while with the grand vezír, retired to their own homes.
Now that peace and good order had been established, the inhabitants
came forward in multitudes to congratulate the grand vezír on his
escape from the snares which had been laid for him, and to express
their gratitude for his having quenched the fury of the spáhís. On
this same day, in the afternoon, two messengers, one after the other,
arrived, and informed the vezír that Poiráz Osmán and Ohgúz Mohammed,
two of the principal leaders in the late disturbance, had been seized,
and that Mustafa Aghá, the ághá of the spáhís, was conducting these
two culprits into his presence. In a short time they appeared bound in
chains before him: the vezír addressed them thus: “Osmán Beg, I showed
you much respect and attention in the late war on the frontiers; I
conferred on you offices of trust and profit, and have heaped favours
upon you. Is this, then, the return you make? Is this according to
your solemn promises? What can be the reason that you have acted thus?
Why have you joined yourself to my enemies?” Poiráz Osmán replied;
“O, exalted páshá, why do you force me to speak? I certainly did not
commit the evil you impute to me in order that I should afterwards
offer an apology. What has happened to me has been my lot. I have not
trampled on your goodness so as to banish from my view all thoughts of
providence. I feel that I am every way worthy of punishment; at the
same time I humbly request you, in the exercise of your consummate
benevolence, not to allow me, a guilty man, to be strangled like a
woman, but kill me yourself with your sword.” “God forbid,” said the
vezír in return, “that we should kill a heroic man of your stamp,
especially as we know you must have been disadvantageously placed.
But what,” continued the páshá, “induced you to adopt the course you
have taken? I wish you to give me an explanation;” and then urged
him to do so. Osmán Beg replied, “When I came to Constantinople, I
perceived the spáhís going on with their mischievous purposes, but
at first declined taking any share in them. Kátib Jezámí and others
came running about me; and when I tried to escape them they followed
me, urging me to join them. They used to tell me this and that; that
the mufti, all the vezírs, the military judge, and other great men
were in the plot; that they should without doubt accomplish their
purpose; ‘your making yourself singular,’ they said, ‘will not retard
the execution of our plan, and your obstinacy will only serve to bring
evil upon yourself.’ They took me one day to the mufti’s deputy, who
invited me to a splendid feast; I assembled that day with the rebels,
but did not, for a while, mix with them; I was afterwards invited by
Mahmúd Páshá to wait on him. I did so, and he constrained me to declare
my sentiments; to say on what side I was. ‘Osmán,’ said Mahmúd, ‘we
have concocted this great measure, and your not taking a decided share
in it is not wise; and to oppose the general voice, you know, is not
safe, especially as the conspirators have thirty thousand ducats at
their disposal. Do not, my friend, make yourself obnoxious;’ and much
more to the same purpose. From Mahmúd’s I was conducted to the mufti
effendí, Siná-allah himself, and thence to the military judge. Each of
the spiritual dignitaries employed many arguments to induce me to join
them. I was at last, from what I had seen and heard, persuaded that
all the men of name and power had espoused this unfortunate party’s
interest, and were united in carrying it forward to a conclusion. The
thirty thousand ducats were every now and then referred to. To make
the story short, the devil tempted me; I became one of their number,
and was one of the most active in the whole of the disturbance and
insubordination which have lately manifested themselves.” This seems a
very candid confession, but it helped the unfortunate culprit nothing.
The grand vezír looked in the poor devil’s face with astonishment,
and wondered at his statement. He ordered Aghá Mustafa to conduct the
culprits into the royal presence, where the whole of the above facts
were again elicited, and the result was, that the emperor ordered
their heads to be severed from their bodies, which was immediately
complied with. A day or two afterwards the insurgent Dipa kiz Rizván
met with a similar fate; so did also Ghuzáz Alí and Burnáz Mohammed;
but the infamous and wicked Kátib Jezámí could nowhere be found.
Strict search for him it must, however, be confessed, was not made. It
appears that he had collected a great quantity of gold together, had
himself put into a coffin, and was carried over from Constantinople to
Uskudár (Scutari), whence, with a few servants, he fled on horseback.
