34 LXV. CHAP. son Amurath; and such was their union and prudence, that they concealed above forty days the emperor's death, till the arrival of his successor in the palace of Boursa. A new Reign of Amurath war was kindled in Europe by the prince, or impostor, MusA.D. 1421 tapha; the first vizir lost his army and his head; but the ...1451, more fortunate Ibrahim, whose name and family are still revered, extinguished the last pretender to the throne of Bajazet, and closed the scene of domestic hostility. II. Feb. 9. Re-union of the Ottoman empire, A. D. 1421. In these conflicts, the wisest Turks, and indeed the body of the nation, were strongly attached to the unity of the empire; and Romania and Anatolia, so often torn asunder by private ambition, were animated by a strong and invincible tendency of cohesion. Their efforts might have instructed the Christian powers; and had they occupied with a confederate fleet, the streights of Gallipoli, the Ottomans, at least in Europe, must have been speedily annihilated. But the schism of the West, and the factions and wars of France and England, diverted the Latins from this generous enterprise they enjoyed the present respite, without a thought of futurity; and were often tempted by a momentary interest to serve the common enemy of their religion. A colony of Genoese,76 which had been planted at Phocæa" on the Ionian coast, was enriched by the lucrative monopoly of alum ;78 and their tranquillity, under the Turkish empire, was secured by the annual payment of tribute. In the last civil war of the Ottomans, the Genoese governor, Adorno, a bold and ambitious youth, embraced the party of Amurath; and undertook with seven stout gallies to transport him from Asia to Europe. The sultan and five hundred guards embarked on board the admiral's ship; which was 76 See Pachymer (1. v. 29), Nicephorus Gregoras, (l: ii. c. 1.), Sherefeddin (1. v. c. 57.), and Ducas (c. 25). The last of these, a curious and careful observer, is entitled, from his birth and station, to particular credit in all that concerns Ionia and the islands. Among the nations that resorted to New Phocæa, he mentions the English (Iyyλnvor) an early evidence of Mediterrranean trade. 77 For the spirit of navigation, and freedom of ancient Phocæa, or rather of the Phocæans, consult the first book of Herodotus, and the Geographical Index of his last and learned French translator, M. Larcher (tom. vii. p. 299). 78 Phocæa is not enumerated by Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxv. 52.) among the places productive of alum; he reckons Egypt as the first, and for the second the isle of Melos, whose alum mines are described by Tournefort (tom. i. lettre iv), a traveller and a naturalist. After the loss of Phocæa, the Genoese, in 1459, found that useful mineral in the isle of Ischia (Ismael. Bouillaud, ad Ducam, c. 25). LXV. manned by eight hundred of the bravest Franks. His life CHAP. and liberty were in their hands; nor can we, without reluctance, applaud the fidelity of Adorno, who, in the midst of the passage, knelt before him, and gratefully accepted a discharge of his arrears of tribute. They landed in sight of Mustapha and Gallipoli; two thousand Italians, armed with lances and battle-axes, attended Amurath to the conquest of Adrianople; and this venal service was soon repaid by the ruin of the commerce and colony of Phocæa. ...1425. If Timour had generously marched at the request, and State of to the relief, of the Greek emperor, he might be entitled the Greek empire, to the praise and gratitude of the Christians." But a Mu- A.D.1402 sulman, who carried into Georgia the sword of persecution, and respected the holy warfare of Bajazet, was not disposed to pity or succour the idolaters of Europe. The Tartar followed the impulse of ambition; and the deliverance of Constantinople was the accidental consequence. When Manuel abdicated the government, it was his prayer, rather than his hope, that the ruin of the church and state might be delayed beyond his unhappy days; and after his return from a western pilgrimage, he expected every hour the news of the sad catastrophe. On a sudden he was astonished and rejoiced by the intelligence of the retreat, the overthrow, and the captivity of the Ottoman. Manuel80 immediately sailed from Modon in the Morea; ascended the throne of Constantinople; and dismissed his blind competitor to an easy exile in the isle of Lesbos. The ambassadors of