[194] Cf. Osmanzadeh, Solakzadeh, and Abdurrahman Sheref.
[195] This story is told by all the Turkish historians, generally with sympathy for Iskender. Cf. Abdurrahman, Petchevi, Solakzadeh.
[196] Cantimir, vol. ii, p. 313. Also Trevisano, op. cit.
[197] The testimony of the Venetian bailli here seems to us to outweigh the probably legendary tale told by Baudier, which however I will give. “The Sultanas (Suleiman’s mother and his wife Roxelana) observe the murmuring of the people against the favorite, and what the great men speak of him, and tell Suleiman. Moreover as they were busy to destroy his greatness, they discover that the pasha favored the house of Austria, and had secret intelligence with the Emperor Charles V. This treachery being told to Suleiman, he decided upon Ibrahim’s death, but required a dispensation from his oath never to disgrace Ibrahim while he lived. One of his learned men gave him a pleasant Expedit to free himself of the pasha and yet keep his word. ‘You have sworn, Sire, not to put him to death while you are living; cause him to be strangled while you are asleep. Life consists in vigilant action, and he that sleeps doth not truly live; so you may punish his disloyalty and not violate your oath.’ Suleiman sends for Ibrahim, and after they have supped he shows him his crimes by his own letters to Charles V and Ferdinand, reproaches him for his ingratitude, and commands his mutes to strangle him while he himself is asleep. He then goes to bed.”
The story of the evasion of the oath through the ingenuity of a “wise man” is plausible, being in entire keeping with Turkish custom, but Baudier gives no sources, and I have found none of the facts above stated, in any other record.
[198] Solakzadeh, Petchevi.
[199] Trevisano, III, i, p. 115.
[200] Histoire de l’Empire Ottomane, vol. ii, p. 338.
[201] One private note was as follows, and surely was not written to a traitor: “Pro ea tamen confidentia et existimatione in qua vos apud Dominum vestrum merito esse scimus, omittere non potuimus qum vobis tamquam rerum omnium directori secreto et optimo atque etiam scientissimo ea super literis vestris significaremus que pro nunc requiruntur.” Gévay II, 23.
[202] Iskender’s testimony is reported by Cantimir and Trevisano.