His servants, falling in love with his money, however, took the
opportunity, when they reached a mountainous part of the country, to
murder him, and took the whole of his gold to themselves. Whilst these
wretches were disputing and maliciously contending as to the mode of
dividing their spoil, one of their number fled from them; and thus the
story of Kátib Jezámí was made known.
Hasan Khalífeh, another of the heads of the insurgents who had been
previously involved in other desperate acts, thinking himself perfectly
secure, entered into coffee-houses, and spent part of the nights of
the month of Ramazán in gay conversation, and in the participation of
good cheer along with some of his friends in the above houses; but on
the 11th night of that month, whilst enjoying his pleasure in one of
these cafés, he was seized and hurried away into the presence of the
emperor, when he was without mercy instantly sent to the mansions of
the dead. In this way the whole of the ringleaders of the insurgents
were disposed of: the world was thus delivered from their mischievous
existence.
As to Gúzelcheh Mohammed Páshá, the deputy-governor of Constantinople,
he fled and hid himself at the very commencement of the tumult, as
before observed; but he was afterwards discovered in the habit of a
súfí, near the mosque built by Hájí Khosrú, a rich man, on the outside
of Constantinople. He threw himself on the mercy of the sublime Sultán,
and thus escaped with his life.
New troubles, however, arose. A foundation for enmity between the
spáhís and the janissaries was laid by the proceedings of the grand
vezír, as before hinted. Peace and order had scarcely begun to be
felt, when a dispute arose between these two powerful military bodies,
and was carried on with the utmost asperity. Whenever any of the one
party met any of the other, a battle uniformly took place. But it
was beyond the walls of Constantinople that this hostility was most
fiercely manifested. The proud vezír’s passion for murder and bloodshed
continued unabated: his thirst for vengeance against the remaining
objects of his hatred he never failed to satiate whenever he found an
opportunity of doing so. He thought that the measure he had employed
in crushing the rebellion which had been raised against himself had
been completely effectual. He was proud of his own doings, and began
to publish abroad in the palace of the emperor Alexander (the court
of Constantinople) his own mighty deeds; and supposed he was every
way such a favourite with the emperor that nothing he could ask would
be refused. In this exalted state of his imagination, he passed five
successive inglorious fast days in the greatest transports and joy.
Having fully acquired the victory and glory which he thought necessary
for himself, he began to increase his own abstemiousness and piety in
a corresponding measure; but his fury and malignity for promoting the
purposes of his own heart were in proportion to the good qualities he
had formerly manifested. In short, he exercised violence and cruelty
without restraint. He shed blood, and punished to excess; any one who
was so unhappy as to displease him, however trifling the offence might
have been, was certain of feeling his vengeance, and that was generally
death. Without even the shadow of any rational pretext whatever, he
caused one Alí Aghá, the brother-in-law of the ághá of the palace, to
be strangled. The very day after this deed was committed, he went to
the diván, and caused Tarnákjí Hasan Páshá to be singled out from among
the senators in the diván, and ordered his head to be struck off even
under the sacred roof; but for what crime he suffered death no one
knew. The grand vezír, in fact, was absolute and supreme, and therefore
irresistible.
Hasan Páshá, formerly mentioned, was about this time appointed to the
government of Baghdád, to which he repaired.
Azím Zádeh Effendí relates, what is not at all to be wondered at in
those days of mourning, that this same grand vezír had formed the
design also of numbering among the slain Sáa’tjí Hasan Páshá, who had
been formerly governor of Constantinople, but that he had the good
fortune to make his escape to Trebisond. Háfiz Páshá, the eunuch, who
formerly had been káímakám of the Sublime Porte, was sent by him to
the Seven Towers, and he lay there without the hope of escape. Others
besides these now mentioned felt his resentment, and that too for mere
trifles: for neglecting to shew him the respect he conceived to be due
to him, or if he had any suspicion of their acting contrary to his
views of such things.
About this same time also he began to lay his hand upon the merchants,
and to extort money from them. By the advice of Yázijí Zádeh, he
got the ulemá to extend his powers and privileges, by which means
he exercised oppression and tyranny, cruelty and rapine, in every
direction.
