History of the Ottoman Turks: from the beginning of their empire to the present time. Chiefly founded on Von Hammer

Front matter

rei HISTORY OP THE OTTOMAN TURKS: FROM THE BEGINNING! OF THEIR EMPIRE TO THE PRESENT TIME. CHIEFLY FOUNDED ON VON HAMMER. BY E. S. CREASY, M.A. Professor of History in University College, London ; Late Fellow of King's College, Cambridj Author of "The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World," " Rise and Progress of the English Constitution," &c. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON : RICH-xYRD BENTLET, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, l)PubIisj)cr in ©rtrinarg to Jfttx ;tjflaj£i.tg. 1856. The Author reserv es to himself the right of Translation. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Page

Character of the latter portion of Turkish history — Accession of Sultan Ibrahim — Folly and wickedness of his government — Revolution — Ibrahim deposed and put to death — Foreign events during Ibrahim's reign — War with the Cossacks — Beginning of the war of Candia — Mahomet IV., at the age of seven raised to the throne — Continued tumult and misery — The first Kiuprili made Vizier 1

Chapter II

Mohammed Kiuprili — Rigour and success of his ministry — His son Ahmed Kiuprili succeeds him in the Vizierate — Great Qualities of Ahmed Kiuprili — Weakness of Snltan Mahomet IV. — War with Austria — Great defeat of the Turks by Montecuculi at St. Gothard — Truce with Austria — Ahmed Kiuprili takes Candia — War with Russia aud Poland — Sobieski defeats the Turks at Khoczim and Lemberg — Peace of Zurana — Death and character of Ahmed Kiuprili 27

Chapter III

Kara Mustapha Vizier — Unsuccessful war with Russia — War with Austria — Siege of Vienna- — Rescue of the City and complete overthrow of the Turks by Sobieski — Heavy losses of the Ottomans — Mahomet IV. deposed — His character — Change of the Janissary force — The Barbaresque regencies — The pretended Messiah Sabbathai — Mahomet IV.'s patronage of literature .64

Chapter IV

Solyman II. — Insurrections and defeats — Successes against Russia — Kiuprili-Zade Mustapha • made Grand Vizier — His character and measures — Wise policy to the Rayas— Successful campaign — Death of Solyman II. — Ahmed II. Sultan — Kiuprili defeated and killed at Salankamen — Disastrous reign of Ahmed II. — Mustapha II. succeeds and heads the armies — Victorious at first, but defeated by Eugene at Zenta— Husein Kiuprili Grand Vizier— Conquests of Peter the Great of Russia over the Turks — Azof taken — Negociations for peace — Treaty of Carlowitz VI CONTEXTS.

Chapter V. Faoe

Death of Kiuprili Housein— Abdication of Mustapha II. — Accession of Achmet III.— Charles XII. in Turkey— War with Russia— Success of the Turks and treaty of the Pruth— War with Venice— Tbe Morea recovered— War with Austria — Disasters of the Turks — Peace of Passarowitz— League with Russia against Persia — Deposition of Achmet III. — The Hospodars — The Fanariots 106

Chapter VI

Mahmoud I. — Topal Osman- — Peace with Persia — Russia and Austria attack Turkey — Russian invasions of the Crimea — Successes of the Turks against the Austrians — Belgrade recovered — Treaty of Belgrade —Pacific policy of Turkey— Death of Sultan Mahmoud — Short pacific reign of Othman III. .158

Chapter VII

Russian attack on Poland — Turkish remonstrances — War with Russia — Opinions of Europe — Defeats of the Turkish armies — Russian fleet in the Mediterranean — Battle of Tchesme — Exploits of Hassan of Algiers — Loss of the Crimea — Negociations — War renewed — Silistria and Shumla defended — Death of Mustapha III. — Abdul Hamid Sultan — Treaty of Kainardji .......... 207

