relief of Cyprus. The Turks collected in the Gulf of Lepanto a much
greater fleet of two hundred and ninety galleys manned by a hundred and
twenty thousand soldiers and rowers. But they had no large galleasses
with powerful armaments to compare with those of the Spaniards. The
fleet was commanded by the Capitan Pasha Ali, a young man without
experience in naval war. The second in command was Ouloudj. Perted
Pasha was in command of the troops. He and Ouloudj were opposed to
an immediate battle with the allied fleet on the ground that their
men were not as yet sufficiently trained. At a council of war heated
discussion took place. The Capitan Pasha insisted on immediate attack.
Ouloudj broke off the discussion, saying, “Silence. I am ready, because
it is written that the youth of a Capitan Pasha has more weight than my
forty-three years of fighting. But the Berbers have made sport of you,
Pasha! Remember this when the peril draws near.”
The rowers of both fleets were galley slaves chained to the oars. On
the Turkish fleet they were Christians who had been made captives in
war. On the Christian fleet they were the sweepings of the jails. In
both cases the admirals promised liberty to them if they performed
their duty in the coming battle.
The two fleets met near the entrance to the Gulf of Lepanto on October
7, 1571. The Christian fleet was ranged in a crescent with the
Venetians on the left flank. The six powerful galleasses were posted
like redoubts at intervals in front of the lines of galleys. Don John
was at the centre of the crescent. The two fleets approached one
another. The engagement soon became general. The Turkish galleys as
their enemy neared them, were somewhat broken in line by the Spanish
galleasses, which raked the Turkish galleys with their more powerful
armaments. The Turkish admiral, in the _Sultana_, made a direct attack
on Don John’s ship, the _Real_, which was later supported by a second
galley. The three were locked together, and the Spanish soldiers
boarded the Turkish vessel. A desperate hand-to-hand combat took place,
in which the Turkish admiral was killed. His head was cut off and,
against the will of Don John, was stuck on the masthead of the Spanish
vessel. This caused general discouragement in the Turkish fleet. All
along the line the Turkish vessels were worsted in the combats with
their opponents. There resulted a complete defeat of their centre and
left wing. Ouloudj, in command of the Turkish right wing, was more
fortunate. He succeeded in outmanœuvring the Venetian vessels opposed
to him. He made a violent attack on fifteen galleys which were detached
from the main fleet of the allies and succeeded in sinking them. When
he became aware that the main Ottoman fleet was completely defeated by
the Spaniards, he made a dash with forty of his own galleys through
the enemy’s line and succeeded in escaping. With this exception, the
whole of the Turkish vessels, two hundred and sixty-six in number, were
captured or sunk. Fifty thousand Turks lost their lives in this great
battle, and fifteen thousand Christian slaves were liberated.
It was an overwhelming defeat for the Ottomans. No such naval victory
had occurred in the Mediterranean since that of Actium, very near to
the same spot, where (B.C. 31) Marc Antony’s fleet was destroyed by
that of Octavius. Nor was there another such decisive naval encounter
in those seas till that known as the Battle of the Nile, when Nelson
captured or sank nearly the whole of the French fleet off the coast of
Egypt.
It was to be expected that the allied Christian fleet would follow up
its great victory by attack on some Turkish territory. No such project
was entertained by its admirals and generals. The fleet dispersed after
its victory. Each detachment of it returned to its own ports, there
to receive ovations of triumph. Sculptors and painters celebrated the
event by works of art in churches at Rome, Venice, Messina, and other
cities. Never was so decisive a victory productive of so little further
result.
The contrast between the action of the defeated Turks and that of the
victors was most striking. Ouloudj, picking up forty stray galleys in
the Ægean Sea, returned to Constantinople with eighty vessels. Piale
joined him there with a few more. Sokolli and his colleagues in the
Turkish Government made the most determined efforts to restore their
fleet. Even Selim showed some spirit on this occasion. He contributed
largely from his privy purse. He gave up part of the garden of his
palace at Seraglio Point as a site for the construction of new vessels.
