conspicuous as an administrator and statesman. The organization and
provisioning of his armies in his numerous campaigns were specially
worthy of notice. His soldiers were always well fed and were amply
equipped with guns and armaments. He was also the sole source of
legislation for his Empire. He had supreme power over life and property
of all his subjects. More than any of his predecessors and successors,
he founded mosques, hospitals, colleges, and schools in Constantinople
and other cities of his Empire. He fully recognized the importance of
science in education. He cultivated the society of learned men and
loved to converse with them. He had some reputation as a poet. With all
this, he was notorious for evil and sensual life in a direction which
is held to be infamous and degrading by all peoples. He was not only
himself guilty of fratricide, but he prescribed it as a family law for
his successors. He died at the age of fifty-one, after thirty years
of reign. He had collected a great army for another campaign, but no
one knew what his aims and intentions were, whether for another attack
on Rhodes, or for the invasion of Candia, or to follow up his success
in Calabria. His secret died with him. He was the first Sultan to be
buried at Constantinople, in the famous mosque which he built there. In
spite of his cruelties and perfidies and of his evil life, he has been
held in honour by successive generations of his countrymen, and has
been rightly designated as ‘the Conqueror.’
VIII
BAYEZID II
1481-1512
MAHOMET left two sons, of whom the eldest, Bayezid, succeeded him as
Sultan at the age of thirty-five. Von Hammer and other historians,
who have founded their narratives on his great work, write of Bayezid
in terms of disparagement because, unlike other early Sultans of the
Othman race, he did not signalize his reign by any great additions to
his Empire. If success as a ruler is only to be measured by territorial
expansion, Bayezid must take rank in history below the other nine
Sultans who created the Ottoman Empire and raised it to its zenith.
A great Empire, however, such as that which the Ottomans had already
achieved, may be better served by peace than by war for further
conquests. It would certainly have been well for the Ottomans if no
attempt had ever been made to extend their Empire northwards beyond
the Danube. Bayezid, so far as we can gather his policy from his
actual deeds, was not favourable to expansion of his Empire. If he was
engaged for some years in war with Hungary, Venice, and Egypt, he was
not the aggressor. He came to terms of peace with these Powers when it
was possible to do so. He did not support the army which, under his
predecessor, had invaded Italy and captured Otranto. He recalled the
very able general, Ahmed Keduk, who commanded it. Khaireddin Pasha,
who succeeded in command, after a most gallant defence, was compelled
to capitulate; and never again was Italy invaded by a Turkish army. It
would seem to have been a wise decision on the part of Bayezid not to
pursue further the Italian adventure.
As it is not our intention to write a complete history of the Ottoman
Sultans, but rather to describe the early expansion of their Empire
and its later dismemberment, it will not be necessary to devote more
than a very few pages to the comparatively uneventful reign of Bayezid.
It may be well, however, briefly to note that he was of philosophic
temperament, very austere in religion, and without his father’s vices.
Like many of his race he was devoted to literary studies, and he had
a reputation as a poet. He was not wanting in energy and valour when
occasion required. He was, however, the first of his race who did not
habitually lead his armies into the field.
His younger brother Djem, who at the death of Mahomet was only
twenty-two years of age, was a much more fiery, valorous, and ambitious
soldier, and of more attractive personality. He was of a romantic
disposition, and had a much greater reputation than Bayezid as a poet.
His poems rank high in Turkish literature. His strange adventures and
sad fate form one of the romances of Turkish history, which might
well fill many chapters. It must suffice to record of him that, like
other brothers of Sultans who were not at once put to death at the
commencement of a new reign, he took up arms and claimed the throne
against Bayezid. The latter fortunately was the first to arrive at
Constantinople after the death of Mahomet. He there obtained the
support of the Janissaries, not without large presents to them. With
the aid of Ahmed Keduk, Bayezid, after vain efforts to come to terms
with his brother, was successful in putting down two rebellions of
a formidable character on behalf of Djem. After the second defeat
Djem fled to Egypt, and thence, after many adventures, found his way
to the island of Rhodes, where he claimed the hospitality of the
Knights of Jerusalem. Their Grand Master, D’Aubusson, who had made
such a gallant defence of the island against Mahomet, and who was
a most brave warrior, was also a crafty and perfidious intriguer.