_Other affairs of this period._
On the 11th of Ramazán, Jeráh Mohammed Páshá was appointed to take
the command of the troops who had been ordered to act against the
insurgents; but this appointment was again rescinded on the 25th
following, and Jeghala Zádeh was fixed upon. Khosrú Páshá, who had
been removed from the government of Egypt, was appointed vezír over
the emperor’s private property, and was ordered to take his seat in
the diván; and on the 1st of Dhu’l Kadah, he was appointed to take
the command of the troops who served on the banks of the Danube.
Ferhád Aghá having been deposed from the command of the janissaries,
Kásim Aghá, deputy of the Kapújís, was appointed in his stead. Delí
Hasan, the rebel-chief, who had gone to winter at Karah-hísár, sent
his deputy, Sháh Verdí, to Constantinople, to solicit pardon for all
his past offences, and promising obedience in future. Through the
good offices of the túrnají báshí, who had recommended to employ him
on the frontiers of Romeili, where he might have an opportunity of
manifesting his courage, he was too suddenly received back into favour,
and the country of Bosnia was rashly conferred on him. This same
túrnají báshí accompanied Hasan’s deputy back, and carried with him for
the reconciled chief a drum, a flag, and a robe of honour, which the
government thought proper to send him. After having dispersed his rebel
troops, he passed over to Romeili about the beginning of Dhu’l Kadah,
and got the command of about four hundred men. The above-mentioned
túrnají báshí was also sent with a body of janissaries to the camp of
Mohammed Páshá at Belgrade, who had succeeded to the grand vezír in the
command of the army on the frontiers, and having left Buda, had come to
Belgrade. Here he collected his troops, and waited with some anxiety
for the arrival of the janissaries, whom he expected the túrnají
báshí would bring with him; and also for Delí Hasan. In the month of
Dhu’l Kadah, Núh Páshá, the beglerbeg of Anatolia, who had succeeded
Jeghala Zádeh in the east, and who had been appointed to the government
of Caramania, Sivás, Merœsh, Haleb, and Adna, was appointed to
conduct the war against those rebel chiefs who had continued their
hostility, after Delí Hasan had reconciled himself. But when these
rebels, however, did make peace, the sons of the khán of the Crimea,
Salámet Gheráí, Mohammed Gheráí, and Shaher Gheráí, who had gone over
to them, returned to the court of their brother, the ruling khán, when
their unnatural conduct was pardoned. This took place towards the
end of Dhu’l Hijja. On the 27th of the same month, the emperor was
exceedingly enraged against the royal prince called Mahmúd Sultán,
for some vicious conduct which had manifested itself in him. The true
reason seems to have been this. One of the mesháiekh, or doctors,
entered into a correspondence with Sultán Mahmúd, which flattered him
with the prospect of mounting the Ottoman throne. This correspondence
fell into the hands of the Kizlar Aghá, who informed the emperor of
what was going on. The prince was first seized, then his mother, the
sheikh or doctor, and all the other persons who were any away connected
with the secret. This conduct, on the part of the persons concerned,
awakened, as well it might, the suspicion of the emperor, who deemed
it of so serious nature, that at the end of one month after they had
been apprehended they were made to feel what they had every reason to
dread. Mahmúd was a youth of great bravery and heroism. When at any
time he saw his father in a thoughtful mood about the issue of the
rebellion, which we have lately described, he used to say to him: “Make
me commander-in-chief, and I will soon bring these rebels to submit,
either by the sword or by acts of kindness: the thing is by no means
difficult.” The emperor, however, did not like to hear him express
himself in that way, and therefore prohibited the use of such language.
Among the strange events of this year is the following. Abd-ur-rahmán,
sometimes called Nedázlí, a teacher in an academy in Constantinople,
was apprehended on the 10th Jamadi II., and put to death in the
royal diván on a charge of impiety and atheism. Akhí Zádeh Effendí
the chief-priest of Romeili, and Asa’d Effendí the chief-priest
of Anatolia, were the two judges who condemned the unhappy man.
