veil.... It was the conclusion of the marriage, and the Bridegroom made
a present to the Bride on the occasion.
[182] See note, page 161.
[183] See _Sketch of Hungarian History_.
[184] Ten years later Solyman died while besieging this place.
[185] See note 1, page 196.
[186] See note 1, page 196.
[187] The Turks could hardly object to the use of ‘villainous
saltpetre’ as by its aid Solyman’s father, Selim I., had been enabled
to crush the Mamelukes. See Creasy, _History of the Ottoman Turks_,
chap. viii. After the battle ‘Koort Bey poured forth a brilliant eulogy
on the valour of the Mamelukes, and spoke with contempt and abhorrence
of guns which, he said, killed so cowardly, and so like an assassin.’
[188] Arslan was Sanjak-bey of Stuhlweissenburg and Veli of Hatwan.
[189] Compare Brantôme, _Discours sur Duels_, vi. p. 151.
[190] Of the nations mentioned in this passage the Mingrelians live
along the coast from the Turkish frontier to Sukhum Kaleh; the Iberians
correspond to the modern Imeritians, while the ancient Albanians
lived in what is now the part of Georgia that borders on the Caspian
and in Daghestan, the country of the Lesghians. According to Mr.
Bryce (_Transcaucasia and Ararat_, p. 99) the modern Mingrelians
correspond to Busbecq’s description of their ancestors. ‘They are
the ne’er-do-wells of the Caucasian family. All their neighbours,
however contemptible a Western may think them, have a bad word and a
kick for the still more contemptible Mingrelian. To believe them, he
is lazy, sensual, treacherous and stupid, a liar and a thief. Lazy
the Mingrelian certainly is, but in other respects I doubt if he is
worse than his neighbours; and he lives in so damp and warm a climate
that violent exercise must be disagreeable.’ According to Malte Brun,
‘the Prince of Mingrelia assumes the title of Dadian or Master of the
Sea, though he possesses not even a fishing-boat: he generally moves
about with his suite from place to place, and his camp is the scene of
licentiousness as well as poverty.’ The Caspian Gates mentioned in the
text are probably the Dariel Pass. ‘There were three passes, between
which boundless confusion has arisen: first, the Dariel, sometimes
called the Caucasian, sometimes the Caspian, sometimes the Iberian
Gates; second, the pass between the mountains and the sea near Derbend,
where is the wall of Gog and Magog, called sometimes the Caucasian,
sometimes the Caspian, sometimes the Albanian Gates; third, a pass
somewhere on the south coast of the Caspian, which was really visited
and fortified by Alexander the Great.’—Bryce, _Transcaucasia and
Ararat_, p. 76.
[191] ‘A plant of the millet kind, differing from it in the
disposition of the flower and seeds, which grow in a close thick
spike. It is sown in parts of Europe as corn for the sustenance of the
inhabitants.’—Johnson’s _Dictionary_.
[192] Medea was a Colchian, i.e. Mingrelian.
[193] M. Génin, in the introduction to his edition of the _Song of
Roland_, the most famous hero of the Carlovingian epic cycle, speaking
of the wide-spread popularity of the legend, quotes this passage. He
also mentions that Bellonus, or Belon (see note, page 140), states that
the Turks preserved at Broussa the sword of Roland, who, they declared,
was one of their countrymen. This illustrates what Busbecq in his first
letter says of the way in which the Turks identified St. George with
one of their own legendary heroes. Godfrey de Bouillon was one of the
leaders of the first Crusade, and the first Christian King of Jerusalem.
[194] See note, page 229.
[195] The chief production cf Lemnos was a red earth called Terra
Lemnia, or sigillata, which was employed by the ancient physicians as
a remedy for wounds and the bites of serpents, and which is still much
valued by the Turks and Greeks for its supposed medicinal virtues.
It is dug out of a hill, made into small balls, and stamped with a
seal which contains Arabic characters. Mattioli, in his letter to
Quacquelben (see note 1, page 415), asks him for information about this
earth, and requests him to procure some for him. See also page 416.
[196] The reference is to Terence, _Heauton timorumenos_, 3. 1. 48.
[197] This was before March 13, 1559, as Verantius, in a letter of that
date, mentions that Hooz, Busbecq’s secretary, had been taken prisoner
with his Turkish escort by some Hungarians and brought to Kaschau, and
that he had said that Baldi was then on his way back.—Katona, _Historia
Regum Hungariæ_, xxiii. 227.
