Turkey, past and present: its history, topography, & resources

Introduction

The solution of the difficult problem affecting* the present and future position of Russia and Turkey is a matter of the deepest interest to this country : hence it cannot be idle and unprofitable to obtain a general and an impartial notion of the ry, government, religion, and customs of a people who, three centuries ago the terror of the Yforlcl, is thought by many to be hourly approaching continuall}-- nearer to its decrepitude and eventual dissolution, at least in Europe.

It was on the 29th of May, 1453, that the remarkable race of Osman, under its sultan, Mohammed II., the Conqueror, stormed Constantinople, and that the Cross paled before the Crescent. The conquest of Byzantium gave the death-blow to the degenerate Eastern Europe, and this sorry relic of the majesty of Rome was interred with its last emperor, Constantine, who fell gallantly in the streets of his capital. And a certain soothsayer has predicted that, precisely four hundred years from that date, the Turks are to experience the same fate which their sires prepared for the Creel: empire. A monarchy is to perish, which, at the epoch of its power and glory, embraced forty provinces and four dependencies — Transylvania, Moldavia, "Wallachia, and Eagusa ; which possessed, in Europe, the whole of Greece, Illyria, Mcesia, Macedonia, Pannonia, Thracia, Dacia, &c. ; which, in Central and Y\restern Asia, and in Africa, governed the greater part of the habitable land !

The history of a people which has accomplished such great

IV INTRODUCTION.

things, must be of great interest in every respect. The Turkish empire presents, moreover, such singular features in its government and religion, and has developed such wonderful energies in the course of ages, that it deserves more than a passing scrutiny in the apparent evening of its existence. We therefore propose now to cast an attentive and impartial glance at the history of this distinguished and historical people, and to present a lively picture of its administration, creed, and customs, in a few broad outlines. For it is only by this examination of the internal structure of the once mighty Ottoman empire that we can discover the secret of its former greatness and of its present weakness. Notwithstanding the thunder of battles muttering or roaring in the East, an impenetrable veil hangs over the future of this giant empire ; but whatever may be its future destiny, it cannot be without the most incalculable influence on the state of the other European nations.

TURKEY,

PAST AND PRESENT.

Chapter I

FPOM THE ORIGIN OF THE EMPIRE TO THE TAKING OE CONSTANTINOPLE, A.D. 1453.

The vast steppes of Mongolia and Tartary have exercised a mighty influence over the history of the human race. They have nurtured warlike and ferocious tribes that have often brought destruction and devastation over the earth. The shepherd races of these steppes, the Avars, the Moguls, the Alani, the Huns, and the Turks, have shaken the world. Though at one period knowledge and culture passed from the East to the West, barbarism and ignorance inundated Europe subsequently from the same quarter, incarnate in the unsightly and sanguinary Calmuck hosts. Mounted on their bony but indefatigable Cossack horses, these monsters of the fore-world appear, in fabulous forms, issuing from the salt deserts of Asia, and settling, like a cloud of locusts, on the fair lands of Iran, Turan, and the Lesser Asia, till their tide swept over the Bosphorus and the Vistula into the heart of Europe, where alliances with the fairer proportions of the Caucasian race smoothed the harsher features of their type into the modern Turk and Russ. First appear the Hiognu, who are generally considered of Turkish origin, and who inhabited the desert of Cobi, where, being pushed back in Central Asia, they sent forth waves of population as far as old Finland at the Ural. This convulsion drove the Huns, Avars, and sundry other hordes, into Europe. Thus a poisonous wind has blown in chronic gusts from the sand- wastes of Mongolia, laying waste the fruits of Greek, Roman, and Saracen culture ;

B and Mongolia lias been a vast volcano -pouring forth successive streams of human lava/ including the great eruptions and upheavings that occasioned the fall of the Roman and of the Lesser Empire. Mongolia has thus moulded a great part of modern history. *

One of the most remarkable emanations from the wastes of Central Asia is the family of Tartars known by the name of Turks, who wrought one of the greatest revolutions recorded in history. This people is deserving of attention from their democratic spirit, their Unitarian dogmas, and their conquests, converting the inhabitants of a broad expanse of Europe, Asia, and Africa into a camp and a temperance society.

