Kijdehán was a man that possessed a bitter and scurrilous tongue, and who spared nobody. To escape, therefore, the reproaches of his tongue, i.e. that he and those of his men who, like himself, had escaped the general carnage, might not be made the subjects of his ridicule and bitter reproach, he slew him. This, also, is asserted in the Fezliké, that, before this, and prior to the defeat he had sustained at the bridge of Bolawadin, he most unworthily, as well as unjustly, traduced the character of the inestimable and highly-respected Mohammed Chávush of Caramania, whom he crucified at Iconium, where he had met with him. This Mohammed Chávush was son to Karah Alí, and was raised to the situation he held in Caramania from the Chávush báshás.
Well aware that his conduct and ill fame would eventually reach the ears of the emperor, and that his displeasure might easily be excited against him, so as to make him the object of his vengeance, he, in order to prevent these results, determined on going to Constantinople. Accordingly he set out for Scutari, and thence to the Sublime Porte: went to the royal palace, and caused it to be announced that he had come from Anatolia to implore further aid to be sent to that quarter. Having been called to enter the royal presence, he gave such a representation of the state of matters as actually succeeded in inclining the emperor to cross over into Anatolia and take a personal share in the war with the insurgents. He, therefore, called together the khoaja effendí, the reverend mufti and the vezírs, and confronted them with Nesúh Páshá, in order to converse on the subject with him. At this interview with Nesúh, however, there was much disputing and great contention. All were opposed to the emperor’s determination; but he himself remained inflexible. The emperor’s best friends used their utmost efforts to dissuade him from the purpose he had formed, by endeavouring to point out to him a variety of dangers; but all in vain, and the consequence was, when they saw he could not be moved from his resolution, they all withdrew very much displeased. The vezírs, however, commenced making the necessary preparations for the emperor’s intended journey, but at the same time used a variety of methods, such as representing to him that the fleet had not arrived, and that at any rate the season for safe sailing was fast passing away, in order, if possible, to induce him him to alter his mind; but all to no purpose. The emperor, notwithstanding all the efforts which had been employed to dissuade him from his undertaking; notwithstanding, also, that the winter had fully set in, and the roughness of the sea, he continued bent on proceeding. A royal firmán was sent off to Nukásh Hasan Páshá to have the palace at Brúsa in a state of complete preparation for the arrival of his majesty, and Dervísh Aghá, bostánjí báshí, who was afterwards created a vezír, but subsequently assassinated, was appointed commandant of Istámbol.
In the meantime, however, the empress-mother took her journey to the other world, and her remains were conducted by her royal son and the great men of the state, to St. Sophia, where the funeral service was performed. They were afterwards interred in the tomb of Sultán Mohammed III., on which occasion charities and alms deeds were attended to in behalf of the deceased.
It was thought that the death of his mother might have so affected the sultán as to cause him to give up all thoughts of his intended expedition into Anatolia; but it had no such effect. On the seventh day after his mother’s decease, he became quite impatient, ordered the only three galleys which were then in the harbour to be held in readiness, and on the 2d day of Rajab he set sail for Brúsa. On the day after his arrival in Brúsa, he summoned his vezírs, the military judges, and other magnates, to assemble in council in the royal palace of that place, where he himself was. Súfí Sinán Páshá, the káímakám, who had taken no active hand in making preparations for the emperor’s expedition, was not called, or if called, did not attend. Dávud Páshá and Nesúh Páshá had both been previously sent to keep possession of two places on the frontiers. Mohammed Páshá, son of Ové Páshá, likewise made no movement towards Brúsa, but he wrote to the emperor’s chaplain, informing him that he had twenty thousand troops in full readiness. “If I shall be called,” said he, in his communication to the royal chaplain, “to be exalted to the vezírship, without either the aid of troops or apparatus from the government, I will go, and to the utmost of my power, endeavour to reduce the insurgents.” The title of vezír, and the appointment to the chief command, was forthwith sent him, and he was invited to wait on his majesty in his palace at Brúsa, in order that his majesty might confer with him respecting the enemy against whom he was to proceed. Mohammed, however, acknowledged neither the one nor the other of these royal intimations; nor did he think it worth his while to come to Brúsa to wait on his benefactor; or to proceed a single step against the insurgents. On the contrary, he went to Gúzel Hisár, where he gave himself up to every variety of pleasure. The reverend tutor felt disgrace and grief at the shameful way the cunning páshá had duped him, and, in fact, poor Khoaja Effendí, in consequence of this, most completely lost his influence with the emperor.
On the 14th of the last mentioned month (viz. Rajab), about four or five thousand spáhís, who had fled to Anatolia to escape the vengeance of Yemishjí Hasan Páshá, which had been excited against them in consequence of the tumult which the spáhí legion had raised in Constantinople in the days of the late emperor, and for which many of their superiors had been put to death, returned to their obedience, and were again received into favour. These spáhís were as great rebels as any in Anatolia, and committed every species of robbery and spoliation. On making their submission they appeared armed and accoutred before Súfí Sinán Páshá, the vezírs and the military judges, and preferred the grounds on which they conceived they had been aggrieved, and which had led them to act as they had done. Their case was laid before his majesty, who not only forgave them, but also restored their officers to their former situations, rewarded them with tokens of favour by conferring robes on them, distributed to them their pay, and dividing them into two bodies sent one division to Kutahia to remain under the orders of Dávud Páshá, and the other under Nesúh Páshá.
Dervísh Aghá, who had been appointed in his majesty’s absence to the commandership of Constantinople, was forbidden to exercise any further authority in that capacity, on account of some misconduct which he had been guilty of. Mustafa Páshá, one of the vezírs, was sent back to act in his stead.
On the 16th his majesty, after having paid a visit to the sepulchres of his ancestors, and the tombs of the venerable saints, returned and bathed himself in a fountain. On the 19th he set sail from Modanieh, and arrived in the imperial city on the same day.
An overture made to Túyel.
On the 9th of Shabán of this year, a conciliatory letter was sent to Túyel, the chief ring-leader among the insurgents, and also the offer of a beglerbegship; but no answer as to his having accepted the offer made to him, was returned: on the contrary, acting under the influence of his brother, his violence and cruelty increased beyond all bounds. The káímakám, in order to put a stop to the enormities which this rebel and others were guilty of, and which were every day increasing, tried to ensnare this terrible rebel. To induce him to throw down the weapons of his rebellion, the deputy proposed joining Anatolia, Sivás, and Haleb into one, and to offer the government of these united districts to Túyel. When the deputy presented this proposal, and also a letter he had received from Túyel, on the 17th of the last mentioned month, for his majesty’s approbation, however, he met with a serious repulse, and for his temerity was turned out of office. Khezer Páshá was raised to the deputyship.