[198] In 1540, Luigi Badoer was sent as ambassador to treat for peace
on the basis of the _status quo ante bellum_, and the payment of 30,000
ducats, but was forbidden in any case to cede Malvasia and Napoli di
Romania. Such were the instructions of the Senate, but the Council
of Ten gave him in addition secret instructions, empowering him to
surrender these places, if he found it impossible to obtain a peace
on easier terms. The brothers Cavezza, of whom one was secretary to
the Senate, and the other to the Council of Ten, betrayed the secret,
probably through a French diplomatist, to the Porte. The consequences
are described in the text. See Daru, _Histoire de Venise_, book xxvi.
p. 82, Von Hammer, book xxix., and Charrière, _Négociations de la
France dans le Levant_, i. 548.
[199] See page 79.
[200] Some further details as to the intrigues which caused Bajazet’s
ruin may be gathered from the history of Ottoman Ali, who had been
secretary to Lala Mustapha. The latter was a _protégé_ of Achmet, the
Grand Vizier, and was on that account hated by Roostem, who, knowing
he was a friend of Bajazet’s, hoped to ensure his ruin by getting
him appointed Governor of Selim’s household. Lala saved himself by
betraying his former master. With Selim’s approval he encouraged the
unfortunate Prince to attack his brother, and caused some of the
Sultan’s messengers to be murdered in such a manner as to make it
appear that Bajazet was responsible for the crime, and thus widen the
breach between him and his father. It is the evidence of the secretary
of this double-dyed traitor that Von Hammer prefers to Busbecq’s. He
may have had more information than our writer; the question is, was he
as likely to speak the truth? See Von Hammer, book xxxii.
[201] See page 189.
[202] This was a very serious step. See page 187.
[203] See page 188.
[204] See page 116.
[205] The allusion is to the ancient and famous oracle of Zeus at
Dodona in Epirus, which is mentioned in the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_.
The god, according to one legend, was said to dwell in an ancient oak
tree, and to give oracles by the rustlings of the branches. These
‘talking oaks’ are alluded to by Æschylus in the _Prometheus Vinctus_,
and by Sophocles in the _Trachiniæ_. Busbecq’s Latin, ‘A quo in rebus
dubiis responsa petuntur,’ is suggested by Virgil’s lines—
‘Hinc Italæ gentes omnisque Œnotria tellus
In dubiis responsa petunt.’
_Æneid_, vii. 85.
[206] Koniah was the ancient Iconium.
[207] The Arabic word Memlook or Mameluke means a slave. The first
caliphs formed their body-guard of slaves, and in the decadence of
the caliphate these slaves, like the Roman prætorians, played a
principal part in the numerous revolutions that occurred. It was in
Egypt, however, that the Mamelukes attained their highest power. They
were Sovereigns of that country for more than 250 years, from the
fall of the dynasty of Eyoub to the Ottoman conquest, and even after
that event were the real rulers of Egypt till their massacre in the
present century by Mehemet Ali. They were composed of three bodies,
the Mamelukes, properly so-called, who were of pure Circassian blood;
the Djelbans, who were mostly composed of Abyssinian slaves, and
the Korsans, an assembly of mercenaries of all nations. They were
governed by twenty-four beys, over whom was a Sultan. Their dominion
extended over Egypt and Syria with the holy cities of Mecca and Medina
and the adjacent parts of Arabia. Selim I., Solyman’s father, after
his victorious campaign against Shah Ismael attacked the Mamelukes,
defeated and killed their Sultan, Kausson Ghawri, near Aleppo (Aug. 24,
1516), and, marching into Egypt, defeated Touman Bey, the new Sultan,
at Ridania (January 22nd), and added Syria and Egypt to his empire.
When in Egypt, he induced the last of the Fatimite caliphs, who had
been a puppet in the hands of the Mamelukes, to transfer that dignity
to himself and his successors. It is in virtue of this transaction that
the present Sultan and his predecessors since the time of Selim have
claimed to be the head of the Mahommedan faith throughout the world.
See Von Hammer, book xxiv.
[208] The Kurds are descended from the Carduchi or Gordiæans of the
ancients. (See Xenophon, _Anabasis_, iv.) They have gradually advanced
from their original mountain homes into the plains in the south-east of
Armenia and the north of Mesopotamia. They are a warlike race, and much
addicted to brigandage.
[209] See note, page 108.
[210] ‘The most remarkable building in Koniah is the tomb of a
saint, highly renowned throughout Turkey, called Haznet Mevlana, the
founder of the Mevlevi Dervishes. His sepulchre, which is the object
of a Mussulman pilgrimage, is surmounted by a dome, standing upon a
cylindrical tower of a bright green colour.’—Leake, _Asia Minor_, p. 50.