This martial race, once the terror of Christendom, is now its bulwark against another Tartar invasion. The Ottomans, whose galleys under Barbarossa swept the waters and coasts of the Mediterranean, and dragged the ornament and the pride of the West into the dungeons or the harems of Algiers — whose dashing soldiery wrestled, often not in vain, with Prince Eugene, Louis of Baden, and Montecuculi — whom popes denounced as objects meet for a crusade — whom Sobieski smote at Vienna — stand forth now as the stronghold of justice, and the buckler thrown out to shield Western culture against the tempest of Northern aggression. Like Poland, they have lately learnt the bitterness of protection and partition ; Russia has stripped them of much land, Europe has destroyed the prospects of Greece by assigning her to a Bavarian prince ; France has appropriated Algiers to herself, and the attitude latterly assumed by the great Western Powers towards Turkey shows that theywere not indisposed to assist at the dismemberment of the ancient Ottoman Empire by the united houses of Romanoff and Hapsburg.

After this brief outline of the rise, progress, and decline of the Ottoman arms, we shall proceed to a somewhat closer inspection of the most remarkable events that have signalized or disgraced their historical development.

HISTORY OF THE TURKS PREVIOUS TO THE CONQUEST OE CONSTANTINOPLE (1453).

1. Origin of the Turks.

Although the Turks are among the most ancient nations recorded in history, it has been usual to date the commencement of the Ottoman Empire, in the full acceptation of the term, from the capture of Constantinople, in 1453. This conquest was undoubtedly the corner-stone of the structure of Turkish greatness, and the empire of the Osmanli was manifestly based upon that event. Nevertheless, tradition derives

* Ansichten der Natur, von Alexander von Humboldt, p. 9. Stuttgardt, Ed. 1826.

OEIGIN OF THE TTJEKS. 6

this martial people from Oglmz-Khan, the son of Kara-Khan, a descendant of Turk, who is the common ancestor of all the Turks — and is said to have boon a mighty king* in the time of Abraham. His empire was the country called Turkistan, known to the Persians by the name of Turan ; though it is only subsequently to the Christian era that this nation presents itself in history under the name of Turks.

The broad and elevated steppes of Central and Northern Asia, called Turkistan, appear to have been the cradle of this race ; though the affinities of etymology might lead us to other more remote lands, and ally the infant Turk in fraternal relationship with the youthful Magyar, the Fin, and the Celt — races cognate in misfortune, oppression, and gallantry. Without engaging in the labyrinths of ethnography, we go on to observe that the Turks, like the Persians and other Asiatic nations, appear originally to have been devoted to the worship of heathen idols ; and it was only some centuries after the advent of Mohammed, that Salur, who was, in a.d. 960, chief of the Turkish race, accepted Islam, together with some thousands of families ; on which occasion he called his people Turcomans, to distinguish them from the unconverted part of the race. When they subsequently departed thence, and some of them, settled in Western Armenia, whilst others stopped on the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, the former were styled the Western Turcomans, and the latter were called Eastern Turcomans, their abode being still known by the name of Turkistan. The Osmanlis, who have a great dislike to be styled Turks — a word meaning robbers in Persian — were named Tovaicoi by Ptolemy, who says that they live by hunting in immense forests on the sea of Azof. Pomponius Mela and Pliny likewise represent them as living in Sarmatia Asiatica, between the Don, the Volga, and the Caspian Sea, and call them Turca3. The Turks are still the dominant race, not only in the Ottoman Empire, but also numerous on the Caspian Sea and in the steppes of Central Asia. One branch, severed from the main body of the Turks, resides at present in the desert regions eastward of the river Lena in Siberia, on the shores of the Icy Sea, forming the tribe of the Jakutes, numbering 88,000.

The forays and migrations of the Turks appear to have radiated from their head-quarters on the Upper Irtish and the Saisan Sea, where the Uigures now live, who were the first Turks that made use of writing. From this centre, the Turkish tribes at diiferent times probably advanced westward, seized possession of the Persian throne, shook the empire of the Caliphs, and founded powerfnl monarchies in diiferent parts of Asia; The greater part of the army of Genghis Khan probably consisted of Turks, since we find traces of this race in all places where that great conqueror made war. Likewise Demur or Timur (Tamerlane) and his subjects, who are inaccurately styled B2

Moguls, were Turks, as this prince was only related to the imperial family of the Moguls by matrimonial alliance.*

All the Turks in the present day are, save the Yakutes, Mohammedans. The Chinese style them the Hoei-tseu. In philology and ethnography, the Turks are reckoned as belonging to the Caucasian group of nations and tongues stretching from the Altai to the Caucasus. To the same family belong the Armenian, Georgian, and some of the Circassian tribes, noted for their heroism and love of freedom, and speaking divers unwritten idioms. f The Turkish language presents four dialects : 1. The Uiguric ; 2. The Tschagataisch, or Bucharian ; 3. The Kazan, or Astrachan ; 4. The Constantinopolitan.

