[1] "Magot" and "Madge," with the same origin, are names, frequently
given in England to the pie; while in France it is commonly known as
_Margot_, if not termed, as it is in some districts, _Jaquette_.
MAGWE, a district in the Minbu division of Upper Burma. Area, 2913 sq.
m.; pop. (1901), 246,708, showing an increase of 12.38% in the decade.
Magwe may be divided into two portions: the low, flat country in the
Taungdwingyi subdivision, and the undulating high ground extending over
the rest of the district. In Taungdwingyi the soil is rich, loamy, and
extremely fertile. The plain is about 45 m. from north to south. At its
southern extremity it is about 30 m. wide, and lessens in width to the
north till it ends in a point at Natmauk. On the east are the Pegu
Yomas, which at some points reach a height of 1500 ft. A number of
streams run westwards to the Irrawaddy, of which the Yin and the Pin,
which form the northern boundary, are the chief. The only perennial
stream is the Yanpè. Rice is the staple product, and considerable
quantities are exported. Sesamum of very high quality, maize, and millet
are also cultivated, as well as cotton in patches here and there over
the whole district.
In this district are included the well-known Yenangyaung petroleum
wells. The state wells have been leased to the Burma Oil Company. The
amount of oil-bearing lands is estimated at 80 sq. m. and the portion
not leased to the company has been demarcated into blocks of 1 sq. m.
and offered on lease. The remaining land belongs to hereditary Burmese
owners called _twinsa_, who dig wells and extract their oil by the
rope and pulley system as they have always done. Lacquered wood trays,
bowls and platters, and cart-wheels, are the only manufactures of any
note in the district.
The annual rainfall averages about 27 inches. The maximum temperature
rises to a little over 100° in the hot season, and falls to an average
minimum of 53° and 54° in the cold season.
The town of Magwe is the headquarters of the district; pop. (1901),
6232. It is diagonally opposite Minbu, the headquarters of the
division, on the right bank of the Irrawaddy.
MAGYARS, the name of the dominant race in Hungary, or Hungarians proper.
Though they have become physically assimilated to the western peoples,
they belong in origin and language to the Finno-Ugrian (q.v.) division
of the Ural-Altaic race. They form barely half of the population of
Hungary, but are by far the largest and most compact of all its racial
groups. Magyar is the official language of Hungary, the official name of
which (_Magyarorzág_, or "country of the Magyars") enshrines the Magyar
claim to predominance. While all Magyars are properly Hungarians, all
Hungarians are not necessarily Magyars. "Hungarian" may be used as a
generic term covering all the various races of Hungary, while "Magyar"
is strictly specific to a single group. The Magyars themselves, indeed,
sometimes apply the name _Magyarorzág_ to Hungary "proper," excluding
Croatia-Slavonia, the whole kingdom being called _Magyarbirodalom_, the
Magyar monarchy or realm. See HUNGARY.
MAHABALESHWAR, or MALCOLMPETH, a hill station in Satara district, and
the principal sanatorium in the Bombay presidency, India. Pop. (1901),
5299. It is reached by carriage from Wathar railway station (39 m.) or
by motor car from Poona (119 m.). Mahabaleshwar occupies the summit of a
ridge of the Western Ghats, with a general elevation of 4500 ft. above
sea-level. It was established in 1828 by Sir John Malcolm, governor of
Bombay, who obtained the site from the raja of Satara in exchange for
another patch of territory. The superior elevation of Mahabaleshwar
renders it much cooler than Matheran (2460 ft.), a sanatorium about 50
m. E. of Bombay, but its heavy rainfall (292 in. annual average) makes
it almost uninhabitable during the rainy season. The mean annual
temperature is 67° F. In the hottest season (March-April) an extreme of
a little over 90° is reached during the day. Mahabaleshwar forms the
retreat usually during spring, and occasionally in autumn, of the
governor of Bombay, and the chief officers of his establishment, and has
the usual public buildings of a first-class sanatorium.
MAHAFFY, JOHN PENTLAND (1839- ), Irish classical scholar, was born in
Switzerland on the 12th of July 1839. He received his early education in
Switzerland and Germany, and later at Trinity College, Dublin, where he
held the professorship of ancient history. Mahaffy, a man of great
versatility, published numerous works, some of which, especially those
dealing with what may be called the Silver age of Greece, became
standard authorities. The following deserve mention: _History of
Classical Greek Literature_ (4th ed., 1903 seq.); _Social Life in Greece
from Homer to Menander_ (4th ed., 1903); _The Silver Age of the Greek
World_ (1906); _The Empire of the Ptolemies_ (1896); _Greek Life and
Thought from Alexander to the Roman Conquest_ (2nd ed., 1896); _The
Greek World under Roman Sway from Polybius to Plutarch_ (1890). His
translation of Kuno Fischer's _Commentary on Kant_ (1866) and his own
exhaustive analysis, with elucidations, of Kant's critical philosophy
are of great value. He also edited the Petrie papyri in the _Cunningham
Memoirs_ (3 vols. 1891-1905).