[211] May 29, 1559, was the date of the battle.
[212] See note 2, page 153.
[213] Compare the account of the Turkish horses and equipments seen by
Evelyn in 1684:—
‘It was judged by the spectators, among whom was the King, Prince
of Denmark, Duke of York, and several of the Court, that there were
never seene any horses in these parts to be compar’d with them. Add
to all this, the furniture, consisting of embroidery on the saddle,
houseings, quiver, bow, arrows, scymetar, sword, mace or battle-axe _à
la Turcisq_, the Bashaw’s velvet mantle furred with the most perfect
ermine I ever beheld; all which, yron-worke in common furniture, being
here of silver, curiously wrought and double-gilt, to an incredible
value. Such and so extraordinary was the embrodery, that I never
saw anything approching it. The reins and headstall were of crimson
silk, cover’d with chaines of silver gilt. There was also a Turkish
royal standard of an horse’s taile, together with all sorts of other
caparisons belonging to a general’s horse, by which one may estimate
how gallantly and magnificently those infidels appeare in the field,
for nothing could be seene more glorious.’—Evelyn, _Diary_, p. 461.
[214] See note, page 87.
[215] In Busbecq’s time it was the fashion in Europe to wear clothes
with slashes or eyelet-holes. Compare page 155.
[216] See note, page 229.
[217] See page 101.
[218] ‘Cedo alteram,’ the original Latin, is a quotation from Tacitus.
(_Annals_, i. 23).
[219] See _Sketch of Hungarian History_.
[220] The Persian dominions were bounded on the east by the country
now known as Afghanistan, which then formed part of the empire of
the Mogul Emperors, or Padischahs, of Delhi, the second of whom was
Humayoum, the father of the famous Akbar. During his life of forty-nine
years Humayoum experienced extraordinary changes of fortune, losing
his throne, and being obliged, after undergoing the greatest hardships
and dangers in his flight through the desert, to take refuge with Shah
Tahmasp. Eventually he regained his dominions, and at his death in 1556
was the ruler of Cabul and Candahar, and also of the Punjaub, together
with Delhi and Agra and the adjoining parts of India.
[221] Shah Ismael was the founder of the dynasty of the Sofis or
Saffis, so called from Sheik Suffee-u-deen of Ardebil, a devotee
renowned for his sanctity, from whom Shah Ismael was the sixth in
descent. His father, Hyder, on the death of his uncle and father-in-law
Uzun Hussun, the prince of the dynasty of the White Sheep, invaded
Shirwan at the head of a body of partisans. He made his troops wear red
turbans, whence, according to one account, comes the name of Kizilbash
(Red Heads), by which the Persians were known among the Turks. Hyder
was killed in battle, and his sons were thrown into prison, but they
afterwards escaped. The eldest was killed in battle, the second died in
Ghilan, Ismael, the youngest, in 1499, at the age of fourteen, took the
field against the Turkomans, who were then in possession of the greater
part of Persia, and in the course of four campaigns succeeded in
establishing his authority throughout the country. His family claimed
descent from the seventh Imaum, and their great ancestor, Ali, was the
special object of their reverence. The very name of Schiah, which means
a sectary, and which Ismael’s enemies had given him as a reproach,
became a title in which he gloried. When Sultan Selim I. massacred
his co-religionists (see note page 161), the natural consequence was
a war between Turkey and Persia. The Turkish army advanced through
Kurdistan and Azerbijan on Tabriz, which was then the Persian capital.
They were much embarrassed by want of provisions, as the Persians
retired, laying waste the country in their retreat. A threatened mutiny
among the Janissaries was quelled only by Selim’s presence of mind and
resolution. Ismael at last abandoned his Fabian tactics, and took up
a position in the valley of Tschaldiran, some 30 miles south-east of
Bayezid. A bloody and fiercely contested battle (August 23, 1514) ended
in the complete victory of Selim, which he owed mainly to his artillery
and the firearms of the Janissaries. This success was followed by the
occupation of Tabriz, but Selim was obliged by the discontent of his
troops to return homewards. The acquisition of Diarbekir and Kurdistan
was, however, the result of this campaign. Apart from his defeat
by Selim, Ismael reigned with unbroken success till his death in 1523.
He was succeeded by his son Shah Tahmasp.—See Malcolm, _History of
Persia_, i. ch. 12.
[222] See _Sketch of Hungarian History_.
