timariotes, a name derived
from the Turkish word Timar, which means a fief. Larger fiefs, as-
sessed at a higher value, were termed Ziyamets. The number of soldiers
which a Sipahl, or Turkish knight, was bound to bring with him to a
campaign depended on the value at which his fief was assessed. The
name Sipahl was also applied to an old corps of regular cavalry, which
has frequently been mentioned in this volume in connexion with the
Janissaries ; those Sipahis were quite distinct from the feudal knights.

334 ^^^^ OTTOMAN ADMINISTRATION.

the sacred Law by declaring whether any proposed
action was in accordance with the precepts of the
Koran. No war could be begun, no peace could be
concluded, no public matter of any kind could be
gone on with until the Sheykh-ul-Islam had been
consulted and had pronounced the projected under-
taking lawful. Immediately under the Sheykh-ul-
Islam, were two great legal officers called the Kazl-
ul-'Askers of Rumelia and Anatolia. The title Kazl-
ul-'Asker, which means Judge of the Army, was origin-
ally conferred on a magistrate whom the Sultan used,
in early times, to take along with him when he went
on a campaign, in order to settle any disputes which
might arise among the soldiers. As time went on,
two of these magistrates were appointed, and for the
sake of distinction the territorial titles were added ;
but the Rumelian or European judge (who represented
the original military magistrate) always took prece-
dence of his Anatolian or Asiatic colleague. Next
came the Istambol Kadisi or Judge of Constantinople;
then the Mollas or Magistrates of the two sacred cities
Mekka and Medina ; then the Mollas of the " Four
Burghs," ie,, of Adrianople, Brusa, Cairo, and Damas-
cus ; and then the Makhrej Mollalari or Mollas As-
pirant, including the Magistrates of Galata, Scutari,
Eyyub (all suburbs of Constantinople), Jerusalem,
Smyrna, Aleppo, Yeni Shehr, and Salonica. This
division embraced, besides these, some of the 'Ulema
attached to the service of the Seraglio, and an officer
called the Nakib-ul-Eshraf or Representative of the
Nobles, ie.y of the Shcrifs or recognized descendants
of the Prophet Muhammed, in the Turkish Empire.

THE DIVAN, 335

All these functionaries belonged to the first rank of
legal dignitaries ; the second consisted of the Mollas
or Magistrates of certain other of the more important
cities ; the third of a number of officials termed
Mufettishes or Inquisitors, whose duty was to see that
the legacies bequeathed to mosques and other religious
or charitable institutions were properly administered.
The fourth rank was that of the Kadis or ordinary
judges of the less important towns ; and the fifth and
lowest that of the Naibs or Judge-substitutes.

The Divan, as the Council of the Empire was called,
consisted at first of only three VezTrs, but was gradu-
ally increased to nine. These ministers, who were
styled the Kubba VezTrleri or Cupola Vezirs, because
the room in which they carried on their deliberations
was roofed by a cupola, were superseded during the
reign of Sultan Ahmed III., on account of the rivalry
which had sprung up between them ; and a new Divan
was instituted. This was composed of eight members ;
the Grand Vezir, who was President of the Council ;
the Kapudan Pasha or Grand Admiral ; the two
KazI-ul-'Askers ; the three Defterdars or chiefs of the
financial department ; and the Nishanji or Tracer of
the Sultan's cypher. By the end of last century this
Divan, which was held in the hall specially set apart
for the purpose in the second court of the Seraglio,
had become a mere tribunal for the redress of private
grievances, and met only once in six weeks or so,
while the real business of the State was transacted in
councils called Mushavaras, which were held at the
residence of the Grand VezIr, and at which all the
heads of departments assisted.

336 THE OTTOMAN ADMINISTRATION.

The fleet was under the command of the Kapudan
Pasha or Grand Admiral, one of the greatest officers
of the Empire. The islands of the Grecian Archi-
pelago were under his jurisdiction, and every summer
he used to go with the fleet into the Mediterranean
on a tour of inspection, and to receive his rents from
the officers to whom he had farmed his government.

There was no similar officer in command of the
army ; the Grand Vezir being, under the Sultan, the
generalissimo of the forces. He usually took com-
mand of an army when marching against an enemy,
but he was always assisted and sometimes replaced
by other Pashas of the highest rank. Each division
of the army had its own general ; thus the Janissaries
had their Agha, but he did not interfere with the
cavalry or artillery or with any branch of the infantry
except his own.

Formerly, when the Ottoman Government declared
war against a foreign state, it used to seize the am-
bassador of that state at Constantinople and shut him
up in the State prison of the Seven Towers. Its
object in so doing was not only to emphasize its
hostility against the enemy, but to prevent the latter
from learning any of those particulars concerning
the condition of the Turkish Empire which the
minister would most probably be able to aflbrd, as
well as to hold a hostage for the good treatment of
any Ottoman subjects who might chance to be in the
territories of that State against which the war was to
be waged.

All the great functionaries of the Empire were dis-
tinguished by the magnificence and variety of their

IN THE HAREM.

OFFICIAL ROBES.

339

State costumes. The Grand Vezir wore a long robe
of white satin trimmed with sable, and a curious head-
dress, some five and twenty inches in height, called a
kilavi, which was made of white muslin and shaped
like a sugar-loaf with the top cut off ; a band of gold
lace four inches wide fell across this from right to left.
The dress of the Grand Admiral was the same, save
that his robe was of green instead of white satin.
This was the costume of all the Pashas of the
first rank, those of three Tughs, the Grand VezIr
alone wearing white satin. Similarly the Sheykh-ul-
Islam had a robe of white cloth, while all the other
chiefs of the Ulema wore green cloth. Their turban,
which was termed 'urf, was egg-shaped, and was white,
excepting in the case of the Naklb-ul-Eshraf, when it
was green. Unless when travelling or on a campaign,
none of these high officials carried a sword ; but they
all (except the legal dignitaries who were unarmedj
had a jewel-hilted dagger stuck in the girdle which
they wore under the fur-trimmed outer robe.

Of all this gorgeous apparel little or nothing is now
visible at Stambol. His Majesty, Abd-ul-HamId Khan^
may be seen driving to mosque in a plain landau, and
habited in a black frock-coat and trousers, with a red
fez on his head. Save for*the fez, he and his ministers
might be mistaken for Frenchmen of a sedate order.
Old Turkey, with its pomp, its power, its gorgeous
ceremony, is gone for ever ; and the time has not yet
come for New Turkey to feel comfortable in its tight
European clothes.

XVII.

"THE SICK MAN."
(1812-1880.)

The present century has witnessed many stirring
events in and around the Ottoman Empire, but they
have nearly all been marked by a novel characteristic.
In former ages Turkey fought for herself, to win lands or
to repel invaders. In the present day other nations
fight for Turkey, not for her sake, but for their own.
The City on the Bosphorus has become a bone of
contention to the Powers of Europe : one of them is
determined to possess it, and the others, afraid to
claim it for themselves, have resolved that no one
shall touch it. All fears of the ancient military pres-
tige of the Ottomans have passed away, and what
anxiety there is depends, not upon their strength, but
their weakness. Turkey is a weight in the European
equilibrium, and the danger is that she may slip off
the scale and overturn the balance. How far this
estimate of the feebleness of the Sultan's resources is
true may perhaps be questioned. The Turks have never
been honestly beaten in the present century. In the
Russian war of 1809-12 they were but slightly
worsted ; in the Greek war of 1822-8 they were at

THE TURKISH ARMY. 341

a disadvantage on account of a military revolution,
but would never have given in without the pressure of
three Great Powers ; in the war of 1828-9, Russia won
by a coup de theatre, and Mahmud was surprised into
surrender on false information ; in the Crimean war
the Turks drove the Russians from before Silistria
and over the Danube before the Allies came up, and
afterwards were never given a chance ; in the latest war
it has been boldly asserted that the Russians won by
roubles, more than by powder and shot, and that the
Turks would have been fully their match had their
officers been superior to bribes. Be this as it may, it
is well to be cautious in prejudging the issue as be-
tween Russia and Turkey. With good officers and
subsidies for arms, the splendid material of which the
Ottoman rank and file is composed might possibly
be backed against the multitudinous hordes of
Russia. Asia Minor is the recruiting-ground of the
Turk, and is still almost untouched by the invader.
What Turkey might be able to accomplish in the
event of another Russian war, with voluntary aid from
abroad, and fair play, must remain a problem ; but so
long as Russia remains what she is, the odds are not
perhaps so very heavy on the Tsar.

