A king’s army and its necessity [depends on them]. Come then, let us move this formation of the king, and once this is gone, no one among the others will be willing to remain for us. It seems good to me, therefore, that we move our entire camp, and with the carriages upon which our cannons and smaller artillery happen to be, go during this night against the doors immediately, and not delay. And if we advance, firing upon the doors of the king with our cannons and other projectiles, and terrorizing them, I think that they will not remain until daybreak, but as the night is, so will they go, departing gladly. And once we have repelled their affairs, we might possess theirs. Saying these things, Taoutes persuaded them, and they acted in this way. And immediately, with the carriages, they advanced toward the king’s camp around the first watch of the night. But as they came close to the doors of the king, there they terrorized the new arrivals B with cannons and smaller artillery, and they attacked the camp of the king; and they fought greatly against that part, so that it appeared clearly. For the new arrivals, having prepared both the cannons and the smaller artillery, were directing fire against the Paeonians; and not a few of both sides fell on this night, being destroyed for the most part by the cannons. But when day was near, and they saw the king's camp established in the region and fighting worthily of mention, it seemed best that, having moved, they should retreat to the place in which they were encamped, and not wait to be surrounded by the soldiers of the king, having come near the doors. And as it seemed best, they did these things; they withdrew to their own region, where they were established before. And when day came, he drew up for battle a second time, intending to test how things might turn out for him. And drawing up in battle, having charged into the army of Asia, he made an engagement there; as he engaged, the commander C of Europe sent Turachanes, the prefect of Thessaly, with his own army, so that having come to the rear, he might engage the Paeonians as forcefully as he could. There Turachanes, having come to the rear of the Paeonians, struck down many of them in this battle. For some were pursuing the Albanians, and as they pressed on pursuing, these were fleeing with all their might. Except indeed for the attendants of the commanders who were Europeans, and having separated as they fled, they fought in the manner which is customary for the Turks against the Paeonians. But against those from Europe, being pressed upon from the rear, they turned and fought in close formation, at one time or another in the plain as each encountered the other. But they, as they saw the Turks fighting far beyond expectation, and that it was setting upon them most harshly, and that escape from the evil would be difficult, and even if they arrived safely, there was no way on oath that they would not be given...
up to punishment for their crimes. In this manner they perished miserably, as men for whom no provision was made. When the Pannonians had observed the defection of the Dacians, at first they wondered what this might mean for them. When they discovered that the Dacians had been reconciled to the king in this way, they were deeply enraged, because they had very shamefully abandoned their friends. But not long after, when they noticed that all of them, with no regard for them, were perishing cruelly, they were struck with wonder, considering the mind of the king, namely that he did not desire such allies and auxiliaries. Consequently, many sought to depart as quickly as they could.
John, therefore, leaving the battle, proceeded to the wagons and spoke with the commanders who were there, saying that he himself was coming with his men from that enemy troop in which the king stood. Thus, when he had burst into the gates, and had signified this by a messenger, they were all to arrive at once and break into the gates. B When Choniates had said this, about the last watch of the night he chose those who were best instructed for battle and whom he knew to be most familiar to him; and he ordered those who were traveling on the wagons that as soon as he gave the sign, they should be driven into the gates with all their might. He himself, having changed his mind, hastened with his troop in battle array as quickly as possible toward the Ister. But when day had dawned, he was no longer visible to those Pannonians who had been left behind with the wagons, having moved some distance from the king. The Turks, seeing the camp of the enemies to be empty, and that very few had been left with the wagons, wondered what this might mean. Then someone met them, reporting that the Pannonians had fled across the Ister around the tenth watch of the night C (18). Having heard these things, the newcomers took up their arms and were carried at a run against the Pannonians at the abandoned wagons. They, when they perceived themselves deserted and betrayed by their own people, fought bravely, since despair kindled their courage against the newcomers. And not long after, the newcomers climbed onto the wagons and slaughtered all the Pannonians. Those men, having fought from daybreak until the full market hour, and having proven themselves to be good men, died. The king was indeed urged by his commanders to pursue the Pannonians, but he rejected their arguments, remembering what he had suffered at the hands of the Choniates, Chasis son of Mazarakes (19), during the pursuit. And so he was content to make D the present fortune turn to his advantage. There were killed in this battle, as I have learned (for the slain on both sides were later enumerated by the leader of the Triballi), seventeen thousand Pannonians and Dacians, and four thousand Turks (20). For the Turks are easily distinguished from the rest, since all of them are circumcised. Furthermore, the Pannonians groom their hair very neatly, but the Turks are shaved, with some parts [of the hair] left [unshaved].
A When he saw some Triballians tilling the land, he turned his journey toward them, asking that they give him bread. When the farmers saw that a Pannonian was present and asking for bread, they said: "But, stranger, bread is indeed ready for you here; however, we must bring you to the magistrate of the city to show us who you are, and once he sees you, he will send you back to your own land. For you will suffer no evil from him, whatsoever." But I suspect there was a search for John Choniates. As for the other Pannonians who travel through here, they hold them in no account. While they were saying these things—as they would not let him go, but were grabbing him firmly—he was compelled to announce to the elder that he was Choniates. And he promised to give him great gifts of hospitality and money, and land, if he brought him safely to Belgrade, without being B seen by any of the Triballians. The elder, once he recognized him, accepted him, promising to lead him to the land unharmed, and after telling his brothers who he was, he warned them not to go anywhere and not to reveal who that man was. When evening came, they brought the man into the house where they kept straw and beasts of burden, and they remained there the next day, preparing to take him to Belgrade. But on this day, a disagreement having arisen among the brothers, one of them revealed it to the magistrate of the city. He took his attendants, went to the house where Choniates was, in the straw-storage area, and taking him, they led him to the magistrate of the city. He sent him away as a prisoner to the governor, and reported that he had been captured while hiding in the chaff. C When John was brought before the governor, the governor put him in prison and held him for some time in the citadel. But [John] persuaded the commander of the citadel and the guards to rise up hostilely against the governor along with him and to take the city. When one of those who knew of the conspiracy brought it to light, the intentions of those in the guard became evident. They were killed; but John, having entered into a family alliance with [the governor] and having betrothed his daughter to his son, was sent back to his authority in Buda. And such was the outcome of the expedition against the Turks, conducted by Choniates as leader, and such was the end that the expedition we mentioned met. Amurates, having returned to the seat of his kingdom, shortly thereafter launched a war against Byzantium.
D After the king of the Greeks, John, had died, the succession to the kingdom came to Constantine, his brother. For when John had died, his brother Demetrius set out for the kingdom; but he was prevented by those in the city, and by his mother, and by mediators, and by the people, and by the middlemen, Cantacuzenus and Notaras, who were acting as the mediators. For they feared that if he were to succeed in...
A removing him from his position, he would order him to be a soldier. He also removed the keepers of his hunting dogs from this duty, saying that one hundred men were sufficient for him to look after the dogs, and five hundred to look after the hawks. And he said he would not proceed to such a pitch of folly as to want to feed so great a multitude of men for a thing so vain and novel. He assisted Demetrius, the prince of the Peloponnese, in that war which he waged with his brother, to whom he refused to yield the region. He sent Turachanes to his aid, that he might utterly destroy the Isthmus. Thomas, indeed, returned to good terms with his brother, so that thereafter they should be friends and guests to one another. He gave him the city of Calamata in place of the region of Scorta, which he had taken from his brother and held. These things, then, went this far.
And Tzanises, the son of Cariasuphis, having sent an embassy to him and requesting that the region around Sebastia not be plundered—and he cared for the thousand camels of butter, and [had] announced war against him—this Tzanises, as it was already made known to me, paying tribute to the Black Mauroprobatantes, as they are called, the sons of Cariasuphis, and having taken away Dabriza, he drove them together toward the city of Samatia. He had set out from Pagdatia of Babylon, and was besieging it, and having brought the land of the Armenians under his own power, he advanced upon Erzegana, the royal seat of the Armenians, and reduced it, having an army of about eight myriads of cavalry. And advancing, he was plundering this land in Asia which belonged to Mechmetes. Those, therefore, who lived around Sebastia, so that their land might not be laid waste by him, were bringing heavy loads of butter, and were cultivating their land without harm. Under him, then, the land of the son of Cariasuphis was being laid waste by Tzokies, one of the descendants of Temires, who had set out from Semarchanda, and he was besieging the city of Pagdatia of Babylon, as was told by me in the preceding pages. And sending Chasan, called the Long, into lower Asia and against Armenia, he brought the things belonging to this region under his control. These matters, then, reached this point. B C
A Having assumed the army of Thessaly and Europe, in such numbers as there were of the Pherræ and as were obedient to the European commander, he set out against the Peloponnese, taking along also his own children and the commanders of the cities of Thessaly and Macedonia. And having invaded, he traveled through the interior, a region once called Arcadia, and driving his army through Tegea and Mantinea, he descended into the region of Ithome and Messenia. And having pillaged the transport animals in these parts for many days, he reduced Neopolichne, and while besieging Sideropolichne, as he was unable to take it by force, he led away the army, marching along the road.
While he was marching out from there, the younger Achmet, the son of Turachanes, was captured by Asanes, who was a brother of the prince’s wife, having laid an ambush for him B about the region of Mycenae, where he had been about to pass while marching along that way. Having carried him off to Sparta, they kept him in custody with the governor until they should give him back.
C When the following summer—or rather, the spring—had duly arrived, Mehmed, the son of Amurath, launched an expedition against the city of Byzantium. He had indeed contemplated this expedition previously, but he had first wished to build a city in the Propontis called Lamocopia. And while winter was still prevailing, he issued a proclamation that all who dwelt in Asia and Europe should assemble at the maritime locations to construct a fleet. Ships and triremes were built, and he took care to have constructed bombard-cannon larger than any we know to have existed up to that time.
When he judged that the time had arrived for him to march out, he first sent the European commander, Saratzias, with instructions to take the European army and the bombard-cannon, as well as the other engines, and indeed the great bombard-cannon, to Byzantium. This bombard-cannon was of such a size that it required seventy yoke of oxen and some two thousand men to draw it. Upon his arrival at Byzantium, he reduced by famine the towers in the Byzantine territory, into which the rustic folk who lived in the fields used to take refuge to escape the enemy, D and some he took by force, leading off the men and slaughtering them. And when he eventually arrived in person, he ravaged the Byzantine territory.
Not much later, the king himself, marching out, encamped from sea to sea. On the right side of the king, extending as far as the place called the Golden Gate, the entire Asian army was encamped; on the left, near the place called the Wooden Gate, was the European army. In the midst, the king himself had set up his camp, having with him the new recruits and those of the palace guard who were accustomed to camp around the king. Zaganus, a relative of the king, had fortified his camp in the area opposite, above the city of Galata. It is said that the entire army at that time numbered about four hundred thousand men. And it is agreed by all that the number of pack animals in the royal camp was double that, in order that there might be sufficient food and fodder for both horses and men. For the Turks alone, as far as I know, always bring along for themselves what is necessary, whithersoever...