[223] See note, page 229.
[224] ‘The youths among the Christian tribute children most conspicuous
for birth, talent, and beauty were admitted into the inferior class
of _agiamoglans_ or the more liberal rank of _ichoglans_, of whom
the former were attached to the palace and the latter to the person
of the prince.’—Gibbon, ch. lxv. Busbecq, in his _Art of War against
the Turks_, gives an account of the method by which the Turkish army
was recruited from the children of Christians. Every year the Sultan
sent to his different provinces, and took one out of every three or
four of the boys. When they arrived at Constantinople, the handsomest
and cleverest were placed in the households of the Sultan and Pashas.
Of the rest some were hired out to farmers, &c., and the remainder
employed in public works. The former were fed and clothed by their
masters, till they grew up, when they were drafted into the ranks of
the Janissaries, as vacancies occurred. Those who were placed in the
Sultan’s household often rose to the highest offices of the state.
The last of these levies of Christian children was made in 1638.—Von
Hammer, book xlviii. tome ix. p. 325.
[225] In the account of the Shah’s dealings with Bajazet, we have
followed the readings given in all the editions prior to the Elzevir.
See Appendix, _List of Editions_.
[226] ‘The Persians dwell with rapture on the character of Ismael,
deeming him not only the founder of a great dynasty, but the person
to whom the faith they glory in owes its establishment as a national
religion.’—Malcolm, _History of Persia_, i. p. 328. On his accession
Ismael declared Schiism to be the national religion. See also note 2,
p. 299 and note p. 161.
[227] For a fuller account of the siege and capture of Gerba or Djerbé
or Gelves the reader is referred to Prescott’s _Philip II._, vol. ii.
book iv. chap. 1, and Von Hammer, book xxxiii. The Spanish historians
cited by Prescott are so conflicting that he defies the reader to
reconcile them, but Busbecq’s narrative, as far as it goes, may be
considered of the highest authority, as no doubt it was founded on
what he heard from his friend Don Alvaro de Sandé, who commanded the
garrison. In the spring of 1559 the Duke of Medina Celi, the Viceroy
of Sicily, was ordered to fit out an expedition against Tripoli and
its corsairs, to which Tuscany, Rome, Naples, Sicily, Genoa, and Malta
furnished contingents. John Andrew Doria, nephew of the great Andrew
Doria, commanded the Genoese forces. The fleet consisted of more than
100 sail, including 54 galleys, and had 14,000 troops on board. The
armament assembled at Syracuse, from which they sailed in November.
They met with such bad weather, however, that they were forced to
put into Malta, where they stayed more than two months refitting. So
much time had now been lost, that they gave up the attempt on Tripoli
as hopeless, and attacked Djerbé instead. They took it without much
difficulty on March 14, and spent two months there fortifying it,
and placed in it a garrison of 5,000 men, commanded by Don Alvaro de
Sandé. As the troops were preparing to re-embark, news was brought of
the approach of the Turkish fleet. A council of war was held, in which
opinions were divided; but the arrival of the Turkish fleet under the
command of Pialé, which included 86 galleys, each with 100 Janissaries
on board, saved them the trouble of deciding (May 14). The Christians
were seized with panic. Many of their ships were sunk, and many more
surrendered. A few took refuge under the guns of the fortress. The
Duke of Medina Celi and Doria were among those who escaped, and they
took advantage of the darkness of the following night to fly to Sicily
in a frigate. Next morning Pialé commenced the siege. After a breach
had been made, he assaulted the fortress, but was repulsed with great
loss, and several other attacks of the Turks met with the same fate.
The siege lasted nearly three months, although at the end of six weeks
provisions and water had begun to fail. On July 31, 1560, two hours
before dawn, Don Alvaro, accompanied by hardly 1,000 men, sallied
out and tried to cut his way through, with the intention of seizing
a vessel and escaping, but the attempt proved unsuccessful, and the
same day the rest of the garrison surrendered. On September 27 the
victorious fleet returned to Constantinople, as described in the text.
Don Alvaro lived to take ample vengeance for all he had suffered. When
the Spaniards raised the siege of Malta in 1565 Don Alvaro, as second
in command, again encountered his old opponent Pialé. The gallant
Spaniard was in the thick of the fighting, had a horse killed under
him, and was one of those who contributed most to the defeat of the
Turks.