Nevertheless it has become almost an axiom in
politics to regard Turkey as a more or less defenceless
State, and most of the wars and negotiations which
have centred in the Bosphorus have been conducted
on the assumption that she is a necessary evil,
necessary to be kept where she is, but perfectly hope-
less in herself, and incapable of development or reform.
Certainly she is not what is called a progressive

342

nation, though the changes which have taken place
in her social, intellectual, and administrative ideas
within the last sixty years are, for a Mohamme-
dan country, almost revolutionary. Christians and
foreigners who now visit Constantinople can hardly
believe the condition of society when the Russian
ambassador was thrown into the castle of the Seven
Towers; when no Turkish minister would deign
to rise to a foreign representative ; and when the
Sultan would as soon think of visiting a kennel as
touching the hand or entering the house of a Giaour.
Now a Turk of rank or position is very much like
any one else, often cultivated, generally well-bred,
and, whatever he may feel as a Moslem, scrupulously
tolerant and polite to " infidels " of every description.
This change, however, applies to the minority : the
mass of the people remain much what they were. Ex-
perience and frequent intercourse has perhaps made
them more tolerant or indifferent, but they are still
Moslems, and, as such, practically stationary. The ad-
ministration remains corrupt, and will remain so until
Turkey is permitted to enjoy a long period of immunity
from external dangers, and to devote the energies of
her best sons, not to playing off several jealous Powers
against one another, but to developing her own re-
sources and thoroughly revising her executive system.
That period, however, is a very uncertain speculation.
No one, perhaps, not even Lord Stratford de Redcliffe,
has ever believed that Turkey could be saved entirely
from within ; and the Powers have always acted on
the principle that somebody must serve as a dyke be-
tween Russia and the Bosphorus, and that Turkey,

MAHMUD IL 343

being there, had better be maintained in her position.
The " Sick Man " of the morbid mind of Nicholas
must be galvanized into sufficient vitality to sit up
and pretend to be well. The policy of the European
Powers towards the Porte has been uniformly selfish ;
and the policy has reacted upon themselves : for the
Turks are keen-witted, and will do nothing for those
who will do nothing for them. We can hardly expect
Turkey to don every European habit we cut for her,
when we never couch a lance beside her except for
our own benefit.

The nineteenth century has seen a process of
gradual dismemberment which bids fair to deprive
the Sultan of his last foothold in Europe. When
Mahmud II. ascended the throne in 1808, a mere
child, he was at first the puppet of the mutinous
Janissaries, who had slaughtered his predecessors, and
only spared him because for awhile he was actually
the last survivor of the august race of Othman. He
began his reign in a war with Russia, and the open
hostilities of the Tsar were overshadowed by even more
menacing intrigues and plots of partition put forward
by Napoleon. The Treaty of Bucharest (18 12) termi-
nated the first, and helped to put an end to the second
danger. External enemies now gave place to the foes
of his own household. Great pashas consolidated their
power in distant provinces, and ruled as kings in
defiance of the Sultan's authority ; local squires or
Derebeys held a sort of feudal state in their districts,
and set the Sultan's officers at naught. Two men
especially threatened the empire with division : one
was Mohammed All (Mehemet Ali),who made Egypt

344 " ^^^ ^^^^ MAN.'*

virtually independent in the second decade of the
century, and so firmly established his power that he
was able to transmit it to his descendants, one of
whom still reigns in name in the capital of the
Mamliiks ; the other was All Pasha of Janina, who
held his own in Albania, with barbaric splendour
and barbarous cruelty, until he was slain by the Sultan's
troops in 1820. To make head against such oppo-
nents required a strong and disciplined army, and the
support of the people. But the people liked their
local lords, and hated the corrupt government of the
Sultan's officers ; and the army was at once untrust-
worthy in the field and mutinous in quarters. Mah-
mud, who was possessed of an iron will, considerable
political sagacity, and invincible patience, quietly set
to work to remedy these evils. It took him twenty
years to mature his plans, but in 1826 he dealt the
blow. People living in Pera, looking across the
Golden Horn, one June morning perceived two
columns of smoke ascending to the skies over the
minarets of Stambol. The Janissaries had mutinied,
but the Sultan was ready for them ; and the smoke
announced that their barracks had been blown up.
The famous corps, which had long survived only to
tarnish its ancient renown by deeds of cowardice,
venality, and turbulency, was exterminated. The
sword, the bowstring, and the exile's galley finished the
work, and MahmQd was free to form a new army, dis-
ciplined after the manner of European troops, and fit
to be trusted with the honour of the old Ottoman
name. The Sultan himself studied French books of
tactics, drilled his men in person, mounted like any

THE GREEK REBELLION. 345

dragoon, with long English stirrups and a trooper's
saddle. He worked hard, but fate was against him.
He deprived himself of his old army, and had not
yet collected a new one, just at the moment when any
sort of army would have been serviceable.

The danger that menaced him sprang from Homer.
But for the associations with great deeds and noble
words which the very name of Hellas awakens, no
sane man assuredly would have meddled in the Greek
" War of Independence." The impulse which stirred
up the insurrection was not so much the sublime pas-
sion of freedom as the suggestion of Russian agents
and that delight in noisy excitement which is
the heritage of the Greek. Whatever the cause,
philanthropists, scholars, and enthusiasts, in England
and France, fancied that in the revolutionary
movement, which was partly the effect of the ground-
swell raised in France a quarter of a century before,
they could trace the echoes of Thermopylae and Mara-
thon ; the songs of the klephts were sung in the same
tongue — somewhat degraded — that Sophocles and
Aeschylus had spoken ; and a general, natural, and
very creditable feeling spread over Western Europe
in favour of the oppressed Greeks. Poets like Byron
flung themselves into the fray in a spirit of patriotic
antiquarianism ; soldiers like Church, who loved adven-
ture, and habitually espoused the cause of the weak
against the strong, cast away the scabbard ; and a
crowd of knights-errant of various ranks, nations, and
motives, joined in the " War of Independence." Wise
heads as well as brave hearts took up the cause of the
Greeks. France would have been pleased to see a