MAHALLAT, a province of central Persia, situated between Kashan and
Irak. Pop. about 20,000; yearly revenue about £2500. Until 1890 it was
one of the five "central provinces" (the other four being Irak, Ferahan,
Kezzaz, and Savah), which were under a governor appointed by the shah;
since then it has formed part of the Isfahan government. It is traversed
by the Anarbar or Kum River, and comprises the city of Mahallat, divided
into upper and lower, or Rivkan and Zanjirvan, and twenty-two
flourishing villages. It was known in former times as Anar, the Anarus
of Peutinger's tables. The city, capital of the province, is situated at
an elevation of 5850 ft. in 33° 51´ N., 50° 30´ E.; pop. about 9000.
MAHAN, ALFRED THAYER (1840- ), American naval officer and historian,
was born on the 27th of September 1840 at West Point, New York. His
father, Dennis Hart Mahan (1802-1871) was a professor in the military
academy, and the author of textbooks on civil and military engineering.
The son graduated at the naval academy in 1859, became lieutenant in
1861, served on the "Congress," and on the "Pocahontas," "Seminole," and
"James Adger" during the Civil War, and was instructor at the naval
academy for a year. In 1865 he was made lieut.-commander, commander in
1872, captain in 1885. Meanwhile he saw service in the Gulf of Mexico,
the South Atlantic, the Pacific, and Asia, and did shore duty at Boston,
New York and Annapolis. In 1886-89 he was president of the naval war
college at Newport, Rhode Island. Between 1889 and 1892 he was engaged
in special service for the bureau of navigation, and in 1893 was made
commander of the "Chicago," of the European squadron. In 1896 he retired
from active service, but was a member of the naval board of strategy
during the war between the United States and Spain. He was a member of
the peace congress at the Hague in 1899. This long and varied service
gave him extensive opportunities for observation, which he supplemented
by constant study of naval authorities and reflection on the
interpretation of the problems of maritime history. His first book was a
modest and compact story of the affairs in _The Gulf and Inland Waters_
(1883), in a series of volumes by various writers, entitled _The Navy in
the Civil War_; in 1890 he suddenly acquired fame by the appearance of
his masterly work entitled _The Influence of Sea Power upon History,
1660-1783_. Having been impressed by the failure of historians to allow
for the influence of sea power in struggles between nations, he was led
to make prolonged investigations of this general theme (see SEA POWER).
The reception accorded the volume was instant and hearty; in England, in
particular, it was deemed almost an epoch-making work, and was studied
by naval specialists, cabinet ministers and journalists, as well as by a
large part of the general public. It was followed by _The Influence of
Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire_ (2 vols. 1892); _The
Life of Nelson, the Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain_
(1897); and _Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812_ (1905). The
author's general aim in these works--some of which have been translated
into French, German and Japanese--was to make the consideration of
maritime matters paramount to that of military, political or economic
movements, without, however, as he himself says "divorcing them from
their surroundings of cause and effect in general history, but seeking
to show how they modified the latter, and were modified by them." He
selected the year 1660 as the beginning of his narrative, as being the
date when the "sailing-ship era, with its distinctive features, had
fairly begun." The series as a whole has been accepted as finally
authoritative, supplanting its predecessors of similar aim, and
almost--in the words of Theodore Roosevelt--founding a new school of
naval historical writing.
Other works by Mahan are a _Life of Admiral Farragut_ (1892); _The
Interest of America in Sea Power_ (1897); _Lessons of the War with
Spain_ (1899); _The Story of the War with South Africa_ and _The
Problem of Asia_ (1900); _Types of Naval Officers drawn from the
History of the British Navy_ (1901); _Retrospect and Prospect_,
studies of international relations (1902).
MAHANADI, or MAHANUDDY ("The Great River"), a river of India. It rises
in 20° 10´ N., 82° E., 25 m. S. of Raipur town, in the wild mountains of
Bastar in the Central Provinces. At first an insignificant stream,
taking a northerly direction, it drains the eastern portion of the
Chhattisgarh plain, then a little above Seorinarayan it receives the
waters which its first great affluent, the Seonath, has collected from
the western portion of the plain; thence flowing for some distance due
E., its stream is augmented by the drainage of the hills of Uprora,
Korba, and the ranges that separate Sambalpur from Chota Nagpur. At
Padampur it turns towards the south, and struggling through masses of
rock, flows past the town of Sambalpur to Sonpur. From Sonpur it pursues
a tortuous course among ridges and rocky crags towards the range of the
Eastern Ghats. This mountain line it pierces by a gorge about 40 m. in
length, overlooked by forest-clad hills. Since the opening of the
Bengal-Nagpur railway, the Mahanadi is little used for navigation. It
pours down upon the Orissa delta at Naraj, about 7 m. west of Cuttack
town; and after traversing Cuttack district from west to east, and
throwing off numerous branches (the Katjori, Paika, Biropa, Chitartala,
&c.) it falls into the Bay of Bengal at False Point by several channels.
The Mahanadi has an estimated drainage area of 43,800 sq. m., and its
rapid flow renders its maximum discharge in time of flood second to
that of no other river in India. During unusually high floods
1,500,000 cub. ft. of water pour every second through the Naraj gorge,
one-half of which, uncontrolled by the elaborate embankments, and
heavily laden with silt, pours over the delta, filling the swamps,
inundating the rice-fields, and converting the plains into a sea. In
the dry weather the discharge of the Mahanadi dwindles to 1125 cub.
ft. per second. Efforts have been made to husband and utilize the vast
water supply thrown upon the Orissa delta during seasons of flood.