One hundred and sixty galleys were at once commenced, together with
eight galleasses of the largest size. By the spring of the next year
they were completed. The losses at Lepanto were made good and the
Ottoman fleet was as powerful as before the disaster. In the summer
of 1572 the allied Christian fleet was again assembled on the eastern
Mediterranean. It was still inferior in numbers of vessels to that of
the Ottomans. The two fleets came in sight of one another twice in
that season in the neighbourhood of the island of Cerigo and, later,
off Cape Matapan, but no engagement took place. It may be concluded
that Ouloudj, who was now Capitan Pasha of the Turkish navy with the
honorary name of Killidj Ali, thought it the better policy not to risk
his new fleet before the crews were thoroughly trained. He withdrew,
and the sequel showed the wisdom of his action. The allied fleet was
unable to do anything.
Later, in 1573, the Venetians found it expedient to negotiate terms
for a separate peace with the Porte. Their envoy, who appears to have
remained at Constantinople during the late war, interviewed Sokolli for
this purpose. When he alluded to the losses which the two Powers had
recently incurred, the one of the island of Cyprus, the other of its
fleet, Sokolli proudly replied:—
You have doubtless observed our courage after the accident which
happened to our fleet. There is this great difference between our
loss and yours. In capturing a kingdom we have cut off one of your
arms, while you, in destroying our fleet, have merely shorn our
beard. A limb cut off cannot be replaced, but a beard when shorn will
grow again in greater vigour than ever.
Terms of peace were concluded. Not only was the capture of Cyprus
confirmed by a formal cession of the island, but the Republic agreed
to pay to the Porte the cost incurred by its capture, estimated at
300,000 ducats. The tribute paid by Venice for the island of Zante of
500 ducats was increased to 1,500 ducats. The Republic was relieved of
the annual tribute of 8,000 ducats in respect of Cyprus. The limits of
the possessions of the two Powers in Dalmatia and Albania were restored
to what they had been before the war. The terms were humiliating to
Venice; they could not have been worse if the battle of Lepanto had
never been fought.
The rapid restoration of its fleet by the Porte gave fresh evidence
of its vital power and its unsurpassed resources. For a long time to
come the Ottoman navy, supported by the piratical contingents from its
Barbary dependents, held a virtual supremacy in the Mediterranean.
After the conclusion of peace between Venice and the Porte, Don John,
in October 1573, commanded a Spanish fleet in an expedition against
Tunis, which, as above stated, had been captured by Ouloudj on behalf
of the Turks. The task of Don John was the more easy as the Turks
had not succeeded in capturing the citadel, which was still in the
possession of its Spanish garrison. He had no difficulty in defeating
the few Turks who were in possession of the city of Tunis. He showed no
disposition to restore to his throne the Sultan Hamid. This miserable
creature appeared at Tunis and claimed to be reinstated there. But the
Spaniards would have nothing to do with him. He was deported to Naples.
Don John, having effected his object, departed to Spain, leaving at
Tunis a mixed garrison of eight thousand Italians and Spaniards. When
news of this capture reached Constantinople, Sokolli and Ouloudj were
greatly incensed. In 1574 a fleet of two hundred and sixty galleys
and galleasses with forty thousand men was sent out, under command
of Ouloudj, who made short work of the Spanish and Italian garrison
at Tunis, and recaptured the province, and finally annexed it to the
Turkish Empire. This probably could not have been effected if Venice
had remained in alliance with Spain, but alone the latter was not able
to meet the Ottoman fleet in the Mediterranean.
In 1574 Selim died under the influence of drink, and was succeeded by
his son, Murad III, as much a nullity as regards public affairs as his
father. Sokolli remained as Grand Vizier till his death, four years
later, by the hands of an assassin, but with diminishing power, owing
to the intrigues of the Sultan’s harem, which eventually contrived his
end.