the son of Bajazet were soon introduced to his presence; but their pride was fallen, their tone was modest; they were awed by the just apprehension, lest the Greeks should open to the Moguls the gates of Europe. Soliman saluted the emperor by the name of father; solicited at his hands the government or gift of Romania; and promised to deserve his favour by inviolable friendship, and the restitution of Thes 79 The writer who has most abused this fabulous generosity, is our ingenious Sir William Temple (his works, vol. iii. p. 349, 350. octavo edition), that lover of exotic virtue. After the conquest of Russia, &c. and the passage of the Danube, his Tartar hero relieves, visits, admires, and refuses the city of Constantine. His flattering pencil deviates in every line from the truth of history: yet his pleasing fictions are more excusable than the gross errors of Can temir. 80 For the reigns of Manuel aud John, of Mahomet I. and Amurath II. see the Othman history of Cantemir (p. 70...95), and the three Greeks, Chal, condyles, Phranza, and Ducas, who is still superior to his rivals. LXV. CHAP. salonica, with the most important places along the Strymon, the Propontis, and the Black Sea. The alliance of Soliman exposed the emperor to the enmity and revenge of Mousa: the Turks appeared in arms before the gates of Constantinople; but they were repulsed by sea and land; and unless the city was guarded by some foreign mercenaries, the Greeks must have wondered at their own triumph. But, instead of prolonging the division of the Ottoman powers, the policy or passion of Manuel was tempted to assist the most formidable of the sons of Bajazet. He concluded a treaty with Mahomet, whose progress was checked by the insuperable barrier of Gallipoli: the sultan and his troops were transported over the Bosphorus; he was hospitably entertained in the capital; and his successful sally was the first step to the conquest of Romania. The ruin was suspended by the prudence and moderation of the conqueror: he faithfully discharged his own obligations and those of Soliman, respected the laws of gratitude and peace; and left the emperor guardian of his two younger sons, in the vain hope of saving them from the jealous cruelty of their brother Amurath. But the execution of his last testament would have offended the national honour and religion and the divan unanimously pronounced that the royal youths should never be abandoned to the custody and education of a Christian dog. On this refusal, the Byzantine councils were divided: but the age and caution of Manuel yielded to the presumption of his son John; and they unsheathed a dangerous weapon of revenge, by dismissing the true or false Mustapha, who had long been detained as a captive and hostage, and for whose maintenance they received an annual pension of three hundred thousand aspers.81 At the door of his prison, Mustapha subscribed to every proposal; and the keys of Gallipoli, or rather of Europe, were stipulated as the price of his deliverance. But no sooner was he seated on the throne of Romania, than he dismissed the Greek ambassadors with a smile of contempt, declaring, in a pious tone, that, at the day of judgment, he 81 The Turkish asper (from the Greek aσpos) is, or was, a piece of white or silver money, at present much debased, but which was formerly equivalent to the 54th part, at least, of a Venetian ducat or sequin; and the 300,000 aspers, a princely allowance or royal tribute, may be computed at 25001. sterling (Leunclav. Pandect. Turc. p. 406...408). LXV. would rather answer for the violation of an oath, than for CHAP. the surrender of a Musulman city into the hands of the infidels. The emperor was at once the enemy of the two rivals; from whom he had sustained, and to whom he had offered, an injury; and the victory of Amurath was followed, in the ensuing spring, by the siege of Constantinople." Constanti II. A. D. The religious merit of subduing the city of the Cæsars, Siege of attracted from Asia a crowd of volunteers, who aspired to nople by the crown of martyrdom: their military ardour was inflam- Amurath ed by the promise of rich spoils and beautiful females; and 1422, the sultan's ambition was consecrated by the presence and June 10... August 24. prediction of Seid Bechar, a descendant of the'prophet, who 83 arrived in the camp on a mule, with a venerable train of five hundred disciples. But he might blush, if a fanatic could blush, at the