they march. And it was their custom to drive cattle into the camp, and slaughter them in the presence of the Greeks. There were also some Turks among the Greeks who were held in chains. The Greeks, therefore, having seized them, and brought them away from the hostile camp, sacrificed them, acting in equal measure with the captives held by them. But the emperor's ships, since there was no one to stop them, sailed to the city. A And the emperor immediately built a bridge there from the opposite region, which is called that of the Ceramarians. It led into the city, and was constructed of barrels, which were linked in pairs and connected firmly together. By this, a way was opened from the Zaganos camp into the city. And so it happened that the city was besieged on every side, and the state of the city and the Greeks grew weak, for the city had been besieged for a long time. For the circuit of the city was the greatest in our time, and being one hundred and eleven stadia, it was not very strong. And for forty days he battered the wall strongly with cannons, and cast down great parts of the towers and parapets, likewise also he battered the great wall with his towers. B Indeed, the Greeks at first set up their own cannons, and directed them at the enemy. The Greek cannons emitted a ball, the weight of which was one and a half talents. Against these, Mehmed positioned his largest cannon. But when it ejected a ball, such a sound was emitted that it moved the walls, and did more damage to the Greeks than it caused to the enemy. Wherefore they achieved little. For the cannon, which was very large, split at the first firing. Then, enraged against the bombardier, they rose up, as if he had been bribed by Mehmed, and sought his life. But when no clear sign of the crime could be found, they acquitted him of the charge, and sent him away unpunished. But the walls, which the Turks had battered with their cannons, they destroyed by night with certain ladders and wooden beams, repairing them with the greatest speed. C Meanwhile, while these things were happening, it was announced to the emperor that ships from the Aegean were sailing toward Byzantium: the one, which excelled in size, was Genoese; the other was the Greek emperor's, carrying grain. When the emperor received this, he immediately ordered the triremes and other ships to be filled with soldiers, and he sent them to the ships already nearby and carried by a favorable wind toward the city. The Genoese ship, indeed, turned and defended itself, and as the triremes attacked, it nearly fell, had not the other ship turned and brought aid to it; for it struck the triremes with great force. And the emperor from the shore shouted to his men, and spurred them on by sea with his horse. The ships escaped thus and entered the harbor. There the emperor's naval commander, Pantoles, was wounded in the eye by his own men, as he himself testified to the emperor, and if he— D
had been built and prepared, he called the foreign recruits and spoke to them as follows: "Foreign recruits, and my sons, who always perform most excellently wherever I turn the tempest of war, it is now within your power to capture this city. For you know that when I asked your opinion, you maintained that the city was capturable if only the walls were thrown down for you. Leading you around, I asked if the wall seemed sufficiently demolished, and it was thrown down to the extent that seemed sufficient to you. Now, therefore, since the time demands that we undertake the assault on the city, I wish to propose these things to you. You, who always find everywhere, both with me and with our ancestors, the greatest praise and glory for your brave deeds, I ask that you be willing to prepare the kingdom of the Greeks for me. May it not escape you what prefectures we have in Asia and in Europe. Of these, I will give the most beautiful and the best to him who first scales it onto the bulwark, and I will not cease to honor him according to his worth. I will repay him this favor—that he shall receive from me a rich principality; and I shall zealously strive that he be greatly honored and celebrated by the men of our own race. But if I should discover, while the siege is raging, that anyone remains in the tents and avoids the assault of the walls, he, in truth, even if he had wings like a bird, will in no way escape my hands, but that he will pay the penalty. Go, therefore, and capture this fight, which is both most beautiful and most wealthy. For there will be for you slaves of great value, and women, and children, and much wealth in the city." As the emperor said these things, C the decurions and leaders of the companies—who had previously ordered the wall to be demolished by the bombardments where they were going to make their breach as the emperor led them around showing them the wall—asked him if it was sufficient D to burst into the city, and they ordered the cannons to be fired to the extent that it seemed sufficient to them. And then they urged him to be of good courage, as they would irretrievably burst into the city. They asked him to grant them a favor, to show mercy to those men he had arrested on account of the naval commander, because they were under suspicion of having wounded him in the eye, and to forgive them. He inquired, and released the men, honoring the request of the foreign recruits. After these things, as it seemed right to him to attack, he sent word to the camp, proclaiming that the assault would be at dawn, and he announced gifts for the one who distinguished himself, and for the one who withdrew from the battle, death was the appointed penalty. And the Zichnides, going around the camps, reminded them of the glory customary among them at death, just as the hero promises happiness to those fighting and to those who have died, and other things such as are customary among them. The Greeks, as a man from Genoa arrived to help them with a very large ship and about three hundred hoplites, ordered him to stand there, where the emperor and the foreign recruits were about to burst in and force their way, so that he might prepare to defend himself there with his own hoplites. And the emperor of the Greeks himself also stood not far away with those around him, so as to provide support. And Cardinal Isidore of Sarmatia, whom I mentioned before, was present then to help the Greeks as they were being warred upon. For he arrived to create a synod
A and plundered the city, turning wherever each one might go. The Greeks, however, first of all, as the rumor spread that the city had been captured, some rushed in flight to the harbor toward the ships of the Venetians and the Genoese, and many boarding the small boats with haste and disorder perished as the boats sank. And there occurred what is accustomed to happen in such tumults, as each one rushed pell-mell to save himself in no orderly fashion. And these indeed managed to escape the Turks, but the city gatekeepers, having acted with a wretched lack of judgment, as they saw the Greeks turning to the ships and rushing in flight to save themselves, thinking that if they closed the gates the Greeks would be forced to turn back and defend themselves; and according to a certain oracle circulated in the city, that when the enemies had arrived at the place in the city called Taurus and were pressing hard, those in the city, gathered together by necessity, would defend themselves, drive out the enemies, and hold the city themselves. Relying, I suppose, on this expectation, they threw the keys from the wall outside the city. But the men and women, becoming a great multitude, as many kept flowing in there, turned to the greatest temple of the city, called that of Holy Sophia, and there were gathered men, women, and children. Not long after, however, they were taken by the Turks without a fight, and many men were slaughtered by the Turks inside the temple. The remaining Greeks, dispersed in flight through the city, did not know where they should turn to escape the present danger. Not long after, some of them were slaughtered like cattle, and some were taken prisoner. Many of the Greeks, since they were good men, fought bravely and died for the sake of their fatherland, so as not to see their wives and children B reduced to slavery. Theophilus, who was of the lineage of the Palaiologoi, died right there, having fought manfully for the sake of death, and the associates C of the Palaiologoi, the father and his children, while fighting, perished. And many of those around the king, being noble Greeks, died, not bearing to see their fatherland enslaved. And the state of the city was everywhere filled with those destroying and being destroyed, and with those pursuing and those fleeing. And concerning Notaras, the governor of the king, and Orchanes, the grandson of the Muslim, as the Greeks themselves said, the following happened. For when they heard that the city had been taken, they ran to a certain tower of the city, as if to deliberate there as to where they should turn. And having arrived there, Orchanes, having put on the rags of a certain Nazarene, threw himself from the tower and died. But those around Notaras, being besieged, were taken near the full marketplace, he himself together with his children. The new arrivals, then, immediately filled the camp of the king with both women and children
but he does not bid us deliver them up to so cruel a death. These things he said; and he said that he was not willing by any means to hand over his boy, who was innocent. But when the cupbearer kept urging and advising him neither to speak nor to act in this way towards the king, as he would immediately perish, he did not persuade him. When he returned and reported to the king the response from the Greeks, the king immediately ordered that he himself, his children, and all who were present with him be led away and slaughtered. When those who were appointed for this task arrived at him, he begged them to first destroy the children before his eyes, and after that to kill him. And his children, fearing death, begged their father to hand over all the wealth that was theirs in Italy, so as to be spared and not die; but he did not allow it, but ordered them to be of good courage for death. And these he destroyed first, and after that offered himself to be killed by the executioners. B And when he and those around him were destroyed by the king, the king immediately ordered that the other Greeks who were present in Byzantium as free men be led away and slaughtered. And thus these perished without any account. The king, having carried out this slaughter, was incited by one of the Greeks living there, whose daughter the king had relations with, and, being madly in love with the woman, he was gracious to her relatives, as he was carried along by love as much as possible; and they say that, persuaded by this man, he destroyed the Greeks. Regarding the Greeks of Byzantium, this much happened. And this disaster seems to have been the greatest of all those that have happened in the inhabited world, in terms of suffering, and to have been comparable to that of Ilium, and to have been a retribution for Ilium by the barbarians, as the Greeks had perished in a body; and thus the Romans believed that the retribution had come upon the Greeks for the disaster that once befell Ilium long ago.
C These things, then, occurred to this extent. But the king seized Chatiles, the son of Priamus, the governor of his house, having previously desired to destroy him, but because his affairs were not yet firmly established, inhibited by fear, he had not undertaken the arrest. And keeping him in chains, he sent him off on a wagon to be imprisoned at Adrianople. And not long after, he stripped him of his property, both gold and silver, as much as he possessed. For that man had been very eager to accumulate wealth, and in riches he far surpassed all who were in the royal court. These things happened while Zaganos, the king’s kinsman-by-marriage, to whose daughter the king-to-be, Machumetes the son of Michael, was betrothed, was wielding the most power at that time at the royal court, and as he was going with the king to see her, he was struck by love when he saw her, and took her as his wife. D
A It is worth mentioning. I shall now proceed to the next part of my account: the princes of the Peloponnese had set out to flee to Italy, as had the most prominent of the Greeks who dwelt on the island; but when the king made a treaty with them, they no longer intended to leave, but remained, and fell into no small or common misfortune. For when the Albanians saw them preparing to depart, they were no longer willing to obey, but began to form factions against one another and to conspire to seize the Peloponnese. They did this at the instigation of Peter the Lame, a man of bad character but otherwise capable, who took the lead among the Albanians in suggesting this revolt. He pressed them intently, urging them to rebel against the Greeks and to choose whichever leader they wished for themselves. They had intended to come to terms with the princes, but were prevented; they called upon other Greeks to join in this plan and intended for someone to become their head. In the end, they established Emmanuel, of the race of the Cantacuzeni, as their leader, who directed their affairs and acted as he pleased. They occupied themselves with war, plundering the beasts of burden and cattle that the Greeks possessed and carrying them off as they campaigned. This race is entirely nomadic, and they never settle in one place for long.
Starting from this position, they brought the hearths of the cities under their control, and as they made incursions, they besieged some and plundered others. Treating the Greeks as slaves, they sent a message to the king’s court, offering to hand over the Peloponnese to him. They promised both an army and his cities in the Peloponnese, and they offered to pay a large annual tribute to the king. Aiding them in this were Centurion Zacharias, brother of the wife whom the king’s brother had married, and Lucanes. B Thomas, the king’s brother, threw those men into prison in the citadel of the city called Chloumoutsi, keeping them in chains. But after those in the city were persuaded by the Albanians to join in the mutiny and to take the daughter of Centurion in marriage, he revolted, freed the men, and made war on the Greeks.
The power of the Albanians grew and reached great proportions. Thomas, the brother of the king, had arrested Centurion on account of his suspicion of him, at the time when Amurates, son of Mechmet, destroyed the Isthmus and marched into the Peloponnese toward Achaia. Bochales Leontares, a commander, had also set out to revolt. Bochales openly defected and fought openly; however, after joining battle with Raoul, the commander of the prince, he was captured, and the commander’s eyes were put out. Having accused these men in such fashion, Thomas dismissed Amurates. As for Lucanes, he suspected him of plotting a revolution regarding his own affairs and conspiring with those Greeks who desired to introduce changes, and he arrested him and C had him brought to prison. The Albanians, inflaming the city prefect with promises, persuaded him to desert to their side and to marry the daughter of Centurion, and to free the captives from their chains, and they fought openly against the Greeks. Centurion, specifically, was ordered into chains by Thomas, the king’s brother, because he had abandoned the Peloponnese while Amurates, son of Mechmet, was destroying the Isthmus, and had himself fled straight from the Peloponnese to Achaia. D He himself, as well as the prince Bochales Leontares, was inclined toward defection. And indeed, Bochales openly defected and waged open war; and joining battle with the prince’s general, Raoul, he was captured; and upon his capture, his eyes were put out. Thomas imprisoned these men in this manner: Centurion, because he had abandoned the Peloponnese when Amurates was destroying the Isthmus; and Lucanes, because he was plotting new disturbances and conspiring with those Greeks who, being desirous of novelty, were throwing the state of the Peloponnese into confusion. That man had incited...
the Peloponnesians and also the Albanians, in order that they might have supporters for their own cause and might govern themselves well. He himself, however, was intent upon reaching Asanes, who had great power in the Peloponnese, and was gaining control of a not insignificant portion of the Peloponnese. B And at that time he did not approach this man, nor did he pay any tribute, nor did he have any share in the tribute of the Peloponnesians or the Albanians, nor did he have the inclination to pay tax to the king. Moreover, the tax itself was twelve thousand gold staters. Now the Greeks, not at all regarded by their own people, were being destroyed in the civil strife; for the tax itself was not being paid by the Albanians and the Peloponnesians unless someone should grant them this favor, and they were agreed upon equal terms. But since these things were happening in such a way as to bring about their destruction, they were in fact bringing upon themselves their own ruin, and thus things came to nothing. It was fitting, indeed, that these matters, being poorly managed, should lead to their destruction and completely reduce them to nothing.
The king D Mechmet himself, after his second expedition against the Triballi and the city of Novopyrgum, undertook the campaign. This city is situated within the king's territory, and having come there, he exhausted the region around the River Moraba, which, as I have indicated, flows from the direction of Pristis through the king's territory and empties into the Ister. Having arrived there, the entire army of the king attacked the region of the Triballi and, laying waste to the country, he besieged the city.
A Nevertheless, he himself was preparing to be captured in Belgrade, and he was being besieged even as he advanced. He began to besiege the city. There lay in the midst of the two rivers an isthmus, roughly seven stades in width. There, having established himself and set up camp, he besieged the city. He struck the walls with his cannons. And both the 50 troops and the new arrivals, having reached the defenses near the wall, were engaging the Paeonians. This also became a great camp of the king. The king, reflecting that if he were to gain control of the river, the Paeonians would no longer be able to cross over to the city from the side opposite the river, and that having access to reinforce the city might result in its capture, he filled many ships, and along the region of the Danube he fitted them out, and readied about two hundred ships. Having filled these, he intended to gain control of the river, to prevent the power of the Paeonians from crossing into the city, and having caught those inside the city, to besiege them. The ships were brought up the river from the city of Vidin, and for some days he maintained control of this part of the river. B But the king of the Paeonians, for he too had encamped with a large army in the region directly opposite Belgrade, and having also filled the finest ships he had in Buda, he went down the river as if to join battle with the king's ships. The king's ships were moving up a great length of the river, along the territory of the Paeonians, ravaging, burning, and plundering. But not long after, the fleet of the Paeonians came down, and falling upon the king's ships, it sank some of them and captured about twenty vessels; and the Paeonians, having destroyed the men and having placed onto the empty ships the 53 supplies of combustibles, arranged them in bundles and let them be carried by the current into the king's camp. And these were perishers in that way, and the rest fled with haste to the king's camp. And having run the ships aground at the camp, they disembarked. However, the king immediately burned these, so that the Paeonians should not capture them by sailing them up. C Thus, the Paeonians were gaining control of that part of the river, and they were arriving from the opposite continent into the city, for the defense of the city, both others and, indeed, Choniates with his retinue; and Capistranus the Nazarene, a man who was wise and highly esteemed among the western nations for his religion. On account of these things, the high priest had sent him to those in Prague, the great city of the Bohemians, who were turned toward the religion of Apollo, as he was a powerful speaker, for the religion of Jesus. And many of his [followers] there unto the of Jesus...