Chapter VIII

Attempts of Gazi Hassan to restore the Empire — Fresh encroachments of Russia — Convention of 1779 — Russia annexes the Crimea — Vain attempts of France to induce England to act with her against Russia — Convention of 1783 — Schemes of Austria and Russia for the dismemberment of Turkey —War— Resistance of the Turks to Austria — Austria makes peace— Disasters sustained by the Turks in the war with Russia — Accession of Sultan Selim III.— Intervention of England and Prussia — Treaty of Jassy 264

Chapter IX

View of the Turkish Empire before the commencement of Selim III.'s Reforms— Territorial divisions; Eyalets, Livas, Kazas— xVppointments of the Pachas— The Ayans— Extent of the Empire— Its misrule and misery— Feebleness of the Sultan's authority— The Wahabites, Druses, Mamelukes, and Suliotes— Revolts of the Pachas— Abuses of the Feudal System— Tyranny of the Farmers of the Revenue— Military weakness of the Empire— The Janissaries and other troops— The House of Othman at its Nadir CONTENTS. VII

Chapter X. Page

Selim's reforms — The new troops — Napoleon attacks Egypt — War between Turkey and France — Alliance with Russia and England- Defence of Acre — French evacuate Egypt — General Peace — Troubles in Servia — The Dahis — Kara George — War with Russia aud England ■ — The passage of the Dardanelles — Truce with Russia— Selim III. deposed by the Janissaries — Mustapha IV. Sultan — Deposed by Mustapha Bairactar — Mahmoud II. — Death of Bairactar — Triumph of the Janissaries, and apparent end of reforms — Russian war continued — Treaty of Bucharest 331

Chapter XI

Character of Mahmoud II. — Mehemet Ali — Overthrow of the Mamelukes and the Wahabites — Fresh troubles in Servia — Milosch Obrenowitch — General excitement among the Rayas — The Hetæria — The Greek Revolution — Mahmoud destroys the Janissaries — Russia under Nicholas I. forces the treaty of Akkerman on Turkey — France, England, and Russia, interfere on behalf of the Greeks — Battle of Navarino — War with Russia — Treaty of Adrianople — Revolt of Mehemet Ali — Battle of Konieh — Russian troops protect the Sultan — Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi — Fresh War with Mehemet Ali — Death of Mahmoud — The Turks defeated — Sultan Abdul Mejdid aided by England against Mehemet Ali — Settlement of disputes with Egypt . 390

Chapter XII

Reforms of Sultans Mahmoud II. and Abdul Mejdid — Abolition of th e Court of Confiscations— Power of life and death taken from the Pachas — The Vakoufs — The Timars and the Ziamets abolished — The Dereh-Beys put down — Financial reforms — Edicts in favour of the Rayas — Reform of the Central Administration — Costume — The Tanzimat — The constitutional Firman of the present year — Educational reforms — Anti-slavery measures — The new military system — Omar Pacha — Increased prosperity of Turkey — Attitude of Russia — The disturbances of 1848 in the Principalities — The Sultan protects the Hungarian refugees — Attempts of the Czar to make England join him against Turkey — The Emperor Nicholas and Sir Hamilton Seymour — The Holy Places — Russia's demand of Protectorate — The War — The Peace — What will be the future history of the Ottoman Empire! 446

