The Turkish Empire: The Sultans, The Territory, and The People E-Book

T. Milner

• Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 453

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

The Pergamum Collection publishes books history has long forgotten. We transcribe books by hand that are now hard to find and out of print.

Das E-Book The Turkish Empire: The Sultans, The Territory, and The People wird angeboten von Charles River Editors und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:
seljuk; turk; mohammed; greece; constantinople; istanbul

Leseprobe

CHAPTER I.THE TURKS, SEIJUKIAN AND OTTOMAN

TURKISH OR TATAR TRIBES – THEIR COMMON ORIGIN – MIGRATION FROM CENTRAL ASIA – APPEARANCE IN PERSIA – CONVERSION TO MOHAMMEDANISM – RISE OF THE SEIJUKIAN EMPIRE – ALP ARALAN – MALEK SHAH – FALL OF THE EMPIRE – SELJUKIAN KINGDOM OF ROOM – ICONIUM – ERTOGRUL, FATHER OF OTHMAN – SETTLEMENT IN ASIA MINOR

The Ottoman or Osmanli Turks are identical as a people with numerous and extensive tribes scattered over the plains and table-lands of Central and Western Asia, pastoral in their occupations, warlike in disposition, predacious in habits, and nomadic in their mode of life. These tribes have particular local designations, as Turkomans, Iliyats, Kirghises, Usbecks, and Nogays, besides others derived from the names of the districts they occupy, or from those of celebrated chieftains. They are also popularly distinguished by the comprehensive appellation of Tatars, and their ancestors appear to have been known to the ancients by the general denomination of Scythians.

The national unity of these races is proclaimed by certain conformities of physiognomy, and by the prevalence of a common speech. It is true that the Turks of Europe differ in physical characteristics from the more easterly populations, or from those situated in the interior of the Asiatic continent. The former closely correspond in their type of countenance and bodily organization to the symmetric or Caucasian model, as exhibited by the great bulk of the European nations while the latter display the inharmonious lineaments of the Mongolian or North Asiatic variety. But the identity of the tribes, as belonging to the same particular stock, is proved by historical evidence, as well as by the bond of language; for the Turkish, with purely dialectical differences, is spoken by the hordes who have kept nearest to the geographical site, and retained most largely the nomadic habits of their forefathers. The external change referred to in the European Turks has been gradually produced by intermixture with the inhabitants of conquered countries, and by civilization and improved social circumstances. Instances of this effect the substitution of a new type of conformation for the original one, owing to the causes mentioned are not unusual in the history of nations, and confirm the Scripture account of the direct descent of the human race from the same parentage.

Like most other nationalities, the Turkish tribes have a legendary history which goes back to remote antiquity. They claim to be descended from an individual named Turk, a supposed grandson of Japheth, fancifully recognized by some as the Togarmah of the sacred annals, and the Targitaos of Herodotus. It is probable that they once occupied the high plateau of central Asia, or the country extending from the frontier of China Proper to the Altai Mountains and are identical with a powerful and celebrate people referred to in the Chinese annals, as having threatened that empire prior to the Christian era. But their authentic history commences at a more recent date, for it was not till the fifth or sixth century that Europe had any knowledge of the name and nation of the Turks. This was obtained through the medium of the Byzantine or Greek-Roman empire. About that period, having mi grated westward from the region mentioned, the barren table-lands of Mongolia, they spread over the vast steppes now bearing the name of Turkestan, and appeared on the banks of the Oxus, some tempted by the acquisition of better pasture grounds, and others led by warlike khans intent on empire and on spoil. At a subsequent date, having established themselves in Persia, they came into contact with the Mohammedan powers. They gradually embraced Islamism, entered the service of the caliphs of Baghdad and swelled their armies, till the degenerate Commanders of the Faithful were compelled to resign the temporal supremacy to the new converts, who affected to respect their spiritual authority. Salur, the first chief of consequence who became a convert, called his tribe Turk-imams, or Turks of the faith, to distinguish them from their brethren who continued in heathenism, a name which has since been corrupted into Turkomans.

The first Turkish tribe conspicuous in history, the Seljukians, settled in Khorasan under their leader Seljuk, from whom the name is derived. In that Persian province, an independent sovereignty was founded, with Nishapore for its capital, a place still in existence, but wholly unimportant. Three vigorous princes rapidly enlarged its bounds, Togrul Beg, Alp Arslan and Malek Shah, who rallied to their standard fresh swarms of hardy races from the north, and offered the rare example in an Asiatic dynasty of successively able rulers. The period of their reigns coincides with the Norman age of England. Their empire finally included the whole of Persia, Armenia, and Syria, the greater part of Asia Minor, with the country from the Oxus to beyond the Jaxartes, thus extending from the shores of the Mediterranean on the west, to the borders of China on the east. The second of these princes, Alp Arslan, the “valiant lion” who succeeded to the throne in 1063, captured the Greek emperor Romanus in battle; but soon himself afforded an equally memorable example of the instability of human greatness. At the height of his power, a singularly successful career was terminated by the dagger of an enemy, through the over-confidence of the monarch in his own prowess, which led him to brave the danger. Though mortally wounded, he lived long enough to confess and bewail his self-exaltation, and ordered the impressive sentence to be inscribed upon his tomb at Merv, “O ye who have seen the glory of Alp Arslan exalted to the heavens, repair to Merv and you will behold it buried in the dust.” The inscription has long since been effaced, the tomb has perished and the city survives only in the dilapidation common to once renowned oriental sites. But universal history remains an unobscured permanent memorial of the vanity of sublunary power, impressively representing its possessors to be as vulnerable to the stroke of death as the feeblest mortals, while equally subject to the sentence of the righteous Judge of all mankind. Whether re cording the fate of haughty potentates, or of godless subjects, it strikingly teaches the folly of being captivated with the things of this life, which are sure to pass away, and neglecting the realities of another as certain to be abiding.