Asa’d Effendí, in a letter he sent to Tarnákjí Hasan Páshá, says
“he had never met in all his life such another Zendik (sadducee) as
Abd-ur-rahmán. He avowed most thoroughly,” continues Asa’d Effendí,
“his disbelief of the resurrection, heaven and hell, reward and
punishment. I asked him to reply to several texts, and employed many
strong and perspicuous arguments with the view of rescuing him from his
unbelief and depravity, but he would not recant. So great an unbeliever
was he, in his perverted judgment on points on which there can be no
doubt! But neither was he to be considered as an insane person, for
he argued strongly for his own views and mode of belief. There is
no hope whatever of convincing a madman; and this sadducee, when he
was not brought to repentance, deserved to die, and to this doom he
was subjected. If your excellency had been here you would, with your
own hands, have slain him. The world is delivered from his corrupt
opinions, Muselmans from his influence, and the orthodox faith from the
slanders of his tongue.”
_Concerning the operations of the new Commander-in-chief Mohammed
Páshá._
Soon after the grand vezír’s return to Constantinople last year, Lálá
Mohammed Páshá, whom he had left in the supreme command at Buda, was
appointed serdár in his room, or commander-in-chief of the whole of the
Turkish forces on the frontiers.
Lálá Mohammed Páshá, as before hinted, left Buda and came to Belgrade,
whence he issued orders to all the troops to assemble at his
head-quarters. After these orders had been attended to, and the various
troops had accordingly assembled at Belgrade, he found it would be
too late in the year to wait for the arrival of the janissaries, whom
the túrnají báshí was conducting to him from Constantinople, or for
Delí Hasan (lately a powerful and mischievous rebel). In short, the
season had already been far advanced, and therefore Mohammed Páshá
returned towards Buda with the whole of his army. After crossing the
bridge of Usk he encamped at a place called Kúrwah, where he received
a visit from Delí Hasan Páshá, now the beglerbeg of Bosnia. When this
man first came over to Romeili, under the semblance of having returned
to obedience, he still cherished in his heart, notwithstanding this
appearance, his old sentiments of disaffection. For some small offence
which the master of the vessel in which he sailed from Anatolia had
given him, he got into a rage and shot him dead. His conduct at
Adrianople was still more flagrant. He collected there, by violence,
an immense quantity of spoil; robbed the saddler of that place of
all the furniture he had in his premises; laid a heavy contribution
on the inhabitants, and did not leave the place till a certain number
of _yúks_ of money had been given to him. He acted in this tyrannical
way at Philippopolis, Sofia, and other cities through which he passed
with his troops, amounting to ten thousand foot and horse, on his
way to join the commander-in-chief. These troops had a most strange
appearance. Many of them were naked-looking wretches, wearing amulets
and chains about their necks; others of them had camel-bells fixed to
their stirrups, and also wore amulets and chains on their backs; others
were without caps or bonnets, and wore long hair like women, divided
into tresses; others again had no covering for their legs. Each man of
this motley crew carried a sort of spear, having a white flag about two
spans long at the top. Thus arranged and accoutred, they surrounded the
serdár’s tent with their matches burning in their hands, and crooked
daggers stuck in their girdles. After having arranged themselves
properly and being put in right order, the serdár sent one hundred and
forty garments for the better sort amongst them, and cloth for as many
more. Four hundred of them offered to enter the ranks of the serdár;
but he replied he would see about it, and afterwards dismissed this
savage-looking multitude.
His royal highness Ghází Gheráí, khán of the Crimea, who had wintered
at Petcheví, made an excursion into the enemy’s dominions, but had not
been so successful in the enterprize as he at first anticipated. When
the commander-in-chief[11] was on his way from Buda to Belgrade he paid
his royal highness a visit; but on account of some misunderstanding or
other, the khán returned to his own dominions without offering, in any
way, to assist the besieged in Buda, which we lately left under the
command of Mohammed Páshá, afterwards appointed commander-in-chief. The
enemy’s camp, below Pest, was about fifty thousand strong. They had
constructed a bridge across to the island of Chíl, and occupied that
island with the view of preventing boats passing with provisions to
Buda.
