EVENTS of the Year 1015, H.
On the afternoon of the same day the son of an aged man who had retired from his beglerbegship was beheaded, and his property seized by the avaricious Dervísh; but though all who witnessed this cruel transaction hesitated not to speak of it as an act of foul murder, yet it had not the effect of preventing a concourse of nobles and grandees coming to congratulate the new grand vezír on his elevation to the premiership. On the third day after Dervísh Páshá’s exaltation, the emperor’s chaplain waited on him to pay his respects; and the mufti effendí, the Moslem high priest, after having performed the public service at the mosque, waited on the prime minister and kindly joined with him in his afternoon devotions. When the reverend mufti was about to retire, the grand vezír informed him that there would be no public diván on the following day, but that a council would be held in the royal presence, and at which he invited him to be present. The reverend high priest bowed and promised to attend.
Next morning the whole of the ministers and the reverend effendís met in council in the imperial presence, and after listening to the opening speech of the emperor, they were informed that it was then too far in the season to prosecute any farther, that year, the object which he had in view in ordering preparations in behalf of Anatolia and the east; and then added, that it would be far more advisable to let things remain as they then were until the following year, when the preparations alluded to would be again resumed. The council, on hearing these sentiments uttered, were struck dumb with surprise. At length the mufti effendí spoke. “With indecent impatience, certainly,” said the reverend prelate, “your slave (Lálá Mohammed Páshá) was hurried in the work of preparation for the war in the east, and contrary to the views of almost all here present, his tent was ordered to be erected at Scutari. Is it prudent, think you, sire, to call back to Constantinople the camp there established? Rather let the commander-in-chief (probably Nesúh) go on to Aleppo; there winter, and make preparations for commencing, in the spring, hostilities against the Persians.” His majesty to this replied, by asking him what advantage he thought would accrue from following that advice. “ Why,” rejoined the reverend prelate, “the advantage which will accrue is this: the royal camp will not have gone forth for no purpose: the royal pavilion (the serdár’s tent) will not have been erected in the sight of friend and foe in vain. When Sultán Soleimán Khán went to the Nakhcheván war he wintered at Aleppo, and when the following spring arrived, he marched to the east. Such is the method which ought now to be pursued.” The emperor again enquired what good he supposed or imagined would result from following the course he had pointed out. The reverend mufti hastily replied: “was it creditable that a Moslem army, encamped at Scutari, and ready for entering into the scene of action, should be recalled before that army had accomplished the purpose for which it had been assembled? At least, should not that army, I ask, even though it should accomplish nothing more, be sent to protect our possessions in the east?” The emperor, pressed by the reasoning of the high priest, answered, that Ferhád Páshá might proceed with a few troops, and take the camp at Scutari along with him. “Well, then,” asked Siná-allah Effendí, “shall not a sum of money be allowed for the purpose of purchasing provisions for them?” The emperor briefly answered, “that there was no money in the treasury; and whence,” said he, “can I furnish money for that purpose?” The reverend prelate, still persevering in pressing the emperor, asked if the treasury of Egypt might not afford a supply. “That,” rejoined the emperor, “is for our private expenses; we cannot part with the funds supplied from that quarter.” “Why, then,” continued the high priest, and without being in the least awed or terrified, “how did your ancestor, Sultán Soleimán Khán, do when he went to the war at Sigetwar at a time when his treasury was drained? Thus: he took all the gold and silver vessels which were in the royal house, sent them to the mint, caused them to be melted down into specie, and thus provided himself with the means of paying the expense of the war. Doubtless,” added the bold and fearless priest, “doubtless, the treasury of Egypt can well afford to advance the sum requisite for the object now proposed.” The emperor knit his brow and thus addressed the mufti: “Thou dost not comprehend my meaning, effendí; thou understandest not my words. Times are not always alike. The circumstance you refer to was requisite for that time. Why is it that you assume the present exigency to be similar to that which existed at the period you have mentioned?” The menla, perceiving his oratory had made no impression on the mind of the emperor, rose up with the rest of the counsellors and departed.
