Hasan Páshá recovers Alba Julia.
Towards the end of the preceding year the páshá made every preparation for commencing a new campaign in the beginning of this year. A new bridge was erected on the Save: he was joined by the ághá of the janissaries from Constantinople about the commencement of Moharrem, and troops from all quarters poured into his camp. The troops that accompanied the ághá from the metropolis received double wages: provisions were distributed, and vessels laden with the same article were sent off for Buda. The royal camp, in the greatest haste, removed from Belgrade and arrived at Serim on the 15th of the month. Badalooshka cannon were transported from Buda to the camp, and on the 22nd Alba Julia was put under siege. Lála Mohammed Páshá, from Buda, encamped on the south side, in front of the city; the grand vezír (i.e. the commander-in-chief, Yemishjí Hasan Páshá) took up his position on one side, and the ághá of the janissaries, with nine pieces of ordnance, presented himself before the gate. Mohammed Páshá, with the army of Romeili and five pieces of ordnance, and Dervísh Páshá, the beglerbeg of Bosnia, with the army of Buda, entered into entrenchments, and immediately erected mounds. Three thousand chosen men and four thousand pioneers were under the immediate eye of the grand vezír. After a few days of constant battering, the besieging army sprung four mines, which had some considerable effect, and soon afterwards they took possession of the large tower, but were obliged to relinquish it. The enemy, besides, had formed a kind of wall or mound within their ramparts, which served to protect them against the besieging army’s artillery. No great progress had hitherto been made.
On the 17th of the month Sefer, about the hour of dinner, and the hot part of the day, a servant of Mohammed Páshá started suddenly upon his feet, seized a standard, ran in the greatest haste to the tower, and fixed it on its top. The janissaries and others no sooner saw this, than they immediately went and took possession of it, causing the few men who watched it to fly. The enemy, however, continued to trust to their strong bulwarks, and thought themselves safe. They were miserably mistaken. The Moslem and orthodox warriors opened upon them a brisk fire of musketry, which drove them from their position. Mohammed Páshá succeeded in getting into the city and took it. When the serdár heard that his troops had taken the tower before-mentioned, he ordered his tent to be immediately erected near it.
The enemy perceiving the progress of the besiegers, and that they were assaulting them, in fact, from every quarter, fled into the inner fortress. This last refuge of theirs was attacked in its turn. By means of mounds which they soon raised for their own protection, they were enabled to effect some mines, which they had no sooner ignited than one of the towers was blown into the air and a sufficient breach made. The courage of the poor devils when they saw this gave way, and they offered to yield up the place. A certain number of their chief officers came out and received, as on former occasions, garments and were sent off with the rest of the military of Alba Julia to their own countries. The victorious Moslems, after taking possession of this important place, placed a sufficient garrison in it, and the rest of their troops returned to Buda about the end of the month last mentioned.
The Commander-in-chief conducts an expedition into Transylvania.
In consequence of the woiwoda of Transylvania having, contrary to all law and justice, entered by violence into a fortress belonging to Sekul Murish, one of the independent princes of Transylvania, where he seized on its treasures and arms, and slew the men who were in it, the above prince, during the winter season, came to the serdár and solicited his aid, promising he would, if thus supplied with sufficient means, subdue the whole of the region of Transylvania under the Mohammedan yoke. The serdár placed confidence in his promises, and therefore determined to aid him in person. All this had taken place before the reduction of Alba Julia, for which, however, the serdár was preparing when the above prince came to him.
The serdár, or commander-in-chief, having fully achieved what he was at that time preparing for, as related in the preceding section, and having no reason to expect danger from any quarter, passed over from Buda to the plains of Pest. The infidels’ camp was at a place called Jegirdelin, opposite to Osterghún.
As the orthodox Moslems used to call out every evening, Allah! Allah! so also the infidels cried out from one certain place, every morning and evening, the word Yesú, and immediately after this discharged their large cannon. Yesú is a corruption of Isa (Jesus) in the gospel. The sound of the guns fired by the infidels was heard at Pest.
Súfí Sinán Páshá was appointed commandant of Buda, for Kází Zádeh Alí Páshá, the beglerbeg of Buda, who had been present at the siege of Alba Julia, was there wounded by a musket-ball, and carried off the field in a litter or sledge. This Alí Páshá came along with Hábel Effendí, the cazí of Buda, to the serdár, and remonstrated against leaving Buda defenceless. You will not be two stages distant, said they, before the infidels will come and surround us. The danger of this circumstance seemed to press very much upon their imagination, and they did not fail to paint it in lively colours to the serdár. “Though it be perfectly true,” said the serdár in return, “that we hear the sound of the enemy’s cannon, yet it would be very unwise to leave Ardil Oghlí (i.e. the prince of Transylvania) in possession of Lipovah and Yanovah in the jurisdiction of Temiswar. There are only about six or seven thousand troops in the enemy’s camp, and their object is to terrify the Moslem army from entering Transylvania. They are not sufficiently strong to offer to attack you. You have no reason whatever to fear they will do so; be therefore easy in your minds on this score.” Thus did the serdár endeavour to soothe their terrors; but Alí Páshá replied: “My lord, allow me to inform you that some spies sent out by me returned last night, and informed me that there are more than eighty thousand soldiers and forty pieces of ordnance in the enemy’s camp, and that their object is to attack Buda. Let Hábel Effendí note down what I have now said, and if it turns out to be false, then you may take what vengeance you please on me.” Yemishjí Páshá himself, a proud obstinate Albanian, remained immoveable in maintaining his own assertions, viz. that the enemy had no other view than merely to frighten them from entering Transylvania, and that they had neither strength nor intention to attack Buda. In the meantime, when Mohammed Páshá, beglerbeg of Romeili, perceived the serdár’s obstinacy, he asked to be permitted to make an excursion as far as Filk and Sitchan, and carry thence what plunder he might be able to take. His request was not acceded to; and the following day, the first of Rabia II., the serdár marched off for Solnuk, which he reached in four days, carrying along with him five pieces of cannon and one hundred sháhs (a kind of smaller ordnance). In four days more he crossed the Tise, and on the 11th of the same month reached the palanka of Sarwash. The troops of Julia and Temiswar joined his camp at this place; but he had scarcely time to hold a council of his great men, when, behold! messengers with evil intelligence from Buda waited upon him.