Appendix

ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME II. PAGE Map or Crimea and Northern Coast or Black Sea, and Sea op Azof To face Frontispiece Plan of Battle of St. Gothard 39 Map of Asia Minor ...... End of Volume CORRIGENDA. VOL. I. Page 38 line 10 for " eldest," read "second." ,, 141 ,, 29 ,, "1763," ,, "1774." ,, 211 ,, 4 ,, "like the followers," ,, " and most of the followers.' „ 244 ,, 23 ,, "father," „ "grandfather." ,, 290 ,, 11 ,, "stem," ,, "stern." ,, 325 ,, 30 ,, "is," ,, "was." ,, 335 „ 6 ,, "three," ,, "ten." ,, 367 ,, 24 ,," 1693," " 1694," ,, " 1593," "" 1594." ,, 389 ,, 1 ,, "1521," „ " 1621." VOL. II. Page 1 line 8 for "reign," read "reigns." „ 47 ,, 17 ,, " were," ,, " was." ,, 56 ,, 4 ,, " both horse, foot," ,, " both horse and foot.' ,, 64 ,, 32 ,, "Sultan's," „ "Sultans." ,, 71 note ,, "58," ,, "58—60." 76 ,, 14 ,, "first," „ "first time." ,, 79 ,, 22 ,, " the beleaguering," ,, "beleaguering." „ 115 „ 26 ,, " Mœotis," „ " the Mœotis." ,, 118 ,, 13 ,, " Russias," ,, "Russians." ,, 150 ,, 18 „ " or," ,, " and." ,, 185 ,, 24 ,, " congress," ,, " the congress." ,, 223 ,, 7 ,, " Ottoman," ,, " Othman." ,, 247 ,, 14 ,, "Bulgaria," ,, "Bulgarian." ,, 247 ,, 18 ,, "towns," ,, "town." „ 308 ,, 24 ,, "where," ,, "were." ,, 313 ,, 16 ,, " Djinid," ,, " Djedid." ,, 350 ,, 9 ,, " Tartary," ,, "Turkey." ,, 405 note ,, "number," ,, "murder." VOLUME II.

Chapter I. Character Of The Latter Portion Of Turkish History- Accession Of

SULTAN IBRAHIM— FOLLY AND WICKEDNESS OF HIS GOVERNMENT — REVOLUTION— IBRAHIM DEPOSED AND PUT TO DEATH— FOREIGN EVENTS DURING IBRAHIM'S REIGN— WAR WITH THE COSSACKS— BEGINNING OF THE WAR OF CANDIA— MAHOMET IV., AT THE AGE OF SEVEN RAISED TO THE THRONE— CONTINUED TUMULT AND MISERY —THE FIRST KIUPRILI MADE VIZIER* In the preceding portion of this history we have traced the fortunes of the House of Othman during a period of nearly four hundred years. A further space of rather more than two centuries remains to be examined, before we connect the narrative of the exploits of the early Sultans with a sketch of the great contest, of which their empire is now the occasion and the scene. This final volume will comprise the reign of thirteen * See Von Hammer, books 49 to 51. VOL. II. u princes, from Ibrahim, who succeeded Amurath IV., in a.d. 1640, to Mahmoud IL, who died in 1839.

It will include also the sixteen eventful years, during which the present sovereign, Abdul Mejnid, has striven to uphold the honour, and to retrieve the fallen pros perity of his race. Such a character, and such a position as his, must ever command sympathy and admiration. But, with the exceptions of the now reigning Sultan, and of the great though unsuccessful man, who was his immediate predecessor on the throne of Constantinople ; — perhaps with the exceptions also of Mustapha II. and Selim III., the Turkish princes whom we are proceeding to contemplate, form figures of but languid interest on the historic page. The decay of the State accords with the degeneracy of its rulers : and minute descriptions of the troubles and calamities of declining empire are generally monotonous and unattractive.

We shall indeed still have our attention drawn to fierce and eventful wars ; and we shall still meet with names, that must ever live high in martial renown ; but they are wars, in which the Crescent has generally, though not invariably, gone back ; they are principally the names of commanders, who have grown great, not in the advancement, but at the expense of the House of Othman : such names as Montccuculi, Sobieski, Eugene, and Suwarrow. Yet, gleams of glory and success on the Turkish side will not be found altogether wanting ; and, besides the individual Sultans, who have been already specified as honourable exceptions to the general character of the Royal House since the fourth Amurath, there have been IBRAHIM, a.d. 1C40— 1648. 3 truly great men in the councils and the armies of Turkey.