The empire attained its greatest prosperity under the third ruler, Malek Shah. Agriculture was promoted, canals and water courses were constructed; mosques, colleges, and caravansaries were built; learned men were patronized, and the computation of time was improved by an assembly of eastern astronomers, who closely approximated to the correctness of the subsequent Gregorian reckoning. In religion, the Seljukian sovereigns surpassed the other Moslems of their age in fierce intolerance, and thereby inadvertently provoked the famous Crusades of the western nations. Upon wresting Jerusalem for a time from the dominion of the Egyptian caliphs, they visited with such hardships the resident and pilgrim Christians, that Europe armed for their deliverance from oppression.

Upon the death of the last named sovereign, the unity of his vast dominions was dissolved, in consequence of several candidates claiming the throne. The empire then became divided into various principalities. One of these comprised a considerable portion of Asia Minor, forming the kingdom of Roum, or the Romans, so called from having been a principal part of the Greek- Roman empire and lying immediately on its frontier. Nice became the capital, till the first Crusaders took possession of it, when the seat of government was re moved to Iconium. This city, so often referred to in the apostolic history as a scene of the labors and sufferings of Paul and Barnabas, had its churches converted into mosques by a Seljukian sultan, and remained, for upwards of a century, the seat of an influential dynasty, which was actively engaged through the whole era of the Crusades in opposing the march of the western armies. At its close, the irruption of the Mongols under the successors of Genghis Khan changed the entire political aspect of the East. These new comers from the teeming regions of central Asia, the most ferocious conquerors ever sent as a scourge to mankind, everywhere broke the power of the Seljukian Turks and paved the way for the rise of their Ottoman successors in Asia Minor. To the latter event, a sultan of Iconium indirectly contributed.

About the middle of the thirteenth century a tribe of Turks, not of the stock of Seljuk, driven forward by the Mongol invaders, left their camping grounds in Khorasan, and wandered into Armenia in search of undisturbed pasturage. After seven years of exile, deeming the opportunity favorable to return, they set out to their ancient possessions. But, while fording the Euphrates, the horse of their leader fell with him, and he perished in the river. A spot upon its banks now bears the name of the Tomb of the Turk. Upon this accident occurring, the tribe was divided into four companies by his sons, and Ertogrul, the warlike head of one division, resolved to turn to the westward, and seek a settlement in Asia Minor. While pursuing his course he descried two armies in hostile array. Not willing to be a neutral spectator of the battle, he joined himself to the apparently weaker party, and his timely aid decided the victory. The conquered were an invading horde of Mongols: the conqueror was Aladdin, the Seljukian sultan of Iconium; and Ertogrul received from the grateful victor an assignment of territory in his do minions for himself and his people. It consisted of the rich plains around Shughut, in the valley of the Sangarius, called the “country of pasture” and of the Black Mountains on the borders of Phrygia and Bithynia. The former district was for his winter abode; the latter for his summer encampment. In this domain, his son Othman or Osman was nurtured, who became the founder of a dynasty and an empire. From him the Turks of the present day have the name of Ottoman or Osmanli, which they universally adopt, rejecting that of Turk with disdain as synonymous with barbarian.

Ertogrul visited the capital of his liege lord. The father recommended his son Othman to the prayers of a resident Moslem saint of high repute; and Mullah Hunkiar gave his blessing to the youth. This individual, an author of eminence, founded the order of the Mevlevi Dervishes, one of the most venerated of the monastic fraternities in the Turkish empire. Iconium, now Koniah, contains his tomb and the most celebrated monastery of the community. The modern town is still surrounded with its ancient wall, the work of the Seljukian sultans, but now half in ruins and on a small eminence within its circuit, the arched foundations of a superstructure indicate the site of the palace once inhabited by those monarchs. The history of Iconium thus brings before the mind varied and strongly contrasted events of which it was successively the scene; the splendid pageants of polytheism, the piety of primitive Christianity, the corruption of the truth in a subsequent age, the establishment of a false system of religion, the barbaric pomp of the Seljukian princes, and the chivalry of the crusading armies encamped upon its extended plain. It was pure Christianity that supplanted heathenism, and it was a false profession of the faith of Christ that gave way to Mohammedanism. A Christianity of superstition and war, of violence and bloodshed could have no attraction, as it had no claim, to bring men back to the adoption of the Christian name. Such a victory can be hoped for only by the like hands and the same weapons which won the first conquest of this eastern region. Faithful men, true servants of the holy Savior and the pure doctrines of the simple gospel of salvation by God s grace to all who believe in the crucified and risen Redeemer these, we have reason to expect, will one day, not only in this region but in every part of the Ottoman empire and the east, replace the faith of Mohammed and every other system of error.

