to that on which the city is built, and called for that reason by the
Greeks _pera_, because it stood on the “other side,” or beyond the
harbour. The extreme point of this peninsula, and just opposite the
ancient Byzantium, was called Galata, for, as some say, it was the
“milk market” of the Greeks, and it was assigned to these merchants,
as the most convenient site for their imports, having the Bosphorus on
one side to receive them, and the harbour on the other to distribute
them through the city. In process of time their town increased, and,
in consequence of some attempt made by their rivals, the Venetians,
they were permitted by the Greek emperor, Cantacuzene, to surround
the city with a wall having turrets and battlements. It ran from sea
to sea, shutting up this little enterprising community in a secure
asylum, and still continues in a very perfect state. They were also
allowed to use their own form of government, to elect their podesta,
or chief magistrate, and to practise the forms and discipline of their
own worship. Thus the mart of a few fishermen assumed the port and
bearing of a considerable city. Though their independent estate has
been abolished by the absorbing despotism of the Turks, they have left
behind them another memorial of their consequence, beside the walls of
their city: they introduced the Italian language into the East, and
it is that Frank tongue that is now most universally spoken by all
classes. The most respectable portion of the present inhabitants are
the descendants of those merchants, and they are selected as dragomans,
or interpreters, by the several European embassies.
But a new power was now preparing to overrun and astonish the world,
not by the sudden and transitory inroad of a barbarous multitude,
carrying with it the destruction of an inundation, and, like it,
passing on, and remembered only by the ravages it left behind; this
was a permanent invasion of a stubborn and persevering race, destined
to obliterate the usages of former ancient people, and establish, in
their place, its own. On the banks of the Oxus, beyond the waters of
the Caspian Sea, there dwelt a nomadic people engaged only in the care
of their flocks and herds, and for that reason called Turks, from their
rude and rustic habits. They had embraced the _Islam_, or true faith
of Mohammed, and changed the appellation of Turks, which was a term
of reproach, to Moslemûna, or “the resigned.”[1] From their remote
obscurity in the centre of Asia, they issued, to carry the desolation
of Islamism into the Christian world.
The first of this race who penetrated into the Greek possessions in
Asia Minor was Othman. He seized upon the passes of Mount Olympus, and
instead of razing, he strengthened all the fortified places behind him.
His son Orchan conquered all the Christian cities established there,
and finally made himself master of Brusa, the capital of Bythinia,
which became the seat of the Turkish empire in Asia. The Seven Churches
of the Apocalypse shared the same fate. Those lights of the world,
swarming with a Christian people, were reduced to small villages, with
a few Moslem inhabitants; even Ephesus, the great emporium of Asia,
celebrated for its noble temple, had “its candlestick so removed,”
that the village of Aysilûk (its modern name) now consists of a few
cottages among its ruins, and contains a Christian population of only
_three_ individuals. Philadelphia was the only city that made an
effectual resistance: though remote from the sea, and abandoned by the
feeble Greek emperors, it maintained its Christian independence for
eighty years, against the Moslem invaders. From the fame of this first
conqueror, his race adopted the patronymic as their civil designation,
and called themselves, ever after, Osmanli, or “the children of Othman.”
The first passage of the Turks into Europe was attended with a romantic
adventure. Soliman, the son of Orchan, was engaged in a hunting
excursion, and was led by the chase to the shores of the Hellespont.
An insatiable curiosity induced him to wish to cross to the other
side, and visit, for the first time, this new quarter of the globe.
But the terror of the Turkish name had so alarmed the Greeks, that
strict orders were issued, under the severest penalties, to remove
every conveyance by which they could pass from the opposite shore into
Europe. Under these circumstances, Soliman formed a raft of inflated
ox-bladders, and, availing himself of a moonlight night, he floated
over with some of his companions. When they landed, they seized on a
passing peasant, who happened to be acquainted with a subterranean
entrance into the town of Sestos. He was induced, by threats and
bribes, to point it out, and so a few energetic Turks seized by
surprise on this first European city. By this exploit a communication
was at once established with their companions in Asia. Fresh succours
crossed over and seized on Gallipoli, and thus the Turk first planted
his foot in Europe.
Amurath availed himself of all the benefits of his brother’s
adventurous enterprise. He appointed a singular custom at Gallipoli.
The marauding Turks, now established on the European side of the
Bosphorus, made slaves of all the Christians they could seize on, and
sent them over to Asia by this passage. Amurath claimed for his share a
certain portion as toll. Of the young males so obtained, he formed that
tremendous militia that were afterwards to terrify and control their
own country. He caused them to undergo the rite, and be instructed
in the doctrines and discipline, of his own prophet. A Dervish named
Hadgee Bectash, of great sanctity and influence, was then called in,
to give this corps his benediction. Laying his hand on the head of the
foremost, the sleeve of his coat fell over his back, and he blessed
them by the name of _yeni cheri_, or “new soldiers.” Both circumstances
afterwards distinguished them−-the sleeve of the dervish was adopted
as part of their uniform, and the name of janissary, corrupted from
yeni cheri, was the terror of Europe for more than five centuries.
