EVENTS of the Year 1019, H.
The grand vezír and commander-in-chief, Murád Páshá, goes to Tabríz.
The victorious hero, the grand vezír and commander-in-chief, Murád Páshá, having fully completed all his preparations for opening the campaign in the east, re-appointed Gúrjí Mohammed Páshá governor of Constantinople, and passed over with his brilliant army to Scutari, on the 5th of the month Sefer. The commanding general, impatiently anxious to march against Persia, left Scutari about the beginning of Rabia I., and reaching the frontiers of that country, he was joined by the various beglerbegs with their respective troops, who had been appointed for this war. His army, in a short time, became greatly increased. Having heard that the sháh of Persia intended to take up his position in the vicinity of Tabríz, and as the winter season was nigh at hand, he hastened towards that place with all the speed he was able, and was not long in arriving in its neighbourhood. The inhabitants having all fled, and left the city exposed and desolate, the orthodox troops entered, and demolished or set fire to its buildings. The sháh having advanced nearer, shewed a disposition to try his strength, and posted himself upon a hill near the city. It was not long, however, before his courage forsook him; for in a general engagement, in which he was soon involved, his troops were defeated and put to flight, leaving the field to the victorious Moslems. Finding it therefore dangerous to stay much longer, and seeing that the winter was fast approaching, he felt it necessary to seek a place of repose and safety for himself and his army. In this way, and for these reasons, the war was necessarily postponed till the following year. In the meantime, however, the orthodox army did all the mischief they could to the enemy’s country, and then returned, when his excellency the commanding general, Murád Páshá, went with the household troops to Diárbeker.
After defeating the sháh, his excellency, Murád Páshá, sent him a letter, to which the following was received as answer: “You say that we have violated the agreement made in the days of Sháh Ismael II. He was not long enough at the helm of affairs to cause any rupture. Your governors on the frontiers having coveted the goods of our merchants, have murdered several of them. We have represented our grievances to your august majesty, the emperor, but no redress whatever has been afforded. The honour of our dignity cannot endure this, especially as we are now come, by the grace of God, into the possession of our paternal hereditary dominions. We have been braved by a Tátár army. Formerly, Islám Gheráí and Ghází Gheráí brought their armies as far as Shirván, but were defeated by the kizilbáshes, and the two kháns made prisoners. If they should again attempt a similar invasion, they shall pay dearly for it; they shall meet their reward. The great wealth which the emperor of the Osmánlís can command is not unknown to us. We also have our heroes. The sight of your numerous hosts will not move them. If it be thought proper to abide by the conditions granted by Sultán Soleímán Khán to Tahmasp, my grandfather, then I am his august majesty’s servant. When one is not brave and bold in his hostility, his friendship is not to be depended on. Our friendship may be contemplated. If, therefore, you are not satisfied, then let that which is behind the curtain of fate discover itself—Farewell.”
His excellency, the grand vezír, wrote thus in reply: “You say you are braved or threatened by a vain-glorious army of Tátárs. A Tátár is like any other servant of the emperor. Though the two kháns were made prisoners, yet there is nothing strange or surprising in that. It has happened, not unfrequently, in the history of past events, that the vanquished have sometimes become conquerors. If you compute the number of those belonging to you who have been made captives, your motive for protracting hostilities must arise from some other cause; as that the power of the emperor appeared to have become less, or that he needed to make an apology. I also am a servant of the emperor. I have some hope my sentiments will have a good effect. I have entered in between you with the view of effecting a reconciliation. So soon, then, as the line of boundaries can be settled as it was formerly, I shall return: otherwise it is not his majesty’s pleasure that one of the name of Abbás should remain a sovereign in the palace of the world. How many years has the Moslem army wintered in this quarter? The secret decrees of fate are seemingly developed or developing by this fact. God seems ready to take vengeance.”