Each of the three branches into which the parent stream splits at the
delta head is regulated by a weir. Of the four canals which form the
Orissa irrigation system, two take off from the Biropa weir, and one,
with its branch, from the Mahanadi weir. On the 31st of December 1868
the government took over the whole canal works from the East Indian
Irrigation Company, at a cost of £941,368. The canals thus taken over
and since completed, are the high-level canal, the Kendrapara canal,
the Taldanda canal and the Machgaon canal, irrigating 275,000 acres.
MAHANOY CITY, a borough of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., 56
m. N.E. of Harrisburg. Pop. (1890), 11,286; (1900), 13,504, of whom 3877
were foreign-born, mostly Slavs; (1910 census) 15,936. It is served by
branches of the Lehigh Valley and the Philadelphia & Reading railways.
The borough is situated in the valley of Mahanoy Creek, and has an
elevation of 1240 ft. above the sea; Broad Mountain (1795 ft.), a ridge
extending through Schuylkill county, overlooks it on the S.E. The valley
is a part of the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania, fire clay
abounds in the vicinity, and the borough's principal industries are the
mining and shipping of coal, and the manufacture of shirts and foundry
products. Mahanoy City, originally a part of Mahanoy township (pop. in
1910, 6256), was incorporated as a borough in 1863.
MAHAR, the name of a servile caste in the Deccan, India. Their special
function, apart from that of scavenger, is to act as village watchman,
as guardian of the village boundaries, and as public messenger. In some
parts they are also weavers of coarse cotton cloth. In 1901 their total
number in all India was just under three millions.
MAHARAJPUR, a village in Gwalior state, Central India. Pop. (1901), 366.
It was the scene of a battle (Dec. 29, 1843) in which Sir Hugh Gough,
accompanied by the governor-general, Lord Ellenborough, defeated the
insurgent army of the Gwalior state.
MAHAVAMSA, the _Great Chronicle_, a history of Ceylon from the 5th
century B.C. to the middle of the 5th century A.D., written in Pali
verse by Mahanama of the Dighasanda Hermitage, shortly after the close
of the period with which it deals. In point of historical value it
compares well with early European chronicles. In India proper the
decipherment of early Indian inscriptions was facilitated to a very
great extent by the data found only in the Mahavamsa. It was composed on
the basis of earlier works written in Sinhalese, which are now lost,
having been supplanted by the chronicles and commentaries in which their
contents were restated in Pali in the course of the 5th century. The
particular one on which our Mahavamsa was mainly based was also called
the Mahavamsa, and was written in Sinhalese prose with Pali memorial
verse interspersed. The extant Pali work gives legends of the Buddha and
the genealogy of his family; a sketch of the history of India down to
Asoka; an account of Buddhism in India down to the same date; a
description of the sending out of missionaries after Asoka's council,
and especially of the mission of Mahinda to Ceylon; a sketch of the
previous history of Ceylon; a long account of the reign of Devanam-piya
Tissa, the king of Ceylon who received Mahinda, and established Buddhism
in the island; short accounts of the kings succeeding him down to Duttha
Gamiin (Dadagamana or Dutegemunu); then a long account, amounting to an
epic poem, of the adventures and reign of that prince, a popular hero,
born in adversity, who roused the people, and drove the Tamil invaders
out of the island. Finally we have short notices of the subsequent kings
down to the author's time. The Mahavamsa was the first Pali book made
known to Europe. It was edited in 1837, with English translation and an
elaborate introduction, by George Turnour, then colonial secretary in
Ceylon. Its vocabulary was an important part of the material utilized in
Childer's _Pali Dictionary_. Its relation to the sources from which it
drew has been carefully discussed by various scholars and in especial
detail by Geiger. It is agreed that it gives a reasonably fair and
correct presentation of the tradition preserved in the lost Sinhalese
Mahavamsa; that, except in the earliest period, its list of kings, with
the years of each reign, is complete and trustworthy; and that it gives
throughout the view, as to events in Ceylon, of a resident in the Great
Minster at Anuradhapura.
See _The Mahavamsa_, ed. by Geo. Turnour (Colombo, 1837); ed. by W.
Geiger (London, 1908); H. Oldenberg, in the introduction to his
edition of the _Dipavamsa_ (London, 1879); O. Franke, in _Wiener
Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes_ (1907); W. Geiger,
_Dipavamsa und Mahavamsa_ (Leipzig, 1905, trans. by Ethel M.
Coomaraswamy, Colombo, 1908). (T. W. R. D.)
MAHAYANA ("Great Vehicle"), the name given to the later Buddhism, the
popular religion which embraced all the people and had its pantheon of
Buddhas and Bodhisatvas, with attendant deities and demons, spacious
temples and images, pompous ceremonial and noisy festivals. It was thus
contrasted with the Hinayana ("Little Vehicle") of the primitive
Buddhism which had been only for the select few. (See BUDDHISM.)
MAHDI (Arab. "he who is guided aright"), a title assumed by the third
Abbasid caliph (see CALIPHATE: _Abbasids_, § 3). According to Moslem
traditionists Mahomet declared that one of his descendants, the imam of
God, who would fill the earth with equity and justice, would bear the
name of al-mahdi. The Sunnis hold that this mahdi has not yet appeared.