With these young and vigorous apostates to Islamism, he subdued all
the country to the base of the Balkan mountains, and having obtained
possession of Roumeli, the “country of the Romans,” as the territory
of the modern Greeks was called, he finally established himself at
Adrianople, which now became the Turkish capital of Europe.
This prince was succeeded by Bajazet, called, from his impetuosity,
and the awful destructiveness of his career, _Ilderim_, or “the
thunderbolt.” He extended his conquests into the heart of Europe,
penetrated into the centre of Hungary, and threatened to proceed from
thence to Rome, to feed his horses with oats on the altar of St. Peter;
but first he resolved to possess himself of the Christian capital
of the East. To this end he advanced against Constantinople, and for
ten years pressed it with a close siege. Its fate, however, was yet
delayed by the sudden appearance of another extraordinary power, which,
having subdued the remote parts of the East, and left nothing there
unconquered, in the restlessness of ambition turned itself to the west
in search of new enemies. This was the power of the Tartars, led on by
_Demur beg_, or “the Iron Prince.”[2] To oppose this new enemy, the
siege of Constantinople was raised, and its fate suspended while the
legions of barbarians encountered one another, and the Thunderbolt
was to resist the Man of Iron. The battle was fought on the plain of
Angora, where Pompey had defeated Mithridates. After a conflict of
two days, the Turks were totally routed. Bajazet fell into the hands
of the conqueror, and the treatment he experienced was such as one
execrable tyrant might expect, or a still more execrable might inflict.
He whose custom it was to celebrate his massacres by pyramids of human
heads, erected at the gates of every city he conquered, would not
hesitate to treat the rival whom he hated, and had subdued, without
pity or remorse. He enclosed his captive in a cage, like a wild beast
exposed to public view, and, as he was lame, made him and his cage a
footstool to mount his horse. The end of Bajazet corresponded with
his life; impatient of control, and stung with desperation, he beat
out his brains against the bars of his prison. Tamerlane possessed
one redeeming quality, which distinguished him, in some measure, from
his fellow-barbarians. He entertained no hostility to Christianity:
on the contrary, he allowed a temple, dedicated to its worship, to be
erected in Samarcand, his capital. He did not follow up his conquest by
renewing the siege of Constantinople; so that this Christian capital,
by his interference, was spared for half a century longer.
But the time at length arrived, when the man was born who was permitted
by Providence to inflict this destruction. This was Mahomet II.,
endued with such opposite and contradictory qualities, that he may
be esteemed a monster in the human race. He was the second son of
Amurath II., by a Christian princess; his father had imbibed so deep
an enmity to Christianity, that he brought his son, like Hannibal’s,
to the altar, and made him vow eternal hostility to its professors. He
succeeded to the throne at the age of twenty-one, and his first acts
were to strangle all his brothers, to the number of twenty-two, and
to cast into the sea all the wives of his father who might be likely
to give birth to posthumous offspring. The progress of his reign was
in conformity to this commencement. His fixed and never interrupted
intention was, to possess himself of Constantinople, and to convert the
great capital of the Christian world into the chief seat of Islamism,
and there was no effort of force or fraud which he did not use to
accomplish it.
He is represented, by historians, as starting from his sleep, excited
by dreams of conquering the city, and as passing his days in devising
means for its accomplishment. Among others, he caused to be cast, at
Adrianople, those enormous pieces of battering cannon, capable of
projecting balls of 800 pounds weight, which have been the wonder and
terror of future ages. They still lie at the fortresses which line the
Dardanelles; and the English fleet, under Admiral Duckworth, in modern
times, experienced their tremendous efficacy.
The Greek empire, at this time, was confined to a limited space. The
emperor Athanasius had, some years before, betrayed his weakness by
his apprehension. A rude and fierce people from the shores of the
Volga, and thence called Bolgarians, had crossed the Balkan mountains,
and carried their inroads to the walls of the city. As a protection
against their incursions, a wall was commenced at Derkon on the Euxine,
and continued across the peninsula to Heraclea, on the Propontis,
enclosing an area of about 140 miles in circumference, called “the
Delta of Thrace,” and beyond which the feeble Byzantine power could
hardly be said to extend. The Turks trampled it down, and, to cut off
all communication by sea, seized upon and rebuilt the castles of the
Bosphorus, and then beleaguered the city with an army of 200,000 men.