A whom he had sent some time before to guard the region adjacent to the Ister; and, furthermore, to resist the Pannonian ships arriving, so that they might not be able to land. These cavalrymen, arriving while the battle was already raging fiercely, threw the Pannonians into the center and slaughtered many of them there. Then, after turning the Pannonians to flight, they drove them from the camp toward the bombards. And thus the battle ended there toward evening. The king, when he saw that his affairs were already in a bad state, and that the new arrivals were wounded and falling into fear, attempted to lead his armies to flight. When night fell, having given orders to pack up the baggage in the camp and to advance wherever he himself might lead, he withdrew under cover of the night, and in his retreat he feared lest the Pannonians might cross over with the rest of the army and pursue him, and that his withdrawal and his return home might become difficult for him and his men. And it seems to me that the Pannonians would have gotten behind the king’s army, had not Choniates, by turning back, forbidden them to pursue, knowing that the Turks, whenever a doubtful crisis hangs over them, B always become twice as strong and capable of enduring everything as they are at other times. To this was added a plague which had invaded the Pannonian camps, a most severe one, such that they were unable for a long time afterward to recover from the contagion. C John himself was also wounded there, and not long after he died. It seems to me that this was also the primary reason for the Pannonians not pursuing the king’s army. John, surviving the flight of the king by no long time, died thereafter, having become an excellent man in all things, and from a lowly position attaining great power, having displayed great deeds against the Germans and Bohemians, and having arrived at the leadership of the Pannonian affairs, he flourished with great glory. Furthermore, he conducted himself excellently against the Turks, whom he thought could not be overcome unless by the greatest forces of his own men and by virtue. He took upon himself the kingdom of the Pannonians and their armies as well. But when the other princes of Pannonia envied him and would not accept his commands, yet soon it was brought about that he retained the kingdom, since even those envious men admitted that the kingdom must be committed to this man, because he did not cease to provide the firmest and safest administration. It is apparent that this man accomplished whatever he undertook, using also singular diligence and speed, because wherever an opportunity shone forth, he was immediately present. There are those who report that this man died having been infected by the plague. Regarding Capistrano, we shall now relate what we know. Capistrano was a follower of Bernardino Canilio, who, teaching many and great things pertaining to the religion of Jesus, attained great glory and fame.
A For he died before his wife could reach the kingdom. Upon his death, a dissension arose among the nobles of Pannonia, and in this discord, the sons of Choniates emerged victorious. For Orlichus, a prince of a not insignificant region in Pannonia, who had harbored enmities with Choniates while he was still alive, judged that the sons of Choniates should not be placed in senatorial dignity, as their father had been the author of the greatest calamities for them while they were fighting against the Turks. The Pannonians, on the contrary, thought it unholy that the sons of Choniates should be expelled from the kingdom and from the magistracy. Therefore, the sons of Choniates, rising up against Orlichus, cut off his head in the curia and departed. The Pannonians bore this deed most indignantly, threw the son of Choniates into chains, and, so that he might be kept under stricter guard, deported him in bonds to Belgrade. B But not long after, he managed to be freed from his chains and was raised to the royal dignity. For he was created king, aided by the faithful service of his father's friends. He also contributed greatly to procuring the kingdom, because he won over an army to himself with wealth, and maintained it in the region of the Pannonians. And in this way, he acquired the splendid honor of royal dignity. Ilices, who had already fostered discord against Choniates, and then had taken up enmities with his son who had gained the kingdom, refused to obey the new king. However, not long after, a pact having been concluded, he accepted the king’s rule. In this way, the kingdom was transferred to the younger son of Choniates. He waged war with Albert, the Emperor of the Romans, performing great deeds of military valor everywhere. C He subdued Prague and Bohemia, so that now both kingdoms obeyed him.
Albert, the Emperor of the Romans, had it in mind to attack Mechmet, the king of the Turks, with arms. Having therefore gathered his forces, he sent an embassy to the Pannonians, asking that they allow him to lead his troops through their region, and that they provide him with supplies. The Pannonians, however, having held an assembly, consulted among themselves; they reasoned that if he were to conquer Thrace and gain great power for himself, it would come to pass that, upon returning, he would also attempt to subjugate Pannonia. Therefore, they responded that they would by no means voluntarily grant passage through their region. Some claim that this is how the Pannonians decided. D But there are others who relate that the Pannonians responded benevolently to the legates. But as the legates were returning to the king by whom they had been sent, they [the Pannonians] suborned men who would attack and kill them from ambush on the road by which they had set out. And this did indeed happen. When the Emperor turned his attention to an investigation of the legates, he caused war to arise once again between them, and they afflicted each other severely.
A He was keeping himself in a most fortified place. Having with him an army which he had raised from his own region, he used to make journeys through the mountains. Depositing his wives and children in most fortified places, he himself wandered to and fro with his army, in order to defend the region; and he was always present wherever his service was needed. And indeed, the infantry and cavalry forces were making an incursion into the region of Scanderis, and they did not cease to seize plunder of cattle and other things. And staying there for a long time, they were ruining everything, as they did not hesitate to burn down buildings and villages. Eventually, when the region had been sufficiently ravaged, he led away the army, having accomplished nothing worth recording. Scanderis, indeed, built a fortress near Epidamnus, which looks out toward the Ionian [Sea]. It is a peninsula, and a short isthmus of about three stadia; having fortified this with a wall, he settled not a few Albanians in that region, and strengthened the city so that if anything new were to happen—if he were to be attacked by the king’s armies—he might be besieged in that region; and whenever he was not able to hold out, he could board [ships] for the sea, and sail away wherever it might lead. The king’s army, therefore, having arrived at this place and having made an attempt, as the capture of the city did not go as they wished, marched back home. And in this year nothing more of consequence occurred to King Mehemet regarding the expedition. B
In that same year in which he had set out on the campaign against Scanderis, nothing else was done. But as summer approached, he sent some of his chosen men from court to the tributary princes and kings, summoning them to the circumcision of his children, which they call a purification. He also summoned the princes of his realm, the governors of the cities, satraps, and commanders, and all the soldiers who served for pay under this king. When the armies had assembled for him at Adrianople, he performed the circumcision—which they believe to be a purification—of his children, and magnificent gifts were presented to him by the magistrates and satraps. That assembly took place outside the city in a field near the island; all lived in the open air, except the king and the princes. This wedding (for so they also call the circumcision) is considered the greatest of all those things which pertain to life among them. Each one endeavors to provide some amusement at those weddings. And not a few amusements are exhibited at the circumcision of the king’s children: men [standing] erect, mounted on horses, holding themselves without any external help, remain immobile while the horses are in full gallop. I omit mentioning the rope-walkers: for in this art the Turks far surpass the rest of mankind. C For they walk dancing upon suspended ropes, and they are able to run across them most quickly. They perform countless other things worthy of admiration, walking and turning back upon naked swords. These things one may see happening daily in the forum which they call Tactalê, where the rope-walkers D perform their amusements.
A B C D of names, they sometimes use lesser, sometimes more honorable names, such as Mustapha Musplachasites, Chiteres Charaitines. A similar observation may be made regarding the rest of the names in this manner.
There are thirty-six prefects in Europe; of these, the greater ones receive from the king an income of twenty thousand gold staters; the lesser ones receive ten thousand, more or less. In Asia, there are indeed standards A for him, and forty prefects for each standard. Besides these, there are the rulers of the great cities, such as Therma, the city of Scopia, Philippopolis, and the like. These rulers belong to the standards, subject to the grand commander of Europe, just as those of Asia are subordinate to the commander of Asia. The prefects of Europe and Asia follow the commanders and princes, and whomever they may lead. When a satrap sets out for any war, the city rulers follow as auxiliaries, according to the satrap's order. The supreme power rests with the king’s great commanders, to whom the king also pays a very large salary. And in this way, they quickly amass much wealth, which they receive from the satraps and city rulers.
Among the palace soldiers, the commanders hold the greatest power; they act as envoys and are generally the king's assessors and councilors for matters pertaining to the care of the kingdom. B To them pertains the administration of revenues and tributes. They sign and confirm the accounts and the king's treasuries with their own seal. Next to them in rank and dignity is the secretary, established in closest proximity to them, who receives the accounts from those appointed to the revenues and collections, and from the tax. He renders an account of the revenues and reports them to the commanders and to the king himself; other secretaries deal with the documents and the king's commands.
The tribute accruing to him from Europe amounts to nine hundred thousand staters. This tribute is collected not from the Turkish race, but from those of other nations under them. For it is not considered right that those of the same race should pay money C as tribute, but rather it is their duty to serve in the wars alongside the king, equipped with their arms and horses. Nor did the predecessors of this king exact/collect the tithe of produce from the Turks, but only from those of other races; but this king collects the tithe as well, and brings it wherever he marches on campaign.
Thus, the tithe and, in addition to the tribute, the *Bostina*—as it is called—are brought to the palace gates by the city rulers, the prefects, and the soldiers. It is also the custom that the entire allocation of sheep, which is given in the name of tribute, is driven to the king's gates. These matters, however, are in this state. D
LAONICUS CHALCONDYLAS THE ATHENIAN: DEMONSTRATION OF HISTORIES, THE NINTH BOOK. LAONICUS CHALCONDYLAS THE ATHENIAN: HISTORIES CONCERNING THE ORIGIN AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE TURKS: BOOK NINE.
Mahomet occupies the Peloponnese, Athens, Amastris, Sinope in Pontus, and Trebizond.
A When Mahomet, son of Amurath, sent men of the Porte into the Peloponnese, he demanded that the tribute be paid. But when the King’s men came into the Peloponnese, they found nothing sound among the Greeks; they could not prevail upon either the Albanians or the Peloponnesians to pay the tribute. When the King saw that the leaders of the Peloponnese were contending with one another in private hatreds, driven by an evil genius so as to bring themselves and their affairs to ruin, he remitted the third tribute, seeking at least that they might in the present keep the peace which had been agreed upon in good faith. But as they neglected to do this, using I know not what imprudence and injustice, he decided to bring arms against the Peloponnese. He dispatched Mahmud, son of Michael, whom he had designated as Prince of the Porte and leader of Europe, to the Ister, so that if the Pannonians were plotting any new enterprise, he might keep them from their captured objectives by accusations. If he accomplished little in this way, he was not to allow them, should they approach, to devastate his region. Mahmud, having taken up the army of Europe, which comprised about eighty thousand soldiers, set out against the Triballi, who inhabit the region near the Ister. When, however, he discovered that the Pannonians were attempting no innovations but were embracing quiet, he set himself to subjugate Illyricum; and some small towns, which he had taken by force, he plundered. After he marched his forces into Illyricum, he fortified a camp there near the Ister, so that he might guard the cities of the King situated there, B and prevent those (the Pannonians) from harming his territory as they invaded. Having taken up the army of Europe—which numbered eighty thousand—he marched against the Triballi, who inhabit the land along the Ister. Setting out from there, as he heard of nothing new from the Pannonians, he devastated the land of the Illyrians; some small towns he took by force and enslaved the inhabitants. Afterwards, having overrun the land of the Illyrians, he remained there near the Ister, keeping watch over both the cities. He therefore occupied himself with these matters. But the King, having taken the Asian army and Boos,
A returned and moved his army against the city of Tegea. Asanes Demetrius was in command of this city. The King therefore pitched his camp here in a rough and inaccessible place. The city, however, stood on high, situated on a strong and fortified mountain. Without delay, they prepared ladders and engines of war and attacked the city; he even gained control of the water which was situated outside the city in a fortified place, so that the townspeople could no longer reach it to draw water. For since the inhabitants of the besieged city possessed no supply of water, and the wells and springs had dried up, they were experiencing extreme miseries at the hands of the besiegers due to the great multitude of men and pack animals. When, therefore, the water failed, the commander of the city proclaimed the conditions of surrender by a herald. And the King indeed granted that Leodoricus, his son, should go forth from the camp—for projectiles were already in readiness—and sent him to Corinth, as well as into the Asian army; and the King’s soldiers, having found stones in the old Corinth, caused great slaughter by hurling them.
B When he had arrived and encamped, the King immediately offered terms to Asanes, and having sent Jesus, the son of Brenezis—a man held in high esteem in the camp—together with an interpreter, he ordered him to command that the city be surrendered. When Jesus had arrived, he spoke as follows: "Asanes, and all you Greeks who are present, the King, in sending us, declares that you are among the foremost in wisdom, and that you are particularly conversant with the King’s affairs. You know also, better than others, what kind of man this King is, and of the race of the Ottomans, and that wherever he goes, he does not depart until he has breached the city. He therefore grants you, in these circumstances—having reconciled with the King in the best possible way—the opportunity to surrender this city and, in exchange, to receive from the King whatever land you might choose. And if you do this, the King will consider you fit and will make you a guest, so as to lay up favor for himself, for you, and for your children. If, however, you do not surrender, you know yourself, by the soul of the King, that he will enslave both the city and all those around it, handing them over to the most wretched destruction."