At a very early period, as previously observed, this warlike race showed a strong passion for conquest, and a highly military spirit; they speedily extended their territory to the borders of China, and annexed several provinces of the Persian monarchy, so that their empire, even in the thirteenth century, embraced no inconsiderable compass. But before we analyze the development of the Ottoman empire, let us cast a glance on the Seljukian dynasty which preceded it, and established a powerful monarchy (a.d. 1000 and 1100) on the ruins of the Caliphate. Toghrul Beg was the founder of this dynasty, and was crowned at Bagdad as king of the East and of the "West. His nephew, Alp-Arslan, took one of the Greek emperors prisoner, and his son Melek-Shah, also named Dschelalecldin, raised the empire to the highest pitch of majesty and of glory, annexing numerous provinces of the Eastern empire to his dominions, as far as the straits separating Asia from Europe.

Although this prince was a greatwarrior, he has left behind him the reputation of a philanthropic man and a magnanimous sovereign. He was once unfortunately involved in war with his brother, and whilst the contest was pending, Melek-Shah and his chief minister were repeating theirprayers simultaneously. When they had concluded, the sultan inquired of his minister what he had demanded of God? "I have asked this," answered the courtier : "that thou mayest conquer thy brother." Hereupon the prince rejoined—" I have prayed otherwise. I said, O God ! if it is better for my subjects that my brother should reign, and not I, let him have the victory ; if not, let me conquer." This prince, emir, or sultan (the terms are almost synonymous in Turkish and Arabic), showed, moreover, his partiality for knowledge and refinement by improving the calendar, which he introduced, altering the year from a lunar

OTTOMAN EMPIEE UNDER OSMAK. 5

into a complete solar year ; which has occasioned this method of calculation being called, in his honour, the Chronology of Dschelaleddin.

This great Turkish Seljukian kingdom, however, was gradually weakened through internal divisions and various enemies ; at last, between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it was completely destroyed by the Moguls.

2. Founding of the Ottoman Empire. — Osman.

The actual Ottoman empire was founded in the beginning of the thirteenth century by Osman, or Othman, whose history is intimately connected with that of his grandfather, Soiyman, and with the migration of his tribe from east to west.

This shah, or prince, Soiyman migrated in the year 1234, with his tribe, consisting of 50,000 souls, to Armenia. At a later period, and after Soiyman' s death, this horde became divided ; the main body remaining stationary under the youngest son of Soiyman, Ertoghrul, whose son Osman is preeminent as the proper founder of that empire which has been called after him. He first laid the foundation of a political and religious administration, extended the limited dimensions of his infant monarchy by conquest, and became ultimately the independent sovereign of the whole territory around Mount Olympus in Anatolia. Such was the humble origin of the Ottoman empire, in 1299.* One century and a half expired before it became rirmly established by the conquest of Constantinople, from which period it continued to_ rise and increase, till the conquest of Cyprus, in 1571, when it attained the culminating point of its splendour and power ; remaining stationary above 150 years, till the peace of Carlowitz, in 1698 ; just four centuries from the origin of the monarchy — a date marking the commencement of its decline, which has advanced in an increasing ratio ever since, down to the reign of Mahmoud, the period of the new reforms.

Osman, even at that early date, began to make encroachments on the Eastern empire, by the conquest of sundry cities and easties. He likewise strove to establish a navy, by means of which he carried on piracy. g In the year 1307, he paid a visit to the classically-glorious island of Chios, which the crews inhumanly laid waste, murdering the greater part of the inhabitants. A similar fate was experienced by the islands of Ithodes, Samos, Lemnos, Malta, and others. The same remarks unhappily apply to the conquests made simultaneously by

* We shall not here discuss the probability of the connexion of the Turks with the ancient Medes and with Nineveh. The curious reader will find some interesting particulars on this subject in the works of Mr. Layard and David Urquhart.

6 TUKKEYj PAST AND PltESENT.

the Turks on land ; whole towns were captured, plundered, and burned, after all the inhabitants had been slaughtered ; these primitive barbarians having emulated in this respect the Christian armies of Russia under Suwarrow, in the eighteenth century. But, whilst Osman was engaged in capturing the frontier castles of the Byzantine empire on the Saugar, the southern border of his empire was endangered by an irruption of Tartars. Orchan, the son of Osman, succeeded in repelling the incursions of the Tartars ; and being entrusted by his father with the command of an army, he conquered Broussa, the ancient capital of Bythinia. Osman died in the year 1326, with the satisfaction of knowing that Broussa would afford a mausoleum for his remains and those of his successors.