The name of mahdi is also given by the Shi'ite Mahommedans to the last
of the imams of the house of 'Ali. It was under the name of al-mahdi
that Mokhtar proclaimed 'Ali's son Mahommed as the opponent of the
caliph Abdalmalik, and, according to Shahrastani, the doctrine of the
mahdi, the hidden deliverer who is one day to appear and fill the
oppressed world with righteousness, first arose in connexion with a
belief that this Mahommed had not died but lived concealed at Mount
Radwa, near Mecca, guarded by a lion and a panther. The hidden imam of
the common Shi'ites is, however, the twelfth imam, Mahommed Abu'I-Qasim,
who disappeared mysteriously in 879. The belief in the appearance of the
mahdi readily lent itself to imposture. Of the many pretenders to this
dignity known in all periods of Moslem history the most famous was the
first caliph of the Fatimite dynasty in North Africa, 'Obaidallah
al-Mahdi, who reigned 909-933. After him was named the first capital of
the dynasty, the once important city of Mahdia (q.v.). Another great
historical movement, headed by a leader who proclaimed himself the mahdi
(Mahommed ibn Abdallah ibn Tumart), was that of the Almohades (q.v.). In
1881 Mahommed Ahmed ibn Seyyid Abdullah (q.v.), a Dongolese, proclaimed
himself al-mahdi and founded in the eastern Sudan the short-lived empire
overthrown by an Anglo-Egyptian force at the battle of Omdurman in 1898.
Concurrently with the claim of Mahommed Ahmed to be the mahdi the same
title was claimed by, or for, the head of the Senussites, a
confraternity powerful in many regions of North Africa.
MAHDIA (also spelt _Mehdia_, _Mehedia_, &c.), a town of Tunisia, on the
coast between the gulfs of Hammamet and Gabes, 47 m. by rail S.S.E. of
Susa. Pop. about 8000. Mahdia is built on a rocky peninsula which
projects eastward about a mile beyond the normal coast line, and is not
more than a quarter of a mile wide. The extremity of the peninsula is
called Ras Mahdia or Cape Africa--Africa being the name by which Mahdia
was designated by Froissart and other European historians during the
middle ages and the Renaissance. In the centre of the peninsula and
occupying its highest point is a citadel (16th century); another castle
farther west is now used as a prison and is in the centre of the native
town. The European quarter and the new port are on the south-west side
of the peninsula. The port is available for small boats only; steamers
anchor in the roadstead about a quarter of a mile from the shore. On the
south-east, cut out of the rock, is the ancient harbour, or _cothon_,
measuring about 480 ft by 240 ft., the entrance being 42 ft. wide. There
are manufactories of olive oil, but the chief industry is sardine
fishing, largely in the hands of Italians.
Mahdia occupies the site of a Phoenician settlement and by some
authorities is identified with the town called Turris Hannibalis by the
Romans. Hannibal is said to have embarked here on his exile from
Carthage. After the Arab conquest of North Africa the town fell into
decay. It was refounded in 912 by the first Fatimite caliph,
'Obaidallah-al-Mahdi, after whom it was named. It became the port of
Kairawan and was for centuries a city of considerable importance,
largely owing to its great natural strength, and its position on the
Mediterranean. It carried on an active trade with Egypt, Syria and
Spain. The town was occupied by the Normans of Sicily in the 12th
century, but after holding it for about twelve years they were driven
out in 1159 by the Almohades. In 1390 a joint English and French force
vainly besieged Mahdia for sixty-one days. In the early part of the 16th
century the corsair Dragut seized the town and made it his capital, but
in 1550 the place was captured by the Spaniards, who held it until 1574.
Before evacuating the town the Spaniards dismantled the fortifications.
Under the rule of the Turks and, later, the beys of Tunis Mahdia became
a place of little importance. It was occupied by the French in 1881
without opposition, and regained some of its former commercial
importance.
During 1908 numbers of bronzes and other works of art were recovered
from a vessel wrecked off Mahdia in the 5th century A.D. (see
_Classical Review_, June 1909).
MAHÉ, a French settlement in the Malabar district of Madras, India,
situated in 11° 43´ N. and 75° 33´ E., at the mouth of a river of the
same name. Area, 26 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 10,298. It is the only French
possession on the west coast of India, and is in charge of a _chef de
service_, subordinate to the governor-general at Pondicherry. It is now
a decaying place.
MAHESHWAR, a town in Indore state, Central India, on the N. bank of the
Narbada (Nerbudda). Pop. (1901), 7042. Though of great antiquity and
also of religious sanctity, it is chiefly noted as the residence of
Ahalya Bai, the reigning queen of the Holkar dynasty during the last
half of the 18th century, whose ability and munificence are famous
throughout India. Close by her cenotaph stands the family temple of the
Holkars.
MAHI, a river of western India, which rises in Central India and, after
flowing through south Rajputana, enters Gujarat and falls into the sea
by a wide estuary near Cambay; total length, 300 m.; estimated drainage
area, 16,000 sq. m. It has given its name to the Mahi Kantha agency of
Bombay, and also to the mehwasis, marauding highlanders often mentioned
in Mahommedan chronicles.