Jesus said these things through an interpreter. But Asanes, taking up the discourse, said: "O son of Brenezis, announce to the King that we know his soul is indeed the most noble of all who have come before from the Ottoman kings, and that his power is the greatest in the world; this is surely evident to all who are well-informed about the King’s affairs. We, too, ourselves acknowledge to the King that these things are very great. C But you see, then, that this city is situated in a fortress, most especially of all the cities of which we know. And the kings from Othman himself, and the King himself, from the time he took the throne, have neither besieged nor taken such a city by force, nor has it ever come to pass that they have marched against such a city. For you see how, while the city is highly fortified all around, it only makes its entrance where it is walled by three very strong walls simultaneously,"
those who were deliberating in common A whether to surrender the city or to hold out and defend it. When he saw that those in the city were turned away and troubled, Asanes himself and the Spartan Lucanes went out under a truce. When they came into the presence of the king and asked for a truce upon certain conditions, he said to them: "Tell our governor that I am ready to make a truce, on the condition that as much of the region as my army has passed through shall be mine, and that you pay five hundred staters in tribute for the rest of the region. And as for the governor, tell him to surrender to us Aigion, Patras, and the surrounding territory; otherwise, let him know that I shall immediately attack." When this was instructed to them, they came to the governors, who were staying around Mt. Taygetos in Laconia, and reported the words of the king. It immediately seemed best to them, so as not to be stripped of the whole region, to send envoys and to ratify the truce with the king on the conditions he proposed. Having sent the envoys, they made the truce, and he ceded the region to the king’s lieutenant, Omar—who was the lieutenant of Thessaly—including Aigion, Kalavryta, Patras, and the surrounding region of Achaea. B When he had taken over the cities and established new arrivals in them, he dismissed his own armies to go home, while he himself turned toward Attica and the city of Athens, going around to inspect the Piraeus and the harbors, and welcomed the prowess of Omar. I learn that this city and its acropolis were held in the highest esteem by the king among all the cities in his domain, and that he admired the ancient magnificence and construction of the city, saying, "How much gratitude is owed, according to our law, to Omar, son of Turakhan!" For the way in which this Omar took this city and the acropolis will now be told:
For when Nerio died, his wife C held the tyranny, having a young child by her husband. She sent embassies to the king and courted the king’s gates with money, and she was residing in positions of power. Not long after, a young man of the Venetians, who had come to Athens for the sake of trade—a man from the Senate—fell in love with her. Falling in love, she entered into discourse with the young man, as if in sport, spending much time with the young man, as if he were ready to enter into marriage with her, and at the same time to entrust the rule of the city to him. These things would be his, provided that, having sent away his wife in whatever way he could, D he returned to Athens. The young man was the son of Priam, who had been entrusted with Nafplion by the Venetians. The young man departed, and being seized by love,
[Note: On this page, the text includes a marginal label 241 regarding the location of Achaia.]
Turks B advancing, when they saw the Greek army arraying itself on the hills of the city, deliberated whether to encamp or to ride through them all straight toward Tegea and Moukhli. But Jonuzes, the leader of the cavalry, seeing the Greeks drawing up their ranks in depth, cried out, "O friends, Turks, the Greeks are defeated. For they are not able to fight as they have arranged themselves; rather, they will all yield immediately, since those in the rear have turned to flight. For they did not draw up to help one another, but having made the ranks in depth, they were preparing to defend themselves." Jonuzes shouted these things, and taking the cavalry, he charged against the Greeks. The rear ranks were receiving the first [ranks], but when the Turks kept coming on who were increasingly more numerous, they were moved to flight. The last of the Greeks, fleeing, fell upon their own men, and these C at the same time they rendered into flight; and thus the ranks in one moment of time turned to flight, with the last being pressed hard. For there was a necessity D that, being defeated, the others would soon suffer this same thing, falling into one another. The Greeks, therefore, fled with all their might into the city; but the Turks coming on with shouting and mutual encouragement, destroyed some two hundred, and riding up, they besieged the leader and the city with hunger and plague. For the army was being pressed because it had come from the slaves from Achaia, and he led them away from there toward Moukhli. Jonuzes, however, they left behind with the prince Demetrius. Thomas again, when the royal army departed and rode away, besieged the king’s newcomers in the citadels.
The king at that time marched against Smederevo and the region of the Triballi. He was making this march for the following reason. When Eleazar, the son of Vuk, had died, his wife was left in command along with her daughter. She held the citadel of Smederevo, and by arranging a marriage match for her daughter to the son of the king of the Illyrians, she intended to hold the rule of the city herself. The Triballi, therefore, set out for Michael, the brother of Mahomet, who was residing with the prince of the Triballi, and choosing him as their leader, they were establishing him and entrusting to him the affairs of the city. The woman, summoning him to the citadel under the guise of hospitality, seized him, and having bound him, sent him away to the Pannonians. The Pannonians, however, taking Michael, imprisoned him. And the Triballi set out again to the king, and together with the prince’s wife, they were negotiating the surrender of the city. The king, not yet having settled into
A a peace, also met with the White-Sheep, as they are called, towards Temerou-dou, those from Tzoki and the sons of Kara-Osuf, so that he might not have troubles while his territory was being devastated by them. And he also established marriage alliances with the Greeks of Byzantium, and moreover, King Alexius Comnenus gave his daughter to John, the king of Byzantium. Following these events, something of this sort occurred: As King John had become suspicious of his mother, thinking that the protovestiarios was having a sexual relationship with his mother, the Cantacuzena, and suffering in his heart on account of this, he killed the protovestiarios and locked up both his father and his mother in the same bedchamber, wishing to kill his mother as well. But the dignitaries in the city, beseeching John so that this would not happen, sent them away into the regions of Iberia, having prevailed upon him. But because of the wickedness of John, King Alexius made his second son king, the one called Scantarios, and married him to the daughter of Mytilene, B Gatilousos, whom he sent to Mytilene. But King John, having departed to Iberia, took as his wife the daughter of King Alexander. After this, he went to Kafa, seeking someone there who had a ship, in order to cross over to Trebizond to wage war against his own father, Alexius. He found there a Genoese man who had a large ship carrying all kinds of weapons, whom he appointed as his chief commander. Having equipped the ship well and as was necessary, they arrived at Trebizond against his father, King Alexius. Having gone out onto the land at the site of Saint Phocas, they pitched their tents there in his monastery, having secretly obtained as helpers the Cabasitai, who betrayed him. For C these men, holding guard over the king in the Achante suburb, where King Alexius had also encamped with his weapons and war machines, had conspired against John, granting passage for the assault against Alexius. John’s men, having found him in his tent, unsuspecting, killed him by force in the hour of midnight. For King John had not said at all to kill his father, but only to capture him alive and bring him to him. D Those who, not observing this, but instead killing him, thought perhaps that they had done what was more pleasing to King John. But King John later blinded one of them and cut off the hands of another, not having wished for this to be done in such a way, but only for him to be brought to him. John, therefore, assumed the kingdom, having honored his father with the appropriate honors of burial, which he also deposited in the monastery of Theoskepastos, even though he later transferred him to the metropolis.
A regarding the Alani, as they are called. As for the Iberians, whether they came to this land from elsewhere, or from the Iberians toward the west, I cannot say with certainty. But they appear to have attained great power and acquired riches, and they drew the Christian faith from Constantinople 81. For a woman who was accustomed to travel there in order to learn the true and holy faith, having renounced her own superstition, even led the Iberians to the most holy faith, worker of miracles; and she declared them Christians, once they confessed themselves to be Christians. B Many years later, the Scythians who were their neighbors waged war against them and, passing through the land of the Iberians, they laid it waste and utterly ravaged it, and having taken them captive, they enslaved them, the kings having fled to the mountain peaks. Later, when the Scythians had departed for their own haunts, they returned to their own, and the Iberians also came down from the mountains to their own lands, and thereafter remained in their kingdom paying tribute yearly to the king of the Scythians. After a short time had passed, the king of the Scythians, having fought against the Alani, also attacked the Huns and the Sasi in war: of whom I shall relate as much as I have discovered.
C When Asanes came to the king, he told him what had happened in the Peloponnese; he inquired also about Achmates, the prince of the Peloponnese, because his brother had decided to remain in that region, although he was being attacked by his brother with hostile arms. The king immediately gifted him the islands situated in the Aegean Sea: Lemnos, Imbros, Thassos, and Samothrace. These he had previously granted after the fall of Byzantium, along with the principality of Lesbos, Lemnos, and Aenos; and to Palamedes, the tyrant, Imbros. When the king saw Aenos—after the death of Palamedes and his son Dorius, who had taken over the city—the king marched upon it, and captured Aenos, those in the city surrendering to him immediately. He also sent Jonuzes, the prefect of Callipolis, to take possession of the islands. Imbros and Lemnos surrendered at once, and a royal garrison was brought to the islands. D But later, when the Turks heard that a fleet from Italy, whose leader was a cardinal 82, was arriving, and that another fleet was expected from Italy, the garrisons withdrew from the islands, but the Turks protected them. Lemnos, as soon as the fleet sailed toward it, submitted, and Imbros did likewise, as did Thassos and Samothrace. Not long afterward, when the fleet had gone to Rhodes, Ismaëles, a prefect newly established by the king, sailed up and took possession of Imbros and Lemnos. The Italian men who were in these, having been captured, he sent to the king. When they were all led into the king's sight, he executed them. At that time, the king was staying in Philippopolis, for he had left his royal seat because of the plague, which was raging there cruelly. Thassos and Samothrace, however, did not surrender. For when, not long after, Zaganus had driven out Ismaëles, and...
postponed his intention regarding Chazanem until the following year, he himself marched against the Peloponnese. A Upon arriving at Corinth and making an incursion, Asanes, who had been sent by Prince Demetrius, was present to lead the King’s army against the enemies. When he reached Tegea, he cast Asanes into prison, and keeping in chains the Greek servants and all who followed him, he led them off towards Sparta. At first, Mohammed, having his cavalry and the European army with him, marched with all his might against Sparta. Having arrived there, he took the city at once and trapped the prince inside. The prince, therefore, cast down from his hope in the King, was being besieged and had set out to ascend the acropolis of the city so that he might escape; but when he learned that his wife's brother, Asanes, was held prisoner by the King, he withdrew from the city, and arriving at the camp, came into the sight of the King. The King treated him magnificently upon his arrival and honored him greatly. Furthermore, he consoled him, encouraging him to be of good courage, as he did not wish to exact any punishment for his offenses. He promised to give him another wealthy region, lacking in nothing, in place of Sparta; nevertheless, he kept him in custody. B Now, above Sparta, at the foot of Mount Taygetus, there is situated a prosperous Greek city. It is distant from the old city and the Eurotas by about eighteen stades. This city the King had already taken into his possession, and he placed a garrison in the metropolis and appointed as governor Chazanem Zenebiza, a servant of Mohammed. He himself, marching on the city of Castria, which is about eighty stades distant from the current city, besieged it. For the men and women, having fortified themselves in a very strong place and trusting in the difficulty of the terrain, prepared to defend themselves against those who were coming to make war upon them—the King’s army. The new arrivals, then, when the signal for the assault was given to them, attacked immediately, and surmounting the outer wall, they enslaved the men and women after having captured this place. Having taken the city, they went up against the acropolis, which was elevated and rose to a height of about four stades. The ascent was narrow and difficult to climb, being especially rough, steep, and uneven. C And with the men hindering them, it was difficult to pass over and reach the acropolis. There they struggled with the ascent, climbing over one another. Many, being carried down on this ascent by the momentum of one another, were forcibly cast over the precipice, and very many of the new arrivals perished. The others, however, climbed over and arrived at the acropolis, and began to attack. The Greeks, having fought for a long time, could no longer defend themselves against each other and the King’s men. They gave up, and submitted themselves into a treaty with the King. These, when he had taken the acropolis, he D rounded up and slaughtered, all of them. They were three hundred in number. Their leader, on the following day, he cut into two parts. From there he began his march through Leontarium, and having pitched his camp, when he had received
A surrender from the surrounding towns, he laid them waste. After the king had advanced toward Methone and had inspected it, some of those in the city came out as though to sue for peace, and some of them were destroyed by the king's men.
The king, having prepared accordingly at Pylos, ordered the leader of the Greeks to march straight into Boeotia through the inland region, as I have already explained. He himself arrived at Achaia and, taking the surrounding districts after the lords had surrendered them, came into Achaia, bringing with him Asanes, the brother of the prince's wife. Upon arriving there and learning of the events at Santameri, he was angry with Zaganos and was vexed that, because of his transgression, the remaining cities would be loath to surrender to the Greeks. He ordered a proclamation to be made through the camp so that the captives from Santameri B should be released. Everything that was there was set free. Most of them, however, had already managed to cross over from Achaia into Aetolia before this could happen. Zaganos, for his part, had sent most of the captives he had taken away to his own home.
He then took the city of Grebenos by sending Josue, the governor of Skopje, and having enslaved a third of the people who were in that city, he selected whichever of the captives were comely and carried them off. Even before these events occurred, the prefect of the city of Patras, named Isokales, had subdued certain neighboring towns. For the Greeks, when they learned that the king was ravaging the inland region and killing a great many men of the cities, were each one of them hastening and wishing to surrender themselves C before the king arrived to destroy them—either enslaving them or slaughtering them. The Turks, however, received the cities; and as for these "Aprici"—for so they were called—they took away the fairest of the city dwellers as captives. They would plunder the smaller towns, but they received the larger ones into their dominion, selecting for themselves the fairest things that were in the cities. Just as wolves rush upon sheep abandoned by their shepherds and are never satisfied with the slaughter, but the sheep perish miserably from the cruelty of these wolves, so too at that time the Peloponnese D was perishing most cruelly, devastated and corrupted by the king's men, with its people being destroyed in a pitiable manner, some here and others elsewhere.