In 1578, the last year of Sokolli’s vizierate, war again broke out
with Persia, and a great army was sent to Asia, under command of
Mustapha, the conqueror of Cyprus. It began by invading Georgia, then
under a native Christian prince in close alliance with, if not under
the subjection of, Persia. Mustapha had no difficulty in conquering
Georgia, and in occupying the adjacent Persian provinces of Azerbijan,
Loristan, and Scherhezol. He penetrated to Dhagestan, on the Caspian.
The war was continued under Sokolli’s successors for some years with
varying fortune. It was not till 1590 that a treaty of peace was
concluded with Persia, under which these provinces were ceded to the
Ottoman Empire.
It will be seen from this brief narrative that the acquisitions of the
Ottoman Empire during the twelve years when the Grand Vizier Sokolli
was virtually its ruler were very great and important. They included
the island of Cyprus, the province of Tunis, the kingdom of Georgia,
the provinces taken from Persia, and the Yemen, in Arabia. These, with
one exception, were the last acquisitions of the Ottoman Empire. The
exception was that of the island of Crete, which was not attacked by
the Turks till sixty-seven years later, in 1645, and was not finally
conquered till 1668. But by this time the Ottoman Empire had begun
to shrink at the hands of its enemies in other directions. It may be
concluded, therefore, that the last year of the vizierate of Sokolli,
1578, and not the last year of Solyman’s reign, was the zenith of the
Ottoman Empire.
The Empire was by this time extended from the centre of Hungary in the
north to the Persian Gulf and the Soudan in the south, from the Caspian
Sea and the borders of Persia in the east to the province of Oran
in Africa in the west. It included nearly the whole of the southern
shores of the Mediterranean, except that of Morocco, and all the
shores of the Black Sea and the Red Sea. All the islands of the Ægean
Sea except Crete belonged to it. These territories were inhabited by
twenty different races. Their population has been variously estimated
at thirty millions and upwards. Many of the Greek cities at that time
existing in Asia Minor were still very populous, in spite of the
massacres which had taken place when they were captured by the Turks.
It is probable that the population of Asia Minor, of Syria, and of
Mesopotamia was much larger than it is at the present time. That of
Bulgaria, Greece, and Macedonia was also greater than it was in modern
times before their emancipation from Turkish rule. After the death of
Sokolli there ensued an era when misgovernment and corruption played
havoc with the Empire, and a process of shrinkage began which extended
over three centuries, the exact opposite to its growth in the previous
three centuries.
It should here be noted that although the Sultans were autocrats in
the full sense of the term, there existed in practice some ultimate
check on their misdeeds. The Mufti, as the chief interpreter of the
sacred law of Islam, had the right and power to declare whether any
act of the Sultan, or any proposed act by any other person, was in
accord with or opposed to such law. As the Mufti could be deposed by
the Sultan and then be put to death, this power could be very rarely
used by him. But when outbreaks occurred on the part of the Janissaries
and reached a point when the deposition of the Sultan was demanded,
the Mufti, as a rule, was asked for his opinion. It will be seen that
of the twenty-five Sultans after Solyman eleven were deposed, and in
almost every case the Mufti gave his legal sanction. The Janissaries
may have been very lawless, but they were not the less a salutary
check on the Sultans. With one possible exception the depositions were
well deserved. It should be noted that there was also a check on the
Sultans in the Divan, which was composed of the four viziers and many
other functionaries, military, civil, legal, and religious. It met
once or twice a week and discussed matters of State. Till the time
of Solyman the Sultan presided, but he gave up this practice. In the
absence of the Sultan the Grand Vizier presided. In the reign of the
degenerate Sultans the Divan often played an important part.
[Illustration: THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AT THE TIME OF ITS GREATEST EXTENT.
Tributary and Vassal States are outlined with colour.]