CHAPTER II.RISE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

EARLY CAREER OF OTHMAN – HIS CELEBRATED DREAM – THE MICHALOGIFF – INVASION OF THE GREEK EMPIRE – BROUSSA THE FIRST OTTOMAN CAPITAL – DEATH AND TOMB OF OTHMAN – REIGH OF ORCHAN – FIRST LANDING IN EUROPE – GALLIPOLI – FIRST VIZLEER – VIZLERSHIP OF ALLADIN – APPOINTMENT OF PASHAS – RISE OF THE JANISSARIES – THEIR ORGANIZATION – FIRST EUROPEAN STANDING ARMY – ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE OTTOMAN GOVERNMENT – TOMB OF ORCHAR – THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA

Othman succeeded to the mountain and valley patrimony of his father and became head of the tribe. His name, which signifies “bone-breaker” however unpleasing to a rightly disciplined mind, sounded auspiciously to the ear of his rude followers, especially as it is an epithet of the royal vulture, the bird which the orientals have regarded from time immemorial as holding the do minion of the air. The shepherd, warrior, and free booter were united in his character. During the life of the sultan of Iconium, Othman sustained much the same relation to him as that which formerly subsisted between the chief of a Scottish clan and the sovereign. He had an acknowledged liege lord to whom he was bound to render reasonable service, but he was otherwise free to prey upon his neighbors and govern his dependants. That government was chiefly of the patriarchal kind, and there might be no limits to his authority but those arising from the danger of abusing it. In primitive states of society, however, where all bear arms and are nearly upon the same level, deference is paid to general opinion as expressed by hereditary usages which take the place of formal laws. The “alper” of the tribe, or the strong and gallant men who distinguished themselves by valor in predatory expeditions were viewed more in the light of comrades to be consulted, than as vassals to obey in silence. Upon the death of the sultan, who left no sons to succeed him, the emirs divided his dominions into petty states among themselves, and Othman became practically an independent prince, though he never assumed a royal title, or exercised the functions which are deemed by the easterns peculiarly distinctive of sovereignty.

According to the native historians, a dream presaged to Othman his future greatness, or rather that of his race. This celebrated vision, with which every Turk is familiar from his childhood, may have had some foundation in fact, though considerable embellishment appears in the record of it. While reposing beneath the roof of a sheikh, (to whose daughter he was attached, and whom he afterwards married,) the slumberer fancied that he saw a tree sprouting from his own person, which rapidly grew in size and foliage, till it covered with its branches the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Beneath this tree four enormous mountains raised their snowy summits, Caucasus, Atlas, Taurus, and Heemus, apparently supporting like four columns the vast leafy tent. From the sides of these mountains issued four rivers, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Danube and the Nile. An immense number of vessels sailed on the streams, and almost hid their waters. Yellow harvests covered the plains through which they meandered; waving woods crowned the hills, and countless rivulets wandered through groves and gardens. Through the vistas of the valleys were seen cities adorned with domes, cupolas, towers, minarets, and columns. The crescent gleamed on every spire, and from every minaret was heard the voice of the muezzin announcing the hour of prayer. The sound mingled with the notes of thousands of nightingales and other singing birds, producing delicious music. Suddenly the branches and leaves of the tree assumed a glittering, saber-like aspect; and, moved by the breeze, they turned towards Constantinople. That capital, placed at the junction of two seas and two continents, seemed like a noble diamond set in a ring between two sapphires and emeralds. Othman was about to celebrate his nuptials with the Byzantine city, the capital of the world, by placing the ring upon his finger when he awoke.

But naturally bold, active, and enterprising, Othman needed not the stimulus of an exciting dream to become ambitious of conquest. His position was eminently favorable to success in seeking aggrandizement by an extension of territory. He was seated on the verge of the decaying Greek empire to the west, and in the van of disturbed eastern populations, ready to enlist under a vigorous leader. From multitudes in the rear he could replenish his forces as often as occasion required, while in front lay a realm distracted by dissensions, and enfeebled by luxury, with a government so negligent and incapable as to leave the passes of Olympus on the frontier open to any invader. His designs in the latter direction were promoted by a young Greek noble, Kose Michal, who had renounced his religion for Islamism, in order to secure Othman s friendship, and doubtless supplied him with valuable information respecting the tactics and discipline of his countrymen. From this renegade descended the family of Michalogli, “the sons of Michal”; so conspicuous in Turkish history for several generations as the hereditary commanders of the light horse. One of this name appeared at its head, and scoured the plains of Germany as far as Ratisbon at the time of the first siege of Vienna. Thus encouraged, Othman entered the Greek territory and began the invasion of Nicomedia, July 27, 1299. From this era his reign is dated and it may be regarded as the commencing of epoch of the Ottoman power. Edward I then sat upon the throne of England; Philip the Fair upon that of France; and Andronicus Palaeologus the elder occupied that of Constantinople.

The reign of Othman extended over more than a quarter of a century, from A.D. 1299 to 1326. It was marked not by rapid conquests but by gradual encroachments upon the imperial domains. Desultory inroads were repeated year after year; strongholds were established in the most defensible places as acquisitions were made, while volunteers and captives recruited the ranks of the invading chief. He finally extended his authority over a considerable district in the north and west of Asia Minor, comprehending great part of the ancient provinces of Phrygia, Galatia, and Bithynia; and, upon the capture of Prussia, it be came his residence and the seat of government. This city, now called Broussa, renowned for its thermal waters and splendid situation, was the first capital of the Ottomans. It occupies a plain sparkling with streams, gay with flowers, and diversified with meadows, gardens, and mulberry woods, the whole surrounded by a framework of mountains, among which the noble head of Olympus is conspicuous from afar, silvered with snow through the greater part of the year. The site is eminent for interesting historical associations as well as natural beauty. Here, at a remote period, the kings of Bithynia kept their court, one of whom gave an asylum to the illustrious Hannibal in his misfortunes, who probably ended his days in the locality. Here Pliny noted the early progress of Christianity, and illustrated the piety of the primitive believers. Here, likewise, as the judgment of Providence upon their unfaithful successors, the founder of the Ottoman dynasty was permitted to establish Mohammedan institutions; and at Broussa, under the protection of his present descendant, the celebrated Arab emir Abd-el-Kader had recently his assigned abode. The earthquake of 1855 reduced the city to a ruin.

