months, was recalled to Constantinople. Whether at Cairo or journeying,
he was in the habit of visiting holy and consecrated places, and
of offering up prayers for the emperor; thus gaining to himself
advantages in both worlds. After his return to Constantinople, Jouher
Khán Sultána, daughter of the grand sultán, thought him worthy of her
affections, and the result was that he became the emperor’s son-in-law.
The articles of the treaty of peace between Turkey and Austria, which
may be called the treaty of Sidova, was finally ratified and signed by
the Ottoman emperor on the 1st of Rajab in this year.
_A great earthquake._
The fortress or city of Nova, situate on the sea-coast, belonging
to the dominions of the archduke (of Austria), was visited by a
tremendous earthquake, which almost entirely overthrew it. Forty-four
yúks,[21] the average of the receipt of its custom-house, were expended
in erecting a new one. A magazine of salt, which stood on the shore,
and near the custom-house, and which brought a revenue of four or five
yúks per annum, sustained considerable injury by the shock, inasmuch as
it caused the sea to retire to the distance of about a bow-shot.
A Spanish fleet of about thirty ships approached within three miles
of this city, either about the time of the earthquake, or some time
either after or before it, with hostile intentions. The governor of
that sanják happened to be at that very time engaged in the war in
Transylvania; but the defterdár of Bosnia hastened to the aid of Nova,
and commenced firing its cannon, when the Spaniards disgracefully
retired.
EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1018, H.
_The grand vezír and commander-in-chief, Murád Páshá, is again sent to
the East._
We have already mentioned the return of Murád Páshá to Constantinople,
and the reception he there met with. Every preparation for resuming
warlike operations in the east was carried on, during the winter
months, with the utmost activity and vigour, and early in the spring
the pavilion of the commanding-general was again erected in the
plains of Scutari. Before this, however, it is to be observed, that
the commander-in-chief wrote to Meseli Chávush, who had taken part in
the late rebellion in Anatolia, but who had not yet been subdued, to
hold himself in readiness for acting under him against the Persians,
and desired him to join the royal camp along with Zulfekár. In the
communication he sent Meseli he promised, though only with the view
of getting him into his own hands, to confer on him the government of
Caramania, and that he would bestow that of Anatolia on Zulfekár. In
a private letter to Zulfekár, however, he expressed himself thus: “I
have employed every method I could to get Meseli Chávush into my power,
but have hitherto failed. Having secured himself among inaccessible
rocks, I did not think it proper to risk troops in searching him out.
Under the pretext of esteem for him, a sanják in the interior has been
conferred on him, and I have written to him to join the army destined
against Persia, and have promised him the government of Caramania to
induce him to do so. Use what dissimulation you can, and perhaps you
may succeed in getting him into your power. The love of office will
induce him to come to you. Remove all his suspicions by showing him
every mark of respect; you will thus secure his confidence, and incline
him to come and join the grand army. You are not to permit him to do
this, however, but as soon as you have him in your power, cut off his
head and send it to Constantinople. If you succeed in compassing his
destruction, I promise to give you the government of Anatolia, and also
a vezírship, as a reward for your services. You will, if you succeed,
do the emperor a very important service, who will, besides the honour
which shall be conferred on you, present your son, Mohammed Beg, with
a province in the interior. You will act, I have no doubt, like a man:
I have committed the whole affair to you.”
In a similar way to that in which he addressed Meseli he also wrote to
Yúsuf Páshá, who had been ketkhodá to Oveis Páshá of Aydin, Sarúkhán,
and Mantesha. This Yúsuf Páshá was at the head of a body of rebels
which amounted to four thousand armed men, beside some cavalry. The
letter which Murád Páshá sent to this rebel-chief was couched in these
terms: “My son, I have heard of some of your virtues and high talents,
which I esteem very much. Although you have such a considerable number
of men under you, yet no rumour of any injustice practised by you is
any where heard. The reverse of injustice in you must be the case.