MAHI KANTHA, a political agency or collection of native states in India,
within the Gujarat division of Bombay. Over half the territory is
covered by the native state of Idar. There are eleven other chiefships,
and a large number of estates belonging to Rajput or Koli thakurs,
formerly feudatories of Baroda. Several of the states are under British
administration. Total area, 3125 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 361,545, showing a
decrease of 38% in the decade, due to famine; estimated revenue,
£76,000; tribute (mostly to the gaekwar of Baroda), £9000. Many of the
inhabitants belong to the wild tribes of Bhils and Kolis. In 1897 a
metre-gauge railway was opened from Ahmedabad through Parantij to
Ahmednagar. At Sadra is the Scott College for the education of the sons
of chiefs on the lines of an English public school. There are also
Anglo-vernacular schools at Sadra, Idar and Mansa. The famine of
1899-1900 was severely felt in this tract.
MAHMUD I. (1696-1754), sultan of Turkey, was the son of Mustafa II., and
succeeded his uncle Ahmed III. in 1730. After the suppression of a
military revolt the war with Persia was continued with varying success,
and terminated in 1736 by a treaty of peace restoring the _status quo
ante bellum_. The next enemy whom Turkey was called upon to face was
Russia, later joined by Austria. War went on for four years; the
successes gained by Russia were outweighed by Austria's various
reverses, terminating by the defeat of Wallis at Krotzka, and the peace
concluded at Belgrade was a triumph for Turkish diplomacy. The sultan,
throughout desirous for peace, is said to have been much under the
influence of the chief eunuch, Haji Beshir Aga. In 1754 Mahmud died of
heart-disease when returning from the Friday service at the mosque. He
had a passion for building, to which are due numberless kiosques, where
nocturnal orgies were carried on by him and his boon companions. In this
reign the system of appointing Phanariote Greeks to the principalities
of Moldavia and Wallachia was instituted. (See PHANARIOTES.)
MAHMUD II. (1785-1839), sultan of Turkey, was the son of Abu-ul-Hamid
I., and succeeded his brother, Mustafa IV., in 1808. He had shared the
captivity of his ill-fated cousin, the ex-sultan, Selim III., whose
efforts at reform had ended in his deposition by the janissaries. Mahmud
was thus early impressed with the necessity for dissembling his
intention to institute reforms until he should be powerful enough to
carry them through. The reforming efforts of the grand vizier Bairakdar,
to whom he had owed his life and his accession, broke on the opposition
of the janissaries; and Mahmud had to wait for more favourable times.
Meanwhile the empire seemed in danger of breaking up. Not till 1812 was
the war with Russia closed by the treaty of Bucharest, which restored
Moldavia and the greater part of Wallachia to the Ottoman government.
But though the war was ended, the terms of the treaty left a number of
burning questions, both internal and external, unsettled. This was
notably the case with the claim of Russia to Poti and the valley of the
Rion (Phasis), which was still outstanding at the time of the congress
of Vienna (1814-1815) and prevented the question of a European guarantee
of the integrity of Turkey from being considered.
Meanwhile, within the empire, ambitious valis were one by one attempting
to carve out dominions for themselves at the expense of the central
power. The ambitions of Mehemet Ali of Egypt were not yet fully
revealed; but Ali (q.v.) of Jannina, who had marched to the aid of the
sultan against the rebellious pasha Pasvan Oglu of Widdin, soon began to
show his hand, and it needed the concentration of all the forces of the
Turkish empire to effect his overthrow and death (1822). The
preoccupation of the sultan with Ali gave their opportunity to the
Greeks whose disaffection had long been organized in the great secret
society of the _Hetaeria Philike_, against which Metternich had in vain
warned the Ottoman government. In 1821 occurred the abortive raid of
Alexander Ypsilanti into the Danubian principalities, and in May of the
same year the revolt of the Greeks of the Morea began the war of Greek
Independence (see GREECE: _History_). The rising in the north was easily
crushed; but in the south the Ottoman power was hampered by the
defection of the sea-faring Greeks, by whom the Turkish navy had
hitherto been manned. After three abortive campaigns Mahmud was
compelled, infinitely against his will, to summon to his assistance the
already too powerful pasha of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, whom he had already
employed to suppress the rebellious Wahhabis in Arabia. The disciplined
Egyptian army, supported by a well organized fleet, rapidly accomplished
what the Turks had failed to do; and by 1826 the Greeks were practically
subdued on land, and Ibrahim was preparing to turn his attention to the
islands. But for the intervention of the powers and the battle of
Navarino Mahmud's authority would have been restored in Greece. The news
of Navarino betrayed Mahmud into one of those paroxysms of rage to which
he was liable, and which on critical occasions were apt fatally to cloud
his usual good sense. After in vain attempting to obtain an apology for
"the unparalleled outrage against a friendly power" he issued on the
20th of December a solemn _hatti sheriff_ summoning the faithful to a
holy war. This, together with certain outstanding grievances and the
pretext of enforcing the settlement of the Greek Question approved by
the powers, gave Russia the excuse for declaring war against Turkey.
After two hardly fought campaigns (1828, 1829) Mahmud was at length, on
the 14th of September 1829, compelled to sign the peace of Adrianople.
From this moment until his death Mahmud was, to all intents and
purposes, the "vassal of Russia," though not without occasional
desperate efforts to break his chains. (For the political events of the
period between the first revolt of Mehemet Ali (Sept. 1832) and the
death of Mahmud see MEHEMET ALI.) The personal attitude of the sultan,
which alone concerns us here, was determined throughout by his
overmastering hatred of the upstart pasha, of whom he had stooped to ask
aid, and who now defied his will; and the importance of this attitude
lies in the fact that, as the result of the success of his centralizing
policy, and notably of the destruction of the janissaries (q.v.), the
supreme authority, hitherto limited by the practical power of the
ministers of the Porte and by the turbulence of the privileged military
caste, had become concentrated in his own person. It was no longer the
Porte that decided, but the Seraglio, and the sultan's private secretary
had more influence on the policy of the Ottoman empire than the grand
vizier.
