Annals of the Turkish Empire, from 1591 to 1659

by Mustafa Naima

Some time previous to this, 2,000 horsemen, sent from Bosnia and Semendria, were appointed to settle themselves any where about Osterghún, and were allowed to profit by any thing the chance of war might put in their way. These perfidious wretches, however, entered into a treacherous correspondence with the enemy, who had, by that time, surrounded the city. They shot at the rate of 1,800 cannon-balls per day against the walls of the city and fortress.

In the mean time a body of experienced Janissaries and other troops were sent to their assistance. Three times did the Beg of Rhodes convey to them, in galleys and other boats, timely aid; and completely prevented the enemy from benefiting by any assistance sent them by water, besides a variety of other important services which he had rendered to the besieged.

The enemy, intent on reducing Osterghún, and after several days’ battering with their cannon, at length commenced an assault, but were driven back with immense loss. The Hungarians, who acted at some considerable distance, directed their guns against the place, and succeeded in laying several portions of the walls level with the ground. They now attempted to deceive. They told a thousand idle stories about the propriety of following the example of the people of Felk and Novograde, and thus to yield and give up the fortress; but the heroic Moslems answered: “We are Romelian heroes and true-hearted veterans, and shall never yield nor give up the place: we are resolved on continuing our resistance. Behold, you accursed! you deride us by saying that an army of Tátárs, riding on tortoises, are coming to our aid; but we are sure of immense succours from Buda, either to-day or tomorrow: and then we shall be swine if we don’t mount you all on tortoises and send you to hell.” Such was the reply of the besieged to the enemy, who finding their fraudulent attempts to deceive were in vain, pushed on the siege with all their vigour, and advanced to a third general assault. Among their leaders one was observed who was very active in stimulating the soldiery on to the assault, and who wore a breast-plate, and a gold chain suspended from his neck. The Beg of Osterghún observed to those around him, that if that execrated wretch could be disposed of, the infidel army would immediately retreat. “Whoever lays him flat in the dust,” said he, “shall receive a sanják, and whatever else he may ask.” This was so sooner uttered than one Osmán, a brave man, and an excellent marksman, levelled his piece at the gold-chained infidel, cried “Yá allah,” and in a moment shot him through the breast, when he sank from his horse, and was dragged along the ground. The besiegers were now panic-struck, and retired in the greatest precipitation towards their fortifications; but were hotly pursued by the veteran Moslems, who rushed out after them, and slew very many of them. The enemy, however, soon rallied again. Every peasant in the country round about, able to handle a sword, was collected; and with this augmentation of new strength they again returned to the siege and work of destruction. The unfortunate Moslems, notwithstanding the heroism they had displayed, and the firmness with which they had acted, were at length, by famine and hard labour, reduced to complete weakness; whilst the troops acting under the King (of Hungary) joined the besiegers. Thus strengthened, the enemy began to set the city on fire in several places.

At this critical moment an army under the command of the válís of Temishvar and Bosnia, and which had been sent off by order of the Serdár in the month of Ramazán, reached Pest in time enough to hear the sound of the cannon from Osterghún; but it was the middle of the month before the vanguard of this army advanced so far as to be discovered by the enemy. This new appearance of assistance in favour of the Moslems in the city of Osterghún so dismayed the enemy, that they immediately relinquished their object, forsook their tabúr or fortifications, and fled away in the utmost precipitation. Now was the time for taking revenge. The Moslems, like raging wolves, rushed out of their strong-hold, slew about a thousand of the enemy, did what damage they were able to their fortifications, took a number of captives, spiked their field-pieces, seized all the powder and goods they could easily carry, set fire to what remained, and returned to the city in triumph with the spoil they had taken. But the enemy, after recovering from the panic into which they had been put, and after the army which had come from Buda had returned back, retraced their steps, and again took possession of their tabúr or fortifications, exercising violence and cruelty on those who had been hired by the month in the villages belonging to Buda.

Before finishing this paragraph we must add, by way of postscript, that the enemy continued their hostile operations against Khutván and Osterghún till they learned that the grand vezír was marching with the royal army to Buda, when they removed to Komran, where they concentrated their forces. The Válí of Temishvar who had came to aid the city of Osterghún, and who was at this time in Pest, heard that a palanka in his own government had revolted and declared for the enemy. He returned and executed the whole of them.

The Request of the Prime Minister—the Succour of the Magnificent Emperor.

In consequence of the several disasters which the Moslem arms had sustained during the late spring, the evils and oppressions to which the garrisons on the frontiers had been exposed, and also because the contest was not yet ended, the mind of the grand vezír, when he considered all these things, was very much afflicted; and therefore, as the most effectual remedy for his grief, and for securing a more favourable state of things, he sent, at once, an account of the whole state of matters, and also a statement of the finances, and that of the army, to the court of Constantinople. The grand vezír found, it would appear, that military movements were a difficult thing to attend to, especially every time a fixed period was necessary to be observed with respect to those movements. Besides, the army of Romeili had been precluded from attending to their harvest. In short, all these things together had a powerful effect on Sinán Páshá’s mind, and led him to regret his having had any thing to do with the war at all.

In these circumstances, and being no way prepared to prosecute the war, he called together his emírs, commanders of castles, chiefs of the army, nobles, and other great and learned men, to consult them as to the steps which ought, in their situation, to be adopted. But fortunately, at this time, the succours, as to men and money, which his letters requested from the government of Constantinople, were hastening towards him.