Bird of my soul, be patient of thy cage,
This body, lo! how fast it wastes with age.
The tinkling bells already do I hear
Proclaim the caravans departure near.
Soon shall it reach the land of nothingness,
And thee, from fleshy bonds delivered, bless.
In this kind of elegies he was an incomparable poet. Sultán Báyazíd at length sent an ambassador to the King of France and claimed Jem-Sháh. On this the ill-complexioned Frank caused a sallow-faced fellow to cut his throat while shaving him with a poisoned razor. The corpse of Jem, together with his property, amongst which was an enchanted cup, which became brimful as soon as delivered empty into the cup-bearers hand, a white parrot, a chess-playing monkey, and some thousands of splendid books, were delivered up to Sa’dí Chelebí (Sivrí Hisárí) and Haïder Chelebí, that they might be conveyed to the Sultán. Jem’s Sa’dí [i.e. Sivrí Hisárí], being a learned and acute man, first dyed the parrot black, and taught him to say, “Verily we belong to God, and to Him shall we return! Long live the Emperor!” He then returned to him with the remains of his master, and delivered over his property to the imperial treasury. But when Báyazíd asked “where is the white parrot?” the bird immediately repeated the above-mentioned text, and added: “Sire, Jem-Sháh having entered into the mercy of his Lord, I have put off the attire of the angel clad in white, and clothed myself in the black of mourning weeds.”—“How!” said the Sultán, addressing himself to Sivrí Hisárí, “did they kill my brother Jem?” “By Heaven! O Emperor!” replied he, “though he indulged in wine, yet he never drank it but out of that enchanted cup, nor did he ever mingle with the infidels, but spent all his time in composing poetry; so by God’s will there was a certain barber named Yán Oghlí (John’s son), who shaved him with a poisoned razor, which made his face and eyes swell, and he was suffocated.” Báyazíd ordered the remains of Jem to be buried at Brúsah, beside his grandfather Murád II. While they were digging the grave there was such a thunder-clap and tumult in the sepulchral chapel, that all who were present fled, but not a soul of them was able to pass its threshold till ten days had passed, when this having been represented to the Sultán, the corpse of Jem was buried by his order in his own mausoleum, near to that of his grandfather. Prince Jem Sháh died in A.H. 900, after having spent eleven years in travelling through Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and in Firengistán, through Spain and France, and having escaped from his brother’s den, and drunk of the cup of Jem, he at last was intoxicated by drinking of the cup of Fate. According to the French account, however, another person was killed by the poisoned razor, and his corpse was sent to Rúm (Turkey) instead of the remains of Jem, who in fact became King of France, and was the forefather of the present sovereign of that country. On enquiring into this report, and hearing what had happened at the tomb, viz. that Murád would not allow the corpse to be buried in his mausoleum, he ordered it to be interred elsewhere. After the taking of Uïvár (Raab) in the year 1073 (A.D. 1662-3), Mohammed Páshá was sent as ambassador the following year, 1074 (1663-4), into Germany (Alámán Díarí), in order to conclude a peace with the emperor of that country (Nemseh-Chásárí): having accompanied him I spent three years in visiting, under the protection of a passport (pátentah) written by him, the seven kingdoms of Káfirístán. Having set foot on the land of Dúnkárkeïn (Dunkirk), situated on the shore of the ocean which separates the eastern side of the New World from France, I passed the Ramazán of the year 1075 (March 1665) there, and having an acquaintance with some well-informed priests (pápáslar), I asked them about the history of Jem-Sháh. They answered, that when the order came from the ’Osmánlí (Sultán) to kill Jem, the French king spared him out of pity, as being a relation to the ’Osmánlí (family) and his own sister’s son, and that having caused another person who resembled Jem to be poisoned, they sent his corpse to Islámból, saying it was that of Jem: that having been afterwards made king of the country on the borders of France (tísh Fránsah) at the time of the conquest of Egypt by Sultán Selím, he sent him presents with letters of congratulation on his victory. They also confirmed the account of the near relationship between the House of ’Osmán and the Kings of France through the mother of Sultán Báyazíd and the progeny of King Jem. He is buried, they added, in a mausoleum (kubbah) in a garden like Irem, outside of the city of Paris, where all the Musulmáns his companions and slaves have been entombed. It is on account of this relationship between the house of ’Osmán and the French kings, that when the foreign ambassadors are assembled in the díván the Frank ambassadors stand below, because their sovereigns are not Moslems; but the French is placed above the Persian ambassador, below whom the German envoy is seated, so that the ambassador from Persia has an infidel on each side. Murád IV., conqueror of Baghdád, altered this regulation, and gave precedence to the French ambassador over all others, and the Russian (Moskov) then taking the right hand of the Persian; an arrangement which offended the German ambassador, but he was obliged to acquiesce in it. This distinguished honour was granted to France because a French princess was the mother of Sultán Báyazíd.