Though Othman became a city dweller, he did not renounce the simplicity of pastoral manners and the hardy habits of his ancestors. This is evident from the property he left behind him. It included no treasures of gold or silver, no insignia of pomp but consisted of a spoon, a salt-cellar, an embroidered coat, a new turban, several red standards, a stud of fleet horses, some herds of cattle, and flocks of excellent sheep. He died at Broussa, and was interred in the mosque called the silver dome, formerly a Byzantine church, and the ancient cathedral of the castle. Down to the first year of the present century his rosary was preserved there, as well as the great drum which he received from the sultan of Iconium when invested with command. These curious relics were destroyed at that period by a fire which desolated a great part of the city; it ravaged the mosque and the castle; the silver dome fell in, and covered the tomb with a heap of rubbish. This event happening at the beginning of a century was popularly regarded by the Turks as ominous of the speedy over throw of the empire and contributes more than the disheartening political appearances of the time to shake the courage of the people. The double pointed sword of Othman, with some of his standards are yet in existence; and, what is still more curious, his descendants, down to the reigning sultan, have possessed flocks of sheep pasturing on the hills about Broussa, derived without mixture from the stock of their ancestor.

Orchan, his son and successor, in A.D. 1326, extended the bounds of the infant state with extraordinary rapidity. He took, Nice, once the residence of the Greek emperors and the seat of two great ecclesiastical councils, overran the remainder of Bithynia, with great part of Mysia, and not only advanced his forces to the waters of the Hellespont and Bosphorus, but crossed the straits on desultory expeditions, being the first Turkish potentate that ever set foot on the soil of Europe. The emperor John Cantacuzenus gave him his daughter in marriage by way of conciliation, but this feeble and unhallowed expedient was fruitless, for very soon after the alliance, the dreaded invaders took permanent possession of a European site. This important event occurred in the year 1354, under characteristic and interesting circumstances.

Soliman, the eldest son of Orchan, having been appointed governor of the newly-acquired province of Mysia, visited the spot on the shore where the ancient populous and wealthy city of Cyzicus had flourished. Its broken columns and marble edifices, scattered over the turf, filled him with awe and admiration. He fancied them the remains of wondrous palaces built by the genii, similar to those of which he had heard at Persepolis, Palmyra, and Baalbec. The Turk loved to wander on the beach, lost in reverie, amidst the remains of the Tyre of the Propontis. One evening, as he sat wrapped in contemplation, he beheld the pillars and porticoes of the ruined temples of Jupiter, Proserpine and Cybele reflected by the light of the moon in the tranquil waters of the Sea of Marmora, while a few fleecy vapors hung over the waves. It seemed to him as if the restored city were emerging from the deep in its former beauty, girdled with the white sails of its ancient fleet. The whispering winds and murmuring waves broke upon his ear as mysterious voices from invisible beings, while the moon seemed to unite with her beams the opposite shores of Europe and Asia. The prince recollected the dream of his grandsire. Its memory combining with the visions of imagination and the suggestions of ambition in his mind, he immediately formed the resolution to have both sides of the strait blended in his own inheritance. With a chosen hand of forty, he crossed the channel the following night on a raft hastily constructed for the occasion and seized the castle of Tzympe, now Chini, near Gallipoli. A rocky strand or mole in the narrowest part pre serves the name of Gaziler Iskelssi, or the Victor’s Harbor, in memory of the landing of the first Ottoman invaders; and at a little distance a hill crowned with a scanty ruin is said to be the spot where Soliman first planted his standard on the Thracian shore.

The very elements of nature seemed at this juncture to war against the Greeks. Violent earthquakes shook the walls of the towns, and the terrified inhabitants flying to the fields left their strongholds an easy prey to the enemy. Gallipoli itself, the Callipolis of ancient geography, and the key of the Hellespont, soon afterwards fell. This was an important post to the Ottomans previously to the capture of Constantinople. The possession of it kept open the communication between Asia and Europe, though the besotted Greek emperor, upon hearing of its loss, simply remarked that he had merely been deprived of a cellar for wine and a sty for hogs, alluding to the magazines established there by Justinian. Bajazet I more sensible of its value, fortified the spot, and made it a port for his galleys. By these means he commanded the passage between the two continents, and could intercept the succors which the western nations might send to Constantinople. An old tower or castle of his erection remains in the wretched modern town. During the late war in the east with Russia, the British and French troops first encamped upon Turkish soil at Gallipoli.

Though content with the modest title of emir, Orchan formally assumed the prerogatives of royalty. Money was coined bearing his inscription, and the public prayers on Friday in the mosques were said in his name. These two acts are considered by the Mohammedans as especially sovereign attributes. This reign is peculiarly important, for in it many political and military institutions originated which has been the ground-work of the Ottoman constitution to the present day. Intent himself upon conquest, Orchan consigned the important task of administering the government to his brother Aladdin, who was the first vizier or “burden-bearer” in the history of the nation. But he differed essentially from those who succeeded him in this capacity, sharing the cares of state by right of lineage; while future viziers, though possessed of undivided power, were at the same time slaves depending on the nod of a despotic master. Upon the death of Aladdin, prince Soliman held the office, and was the last member of the royal family appointed to it. Upon his decease, the post remained vacant for ten years, when it was given to Kara Chalil Chendereli, high judge of the army; since which time it has never been discontinued. In his family it remained for four generations, till immediately after the taking of Constantinople, when Chalil Pasha, the grand vizier, was executed by order of the sultan, who suspected him of a secret understanding with the Greeks. This is the first instance in the Ottoman history of the capital punishment of a prime minister and the bloody example has been since repeated one and twenty times. The hereditary title to the high office was then extinguished, and Greeks and Albanians have since held it as commonly as Turks.