346 " THE SICK MAN J'

prince of her royal race on the throne of Athens ; and
England, as represented by George Canning the
Foreign Secretary, had adopted the policy of giving
struggling nationalities fair play. The Continental
doctrine, rigorously upheld by Prince Metternich, con-
sisted in a jealous police to be exercised by the Great
Powers in the maintenance of the established order of
things as formulated in the Treaty of 181 5, and in the
stern repression of all "Jacobinical" movements. Mr.
Canning detested the policy of the Holy Alliance, and
saw in the Greek rebellion no Jacobinical tendency, but
simply the desire of an oppressed Christian people to
cast off the Turkish yoke. He strove to effect a reason-
able compromise between the belligerents, and suc-
ceeded in inducing Russia, and afterwards France, to
join England in forcing terms upon the Sultan (Treaty
of London, 1827). Mahmud remained obdurate, how-
ever ; he naturally saw no reason why, when on the
whole he was winning, he should voluntarily deprive
himself of his Greek provinces. An accidental en-
counter between the Turkish fleet and the Allies in the
harbour of Navarino (Oct. 1827) ended in the destruc-
tion of the former ; and the peaceful, if somewhat
domineering, mediation of the Three Powers was ex-
changed for a naval blockade, the landing of a French
force in the Morea, whence they speedily expelled Mah-
mud's Egyptian contingent, and, finally, a Russo-
Turkish war (1828-9). This was what Russia had been
wanting all along. The rupture had been staved off at
a heavy sacrifice by the Treaty of Akkerman in 1826,
because the Sultan's army was then in no state for a
great war. The alliance of the Three Powers in 1827

NAVARINO

Battle Plan

(|]> UN£ or BATTLE SHIPS
[^ DOt/BLC EniGATM

O sfAfcif rfffCATes
C|l> coRvcrre

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2 Genoa

3 Albion

4 Dartmouth

5 Cambrian

6 Glasgow

8 i?^J<?

9 Musquito
lo Brisk

It Philomel
12 Hind

( Tender)

Sirine
Scipion
Trident
Brcslau
A rmide
Daphne
A ley one

6-7 Schooners.

'RUSSIAN

1 Asoff

2 Ezekiel

3 Hanhoudd

4 Alexander

5 Provounoy

6 Helena

7 Const antine

8 Castor

1-4 ^a/f//^ ^>47>f
5-y Frigates

THE RUSSIAN WAR OF 1 828-9. 349

seemed to forbid separate action. But Mr. Canning
was now dead, and Lord Aberdeen's presence at
the Foreign Office gave Russia free scope for action.
The result was Diebitsch's daring march over the
Balkan, and the humiliation of Mahmud in the Treaty
of Adrianople (1829), in presence of a Russian army
which could hardly have exceeded 15,000 men. At
the point of the sword the Sultan was forced to con-
cede what all the arguments of ambassadors, and even
the fatal catastrophe at Navarino, had failed to extort.
Greece was made free, and in 1832 her boundaries
were extended to very nearly their present limits.
Prince Leopold refused the crown, and the Bavarian
Otho, as King of the Hellenes, taught the people that
a constitutional government by Christian foreigners
may be almost as corrupt and exasperating as even
the rule of a Turkish pasha.

The severance of Greece was a sore blow to
Mahmud's hopes ; yet, even now, had he been allowed
ten years of tranquillity he might have been able
to carry out the reforming policy upon which his
heart was set. Such however was not to be his
fortune. Shorn of his fleet by the Allies, weakened
in arms and prestige by the Russian war, he became
the natural prey of his powerful vassal the Viceroy
of Egypt. Mohammed All pushed his forces across
Syria and even threatened the Bosphorus ; the timely
interposition of Russia (duly recompensed in the
Treaty of Hunkiar Iskelesi, 1833) saved Constanti-
nople. This treaty was a rude surprise to the
Western Powers, for it gave Russia the exclusive
right of way through the Dardanelles : but they took

350

time before they ventured to assert themselves.
France was on the side of Mohammed All ; and
England, under the Whig administrations of Grey
and Melbourne, was too much harassed at home to
retain a free hand for foreign affairs. Palmerston
admitted that he had delayed too long before sup-
porting the Sultan, but at length the English fleet
sailed for the Levant, Acre was taken, and Moham-
med All, by the Treaty of 1841, was confined
to his Egyptian possessions, under the suzerainty
of the Sultan, the integrity and independence of
whose empire were now placed formally under the
guarantee of the Great Powers. The Treaty of 1841
was a new and vital departure : Turkey was for the
first time placed in a state of tutelage, but how far
the protection of the Great Powers has benefited her
must be considered in the light of more recent events-

Meanwhile Mahmud had died in 1839, when his
empire seemed doomed to fall into the hands of his
dangerous vassal. Had he lived, the fourteen years
of peace which followed might have been turned to
immense account ; his masterful will might have
reformed the whole system of administration. But
his son and successor, Abd-ul-Mejid, while possessed
of many amiable and loveable qualities, was timorous
and infirm of purpose. Whatever good was done
in the interval of tranquillity which filled the fifth
decade of the century was principally the work of
th? great statesman who then held the post of British
Ambassador at the Porte.

Sir Stratford Canning began his diplomatic career
in 1807, when he was secretary to a mission sent to

SIR STRATFORD CANNING, 35 1

Copenhagen to effect a reconciliation with the Danes
after the impounding of their fleet. At the age of
twenty-three he was Minister Plenipotentiary at Con-
stantinople, and in 18 12, without aid or advice from
his Government, but wholly of his own motion and by
his own diplomatic skill, he brought about the Treaty
of Bucharest, which, as we have seen, released the
Russian army of the Danube just in time to attack
Napoleon on his disastrous retreat from Moscow.
He subsequently served in Switzerland, was present
at the Congress of Vienna, held the post of Minister
to the United States, and returning to Turkey in
1826 took a principal part in effecting the freedom
of Greece, and especially in securing her an adequate
and defensible boundary. At the beginning of 1842
he resumed his former post at Constantinople,
and began that series of reforms which nothing
could have carried but the supreme influence which
gained him the name of t/ie Great ElcJii, or Am-
bassador par excellence. Long experience of the
Turks, personal friendship with the Sultan, and the
support of the young Turkish party, who had learnt
something of Western civilization, were among the
causes of his success ; but the mainspring lay in his
personal character. Truthful and straightforward in
all his ways, he never condescended to the tricks of
diplomacy, and the Turks soon began to perceive
that what Canning spoke was the truth. Gifted
moreover with a sedate gravity which gave dignity
and importance to the smallest negotiations,— and
which was the more valuable because men knew
that beneath the calm and polished surface lay an

352

impetuous passionate spirit, impatient of restraint, —
the manner of the Great Elchi was full of charm and
persuasion. His refined and intellectual countenance
was the index to his courteous and chivalrous
nature. When circumstances so required, none
could be more urbane ; but when he scented de-
ception or trickery, the man's fiery nature blazed up,
and in his anger he was terrible — few dared to
withstand him. The Turkish ministers and the
Sultan himself bowed themselves down before his
righteous indignation. By force of character, by a
certain admirable violence, necessary in dealing with
dilatory and prevaricating people, by a kingly grace
and courtesy which stamped him a gentleman of the
true sort, but above all by a manly unswerving
honesty and straightforwardness, Stratford Canning
acquired that extraordinary influence which no
Christian has exercised before or since over the
princes and statesmen of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1842 he began his long struggle with Turkish
corruption. Reshid Pasha, the most enlightened of
the statesmen of the Porte, had in 1839 induced the
Sultan to promulgate a sort of Turkish Magna
Charta, called the Hatti-Sherlf of Gidhane, (or the
Tanzimat,) whereby many of the anomalies, cor-
ruptions, and disabilities of the administrative and
judicial system, especially in regard to the Christian
rayas, were abolished — on paper. The reform was
premature and was followed by the fall of Reshid
and a strong reaction in favour of the old Turkish
system. It was Canning's design to overturn the
reactionaries and restore Reshid, and in this, after