On the one hand, he induced Prince Djem to enter into a treaty, by
which very important concessions were promised to the knights in the
event of Djem being able to gain the Ottoman throne. On the other
hand, D’Aubusson negotiated a treaty with Bayezid under which he was
to receive an allowance of 45,000 ducats a year, nominally for the
maintenance of Djem, but really as an inducement to prevent the escape
of that prince from Rhodes. On the strength of this, the unfortunate
prince was detained as a virtual prisoner in Rhodes, and later in a
castle at Sasesnage, in France, belonging to the order of the Knights,
for not less than seven years. At the end of this time the King of
France, Charles VIII, intervened in favour of the prince, and got him
transferred into the keeping of the Pope at Rome. The Pope Callixtus
was also not above making a good profit out of Djem. He came to terms
with Sultan Bayezid under which he was to pocket the 45,000 ducats a
year so long as Djem was kept out of mischief. On the death, some years
later, of this Pope, his successor, Pope Alexander Borgia, of infamous
memory, renewed the treaty with Sultan Bayezid, with the addition
of a clause that he was to receive a lump sum of 300,000 ducats if
Prince Djem, instead of being detained as prisoner, was put to death.
After a short interval the Pope, fearing the intervention of the King
of France, on behalf of Djem, and wishing to pocket the lump sum,
contrived the death by poison of the prince. The menace to the Sultan
was thus at last removed, and his Empire was spared another civil war,
at a cost which by the ethics of the day was no doubt fully justified.
Of other incidents in Bayezid’s reign it is only necessary to
state that the most important of his achievements was the complete
subjection, in the second year of his reign, of Herzegovina, which
had been a tributary State under his predecessors, but was now again
invaded. It was finally incorporated as a province of the Empire. There
were also many years of desultory war with Hungary, in which frequent
raids were made by the two Powers upon one another’s territories, and
where each vied with the other in atrocious cruelties. Everywhere
children were impaled, young women were violated in presence of their
parents, wives in presence of their husbands, and thousands of captives
were carried off and sold into slavery. But there were no other
results, and peace was eventually established between the two Powers.
In Asia there was war for five years with the Mameluke government
of Egypt and Syria. The Mamelukes had sent an army in support of
an insurrection in Karamania. The outbreak was put down, and the
Karamanians were finally subjected, but the Mamelukes defeated the
Turkish armies in three great battles. Peace was eventually made, but
only on concession by the Turks of three important fortresses in Asia
Minor.
There was also war with the Republic of Venice, in the course of
which the Turks succeeded in capturing the three remaining Venetian
fortresses in the Morea—Navarino, Modon, and Coron—an important success
which extinguished the influence of Venice on the coasts of Greece.
The success was largely due to a great increase of the Turkish navy,
which in Mahomet’s reign had achieved a supremacy in the Mediterranean
over any other single naval Power. It now defeated the Venetian fleet
in a desperate battle off Lepanto in 1499, and met on equal terms the
combined fleets of Venice, Austria, and the Pope in 1500. It also went
farther afield, and at the entreaty of the Moors of Grenada, who were
severely pressed by the Christian army in Spain, ravaged the coasts of
that country.
The last two years of Bayezid’s fairly prosperous reign were obscured
by another civil war, this time at the instance of his son and
successor, Selim. Selim was the youngest of three surviving sons of
Bayezid. All three had been invested with important posts as governors
of provinces in Asia. Ahmed, the second of them, was the favourite
of his father, who designated him for succession to the throne. But
Selim was by far the ablest and most daring of them. He determined
to anticipate the death of his father, who was ageing and in feeble
health, by securing the throne for himself. Leaving his seat of
government with a large suite, almost amounting to an army, he paid a
visit, uninvited, to his father at Constantinople, and there fomented
intrigues. He was the idol of the Janissaries, who were dissatisfied
with the long inaction of Sultan Bayezid, and hoped for new conquests
and loot under Selim. Bayezid, however, was supported for the time by
a section of his army, and succeeded in defeating his son. Selim then
fled to the Crimea, where he raised a new army and, later, again made
his way to Constantinople by a forced march round the north of the
Black Sea. On arriving there he was supported by the full force of the
Turkish army.
