Sultán Ahmed died before the outer court, the mausoleum, and the college were completed. They were finished by his brother and successor Sultán Mustafá, who, however, being very weak-minded, was soon compelled to abdicate the throne in favour of his nephew Othmán Khán, the eldest of Sultán Ahmed’s sons. He ascended the throne in the year 1027 (1617). In the same year Mohammed Gheráï Khán of the Crimea effected his escape from the Seven Towers, and fled to Právádí, where however he was retaken. The Moslem army marched to Eriván, and a peace was concluded with the Persians. In 1028 (1618) Súfí Mohammed Páshá became grand vezír, and in the following year he was succeeded by Kapúdán Alí Páshá. In the year 1030 the Bosphorus was frozen over; Othmán killed his brother; and Husain Páshá was made grand vezír.
The Imperial Expedition against Hotín.
Sultán Othmán having in 1030 (1620) failed in his attempt to reduce the fortress of Hotín, returned to Islámból, and in the following year he ordered the banners to be raised at Uskudár, as a sign of his marching to the southern provinces of the empire, to Syria and to Egypt. This caused a revolt amongst the troops, and the emperor finding no support, either in the seráï (palace) or in the barracks of the Janissaries, was thrust into a cart by the wrestler Bunyán and strangled within the walls of the Seven Towers. The Jebbehjí-báshí cut off one of his ears and carried it with the news of his murder to Dávud Páshá. His body was buried in the At-maidán in the mausoleum of Sultán Ahmed Khán. He was cut off by fate before he could leave any monument of his reign.
Sultán Mustafá now ascended the throne a second time, and commenced his reign by executing all those who had taken any share in the murder of Sultán Othmán. Khoaja Omar Efendí, the chief of the rebels, the Kizlar-ághá Soleïmán Aghá, the vezír Diláver Páshá, the Káïm-makám Ahmed Páshá, the defterdár Bákí Páshá, the segbán-báshí Nasúh Aghá, and the general of the Janissaries Alí Aghá, were cut to pieces. Dávud Páshá was created grand vezír because he was the son of Sultán Mustafá’s sister. He was afterwards killed by Murád IV. In the same night the white eunuchs also cut their ághá into pieces, threw the body out, and afterwards suspended it by the feet on the serpent-column in the At-maidán.
The most distinguished divines during the reign of Sultán Othmán were: The Shaikh al Islám Asa’d Efendí; the Nakíb ul Ashraf or head of the Emírs Ghobárí Efendí; Zekeriá Zádeh Yahíá Efendí; and Arzí Zádeh Háletí Efendí.
The Mesháiekh, or learned men, were: Omar Efendí; Sívásí Efendí, and Dervísh Efendí.
Dávud Páshá was nominated grand vezír, but was instantly deposed because that on the very day of his appointment the rebels plundered some thousands of respectable houses. Lefkelí Mustafá Páshá received the seals, and kept them two months and eighteen days, he was subsequently appointed to the governments of Kastamúní and Nicomedia. He was of a gentle disposition, and unable to check the rebellious spirit of the times. The office of grand vezír was next conferred upon Kara Husain Páshá. This vezír assembled a diván of all the Mollás in the mosque of Mohammed II., but they were all murdered by the rebellious populace, and their bodies thrown into the wells in the court of the mosque. The rebellion increased every day, and every one disregarded the laws. Abáza Páshá also raised the standard of rebellion at Erzerúm; and the vezír Mahmúd Páshá was sent against him. The Persians took possession of Baghdád and Mosúl. Háfiz Ahmed Páshá returned without succeeding in taking Baghdád from the Persians. The Arabian tribe of Táï plundered the Persian camp. Kara Husain Páshá had the seals of office taken from him: they were transferred to Kemán-kesh Alí Páshá in 1032 (1622). After a reign of one year and four months, Sultán Mustafá was deposed a second time, and was succeeded by Sultán Murád IV. He was tall and corpulent, round-faced, with a black beard, open eye-brows, and grey eyes. He had large shoulders and a thin waist, strong arms, and a hand like the paw of a lion. No monarch of the Ottomans was ever so powerful in subduing rebels, maintaining armies, and in dealing justice. Being aware that the vezír Kemán-kesh Alí Páshá secretly favoured the rebels, he slew him without mercy. This vezír was a native of Hamíd, and left the royal harem when he was appointed governor of Baghdád and Díárbekr, whence he returned as successor to Kara Husain the grand vezír. He fell a victim to his own avarice, and was succeeded by Cherkess Mohammed Páshá, who died at Tokát in 1034 (1624). After him Háfiz Ahmed Páshá was made grand vezír. The Georgian Beg Máúro killed the Persian Khán Kárchegháï, and subdued Georgia. Háfiz Ahmed Páshá besieged Baghdád, but to no purpose, in 1035 (1625). Khalíl Páshá received the seals of office a second time, and was appointed commander-in-chief against Abáza. Díshlenk Husain, who had marched against Kars to rescue it from the infidels, fell a martyr, and his whole army was put to rout. Khosrau Páshá was next made grand vezír, and took Erzerúm from the rebel Abáza, and Akhiska from the Persians. He brought Abáza before Sultán Murád in 1038 (1628), and obtained the royal pardon for him. He then marched to Sheherzúl, built the castle of Erkek Hamíd on the frontiers of Sheherzúl, reduced Mehrebán, plundered the Persian provinces and twenty castles near Báerján, and laid waste the suburbs of Hamadán and Dergezín in the year 1039 (1629). The year after, Khosrau Páshá succeeded in opening the trenches before Baghdád, but it being the middle of winter, he was obliged to raise