3. Urkhan. — Internal Administration. — The Janissaries.

Urkhan, the son and successor of Osman, converted Broussa, whose magnificent situation rendered it well worthy the distinction, into the metropolis of his state ; and shortly after conquered Mcrca, of historical notoriety in«the annals of Christianity, and also Nicomedia. It is reported that Urkhan was, like Ca3sar, so distinguished for clemency in his conquests, that the Greeks who came under his sway, though permitted to withdraw, preferred to remain, unlike the obdurate and ungrateful Poles and Hungarians, so forgetful of the benefits of Ilomanoff and Hapsburg. As the numerous warlike expeditions in which Osman had been engaged had prevented him from devoting much time to civil enactments, Urkhan made it his first care to obtain a suitable administration. In this undertaking he was assisted by his brother, the sage Ala-ed-din. His new enactments affected the mint, the costume, and the army. The right of coining money is one of the two attributes of sovereignty, according to Islam; the other consisting in the prayer for the ruling prince every Friday in the mosques. The first Turkish money was coined in the reign of Urkhan. The second object of his legislative activity affected the costume ; but it did not so much prescribe the nature of the material as the colour, and it referred less to the apparel of the body than of the head. Though subsequent sumptuary laws have accurately defined the cut, the substance, the lining, and the mode of wearing the different kaftans, dolimans, and other dresses of honour or official dignity, Urkhan did not interfere with such trifles, confining himself to the head-dress, which has always been a characteristic distinction of nations and of conditions in the East. White muslin caps were adopted as the universal head-dress of the warriors and princely attendants, in order to distinguish the Osmanlis from the Greeks and other nations. Their form was circular and conical. The third and most important matter of Ala-ed-din' s institutions, was the army, which was to be always kept on foot and regularly paid, so that

THE JANIS3AKIE3.

the Turks are the first people who established standing' armies, the necessary curse of Christendom. Osman had carried on his forays with Turcoman horsemen, who were named Akindschi, wanderers or runners, and who always appeared in the held as often as they were summoned by their lord. Urkhan first instituted a body of infantry, making' them a permanent and regularly-paid force, called Jaja, Piade, or pedestrians. But these troops, becoming insolent, on the strength of their pay, soon added to the confusion which they had been intended to quell. This led the military legislator to devise a profoundly politic and sagacious, but somewhat heartless, plan of forming a body of troops of Christian children forcibly converted to Islam. > These Tcheri were new troops, and hence they were called Jani-tclieri^ — Janissaries. Thus, in former ages, a Christian population became the compulsory pillar of Islam and scourge of Christendom ; whereas, in modern times, the same race have become the voluntary defenders of the sultan against Moslem corruption and iiussian aggression. Soon was the name of Janissaries carried far and wide on the wings of victory, as the terror of Asia and Europe. The white muslin turbans of the Janissaries received a long appendage, falling down behind, and representing an arm, as the sign of victory ; in front, instead of a plume, a wooden spoon stood erect, as a sign of a plentiful larder ; for the Ottoman commissariat did not suffer its heroes to starve like^ the Soyers of Paskewitsch, Diebitch, and Grortschakoff.

Their colours were a blood-red ilag — a stumbling-block to Lamartine, but the symbol of French renovation — and a silver crescent, together with a representation of the double-edged sword of Osman, completed the standard of the young Christian Proetorians. The names of the officers were taken from the kitchen and pantry, as an evidence of the luxurious and comfortable living of these specimens of the church militant, who seem to have emulated the pugnacity, and equalled the voracity, of titled pluralists nearer home. The colonel of Janissaries was styled the soup-maker, tschorl-badschi, and the other officers enjoyed similar artistic epithets. The great treasure of the Janissaries did not consist in the regimental chest, or in the corruption and venality of noble colonels, as in England and Eussia ; but it consisted in a huge camp-kettle, or flesh-pot, not only because it boiled their broth, but also because it was looked upon as their symbol, their rallying point, their eagle. Originally the smallest number of the Janissaries was 1000 men. But every year 1000 additional boys were added to Islam and to the force, taken from the Christian prisoners ; and when the number of these did not suffice, the balance was supplied by the Christian population subject to the Porte, till the reign of Mohammed IV., when, by beginning to recruit the force with Turkish children, some have thought that the Janissaries began to degenerate in consequence of the change.