The Janissaries, at the instance of Selim, stormed at the gates of the
imperial palace and insisted on the Sultan receiving them in person.
Bayezid gave way and admitted a deputation of them to an audience.
Seated on his throne, he asked them what they wanted. “Our Padishah,”
they said, “is old and sickly; we will that Selim shall be Sultan.”
Bayezid, finding that he could not rely on any section of his army,
submitted. “I abdicate,” he said, “in favour of my son, Selim. May
God grant him a prosperous reign.” He only asked as a favour that he
might be allowed to retire to the city of Asia Minor where he was
born. His son thereupon conducted his father, the ex-Sultan, to the
outskirts of the city with every mark of respect, and Bayezid departed
on his journey. He died, however, three days later, not without grave
suspicion of foul play. The deposition of Bayezid is interesting and
important as showing the increasing power of the Janissaries. Only the
strongest Sultan could thenceforth cope with them, and they became
eventually one of the main causes of the decay of the Empire which they
had done so much to call into existence.
Bayezid, like others of his race, in spite of his philosophic
temperament and his love of ease, had a vein of cruelty. It has been
shown that he caused his brother Djem to be poisoned. This was in
accord with the family law. A more serious instance was that he put to
death his great general, Ahmed Keduk, to whom he was deeply indebted
for success in putting down the insurrection of Djem. Ahmed had deeply
offended the Sultan by brusquely opposing his peaceful policy, and
Bayezid forcibly removed the incautious critic.
The net result to the Turkish Empire of the thirty-one years of
Bayezid’s reign was, on the one hand, the incorporation of Herzegovina,
and the expulsion of the Venetians from the Morea; on the other, the
loss of three fortresses in Asia Minor to the Mamelukes of Egypt and
the withdrawal from the South of Italy.
An incident worth recording was the first appearance of Russia in the
field of Turkish diplomacy. An ambassador was sent to Bayezid by Czar
Ivan III. He was instructed to refuse to bow his knee to the Sultan or
to concede precedence to any other ambassadors. Bayezid meekly gave
way on these points of etiquette. This was a presage of the attitude
of Russia which two centuries later threatened the existence of the
Turkish Empire.
IX
SELIM I
1512-20
ON the forced abdication of Bayezid, Selim was proclaimed Sultan at
Constantinople, with the full support of the Janissaries. He reigned
for only eight years, but he succeeded in this short time in more
than doubling the extent of the Ottoman Empire. He made no additions
to it in Europe, but he conquered and annexed the great provinces of
Diarbekir and Khurdistan from Persia, and Egypt, Syria, and a great
part of Arabia, including the holy cities, from the Mameluke government
of Egypt. He commenced this career of war and conquest at the ripe age
of forty-seven. He proved to be a ruler and general of indomitable
will and vigour, the exact opposite to his father in his greed for
expansion of his Empire. He was a most able administrator. He cared
little for his harem or other pleasures of life. Sleeping but little,
he spent his nights in literary studies. He delighted in theological
discussions and in the society of learned men, and he appointed them to
high offices in the State. They had no effect, however, in softening
his evil nature. He had no regard for human life, whether in war or
in peace. He was attended by men called mutes, who were ready at any
moment to strangle or decapitate on the spot any person designated by
him. His most trusted counsellors, his oldest friends and associates,
were in constant danger of life. He met argument or protest against
his schemes, or criticism of his past actions, by instant death, not
unfrequently by his own hand. During his short reign seven of his
Grand Viziers were decapitated by his orders. Numerous other officials
and generals shared the same fate. They seldom enjoyed the sweets of
office for more than a few months. One of them, in playful reminder
of this to Selim, asked to be given a short notice of his doom, so
that he might put his private affairs in order. The Sultan replied
to him: “I have been thinking for some time of having thee killed,
but I have at present no one to fill thy place, otherwise I would
willingly oblige thee.” Judges convicted of corruption were dealt with
in the same way. By a malicious irony they were compelled to pass
sentence on themselves, before being handed over to the executioner.