While Aladdin was vizier, he divided the dominions of his brother into distinct provinces, to each of which a governor was appointed with the title of pasha. This term, derived from the Persian “pai-shah” or “the foot of the shah” is a title of great antiquity in the east. Xenophon states that the ministers of the Persian king were called his hands, feet, eyes, or ears, according to the nature of their respective offices. The provincial governors, who were also commanders-in-chief of the troops in their province, were hence called pashas, as the chief support, “the feet of the sovereign”. The distinctive official symbol of a pasha is a horse s tail; and one, two, or three tails express the relative amount of dignity and power with which the individual is invested, triple tails denoting the highest rank. Respecting the origin of this ensign, we are told that one of the sultans, having lost his standard in battle, immediately, with his scimitar, cut off the tail of the horse on which he was riding, mounted it on a pole, and announced to his troops that it was to be from henceforth the ensign of the nation around which they were to rally to havoc and to victory.

To secure the power of his brother, Aladdin addressed himself to the establishment of a permanent military force. He first instituted a corps of infantry called jaja, or footmen receiving pay, and marshaled in tens, hundreds, and thousands, with a regular gradation of officers. A number of these troops had also grants of land assigned to them, on condition of clearing the roads in campaigns. They were the first regularly formed body of pioneers, and both the class and the name have been borrowed by the European armies from the Ottoman. But not having yet forgotten the equality of pastoral life, the soldiers proved intractable, and could not be brought to submit to the strict discipline involved in military organization. To obviate this difficulty, the expedient was resorted to of rearing up in the doctrines of Islam the children of the conquered Christians, inuring them from early youth to the profession of arms, and forming them into a separate corps. This “black invention” as Von Hammer truly characterizes it, was adopted by Aladdin at the instance of Kara (the black) Chalil Chendereli, the judge of the army, and, he adds, has “a diabolical complexion much blacker than the gunpowder almost contemporaneously discovered by Schwartz (black) in Europe.”

Hence arose the Janissaries, a name which the westerns have corrupted from the Turkish Jeni-cheri, signifying the “new troops”. They received the title, and the distinguishing form of their caps, from a dervish, Hadgi Begtash, who formally blessed them, and gave them an assurance of victory. “May their countenances,” said he, “be ever bright, their hands victorious, their swords keen. May their spears always hang over the heads of their enemies; and, wheresoever they go, may they return with a white face.” This was a proverbial expression for triumphant success. The dervish, as he uttered these words, stood in front of the ranks and drew the sleeve of his red gown over the head of the foremost soldier. Hence, instead of a turban, a red cloth cap, the back of which was formed like a sleeve and hung down behind, was adopted as a distinguishing costume in memory of the incident.

The wants of these soldiers were liberally supplied. Of this they were reminded by the names of their officers and other contrivances. The head of a regiment, or colonel, was called the tshorbadgi or “soup-maker;” the officers next in rank were “chief cooks;” and “water drawers;” the common soldiers carried a wooden “spoon” in front of their caps instead of a tuft or feather; and a “kettle”; “caldron;” was the standard and rallying point of every division. These remarkable forms remained unchanged to the last; and as institutions referring to the cravings of appetite, the passion to be appealed to, they curiously illustrate the condition of the people among whom they originated. Many a time has the clang of the kettles in the streets of Constantinople been the signal of an insurrection of the Janissaries, while leaving the spoon untouched in their caps for a day has proclaimed their loss of appetite for everything but the death of a vizier, or the deposition of a sultan.

The corps continued to be recruited by the children of captives taken in war, or by those of Christian subjects, an inhuman tax of every fifth child or of one child every fifth year, being rigorously levied upon the families. The number of the Janissaries, originally one thousand, was successively raised to twelve, to twenty, and to forty thousand, immediately connected with the court, besides a much larger number scattered through the provinces. Hence it has been estimated that not less than half a million Christian children were cruelly torn from their parents, compelled to embrace Islamism, and trained to maintain it with the sword. At length, in the reign of Mohammed IV the custom began of admitting into the regiments the children of the soldiers themselves; and, after this innovation, the Janissaries became a kind of military caste, transmitting from father to son the profession of arms. The creation of this martial hierarchy took place in the year 1330. It supplies an instance of a standing army, a full century before that of Charles VII in France, which is the first example recorded in European history. Besides regulating the infantry, Aladdin organized the first spahis, or horsemen, who received gifts of land, became the most distinguished cavalry regiments, and were long the terror of Europe as well as of Asia.

In the days of their pristine vigor, the new troops were distinguished by their fanaticism and valor. Through upwards of three centuries, marked by a long series of great battles, they sustained only four signal reverses, chiefly from Tamerlane, in 1402 and John Huniades, the Hungarian general, in 1442. But during that period they extended the petty kingdom of Broussa over the vast dominions of Constantine the Great and made known their prowess from the walls of Bagdad to the gates of Vienna and from the Caspian Sea to the Nile, while their name was the common terror of Christendom. The European armies, as then constituted could not compete with the well-disciplined bands of a standing force. They were composed mainly of serfs called out for the occasion, and of nobility or men at arms in a comparatively small proportion. The serfs were an ill-armed multitude without regular training, combating on foot, while the noble or knightly warriors and their immediate attendants were incapable of sustained active service in the field, being encumbered with the defensive armor which fashion and the tournaments had extravagantly increased. Hence the shocks of battle between the Ottomans and the European powers almost always terminated to the advantage of the former, till the latter substituted a trained standing force for motley feudal levies and hireling bands of adventurers.