She has had her Kiuprilis, and others, whose names have long deserved and commanded more than merely Oriental celebrity. We may remark also, that these last two centuries of Ottoman history, though less picturesque and spirit-stirring than its earlier periods, are more practically instructive and valuable for us to study, with reference to the great problems which the states of Central and Western Europe are now called on to solve, — how to redress the international balance of power, and how to provide securities against the aggressive ambition of Russia. It is also from com paratively recent scenes in the Turkish annals, that we gain the best materials for judging what probability there is of such reforms and reorganisations being effected in the Ottoman empire, as may enable it hereafter to hold its own in the conflicts of the great powers of the world, instead of depending on the jealousies which those powers entertain of each other, for protection, almost as perilous to its recipient as the subjugation which for a time it averts.

And even those politicians, who neither expect nor desire the maintenance of the Ottoman dominion, but who hope for the rise and growth of independent Christian states from among the European populations now subject to the Moslem, must look with interest on the historical events of the last century, by which the authority of the Sultan has been so materially affected, especially in the Trans-Danubian principalities, in Servia and in Greece. When Sultan Amurath IV. expired, his brother Ibrahim, whom he had vainly doomed with his own B dying breath to die, was the sole surviving representative in male descent of the House of Othman. Ibrahim had during Amurath's reign been a prisoner in the royal palace ; and for the last eight years had trembled in the daily expectation of death. When the grandees of the empire hastened to his apartment with the tidings that Sultan Amurath was no more, and with congratulations to their new sovereign, Ibrahim in his terror thought that the executioners were approaching, and barred the door against them.

He long refused to believe their assurances of Amurath's decease ;* and was only convinced, when the Sultana-mother ordered the body of her dead son to be carried within sight of the living one. Then Ibrahim came forth, and mounted the Turkish throne ; which received in him a selfish voluptuary, in whom long imprisonment and protracted terror had debased whatever spirit nature might have originally bestowed, and who was as rapacious and bloodthirsty, as he was cowardly and mean. Under Ibrahim the worst evils that had prevailed in the time of Amurath's weakest predecessors were speedily revived ; while the spirit of cruelty, in which Amurath had governed, continued to rage with even greater enormity. For a short period Ibrahim's first Grand Vizier, Kara-Moustafa, laboured to check the excesses and supply the deficiencies of his sovereign.

The Christian subjects of the Porte received from Kara-Moustafa * Compare in Suetonius, Vit. Claud, cxi, the account of the terror of Claudius when saluted as Emperor after Caligula's death. " Rumore cædis exterritus prorepsit ad solarium proxiinurn, interque prætenta foribus vela se abdidit. Latentem forte discurrens gregarius miles animadversis pedibus e studio sciscitandi quisnam esset, agnovit, et pro metu ad genua sibi adciden tem, Imperatorcm salutavit," &c. &c. IBRAHIM, a d. 1640—1648. 5 impartial justice ; and he attempted with some degree of temporary success to keep down the growth of abuses in the financial administration of the empire. He had the perilous honesty to speak with frankness to the dissolute tyrant whom he served, to oppose Ibrahim's mad caprices, and to strive against the per nicious influence of the favourite sultanas and buffoons, who trafficked in the sale of posts and dignities.

The offence which the Vizier thus gave, and the reputation of having amassed much wealth, were sure causes of ruin to one who served a moody and avaricious master like Ibrahim. At the same time the Vizier's character was far from faultless ; and his errors and his merits co-operated to effect his destruction. Moustafa was violent and implacable in his enmity towards all who rivalled or seemed likely to rival him in power ; and he wyas unscrupulous as to the means which he employed in order to overthrow an adversary. But his deadliest foes were those whose inferiority of sex and station screened them from reprisals ; and the immediate cause of the Grand Vizier's fall, was an affront which he gave to the lady who held the office of governess of the Harem. This female functionary of Ibrahim's State, the Kiaya-Khatoum, had sent a requisition to the Grand Vizier for an instant supply of 500 carts of wood for the use of the Harem.