Janissaries who dared to ask for an increase of pay were also condemned
to death. The first recorded act of Selim’s reign was to strike dead
with his own sword a Janissary who was deputed by the corps to ask
for the accustomed presents on his accession. It does not appear that
these events cast gloom on Selim’s Court. They soon lost the sense of
novelty. There were plenty of applicants for the vacant posts, willing
and eager to run the risks of office. Selim was agreeable in his
conversation and life was gay. He did not indulge in refinements of
cruelty like his grandfather Mahomet. He acted from a sense of public
duty. If he spilled much blood, he restored and maintained discipline
in the army and stemmed the course of corruption. He was distinctly
popular with his subjects, with whom, as in most Eastern countries,
affection was in part inspired by terror.
As was to be expected, Selim’s two elder brothers, Khorkand and Ahmed,
whose claims to the Sultanate had been set aside, and who were at the
head of important governments in Asia Minor, took up arms against him.
Selim, without loss of a moment, led an army to Brusa against them.
Khorkand, taken unawares, was quickly defeated. He was allowed an
hour’s respite before being bow-strung. During this short interval he
wrote a poem deprecating his brother’s cruelty. Selim wept over the
poem and ordered a State funeral for his brother. At Brusa a horrible
scene of slaughter took place. Five nephews of Selim—possible claimants
to the throne—were collected there. They were of varying ages, from
five to twenty. They were all strangled by order of the Sultan—the
eldest of them resisting with terrible struggles, the youngest with
plaintive cries for mercy, while Selim from an adjoining room was a
witness of the scene, and urged his mutes to hasten their task. Ahmed,
the second and favourite son of Bayezid, made a longer resistance in
the field, but a few months later he was defeated and put to death.
Selim, now safe on his throne, turned his attention to war with Persia.
The principal cause of conflict arose out of a dispute on religion.
From an early time the Mahommedan world had been divided into two
hostile sects—the Sunnites and the Schiis. The point of difference was
whether authority should be attributed to the writings of the four
immediate descendants of the Prophet, as the Schiis contended, or
whether the words of the Prophet alone should be conclusive on matters
of dogma. It would seem that the smaller the difference in dogma
between two sects of a religious body, the worse they hate one another;
and just as the Christians of the Greek and Latin Churches hated one
another more than they hated the followers of Mahomet, so the Sunnites
and the Schiis hated one another to the point that they were each bent
on exterminating the other—though the difference between them might
seem to outsiders to be no greater than that between Tweedledum and
Tweedledee.
Persia was the headquarters of the Schiis. In the Ottoman Empire the
Sunnites greatly prevailed. But of late years the Schiis had gained
ground in Asia Minor. Selim, who was a bigoted follower of Mahomet,
determined to extirpate this heresy throughout his Empire. With
devilish zeal he employed an army of spies to ferret out the heretics,
and on a given day seventy thousand of them were arrested. Forty
thousand of them were put to death, and the remainder were condemned
to terms of imprisonment. This violent action does not seem to have
aroused any popular indignation against Selim. It earned for him in
Turkey the title of ‘the Just,’ and diplomats of the day and historians
wrote of it in laudatory terms. It was a proof of the possibility of
extirpating a heresy if the means adopted were ruthlessly carried out.
The Schii heresy was extinguished, once for all, in the Ottoman Empire.
This exploit, however, added to the animosity already existing between
the Persians and the Ottomans, and made war between them inevitable.
The immediate clash was hastened by the Persians giving asylum to
Murad, a son of Ahmed, who had not been included in the slaughter of
his cousins at Brusa.
Persia, at this time, was under the rule of Shah Ismail, a most
capable and successful ruler, who had renovated the kingdom, and added
largely to it by the conquest and subjection of many minor adjoining
States. The two potentates were well matched in vigour and ability.