Still, however innocent though you appear to be, you are considered
a rebel; free yourself, then, if you are a man, from the odious
imputation. You are a person every way fit for taking part in the war
against the Persians: it may even be proper to give you the command
of troops for this purpose. If you show that you have regretted your
former conduct, you may depend on obtaining the emperor’s favour.
Those men who have rebelled against the benign Ottoman government have
met with no pity. Jánbulát Oghlí, Kalander Oghlí, and Karah Seyed,
were the most conspicuous of rebels; but what is become of them?
Attend to my counsel, and be my son here and hereafter (_i.e._ in
both worlds). In order to persuade you to do so, I swear, in the most
solemn manner, that you shall suffer no injury whatever from our most
gracious monarch. I, an old, frail man, am ordered to march against the
Persians, and I ask you to accompany me. You may, perhaps, chance to
acquire great wealth, and at all events you will be put in possession
of Magnesia: you will thus have an opportunity of acquitting yourself
in the eye of the emperor, and securing his favour. If, in rejecting
the counsel I have now tendered to you, you decline going to the
Persian war, then I am free of the oath I have made to you. I need not
say any thing more to you. You are safe if you come to Scutari. There
you can remain a few days and look about you, when afterwards you shall
have the honour, along with me, of kissing the emperor’s hand. Come to
what conclusion you think best, but remember what will be the result
if you now neglect to follow my advice. Answer this letter at any rate.”
When this letter reached Yúsuf Páshá, he called his friends together
and read the contents of it in their hearing. “Why,” said his
rebel-associates, “whoever may be so foolish as to give credit to the
vain and deceitful words of this letter, will find, to his experience,
that he will have to part with his precious life. It is altogether
preposterous to put any faith in that old man’s oath. In answer to the
question, ‘whether we shall be able to stand our own ground, should he,
when he finds us obstinate, come against us?’ we would shortly say,
‘Anatolia is a wide country, and we have no necessity to meet him; let
us go to some distance out of his way. The winter will soon arrive, and
he and his army will then be obliged to retire into winter-quarters,
when we may rest in safety.’” Others replied, “That a decree affecting
their life might, in the event of proving obstinate, be issued against
them, when the whole country would rise up to be revenged on them.
Better,” said they, “that we agree to follow the advice given in the
letter from the commanding-general, and return to our obedience. Let
us, however, use every precaution: he cannot kill us before our time
come. What a terrible rebel was Zulfekár once, and he did not kill him!
He called him his son. Turkijeh Bilmaz Hasan and others after the days
of Karah Yazijí (Scrivano) were not trampled under foot and murdered.
Was not Tekelí Mohammed Páshá a notorious rebel? and when he fell into
his hands he did not murder him.” Such was the way these wise men
reasoned among themselves, and at last agreed to send the following
answer: “You have invited us to come to you, and we are no way disposed
to resist your will. Your oath has inspired us with confidence, and
as soon as your excellency arrives at Scutari we shall show you our
sincerity.” This answer was sent with the person who had brought Murád
Páshá’s communication to Yúsuf Páshá, as before mentioned.
We must now return to Murád’s own operations. After having transported
his troops and baggage to the Asiatic side, he took up his lodgings
in his own pavilion, which had been previously erected for him. The
emperor himself also visited the city of Scutari, and took up his
residence in the gardens of that city, whither his council was summoned
to attend. His vezír (Murád) told him it was not the custom of his
illustrious progenitors to do so: that Istámbol was the place where a
council should properly be held. “Gúrjí Mohammed Páshá,” continued his
vezír, “is káímakám, let him attend to the affairs of the faithful. As
soon as the lord high treasurer, Ahmed Páshá, settles the pecuniary
affairs of his department let him come over, when I shall hand in to
your majesty a report how matters stand.” This advice of the vezír
pleased his majesty, at least it appeared to do so, for he did not urge
the meeting of his council any more. Not long afterwards, however, the
emperor wrote to Murád to hasten his departure for the Persian war, and
to delay no longer. Murád Páshá, on receiving this imperial notice,
waited on his majesty, and said, he had something particular to say to
him. They both retired into a private apartment, when the grand vezír
addressed him thus, premising, however, that what he had to say to him
must be kept a secret, which the other faithfully promised to observe.