TURKISH REFORMS. 353

three or four years, he succeeded. Step by step he
obtained the dismissal of fanatical and ignorant
officials, and replaced them by men of Reshid's way
of thinking. With the aid of the liberal party
in the Divan, he carried reform after reform — none
very sweeping, for the time had not yet come, and
there was no Mahmud to enforce a complete change,
— but each essential to the well-being of the Sultan's
Christian subjects. His object was to reform
Turkey from within, by removing those glaring in-
justices which marked so many branches of the execu-
tive Government. He did not work for the Christians
merely because they were Christians, but because
they had the least measure of justice, and so required
more support to bring them up to the level of their
Moslem neighbours. Equal citizenship for all was
his policy. With this view he wrung from the
Sultan, after a herculean struggle, in 1844, the
promise that thenceforward no one who apostatized
from Islam and became a Christian should, as here-
tofore, be executed ; and that the Christian religion
should suffer no molestation in the Ottoman do-
minions. The concession was the more noteworthy
since it repealed what was believed to be a part of
the sacred law of the Koran. This was followed up
by a formal abolition of torture, by the repeal of
obnoxious taxes, notably the poll-tax on non-Musul-
mans which belonged to the ancient constitution
of Islam, by the admission of Christian evidence
in Moslem law courts, and by various other im.
provements, which were all eventually summarized
and completed in the famous edict— the Hatti-

354

Humayun of 1856, which forms part of the Treaty of
Paris. An immense deal remained to be done, but
it was impossible to drive the Turks at a fast pace,
and Canning had to be content with what he could
get. So long as he was at his post reforms accumu-
lated, and his vigilant eye watched every quarter
of the Ottoman Empire to see where offences were
and from whence they came, and to bring condign
punishment on the offender. No pasha was safe,
even so far off as Baghdad, if a complaint against him
reached the ear of the Great Elchi. His power was
unique, and he used it for no selfish or ambitious
end : his arm was stretched forth in the cause of
right and justice alone.^

Then, in the midst of this stage of gradual reforma-
tion, came two shocks from without. The first passed
off without more than a temporary interruption of
progress. It happened in 1849 that sundry refugees
from Hungary and Poland, where the mid-century
revolutions were in course of sanguinary suppression
by Austria and Russia, sought asylum in the dominions
of the Sultan. Among them were Kossuth, Bern,
Dembinski, and other well-known leaders. The two
emperors demanded their extradition, which was
another word for their slaughter; but the Turks
declared that it was contrary to the Mohammedan
principle of hospitality to give up strangers to their
pursuers, and Sir Stratford Canning supported them
in their honourable resistance. Austria and Russia
broke off relations with Turkey, and matters looked

» "Life of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe," by S. Lane-Poole, vol. ii.,
ch. xvii.

THE HOLY PLACES.

355

serious ; but the appearance of the English and
French fleets at the entrance of the Hellespont showed
that there were more Powers to be reckoned with
than Turkey ; the crisis passed, and the refugees
were saved. The fame of the Great Elchi and the
honour of the Sultan never stood higher than when
they thus upheld the sacred right of asylum.

The second interruption was more serious. It
began in a mere trifle. There were monks of different
sorts at Jerusalem, — Latin Church, Greek Church, and
Armenian Church, — and the two former were per-
petually quarrelling over ridiculous details of ritual
at the Holy Places where their common Master
suffered and was buried. France protected the Latin
variety of monk, Russia the Greek ; and whether, as
has been asserted, the Emperor Louis Napoleon
thought it necessary to distract his subjects with a
warlike diversion, or whether it merely happened that
the quarrels of the monks came to a crisis just then,
it is certain that in 1852 the French grew exceedingly
imperious in their demands, and Turkey was at her
wits' ends to satisfy both complainants. With the help
of Stratford Canning, who had now been raised to
the peerage as Viscount Stratford de Redclifle, the dis-
pute was happily arranged in April 1853 : but Russia
then insisted on an additional Convention which would
have given her a protectorate over all the 12,000,000
subjects of the Sultan who professed the Greek or
" Orthodox " religion. This could not be admitted,
and though for many months the statesmen of
Europe vied with one another in evolving schemes
of pacification, it was evident from the first that the

356

half-crazy Tsar would not be satisfied with less than
war. The Russians marched into Wallachia, without
a tittle of excuse, in June 1853 : but the Turks, guided
by Lord Stratford, contented themselves with a pro-
test, and negotiations were continued at Vienna and
elsewhere. England and France sent their fleets
through the Dardanelles in October ; but still it was
not precisely war. But when, after distinct warning
from the Western Powers, Russia entered the Turkish
harbour of Sinope, and sent a Turkish fleet to the
bottom, and massacred the helpless drowning crews
almost under the eyes of the English and French
Admirals, who were then stationed in the Bos-
phorus, the fighting spirit of John Bull fired up,
and the Crimean War ensued (March 28, 1854).

The war was made with the object of compelling
Russia to withdraw her army from the Principalities.
But the allied forces of France and England, under
Marshal St. Arnaud and Lord Raglan, had not arrived
at the scene of operations when the menaces of
Austria and the magnificent pluck displayed by the
Turks, under the leadership of Butler and Nasmyth,
in the defence of Silistria, forced the Russians to fall ,
back. They crossed the Danube in June pursued by
the Turks, and the object of the war was practically
attained.

But there was a general feeling that Russia would
not be reduced to her proper position until the frown-
ing forts of Sevastopol in the Crimea had been razed.
Accordingly in September the Allies embarked on
one of the craziest expeditions that any army ever
attempted. Ignorant of the country, the fortifications.

THE CRIMEAN WAR. 357

and the strength of the enemy, they landed on a deso-
late peninsula with a comparatively small force, no
base, and scanty means of provisioning. They found
the enemy ready for them in superior numbers and
in a strong position on the heights behind the Alma
river, and (the French having missed their part of
the manoeuvre) the English fought their way up the
hill in face of a tremendous cannonade, and sent the
Russians flying (20 Sept.). Had the Allies been
strong enough to push on in pursuit, Sevastopol might
have been taken by assault the next day ; but inade-
quate numbers, the care of the wounded, the caution of
some, and the jealousy of others, obliged Lord Raglan
to pause ; and, feeling the paramount need of a
harbour for commissariat, the Allies made a flank
march, seized the port of Balaklava, and prepared to
lay siege to Sevastopol from the south side. The
Russians made several diversions. One was an
attack on the right flank of the British force on
18 October, which provoked the splendid and effec-
tual onslaught of the Heavies under General Scar-
lett, and the equally brilliant but mistaken charge of
the Light Brigade, which has been the theme of poets
and patriots for a generation. Those who, like the
writer, have seen with their own eyes the fatal " Valley
of Death " can alone realize in any degree the
" mouth of hell " into which, in perfect calm and with
well-dressed ranks, rode " the noble Six Hundred."
The terrible loss suffered on that famous day left the
English less able to meet fresh emergencies : but on
5 November, surprised in a fog, 8,000 Englishmen, con-
sisting of the Guards and the 20th Regiment, kept a

358 " THE SICK MAN J'

Russian army of 40,000 men at bay for several hours
at one spot on the slopes of Inkerman, until the
French came up and helped them to drive the enemy
back in confusion.

Meanwhile the siege of Sevastopol progressed
slowly. The defence, conducted by Todleben, was
alike skilful and indefatigable. The attack was over-
deliberate, and, on the part of the French at least,
hampered by interference from home. Several as-
saults in the spring and summer of 1855 failed to over-
come the resistance of the enemy. One French
general had died ; the second resigned ; Lord Raglan-
borne down with anxiety, and a victim to popular
indignation, which in Carthaginian fashion seldom
spares unsuccessful generals, succumbed to care and
overstrain in June 1855. It was not till September
that the Malakov earthwork fell to the vigorous
assault of the French, and the city of Sevastopol was
at length occupied by the Allies.