This omnipotence of the sultan in deciding the policy of the government
was in striking contrast with his impotence in enforcing his views on
his subjects and in his relations with foreign powers. Mahmud, in spite
of--or rather because of--his well-meant efforts at reform, was hated by
his Mussulman subjects and stigmatized as an "infidel" and a traitor to
Islam. He was, in fact, a victim to those "half-measures" which
Machiavelli condemns as fatal to success. Ibrahim, the conqueror of
Syria, scoffed at the sultan's idea "that reform consisted in putting
his soldiers into tight trousers and epaulettes." The criticism is not
entirely unjust. Mahmud's policy was the converse of that recommended by
Machiavelli, viz. in making a revolution to change the substance while
preserving the semblance of the old order. Metternich's advice to Mahmud
to "remain a Turk" was sound enough. His failure to do so--in
externals--left him isolated in his empire: _rayahs_ and true believers
alike distrusted and hated him. Of this hatred he was fully conscious;
he knew that his subjects, even many of his own ministers, regarded
Mehemet Ali as the champion of Islam against the "infidel sultan;" he
suspected the pasha, already master of the sacred cities, of an
intention to proclaim himself caliph in his stead. This, together with
the weakness due to military reforms but recently begun, drove him to
rely on foreign aid; which, in the actual conditions of Europe, meant
the aid of Russia. The long tradition of French friendship for Turkey
had been broken, in 1830, by the conquest of Algiers. Austria was, for
the time, but the faithful ally of the tsar. On the 9th of August 1832
Mahmud made, through Stratford Canning, a formal proposal for an
alliance with Great Britain, which Palmerston refused to consider for
fear of offending France. Mahmud bitterly contrasted the fair
professions of England with the offers of effective help from Russia.
His old ally having deserted him, he accepted the aid of his hereditary
foe. The Russian expedition to the Bosporus, the convention of Kutaiah,
and the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi (July 8, 1833) followed. Mahmud was
under no illusion as to the position in which the latter placed him
towards Russia; but his fear of Mehemet Ali and his desire to be
revenged upon him outweighed all other considerations. He resented the
action of France and England in forcing the settlement of Kutaiah upon
him, and remained shut up in his palace, inaccessible to all save his
favourites and the representative of Russia. With his single aim in view
he busied himself with the creation of a national militia, with the aid
of Moltke and other German officers. In 1834 the revolt of Syria against
Ibrahim seemed to give him his opportunity. He pleaded the duty of a
sultan to go to the aid of his subjects when oppressed by one of his
servants; but the powers were obdurate, even Russia, much occupied in
affairs nearer home, leaving him in the lurch. He was astute enough to
take advantage of the offence given to the powers by Mehemet Ali's
system of monopolies, and in 1838 signed with Great Britain, and
afterwards with others, a commercial treaty which cut at the root of the
pasha's system. A few months later his passionate impatience overcame
his policy and his fears. The hand of death was upon him, and he felt
that he must strike now or never. In vain the powers, now united in
their views, warned him of the probable consequences of any aggressive
action on his part. He would rather die, he exclaimed, or become the
slave of Russia, than not destroy his rebellious vassal. On his sole
initiative, without consulting his ministers or the council of the
empire, he sent instructions to Hafiz Pasha, commanding the Ottoman
troops concentrated at Bir on the Euphrates, to advance into Syria. The
fatal outcome of the campaign that followed he did not live to hear.
When the news of Ibrahim's overwhelming victory at Nessib (June 24,
1839) reached Constantinople, Mahmud lay dying and unconscious. Early in
the morning of the 1st of July his proud and passionate spirit passed
away.
Mahmud II. cannot be reckoned among the great sultans, neither had he
any of the calculating statecraft which characterized Abd-ul-Hamid II.;
but his qualities of mind and heart, none the less, raised him far above
the mass of his predecessors and successors. He was well versed in state
affairs and loyal to those who advised and served him, personally brave,
humane and kindly when not maddened by passion, active and energetic,
and always a man of his word. Unhappily, however, the taint of the
immemorial corruption of Byzantium had fallen upon him too, and the
avenue to his favour and to political power lay too often through
unspeakable paths. In view of the vast difficulty of the task before him
at his succession it is less surprising that he failed to carry out his
ideas than that he accomplished so much. When he came to the throne the
empire was breaking up from within; one by one he freed the provinces
from the tyrannical rulers who, like Ali of Jannina, were carving out
independent, or quasi-independent, empires within the empire. If he
failed in his wider schemes of reform, this was only one more
illustration of a truth of which other "enlightened" sovereigns besides
himself had experienced the force, namely, that it is impossible to
impose any system, however admirable, from above on a people whose
deepest convictions and prejudices it offends.
There is a great deal of valuable material for the history of Mahmud
and his policy in the unpublished F.O. records (1832-1839), volumes of
correspondence marked _Turkey.--From Sir Stratford Canning.--From Mr.
Mandeville.--From Lord Ponsonby._ See further works mentioned under
TURKEY: _History_; and MEHEMET ALI. (W. A. P.)