At this very time grave tidings of troubles in the provinces and on the frontiers had reached Constantinople. Intent on these matters, Kara-Moustafa neglected to send the faggots for the ladies. A few days afterwards, while he was presiding in the Divan, he received, two hours before the usual time of the council's rising, a message from Ibrahim commanding him immediately to dismiss the Divan and appear before the Sultan. The Vizier obeyed, and hastened before his royal master. Ibrahim instantly demanded of him, " Why have not the 500 loads of wood for the Harem been supplied ." " They shall be sent," replied the Vizier. Then, with more courage than prudence, he added, " My Padischah, is it wise or proper for thee to call on me to break up the Divan, and to confuse and delay the weightiest affairs of state, for the sake of attending to 500 loads of wrood, the whole value of which does not amount to 500 aspres .

Why, when I am before thee, dost thou question me about firewood, but sayest not a word about the petitions of thy subjects, the state of the frontier, and of the finances . " The Mufti Yahya, who was informed of this conversation by Husein Effendi, who was present, advised the Grand Vizier to be more guarded in his words, and to treat nothing as of trifling importance in which the Sultan took an interest. Kara-Moustafa replied, "Is it not doing the Sultan good service to tell him the truth 1 Am I to turn flatterer . I had rather speak freely and die, than live in servile falsehood." * Resolved, however, not to die without an effort to overthrow his enemies, Kara-Moustafa formed a device to ruin Youssouf Pacha, who had lately risen rapidly in favour with the Sultan, and who was the Vizier's mortal foe.

Kara-Moustafa caused money to be * The Turkish historian, Nainia, who narrates this speech, states that he heard it related by Husein Effendi. Von Hammer, vol. iii. p. 234, n. 1640—1648. 7 distributed among the Janissaries of the capital, to induce them to refuse their rations, and to allege the undue influence of Youssouf Pacha as the cause of their discontent. But the scheme was soon disclosed to the Sultan, who summoned Kara-Moustafa before him, and ordered his instant execution. Kara-Mous tafa escaped from the royal presence to his own house ; and, when pursued thither by the executioners, instead of exhibiting the passive submission which Oriental statesmen have generally shown in such circumstances, he drew his sabre and fought desperately, till he was overpowered by numbers, disarmed, and strangled.* The successor of Kara-Moustafa in the Grand Vizierate was Sultanzade Pacha.

He was determined not to incur his predecesssor's fate by uncourtly frankness towards his sovereign. He flattered every caprice, and was the ready instrument of every passion of the Sultan, whose immoderate appetite for sensual pleasures, and savage fondness of ordering and of witnessing acts of cruelty, now raged without stint or shame. Ibrahim, who remembered the check w7hich Kara-Moustafa used to impose on him, could not * When Kara Moustafa's palace was searched by the Sultan's officers, five pictures, being portraits of Kara Moustafa and four other ministers of state, were found in a place of concealment. It was supposed that the late Vizier had used them in magical rites ; and a Moor, who was said to have been his tutor in sorcery, was burnt alive. Von Hammer remarks that probably Kara Moustafa was fond of paintings, but kept them as forbidden treasures in a secret part of his house.

The strict followers of the Mahometan law consider all representations of the human form, either in statuary or painting, to be impious : both as encouragements to idolatry and as profanations of God's chief workmanship. They say, that at the Last Day pictures and statues will rise round the artists who produced them, and call on the unhappy makers to supply their creatures with souls. help feeling some degree of surprise at the universal obsequiousness of his new Grand Vizier ; and asked one day of Sultanzade, " How is it that thou art able always to approve of my actions, whether good or evil 1 " " My Padischah," replied the shameless minis ter of despotism, " thou art Caliph ; thou art God's shadow upon earth. Every idea, which thy spirit entertains, is a revelation from Heaven. Thy orders, even when they appear unreasonable, have an innate reasonableness, which thy slave ever reveres, though he may not always understand."

Ibrahim accepted these assurances of infallibility and impecca bility ; and thenceforth spoke of himself as a divinely inspired agent in the midst of the most disgraceful scenes of folly, vice, and crime." So gross were these, that the very inmates of his harem sometimes mur mured ; and the Sultan's mother remonstrated with him against the corruption and frivolity of his conduct ; but * Nihil est quod credere de se Non possit, quum laudatur Dis æqua potestas. — Juv. Sat. iv. 70. Another observation of the same great moralist, that " Et qui nolunt occidere quenquam Posse volunt." Sat x. 96. Is remarkably illustrated by an anecdote, which Daru (Histoire de Venise, tome v. p. 40, note) relates respecting the effect produced on Louis the XIV. of France, when he heard of the summary assertions of absolute right over his subjects's lives which Sultan Ibrahim used to practise.

