[26] Francis de Savona. This must be a mistake: his name was Julius della Rovere. He was born at Albizale, a village near to Savona.
[27] Saulse. Q. Sault? a small territory adjoining Roussillon.
[28] Aubusson. He was grand prior of Auvergne, and descended from the ancient viscounts of la Marche. Pope Innocent sent him the cardinal's hat, for having delivered up to his guard Zimim brother to Bajazet.
THE SOPHI OF PERSIA MAKES WAR ON THE TURK USSON CASSAN[29].
The grand master of Rhodes received on the 7th of December, in the year 1502, intelligence from Armenia and Persia, that one called Sophi Christian, or Red Bonnet of Armenia, had assembled an army of forty thousand men, to enable him to revenge the death of his father by Usson Cassan, a Turk, and to recover all the Sophines who had been sent prisoners to Turkey. Having considered the iniquity of the grand Turk, and his infamous conduct to these Sophines, he set out from his country, called Adanil, twelve days journey from Tauris, accompanied by only one hundred warriors, and arrived near to Arzian[30], a town of Usson Cassan, whose friendship and alliance he besought on account of his mother, sister to Usson Cassan, pretending that he was waiting the arrival of his attendants. But he disguised his feelings of injury from the grand Turk, who detained his Sophines in abject vassalage: however, within a fortnight, he was joined by about sixteen thousand men, with whom he entered Arzian by force, and put to death all the inhabitants, both great and small.
Among other acts worthy of remembrance, in all the mosques, or temples, of the Turks, he had the horses and camels tied up as in a stable, to show his contempt for them, and had them afterwards razed to the ground. There had been a temple of the Christians which the Turks had destroyed; but Sophi had it immediately rebuilt, and handsomely restored. The army of Sophi continually increasing, he advanced into the province of Firnam, which belonged also to Usson Cassan. Usson Cassan perceiving that Sophi was subjugating his country, and the whole of the Turks in this province, amounting to more than fifty thousand, assembled his army, and offered battle to Sophi, who defeated him completely, and made him prisoner. He entered victoriously the town of Sarda, where he staid three months, and thence advanced to Tharabe, a town of Usson Cassan, which instantly surrendered.
As he approached the country of Sultania, he was met by the children of Usson Cassan, with an army of twenty-five thousand men. Sophi gave them battle, and defeated them. One of the children was killed in the combat: the others were taken prisoners, and put to a disgraceful death by cutting them in pieces. Not one of their army was permitted to live.