After the Janissaries had been instituted as the heart and core of the Ottoman army, the residue of that force was formed as follows. To the previously-existing regular infantry, styled piads, was allotted landed property, which was subsequently changed into feudal, but with the obligation that the possessors should keep the roads for the army in a serviceable condition in time of war. The irregular troops were employed as scouts and skirmishers, and at a later period in rowing the galleys. The cavalry, like the infantry, was divided into regulars and irregulars. The cavalry of the standing army was divided into four rotts, after the pattern of their standards, at first, 2400 men, later many more, who stood on the right and left hand of the sultan, in the centre of the line of battle and of the camp. Besides the paid cavalry, with which the West _ soon formed acquaintance, under the appellation of Sipahi (riders), a feudal body of cavalry was also formed, answering to the feudal infantry. They were styled Mosselimen — i. e., freed from tribute, and were commanded by officers who, if placed over 100 men, were called Biubaschi; if over 1000, Sandschak beys — i. e., standard princes. The irregular unpaid and not feudal cavalry received the name of Akinclschi, or runners, as before stated. The latter and the Sipahis soon became the terror of Europe. The Akindschi, at the time of the first siege of Vienna, roved about through Linz, as far as Ratisbon, laying every place waste with fire and sword.

Shortly after the adoption of these institutions, the Greek emperor, Andronicus, took the field against the Turkish conquerors, was beaten by Urkhan at Pebekanon, in 1330, and also at Philokrene. And now the city of Mcaea fell into the hands of the Unitarian Turks. Islam was introduced there, the Trinity was banished, the Athanasian Creed was forbidden and forgotten, the churches were converted into mosques, and the government over ]Slca3a and the circumjacent territory was given to the eldest prince, a hopeful young Turkish Tsarovitch, or crown prince. After this, Urkhan advanced in his career of conquest m Asia, and strove continually to extend the triumphs of Islam.

4. Passage of the Turks into Europe.

As early as the year 1263, a colony of 12,000 Turcomans passed over, not on a bull, like the Europa of mythology, but under Saltukdedos, to the west shore of the Black Sea, from whence, however, they were soon driven away. Shortly after this, another body of Turks passed over, in 1321, harassing the coasts of Macedonia and Thrace, destroying the crops, and burning the towns, for the space of eighteen months ; thus putting a stop to all agriculture and commerce. The emperor was obliged to purchase exemption from these scourges, by the sacrifice of

PASSAGE OF THE TURKS INTO ETTEOPE. 9

his crown jewels, — a great piece of self-denial in a Christian em • peror. The reign of Urkhan is the epoch when the rirst pacific and friendly relations were established between the Osmanli and the Byzantines : a transition from war to truce, from hostility to alliance. The Greek emperors frequently called in the aid of the Osmanli in intestine squabbles, and, as has happened with the Muscovite auxiliaries at a later date, awakened thereby a stronger desire of possessing the Golden Horn and the Sweet Waters, in the disinterested but susceptible hearts of their military neighbours. At the sanu time, the hostile incursions of the Turks into Europe became continually more frequent and more formidable, in proportion to the growth of the Turkish naval power. In the year 1333, the Greek emperor concluded a treaty with Urkhan, on the condition that the latter should not touch the remaining cities of the empire. Nevertheless, in the following year, a strong body of Turks again passed into Europe, and devastated the fields and the towns. Even in 1337, the report spread that Urkhan would approach near Constantinople with a fleet, in order to take permanent possession of that coveted spot. The emperor, however, still warded off the threatened attack, gallantly and successfully, and the Turks were forced to retire. Still, the Greek monarch was blind enough to take Turkish auxiliaries into his army, like the Gauls and Goths of the Csesars. Hitherto, the aggressions of the Turks in Europe had only been local and temporary, without their having captured any strong fortified place. ^ This they succeeded in effecting in 1357. Urkhan caused his son, Solyman, to make a fresh attempt at conquest ; and he succeeded in overpowering and capturing Gallipoli. Moreover, an earthquake, which occurred about this time, having laid waste many cities of Thrace, Solyman introduced Turkish colonies into that province, and caused the depopulated cities to be rebuilt and repeopled. This was the case with the castles and towns of Konur, Bulair, Malagara, Ipsala, and Eodosto, all of which fell into the hands of the Osmanlis in 1357. The - Turks having now obtained a firm footing on the western side of the Hellespont, new hordes came across every year from Asia into Europe, till their empire was ultimately extended from the shores of the Propontis to the Ister. The conquest of Gallipoli, which opened a wide field for Turkish conquest in Europe, was intimated by Urkhan to his rivals in power, to the Asiatic princes whose sires had joined Osman in dividing the Seljukian monarchy; and henceforth despatches of this nature became a regular practice of the Turkish State chancellery. Solyman, the crown prince, having died in 1358, from the effects of a fall from his horse, his victorious father, Urkhan, followed him in 1359, alter having conferred the greatest advantages on the Ottoman empire by his administrative and legislative enactments.