Some time before this answer was sent, however, Murád received a letter from the sháh by Shams-ud-dín Mohammed Aghá, proposing terms of peace. The grand vezír, after a long consultation about this matter, returned an answer by one Khair-ud-dín Chávush, whom he sent along with the sháh’s messenger when he returned. Very near a whole year passed away, however, before the sháh deigned to return any answer to the grand vezír’s communications; but on the 27th of Jemadi II., when the Moslem army, numerous as the stars, arrived at Erzerúm with the view of protecting and defending the imperial possessions secured by treaty to the Ottoman government in the days of Sultán Murád Khán, at this date Khair-ud-dín Chávush and Mohammed Aghá arrived, bringing with them a letter from the sháh. This letter contained hardly any thing more than what his former one did respecting the grounds of complaint, which we need not again repeat. Suffice it to say, that the correspondence on both sides was carried on to a great length. It was said, that if there existed a real desire to promote an agreement, it should be in accordance with those stipulations entered into during former reigns; but it is quite evident the emperor had no intention of entering into engagements which would strip him of his possessions in those quarters which had been conquered during the reign of Sultán Murád Khán.
Other events of this year.
On the 2d of Rabia I., when the commanding-general removed from Scutari and had arrived at Mai dipa, he received intelligence of the death of his highness, Ahmed Gheráí, khán of the Crimea, and by his kind interference Jánbeg Gheráí was raised to the khánship. On the 15th of Rabia II. the ornamenting, repairing, and beautifying of the Kaaba and its dependencies were finished, which cost in all 18,141 miscals.[22] The work was commenced last year and finished in this.
The lord high admiral, Khalíl Páshá, having again put to sea with the royal fleet, he appointed Mímí Beg, beg of Rhodes, chief over a number of other begs, and dispatched him off in one of the vessels which had been destined for conveying provisions from Alexandria. Mímí Beg accomplished the task assigned to him, and afterwards fell in with an enemy’s ship of war at a place called Funka, which he soon disabled and sunk. Khalíl Páshá himself, whilst continuing his cruizing voyage after vessels belonging to the infidels, pursued his course along Negropont, Modon, and Navarin. At one or other of these places he received intelligence from Mímí Beg, that five large vessels belonging to Tuscany were somewhere at sea near Cyprus. The admiral immediately steered away from the shores of the Morea towards Cyprus, which place he reached about the commencement of Rajab after a sail of eight days, and discovered the above vessels before Oghuz Búrni, near Báf, watching the arrival of the Egyptian fleet. The admiral, Khalíl Páshá, now prepared for battle; but in consequence of a heavy gale of wind which suddenly arose, he found it impossible, notwithstanding his utmost efforts, to come into actual contact with them. Night came on; the wind became more fierce and boisterous, and by daylight on the following morning no traces of the enemy’s vessels could be discovered; nor was it known whither they had steered. The Turkish admiral now directed his course towards the island of Rhodes, and during the voyage picked up a straggling adventurer and one or two of the enemy’s ships. Soleimán Páshá, also, whom he had ordered away with ten vessels in search of the Tuscany ships, returned with two corsairs and two other vessels which he had taken in the roads of Messina and Malta, and joined the Turkish fleet, which directed its course to the port of Constantinople, having about eight prizes and a hundred captives to grace its entrance into that port; and when the admiral presented himself before the exalted diván, orders were given to confer on him a robe of honour for the services which he had rendered.
During the winter of this year messengers from the sháh arrived with letters containing humble proposals of peace, offering, at the same time, as one of the conditions, to pay an annual tax of two hundred yúks (loads) of silk for those provinces which had been wrested out of his hands, though they formerly formed part of the Persian dominions. He also requested that the government of Turkey, if it pleased, might have a beglerbeg over those provinces. The sagacious Murád Páshá wrote a report of these offers, and sent it along with the sháh’s messengers to the court of Constantinople. The purpose of his sending these ambassadors to the court of Istámbol was to excite the sháh’s hopes, and thus give him a hare’s sleep, while, in fact, he was meditating the devastation of the country on the return of spring.
The death of Murád Páshá, grand vezír and commander-in-chief.—Nesúh Páshá succeeds to the premiership.