the siege and to retreat to Hella and Mosúl. He was then deposed, and his office was given a second time to Háfiz Ahmed Páshá, whilst he himself was executed at Tokút. Rajab Páshá was made grand vezír; and the defterdár Mustafá Páshá was hanged with his head downwards in the At-maidán. Háfiz Ahmed Páshá was stabbed in the Sultán’s presence, and cut to pieces. The Aghá of the Janissaries, Hasan Khalifeh, and Músá Chelebí the emperor’s favourite, were both put to death. Yassí Mohammed Páshá was created a vezír in 1041 (1631). Sultán Murád had a dream in which he received a sword from the hand of Omar, with which he slew the Shaikh al Islám Husain, and then with a bismillah (in the name of God) fell upon the rebels and killed them all. In 1044 Sultán Murád marched to Eriván, and took Tabríz and the town of Eriván in seven days; he left Murtezá Páshá with a garrison of 40,000 men, and returned to Islámbol. His entrance was celebrated in 1045 (1634) by a festival of seven days. The ill-favoured Sháh (of Persia) however returned and laid siege to Eriván, which being left without sufficient strength, after a siege of seven months fell into the hands of the infidels, who put the whole of the garrison to the sword. Sultán Murád, on receiving the melancholy news, took the seals from Mohammed Páshá and appointed him governor of Silistria. The seals were transferred to Bairám Páshá, who however died soon after, and was succeeded by Tayyár Páshá. To him was entrusted all the necessary preparations for the expedition against Baghdád, which was undertaken by the emperor in person. Tayyár Páshá was killed during the siege, which lasted forty days. He was succeeded by the Kapúdán Kara Mustafá Páshá. Melek Ahmed Páshá, late salihdár, or sword-bearer of the Sultán, was appointed to the command of Díárbekr, and Kúchúk Hasan Páshá to that of Baghdád, with a garrison of 40,000 men. By the decree of God, when after the fall of Baghdád a great number of Kizilbáshes (red-heads or Persians) had assembled and were preparing to make an attack at one of the gates, a large powder magazine exploded, and thus the blood of the true believers which had been shed at Eriván was fully avenged. Kara Mustafá Páshá the grand vezír, and my lord Melek Ahmed Páshá, were sent to Derneh and Derteng, to conclude the treaty with the Persians, and to fix the boundary lines. Sultán Murád Khán, next went to Díárbekr, where in one day he put to death the daughter of Kímájí Ma’án Oghlí, and the Shaikh of Rúmieh. He then returned to the Porte of Felicity (Constantinople), on which occasion seven days were spent in general festivity. About this time Sultán Murád, having repented of his wine-drinking propensity, by way of expiation, resolved upon an expedition against the infidels of Malta, and ordered five hundred galleys, two large máonas, and one admiral’s ship (báshtirda) to be built. This same year the grand vezír Mustafá Páshá returned to Constantinople, and the emperor, forgetting his vows of repentance, again fell into the vice of drunkenness, and his royal constitution being thoroughly weakened, he died after having been lord of the carpet (i.e. confined to bed) fourteen days. May God have mercy upon him! He was buried in the mausoleum of his illustrious grandfather Sultán Ahmed, in the At-maidán. Several chronograms of his death are inscribed by Júrí, on the walls of the inner apartments in the seráï. He had thirty-two children, of whom only one, the Sultána Esmahán Kíá, remained alive at his death. She too died after her marriage with Melek Ahmed Páshá, and was buried at Ayá Sofía between Sultán Ibráhím and Sultán Mustafá. Sultán Murád’s reign having been extremely turbulent, and being constantly engaged in warlike preparations in every quarter, he had no opportunity of raising to himself any monument of importance in Islámbol. The only public work executed in his reign was the repairing of the walls of Islámbol, which was undertaken by his express orders during his absence at the siege of Eriván by the Káïm-makám Bairám Páshá. He repaired the castles of Mosúl, Sheherzúl, Chengí-ahmed, Tenedos, and of the Bosphorus, and at Islámból the Gul-jámi’ (rose-mosque).
Description of the Gul-Jámi’.
This is a very ancient mosque, and was known in the times of Harún-ur-rashíd, Omar ben ’Abdu-l-’azíz, Moslemah, Sultán Yelderím Báyazíd, and Sultán Mohammed the conqueror. In the reign of Sultán Murád Khán a great earthquake so shook it that its foundations were completely destroyed, and the emperor immediately undertook to repair it. Several thousand workmen were employed upon it, and in seven years it was completed. Several small cupolas were added to the principal one, whence it assumed the appearance of a rose, and thence its name. It was also washed with an hundred measures of rose-water. The mehráb and minber are extremely plain. There are no granite columns in it as in the other mosques. On account of the great antiquity of this mosque, prayers in distress for rain and on extraordinary occasions are offered up in it. On both sides of the gate of the Kibla (facing the mehráb) there are benches. There is no court-yard. The mosque has only one minár of but one story high; for the original building having been destroyed by an earthquake, they were afraid to erect any lofty building upon the spot.
Besides the above mosque, Murád built two new castles on the Bosphorus, near the entrance to the Black Sea, with an arsenal and a mosque proportionate to their size. At Kandillí-bághcheh he built a large koshk, another at Istávros, and one in the gardens of Uskudár (Scutari), which was called the koshk of Eriván.