i 5. Amurath J., Lord and Conqueror.

Urkhan was succeeded by his younger son, Miirad, or Amurath I. The course of his victories took a western direction, in order to extend his father's European conquests. This great western exodus would seem to have been a chronic affection with all the Scythian hordes of Asia, including the gallant ancestors of the Norman, Teutonic, and French nobles, who, like the Czars and Boyards of modern Muscovy, had a strong predilection for their neighbours' goods. Eut before Amurath could accomplish his designs in the West, he was forced to direct attention to Asia. The prince of Caramania took advantage of the death of Urkhan to attack and subdue the Osmanlis in Asia Minor. Yet Amurath came off victorious from this contest, and opened his campaigns in Europe by the capture of the castle of JSebetos, or Bontos, near Gallipoli. In the year 1361, the largest fortress of the Byzantine empire, Adrianople, fell into the hands of the Turks, a city which subsequently obtained the honour of beingthe second residence of the sultans, on account of its great political, military, and commercial importance. Hereupon, Amurath forwarded the intelligence of his splendid victories to his Asiatic relations, and concluded peace with the Greek empire after the conquest of Philippopoli. But, shortly after, the pope stimulated the Hungarians, Servians, Bosnians, and Wallachians, to a crusade against the iniidels, who were already threatening their borders.' But Hadschi Ilbeki, without awaiting the arrival of the sultan, broke at night (1363) into the hostile camp, and "the enemy took to night in utter disorder, like wild beasts frightened from their cover." The battle field still bears the name of Ssirf Ssindughi — i.e., the defeat of the Servians. This tribe belonged to the great Slavonic race which has had the honour of producing many ornaments, such as Kosciusko and Bern, and of perpetuating slavery and serfdom* among Christians and whites in the largest part of Europe, and in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Amurath now took up his residence for some time in Europe, at Demitoka, whence he superintended the erection of his palace at Adrianople. So soon as the Serai was in a habitable condition, Amurath removed his residence to the latter city, which remained the metropolis of the empire till the capture of Constantinople. After five campaigns in Europe, the sultan returned to Asia in 1371, and concluded a fresh peace with Byzantium.

The Scythian monarch, like a Romanoff, now paused in his career of encroachment for some years, waiting in this interval of peace for a favourable occasion of renewing his aggressions.

* Slave and serf are said to come from Slavonic and Servian.

13AJAZET. 11

This occurred in 1386, when another war broke out between Amurath and the prince of Caramania, in Asia, whose ruler became continually more envious of the sultan. A pitched battle was fought between the rival princes in the plain of Iconium, when Amurath gained a complete victory. Immediately after this campaign, the princes of Servia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria, combined in an attempt to throw off the Turkish yoke, which was at that period almost as irksome as Russian protection now. Amurath marched off to Bulgaria, conquered the border fortresses, and obliged the prince and his capital to surrender. Lazar, prince of the Servians, prepared to resist his advance, and a bloody battle was fought in the plain of Kossova. The left wing of the Ottomans was beginning to give way, when Amurath's son, Bajazet, fle^v to the rescue. Describing the battle, an Oriental poet says : — " Already were the diamond scimitars changed into hyacinth blades by the streams of blood, and the spears of glittering steel into rubies ; already was the battle-field converted into a bed of variegated tulips, by the number of trunkless heads and rolling turbans,' • when a noble Servian, Milosch, forced his way up to the sultan, and under the pretext of imparting to him some secret intelligence, obtained access to him, whereupon he rushed at Amurath, and ran him through with his sword. The sultan remained master of the held, but died soon afterwards (1389) from the effects of his wound. Times are changed since then, and the Servian has learnt to dread the North wind most, for his greatest danger lies in that quarter.