“Be it known, therefore, to your majesty,” said the premier, “that
though we have been ostensibly engaged in preparing for the Persian
war, it has been, in fact, for a different object that we have been so
engaged. The notorious rebel, Meseli Chávush, is in possession of six
or seven fortresses or places of strength in the mountainous part of
Anatolia. It would not be safe to send an army into the mountains after
him, because by hurling down stones he might destroy numbers of our
orthodox believers”—here he related the steps he had taken in writing
to Meseli. The asylum of the world appeared surprised, and asked him if
he was capable of murdering a person who, in the faith of his promises,
put himself in his power? His excellency, the grand vezír, replied:
“If, in obedience to your orders, we march against Persia, how will
you act with the rebel-chief of Aydin and Sarúkhán, Yúsuf Páshá?” “By
God,” said his majesty, “you have remarked well; that rebel had totally
escaped my memory; his case has not been attended to.” The grand vezír
then informed him of the steps he had pursued with regard to him, and
of the result, which we need not again repeat, and added: “if these
two notorious rebels are once in our power, the whole of the province
of Anatolia will not only be regained, but peace and tranquillity will
also be restored. Let your majesty keep what I have been saying to you
a perfect secret: let nothing of it transpire.” His majesty ejaculated
a short prayer, wished him God-speed, and dismissed him.
_Yúsuf Páshá arrives at Scutari._
About a month after the grand vezír had the above interview with the
emperor, Yúsuf Páshá’s followers arrived at Scutari, and he himself
in three days after them, when he ordered them to erect their tents.
The grand vezír showed him every mark of esteem and friendship, and
permitted him, when he appeared in his presence, to be seated at his
side. “Be my son,” said the vezír, “here and hereafter,” presented him
with a double suit of robes, and ordered robes to be given to a hundred
of his men. A few days afterwards he presented him to his majesty, to
whom Yúsuf had brought some very important and valuable presents; and
on this occasion he was honoured with another robe from his sovereign.
About this time, the grand vezír, Murád Páshá, received an answer to
his communication to Zulfekár, which informed him that Meseli Chávush
had arrived. The vezír wrote back to assure him that he would not fail
in his promises, and urged him to do the work assigned him. Another
month passed away, and Yúsuf Páshá became impatient to be employed
against the Persians, for whose wealth and property he thirsted. The
grand vezír, however, found means to put him off from day to day, for
Meseli was not yet disposed of, and on this, in a great measure, his
own fate depended.
In the mean time, in consequence of some representation made to the
emperor from some quarter or other, Murád Páshá was again ordered to
set out on his march to the frontiers of Persia, and that too without
delay, unless he wished another to supersede him in the chief command.
This order was peremptory; within the space of three days he must be on
his march. The grand vezír, on receiving this intimation, again waited
on his majesty and said to him, “Sire, your slave explained to your
majesty how matters stood, the last time I had the honour of speaking
with you: it certainly must have escaped your blessed memory.” “No,
by no means,” answered his majesty, “I have perfect recollection of
it; nor have I intimated a syllable of it to any one.” “Why,” replied
the vezír, “if you approved of what I at that time proposed to your
majesty, wherefore is it that you have ordered me to march? We have
Yúsuf Páshá in our power. If we despatch him just now, Mesli Chávush
will, when he hears of it, make his escape from Zulfekár, and become
more formidable than ever: it will be no easy matter to get hold of him
again. As soon as we set out for the Persian campaign, he will come and
attack Scutari. Pay no regard, sire, to the speeches of your cazís, for
they are unacquainted with the state of matters; they will be brought
to understand things better afterwards. Leave me to act as I think
proper.” The emperor was again overcome by the reasoning of his vezír,
and left him to do as he thought best, and dismissed him.
_Mesli Chávush and Yúsuf Páshá are murdered._
Mesli Chávush, who had joined Zulfekár, lived with the latter on
terms of apparent intimacy and friendship, but which, on the part
of Zulfekár, could not have been sincere, whatever he might have
manifested to the contrary. His apparent friendship had the effect he
wished, and that was to disarm Mesli of all fear and suspicion as to
his own safety.