The king, having arrived at Patras in Achaia, fortified his camp and received the town of Castrimenos into his dominion. He also sent a herald to Salmenike, who commanded them to surrender the city. But they said that they were not willing to surrender themselves, knowing that they would suffer the same fate as the other Greeks. When this was reported to the king, he prepared [Note: The text ends mid-sentence on the page.]
A a force of cavalry, as many as were present, and sent them against the Albans, as if he would seize them all. Those who obeyed the summons, having been deceived in this way, were destroyed; and they, driving off the pack animals and cattle of the country, brought them to Corinth. On this same pretext he made an incursion into the region of Phlius. For the Albans living in these parts, as they were housed in very secure places, were carrying off and plundering the possessions of the Greeks, and they kept the rest of these people in the lower regions of the Peloponnese, following them wherever they might lead the way in war. So he decided that these places needed to be weakened, and that the Albans were stirred up from there to rebel against the king's territory. And it was said that for the most part, the landings [of forces] were made in this way, and that they would lead the others wherever they might guide them. These things, then, occurred to this extent regarding the conquest of the Peloponnese.
The king, having arrived at Athens, walking about here and there, was inspecting the ancient city and the harbors. B And as those in the acropolis were explaining to him that certain of the Athenians were conspiring in treason with the Frankish ruler of Boeotia, who had previously been the tyrant of the Athenians, they themselves and the city came into danger. There, the king, being persuaded, seized ten of the citizens, the most wealthy men, and taking them away, settled them in Byzantium. While he was returning home and sending heralds, he ordered the leader Demetrios to proceed ahead with his wife, and he himself traveled at leisure. To the leader, however, he entrusted the city of Ainos, and the revenue from the salt-works of that place, and from the gates, up to sixty myriads of silver. Now the Frank, the son of Antonios, who had been his favorite, as is said, and who had surrendered the Athenian acropolis, was sent by him to Zaganos, the prefect of the Peloponnese, with orders to kill him. Zaganos, inviting that man into his tent, engaged him in conversation until night. But after the Frank, when he departed, set out for his own tent, at the order of Zaganos, he was killed there. The death of this man occurred in this way. The king arrived at Pherae, and spent days there. For it was reported that the Pannonians were leading an army, coming against the Ister. C But when it became clear that this was nothing, not long after he was present in Adrianople, bringing with him the brother of the Greek king, Demetrios, with his wife. Having arrived at the royal palace, he sent the eunuch and brought away the daughter of the leader from custody. Zaganos, who had been left in the Peloponnese, while having with him the army of Thessaly, except for the cavalry, was going about and settling the affairs of the Peloponnese. And great profits accrued to him, both himself and the rulers of the Peloponnese, from the slaves, whom, secretly carrying off, they would transport to Thessaly, and by exacting gifts from those in the D
A region where you were born. Furthermore, it does not escape your notice that a king has also sprung from that same stock, and that against the enemies of the hero Mechmet he does not cease to wage war. Why, then, do you not remain in peace, and by granting half the principality to your brother, do you not wish to rule over the other half? But instead you rob your brother of half the principality and govern the whole, not refraining meanwhile from provoking the king with injuries against you. Now, therefore, learn how your affairs may be in a better state: namely, by going out to the king, you may surrender yourself and the principality to him. Nor will you find the king ungrateful. Hence, do not delay in binding the king to you by such a favor. For I know well that you will receive from the king another region by no means smaller, and you will live happily and securely; nor will any sadness come to you. Nor will you have troubles henceforth either with our people or with your own enemies. You will also be safe from your brother, nor will there be an enemy to plot against your principality. Propose, therefore, yourself what principality in Europe you wish to be given to you by the king, and I will obtain it for you from the king.” Thus spoke Machumetes, son of Michael. But Ismael, answering, said: “Truly, O Machumetes, it was fitting for the king to make war upon the enemies of the hero Mechmet, and not to afflict us who are of the same nation and faith. For it is not considered lawful to wage war against a man of the same nation, and one who has entered into a treaty, especially one who has not first committed injuries, and one who decides to remove him from the midst. We, indeed, have offered no injury to the king, nor have we violated treaties. But if the king is angry with us because I esteemed Chasanes, B come, let him avert the weight of war against him. Therefore, if the king demands that this region be handed over to him, let him grant us Philippopolis in exchange for this land, provided that we do not hold it as tributary, but possess it with immunity received. If he does this, we shall go to the king, having faith in his equity. Do you see how egregiously protected the city is by the nature of the terrain, and how well-supplied with arms? Four hundred bombardiers are stationed in its circuit. There are about two thousand bombardeers. This city holds over ten thousand men. Hence, it is possible for us to resist as safely as possible, and to harm our enemies most grievously.” Having heard these things, Machumetes was extremely delighted by the speech of Ismael, and he went to the king to persuade him to accept that city into his dominion. When the king understood each thing that Ismael had recounted, he was prepared to make peace on the conditions which Ismael had offered. Accordingly, he provided Philippopolis to him. Ismael, carrying all his wealth, was departing from the city, and was setting out into that region of Europe which the king had assigned to him. When the king had received the city into his dominion and had sent Ismael off into Europe, the remaining things which pertained to that principality also came under the king's dominion. C D
A Furthermore, the divine nature is such that one must stand by whomever one has covenanted with; but if one transgresses, one is utterly destroyed. You, however, have reached a great height of good fortune, beyond that of any kings currently on earth, because you have obeyed the hero and have not transgressed the established conventions, and you shall henceforth rule over all men. For all things that a man covenants to—whether to God or to a hero—he is bound to obey until he dies. And you do not act rightly toward us, who are of your own people and are servants of the hero, toward whom fate has assigned you covenants. For he will not overlook us, who are being insulted and treated unjustly by you, as we wander about. This is what she said. The king replied to her in this manner: “O woman, you have surely spoken of everything with justice; but you know well that the covenant is a favor to the king and to the tyrant in more ways than one. But it is the nature of affairs to bring this to pass. B Indeed, if someone is seen doing wrong to his own people, it is necessary to seek testimony for this and to defend oneself against the aggressor. And we, having done this—and having warned him in advance not to provide entry into our territory—saw that he did not refrain at all, and he did not cease to come and cause trouble.” Nevertheless, these things were commanded to your son: We shall refrain from now on from [encroaching upon] his land, provided that he does not set foot in our land again, nor come to the aid of and fight for the king of Trebizond. Upon the king saying this, the woman immediately came to an agreement and concluded a truce.
From then on, he marched toward Trebizond and against King David, who, upon the death of the king his brother John—one grandson having been left to him—had brought together the Cabazitian lords of the Mesochaldes around Trebizond and seized the kingdom. And he was reigning, having done an injustice to his nephew, C who was four years old. The fleet, however, having set out from Sinope, after they had enslaved that place, was sailing along with the Cappadocians on its right, and when it arrived at the city of Trebizond, it burned the suburbs and besieged the city for thirty-two days. After this, the king [himself] marched his troops forward and arrived.
As Machumetes was advancing ahead toward Trebizond, having pitched his tents there in what is called Scylolimne, and having held talks with his cousin George the protovestiarios, he told him to say these things to King David: “To the King of Trebizond, of the clan of the Greek empire, the great king says this: You see how long a journey and how vast a region the king has traveled, since he set out, to arrive here. If, therefore, you surrender the city to the king immediately, he will provide you with another territory, just as he granted good fortune and islands and the prosperous city of Aenos to Demetrius, the leader of the Greeks of the Peloponnese, and he sits secure, living in prosperity. But if you do not desire to be persuaded and wish to resist, know that [you shall be] D stripped of the city not long after. For...
A these things happened up to this point. Having divided the Trapezuntines into portions, he retained one part for himself, from which he made Silictarii and Spathoglanoi, holding them for his own service B later at his gates, and for his own boyish pleasures. The other part he sent to Byzantium. From another [group] he made Janissaries and servants in various capacities, having chosen eight hundred boys, and he set them in the rank of the recruits.
However, as for the daughter of King David, he did not take her as his wife, but not long after, he summoned her to his chambers C after King David had been slaughtered; the grandson of the former king, who was still an infant, the Ruler kept with himself. But the younger son of the king, George by name, having arrived in Adrianople, turned to the religion of Mehmed, and having adopted the customs of those people, not long after was captured by the King along with his father and brothers. For indeed, the cousin of the King, the wife of Hassan, had sent a letter and was calling for either the son of the King or his cousin, Alexios from Mytilene, who was a Komnenos. The letters were handed over to the King, signifying that one of the sons of the King or his cousin, as has been said, should come to the mistress who was the wife of Uzun Hassan. D The Protovestiarios George handed over these letters to the administrator, a man otherwise good in his habits, so that he might appear to the King as someone to be trusted in all matters, and furthermore so that it might not be known how the Protovestiarios had concealed this matter, fearing the great Ruler and the Pasha Mahmud, and that the Protovestiarios might suffer evil at the hands of the Great Ruler. And for this reason he also gave the document to the Great Ruler. The King, having received and read the letters, suspected nothing good. He therefore ordered King David and his sons to be arrested, along with their cousin, and he gave them all into custody. But he summoned the daughter into his own chambers. Having kept them in chains for some time, not long after, having taken them to Byzantium, he put them to death. As for the boys from the city and the surrounding villages, he recruited some as new arrivals and settled them in his own quarters, while others he placed in his own service, and others he bestowed upon his sons and his nobles. As for the maidens, he placed some in his own chambers, while others he gave away; and some of them he sent to his sons, while others, in a short time, he gave in marriage. But during this winter, while the King was staying in his own seat, he summoned Blad, the son of Dracula, the leader of Dacia. For he was keeping the younger brother of this man with him, and abusing him shamefully for his own lust.
A And he, having arrived at such a pitch of insolence as even to kill his own envoys, he was not moved to exact punishment for the murder of those very men from the leader of Dacia. Yet he was also vexed by the fact that after crossing the Ister with a great force, and burning the king’s territory, and having wrought the slaughter of those who were of his own race, he had turned back. But he was doing things far more terrible than these, to have treated his own ambassadors in such a way. Wherefore, he sent out messengers everywhere, commanding the nobles and others accordingly to be present with his army, in the finest array and fully armed for an expedition, as he was about to set out. The king thus prepared his army against the Dacians.
It is further told that Mahmud, the commander, before the news of the slaughter of the envoys and of Chamuzes, the prefect, and of the burning of the region had been reported B to the leader—for indeed the message arrived before these things had been discovered, and the events concerning the Dacians were reported to the king’s men—he took it very ill. It is also said that he even inflicted blows upon the man. Yet it is not considered a very shameful thing at the king’s court to strike those who are gathered to him for service, who are not of the number of free men, nor are they sons of Turks. The king then, sending heralds through the entire kingdom, commanded that the armies should arrive at him well-equipped and armed; moreover, he summoned all his cavalry for this expedition. The royal heralds, who carry the king's will throughout the entire region, and the messengers, if any new developments occur, hasten to the king’s gates and finish the greatest journeys within a few days at the fastest pace. If any one of their number sees a horse on the road, he immediately dismounts the rider and, climbing onto it himself, hastens his journey, driving C the horse as hard as he can. Then, if he finds another, he mounts that one in the same way and hands the exhausted horse over to that man. And in this way, giving the horses rest, they complete the longest journeys. They bind their whole bodies so that the body may not ache or suffer when they run. We know that in five days royal heralds have come from the Peloponnese to Adrianople. This journey a horseman can barely complete in fifteen days, even if he is in the greatest haste; these heralds are called Ulacides.
When the king’s entire forces had gathered, equipped, he set out against Dacia at the very beginning of spring. They say that this army of the king was the greatest, second only to the one which this king had led against Byzantium. But it is agreed that this army was finer than the others, and possessed the greatest significance both in arms and in the rest of its war matériel. At that time, the king had about twenty-five myriads of men in arms. The basis for this number can D easily be derived from the crossing of the Ister. For the tax-collectors had bought the crossing of the Ister from the king, paying thirty myriads of gold staters; meanwhile, however, it is agreed that they...
see the path along which the king’s army would march. For when the king had crossed the Ister A with the greater part of his army and had reached Dacia, he did not immediately ravage it; for the king would not permit this, but marched his army in formation. He was marching straight towards the city to which the Dacians had carried off their wives and children, while they themselves followed the king through the oak forests. And if any were cut off from the army, they were immediately destroyed by these men. Now the king, since no one appeared before him offering battle, nor did report come that help was present for Bladus from the Pannonians, B grew negligent and careless of the entrenchments, and pitched his camp in an open plain.