When war with Persia was propounded by Selim in his council, there
was ominous silence. There was evidently fear of the undertaking. The
Janissary guarding the entrance to the chamber broke down the suspense
by throwing himself on his knees before Selim and expressing ardent
support to the war. This precipitated a decision by the council, and
the Janissary was at once promoted to high office.
Early in March, 1514, a hundred and forty thousand men and three
hundred guns were collected on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, under
command of the Sultan. Sixty thousand camels were provided to carry its
baggage and munitions. The army commenced its march on April 20th. Its
aim was Tabriz, then the capital of Persia, distant from Scutari, as
the crow flies, by over one thousand miles of a mountainous country, in
which there were no roads. The main difficulty was the supply of the
army with food for men, horses, and camels. This was partly effected
from Trebizond, to which the command of the Black Sea enabled Selim to
send supplies from Constantinople.
Selim preluded his campaign by an insolent letter to Shah Ismail. In
the course of it he said:—
It is only by the practice of the true religion that a man will
prosper in this world and deserve eternal life in the world to
come. As for thee, Emir Ismail, such a reward will never be thy
lot; for thou hast deserted the path of salvation and of the holy
commandment; thou hast denied the purity of the doctrine of Islam;
thou hast dishonoured and cast down the altars of God; thou hast by
base stratagem alone raised thyself and sprung from the dust—to a
seat of splendour and glory; thou hast opened to Mussulmans the gate
of tyranny and oppression; thou hast forced iniquity, perjury, and
blasphemy to impiety, heresy, and schism; thou hast, under the cloak
of hypocrisy, sown in all parts the seeds of trouble and sedition;
thou hast raised the standard of ungodliness; thou hast given way
to thy shameful passions and abandoned thyself without restraint
to the most disgraceful excesses.... Therefore, as the first duty
of a Mussulman, and above all of a pious prince, is to obey the
commandment, “Oh ye faithful who believe, perform ye the decrees of
the Lord”—the ulemas and our teachers of the law have pronounced
death against thee, perjurer and blasphemer as thou art, and have
laid upon every good Mussulman the sacred duty of taking arms for the
defence of religion and for the destruction of heresy and impiety, in
thy person and the persons of those who follow thee.
On the approach of Selim and his army to the frontier of Persia, Shah
Ismail, instead of going out to meet his foe, laid waste the whole
country and retreated towards his capital. This greatly increased
the difficulty Selim had of supplying his army. The soldiers were
exhausted by the long march. The Janissaries began to murmur. One of
the generals, Hemdar Pasha, who had been brought up with Selim from
his earliest childhood, and might be expected to have great influence
with him, was persuaded by his brother officers to remonstrate with the
Sultan against further prosecution of the invasion of Persia, through a
country where every vestige of food was destroyed. The Sultan met the
suggestion by ordering the instant decapitation of the pasha.
Selim endeavoured to provoke Ismail to meet him in battle by another
insolent letter, written mainly in verse, taunting him with cowardice.
“One who, by perjury,” he wrote, “seizes sceptres, ought not to skulk
from danger.... Dominion is a bride to be wooed and won by him only
whose lip blanches not at the biting kiss of the sabre’s edge.” Ismail
replied in a dignified letter denying the existence of any reason
for war, and expressing willingness to resume peaceful relations.
He suggested that Selim’s letter, written in a style so unfitting
the dignity of the Sultan, must have been the hasty production of a
secretary, who had taken an overdose of opium. The taunt was a bitter
one, for it was well known that Selim was addicted to opium. The letter
was accompanied by the present of a box of opium to the supposed
secretary.
Meanwhile Selim and his army marched on with ever-increasing
difficulties of supplies. The soldiers at last broke out in open revolt
and demanded to be led back to their homes. Selim took the bold course
of riding into the midst of them and addressing them personally.
Is this [he said] your service to your Sultan? Does your loyalty
consist of mere boast and lip worship? Let those among you who wish
to go stand out from the ranks and depart. As for me, I have not
advanced thus far merely to double back on my track. Let the cowards
instantly stand aloof from the brave who have devoted themselves with
sword and quiver, soul and hand to our enterprise.
He gave word of command to form columns and march, and not a single man
dared to leave the ranks.