In the month of Sefer, the commandant of Brúsa, Mustafa Páshá, was called to fill the office of káímakám in the city of Constantinople. On the 10th of Rabia II. Yemenlí Hasan Páshá was removed from the government of Egypt, and returned with the fleet which conveyed the annual taxes. By the same conveyance also, seventeen begs and four beglerbegs, who had been removed from office by the advice of Mohammed Páshá, the válí of Egypt, arrived at Constantinople. Hasan Páshá, however, was again, in Jemadi II., reinstated in his vezírship, and died on the 9th of Rajab. On the 11th of Shevál Nukásh Hasan Páshá was appointed commandant of Brúsa (probably when he was sent after the notorious Kalander Oghlí). On the 28th of this month, after having received the very distressing and afflicting intelligence of the progress and success of the insurgents, and of their having nearly reached Brúsa, a general council of the great men of the state was summoned for the purpose of consulting what methods ought to be adopted for stopping the further progress of the rebellion. It was immediately agreed to fortify Brúsa; and to send vezír Dávud Páshá to Nicomedia, and Khezer Páshá to Scutari, to see these places fortified also; and to which they repaired. On the 22d of Shevál, Háfiz Ahmed Aghá, chief of the falconers, in consequence of the splendid talents he possessed, both as a man of science and a soldier, arrived at the dignity of becoming the emperor’s favourite. This led to a vezírship, when he became lord high admiral, in room of the European, Ja’fer Páshá.
On the 16th of Dhu’l Kadah of this year, the khán of the Crimea, Ghází Gheráí, departed this life. The messengers who brought this intelligence to Constantinople informed the Ottoman government, that Toktamish Gheráí, the khán’s son, had, in virtue of his deceased father’s will, at least under this pretext, and without waiting for the sanction of the Turkish government, assumed the regal authority. This stretch of authority manifested by the presuming youth did not at all please the emperor, who, it would appear, intended to confer the khánship on Salámet Gheráí. This Salámet Gheráí was, at one time, the accomplice of Delí Hasan, of notorious memory, who although he repented, suffered four years’ imprisonment in the fortress of Romeili. Out of this condition the emperor raised him, and now conferred on him the khánship of the Crimea, become vacant by the death of Ghází Gheráí. His brother, Kalkái Mohammed Gheráí, who had been his fellow-prisoner, was also raised to a participation in the khánship, and both were sent off for the Crimea. On the 21st of this same month, after having kissed the emperor’s hand, they commenced their journey: Salámet went by sea, and Kalkái by land.
Whilst Toktamish Gheráí was waiting with anxiety for the return of the messengers from the Sublime Porte, who, he hoped, would bring him intimations of the emperor’s approbation, his expectations were suddenly blasted by receiving, through some other channel, the unexpected news that his uncle, Salámet Gheráí, had been declared his father’s successor. Thinking to save his own life, he set out for Turkey, accompanied by his next eldest brother, Sefer Gheráí. On passing the river Uzí, and arriving at Akkerman, he employed the utmost precaution to avoid falling in with Kalkái, who was travelling by land: yet notwithstanding all his watchfulness, he actually did meet with him, when instantly a combat ensued, in which encounter the followers of Toktamish were all dispersed. He himself, and his brother, fell into the hands of Kalkái, and were murdered, but not before they had slain a host of their antagonists.
Kalkái, pursuing his journey, arrived in the Crimea, and took possession of the high office assigned him; but soon began to manifest symptoms of corruption most derogatory to his exalted station; and for which Salámet Gheráí meditated his death. Kalkái was some way or other informed of his brother’s intentions, and, to escape what he had thus reason to fear, set out with his brother, Sháhin Gheráí, to the Circassian country, where he wandered about as an outlaw, and where he was afterwards visited by retributive justice for the murder of Toktamish: but we shall have to return to his history afterwards.
In the meantime, the new khán, Salámet Gheráí, was not allowed to enjoy his elevation for any length of time, having been carried off by death. He was succeeded in the khánship by Jánbeg Gheráí.
Hasan Beg Zádeh observes with respect to this portion of history, that it was no sooner known that Toktamish had usurped the regal dignity, than the admiral of the Crimean sea, Háfiz Ahmed Páshá, and the son of the emperor’s tutor or chaplain, represented to his majesty, that Toktamish Gheráí was not acceptable to the people, and that they wished Salámet Gheráí to be made their khán. The pure and disinterested mufti, deceived by Etmekjí Zádeh, spoke to the emperor in favour of Ghází Gheráí’s son, Toktamish, and assured his majesty, that the Tátárs would not accept of Salámet Gheráí as their khán. It turned out, however, that, after Salámet Gheráí, accompanied by a cup-bearer, had arrived in the Crimea, and succeeded to the possession of the Tátár throne, without any opposition having been offered, the emperor, hearing of it, and urged by an imperfect judgment, contrary to every principle of rectitude, deprived the mufti, Siná-allah Effendí, of his high office, and gave it to Mohammed Effendí, a son of his own chaplain. This office continued long afterwards to be occupied by one of his sons.
An ambassador arrives from Poland.—A former treaty is renewed.
Zighmun (Sigismund), king of Poland, at this time sent an ambassador to Constantinople, with the view of negotiating a continuance of the friendly relation which had subsisted betwixt Turkey and Poland since the last treaty of peace, entered into during the reign of Sultán Mohammed Khán III. In this treaty it was stipulated, on the part of the Turkish government, that none of the countries over which Sigismund reigned should be invaded by either the grand sultán or the khán of the Crimea: and in like manner it was stipulated by Sigismund, that none of the princes under him, or any of his rebellious Cossaks, should ever transgress the Moslem boundaries. In conformity with the above treaty, it was now stipulated, that the king of Poland, after strict examination and search, should return all the prisoners who had been taken during the interval of the peace, and that the Ottoman government should act in a similar way, by returning such of his infidel captives as the Ottomans had seized, to officers appointed by the king: that all traders, whether by sea or land, were to pay the accustomed dues in all such places as they should happen to visit: that Poland, according to ancient custom, was to continue to pay to the khán of the Tátárs what it was in the habit of paying: that when the khán and his Tátárs are required to join the Ottoman army, they shall not pass through any part of the dominions of Poland, but take some other way: that in the event of any foreign enemy attacking Poland, the Tátárs are, in such a case, to aid the King of Poland if required to do so: that the Walachian and Moldavian nations shall not make inroads on the frontiers of Poland: that the inspectors or commanders of ports and the collectors of the revenue in Silistria and Akkerman shall permit no traders or merchants, except those trading with both countries, to enter Poland by any of the above-mentioned places: that should any slave or captive be found in the possession of any of those traders, whether crossing or recrossing the frontiers, all such traders shall be deprived of them, and the captives or slaves shall be sent to the proper quarter: that all traders or merchants shall pay whatever lawful impost is or may be fixed on; but no tax shall be laid on the money or specie which they may have or bring along with them to either country: that though the dollar, bearing the impression of the lion, which is current in Poland, be less in weight than the proper standard, it shall still be received, and the loss arising from this circumstance shall be mutual: that the royal firmán shall prohibit the receiving of usury within the Ottoman empire in future, and ordain, moreover, that hereafter the standard of the dollar, for the purposes and advantage of trade, shall be of various values: that should any of the Polish merchants choose to set free any slave or slaves, by ransoming them with money, they may do so; but no Muselman shall be either bought or sold. All the above articles having been approved of by the emperor, were signed on the 20th of Rabia I. of this year.