For when Bladus learned that the enemy was approaching in a hostile column, he sent a messenger to the Pannonians, saying the following: "O men of Pannonia, you know, I believe, that our country is adjacent to yours, and that we both dwell beside the Ister. Now, however, I imagine that you also have heard that the king of the Turks is coming with a great force to make war upon us. And if he should lay waste to these parts and reduce Dacia, be aware of this, as you surely must: they will not stop there at such a juncture C of affairs, but will immediately turn their hostile arms against you. There is no doubt that the greatest dangers threaten those who dwell in your region from this. The time, therefore, now demands that you support us, so that we may drive this hostile army from the region as quickly as possible. I judge that one should not wait until he has crushed our region, utterly ravaged it, and subjugated our people to himself. The king also holds the older brother of our leader; him he has appointed prince of Wallachia. But we must strive so that his every plan does not succeed. For the king, when he began to wage war against Dacia, had greatly favored the younger brother of Bladus, D honoring him with great zeal and bestowing upon him wealth and precious clothing in great abundance. And he ordered him to sow words among the notables of the Dacians, so that he himself might eventually gain the highest power. Therefore, having been elevated in a short time to great good fortune, he did as the king commanded and sought to influence the Dacian leaders. Yet he was unable to achieve anything as yet, but was repulsed. The Pannonians, when they heard these things from the messenger, obeyed his words and were all eager to bring support to the Dacians and to resist the enemy most forcefully. Therefore, they held a levy and enrolled an army. With these things, then, the Pannonians were occupied; but the king, as he proceeded with his army in a hostile spirit, burned villages and plundered the livestock wherever he happened upon them. The king’s cavalry brought few captives into the camp; rather, they themselves were more likely to perish if anyone had wandered too carelessly from the column. They say that Bladus himself came as a scout into the king’s camp and observed [index: entries preserved]
A the king with his army approaching. The king, therefore, passing by the city and seeing no man upon the walls, except for artillerymen discharging their cannons into the army, neither pitched his camp nor attempted to lay siege. Advancing, however, as they saw their own men upon the stakes, they moved forward about twenty-seven stadia; and the king’s army came upon the impalements, a place covering seventeen stadia in length and seven stadia in width. The stakes were large, upon which were seen affixed men, women, and children. The number of those miserably put to death comprised twenty thousand people. Truly, it was a horrendous and pitiable spectacle for the Turks and for the king himself. The king, fixed in wonder, said that it was not possible for a man who had accomplished such great things to be deprived of his land—especially since he knew so wonderfully well how to govern both his principality and his subjects. Nevertheless, he added that a man who had committed such deeds was not to be highly esteemed. The rest of the Turks, seeing the multitude of men hanging upon the stakes, were struck with amazement; for there were even young children hanging from the stakes to their mothers, and birds nested and dwelt in their entrails. B Now as the king was proceeding with his army, Bladus would cut it down if ever any, whether courier or Azap, had wandered too imprudently from the royal army. Bladus was directing his attention toward the prince of Black Pogdania, who, as it had been announced to him, had surrounded Bladus’s city, Cellium, with a siege. Leaving his army, which contained about six thousand men, he ordered them to follow the king through the oak forests, and he ordered them, running up immediately, to slaughter anyone who had strayed ever so slightly from the king’s column. He himself, however, led his force straight against the prince of Black Pogdania. But the army of Bladus, when he himself had departed, was very glad at the departure of the prince, and advancing straight against the enemy, they thought they would find great glory if they were to surprise the enemy suddenly. When news came to the guard station that was nearby, C indicating that the enemy was approaching, each person, except for those at the king's gates, leapt to arms. Mahumetes ordered Josephus to go forward and lure the enemy into battle. Mahumetes indeed was with the entire army in arms. When Josephus came to the enemy, he was immediately defeated, and fleeing, he hastened toward the king's camp. Omares, son of Turachanes, who had also been ordered by Mahumetes to engage the enemy, going forth to battle, met Josephus fleeing toward the enemy’s side; he blasphemed and spoke thus: "O wretch, whither do you go? Do you not know how the king will receive you as you flee? Or will the king himself not treat you more severely than the enemy, and deliver you D to the most wretched destruction immediately, as soon as he sees you fleeing?"
[Continuing the translation of the preceding text:]
...had done. Then, having gathered a by no means contemptible army, and bringing the royal army with him, he reduced the duchy and country to the King’s authority. Bladus, knowing that the Dacians had fled to his brother and knowing that all his efforts were in vain, because he had previously caused such a massacre of his own men, departed into Pannonia.
LAONICUS CHALCOCONDYLA THE ATHENIAN, HISTORIES, THE TENTH BOOK.
LAONICI CHALCOCONDYLAE ATHENIENSIS, HISTORIARUM DE ORIGINE AC REBUS GESTIS TURCORUM, LIBER DECIMUS.
Mahomet subjugates the island of Lesbos, Jaitza, and Clissa, cities of Illyricum, and valiantly repels the war waged against him by the Venetians and Matthias, King of Hungary, in the year of Christ 1463.
A The expedition of the King against the Dacians had this end. Bladus, as his brother Dracules approached and was subjugating Dacia, retreated to the Pannonians. The Pannonians, whose relatives and kinsmen he had cruelly slaughtered in Dacia, brought him to trial before their King Matthias, son of Choniates. When they had passed a most severe sentence against him, as one who had killed men contrary to right and law, he was taken to Belgrade and cast into prison. B In that same summer, when autumn was approaching, the King sent a messenger to Lesbos, commanding them to prepare a fleet and assemble at the maritime locations. He himself, leading the Janissaries and a small company of European soldiers, undertook the expedition, crossing into Asia. The King proceeded by land, while the fleet traveled by sea. They assign this cause for the King’s expedition against Lesbos. The prince of Lesbos held that region as a tributary by the favor of the King, paying annually about two thousand gold staters, ever since the time when Paitogles, prefect of Callipolis, during the reign of Amurates the younger, arriving with a fleet, had made a hostile incursion into Lesbos, and having carried off a great number of captives, and having taken Callona, a most opulent city of Lesbos, had devastated it and returned home. Even before...
A he offered terms to the ruler of Lesbos, having sent an envoy and ordering him to surrender the city, and for this reason to be granted by the king sufficient territory. But he, acting with stubbornness, would not accept the king's truce. The king, having set up his cannons against the city, crossed over to the mainland himself, as Machumetes was urging him not to stay on the island. Machumetes, having taken charge of the army, besieged the city, having divided the army into parts. And with his cannons he struck the wall for twenty-seven days, and brought down a great part of the city. Having also high-trajectory cannons, he struck into the city. And indeed, he stirred up those within the city. But those in the city, with the help of certain pirates who were there, making small sorties from the city, defended themselves. Not, however, in such a way as to achieve any good. For the Turks, provoked by those in the city, approached the wall, and taking heart as they advanced, fought against the wall. So, when those in the city were distressed by the multitude and were pressed by their hardships, the ruler of the island offered terms to the king, on condition of surrendering the city and the other small towns in the island, and for himself to be gifted by the king a territory equal to his own, and an income, and to serve in the army with the king. Machumetes, therefore, accepted these proposals and said that he would send word to the king across the mainland. And when it was reported to the king concerning the things which the ruler of Lesbos proposed, the king crossed over, and accepted the terms, being ready to make a truce on the conditions which the tyrant of the island requested. And when the oaths had been taken by both sides, the ruler of the city withdrew from the island, and coming to the king, he did obeisance B and spoke as follows: "O King, you know that from the time I succeeded to the rule of this island, I have never broken my oaths, and it would be clear to the local people here in Asia that I have never harbored slaves, for as soon as they were caught, they were delivered up by me. And I took pains, wherever anyone encountered one of your slaves, to seize him and lead him back to his master. But as for the pirates I received, I acted such that they should not plunder the country, or devastate it by raiding. I gave no occasion to any of these to sail up and harm your land. Now, however, I am here before you, surrendering this city and the whole island. I ask that you, as I have been well-disposed towards your affairs, so reward us, O King." He said these things, and he shed not a few tears, saying that it was because of the folly of the townspeople that he did not come at the beginning, when the king promised him these good things. And the king, finding fault C
A later with him, seized and imprisoned him. As I have learned, this ruler was not in the king's favor, and had previously annoyed him with many unseemly and irreparable deeds toward the house of the king. But as others relate, a boy who had escaped from the king's gates had arrived at this ruler of Lesbos and, changing to the religion of Jesus, had become his lover. When Lesbos was captured and he made his way to Byzantium, the ruler forgot about the boy; but when he sent gifts to the king, the boys recognized him and told the king. The king kept the boy and seized the ruler, casting him into chains along with his cousin Lucius, B the tyrant of Aenus, who had been a boy and had assisted the ruler in the murder of his own brother and in seizing the principality. Not much later, it fell out for them just the same. For as both were in difficulty and did not know how to find escape from the prison, they reported that they were both eager to adopt the ancestral customs of the Turks. The king himself presented them with clothing and a turban, and having circumcised them, released them as free men for a few days. But immediately after this, he made them prisoners again, and having brought them away, he put them to death. C
This year the king went on campaign twice: once against the Dacians, and again against Lesbos; and he finished both wars in the same year, and winter had arrived before he could return home. So during that winter he stayed in Byzantium and was preparing a naval force, and in the Euxine Sea he was having about thirty triremes built, and by building both temples and royal palaces, he was planning to make the city of Byzantium suitable for naval operations, so that a notable fleet might be prepared for the sea. For, reflecting on the sea, he discovered that if he could gain mastery of it, the affairs of his enemies would more easily yield to him. D He also built other notable things after the "Neck-cutting" in the Propontis: a citadel in Byzantium worthy of note, as far as the gates called the Golden; very large towers, worthy of being seen; the interior royal palaces; the bridge over the Scopia at the Axius river; and a royal seat in Adrianople beyond the Tænarus, where the Hebrus flows in, which indeed represents a...
name derived from the region, though it must be distinguished A that it utters a different language at different times, so that there are many tribes of it, and they differ completely from one another in language, obtaining this name by which they are called Illyrians. But let these things be recorded thus far. And if the name itself is not correctly applied to this race, yet because of the region which they appear to inhabit, that of the Illyrians, it is worth it for this name to be applied to them. And let it not be a grievance to anyone who thinks thus about them. For I would say that the Albanians are much more to be added to the Macedonians than to any other of the nations throughout the habitable world. For they resemble no one except the race of the Macedonians. But enough has been said about these matters. And let those who dwell around the Ionian gulf as far as the promontory called Istria, which juts out here into the sea, be called Illyrians by me by this name, as well as those Illyrians who dwell in the inland region there. B Now King Mehmed was campaigning against this king because when the king’s herald arrived at him, ordering him to bring the tribute to the king's gates as quickly as possible and not to delay, he had collected the tribute—being five myriads of staters—and showed it to the king's herald, stating that indeed the tribute was collected and in readiness, yet it was not his desire to send the money to the king, nor did it seem good to him to be deprived of them. But along with these, if he must wage war, to wage a war invoked against the king, it would be better to prepare for the war. And if it were necessary to depart and be sent to some other region, having these riches, he would fare better. The herald is said to have replied to the king upon hearing these words: "O king of this land, but it is well for these riches to be in your possession provided you do not violate the treaties. But if, by violating them, you think you will fare better, I fear lest you fare worse because of this. For with God, it is much better to have these riches; and with God, it is better to be deprived of them C than by acting insolently against Him to possess many times more than them." Having said these things, the herald departed back to the king, and having reported the words of the Illyrian, he stirred the king to campaign against both. Now, at that time, he was marching against the ruler of Dacia, who had greatly insulted the house of the king and had slain the envoys. But at that time, while marching against the Dacians, it was not possible to exact retribution from the king of the Illyrians; but in this year, as the armies arrived for him at Adrianople from both Asia and Europe, when spring had arrived, he marched against the Illyrians, having in mind to invade also into the country of Sandales. Now this king, an illegitimate child of the former king of the Illyrians, and having been at odds with his brothers who were pressing for the leadership of the country and preparing themselves—it was to the king D acting as arbiter that they entrusted the matter.
A ...for the river, whose name is... This river was navigable for ships, and the king of the Illyrians placed all his hope in it. For since no large ships were available, he thought the king would never have the audacity to cross it, where he was waging war with him. But when Machumetes approached the river with his forces, he did not cease, with wondrous haste, to urge on the army and the commanders of the army to cross the river and perform a most beautiful task for the king—namely, catching the Illyrian king. And he is said to have spoken thus: "Men, Turks, now let each of you prove himself a brave man, and cross this river on foot. For I have no doubt that the greatest and most splendid rewards await the one who first crosses the river, which he shall receive from the king." B Hearing these words, the king's soldiers attempted with all their might to cross the river. Thereupon the first, as it is related, was Omares, son of Turachanes, the prefect of Thessaly, who with his men rushed into the river; and swimming for a very short distance, they crossed the river. The rest of the army followed him immediately and crossed with equal success. Having crossed, they immediately ravaged the countryside, so that the king of the Illyrians, fearing that if he were to turn to flight he would be overwhelmed by the arrival of the cavalry and fall into the greatest danger, retreated in order to escape the present crisis unscathed, into a certain city situated in that place by the name of Clitia. But Machumetes, coming up with the army, surrounded that city with a siege. The site of that city is in a marshy area, and marshes are seen all around it, stretching far and wide, which make the city fortified and difficult to approach. At that time, that whole place had dried up under the sun's rays. However, the soldiers of Machumetes, moved by nothing of this, approached and surrounded it with a siege. They cut down the reeds, which grew there in great abundance, and carried them into the ditch, so that by then putting fire to them, they might either by force or at last bring the unwilling townspeople into their power. Seeing these preparations, the citizens of the city and the Illyrian soldiers, believing that they could not hold out for long while under siege, decided to send envoys to Machumetes, praying that they might be accepted into surrender; asking furthermore that he grant pardon to the king, who also might yield himself if the sanctity of an oath were to intervene: with that interceding, he might be raised to the hope that he would suffer no evil from the Turks. Machumetes did not refuse the prayers of the Illyrian. A treaty was struck, an oath was given, just as the Illyrians had prayed. At length, when the king had exited the city, he occupied the city. He separated the men who were in the city into three parts; he ordered one to stay there, he distributed the second among his own nobles, and the third he brought to the king and gave it to him as a gift. D In this manner was the king of the Illyrians captured at Clitia, together with his brother's son, who had not yet completed his thirteenth year of age. The king’s wife had already before this betaken herself to Rhagusium, which is a city near the Ionian [sea], so that she might be removed from the present crisis. By her husband's counsel, she had transported many riches there. That city is inhabited by Illyrian men of high renown, [index: entries preserved]
and he was leading a Turkish army, and ravaging the country. A Then, as the king was coming and announcing his approach to the Illyrian land, he himself was also preparing to defend it as best he could, should the king's army invade his territory. But I shall return to that part of the account which I had previously explained. At the same time, when the rumor flew that the king's forces were approaching against the King of the Illyrians, he did not cease to prepare himself, so that if the royal army entered his country ravaging it, he might, if he could by force of arms, prevent them from plundering and repel them. Now it is time to return to where I digressed in this narrative.