One day he proposed that both should pay a visit in company to the
country or sanják which had been promised to Mesli, to which Mesli
agreed. On this journey they spent a month: they went from Iconium to
Larenda, and visited the fortresses of Mút, Mirah, Kúnis, and Tumrak,
each of which was so impregnably situated among rocks, that an Osmánlí
army would have found it next to impossible to reduce it. Such were the
places which Mesli commanded, and which had rendered him formidable to
the Osmánlí government.
After an excursion of one and twenty days of pleasure they returned
to Iconium, whence, in a day or two afterwards, they went to Miram,
having taken their respective followers and equipages along with
them. Here also they went about together in the greatest apparent
friendship, visited together the different spectacles which were to be
seen there, and went together to the different places of amusement.
Zulfekár was seeking all this while a fit opportunity for accomplishing
Murád Páshá’s wishes, and it was not long before such an opportunity
offered itself. Mesli was sitting one day with a turban or tiara on his
head, and like a prince was enjoying his pleasures, without fear or
suspicion of any thing, when some of the men of his ostensible friend,
who had been previously instructed how to act, fell upon him and
despatched him. One of these came secretly behind him, and secured his
head in a sort of noose with one hand, and with the other stabbed him
with his dagger. The rest of the assassins, when they saw the struggle
which ensued, came hastily forward, and after strangling him, cut off
his head. Whatever valuables were found in his possession were seized
by Murád’s lieutenant, for the purpose of being afterwards confiscated.
Zulfekár Páshá and the defterdár of Caramania, Yúnus Effendí, went to
take an account of the property he possessed in the fortresses which
he had taken; and his head, under the charge of ten men, was sent off
to Scutari, to Murád Páshá. The men who had the charge of Mesli’s head
reached the place of their destination in five days, and communicated
secretly to the grand vezír the purport of their visit to Scutari. He
immediately waited on the emperor and communicated to him the news of
the fate of Mesli; and added, that the head of the rebel Yúsuf Páshá
would not be much longer on his shoulders. We ought to have mentioned,
however, that the head of Mesli was, after having been fixed on the
point of a spear and carried publicly through the camp, placed before
the grand vezír’s tent. When the grand vezír announced to his majesty,
that the head of a formidable enemy had been brought into the camp, and
as we have already observed, that the head of Yúsuf Páshá would not
remain long on his shoulders, he started up from his sofa in surprise,
and said “May God, my dear father, reward you for your many services to
me,” and desired him to do as he thought fit.
On the following morning he sent a messenger to invite Yúsuf Páshá to
come and take a cup of coffee with him. The messenger, whilst on his
way, met Yúsuf Páshá, and delivering to him the invitation, conducted
him to the vezír’s tent. On going into the tent his excellency
addressed him in the most gracious and flattering terms, calling him
his son, and so forth. “How could I drink my coffee without you, my
son: you know how much I esteem you; come, let us retire to the back
part of the tent, where we shall not be disturbed, and where we shall
be at liberty to converse with more freedom. God willing, you shall
have permission tomorrow to march against the Kizilbáshes.” After
sitting down, and just as one of the domestics was handing Yúsuf a
cup of coffee, and before he had time to lay hold of it, an officer
announced to his lordship, Murád Páshá, that Hasan Beg, beg of Avlonia,
had arrived. His lordship affected surprise, and said, it was a hard
case to be so much oppressed with business as to have no time to enjoy
himself for a few moments. “But there is no help for it,” said he; “I
must step out for a little, but do you, sir,” (addressing Yúsuf Páshá)
“make yourself comfortable.” The grand vezír no sooner went out of
the tent, than he desired three or four of his officers to enter the
tent and take a dish of coffee with his son Yúsuf Páshá. These men
accomplished the vezír’s wishes. As the unfortunate Yúsuf Páshá was
in the act of receiving a cup of coffee into his hand, he was tripped
up by one of these assassins, when the rest, pouncing upon him, cut
off his head, and placed it on a table. On the vezír’s re-entering, he
ordered his body to be thrown out, and sent word to the defterdár to
seize on the whole of his property. When some of the soldiery heard
of the fate of Yúsuf Páshá, they ran into his tent and seized on all
the spoil they could find in it. Yúsuf Páshá’s deputy and some of
his principal followers were also put to death, and the rest of his
associates fled.