MAHMUD NEDIM PASHA (c. 1818-1883), Turkish statesman, was the son of
Nejib Pasha, ex-governor-general of Bagdad. After occupying various
subordinate posts at the Porte he became successively under-secretary of
state for foreign affairs, governor-general of Syria and Smyrna,
minister of commerce, and governor-general of Tripoli; minister
successively of justice and of marine (1869); grand vizier from 1871 to
1872 and from 1875 to 1876. He was high in favour with Sultan
Abd-ul-Aziz and fell much under the influence of General Ignatiev, the
forceful Russian ambassador before the war of 1877-78, his subserviency
to Russia earning for him the nickname of "Mahmudoff." His
administration was most unsuccessful from every point of view, and he
was largely responsible for the issue of the decree suspending the
interest on the Turkish funds. He was minister of the interior from 1879
to 1883.
MAHMUD[1] OF GHAZNI (971-1030), son of Sabuktagin, Afghan conqueror, was
born on the 2nd of October 971. His fame rests chiefly on his successful
wars, in particular his numerous invasions of India. His military
capacity, inherited from his father, Nasir-ud-din Sabuktagin, was
strengthened by youthful experience in the field. Sabuktagin, a Turki
slave of Alptagin, governor of Khorasan under Abdalmalik I. b. Nuh of
the Samanid dynasty of Bokhara, early brought himself to notice (see
SAMANIDS). He was raised to high office in the state by Alptagin's
successor, Abu Ishak, and in A.H. 366 (A.D. 977), by the choice of the
nobles of Ghazni, he became their ruler. He soon began to make conquests
in the neighbouring countries, and in these wars he was accompanied by
his young son Mahmud. Before he had reached the age of fourteen he
encountered in two expeditions under his father the Indian forces of
Jaipal, raja of Lahore, whom Sabuktagin defeated on the Punjab frontier.
In 994 Mahmud was made governor of Khorasan, with the title of Saif
addaula (ud-daula) ("Sword of the State") by the Samanid Nuh II. Two
years later, his father Sabuktagin died in the neighbourhood of Balkh,
having declared his second son, Ismail, who was then with him, to be his
successor. As soon as Ismail had assumed the sovereignty at Balkh,
Mahmud, who was at Nishapur, addressed him in friendly terms, proposing
a division of the territories held by their father at his death. Ismail
rejected the proposal, and was immediately attacked by Mahmud and
defeated. Retreating to Ghazni, he there yielded, and was imprisoned,
and Mahmud obtained undisputed power as sovereign of Khorasan and Ghazni
(997).
The Ghaznevid dynasty is sometimes reckoned by native historians to
commence with Sabuktagin's conquest of Bost and Kosdar (978). But
Sabuktagin, throughout his reign at Ghazni, continued to acknowledge the
Samanid suzerainty, as did Mahmud also, until the time, soon after
succeeding to his father's dominions, when he received from Qadir,
caliph of Bagdad (see CALIPHATE, C. § 25), a _khilat_ (robe of honour),
with a letter recognizing his sovereignty, and conferring on him the
titles _Yamiin-addaula_ ("Right hand of the State"), and
_Amin-ul-Millat_ ("Guardian of the Faith"). From this time it is the
name of the caliph that is inscribed on Mahmud's coins, together with
his own new titles. Previously the name of the Samanid sovereign, Mansur
II. b. Nuh is given along with his own former title, Saif addaula
Mahmud. The earliest of those of the new form gives his name Mahmud bin
Sabuktagin. Thereafter his father's name does not appear on his coins,
but it is inscribed again on his tomb.
The new honours received from the caliph gave fresh impulse to Mahmud's
zeal on behalf of Islam, and he resolved on an annual expedition against
the idolaters of India. He could not quite carry out this intention, but
a great part of his reign was occupied with his Indian campaigns. In
1000 he started on the first of these expeditions, but it does not
appear that he went farther than the hill country near Peshawar. The
hostile attitude of Khalaf ibn Ahmad, governor of Seistan, called Mahmud
to that province for a short time. He was appeased by Khalaf's speedy
submission, together with the gift of a large sum of money, and further,
it is said, by his subdued opponent addressing him as _sultan_, a title
new at that time, and by which Mahmud continued to be called, though he
did not formally adopt it, or stamp it on his coins. Four years later
Khalaf, incurring Mahmud's displeasure again, was imprisoned, and his
property confiscated.
Mahmud's army first crossed the Indus in 1001, opposed by Jaipal, raja
of Lahore. Jaipal was defeated, and Mahmud, after his return from this
expedition, is said to have taken the distinctive appellation of _Ghazi_
("Valiant for the Faith"), but he is rarely so-called. On the next
occasion (1005) Mahmud advanced, as far as Bhera on the Jhelum, when his
adversary Anang-pal, son and successor of Jaipal, fled to Kashmir. The
following year saw Mahmud at Multan. When he was in the Punjab at this
time, he heard of the invasion of Khorasan by the Ilek Khan Nasr I.
ruler of Transoxiana whose daughter Mahmud had married. After a rapid
march back from India, Mahmud repelled the invaders. The Ilek Khan,
having retreated across the Oxus, returned with reinforcements, and took
up a position a few miles from Balkh, where he was signally defeated by
Mahmud.