[228] Chios was first brought under the immediate dominion of the
Sultan by Pialé Pasha in 1566, though it had previously acknowledged
his suzerainty and paid tribute. It had been conquered by the Genoese
admiral, Simon Vignoso, in 1346. The form of government was so peculiar
as to deserve some notice. It is the first example of the territorial
administration of a mercantile company of shareholders exercising
in a distant country all the duties of a sovereign. Of this form of
government the East India Company is the best known specimen. The
Genoese treasury in 1346 was so exhausted that the funds for fitting
out the twenty-nine galleys of Vignoso’s fleet were raised by private
citizens, who subscribed the money in shares. The Republic promised
to secure them against all loss, and pledged a portion of its annual
revenue to pay the interest. After the conquest of Chios, Vignoso,
in virtue of the full powers with which he was invested, established
a committee of the subscribers, who administered the Government of
Chios, and collected the revenues under the sovereignty of the Republic
of Genoa. The contributors had formed themselves into a joint-stock
company, according to the established usage at Genoa; and this society
or maona assumed the name of the Maona of Scio. The Republic being
unable to repay the advances, a convention was concluded between the
State and the Maona, by which the shareholders were recognised as
the lawful proprietors and administrators of Chios, subject to the
terms on which the Greek population had capitulated, for a term of
twenty years, during which the Republic reserved the right of resuming
possession of the island on repayment of the sum advanced. This,
however, the Republic was never able to do, so the arrangement became
permanent. The greater part of the shares passed into the hands of the
family, or, more correctly speaking, the firm of the Justiniani, and
the Joint-Stock Company of Scio was generally called the Maona of the
Justiniani. For further details as to the Government of Scio while held
by this company, see Finlay, _History of Greece_, vol. v. ch. ii.,
from which this note is taken. It must, however, be added that the
Government of the company, notwithstanding its defects, was for a long
period the least oppressive in the Levant.
[229] Petremol, the French chargé d’affaires, mentions some Spanish
slaves being brought to Constantinople from Chios. The Sultan, it was
said, did not intend to keep them in servitude, but wished to see
whether Roostem’s contention was true, namely, that Pialé had stolen
all the prisoners of high rank, and had presented to the Sultan, under
the names of the different officers, common soldiers who could pay no
ransom. Charrière, _Négotiations de la France dans le Levant_, ii. 671.
[230] Adam von Dietrichstein was born in 1527. He accompanied
Maximilian on his journey to Spain, when he went to marry his cousin,
the Infanta Maria. In 1561 he was sent by Maximilian to the Pope as
ambassador. Maximilian appointed him his High Chamberlain in 1563,
and sent him to conduct his sons to Spain as head of their household.
Busbecq therefore served under him on this mission (see page 61).
About the same time Ferdinand appointed him his ambassador to Spain,
and after Ferdinand’s death he remained there as Maximilian’s
representative. In this post he had the delicate task of keeping the
bigoted Philip and the tolerant Maximilian on friendly terms. In 1573
he escorted the Archdukes home, and was appointed Privy Councillor
and Governor of Rodolph’s household. He died in 1590, and was buried
at Prague, at the feet of his master Maximilian. He married in 1555
Margaret, daughter of Don Antonio de Cardona.
[231] In Wervicq Church, about a mile from Busbecq’s home, stands a
life-size figure of a galley-slave, with this inscription: ‘Vrais
Chrétiens, soyez touchés de cœur à faire charité aux esclaves
Chrétiens.’ The utter, hopeless misery there depicted illustrates the
force of this appeal.
[232] July 8, 1561.
[233] See page 157.
[234] One of the Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmora, where the
British Fleet was stationed during the spring of 1878.
[235] We have here a good description of a serious attack of the
plague. Compare pages 163-4.
[236] Busbecq went there in the beginning of August 1561. He was
accompanied by a cavasse, and twenty Janissaries as a guard. Charrière,
_Négotiations de la France dans le Levant_, ii. 668-9.
[237] These references are to Cicero, _De Naturâ Deorum_, ii. cap. 48,
and _De Finibus_, iii. cap. 19; Pliny, _Natural History_, ix. cap. 66,
and _Athenæus_, iii. p. 93. For descriptions and figures of the pinna
and pinnophylax or pea-crab, see Wood’s _Natural History_, pages 422
and 588. They are frequently found in the shells of bivalves. The real
reason for this habit is not certainly known. For an account of Belon,
see note, page 140.
[238] This passage illustrates the statement in the _Life_, pages 50,
51.
[239] In ancient times, and now in the English Church, the title
of Metropolitan (Archbishop) was confined to the chief bishop of a
province; but in the Greek Church at the present day the title is given
to many ordinary bishops.
[240] See pp. 113, 114.