The enlightened and skilful general answered as follows: “Sire, you have been pleased to recall Ahmed Páshá, the válí of Romeili. His coming or not coming to the assistance of the orthodox army was of no importance; nor can his staying here yield them any advantage. As to your slave (Murád himself), you have ordered him to go into winter-quarters at Erzerúm. Is the province of Anatolia become so completely defended and guarded as to render it safe for me to winter in Erzerúm, and in the spring to open a campaign against Persia? Should the rebels who may still exist assemble themselves together, are the vezírs of your august court competent to quell or disperse them? In this affair let the gracious will of the emperor be done. The time for distributing the troops into winter-quarters is at hand. A kíleh (a certain measure) of barley sells at five ducats, and the wakáyet (about 2-1/4 lbs.) of bread has risen to a ghorúsh (a dollar).” So much for the sentiments of Murád to his sovereign. Immediately on sending the above he commenced making arrangements for obeying the imperial firmán; but when his multitudinous troops assembled together, they declared it impracticable to do so, because of the dearth which prevailed in Erzerúm. “The emperor,” said they, “is not acquainted with the state and circumstances of that province: he listens only to the voice of those flatterers who surround him: they, as well as the káímakám, have no wish to see the noble general-in-chief return to Constantinople. They have the whole management of affairs in their own hands, and they see well, that should the grand vezír (Murád Páshá) return, the impracticability of the plans they have recommended would be made to appear. We have been now (continued the military) two years in the war, and have achieved several important victories. We shall now return home.” The general, after having given utterance to these unceremonious sentiments, called the cazí of the camp, and caused him to write out a statement of the prices of provisions, and gave a copy of it, as well as a statement of their own sentiments, to the kapújís who had conveyed the imperial firmán, and forthwith sent them back to the grand sultán. On the following day his excellency, the commander-in-chief, appointed Hasan Páshá, beglerbeg of Erzerúm, and a number of begs, with Chukál Oghlí Hasan Aghá, and about thirty chorbájís, to accompany the imperial messengers. Karah Hisár, in the east, he conferred on Turkijeh Bilmaz, and the province of Wán on Tekelí Mohammed Páshá: Zulfekár Páshá was sent back to his own government in Caramania, and Etmekjí Zádeh and the Romeilian troops he dismissed to European Turkey. He also allowed Nesúh Páshá to return to his own government at Diárbeker, and he himself, about the 15th of Rajab, went to Tokat. He had been scarcely two days at Tokat, when just as he was in the act of paying his troops, he received another imperial firmán which was expressed in these terms: “At whatever station our imperial firmán reaches you, there winter.” This was brief enough; but the commanding general, by private letters which he had received by the same conveyance which brought him the above short firmán, was let into the secret. These letters assured him that several of the influential and ruling party at court were altogether averse to his returning to Constantinople; that one of these, Kapúdán Háfiz Ahmed Páshá, was the emperor’s favourite; that he, as also the káímakám, Mustafa Páshá, the reverend mufti, Mohammed Effendí, his old enemy, and Mustafa, ághá of the palace, had, by leaguing together, represented to his majesty that the rebellion in Anatolia had been altogether crushed, and that instead of recalling Murád Páshá, he ought to be sent against the sháh of Persia.
When his excellency, Murád Páshá, was thus informed how matters stood, he answered the royal firmán in the following terms: “Sire, you have been pleased to order me to winter at Erzerúm and in the spring to march against the Persians. What is to be done? It is the will of my sovereign. Your slave is now a weak old man of ninety years of age; but I trust I shall fall a martyr in the field of battle. When I march against the sháh of Persia, the armed rebels, who now lurk in their hiding-places, will then find an opportunity of again becoming troublesome. They are waiting for a chance of this kind, especially Meseli Chávush, Aydin, and Yúsuf of Sarúkhán, besides several others of the same description. Should what I have now hinted be realized, and they again commence the work of violence and mischief, will you not, in that case, have to send hither from Romeili another commander-in-chief? Leave us, if you please, where we are. The master of the work knows his own duty best. Do not you follow the counsels of those sycophants who surround you. Permit us to eradicate the enemies amongst ourselves first, and then we shall direct our movements against the kingdom of Persia.” This answer was sent back to the emperor by means of the persons who had brought him the royal firmán, whilst he himself made preparations for returning to Constantinople.
On the 9th of Ramazán he arrived at Scutari, and on the following day, with a splendid retinue and four hundred standards taken from the rebels, each of which bore, in bright letters, the names of the rebel-chiefs under whom it had been carried, he passed over to the metropolis, dressed himself in a double suit of fine robes, put a turban ornamented with feathers on his head, and went into the emperor’s presence to do obeisance before him. The emperor was in a short time convinced of the worth and dignity of his general’s talents and general conduct, and immediately ordered splendid robes, such as were suitable to the imperial grandeur to confer, to be given to Murád Páshá. The public in general, poets and historians, spoke of him in the most laudatory manner.