B When Machumetes, son of Michael, had taken the Illyrian king under his control, he traveled around with him and subjected the other cities as well to the King of the Turks. And indeed, Machumetes was busy with such matters. But he ordered Omares, the son of Turachanes, to advance with an army against the remaining cities of the Illyrian land, while he himself marched toward the king's camp. Now the King of the Turks was annoyed at the oath, and was angry, thinking that the oath had been made to the King of the Illyrians at an inopportune time. Having, however, placed the king in custody, he led him around, marching through the land of Sandalis. For of the Illyrian territories, some the king himself had conquered and brought under submission, while others had been brought over by Machumetes and Omares. There, Omares, exerting himself with zeal that whatever part of the country remained should come under the king, showed himself to be one of the men in the king's court who were most outstanding C and performed great deeds, having already become proven to the king in many other things. These matters, then, took place to such an extent while the king was conquering the Illyrian cities. From there, sending an embassy to the city of Ragusa, he sought the king's wife. But she had already preceded him, leaving the city for Italy. For as soon as she learned that the entire country had fallen under the king, she departed from the city as quickly as possible, going off to Italy. The envoys, therefore, when they did not find the king's wife there, departed empty-handed. From there, the king gathered his equipment, invaded the land of Sandalis, and ravaged it. He sent out cavalry, and they overran his entire country. Afterwards, moving on, he besieged the cities. And the men of Sandalis attacked the king's tent, sallying out from the mountains. And it is D that after plundering, they retreated again into the mountains. This country is no less deserted than the land of the Illyrians. After attacking, he himself besieged a small town of Sandalis for some days. And when the capture of the city did not succeed for him, he marched on through the country of the lords of that place, of Stanteus, and Craicus, and Paulus. He sent a herald, ordering them to surrender their own country, and to become subjects of the king, receiving another territory in return for this one in Europe. They, having been persuaded by this, surrendered themselves together with the king, and the country, realizing the impossibility of resistance.
A He himself, having crossed the Euripus on horseback, was observing where he might conveniently cross with his forces and be able to assault the city. These, in truth, are manifest signs of war, from which one can sufficiently prove that he has long since decided to fight against those who deliberate so properly. In the war which it is announced he has long since undertaken against us, he will proceed strenuously, subjugating some things to himself and taking others away from us; some things he will subjugate by blaming their prefects, and he will seek those that are most advantageous. Soon, if no one stands against him, girded with great power, he will suddenly, if he is able, crush the unprepared. For he will be able to amass great forces for himself, since he does not cease to add very many to his own dominion. Shall I say, then, that there will be no war for us with the king? Some people, as far as I know, deceive themselves and others with vain hopes, saying that he will never turn the storm of war against us, nor dislodge us from our principality, although he could do it easily. Wherefore let us refrain from war, and let us embrace peace and tranquility, B while in the meantime omitting nothing necessary with carelessness. But if, from the aforesaid, it is now clearly acknowledged by everyone that he had long since declared war against us, which do you judge to be more conducive and eligible for us: to embrace quiet and suffer our territory to be snatched away from us, or by waging open war, to show the barbarian how great our power and strength also are? For if we descend into manifest war, we will be able to guard against him and his treacheries, armed and sufficiently instructed for every event, carefully observing C what place he might seize for his camp. Or is he not to be held as an enemy, finally, who through treachery attempts to snatch away our territory, and who excels in these two things? If he should enjoy a happy and prosperous success, men believe that they themselves, as friends, will receive some benefit from it; but if no evil should redound to the barbarian therefrom... If, therefore, these things are better than the rest, who is so blind that he does not perceive that they are to be chosen? If blind, possessing better things, one ought to embrace quiet. For I judge those things to be more eligible for us. I say that delay is very harmful to many throughout the world: and it has given us the greatest harm, abandoning the Greeks and the king of the Greeks to the empire D when the barbarian was moving his hostile rams toward Constantinople. For our wares were very much aided and increased by the Greeks. Then we despised and turned away from the entreaties of the Peloponnesian leaders, who with most earnest prayers implored our help. Also because of our own sloth we saw the Peloponnese conquered by this king. Just recently, when the king of the Illyrians was suppliantly begging for our help, and promising that he would return no small thanks for extensive aid, we allowed him to be cruelly slaughtered by the Turks. These things, one by one, in this manner, have been by us...
A observed; and that this Barbarian, having crossed the Danube, no longer wages war for your own sake must be evident to you, if you consider that by crossing into his territory, you were throwing his affairs into confusion. But now, having brought down the Greeks, and the Emperor of the Greeks; and after subjecting the land of the Triballi to himself, and having devastated the whole of the Peloponnese; having also subdued the Emperor of Trebizond and annexed his territory; and subsequently having set a governor over Dacia, and having ravaged the land of the Illyrians, and having captured their king—a man moderate and fair—in so short a time, having brought down such great powers, what else do you think he will do in the future? He will by no means stop, but by driving against those who are the neighbors of these territories, he will try to win over their lands for himself, attacking them as swiftly as he can. Now, the war is coming upon you too, and no less so; and he will attempt with all his might, in crossing the river, to enslave your land and to destroy your leaders with a most shameful slaughter. For it is not possible to change his spirit toward those who are yours, nor toward those who are under our religion. B But he turns out to be utterly merciless to everyone alike, even toward him who conducts himself with moderation. For you certainly know what he formerly did to King Ladislaus. In that case, perhaps he had an excuse for himself, having killed him when he was captured in battle; but the Emperor David of Trebizond, the ruler of the Illyrians, and of Lesbos, and the others—what grievous harm had he suffered from them, that he continually destroys them all together? If, therefore, you were preparing to march into his land and wage war, you might perhaps lighten the pressure that he will soon turn toward Pannonia. But if you endure suffering such things, and he crosses the river with his entire army, I fear that, having faltered once, all these things will fall under him, and he will destroy us in the most wretched way. When the Venetians had finished speaking these things, the King of the Paeonians, taking up the word, spoke as follows: "Venetians, you speak well and seem to be men not entirely unwise in many things, both in other matters of life and in those things that demand public consultation concerning necessities. C But you recall little, as I see it, of how often we have exhorted you to take up an expedition with us against the Turks; but you made no account of our speech. You said that we were not requesting of you fitting things by urging you to give aid, having witnessed no grievous harm done by the Barbarian. And we, having crossed the Danube so many times, have suffered irreparable things. And first, indeed, Ladislaus, the king of this land, perished, having been a good man. Second, again, many others, both many and good, in Kossovo of the land of the Triballi—some died in the war, and others were even captured by the Turks. These things, however, to you are D
A to be set ablaze. If that should happen, the remaining cities of the Peloponnese would immediately make the crossing. Once the wall of the Isthmus was built and arms were seized, they proceeded against Corinth. With certain Corinthians leading the way and showing them where they ought to attack the city, they placed cannons opposite the citadel and began the siege of the city, contending with great glory. But winter, with its intolerable colds, drew them away from besieging the city. For this reason, leaving, they accomplished nothing worthy of such great preparations. And so the Venetians, pressed by the severity of the winter, bore the delay at the Isthmus with a heavy heart. Nor did Corinth make the transition, nor did Achaea revolt, although a Greek man by the name of Raches had been sent to them; he was killed by the Turks who were emerging and resisting. Nor did the remaining cities, except for those who inhabited Sparta, offer surrender; for the Spartans had been imposed upon by a young Greek named Gritza. To the Venetians, any further delay at the Isthmus was now intolerable, when they saw that they were laboring in vain to have the Peloponnese subjugated. In the meantime, it was reported that Machumetes, the king's prefect, was hastening toward the Isthmus with great forces, breathing the slaughter of the Venetians. A rumor was even spread that the king B with his army was following Machumetes, so that he could come to his assistance if the situation required it. They therefore decided, with great consensus, to abandon the Isthmus, as its usefulness was small for the present. Having departed from the Isthmus, they hastened toward the cities, which they strengthened with garrisons and other fortifications, so that they might be able to repel the force of the king and Machumetes, should they approach.
For as the report reached the king that the Venetians were walling off the Isthmus and had filled forty triremes, and twelve high ships, and were also bringing in armed men from Italy, and another army from Crete, and that, relying on all these, they were looking to the one goal of subjugating the Peloponnese, he thought that there was no more time for delay. He ordered Machumetes to take the army of Europe, besides that which was positioned across from the Pannonians, and to proceed directly to the Peloponnese. Furthermore, he commanded that if he could accomplish anything in the war against the Venetians, he should endeavor to destroy the Isthmus and then make an irruption into the Peloponnese. But if these things did not succeed, he (the king) would act as a reinforcement, and whatever he reported, he would follow in the same footsteps continuously. Machumetes, the leader of the gate, having taken the army of Europe, proceeded into Thessaly as far as the Peneus, and pitched camp near the city of Larissa. In that war, he used as his counselor Omar, the prefect of Thessaly, who advised Machumetes to halt and not move any further, but to signal to the king that the weight of the war was greater than that to which a royal C leader could be sufficient or equal. For a short time before, as the scout had approached as closely as possible to the Isthmus, he had seen more than two thousand cannons, and in addition four hundred bombardiers; he also saw archers and shield-bearers who would not easily concede the camp D at the Isthmus to anyone.
Joseph of Methone: Notice by the Editors
A Under the name of Gennadius Scholarius, Patriarch of Constantinople, there was published at Rome in Greek, in the year 1577, along with the Greek acts of the Council of Florence, a *Defense of the Five Chapters contained in the holy and ecumenical Synod of Florence*, namely: On the Procession of the Holy Spirit, On the Sacrifice in Unleavened and Leavened Bread, On Purgatory, On the Enjoyment of the Saints, and On the Primacy of the Pope. But because that excellent little book was written in defense of the Catholic doctrine defined at the Florentine Synod, while it is certain from other sources that Gennadius Scholarius, immediately after the return of the Greeks to their homeland, again defected from the union and joined the schismatics, it is sufficiently clear that although Gennadius Scholarius may have favored the union of the two churches before the Council of Florence and within that same council, he is not the author of this work, since at the time the booklet was written he had become hostile to the doctrine of the Council of Florence.
The matter remained in doubt until the most astute Bollandist, the Reverend Father Cuperus, in his *History of the Patriarchs of Constantinople*—which is prefixed to the *Acta Sanctorum* for August, volume I, and was published at Antwerp in 1733—asserted on page 193 that the *Defense of the Five Chapters of the Council of Florence* should be attributed to Joseph of Methone. And on page 197 of the same work, he recites the words of Joseph of Methone himself, by which he testifies that he had industriously defended the five chapters of the Council of Florence. The words of Joseph, which are read in Labbe (*Collectio Conciliorum*, volume XIII, col. 707), are as follows: "As for 'the Spirit from the Son,' we do not say..."—which we have already resolved in the first chapter of the definition, while writing an apology for the five chapters.
Since these things are so, no one should any longer doubt that Joseph of Methone is the author of this our work. The Greek text of the booklet has nowhere, to my knowledge, been printed, except at Rome by Zanetti, among the Greek Acts of the Council of Florence, which appeared in the Holy City in 1577. The Latin translation, which Fabius Benevolentius of Siena produced, appeared at Rome, by the People of Rome, in 1579, in quarto. Then, so that the booklet might be more useful to the Orientals, it was translated into the Greco-Barbarous or vernacular language by the most learned and pious man, Lord John Matthew Caryophyllus, Archbishop of Iconium, and published by the press of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide at Rome in 1628, in quarto form. These, and no others, are the things that occurred to us to point out here. We now present the work as it is titled in the Roman edition.
January 17, 1863. J.-B. M.