When the army under Mohammed Páshá, the commander-in-chief, had taken
up its position in the neighbourhood of the enemy’s camp, the whole
of the enemy’s guns were directed against the Moslems, who, from the
necessity they were under of preparing themselves trenches, were not
in a condition to act on the offensive, or even on the defensive.
The Moslems appeared, even to themselves, to have been in a dilemma
at this time, and did not seem to know how to conduct their military
manœuvres. They were aware, at least some of their leaders were so,
that if they had sent out detachments to harass the country around
Pest, the enemy would not fail to take advantage of this, and come
and attack them when less able to offer them effectual resistance. As
the recovering of Buda was their chief object, they were unwilling to
retire before they had at least supplied it with a sufficient quantity
of provisions, and thus encourage the Budians to maintain their heroic
resistance. The opinions of the warriors, however, were various and
conflictive: one party proposed one thing, another opposed this, and a
third had a new plan altogether. At length, however, now that Yemishjí
Páshá was no more at their head, they resolved on constructing bridges,
and attacking the enemy that had taken possession of the Chíl. This
was talked over and considered. Kúchuk Osmán Aghá, Fedái Beg, ághá of
the salihdárs, some emírs well acquainted with the use of small-arms,
and three thousand segbáns, with ten pieces of cannon, were ordered to
effect a landing on the island during the night, and raise bastions,
mounds, &c. The commander of the segbáns, who acted in the room of the
ághá of the janissaries, came forward, and said that he had ordered
three or four thousand of the common soldiers to this service, as it
was unnecessary, and even improper, he said, to employ the janissaries
in a species of labour which was beneath their rank in the army. These
sentiments did not sound well in the ears of those veterans who thought
otherwise; they said that the success of the undertaking depended
on the janissaries being employed in it. A warm discussion ensued,
and every one gave his own opinion. One party proposed that Serkhúsh
Ibrahím Páshá, cousin to the commander-in-chief, should conduct this
expedition. This was opposed by another party, who proposed that Murád
Páshá, beglerbeg of Romeili, with his provincial troops, should be
sent. This was also rejected; and it is no wonder if the conflicting
opinions which prevailed in the Moslem camp on this occasion should
have proved the means of its utter ruin and destruction. From this very
terrible result, however, they were saved, though at the expense of
many lives.
Dervísh Páshá, who had been deposed from the government of Bosnia, was
finally fixed on to conduct the expedition. On his reaching a bridge
which the Moslems had just constructed for his use, he broke out
into a rage when he saw it, and declared it altogether defective and
dangerous. Mohammed Páshá, when the fact was explained to him, smoothed
him down by telling him it should be, without delay, put into a proper
state. “I need only tell you,” said the serdár, “in order to secure
your services, that the janissaries in Constantinople, in consequence
of their having met with the emperor’s countenance, and that of the
prime minister, have become excessively tyrannical and turbulent. When
you reflect on this, and when you consider that those of the same body
of men amongst us here have manifested a similar spirit, you will not,
I am sure, flinch from the duty assigned you.” This speech had the
desired effect. Dervísh swore that he regarded his own life no more
than he did a draught of water. “My reflection forbids me,” answered
he, with no small degree of generous warmth, “to feel concern about
self, but it demands of me, on the other hand, to be every way alive
to the interests of my government, and to the glory of my religion.
No sacrifice can be too great for either of these.” Thus saying, he
proceeded. By means of boats four or five thousand horse and ten
thousand foot were conveyed across to the above island under covert of
the night.
It is very singular, as well as very remarkable, that at this time
Mohammed Páshá was visited by a sort of deep lethargy, which seemed
extremely alarming; so much so, in fact, that he could not raise his
head, and when he opened his eyes he spoke nonsense. In the meantime
midnight had passed away, and the troops, which had effected a descent
on the island of Chíl, had made no trenches nor erected any bastions.
The segbáns who formed part of the expedition obstinately refused to
open trenches. “We fought on the other side,” said they, “without the
use of trenches, and we will not use them here.” The other janissaries,
however, dug trenches for themselves.