Where were now the fanatics of the Cross, to uphold it in its utmost
need? they were applied to, and they affected to sympathize with their
brethren in the East; but not one came to support this great bulwark of
that faith, which the Osmanli had every where suppressed, to establish
the intolerant creed of the Koran. The sovereign pontiff had predicted
the fall of the heretic Eastern church, and withheld his aid till his
predictions were accomplished. The whole force, therefore, to defend
the walls, a circuit of twelve miles, and oppose the countless numbers
that surrounded them, was 8000 men.
The invincible courage of this handful of Christians repulsed the Turks
in all their fierce assaults. The fortifications on the land-side were
formed of a double wall, with an interval between. In vain did the
enormous artillery of Mahomet batter large breaches in the outside;
there was still another, to which the defenders retired, and from which
they could not be dislodged; and after fruitless attempts to penetrate
this last retreat, Mahomet was about to abandon the siege in despair,
when he thought of an expedient as incredible as apparently hopeless.
The city had been defended on the sea-side by a series of iron chains,
drawn across the mouth of the harbour, which effectually excluded the
Turkish fleet. He now conceived the idea of conveying his ships by
land, from the Bosphorus, across the peninsula; and this he effected.
Having prepared every thing, as soon as it was dark his machinery was
laid−-the ships were hauled up the valley of Dolma-Bactché and across
the ridge which separated it from the harbour; and the next morning the
astonished Greeks, instead of their own, beheld the Turkish fleet under
their walls. A general assault was now commenced on all sides, the good
and gallant Palæologus, the last and best of the Greek emperors, was
killed in one of the breaches, and the Turks poured in over his body.
The Greeks now rushed in despair to the church of Saint Sophia. They
were here assured that an angel would descend from heaven with a sword,
and expel their enemies from the city, and they waited for the promised
deliverance; but the Turks, armed with axes, battered down the outer
gates, and rushed in among the infatuated multitude. The city was given
up to plunder, and those who escaped the carnage were sold as slaves.
Among them were 60,000 of the first families−-females distinguished
for their beauty and accomplishments, and men eminent for their rank
and literary attainments. Poets, historians, philosophers, and artists,
all were reduced to a common level, and sold as slaves, to hew wood
and draw water for the rude and brutal barbarians who bought them.
Such was the end of the great Christian empire of the East, which
was extinguished by the downfall of Constantinople, after it had
flourished, from its first dedication to Christ, 1123 years. It was
founded in May 330, and it terminated in May, 1453. The feebleness of
its government, the vices of its emperors, and the weak superstition of
its people, were natural causes to accelerate its fall, and induce us
the less to regret it; while, by the arrangements of a good providence,
the lights of literature, the arts and sciences which improve social
life, and the gentle courtesies which endear us to our kind, hitherto
shut up exclusively in this city, were now diffused over a wider
sphere; and the fugitives that escaped, and the slaves that were sold,
brought with them those qualities into various countries, and so were
instruments which, no doubt, tended to improve and ameliorate society
wherever they were scattered.
When Mahomet had thus obtained the full fruition of his wishes, he
speedily gave a greater latitude to that selfish cruelty, and disregard
for human life, which had always distinguished him. Some acts of this
kind are recorded of him, from which the ordinary feelings of our
nature revolt as altogether incredible. He was particularly fond of
melons, and cultivated them with his own hand. He missed one, and in
vain attempted to discover who took it. There was a certain number of
youths, educated as pages, within the walls of the seraglio, called
_Ichoglans_, and his suspicion fell on them; he ordered fourteen of
them to be seized, and their stomachs to be ripped up in his presence,
to discover the offender. But his treatment of the woman he loved, has
no parallel in the history of human cruelty. He had attached himself
to Irené, a Greek, as beautiful and accomplished as she was good and
amiable; she softened his rude nature, and controlled his ferocity:
and such was the ascendancy she had gained over him, that he desisted
from many intended acts of brutal inhumanity, through the gentle
influence he suffered her to exercise. His attachment was so strong,
that the Janissaries began to murmur. To silence their clamour, he
assembled them together, and caused Irené to be brought forth on the
steps of the palace; he then unveiled her face. Even those rude and
unpitying soldiers could not contain their admiration: the loveliness
of her features and the sweetness of their expression at once disarmed
their resentment, and they murmured approbation and applause. Mahomet
immediately drew his sabre, and severing her head from her body,
cast it among them.−-He himself died of an attack of cholera in his
fifty-third year, having reigned thirty. He it was who changed the name
of _Sultan_, by which the sovereigns of his nation had been hitherto
distinguished, into that of _Padischah_, which is a prouder title, and
which the Turks confer on their own sovereign exclusively at this day;
the appellation of the city was also altered to that of _Stambool_, or