Instead- of taking advantage of this success, and
pushing Russia back to her ancient limits at the
Caucasus and the Dniester, and reviving the kingdom
of Poland as a watchtower to the west, the Allies
made peace, and the Treaty of Paris was signed in
March 1856. A trifling rectification of the frontier
was made, but the main provisions of the Treaty were
the guarantee of the independence and integrity of
the Ottoman Empire by the contracting Powers, the
abolition of the Russian protectorate over the Danubian
principalities and Serbia, the neutralization and opening
of the Black Sea to ships of commerce of all nations,
and the closing of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles to

THE TREATY OF PARIS, 359

foreign ships of war while the Porte should be at
peace. The Powers pledged themselves not to meddle
in the internal affairs of Turkey, and the Sultan
promised reforms in his administration and better
treatment of his Christian subjects. The principles
of this reformation were enunciated in the celebrated
Haiti- Humayun^ which had been promulgated in the
previous February : " brave words " and little more.
The vital part of the Treaty, concerning the neutrality
of the Black Sea, was repudiated by the Tsar in 1870,
when the Franco-German war had deprived England
of the only ally who would have joined her in opposing
him ; and in January 187 1 Mr. Gladstone's govern-
ment consented to this shameful breach of good faith.
The Black Sea is once more a Russian lake, and
Sevastopol was taken in vain.

The Treaty of Paris left Turkey practically intact.
It did not restore her stolen provinces, but it caused
her no fresh losses. The time, however, was not far
off when dismemberment would become inevitable.
Lord Stratford had long seen that nothing but honest
and sweeping reforms could save the Ottoman Empire :
but he left the Porte in 1858, and no one who suc-
ceeded him was strong enough to enforce those
changes which were essential to its preservation.
One by one the provinces approached independence.
Moldavia and Wallachia, united in 1858, became
thenceforward practically an independent state : and
the acquisition of a HohenzoUern as hereditary prince
in 1866 gave Rumania (as the provinces are now
called) a place in European combinations. Troubles
broke out in the Lebanon in i860, a French

360 " THE SICK MAN.'*

army was dispatched to restore order, and in the
adjustment of rival claims an opportunity was afforded
to Lord Dufferin for displaying those diplomatic
talents for which he is renowned. In 1861 the Sultan
Abd-ul-MejId died, and with him passed away the
hope of regenerating Turkey. His brother and
successor Abd-ul-AzTz was an ignorant bigot, whose
extravagance brought his country to avowed insol-
vency (1875), and thus deprived her of that sympathy
which is seldom given to the impecunious. The only
remarkable thing he did was to travel. No Ottoman
Sultan had ever before left his own dominions, except
on the war path, but Abd-ul-Aziz ventured even as far
as London, without, however, awakening any enthu-
siasm on the part of his Allies. In 1876 he was
deposed, and — found dead. How he came by his
death is a matter of doubt, but his end is said to have
turned the brain of his successor Murad V., a son of
Abd-ul-MejTd, who after three months was removed
as an imbecile, and succeeded by his brother the
reigning Sultan Abd-ul-Hamld.

This unfortunate prince, who is believed to be
endowed with some sagacity, has been compelled
to witness the most serious encroachments upon
his empire which have yet taken place. Before
his accession there had been a revolt among
the Christians of the north. Herzegovina rose in
1874-5, and the massacres and brutalities which too
often characterize Turkish police-measures ensued.
Prompted by Russia, Bulgaria attempted to shake off
the yoke in 1876, and some terrible deeds were
perpetrated by the Turkish soldiery in suppressing the

THE RUSSIAN WAR OF 1877-8. 361

revolt. Exaggerated as they were by the newspapers,
the " Bulgarian Atrocities " at Batak were nevertheless
bad enough to rouse a tempest of righteous indignation
in England, even without the adroit aid of an inflamma-
tory pamphlet written by Mr. Gladstone. Serbia and
Montenegro now joined the rebellion, and the Porte
had to exert her strength to meet her numerous foes.
The Great Powers used their efforts at mediation in
vain. A Conference at Constantinople (Jan. 1877)
was met by a rejection of its proposals, and by a
melodramatic promulgation of an Ottoman Constitu-
tion, of which little more has been heard ; and Russia,
separating from the European concert, took the law
into her own hands and declared war. (April 1877.)
Whether the collective action of the Powers might
have attained the desired end without hostilities, and
whether the Tsar was really driven onward by the
uncontrollable Slav sympathies of his subjects, or was
actuated by mere motives of aggrandisement, are
questions which must be left unsolved. The war
began, and the Turks at first held their own, especi-
ally in Asia, where they won the battle of Kizil-tepe,
and drove the Russians back from Kars. In Europe,
no attempt was made to oppose the passage of the
Danube, and the Russians occupied Tirnova and Nico-
polis, and even sent a flying detachment under General
Gurko over the Balkan. But the great feature of the
war was the defence of Plevna by Othman Pasha. For
five months the Russians and Rumanians vainly
laid siege to the fortress ; twice they were totally
defeated in the field ; till at last in December starva-
tion, aided it is said by bribing the commanders of

362

the reinforcements who were bringing stores, did the
work which no artillery could accomplish, and Othman
Pasha, with his army of 32,000 heroes, made a despe-
rate attempt to break through the investing lines, and
was compelled to surrender. The taking of Plevna
cost Russia 50,000 men.

The end was not far off. After Plevna had fallen,
and Mukhtar had been driven back in Armenia with
the loss of Kars, General Gurko again crossed the
Balkan in January, 1878. He cut his upward steps in
the ice, and literally slid down the other side. Sofia
was occupied, and, after some gallant fighting in the
Shipka Pass, Radetski forced his way through, and
preliminaries of peace were signed (as in 1829) at the
point of the bayonet at Adrianople. A Treaty was
then concluded at San Stefano, 3 March, in the pre-
sence of the Russian army, which was actually en-
camped on the shore of the Sea of Marmora ; but the
conditions were so damaging to Turkey, that Lord
Beaconsfield interposed, and the Treaty of San Stefano
was abrogated by that of Berlin, June 1878. By this
Treaty, which records the partial dismemberment of
Turkey with the consent of Europe, in spite of all the
pledges of 1856, Servia, Montenegro, and Rumania
were declared independent ; the State of Bulgaria was
created, in two divisions, one of which was to be
autonomous, the other governed by the Porte ; and
Thessaly was apportioned to Greece. Russia regained
the strip of Bessarabia which had been taken from
her in 1856, and retained her conquests in Asia — Kars,
Batum, and Ardahan. In return for her easy compli-
ance in these arrangements, England accepted a

''PEACE WITH HONOUR.'' 363

peculiar position in relation to Turkey : she an-
nounced a protectorate over the Asiatic dominions of
the Sultan (though to this day no one appears to under-
stand what are the duties and rights involved in the
compact), and, in order to have a convenient station
whence to observe events in the East, she took posses-
sion of the island of Cyprus, which she still holds in
fee of the Sultan, to whom she pays tribute. Lord
Beaconsfield (at least ostensibly) took credit for these
acquisitions, and considered that the Treaty of Berlin
with its accessory conventions formed a satisfactory
embodiment of " Peace with Honour."