After these things, the grand vezír waited on his majesty and informed
him of what had taken place. “Let this suffice,” said the vezír; “we
need now proceed no farther. Even here, at Scutari, your majesty has
been avenged on two of your most formidable enemies, to each of whom
great forbearance has been shown. The province of Anatolia will now
enjoy peace and quietness, and now the war with Persia may again be
renewed.” The emperor bestowed great praise on his vezír: the whole of
the property that belonged to Yúsuf Páshá’s followers, who had been
put to death, was ordered to be confiscated; the beasts of burden,
and several packages of valuable articles which had belonged to his
lieutenant, or which were in his possession, were all sent over to
the tulip-garden in Constantinople. The whole of the articles which
had belonged to the rebels were afterwards sold, and the price of
them put into the imperial coffers. The head of Mesli and the body of
Yúsuf Páshá remained exposed for two days in the Maidán. The sanják
which had been promised to Mesli was conferred on Mohammed Beg, son of
Zulfekár.
_Treachery in some of the grand vezír’s domestics discovered._
The grand vezír, Murád Páshá, had also premeditated the death of the
lord high treasurer, Ahmed Páshá, usually called Etmekjí Zádeh, and,
with this view, asked the emperor’s consent to assassinate him. The
emperor, though very reluctantly, yielded to the wish of his vezír,
who immediately gave directions to his domestics and officers how
to act in this matter when Ahmed Páshá, who was then expected from
Constantinople, should arrive. He placed a sentinel on the shore,
who, so soon as he saw Ahmed Páshá arrive, was to give him notice:
the executioners put themselves in readiness. It was not long before
the sentinel above-mentioned announced the approach of Ahmed Páshá;
and informed Murád, that at the moment he was stepping on shore, a
young man came sailing up to him in a boat, and put a sealed note into
his hand. Ahmed Páshá no sooner read the contents of this note, the
sentinel said, than he immediately sailed back for Constantinople.
This information necessarily awakened surprise and doubt in the mind
of the grand vezír, who secretly set about employing persons to find
out the boatman who had been commissioned to convey the bearer of the
note. The boatman, on his discovery, related to the grand vezír all
the particulars as to the manner in which he had been hired, and the
trouble he had endured before he met with Ahmed Páshá at the pier.
The vezír asked him if he thought he should be able to recognize the
young man who had delivered the note to Ahmed Páshá, and whose dress
he had already described. He replied in the affirmative: stating, that
he, the young man, on delivering the note, had gone directly towards
the camp. The vezír immediately caused the boatman to change his
clothes, and despatched him, with some of his officers, to the camp, to
commence the search. The whole camp, from tent to tent, was minutely
examined for several days without success, when a mere accident
discovered the delinquent. Two of the vezír’s domestics had fallen
into a violent dispute, in which they mutually accused each other of
treachery to their master. The treasurer, Hasan Aghá, overheard them,
and resolved to chastise them; when one of them whispered something
into his ear. This induced the treasurer to conduct him into the
presence of the vezír, when he confessed that he and four others of
his fellow-domestics had been in the practice of receiving daily a
pecuniary remuneration from Ahmed Páshá for giving him information of
every thing they knew relative to their master’s administration or
conduct. The boatman was again called and confronted with this person,
and immediately recognized him as being the very man who had given the
note to Ahmed Páshá. His four accomplices were instantly executed, but
he himself was not only pardoned, but rewarded with a spahilik and a
handsome sum of money, for having disclosed the fact. He was, however,
dismissed the vezír’s service.
_The arrival of Yúsuf Páshá’s and Mesli Chávush’s wealth.—A display of
ill will and malevolence._