Mahmud again entered the Punjab in 1008, this time for the express
purpose of chastising Sewah Pal, who, having become a Mussulman, and
been left by Mahmud in charge of Multan, had relapsed to Hinduism. The
Indian campaign of 1009 was notable. Near the Indus Mahmud was opposed
again by Anang-pal, supported by powerful rajas from other parts of
India. After a severe fight, Anang-pal's elephants were so terror-struck
by the fire-missiles flung amongst them by the invaders that they turned
and fled, the whole army retreating in confusion and leaving Mahmud
master of the field. Mahmud, after this victory, pushed on through the
Punjab to Nagar-kot (Kangra), and carried off much spoil from the Hindu
temples to enrich his treasury at Ghazni. In 1011 Mahmud, after a short
campaign against the Afghans under Mahommed ibn Sur in the hill country
of Ghur, marched again into the Punjab. The next time (1014) he advanced
to Thanesar, another noted stronghold of Hinduism, between the Sutlej
and the Jumna. Having now found his way across all the Punjab rivers, he
was induced on two subsequent occasions to go still farther. But first
he designed an invasion of Kashmir (1015), which was not carried out, as
his progress was checked at Loh-kot, a strong hill fort in the
north-west of the Punjab. Then before undertaking his longer inroad into
Hindustan he had to march north into Khwarizm (Khiva) against his
brother-in-law Mamun, who had refused to acknowledge Mahmud's supremacy.
The result was as usual, and Mahmud, having committed Khwarizm to a new
ruler, one of Mamun's chief officers, returned to his capital. Then in
1018, with a very large force, he proceeded to India again, extending
his inroad this time to the great Hindu cities of Mathra on the Jumna
and Kanauj on the Ganges. He reduced the one, received the submission of
the other, and carried back great stores of plunder. Three years later
he went into India again, marching over nearly the same ground, to the
support, this time, of the raja of Kanauj, who, having made friendship
with the Mahommedan invader on his last visit, had been attacked by the
raja of Kalinjar. But Mahmud found he had not yet sufficiently subdued
the idolaters nearer his own border, between Kabul and the Indus, and
the campaign of 1022 was directed against them, and reached no farther
than Peshawar. Another march into India the following year was made
direct to Gwalior.
The next expedition (1025) is the most famous of all. The point to which
it was directed was the temple of Somnath on the coast of the Gujarat
peninsula. After an arduous journey by Multan, and through part of
Rajputana, he reached Somnath, and met with a very vigorous but
fruitless resistance on the part of the Hindus of Gujarat. Moslem feet
soon trod the courts of the great temple. The chief object of worship it
contained was broken up, and the fragments kept to be carried off to
Ghazni. The story is often told of the hollow figure, cleft by Mahmud's
battle-axe, pouring out great store of costly jewels and gold. But the
idol in this Sivite temple was only a tall block or pillar of hewn
stone, of a familiar kind. The popular legend is a very natural one.
Mahmud, it was well known, made Hindu temples yield up their most
precious things. He was a determined idol-breaker. And the stone block
in this temple was enriched with a crown of jewels, the gifts of wealthy
worshippers. These data readily give the Somnath exploit its more
dramatic form. For the more recent story of the Somnath gates see
SOMNATH.
After the successes at Somnath, Mahmud remained some months in India
before returning to Ghazni. Then in 1026 he crossed the Indus once more
into the Punjab. His brilliant military career closed with an expedition
to Persia, in the third year after this, his last, visit to India. The
Indian campaigns of Mahmud and his father were almost, but not
altogether, unvarying successes. The Moslem historians touch lightly on
reverses. And, although the annals of Rajputana tell how Sabuktagin was
defeated by one raja of Ajmere and Mahmud by his successor, the course
of events which followed shows how little these and other reverses
affected the invader's progress. Mahmud's failure at Ajmere, when the
brave raja Bisal-deo obliged him to raise the siege but was himself
slain, was when the Moslem army was on its way to Somnath. Yet Mahmud's
Indian conquests, striking and important in themselves, were, after all,
in great measure barren, except to the Ghazni treasury. Mahmud retained
no possessions in India under his own direct rule. But after the
repeated defeats, by his father and himself, of two successive rajas of
Lahore, the conqueror assumed the right of nominating the governors of
the Punjab as a dependency of Ghazni, a right which continued to be
exercised by seven of his successors. And for a time, in the reign of
Masa'ud II. (1098-1114), Lahore was the place of residence of the
Ghaznevid sovereign.
Mahmud died at Ghazni in 1030, the year following his expedition to
Persia. He is conspicuous for his military ardour, his ambition, strong
will, perseverance, watchfulness and energy, combined with great courage
and unbounded self-reliance. But his tastes were not exclusively
military. His love of literature brought men of learning to Ghazni, and
his acquaintance with Moslem theology was recognized by the learned
doctors.
The principal histories of Mahmud's reign are--_Kitab-i-Yamini_
(Utbi); _Tarikh-us-Subuktigin_ (Baihaki); _Tabakat i Nasiri_ (Minhaj
el-Siraj); _Rauzat-us-Safa_ (Mir Khond); _Habib-us-Sivar_ (Khondamir).
See Elliot, _History of India_; Elphinstone, _History of India_; and
Roos-Keppel's translation of the _Tarikh-i-Sultan Mahmud-i-Ghaznavi_
(1901).