Thus was Turkey gradually reduced to its present
restricted dimensions. In its old extent, when the
Porte ruled not merely the narrow territory now
called Turkey in Europe, but Greece, Bulgaria and
Eastern Rumelia, Rumania, Serbia, Bosnia, and Her-
zegovina, with the Crimea and a portion of Southern
Russia ; Asia Minor to the borders of Persia; Egypt,
Syria, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and numerous islands
in the Mediterranean, — not counting the vast but
mainly desert tract of Arabia — the total population
(at the present time) would be over fifty millions,
and the square mileage over two millions, or nearly
twice Europe without Russia. One by one her
provinces have been taken away. Algiers and Tunis
have been incorporated with France, and thus 175,000
square miles and five millions of inhabitants have
transferred their allegiance. Egypt is practically inde-
pendent, and this means a loss of 500,000 miles and
over six millions of inhabitants. Asiatic Turkey
alone has suffered comparatively little diminution.

3^4

This forms the bulk of her present dominions, and
comprises about 680,000 square miles, and over six-
teen millions of population. In Europe her losses
have been almost as severe as in Africa, where Tripoli
alone remains to her. Serbia and Bosnia are "ad-
ministered" by Austria, and thereby nearly 40,000
miles and three and a half millions of people have
become Austrian subjects. Wallachia and Moldavia
are united in the independent kingdom of Rumania,
diminishing the extent of Turkey by 46,000 miles and
over five millions of inhabitants. Bulgaria is a depen-
dent state, over which the Porte has no real control,
and Eastern Rumelia has lately de facto become part
of Bulgaria, and the two contain nearly 40,000 square
miles, and three millions of inhabitants. The king-
dom of Greece with its 25,000 miles and two millions
of population has long been separated from its parent
In Europe where the Turkish territory once extended
to 230,000 square miles, with a population of nearly
twenty millions, it now reaches only the total of
&6,ooo miles and four and a half millions : it has lost
nearly three-fourths of its land, and about the same
proportion of its people.

Whether what has happened since the famous
Congress sat upon the state of Turkey in solemn
conclave at Berlin in 1878 can be held to justify the
motto of " Peace with Honour " may be decided
by the reader on the evidence of facts or the
strength of political conviction. One thing seems
clear, that, rightly or wrongly, in supporting the
Christian provinces against their sovereign, the
Powers at Berlin sounded the knell of Turkish

CONCLUSION. 365

domination in Europe. Asiatic Turkey, under the
aegis of England's mysterious " protectorate," may
still enjoy its ancient barbaric existence, menaced
perhaps by Russians in the north-east, by canals in
the south, and by advancing civilization everywhere :
but in Europe, the Turk will mount guard over the
Bosphorus, and sit in the seat of the Caesars only so
long as Europe requires him there. Another Power
is quite ready to take his place, and even in England
the impossibility of permitting a Tsar to reign at
Constantinople is no longer quite an undisputed axiom.
But whether, with all our prejudice against the " un-
speakable " Turk, the Moslem is a worse ruler than
the Russian, and ought necessarily to give way to the
advancing tide of Slavonic " civilization," is a question
too large for this little book. At the best it is a
choice of evils.

There are some who believe in a great Moham-
medan revival, with the Sultan- Khalifat the head, — a
second epoch of Saracen prowess, and a return to the
good days when Turks were simple, sober, honest men,
who fought like lions. There is plenty of such stuff
in the people still : but where are their leaders ? Till
Carlyle's great man comes, the hero who can lead a
nation back to paths of valour and righteousness,
to dream of the regeneration of Turkey is but a boot-
less speculation.

THE END. ,

INDEX.

Abd-ul-Aziz, 293, 360

Abd-ul-Hamid, 337, 360

Abd-ul-MejId, 268, 350, 360

Acre, 350

Adair, Sir R., 258

Adam, Villiers de L'Isle, 170

Adrianople, 35, 79, 84, 107, 349

Ahmed I., 214

Ahmed III., 253

Ahmed Gedik, 136, 139

Ahmed Pasha, 309

Akif Pasha, 323

Akinji, 31

Akkerman, 346

Akshehr, 41

Ala-ud-dln, 26, 76

Alexander Nevski, 248

Ah' Chelebi, 320

All Pasha, 42

All of Janina, 344

Alma, 357

Altenburg, 180

Amasia, 79

Amurath [Murad]

Anadolu Hisar, 108

Andronicus, 25, 33

Angora, 8, 66-72

Anne, 33

Anne Tsaritza, 254

Apostasy, 353

Arabia, 163

Army organization, 26, 76, 344

Ashab-ul-Kalem, 327 ff.

Astrakhan, 249, 251

At-Meydani, 130

Aubusson, D', 142, 150
Aviano, 234-5
Aydin, 19, 33
Aynegol, 16
Azov, 251-2, 255

Bab-i-Humayun, 269

Baghdad, 219-20

Bahory, Stephen, 25

Bajazet [BdyezJd]

Baki, 312, 314-5

Balaklava, 357

Balkan, passage of, 89

Baltaji, 283-4

Baphoeum, 19

Barbarossa, 196

Batak, 360

Batu, 247

Bayezid I., 31, 40, 43, 46-73

BayezTd II., 140-150

Bebek, 265

Beglerbeg, 92

Beglerbeg palace, 266

Bektash, Hajji, 28

Belgrade, 88, 97-8, 169-170, 2^9,

241, 254
Bem, 354

Berlin, Treaty of, 362
Beshiktash, 266
Bey bars, 159
Bilejik, 15
Bithynia, 9, 19
Borgia, Alexander, 149-50
Bostanji Bashi, 278, 283

368

INDEX.

Boucicault, 52
Briick, 183

Brusa, 9, 22, 23, 84, 97
Bucharest, Treaty, 259, 343
Buda, 179, 180
Bulgaria, 360, 362, 364
Buyukdere, 265
Byron, 260-1, 266, 345

Candia, 225

Canning, George, 346

Canning, Stratford, 258-9, 265,

350-356, 359
Cantacuzenus, 33-5
Capistran, St. John, 97
Carlowitz, 241, 252
Castles of Anatolia and Rumelia,

108
Castriota, George of, 133-5
Catherine, 253
Chaldiran, 157
Charles v., 191
Charles VIII., 146-50
Charles XII., 252
Chawush, 283-4, 327
Chelebi, 83
Chichakov, 259
Chingiz, 2, 3, 247
Choczim, 225
Church, Sir R., 345
Cicila, 213
Comines, De, 87
Comnenus, David, 136
Constantine Palaeologus, 107-126
Constantinople, sieges of, 63, 65,

79, 86, 108-133
Cossacks, 225

Creasy, Sir E., 28, 91-5, 161, 199
Crete, 225

Crimea [Arm] y

Crimean War, 356-8 /
Croia, 134
Cyprus, 363

Dardanelles, 356, 359
Defterdar, 328
Demetrius IV., 248

Derebeys, 343
Despina, 49
Diebitsch, 349
Divan, 335
Diyarbekr, 158
Dolmabaghche, 266
Doria, 196, 210
Dragut, 196
Ducas, 33
Dufferin, Lord, 359

Edebali, 13-15

Egypt, 161

Ekrem Bey, 323

Elchi, the Great [Canning^

Empire, Eastern, 32

Erivan, 219-20

Ermeni, 9, 10, 16

Ertoghrul, 8-15

Ertoghrul, son of BayezTd, 65

Eskishehr, 10, 15

Esterhazy, 227

Euboea, 136

Eugene, Prince, 241

Eunuchs, 288

Evliya Efendi, 321

Eyalet, 330

Eyyub, 262

Fazil, GhazI, 302

Ferdinand, Archduke, 179, 192

Finlay, 20, 33, 75

Fitnet, 322

Flor, Roger de, 32

Francis I., 173

Froissart, 57-59

Fuzidl, 312-4

Galata, 34, 262
Gallipoli, 34, 80
Gaza, 161
Gediklij 291
Genoese, 32-4, 9^ "7
George Brankovich, 86
Georgia, 217
Ghazel, 303