_PART II_
THE DECAY OF EMPIRE
XII
THE RULE OF SULTANAS
1578-1656
AFTER the death of Sokolli many years elapsed before another Grand
Vizier was able to wield the power of the State, in place of the weak
and incompetent Sultans who succeeded to the throne. The supreme
power fell into the hands of women of the Sultan’s harem. For a time
the chief influence lay with the Sultana Baffo, a Venetian lady of
the noble family of that name, who had been captured when young by a
corsair and sold as a slave to the harem of Sultan Murad III. She was
a very clever and ambitious, as well as a beautiful woman, and for a
time Murad was devoted to her charms to the exclusion of other inmates
of his harem. But his mother, the Sultana Validé, jealous of Baffo’s
exclusive influence in politics, contrived to draw Murad’s affection
from her by tempting him with two other very beautiful slaves. Later,
the lady who presided over the harem and her assistant improved on this
method by procuring for the Sultan a succession of beautiful slaves, in
such numbers that the price of this ware rose enormously in the slave
market.
Murad, under the influence of these attractions, devoted himself wholly
to voluptuous life in his harem. He became the father of one hundred
and three children, of whom forty-seven survived him. The Sultana
Baffo, the mother of his eldest son, though she had lost her charm for
him as a mistress, continued to influence him in public affairs by her
wit and cleverness, sharing it, however, with the other ladies referred
to. After the death of the Sultana Validé, the Sultana Baffo succeeded
in regaining much of her earlier and exclusive influence. She retained
the same authority over her son Mahomet III, who succeeded his father
in 1595. It resulted, therefore, that this lady, for twenty-eight
years, exercised the greatest power in the State. Mahomet was as much
a nullity in public affairs as his father. He signalized his accession
to the throne by putting to death his nineteen brothers. He thought
apparently that this holocaust shed some lustre on these unfortunate
princes, for he accorded to them a State funeral. They were followed
to their graves by all the high dignitaries of the State, and were
buried beside their father. Six favourite slaves of the eldest of these
princes, who might be expected to give birth to future claimants to the
throne, were sewn up in sacks and were flung into the Bosphorus.
Mahomet was the last Sultan who was allowed before his accession to
have some experience in public affairs as governor of a province.
Thenceforward it was the practice for reigning Sultans to immure their
heirs in a building in the Seraglio, at Constantinople, known as the
Cage, where they were allowed to have no intercourse with the outer
world, and could have no experience, or even knowledge, of public
affairs, and which they only left either to reign as Sultans or to be
put to death. It has been suggested by some writers that this treatment
of the heirs to the Ottoman throne was the main cause of the lamentable
degeneracy of the Othman dynasty. It must undoubtedly have contributed
to this, but it should be noticed that the three Sultans, Selim II,
Murad III, and Mahomet III, who had not been subjected to this debasing
treatment, and had been governors of provinces before their accession,
were quite as worthless and incompetent as any of their successors.
Mahomet, after eight years of a vacuous reign, was succeeded by his son
Achmet, who reigned for fourteen years. He was as incompetent to rule
as his two predecessors. He fell under the influence of other ladies
of his harem. The Sultana Baffo was ignored and lost her power. On the
death of Achmet, in 1617, he was succeeded not by his eldest son but
by his brother Mustapha, a lunatic. Achmet had spared his brother’s
life on account of his lunacy. Mustapha, therefore, by virtue of the
law of succession, succeeded, but he was deposed after a few months,
and was followed on the throne by Othman II, the son of Achmet, who
showed some greater capacity. In his short reign, however, of four
years he incurred the disfavour of the Janissaries, who insisted on his
deposition and death. The lunatic Mustapha was then reinstated on the
throne, and was again deposed, after a few months. He was succeeded by
Murad IV, a lad under twelve years. Till he came to years of discretion
his mother, the Sultana Validé, who was a clever woman, virtually
ruled. It will be shown later that Murad was of very different type
to his six predecessors. On coming of age he emancipated himself from
the influence of the harem, and was the last of his dynasty who was a
warrior and who personally led his army in the field. His rule lasted
for only eight years. On his death, in 1640, he was succeeded by his
brother Ibrahim II, a worthless voluptuary, during whose reign of
another eight years the harem recovered its influence. He was followed
by Mahomet IV, and for eight more years the rule of the harem was
maintained. From this brief narrative it will appear that from the
death of Sokolli in 1578 till 1656, a period of seventy-eight years,
during which seven Sultans occupied the throne, the supreme power in
the State was exercised by women of the harem, with the exception of
the eight years of the reign of Sultan Murad IV. For twenty-eight of
these years the Sultana Baffo, and later other ladies less known to
fame, were virtually the rulers of the Empire. Grand Viziers were made
and unmade at the will of these ladies, with occasional intervention
of the Janissaries. They seldom held the office for more than a year.