The rise of the Janissaries had a most important effect upon the character of the Ottoman government. It altered gradually and completely that relation between the prince and people which had marked their primitive pastoral condition. Despotic rule took the place of the patriarchal. The new troops being an alien race, bound by no ties of common origin to the Turks, and no sympathies of kindred, enabled the rulers to emancipate themselves from every species of control and become independent of their native subjects. They were thus the instruments of domestic despotism as well as the means of foreign conquest. Victory and arbitrary sway marched hand in hand under then banner. But as their prowess failed abroad owing to the advance of the European nations, while their turbulence increased at home, they became formidable to their masters and rendered them dependent upon them selves. The Janissaries finally acted at Constantinople the part of the Pretorian guards at Rome, deposing from the throne, and rising to it; till, unable otherwise to restrain their audacity, a monarch more vigorous and unscrupulous than his predecessors had the entire order extirpated by the sword.

Orchan died in A.D. 1359, at a far-advanced age, overwhelmed with grief for the loss of his eldest son Soliman, who was killed by a fall from his horse while following the sports of the field. His remains were interred at Broussa, along with those of the prince, and of several members of his family, in a wing of the same building which contains the tomb of his father Othman. Miss Pardoe, a visitor to the mausoleum, describes it as having been apparently a private chapel when the edifice was a Christian church. Originally, rich marbles entirely lined the walls which were partially destroyed by the fire before referred to, and have been replaced by paint and stucco. The royal tombs “occupy the centre of the floor, the fine mosaic pavement of which has been covered throughout the whole space thus appropriated with a mass of coarse plaister, raised about a foot from the floor, and supporting the sarcophagi. That of the sultan himself is overlaid with a costly cashmire shawl, above which are spread two richly embroidered handkerchiefs in crimson and green worked with gold; while the turban at its head is decorated with a third, wrought in beautiful arabesques and by far the most splendid thing of the kind that I ever saw. On the left-hand side of the imperial sarcophagus hangs a small wooden case, shaped like a bird-cage, and covered with green silk, containing the sultan s beard, the precious relic five centuries.”

The Asiatic conquests of the second emir of the Ottomans and other contemporary Turkish chieftains consummated the foretold fate of the seven churches of Asia, or brought it to their thresholds. Strikingly have the announcements of the Apocalypse been accomplished. To Ephesus, destitute of religious ardour, and fallen from her first love, the extinction of the light and influence of Christianity was threatened and the total subversion of both church and city followed as the consequence of impenitence. The candle sticky has been removed from the station where it was planted by apostles. The traveler looks down upon the site, from the neighboring heights and beholds a scene of solitude and desolation. Silence reigns upon the plain, except when occasionally interrupted by the sea-bird s cry, the barking of Turkoman dogs, or the tones of the muezzin from the ruined towers of Aiasaluk; and the remains of churches, temples, and palaces are now buried beneath the accumulated sands of the Cayster. The Sardians and Laodiceans were found degenerate and lukewarm, and to a similar doom they were to be subject. A few mud huts in Sart represent the splendor of the ancient capital, while the nodding ruins of its acropolis, with the colossal tumuli of the Lydian kings, impressively teach the vanity of human glory. But at Laodicea the scene is far more cheerless. No human being resides among its ruins. The abandonment threatened has overtaken it; and neither Christ nor Mohammed has either temple or follower upon its site. The lot of Pergamos and Thyatira has not been so severe; but apostasy there triumphed over evangelical truth, and they were brought to groan beneath the oppressive mastery of barbarian lords. The fortunes of Smyrna and Philadelphia have remarkably corresponded to the inspired announcements. Times of “tribulation and temptation came to both from Pagan emperors and Mohammedan conquerors; and according to the intimation, notwithstanding the devastations of war, earth quakes, and persecutions, both have survived with a remnant naming the name of Christ.” ‘Such is the state” says Newton, “of these once glorious and nourishing churches; and there cannot be a stronger proof of the truth of prophecy, nor a more effectual warning to other Christians.”

CHAPTER III.ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EMPIRE

CONDITION OF THE GREEK EMPIRE – EASTERN AND WESTERN CHRISTENDOM – CAPTURE OF ADRIANOPLE – EMPEROR JOHN PALAEOLOGUS I – VICTORIES OF AMURATH I – BAJAZER, THE FIRST SULTAN – FRATRICIDE – BATTLE OF NICOPOLIS – THE EMPEROR MANUEL’S VISIT TO ENGLAND – TAMERIANE – CAPTIVITY OF BAJAZET – INTERREGNUM – MOHAMMED I – AMURATH II – CAPTURE OF SALONIKI – EMPEROR JOHN PALAEOLOGUS II – THE GREEK AND LATIN CHURCHES – PROJECTED UNIONN – COUNCIL OF FLORENCE – HUNGARIAN WAR – CHARACTER OF HUNIADES – ABDICATION OF AMUATH – CARDINAL JULIAN – BATTLE OF VARNA – BATTLE OF KOSSOVA – SCANDERBEG – DEATH OF AMURATH – CHRISTIANITY AND MOHAMMEDANISM