INDEX,

369

Gh&rT, El, 160, 161

Gibb, E. J. W., 108-11, 124,

131-3, 145, 150, 309
Gibbon, 111-131
Giustiniani \Justiniani\
Golden Horn, 262
Gotthard, St., 222
Gran, 180
Graviere, Jurien de la, 139, 169,

174
Greek War, 345-9
Guards, 28
Gulhane, 352
Gurko, 361

Hafiz, 218
Ilajji Khalifa, 321
Hamid, 8, 41
Hammer, Von, 16, 208
Hatti-SherTf, 352
Hatti-IIumayun, 359
Haydar, 43
Hermannstadt, 88
Herzegovina, 360
Hiong Nu, 3
Hippodrome, 130
Hulagu, 154
Hungary, 179
Hunkiar Iskelesi, 349
Hunyady, 87-98

Tbn-Kemal, 311
Ibrahim, 173, 187, 319
Iconium, 8
Igor, 245, 250
Ikbal, 292
Inkerman, 357
Innocent VIII., 146-9
Irene, St., 269
Isa, 79
Isladi, 89

Ismail, Shah, 153-8
Istambol, 262
Itburuni, 13
Ivan the Great, 249
Ivan the Terrible, 251
Izzet Molla, 322

Jami, 102

Janissary, 27, 76, 344

Jariya, 291

J assy [ Yassy\

Jean de Vienne, 55

Jelayirs, 154

Jem, Prince, 141 -1 50

John of Austria, Don, 209

Joseph of Austria, 255

Jouan-Jouan, 4

Julian, Card., 88, 90, 91, 95

Justiniani, 1 14-123

Kadi, 335

Kadin, 291

Kafes, 275

Kaimmakam, 330

Kait Bey, 160

Kansu El-Ghurl, 160

Kapudan Pasha, 335-6

Kapuji, 269

Karaja, 92

Karaja Hisar, 15

Karaman, 19, 50, 80, 142

Kara Mustafa, 226, 236

Karasi, 25

Karatova, 49

Kasida, 315

Kasim, 83

Kay-Kubad, 8

Kaynarji, 254

Kazan, 249, 251

KazI-ul-Asker, 334

Kemal Bey, 323

Kemal-Pasha-Zada Ahmed, 31 1

Keresztes, 213

Kermiyan, 40

Khalifate, 162-3

Khasseki, 283-4

Khasseki Sultan, 291

Khazar, 245

Kherson, 255

Khey Bey, 162

Kheyr-ed-din [Barbarossd]

Khiva or Khuwarezm, Shahs of,

5,6
Khoja-i-jihan, 102
Khojas, 328

370

INDEX.

Khurrcm, 195

Kiev, 245 ff.

Kizlar Aghasi, 288

Knolles, 44, 46, 49, 69-72, 87,

96-7, 294 flf.
Koprilis, 221-240
Korkud, 153
Kosovo, 43, 96
Kossuth, 354
Krim (Crimea), 136, 249, 251,

254-5
Kurdistan, 158
Kurt Bay, 162
Kyahya Bey, 327

Lala Mustafa, 209

Lala Shahin, 36

Lazarus of Serbia, 43

Lebanon, 359

Lemberg, 225

Lepanto, 140, 209

Leyla, 322

Liegnitz, 247

Liva, 330-1

Loredano, 80, 136

Lorraine, Charles of, 227, 234

Louis L of Hungary, 36

Louis n. of Hungary, 179

Louis XIV., 226

Louis Napoleon, 355

Louis, St., 159

Magnesia, 96, 174

Mahmud H., 27, 292-3, 321, 333,

343-350
Mahmud Pasha, 102
Mahomet [Afo/iummed]
Mai Khatun, 13-15
Malakov, 358
Malta, 196

Mamluks, 2, 6, 64, 65, 1 58-162
Mansura, 159

Manuel Palaeologus, 63, 86
Maritza, 36
Mariupol, 247
Marj Dabik, 161
Matthias Corvinus, 133, 146

Mekka, 208

Meslhi, 311

Mihri, 310

Mikhal Oglu, 180

Milosh Kobilovich, 44, 46

Modon, 140

Mohacs, 179, 239

Mohammed I., 74-84, 108

Mohammed IL, 90, loi, 139,

262, 310
Mohammed IH., 213
Mohammed IV., 237
Mohammed All, 343-350
Mohammed the Prophet, 37$
Mongols, 2-10
Montecuculi, 222
Moors in Spain, 209
Morosini 225, 239
Morsiney, Elizabeth, 87
Moscow, 246 ff.
Muezzin-zada, 209
Mufettish, 335
Mukhtar, 362
Murad I., 16, 35-46, 329
Murad II., 85-97
Murad HI., 213
Murad IV., 217-20
Murad V., 360
Musa, 79
Mushavaras, 335
Mustafa, 85, 195
Mustafa II., 240
Mustafa, Lala, 209
Mutasarrif, 330
Myrche of Wallachia, 50-I
Mysia, 25

NabT, 318

Na'Ima, 320

Nasmyth, 356

Navarino, 346

Nedlm, 318-20

Nefi, 315-18

Negropont, 136

NejatI, 310

Nenuphar, 16

Neva, 244, 248

Nevayi, Mir All Shir, 309

Nevers, Count of, 51, 57

INDEX.

371

Nicaea, 9, 19, 20, 25

Nice, 145

Nicholas, 253

Nicomedia, 23, 25
i Nicopolis, 43, 52 flf.

i Nishanji Pashi, 328

'< Nissa, 40
I Northmen, 245
^ Novgorod, 244 ff.

I °

i Ochakov, 256
I Ofen, 180

I Oleg, 250

tOlga, 245
Orkhan, 15, 23, 25, 35
Orsova, 52
I Orta Kapu, 270

I Ortakoy, 265

Othman I., 13-24
Othmanli, 13
Othman Pasha, 361
I Otho, 349

I Otranto, 139

I Ottomans, 7, 13

Paget, Lord, 241
Palaeologus, John, 34
Paris, Treaty of, 358
Parkany, 239
Parma, Prince of, 209
Parthenon, 239
Passarowitz, 241
Patras, 140
Pelekanon, 25
Peloponnesus, 60
Pera, 262, 265
Pergamon, 25
Persia, 217
Pesth, 179, 180
Peter 11. , 253
Peter the Great, 252-3
Philippopolis, 35
Piali, 196
Piave, 135
Piyade, 27
Plevna, 361
Podolia, 225

Poniatovski, 254
Porte, Sublime, 269
Princes Isles, 261
Pruth, 253
Pultowa, 253

Raab, 180

Raghib P., 318

Raglan, Lord, 356-8

Ragusa, 35

Reforms, 342, 352

Reis Efendi, 327

Reshid Pasha, 323, 352

Reydaniya, i6i

Rhodes, 136, 170

Rhodes, Knights of, 141 ff., 170

Roe, Sir T., 214

Romanus, Tower of St., 114

Roxelana, 195

Rumania, 359, 364

Rumiantzov, 254

Rumili Hisar, 108

Rurik, 245

Rus, 245

Sabri, 315

Sackmen, 180

Sa'di, 311

Sa'd-ud-din, 108-II, 124, 131-3,

304, 320
Safia, 213
Saib, 318

St. Sophia, 126-131
Sakariya, 9, 10
Saladin, 159
Salih, Es-, 159
Salm, Count of, 187
Sami, 318
Sangarius, 9
Sanjak, 330
Sanjak-i-Sherif, 275
Saru-Khan, 19, 33
Sassenage, 145
Saveji, 49
Schiklberger, 57
Schimmer, 183, 187, 188
Schonbrunn, 258

372

INDEX.