The Count de Cezy had been French ambassador at Constantinople, and had seen Ibrahim stab with his own hand, without the slightest form of trial, a minister, who was accused of misconduct. Some years afterwards, when the Count had returned to Paris, he narrated, in the presence of King Louis, this trait of the power of the Turkish Sultans, and other similar scenes which he had witnessed. " II echappa au roi de dire, ' Voilii cependant regner.' Le due de Montausier, qui e'tait present, se retourna vivement vers l'ambassadeur, en lui disant tout haut, 'Ajoutez done qu'on les strangle.' Louis XIV. repara noblement ce moment d'oubli, en nommant gouverneur du dauphin celui qui avait osi dire un mot si severe." 1640—1648. 9 in vain. Ibrahim replied by quoting the words of his 'Grand Vizier ; and let loose his absolute power in the gratification of every frivolous vanity and caprice, of every depraved appetite, of every feverish fit of irritable passion, and every gloomy desire of suspicious malignity.

The treasures, which the stern prudence of Amurath had accumulated, were soon squandered by the effeminate prodigality of his successor. In order to obtain fresh supplies of gold for his worthless favourites, and for the realisation of his wild fancies, Ibrahim sold every office of state, and every step in the honours both of Pen and Sword, to the highest bidder. The burdens of the old taxes were inordinately increased, and new imposts were added ; the very names of which showed the frivolous causes for which the Sultan drained the resources of his subjects, thus adding the sense of insult to that of oppression. One of Ibrahim's passions was a morbid craving for perfumes, especially for amber. Another was an excessive fond ness, not only of wearing, but of seeing around him, furs of the most rare and costly description.

To meet these desires, Ibrahim created two new taxes ; one called the Fur Tax, and the other called the Amber Tax. The madness of the Sultan's love for furs was worked up to the utmost by hearing a legend told by an old woman, who used to amuse the ladies of the Harem by narrating stories to them at night. This legend de scribed a certain king of the olden time, who was dressed in sable-skins, whose sofas and couches were covered, and whose palace was carpeted and tapestried also with the fur of the sable. Ibrahim instantly set his heart on being similarly arrayed, and on decking the Serail in like manner. He dreamed all night of sables ; and in the morning he commanded in the Divan that letters should be sent to all the governors and great men of the empire, enjoining each of them to collect and forward to Constantinople a certain number of sable-skins.

A similar requisition was made on all the Ulema, and all the civil and military officers in the capital. Some of them were driven to desperation by this mad tyranny, and openly gave vent to the' indignation which it inspired. Mo hammed Tchelibi, the judge of Galata, appeared before the Grand Vizier clad in the gown of a common dervise, and reproached him bitterly for the folly and wickedness of the government. He demanded an audience of the Sultan, and added, " There can but happen to me one of three things. You may kill me ; and, in that case, I shall think myself fortunate in being made a martyr. Or, you may banish me from Con stantinople ; which will not be unpleasant, as there have been several shocks of earthquake here lately. Or, perhaps, you will deprive me of my employments. But in that I have saved you the trouble.

I have appointed my deputy, and have changed my judge's robe and turban for the dervise's gown and cap." The Vizier, alarmed at such boldness, heard him in silence, and concealed his resentment. A colonel of the Janissaries, named Black Mourad, to whom the five hundred men of his regiment were devotedly attached, at this time returned from the Candian wars, and was met on landing by a treasury officer, who, in conformity 1640—1648. 11 with the resolution of the Divan, demanded of him so many sable-skins, so many ounces of amber, and a certain sum of money. Rolling his eyes, bloodshot with wrath, on the tax-gatherer, Black Mourad growled and thundered out, " I have brought nothing back from Candia but gunpowder and lead. Sables and amber are things that I know only by name. Money I have none ; and, if I am to give it you, I must first beg or borrow it."