Let us now return from this digression to the siege of the castle of Kostantín. Sultán Mohammed Khán having taken the daughter of the King of France out of the booty of the captured fleet, and by the advice of the captors, placed the rest in the hands of Ak-Shémsu-d-dín to be divided among the army, continued to encourage the besiegers. At length the fiftieth day came. It was manifest that all was terror and confusion within the city, and these graceless Christian infidels planting a white flag on the ramparts, cried out, “Quarter, O chosen House of ’Osmán! we will deliver up the city.” A respite of one day was therefore given to all the unbelievers, to go by land or sea to any country that they would. The Sultán then having the pontifical turban on his head, and sky-blue boots on his feet, mounted on a mule, and bearing the sword of Mohammed in his hand, marched in at the head of 70,000 or 80,000 Muselmán heroes, crying out, “Halt not, conquerors! God be praised! Ye are the vanquishers of Kostantaniyyeh!” He led them directly to the palace of Constantine (Takfúr Seráï), where he found some thousands of infidels assembled and prepared to defend it resolutely. A great battle ensued, and in that contest Kostantín, the king, was slain, and buried with the rest of the faithless (káfirs) in the Water Monastery (Súlú Menastir). The treasures in the king’s palace were so great that God only knows their amount. They were amassed by this Kostantín, who was a merchant, and as rapacious as a griffin (’anká), and had rebuilt Islámbúl the ninth time. Mohammed proceeded to the church of Ayá Sófiyah in order to express his thanks by saying a prayer, accompanied by two inclinations of the head (rik’at). Twelve thousand monks who dwelt within and all around it, having closed its doors, threw from the roof, towers, turrets, and belfries, arrows and burning pitch, and naptha on the Moslems. Mohammed having invested the church with the armies of Islám, like a swarm of hornets, for three days and three nights, at length took it on the fifty-third day. He then having slain a few monks, entered the church, bearing the standard of the Prophet of God in his hand, and planting it on the high altar (mihráb), chaunted, for the first time, the Mohammedan ezán (call to prayers). The rest of the Muselmán victors having put the monks to the edge of the sword, Ayá Sófiyah, was deluged with the blood of the idolaters. Mohammed, in order to leave them a memorial of his skill in archery, shot a four-winged arrow into the centre of the cupola, and the trace of his arrow is still shown there. One of the archers of the Sultán’s guard having killed an infidel with his left hand, and filled his right with his blood, came into the Sultán’s presence, and clapping his hand red with blood on a white marble column, left the impression of a hand and fingers, which is still seen near the turbeh-kapú-sí. It is on the opposite corner as one enters, at the height of five men’s stature above the ground.
Eulogium on Yá Vudúd Sultán.
While Sultán Mohammed was going in solemn procession round Ayá Sófiyah a flash of lightning was seen to strike a place called Terlú-direk, and on going thither they found a body lying with its face turned towards the kibleh, and written on its illuminated breast in crimson characters, the name Yá Vudúd (O All-loving). Ak-Shemsu-d-dín, Karah-Shemsu-d-dín, and the other seventy holy men, exclaimed, “This, O Emperor! was the cause of Islámból’s falling on the fiftieth day.” Having prayed that it might fall in fifty days, on that very day he resigned his soul and bore his prayer to heaven. Then while all those learned, righteous and excellent men were making the necessary preparations for washing that noble corpse, a voice was heard from the corner of the Terlú-direk (the sweating column), saying: “He is washed and received into mercy, now therefore inter him.” All were breathless with astonishment: and those venerable sheïkhs having placed the illustrious corpse of Yá Vudúd Sultán on a bier, and intending to bury him near Shehíd-kapú-sí, proceeded to the stairs of Emír Oní, where the bier was put into a boat, which instantly, without an oar plyed or a sail set, flew like lightning, and did not stop till it came near [the tomb of] Abú Iyyúb Ensárí. There the holy man was buried, and the neighbouring landing-place was thence called Yá Vudúd Iskeleh-sí.