_Istambol_, by which the Orientals now distinguish it.[3]
Selim I. began his reign in 1512, and it was distinguished by some
remarkable events. He is represented, by the historian Chalcocondyles,
as exhibiting in his countenance a singular display of his predominant
passions−-a cruelty inexorable, an obstinacy invincible, and an
ambition unmeasurable. He had the wrinkled forehead of a Tarquin, the
fearful eye of a Nero, and the livid complexion of a Scythian; and,
to complete the expression of his countenance, his mustaches were
rigid, and drawn up to his ears, so that his head resembled that of a
tiger. Yet he had many great qualities, which distinguish him among the
sultans. He erected the Tersana, or arsenal, on the Golden Horn, and so
was the founder of the Turkish navy. He was an historian, a poet, and,
contrary to the law of the Prophet, a painter of human figures, and in
this way commemorated his own battles. He added Egypt to the Turkish
dominions. The fierce militia who governed it had been originally
Christian slaves, like his own, and had established a dynasty which
had lasted 200 years; but the Mamelukes now fell before the superior
energies of their brethren the Janissaries. Another accession was
made to his subjects. His hatred to Christianity was extreme, and his
persecution of those who professed it relentless; and on this account
he encouraged the Jews to supply their place at Constantinople. This
people had increased exceedingly in Spain, under the Moors; but, on
the returning power of the Spaniards, they were everywhere expelled
by the inquisition. They set out from Spain, to the number of 800,000
persons, and received that protection from Turks which Christians
would not afford them. They were invited to establish themselves at
Constantinople and the villages on the Bosphorus, where 100,000 were
located, and others in different parts of the empire. Several points of
their belief and practice recommended them to the Mohammedans−-their
strict theology, their abhorrence of swine’s flesh, their rite of
circumcision, were all points of resemblance between them. They called
them Mousaphir, or visitors, and treated them, accordingly, with
kindness and hospitality. They are at this day distinguished as a
people, still speaking the Spanish language in the Turkish capital,
which they brought with them from the country from which they were
expelled.
An attempt was made to destroy Selim by a singular poison: Mustapha
pasha composed a ball of soap with various aromatic ingredients, but
one of so deadly a poison, that, like prussic acid, it was immediately
absorbed by the skin, and destroyed the person to whose face it was
applied; and this was sent to the sultan’s barber, as a precious
invention, to be used when shaving his master. It was accompanied
by a packet enclosed in a case of lead; a precaution which excited
suspicion, and led to discovery. The pasha, barber, and all connected
with them, were strangled, and the sultan escaped. He afterwards died
of a foul cancer, in the eleventh year of his reign, having justly
acquired the name of _Yavuz_, “the Ferocious.” He displayed his
qualification of poet by writing his own epitaph, which is seen upon
his tomb, and describes his “ruling passion, strong in death.”
“The earth I conquered while alive;
In death to combat yet I strive.
Here lies my body, seamed with scars;
My spirit thirsts for future wars.”
Soliman I. (or as he is by some classed II.) is represented as the
greatest prince that ever sat upon the Turkish throne; and he obtained
the name of “the Magnificent,” for the splendour of his achievements.
He commenced his reign in 1520, which lasted forty years; and made
three vows, which he hoped to accomplish before his death: to complete
the hydraulic works of Constantinople−-to erect the finest mosque in
the world−-and to establish the western capital of Islamism at Vienna.
The two first he effected, and nearly succeeded in the last. After
conquering all the countries between the Euxine, Caspian, and Red
seas, he turned his arms to Europe, in order to accomplish his vows,
and penetrated to Vienna, to which he laid siege without success; but
he established a strong garrison at Buda, the capital of Hungary, and
held possession of it, to renew his attempt. In the mean time, his
fleets, united with the piratical states of Barbary, under the banner
of Barbarossa, or “Red Beard,” ravaged the shores of the Mediterranean;
and captive nobles from Spain, the most western country in Europe,
were seen in chains among his slaves at Constantinople. Carrying thus
his conquering arms from the Caspian to the Atlantic, and from the
centre of Europe to the centre of Africa, there was but one little
spot which opposed his plan of universal empire: that spot was the
island of Malta. The crusaders had left this single remnant behind
them, so excellent and noble as to redeem all their other failings.
The knights of St. John had retired from Palestine to Rhodes, and
from thence to Malta; and there they stood, the last barrier and
bulwark of Christianity against the overwhelming torrent of Turkish
dominion. These were now to be exterminated, and their island made the
stepping-stone to establish the religion of the Prophet in the western
world. The siege which Malta sustained on this occasion is the most
gallant and interesting to be found in the records of human actions.
The knights amounted but to 700 men; they organized a force of 8000,
and with this they had to oppose a fleet of 200 sail, carrying an army
of 50,000. After incredible acts of heroism and devotedness, they
compelled the Turks to withdraw the remnant of their forces; and the
first effectual check was given to their hitherto resistless power.