Sebaste, 65

Sefevis, 154

Sej, 303

Sellm I., 152-164, 310-II

Sellm II., 208, 210, 213

Seljuk, 2, 8, 16, 50, 86

Semendria, 49

Sepoy, 31

Seraglio, 268-301

Seraglio Point, 262, 268

Seray, 248, 249, 267

Serbs' rout, 39

Sevastopol, 356-8

Seymour, Sir G. H., 253

Shagirds, 291

Shejer-ed-durr, 159

Sherif, 334

Sheykh Ghalib, 321

Sheykhl, 304

Sheykh-ul- Islam, 333-4

Sheykh-zada, 305

Shinasi, 323

Shinitza, 43

Shipka Pass, 362

Shi as, 154

Sigismund, 51, 55, 56, 2^7

Silahdar Agha, 285

Silistria, 254, 356 .

Sinan, 208

Sinan Pasha, 157, 161, 309

Sinope, 136, 356

Sipahis, 31, 218, ZiZ

Sisvan, 42, 51

Siwas, 65

Skanderbeg, 133-5

Skutari, 32, 33

Slankamen, 240

Slaves, 33

Sobieski, 225, 227

SokoUi, 208, 251

Soliman {Suleymari]

Spires, Diet of, 183

Stahremberg, 228-236

Stambol, 260 ff.

Stefano, 261, 362

Stephen of Serbia, 49, 56, 69,

76,86
Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord, 355

[Canning^
Sugut, 9, 13
Suleyman Pasha, 34, 35

Suleyman, Prince, 79, 83
Suleyman the Magnificent, 165-

199
Sultanoni, 10, 16
Sultans, table of, xix.
Suvorov, 256
Svatoslav, 250
Syria, 161

Szegedin, Treaty of, 89, 90
Szigetvar, 192

Tamerlane [Tinmr\
Tartars, 247 ff.
Tebriz, 156, 157, 217
Terjuman, 328
Theodora, 33
Therapia, 265
Thessalonica, 86
Tilsit, 257-8
Timariote, 333
Timur, 63-73
Tirnova, 42, 238
Topji Bashi, 330
Torghud, 196
Towers, Seven, 261, 336
Treasury, 274
Trebizond, 136
Tugh, 331-2, 337
Tughra, 36, 328-30
Tuman Bey, 16 1-2
Turk, 3-8
Turkoman, 6, 154
Tvark, 43
Tzympe, 34

Uighur, 4
Ukraine, 225
Ulema, 333
Uluj Ali, 209-210
Urquhart, 239
Uskub, 49
Usta, 291

Vambery, 88, 98, 179
Varangian, 245

INDEX.

373

Varna, 91-5

Vasag, 88

Vascapu, 88

Venetian, 210, 225, 239

Venice, 33, 34, 80, 135, 170, 208

Vezir, 26, 336

Vidin, 49, 52

Vienna, 184, 228-237

Vilayet, 330

Vlad, 133

Vladimir, 246 ff.

Vladislaus V., 88, 92, 95, 96

Volga, 244

Volkhov, 244, 245

Vuk Brankovich, 43

Wagram, 258

Wall, 330

Wallachia, White Knight of, 87

Wasif, 322

Ya'kub, 43, 46
Ya-iiboli, 238
Yassy, 256
Yazigi-oghlu, 305
Yenikale, 252
Yenishehr, 15, 19
Yildiz Koshki, 266
Yildirim, 43

Zapolya, 179
Zati, 31Q
Zenta, 241
Zeyneb, 310
Zimiskes, 250
Ziyamet, 333
Zizim [yem]
Zrinyi, 192, 195

[80, 192

Ubc Stori^ of the IRationa

Messrs. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS take pleasure in
announcing that they Jiave in course of publication, in
co-operation with Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, of London, a
series of historical studies, intended to present in a
graphic manner the stories of the different nations that
have attained prominence in history.

In the story form the current of each national life is
distinctly indicated, and its picturesque and noteworthy
periods and episodes are presented for the reader in their
philosophical relation to each other as well as to universal
history.

It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to
enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring them
before the reader as they actually lived, labored, and
struggled — as they studied and wrote, and as they amused
themselves. In carrying out this plan, the myths, with
which the history of all lands begins, will not be over-
looked, though these will be carefully distinguished from
the actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted
historical authorities have resulted in definite conclusions.

The subjects of the different volumes have been planned
to cover connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive
epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will
present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in

the great STORY OF THE NATIONS ; but it is, of course,
not always practicable to issue the several volumes in
their chronological order.

The *'Sto*-ies" are printed in good readable type, and
in handsome i2mo form. They are adequately illustrated
and furnished with maps and indexes. Price, per vol.,
cloth, $1.50. Half morocco, gilt top, $1.75.

The following are now ready (Feb., 1897) :

GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harri-
son.

ROME. ArthurCilman.

THE JEWS. Prof. James K.Hos-
mer.

CHALDEA. Z.A. Ragozin.

GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould.

NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boye-
sen.

SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan
Hale.

HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vambery.

CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J.
Church.

THE SARACENS. Arthur Gil-
man.

THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stan-
ley Lane-Poole.

THE NORMANS. Sarah Orne
Jewett.

PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin.

ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo.
Rawlinson.

ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof.
J. P. Mahaffy.

ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin.

THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley.

IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless.

TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole.

MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PER-
SIA. Z. Ai Ragozin.

MEDIAEVAL FRANCE. Prof.
Gustave Masson.

HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold
Rogers.

MEXICO. Susan Hale.

PHSNICIA. Geo. Rawlinson

THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen

Zimmern.
EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred

J. Church.
THE BARBARY CORSAIRS.

Stanley Lane-Poole.
RUSSIA. W. R. Morfill.
THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W.

D. Morrison.
SCOTLAND. John Mackintosh.
SWITZERLAND. R. Stead and

Mrs. A. Hug.
PORTUGAL. H. Morse Stevens.
THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. C.

W. C. Oman.
SICILY. E. A. Freeman.
THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS.

Bella Duffy.
POLAND. W. R. 'Morfill.
PARTHIA. Geo. Rawlinson.
JAPAN. David Murray.
THE CHRISTIAN RECOVERY

OF SPAIN. H.E. Watts.
AUSTRALASIA. Greville Tre-

garthen.
SOUTHERN AFRICA. Geo. M.

Theal.
VENICE. AletheaWiel.
THE CRUSADES. T.S.Archer

and C. L. Kingsford.
VEDIC INDIA. Z. A. Ragozin.
BOHEMIA. C.E.Maurice.
CANADA. J.G. Bourinot.
THE BALKAN STATES. Wil-
liam Miller.

RULE IN INDIA. R.

RETUI* M J DESK fKCM WiiXH TlORROWr -> |

LOAN DEPT.

RENEWALS ONLY— TEL. NO. 642-3405

This book is due on the last date stamped below, or

on the date to which renewed.

Renewed books are subject to immediate recall.

\970

BEC'DLD JU

_9.97Q-2PW14 5

DEC 8t97025

^g'D U) DEC

•■'^^O-lPMSy

t^EBit-DlffiS&jl?

UAN 2 J 78

DEC 7 1975

, m . :. "^

OCT 1 6 20114

LD2lA-60w-3,'70
(N6382sl0)476-A-32

General Library

University of California

Berkeley

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY

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