The state of Europe, when the Ottomans effected their first settlement upon its soil, and contemplated establishing their dominion within its borders, was eminently favorable to views of conquest. The eastern division of the Roman empire of which Constantinople was the capital, commonly called the Greek or Byzantine empire after the fall of the western branch, had become, as a political fabric, incurably weakened, its foundations being undermined, and the coherence of the super structure ruined. While feeble or indolent emperors resigned themselves to the pleasures and empty formal cities of the court, insolent and venal courtiers, entrusted with arbitrary power, so corruptly administered the government, enriching themselves by fiscal oppression, and prostituting justice for gain, that all respect for the imperial throne had long been extinguished in the popular mind beyond the walls of the metropolis. In consequence of the great moral tie which had once attached the inhabitants of the provinces to the central authority, being thus broken, those provincials who possessed a distinct national character, such as the Wallachians, Bulgarians, Sclavonians, and Albanians, practically separated their interests from the Greek government, and either openly asserted their independence, or viewed the fortunes of the predominant race with complete indifference. This internal estrangement and disunion, the best ally of a foreign foe, prepared the way for the subversion of the empire; for, though the populations gathered to many a bloody field to resist the Ottoman invaders, they did not struggle to prop up the tottering throne of a liege lord, but simply to preserve their own freedom. Yet, being without the controlling bond of a supreme authority, combination was difficult among distinct nationalities to repel the assailants; while the operations of the latter were greatly facilitated by the practical severance of those who were assailed from their allegiance to a common head.

If the court of eastern Christendom appealed to the world of nominal Christianity westward for aid against the advancing Mohammedans, the prospect of obtaining it was sufficiently cheerless. Since the middle of the eleventh century, on the ground of some doctrinal and ritual differences, the Greek emperors, clergy, and people had abjured the authority of the Vatican, and constituted an independent hierarchy, with the patriarch of Constantinople for its head. Hence, while schismatical towards Rome, their political misfortunes would be viewed with an unpitying eye by the ecclesiastics of the west, so long as similar reverses did not menace themselves. Nor would western temporal, so sovereigns care to offend their own spiritual chief, by rallying to the help of a crowned brother in the east who acknowledged the supremacy of a rival. To remove this difficulty, overtures were repeatedly made by the Greeks for an arrangement of differences, with a view to the union of the two churches. Emperors and high ecclesiastics passed from Constantinople to Italy to urge this project, but had to endure the humiliation of making insincere concessions to serve a purpose which, after all, was not promoted by them. Western Christendom was too much distracted by its own rival popes, and with the open wars and hollow truces of its states, to interpose effectively on behalf of eastern by any general combination. Though military adventurers from Germany, France, and Italy, devoted their swords to its service, such auxiliaries were too few in number to turn the tide of battle, while they not infrequently provoked defeat by presumptuous confidence.

The circumstances of Europe were thus auspicious to the conquest of its eastern peninsula by the Ottomans. The third chief, Amurath I, through a reign of thirty years, from A.D. 1359 to 1389, vigorously prosecuted this design at the same time attacking the petty Seljukian states of Asia Minor. Though not successful to the full extent of his wishes, he compelled his Asiatic neighbors to take the oath of vassalage cooped up the Greek emperor within very narrow bounds, and paved the way for the speedy subversion of the imperial throne. Advancing from the Hellespont, he captured Adrianople in 1361, and made it his residence. This city, founded by the Roman emperor Hadrian, whose name it bears, became the first European capital of the conquerors, a distinction which it retained for nearly a century. Even after the fall of Constantinople, several of the sultans made Adrianople the seat of government, as Mohammed IV, Mustapha II, and Achmet in a preference which so exasperated the Janissaries, that it was one considerable motive to the rebellions which led to their deposition. The mosque of sultan Setim, with its thousand windows, towering minarets, and spiral staircases, one of the largest and most beautiful edifices of Mohammedanism is now the pride of Adrianople, and proclaims the partiality of its founder to the spot.

The proximity of the enemy to his capital alarmed the emperor John Palaeologus I, who repaired in haste to Italy to obtain assistance, and was the first of the Greek princes to visit the western nations. He abjectly renounced the tenets considered heterodox at Rome, tendered his submission to Urban V, kissed the feet of the pontiff in St. Peter s, and led his mule by the bridle in the streets. But hypocritical servility was properly rewarded by the failure of the application and some consequent embarrassment. Promises were made, but arms, men, and money were not forthcoming; and, having contracted debts on his passage through Venice, the emperor, on his return, was detained by remorseless creditors, till security was given for their payment.

At the time of this imperial pilgrimage, there was an English rover named John Hawkwood, who, with a number of h: s countrymen had entered Italy upon the termination of the wars of Edward in. in France, and became a kind of Robin Hood in the Apennines. Though excommunicated for shooting his arrows indiscriminately at clergy and laity, a papal license authorized the emperor to treat with the outlaw in order to engage the services of his band. But the negotiation did not prosper, and John Palaeologus returned to Constantinople, poorer in purse and more depressed in spirit than he left it.

