During the month of Ramazán he was most assiduous in offering up his devotions; and on the Leilet ul kadr,[23] he made such a distribution of money and of other benefits as had never been exemplified in any of his predecessors. After the termination of the fast, the usual salutations were attended to, and he again began to enjoy the pleasures which his palace afforded.
It having been alleged that the use of wine had been the cause of the disturbances and tumults which had taken place in the city from time to time, the pious and religious emperor, in order to put a stop to this forbidden and pernicious practice throughout the empire, ordered the laws to be enforced. The taverns were a perfect nuisance; and therefore the keepers of them had their licenses taken from them: the sellers of wine were obliged to flee, and their houses or shops were thrown down, without paying any regard whatever to the vast advantage which accrued to the government from this traffic; because of the great evil which it had done to the morals of the inhabitants. It was not long, however, before the use of wine again became as general as ever.
A messenger from Holland arrives in Constantinople.
Messengers, with valuable gifts and rich presents for the Ottoman emperor, from the válí of Holland, a country bordering on the ocean on the north of France, with some large merchant-vessels carrying a variety of merchandize from the same country, arrived this year at the port of Constantinople. When the owners or skippers of these vessels asked leave to depart, they were allowed to do so, and so also were the messengers or ambassadors who had been honoured with lodgings in the imperial gardens of Scutari.
Kitanjí Omar Páshá was commissioned by the Ottoman government to proceed to Walachia and Moldavia, with the view of fixing and settling the authority of the Voivodas who had been appointed by government in these provinces, for since the days of the apostate Michael these countries had been in a most unsettled state. The chief of Transylvania, during the troubles which reigned in these two provinces, found means to attach some few fortresses to the jurisdiction of Temisvar; but when he learned that Sultán Ahmed Khán was in Adrianople, he became terrified, and instantly relinquished Lipova and Yanova, which of course were taken possession of by some of the border chieftains.
Afterwards, when a Polish army entered the territories of Moldavia, the governor of Silistria, Delí Hasan Páshá, marched against it and routed it.
A mosque is built in the garden of Stavros.
No mosque having hitherto been built in the garden of Stavros, orders were issued this year to erect one, besides some other necessary erections. The household troops and the attendants of the grand vezír finished the whole in the space of forty days. The emperor sometimes resided in this garden, and not unfrequently amused himself by sailing in his pleasure-boat in the straits of Constantinople.
Sultán Ahmed Khán resolves on a second journey to Adrianople.
Sultán Ahmed Khán, of restless disposition, like his great ancestor, Sultán Selím Khán, resolved on again visiting the city of Adrianople. Accordingly the grand vezír, Nesúh Páshá, the nobles, the emperor’s favourites, and ághás of the stirrup, were ordered, on the 9th of Shevál, to repair a second time to Adrianople. In conformity to custom, the vezírs and ulemá accompanied his majesty as far as Dávud Páshá, where they all took leave of him and returned to the city. At Burghas the emperor took up his lodgings in the mansion of Mohammed Páshá, the martyr, and attended the chase. On his first going forth to this sport, and whilst endeavouring to raise the wild beasts, a huge boar, resembling the devil, presented himself, and in his fury and rage terrified every one away: the emperor alone had courage to seize a spear, and, like a flash of burning light, attacked the ferocious animal. The grand vezír hurried forward to aid his master, and on finding, brave and powerful as the sultán really was, and though he had succeeded in stupifying the wild beast, that he had not yet killed it, immediately thrust his spear into the body of the wild boar, when the dogs instantly fell upon it. It amused the emperor exceedingly to see the manner in which the dogs applied their teeth to the carcass of the wild beast. In three days after this event the emperor reached Adrianople, where he spent the winter, alternately following the chase and attending to religious solemnities.