Kátib Chelebí says, in his Fezliké, that Hasan Beg Zádeh has recorded this story in his history as a well authenticated fact. The circumstance referred to in the reign of Soleimán and that now related, can admit, we think, of no comparison, and it would be an error in judgment to suppose them similar. The opinion of the emperor, as expressed in the conversation we have related, seems to have been incontestably correct.
Dervísh Páshá was very much offended at the bold and fearless way in which the reverend mufti expressed himself in the above council; he perceived, or thought he perceived, the mufti had laboured hard to get him sent off to the eastern provinces. So much, indeed, did this evil-minded vezír feel himself aggrieved by the sentiments expressed by the mufti, that he determined on getting him deprived of his theological prerogative of issuing fetwas; a difficulty, however, presented itself, to get rid of which he was much puzzled. “If,” thought he, “I make Khoaja Zádeh mufti (the emperor’s chaplain), his two brothers, already in power, will form a union with him, and then they will deny me the liberty of speech.” This thought had the effect of making him change his mind with regard to Khoaja Zádeh, and he at last raised Abulmeymín Mustafa Effendí, a second time, to the sacred office of mufti.
Although Dervísh Páshá had used every method he could contrive, however unworthy, of getting the late grand vezír, Lálá Mohammed Páshá, sent to the eastern provinces, yet he himself, now that he was made grand vezír, manifested the utmost unwillingness to undertake the task he wished so earnestly to impose upon his predecessor. Being, as he thought, secure in the premiership, and courted by all ranks of men, he became lavish in his promises, and exposed himself to the art and cunning of sycophants who crowded round him. One of the thousand flatterers who sounded his praises, and who was anxious to be put in possession of a good situation, when talking with him one day, went the length, in his fulsome adulations, thus to address him: “My lord, thou art the sun that illuminates the world, which scatters a reviving light throughout all regions, and which removes the darkness from the world.” This contemptible, mean fellow, who ascribed to him epithets which only belong to God, he promoted to a situation of honour and emolument; demonstrations that this sort of flattery and adulation was pleasing to his heart and suitable to the state of his mind.
To escape the fatigues incident to a military life, he found or invented means to prevent his being sent to take command of the Ottoman armies, and got the emperor to favour his remaining at home. What he himself declined he transferred to another. Ferhád Páshá was fixed on to take the command of the troops destined for the east, which were still encamped at Scutari. Ferhád’s inexperience and unfitness for the important office assigned him was but too evident to every one; but to promote his own views and purposes Dervísh Páshá got this man appointed commander-in-chief, notwithstanding his utter unfitness for so great an undertaking as that of commanding the army of the east against the enemies of the Ottoman empire.
Ferhád passed over to Scutari on the 4th of the month Sefer. Osmán Aghá, ketkhodá of the janissaries, with 10,000 troops, six companies of artillery, and the provincial troops of Caramania and Sivás, were all to act under his command.
This expedition, however, as might have been anticipated, failed. Want of generalship in the commander, added to the absence of common feeling between him and his various troops; his ignorance, rashness, and scurrility of tongue, all contributed to estrange the troops from him. A violent contention having taken place between him and the spáhís, they raised a commotion about their pay, and attacked his tent with stones, and soon demolished it. With the exception of these disgraceful scenes to which we have here adverted, this expedition achieved nothing worthy of remark. A certain writer, Mahmúd Chelebí, relates, that when this mad Ferhád went to Brúsa, he collected about him a number of necessitous adventurers, and, when remonstrated with respecting this, he was accustomed to reply in the most harsh and profane language. In other respects his conduct was also similar: his troops dispersed; some of them having received no pay, were obliged to proceed to Turkey to receive it; and he himself, after being degraded, took up his residence at Iconium, where he died of grief.