It is not to be concealed that, from the day the celebrated Murád Páshá passed over to Scutari, as commander-in-chief of the eastern forces, the services which he had rendered to his sovereign and country were immense. Thirty thousand, at least, of those rebels who had served under Jánbulát Oghlí, Kalander Oghlí, and Túyel, including those who had been murdered by the peasantry, perished by his means. What may have been the number of those who perished otherwise, is not known. In villages, and in small towns, sometimes from a hundred to a thousand, and even as many as three thousand of the rebels who had fortified themselves within them, were all slain with the sword. Forty-eight principal rebel chiefs and twenty-five thousand rebels are said to have perished in flight. In the Register of Tokat it is inserted, that by far the greater part of these numbers, whose heads had been made to roll on the ground in front of the serdár’s pavilion, had been rooted out by Murád Páshá’s troops. To these now mentioned may be added about thirty thousand more who had been seized alive and executed, and the number of rebels who perished in this war could not have been less than 100,000 souls.
The enemies of the grand vezír and commander-in-chief, Murád Páshá, when they saw the honours which had been heaped upon him, were not only exceedingly grieved, but their hatred and malignity increased and led them, moreover, to employ villainous means to ruin him. They insinuated, for instance, that Murád had seized on all Jánbulát Oghlí’s treasures and effects which had remained with his wife and children at Aleppo; and for the truth of this charge they appealed to some of Jánbulát Oghlí’s sons, whom Murád Páshá had sent to the royal haram. They, of course, were his enemies, and had the hardihood to assert that the treasurer, Bákí Páshá, had spent six whole months in selling and disposing of their father’s property. This was a vile exaggeration. It happened, however, that one day, when Bákí Páshá was sitting in the diván, the ághá of the janissaries received a royal firmán ordering him to convey Bákí Páshá to the Seven Towers. The ághá, without Murád Páshá’s knowing any thing of the matter, proceeded to the diván, seized on Bákí Páshá, and conveyed him in a boat to the prison above-mentioned. This took place on a Tuesday; and after the vezírs had entered into the royal audience he addressed them thus: “I have ordered Bákí Páshá to the Seven Towers; let Ahmed Páshá (i. e. Etmekjí Zádeh) be reinstated into the office of lord high treasurer, and let Bákí Páshá be examined with respect to Jánbúlát Oghlí’s property, that we may know what he has done with it: also let the strictest enquiry be made of Murád Páshá.” “Why,” replied Murád Páshá, “having been anxious to preserve the most valuable and most precious of Jánbúlát Oghlí’s effects for your royal majesty, I prevented them from being sold; and brought them along with me, to be delivered over to your royal majesty. Let Bákí Páshá answer for the rest.” The new lord high-treasurer, Ahmed Páshá, on examining his predecessor in office with regard to this matter, was undauntedly informed that he (i. e. Bákí Páshá), with the exception of the articles which Murád Páshá had claimed for his royal majesty, had disposed of the rest for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the war. No more was said about it; and Bákí Páshá, after having lain forty days in the Seven Towers, was set at liberty. He passed the winter at Constantinople, and was employed in making arrangements for commencing a new campaign in the spring.
The lord high-admiral, Háfiz Páshá, after having cruized along the shores of Romeili, sailed to the port of Alexandria, took in the taxes which had been gathered in Egypt, and returned to Istámbol. The government of Syria was conferred on him, and the admiralship on Khalíl Aghá, ághá of the janissaries. The ágháship of the janissaries was conferred on Mohammed Aghá, Spáhí Zádeh, of the artillery department.
Concerning Mohammed Páshá in Egypt.
After the murder of Ibrahím Páshá in Egypt, in the year 1012, the disturbance in that country became every day more and more serious and alarming; but by the prudent and efficient measures employed by Gúrjí Mohammed Páshá, who, in 1016, was sent thither to quell the tumults which had been raised there, they were to a considerable extent allayed. He slew a vast number of the insurgents; whilst, at the same time, he brought the others for the most part, under subjection, at least to all appearance. But Mohammed Páshá having been succeeded in office by Hasan Páshá, from Yemen, a man of extraordinary mildness, the insurgents, subdued though not crushed, were again emboldened to rise in rebellion, and to commit outrages more terrible than they had formerly been guilty of.
The origin of the evil just now alluded to seems to have been this. The válís or governors who had been sent to Egypt, made it a first principle to press heavy upon the inspectors of taxes, by forcing them to advance large sums of money, taking from some ten thousand, from others twenty thousand, and from others forty thousand ducats, according to circumstances, and only on payment of these enormous sums were they confirmed in their office. These inspectors and those others employed in raising the taxes or revenue were, from this circumstance, necessarily constrained to lay such heavy duties upon the inhabitants, to enable them to meet the demands of the válí, as were far beyond what was necessary, or they were well able to pay. The inspectors and revenue officers too, in order to meet their own extravagance and dissipation, made the burdens of the people still more intolerable and grievous. In short, to so high a pitch did they carry this system of taxation, that the wretched inhabitants, not any longer able to endure it, rose in rebellion, and determined, at all hazards, to resist an oppression which they evidently foresaw would utterly ruin them.
This was the state in which the country was involved when Mohammed Páshá entered upon the government of Egypt. He, very properly, set himself, at once, to correct abuses and to punish offenders. The money which came into the hands of the collectors, and which usually amounted to more than one hundred thousand ducats per annum, he, by a wise regulation, prevented from being subject to any deductions whatever. He also made a new regulation, by which the tax-gatherers were, in future, to be guided. Without the consent and approbation of the diván of Mesir, they were to impose no tax whatever, nor to advance, unnecessarily, money to the inspectors. In the third place, he confirmed in their situations those inspectors and tax-gatherers who had acted with moderation; but such of these classes as had been convicted of extortions and injustice, he caused to be seized: some of them he dismissed with contempt and ignominy, and others he sent out of the world altogether.