Threatened by the northerly irruption of the Ottomans, the nations on the banks of the Danube, comprising the Servians, Bosnians, Hungarians, and Wallachians, formed a league to preserve their independence, act upon the offensive, recover Adrianople, and drive back the advancing enemy. But soon after crossing the Balkan, their combined forces were totally defeated by Amurath in 1363, in the first battle between the powers of Europe and the invaders. King Louis, of Hungary, having narrowly escaped capture, founded the abbey of Marienzell, in the Styrian Alps, to commemorate his deliverance. This is still a celebrated place of pilgrimage. The victors rapidly overran a considerable extent of country on both sides of the mountains, which is inhabited by hardy, pastoral, and uncultivated races, hitherto subject to the Greek government. The allies, having recovered from their defeat, ventured upon another struggle, but were again routed on the field of Ousels, near Kossova, in the southern corner of Servia. The vassalage of that principality was the consequence of this victory. It terminated also the career of the conqueror. While receiving in his tent the homage of his principal captives, one of them, after prostrating himself, suddenly drew a dagger concealed under his clothes, and stabbed Amurath, inflicting a mortal wound. The act was not more atrocious than unprofitable and calamitous to the vanquished. The wounded Amurath immediately ordered the prince of Servia, who was in the list of prisoners, to be beheaded in his presence, and then expired upon the throne. The remains of the third ruler of the Ottomans, and the first who died upon the soil of Europe, rest in an Asiatic grave at a village in the neighborhood of Broussa, where he had caused his own mausoleum to be prepared. The edifice, a beautifully proportioned domed structure, is still in good preservation, with the funeral arrangements just as they were nearly five centuries ago.

The next sovereign, Bajazet I, who reigned from A.D. 1389 to 1402, exchanged the title of emir, borne by his predecessors, for that of sultan, which has ever since been part of the style royal of the house of Othman. He was the first also to set the example of fratricide in the royal family, causing his only brother to be put to death, “remembering,” says the Turkish historian, “the text of the Koran, that disturbance is worse than execution.” This horrible act, prompted by personal depravity and state expediency, has been often repeated in the history of the Ottoman court; and the same atrocity was common in the reigning families of the eastern world in ancient times. Under parallel circumstances, a mournful similarity attends the manifestations of human depravity in different ages. The ungodly kings of Israel and Samaria destroyed the seed royal to secure themselves against competitors. Queen Athaliah did the same. But a prince escaped her ferocity, being hid in a chamber by his nurse, and the royal line was preserved from extinction. So in recent Turkish history, the father of the present sultan, when doomed to die by a cruel brother, was hid from the fury of his agents by faithful attendants, and came forth in an hour of successful revolution from a covering of mats and carpets, to mount the throne of his ancestors as the only remaining representative of the line of Othman. The civilized nations of the present day are not indebted to mere intellectual cultivation for enlightened observance of the obligations of moral duty and natural affection, but to the fact that their civilization has advanced under the control and guidance of the direct and indirect influence of Christian truth. It is this which strengthens and purifies the feeling of domestic love, while it expands the principle of brotherly kindness and brings universal humanity within the range of its manifestation.

Bajazet fierce and proud, warlike and talented acquired the surname of Ilderim, or the “Lightning” owing to his energetic character and martial impetuosity. During a brief reign of thirteen years, he was incessantly in motion at the head of his armies, pushing his way either from Broussa eastward to the Euphrates, or from Adrianople northward to the Danube. Sigismund of Hungary, aided by a body of French and German knightly auxiliaries, endeavored to cope with the fiery Turk, but was defeated with terrible loss in the battle of Nicopolis in 1396. The greater part of his army, one hundred thousand strong, perished by the sword or in the waters of the Danube. The king escaped by flight, closely pursued by the victors, who now, at this period, made their first appearance in the south-eastern provinces of Germany. Ten thousand prisoners were put to death by order of the conqueror on the field, as an act of reprisal for the massacre of two thousand Turkish captives by the nominally Christian host a few days before its overthrow. The nobles and knights taken were sent to Gallipoli and Broussa, to be reserved for ransom by their respective sovereigns and friends. Among these were the young count of Nevers, son of the duke of Burgundy, four princes, his cousins, the sire de Courcy, De la Tremouille, and the marshal Boucicault, who was afterwards slain in the fight of Agincourt.

Compelled by the victorious sultan to pay a heavy tribute for permission to occupy a throne, and apprehending the loss even of that degrading license, the Greek emperor Manuel imitated the example of his predecessors, and visited in person the western nations, to excite sympathy and obtain protection. After a tour in Italy, he repaired to France, and then crossed over to England, landing at Dover. It was in the month of December, 1400, that the yeomen of Kent beheld for the first time an imperial Greek. At Canterbury he was lodged in the monastery of St. Augustine, and conducted to the shrine of Thomas a Becket, famous for its wealth and relics. On Blackheath the reigning sovereign, Henry IV, who had just usurped the throne, met the illustrious stranger, and hospitably entertained him in the capital. Our own historian Walsingham slightly notices this visit, and Chalcondyles, a Byzantine writer, has recorded some of the observations made by his traveling countrymen relative to the island. “Britain,” says he, “is full of towns and villages. It has no vines, and but little fruit, but it abounds in corn, honey, and wool, from which the natives make, great quantities of cloth. London, the capital, may be preferred to every city of the west, for population, opulence, and luxury. It is seated on the river Thames, which, by the advantage of the tide, daily receives and dispatches trading vessels from and to various countries.”

With the exception of being treated with respect, gratifying his curiosity and exciting that of others, the emperor s journey was unprofitable. But he had not long returned to Constantinople before his fears were effectually relieved from an unexpected quarter from the east instead of the west, and from the realm of Mohammedanism, not of Christendom.

Bajazet, elated by his successes, contemplated a campaign in the heart of Europe, and boasted that he would one day feed his horse at Rome with a bushel of oats on the altar of St. Peters. But he had reached the term of his greatness, and was destined to succumb to a conqueror more powerful and savage than himself. This was the famous Timour-leuk, or lame Timour, a name which the westerns have corrupted into Tamerlane.