At the time his excellency, the grand vezír and commander-in-chief, Murád Páshá, went to Tabríz, the válí of Diárbeker, Nesúh Páshá, sent a private letter to the emperor, stating that if he would remove Murád Páshá out of the premiership, and confer the seals on himself, he would, in return, make him a present of forty thousand gold pieces in ready money, and bear the expense, besides, of the increase of provisions which was to be made to the army. This letter the emperor enclosed in a government despatch for Murád Páshá, and sent it off by a courier. The commanding-general was no doubt surprised when he read the document which had been sent to him, and immediately sent for Nesúh. Nesúh, no way aware of the reason for which he had been invited, appeared before the grand vezír without suspicion. The latter handed to him his own letter to the emperor, and asked him if he could recognize the hand-writing. Nesúh, a bold and fearless Albanian, replied, without a moment’s hesitation, it was his. “You ought, then,” said the commanding-general, “to advance the gold you have promised, and provide the provisions for the army which you have also stipulated.” Nesúh, no way embarrassed, showed his readiness to comply. Those officers who surrounded Murád Páshá, on this occasion, seemed very much surprised at what had transpired, and said, that many a commanding-general would have punished with death a fault much less than that which Nesúh had committed. “You are certainly,” said they, in their surprise and indignation, “seeking to compass this base and worthless hypocrite’s destruction?” His excellency, the commanding-general, with his usual prudence and good-nature, denied having entertained any such intention. “On the contrary,” said he, “a bold, active and dexterous man of this kind may be very useful to the government; and what he has offered to do may prove to be of advantage.” He added a few more remarks which were intended to make an impression on the mind of his rival.
The winter-months passed away, and the time for again marching against the heretical sháh approached. The commander-in-chief caused his pavilion to be erected on the outside of the walls of Diárbeker. This very movement, inasmuch as it presaged hostility, alarmed the sháh to such a degree that he again sent to the commanding general a supplicating letter, similar to that he had formerly sent him, praying for a cessation of hostilities. The illustrious commander amused him with hopes, but was all the while making preparations for commencing the attack. But in the midst of all this, it pleased God to remove him by death. This event took place on the 25th of Jemadi I.; and Mohammed Aghá, ághá of the janissaries, was, in conformity to Murád’s own desire, expressed some time before his death, appointed by the government, in the mean time, to take the command of the army. When Nesúh Páshá’s friends heard of Murád’s death, they used their utmost efforts to get him into the premiership, the great object of his ambition. On the 12th of the following month the wishes of both were realized by the seals of office being sent to Nesúh. He was made commander-in-chief of the forces at the same time.
The new grand vezír commenced his career in manifesting the same determined hostility against the sháh that his predecessor had done. This, of course, doubly increased the fears of the Persian king (the subversion of whose dominions had been the ardent desire of Murád Páshá), and led him to repeat his former intreaties: promising, at the same time, to submit to that subjection to the Ottoman emperor which had formerly been yielded to that monarch. But before these last proffers had been announced at Constantinople, the sháh requested to be allowed some delay to provide the quantity of silk which he had stipulated. This petition was incautiously listened to by the new minister, who, by this time, had disbanded his army. He was, moreover, much to blame for permitting the sháh’s ambassadors to proceed to Constantinople. They, themselves, were importunate in demanding from the grand vezír permission to proceed thither on the object of their embassy, alleging that on the frontiers no proper settlement between the two countries could be effected; but by some inexplicable conduct of the new grand vezír, a whole year passed away before matters were fully and properly adjusted.
In addition to the repairs and ornaments which had been bestowed on the Ka’ba, it was still found necessary to bind the pillars thereof in two different places with hoops, and for which purpose iron ones, plated with pure gold and choice silver, were provided. The aqueduct, which had been necessarily altered in the days of Soleimán, was furnished and ornamented with splendid boards. The emperor, being intent on beautifying the Ka’ba still more, removed into the garden of Stavros, where the contemplated work for the holy place might be carried on to better purpose under his own inspection. With this view he called thither all the goldsmiths, provided bellows, and the work immediately commenced under his own auspices, and the inspection of all his great men. This work, and the artizans employed on it, were afterwards removed to the garden of Davd Páshá, where the emperor himself took up his abode; and when the whole was finished, in conformity with the pattern which had been chosen, a pavilion was raised in front of the works for his majesty, and a throne was erected within it on which he sat. In this position, surrounded by the mufti, ulemá and his vezírs, he contemplated the articles which had been made; conferred robes of honour on those of his grandees of every rank and degree, who were present, as tokens of his royal munificence and approbation; and on the same day, raised Mohammed Aghá of the Salihdárs to the government of Egypt. About this same time the emperor ordered a shade or covering to be erected over the well near the arsenal.