The Sultana Baffo was a grasping and avaricious woman. Under her evil
influence, and later that of other ladies of the harem, the system
of the sale of offices was greatly extended and became universal
throughout the Empire for all appointments, high and low.
It has been shown that the Grand Vizier Roostem, in Solyman’s reign,
first introduced the system of requiring payments from persons
appointed as governors of provinces and to other high civil posts; but
the sums were fixed and definite, and were paid into the treasury of
the State, and the system was not extended to the army. The payments
now became arbitrary and universal, and were extended to appointments
in the army. The Sultan himself was not above taking a part in this
plunder, and the ladies of the harem had also their full share. Grand
Viziers only succeeded in retaining their posts by large payments to
the Sultan and his entourage, male and female.
Von Hammer, on the authority of the historian Ali, tells the story
that a favourite of the Sultan, one Schemsi Pasha, who was descended
from a family formerly reigning over a province of Asia Minor, on the
borders of the Black Sea, which had been dispossessed by an early
Ottoman Sultan, on coming from an interview with the Sultan, Murad III,
exclaimed with a joyous air: “At last I have revenged myself on the
House of Othman, for I have now persuaded it to prepare for its own
downfall!” When asked how he had done that, he replied: “By persuading
the Sultan to share in the sale of his own favours. It is true that
I placed a tempting bait before him. Forty thousand ducats make no
trifling sum. From this time forth the Sultan sets the example of
corruption, and corruption will destroy the Empire.”[21]
As a result of this evil practice of the sale of offices, the whole
system of government throughout the Empire, from top to bottom, was
infected with bribery and corruption. The judges, equally with other
officers, were corrupt, and gave their judgments to the highest bidder.
Criminals of the vilest kind who could bribe the judges were allowed to
go free. All confidence in the administration of the law was destroyed.
All officers in the State, from the highest to the lowest, held their
posts at the will of those who appointed them, and were liable to be
superseded at any moment. Having paid large sums for these posts, it
was necessary for them to make hay while the sun shone, and to recoup
themselves for their outlay by exactions on those below them, and by
plundering the people in their districts.
The army being no longer exempt from this pernicious system, officers
were appointed or promoted, not because they were efficient, but
because they had the longest purses. The discipline of the army was
therefore relaxed. There was also great dissatisfaction throughout the
service because the soldiers were paid in debased coins. The garrisons
of such frontier fortresses as Buda and Tabriz broke out in revolt.
The Janissaries got out of hand. There were conflicts between them and
the Spahis. The Janissaries frequently insisted on the dismissal, and
even on the execution, of viziers and other ministers of State, and the
craven Sultans and the ladies of their harems had to consent. There
was rebellion in Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia. The Christians
of the Lebanon rose against their oppressors, the Turks. Brigandage
increased to a lamentable extent in other parts of the Empire.
The ladies of the harem, it would seem, were not favourable to war.
The Sultana Baffo, being a Venetian by birth, averted war with that
Republic for many years. Peace was also made with Austria and was
maintained for some years. But in 1593, when Transylvania and Wallachia
were in rebellion, Austria and Hungary were induced by sympathy for
their people to declare war against the Porte. Their army, under
command of the Emperor Maximilian and Count Pfalfi, the Hungarian
general, marched to the Danube, capturing on their way Gran, Pesth,
Bucharest, and other strongholds of the Turks. They then crossed the
Danube and marched to Varna.