In conformity to the spirit of this treaty, the frontier páshás, viz. the válí of Baghdád, Mohammed Páshá, and the beglerbeg of Wán, Mohammed Páshá, received an imperial commission to proceed and settle, along with the Persian commissioners, the line of frontier between the dominions of the Ottoman emperor and those of the sháh of Persia.
EVENTS of the Year 1023, H.
The Moslem Emperor returns to Constantinople.
In the commencement of the month of Moharrem the happy and fortunate monarch Sultán Ahmed Khán began to retrace his steps towards his royal residence at the Sublime Porte. The troops who had accompanied his majesty to Adrianople were, previous to his own departure, allowed to return home. His majesty himself accomplished the journey in fifteen days, seven of which he rested, having arrived at Constantinople about the middle of the month. The day on which he entered the city two of his sons, Sultán Osmán and Sultán Mohammed, mounted on swift chargers, went out to meet their royal father, and returned along with him, riding in front of the janissaries. Some few days after his arrival in the royal residence he retired into the Terskháneh, and resided for a while in the mansion which he had ordered to be erected in it, and was now completed. Being naturally fond of this garden, he caused it to be decorated with flowers and shrubs taken from the interior garden of his seraglio or harem.
The admiral, Khalíl Páshá, goes to sea.
The admiral Khalíl Páshá set sail with forty-five vessels for Beshektásh, whence, after a few days’ riding, he proceeded to the island of Scio, which he reached after a sail of twenty-two days. Here he learned that no less than twenty-seven hostile ships had entered a harbour belonging to the island of Skyro, but which, he afterwards heard, had gone to the island of Súsam. Thither he directed his course, having been previously joined by Mímí Beg, kapúdán of Rhodes, with twenty galleys: but before the Turkish fleet could make up to them they escaped through the straits of the islands of Andro and Istendil (Tino), and made their way to some of the sea-ports belonging to his holiness the pope. Khalíl Páshá on the 2d of Jemadi I. arrived before Corone, passed Modon, and on the 15th reached Avarín (Navarin): thence he sent out two vessels for the purpose of reconnoitring the coast. After having got all his ships properly pitched at this place, he again, on the 21st, set sail with fifty-nine ships of various size towards the shores of the infidels. After passing Messina, he reached the island of Malta on the 28th of the month; on the same day he effected a descent on that island.
Along the shore, at the distance of about a mile from each other, a set of towers had been erected, which, by means of igniting in succession a certain quantity of gunpowder in each, communicated a signal to the chief fortress of the island. This was done on this occasion; and in a very short time some thousands, foot and horse, came rushing forth to meet the invaders, when a most terrible battle ensued, and was maintained till after mid-day. Several hundreds of these infidels became food for the sword, and a good number of them were taken prisoners. The deputy grand master, the lords of Malta, with several other persons of distinction, fell in the struggle. The heroic and warlike Moslems followed up their advantages to the very walls of their chief city or fortress; burned the whole of their harvest of anise and cummin; cut down their olive and other fruit trees; carried off their flocks of sheeps and herds of cattle; and reached the fleet at the time of the evening prayers. The fleet now sailed past the city, when each galley, as it passed, fired a broadside against it, and directed its course towards Tripoli in Barbary; but not before they had committed some more mischief on another part of the island.[25]
The fleet, as we have already observed, sailed for Tripoli. The distance between Malta and Tripoli is two hundred and twenty miles, and the fleet did not reach the harbour of the latter place till the 2d of Jemadi II., having left Malta about the end of Jemadi I. The inhabitants of Tripoli were at this time in a most disorganized state. One Seferdeíá had usurped the government, had been guilty of murder, robbery, and every species of oppression, and even refused to permit the Turkish fleet to enter the harbour. By wise and prudent management, however, this Seferdeíá was induced to come on board the báshtirdeh (the admiral’s ship), when his person was instantly secured and placed in irons. His associates and followers, on learning the fate of their chief, shut themselves up in the city, determined on resisting and fighting to the last. But by the timely mediation of a number of reverend fathers their misconduct was overlooked, and the city was again restored to its former government. The whole of the property and wealth which the rebel Seferdeíá had accumulated was registered, and afterwards confiscated. After these proceedings had ended, the admiral ordered his pavilion to be erected on shore; held a council for examining into the nature and extent of the crimes which the rebel-prisoner had committed, and proofs of which the nobles, ulemá, and the people in general furnished in abundance. The admiral, after hearing all the evidence which was brought before him in regard to Seferdeíá’s crime, and finding that the general voice demanded his life, ordered him to be brought forward, caused his crimes to be recorded, and afterwards hanged him in front of the gate of the city.