failure of his assurances. The strength of the walls resisted an army of two hundred thousand Turks: their assaults were repelled by the sallies of the Greeks and their foreign mercenaries; the old resources of defence were opposed to the new engines of attack; and the enthusiasm of the dervish, who was snatched to heaven in visionary converse with Mahomet, was answered by the credulity of the Christians, who beheld the Virgin Mary, in a violet garment, walking on the rampart, and animating their courage. After a siege of two months, Amurath was recalled to Boursa by a domestic revolt, which had been kindled by Greek treachery, and was soon extinguished by the death of a guiltless brother. While he led his Janizaries The empeto new conquests in Europe and Asia, the Byzantine em- Palæoloror John pire was indulged in a servile and precarious respite of gus I. thirty years. Manuel sunk into the grave; and John Palæo- July 21... logus was permitted to reign, for an annual tribute of three A. D.1448, hundred thousand aspers, and the dereliction of almost all that he held beyond the suburbs of Constantinople. 84 In the establishment and restoration of the Turkish em 82 For the siege of Constantinople in 1422, see the particular and contemporary narrative of John Cananus, published by Leo Allatius, at the end of his edition of Acropolita (p. 188...199). 83 Cantemir, p. 80. Cananus, who describes Seid Bechar without naming him, supposes that the friend of Mahomet assumed in his amours the privi lege of a prophet, and that the fairest of the Greek nuns were promised to the saint and his disciples. 84 For this miraculous apparition, Cananus appeals to the Musulman saint; but who will bear testimony for Seid Bechar? A.D. 1425, October 31, LXV. and merit tomans. CHAP. pire, the first merit must doubtless be assigned to the personal qualities of the sultans; since, in human life, the most Hereditary important scenes will depend on the character of a single succession actor. By some shades of wisdom and virtue, they may be of the Ot. discriminated from each other; but, except in a single instance, a period of nine reigns and two hundred and sixtyfive years, is occupied, from the elevation of Othman to the death of Soliman, by a rare series of warlike and active princes, who impressed their subjects with obedience and their enemies with terror. Instead of the slothful luxury of the seraglio, the heirs of royalty were educated in the council and the field: from early youth they were entrusted by their fathers with the command of provinces and armies; and this manly institution, which was often productive of civil war, must haye essentially contributed to the discipline and vigour of the monarchy. The Ottomans cannot style themselves, like the Arabian caliphs, the descendants or successors of the apostle of God; and the kindred which they claim with the Tartar khans of the house of Zingis, appears to be founded in flattery rather than in truth.85 Their origin is obscure; but their sacred and indefeasible right, which no time can erase and no violence can infringe, was soon and unalterably implanted in the minds of their subjects. A weak or vicious sultan may be deposed and strangled; but his inheritance devolves to an infant or an ideot: nor has the most daring rebel presumed to ascend the throne of his lawful sovereign.86 While the transient dynasties of Asia have been continually subverted by a crafty vizir in the palace, or a victorious general in the camp, the Ottoman succession has been confirmed by the practice of five centuries, and is now incorporated with the vital principle of the Turkish nation. Education and disci To the spirit and constitution of that nation, a strong and pline of the singular influence may however be ascribed. The primitive Tarks. 85 See Rycaut (1. i. c. 13). The Turkish sultans assume the title of khan. Yet Abulghazi is ignorant of his Ottoman cousins. 86 The third grand vizir of the name of Kiuperli, who was slain at the battle of Salankanen in 1691(Cantemir, p. 382), presumed to say, that all the successors of Soliman had been fools or tyrants, and that it was time to abolish the race (Marsigli Stato Militare, &c. p. 28). This political heretic was a good whig, and justified against the French ambassador the revolution of England (Mignot, Hist. Ottomans, tom. iii. p. 434). His presumption condemns the singular exception of continuing offices in the same family. |