Not satisfied with the produce of these exactions, the Sultan arbitrarily confiscated and sold a large mass of heritable property. The capricious fancies ot his favourite ladies were as costly to the empire as his own. Ibrahim permitted them to take what they pleased from the shops and bazaars without payment. One of these fair plunderers complained to the Sovereign that she disliked shopping by daylight ; and forthwith appeared a mandate from the Sultan requiring all the merchants and shop-keepers of the capital to keep their establishments open all night, and to provide sufficient torchlight for their wares to be seen clearly. Another lady told Ibrahim that she wished to see him with his beard adorned with jewels. Ibrahim decked himself accordingly, and appeared in public thus be dizened.

The Turks looked on this as an evil omen ; because, according to Oriental traditions, the only sovereign who had adopted such embellishment was King Pharaoh of the Red Sea. Enormous treasures were squandered on the construction of a chariot, incrusted with precious stones, for the use of another Celœno of the Harem • and 25,000 piastres were expended, that an equally splendid skiff should bear the Sultan along the Bosphorus. The disasters of the Venetian wars during the year 1648 irritated more and more the Ottoman nation against their imbecile but oppressive ruler ; and a formidable conspiracy was organised to deprive him of the power which he abused. Foremost among the conspirators were the chief officers of the Janissaries ; and the most active of these was Black Mourad, the colonel who had spoken with such rough frankness of the royal requisition for amber and sable.

He knew that his head was in hourly peril ; and it was indeed only by a timely warning from a private friend in the seraglio that he escaped death. The Sultan and his Vizier celebrated with great splen dour, on the 6th of August, 1648, the marriage of one of Ibrahim's daughters, a child of eight years old, with the Vizier's son. Mourad and three other Janissary colonels, named Mousliheddin, Begtasch, and Kara-Tschaoush, were bidden to the royal marriage feast, at which it was intended to secure and slay them. But the doomed men avoided their sovereign's snare, and summoned, the same night, their comrades to the mosque of the Janissaries. It was there resolved to depose the Grand Vizier. This was the first avowed object of the conspirators, but they were fully prepared to strike further. The birth of several princes since Ibrahim's accession, the eldest of whom, named Mahomet, was now seven years old, had deprived the Sultan of the protection which, in the early part of his reign, he derived from being the sole representative of the House of Othman.

The whole body of the Ulema co-operated with the soldiery ; and no one was more 1640—1648. 13 active or determined in promoting the revolution than the chief Mufti, whose deadly enmity Ibrahim had earned by a gross insult offered to his daughter. Ibrahim heard the demand of the insurgents respecting his Vizier, and took away from him the seals of office ; but with a gleam of friendship and humanity, feelings, of which at other times he seemed destitute, he strove to protect his fallen favourite's life. The soldiery and the Ulema made Sofi Mohammed Grand Vizier, and sent him to the Sultan to make known their will that the evil minister should be given up to them for punishment. Ibrahim had the imprudence to strike the chosen Vizier of the army and the people, and to threaten him that his own turn for punishment would soon come.

The insurgents now surrounded the palace, and their Avords grew more and more menacing. The Sultan sent his master of the horse to bid them disperse. The veteran Moussilheddin harangued him in the hearing of Janissaries, the Spahis, and the civil officers, who were now all joined in the revolt, saying, " The Padischah has ruined the Ottoman w7orld by pillage and tyranny. Women wield the sovereignty. The treasury cannot satiate their caprices. The subjects are ruined. The armies of the infidels are winning towns on the frontiers : their fleets blockade the Dardanelles. Hast thou not been an eye-witness of the state of affairs ? and why hast thou not told the Padischah the truth % " " The Padischah," answered the envoy, "knows nought of this. The guilt is mine : for I feared to speak the truth to the Padischah in the presence of the late Vizier.