Col. 77 B. «Those of the Romans.» This is in distinction to the Greek Church, which did not acknowledge the Pope. Rome usurped the primacy and superiority of the entire episcopacy in Germany and the West. Hence that distribution of dioceses, taxes, palls, etc. A Vienna, for those making their way to Tartessus (that is, the Rhine) towards its mouths, Praga of the Bohemians is to be crossed through. However, this Laonicus, contrary to the custom of all other authors, makes the length of Germany extend from the south to the north, from Vienna in Austria as far as the Germanic Ocean, and its breadth from the extreme coast of Gaul into Denmark, along the shores of the Germanic sea from the west towards the east. For (to mention this incidentally), where the codices say, one, indeed, *Aaxlav*, and the other *Aισίαν*, the third has more correctly *Δανίαν*.
Col. 77 A. «Swift of foot.» Not for men of our time, or certainly hardly. The ancients, naturally, especially the Greeks, Asiatics, and Orientals, excelled in the agility and speed of their feet. Concerning their couriers, what is read even now almost exceeds our belief. See Lipsius, Centuria 3, epistle 59. B
Ibid. «This country is most well-governed.» He repeats this shortly below: «This is the most well-governed of those we know.» Aeneas Sylvius in *Germania*, cap. 68: «We have seen your judiciaries: and we have often attended your councils where public affairs were conducted. You administer all things both prudently and gravely, and you do not easily turn aside from the straight path. Nor are you lacking in civil laws, nor in pontifical rights; letters, too, and all studies of the liberal arts flourish among you.» But formerly, there was no matter in which Germany had less praise than in its laws. For those laws of our ancestors that survive, which are clearly to be judged among the first monuments of German antiquity—the Alemannic, Bavarian, Saxon, Frankish, and others—besides the fact that they are harsh in their words, even in the thing itself they deviate quite far from that supreme equity: as if they had proceeded from warlike nations, which were more accustomed to join hands with the sword than with right, and to expend effort on military arms than on the subtle investigation of law, and (to use the Ennian word) they were *Bellipotentes* (mighty in war) rather than *sapientipotentes* (mighty in wisdom). Although for this neglect of laws, another and indeed greater praise succeeded for them, because (as Tacitus says) good customs were of more value among them than laws themselves were among others. Until at last, with the Roman world subjugated to the setting sun, they thought that laws, along with the empire, should be accepted as its instrument, and used as a curb to rule those provinces. C Hence we see in the laws of the Goths first, then of the Lombards, and finally of the Franks, many things translated from the Roman: which the volume of Carolingian laws in particular sufficiently speaks to, nor can the Saxon law itself hide it. Germany, however, did not recognize the legislation of Justinian as a whole for many centuries, nor indeed did it have or see it: just as other Western provinces did not, as we have demonstrated elsewhere. It is rumored that the first Emperor Lothair the Saxon, having found the Pandects in the city of Amalfi in Apulia, recalled that law into light and use, at the persuasion of Irnerius, whom Urspergensis mentions, and he himself is marked by Sigonius in book XIV, *De regno Ital.* Concerning which we have also written more extensively elsewhere.
Ibid. «Nürnberg, Amberg.» The names of cities are miserably dealt with: as they are clearly very difficult for Greek men to say and write. A similar passage comes to mind in Benjamin of Tudela’s *Itinerary*, in the part where he reaches Germany, which he notes was once called Aschenaz among his own people, about which see Drusius, 1 *Animadvers.*, cap. 41. These, he says, are the regions in Germany in which there are colleges of Israelites, along the river Moselle and Komphilinas (he means Confluentes), and Odrancah, and Kuna, and Kotania, and Binga, and Garmezza (I think Germersheim), and Mastheram. And a little later: «There are besides Astranburk (perhaps Strasbourg) and Davirasburk (which Marcus Velserus in book VI of *Rerum Vindelicarum* very happily explains as our Augusta Vindelica, its eminent pillar and glory), and Mandawah, and Pessinghes, and Bamburk, and Sar, and Rasenburk, which is even the limit of the kingdom.» From there, however, is also the region of the other Bohemia, which is now called Praga, and is the beginning of the land of Sclavonia. Perhaps the names of peoples and cities have sometimes changed and vanished. Who now knows those peoples of Germany whom Pope Gregory III enumerates in a certain letter: «To all the nobles and the people of the provinces of Germany, the Thuringians, and the Thesis, and the Borthaci, and the Nistresi, the Unedredi, and the Lognais, the Sudnodi, and the Grasselti, or all those established in the Eastern region.» I no longer wonder at the nausea of the panegyrist, dreading even our names: «What shall I mention,» says Nazarius, «the Bracteri? What the Chamani, what the Cherusci, the Vangiones, the Alamanes, the Tubantes? The names ring out like war, and the inhumanity of barbarism brings horror in the very words.»
Ibid. «A fortunate city.» Diodorus writes that certain villages in Hyrcania were called *Eudaimonas* (fortunate) because of the amazing abundance of figs and other fruits. «Fortunate regions» are found in Appian in his *Parthica*. «Fortunate islands» are around Arabia Felix according to Agatharchides. But the Romans also had Felix Julia, Felicitas Julia; colonies, lakes, and fortunate legions. Laonicus attributed this epithet to Nürnberg, and to it alone. Hence it is possible to estimate what the fame and splendor of the city was at that time: which, however, was later increased and amplified in many ways. Recently, in this age, Aeneas Sylvius, Cardinal of Siena, writing to Martin Mayer, J.U.D., explains that *eudaimonia* to us, not sparing in his praises: «We cannot pass over,» he says, «the town of the Noricans, intersected by the river Regnisia (it should be called Pegnesus, for today it is granted to the Franconians). Tell us, we ask (for you took a wife from here, as chaste as she is beautiful), what is the appearance of this city? What splendor, what amenity, what delights, what cultivation? What form of government? What could anyone desire there for a city to be perfect in every respect? For those arriving from Fran—
conia, the letters of both languages coincide. But I have also brought friends into council. Another might prefer *Boem* or *Boemia* for *Bλένης*, which I do not know whether Laonicus would have wanted to ascribe to the Germans: others *Belyins* or *Beylag*, the Germanic name Fleming not being discordant with this *Bλένη*, if that were to fit equally well, considering it originates from the Upper Germany. Indeed, I leave the disputed passage, as they used to do of old for the desperate sick, at the crossroads; and I commit it to public piety or to its own fortune.
Col. 77 C. *Γένος τοῦτο μέγα* (This is a great race). For all the Northern constellations (as Sidonius says) have poured into this place: a true workshop of nations. Nazarius in his *Panegyric to Constantine the Great*: "Barbarism lies spread out in the side of the Gauls or in your bosom, an inherently powerful nation, and in the world, second only to the greatness of Rome." A remarkable passage, and unique for the honor of Germany, to which a Roman writer attributes a hearth second only to Rome's; than which no other provincial writer had, in a sycophantic vein, claimed anything similar or second. But I fear that I am holding a wolf by the ears, and that this praise is being snatched away from us by the Persians: a passage to which a Roman would have granted this eulogy much more readily B than to the Germans, who, without a rightful head of state, are distracted into many peoples and discordant among themselves. And if I am asked for my own opinion, I read it not hesitatingly, with the latest editor, as: "Barbarism lies spread out in the side of the Gauls or in your bosom; the Persians, an inherently powerful nation and, after the Roman greatness, second in the world, sought your friendship, Constantine the Great, no less fearfully than amiably. There is no nation so fierce in the world that does not fear or love you." In this way, the structure of the words and the sense are beautiful and consistent. But Germans are also wont to be joined with Parthians or Persians: both are enemies of the Roman people (l. *Hostes*, 24. D. *de capt. et postlim.*). Themistius in his fifth oration: "In the trophies victory is seen inscribed on a shield affixed to a palm: 'Vic. Ger.' and in others 'Vic. Par.'"
Ibid. *Σκυθῶν τῶν Νομάδων δεύτερον* (Second to the Scythian nomads). Strabo compares the Germans to these in book VII: "The greatest part of their food is from their herds, just as it is for the Nomads, so that by imitating them, etc."
Ibid. *Εἰ ταυτό φρονοίη, καὶ ὑφ' ἑνὶ ἄρχοντι hεότι* (If they thought the same, and were under one ruler). Aeneas Sylvius in *Germania*, cap. 72: "Philosophers abhor a plurality of princes: you rejoice in it. For although you confess that he is your emperor and king and lord, nevertheless he seems to rule precariously, and has no power of his own. You obey him only as much as you wish, and you wish for very little. Liberty is pleasing to all in common, and neither cities nor princes offer the emperor what is his own: he has no taxes, no treasury. Each one wants to be the moderator and arbiter of his own affairs. Hence, discord among you is frequent, and constant wars break out: from which arise pillaging, fires, slaughters, and a thousand kinds of evils; as it must necessarily happen there where many dominate." Petrus de Andlo, book I C of the *De Imp. Rom.*, last chapter: "I speak confidently: if the princes faithfully attended the emperor, as an advocate of the Church, as they were wont to do in ancient times, surely every contrary power would seem small. Then not only Greece, but Egypt and Chaldaea would tremble, and the farthest regions of the Saracens would fear. Indeed, with the Roman eagle stretching out its wings from Europe, not even the gryphons of Asia and Africa would be safe enough."
Col. 77 D. *Οὔτε σεῖει* (Nor does it shake). Pliny writes about Gaul. Yet the *Annals* frequently note many earthquakes, but naturally they are more frequent and violent in Asia and the East, where they even overturn entire cities.
Ibid. *Πολιτεύεται κατὰ ταῦτα Ῥωμαίοις* (It governs itself according to these Roman ways). Long ago, Agathias wrote regarding the Franks: "And as for their government, they mostly use that of the Romans, and the same laws, and in other things alike regarding contracts and marriages, they follow the same observances concerning the service of the divine." And if we take the matter deeper, Florus, book IV, cap. 12: "They had adopted our customs more than our weapons under the emperor Drusus." And truly, from the perpetual wars with the Romans, and the embassies, treaties, and commerce that accompany them, the Germans subsequently derived much as to language and life. What of the fact that Roman colonies were led into our shores, and by intermarriage blood was mingled, and captives exported to Rome, and servants serving as soldiers among the Romans, and guards of princes, made common the language and life of both peoples? And not only did the Germans begin to mingle with the natives in the Roman provinces, but indeed in Germany itself, especially around the borders, the Romans learned to grow accustomed to ours. Whence in the most ancient ancestral laws, *Salica* tit. 43, § 7: "If a Roman proprietor, that is, one who owns property in the district where he dwells, has been killed, he who is convicted of having killed him shall be judged liable for 4 denarii. If anyone kills a Roman tributary, etc.," and elsewhere: "If a Roman man, etc. If a Frankish man, etc." In which very ancient laws, besides the fact that they are written in a Latin of some sort, one may observe many traces and flows of justice derived from the Romans. Finally, the empire having been overturned and plundered by the German nations, the Goths, Lombards, Franks, became both the conquerors and successors of the Romans, and also assumed their customs, rites, ceremonies, formulas, and everything else. And after them, those true Germans, the Suebi, I say, and the Saxons, when they heard themselves addressed as Roman kings and Caesars, strove with all their might for that ancient Latial majesty and the cothurnus: so that Ditmar writes in book IV about Emperor Otto III, that he was recalling ancient Roman customs now in large part deleted, and had done many things in imitation of the ancient princes: to the extent that he would sit alone at a table formed into a semicircle (which the ancients called a Sigma) and placed in an elevated spot. And there was no other reason why [they also adopted] the Latin language in
A Col. 80 A. *Pheret t' alla panta*. Even metals of every kind, which Tacitus once denied. But more on these elsewhere. That remark by Dionysius and Solius about the light-bringing night birds is worthy of laughter. *Which feeds birds (a wonder) with shining wings,* *By whose guidance the windings of the ways are seen at night.*
Ibid. *Epi Boemous tous Cechous*. The fact that [the author] makes Hungary adjacent to Bohemia is the reason why he also includes under the Bohemians the Moravians, who, being subject to the kingdom of Bohemia, touch upon Hungary. As for his saying that the Bohemians are called Cechos, it is from their own language and that of the Poles, for whom a Bohemian is a Czech, just as the Hungarian word is *czéh*; the CZ is pronounced the same way as *Tsch* in *Tschudus*. And it is said that this name is derived from Czech, the first king and founder of the nation. In the same way, from Lech, the first leader and author of their race, the Poles are called Lechii and Lechitae by the Ruthenians and other Slavs, as Alexander Guaguinus noted. At this point, I cannot pass over the Nemitzos, whom Zonaras and Glycas write were a Celtic nation and had served in the army at Constantinople: "They were," they say, "guarding a certain tower near the gate of the city which is called the Gate of Kairos (the Nemitzos—and the Nemitzos are a Celtic nation—secretly conspired with those around the Comneni concerning the betrayal of the city)." And immediately, *para ton Nemitzon*; and again, *upo ton Nemetzon*. The interpreter translates this as "the French nation," and yet in the index he has sniffed out the Germans, and thus the Nemetes, the dwellers by the Rhine. But our Leunclavius, in his marginal notes on Glycas, noted that the Teutons are called Nemitzos in the language of the Slavs. And Ortelius also, in his *Thesaurus*, deems that the Niemeches, that is, the Germans, should be taken as such.
Ibid. B. *Sympherontai de Germanois*. May this also, with the reliability of Laonicus, be accepted, that the Hungarians use the same arms and customs as the Germans.
Ibid. C. *Apo te sphi auton*. As to what is written here, that the Hungarians are called Pannonians in their own tongue, I do not know if it was true in the past; certainly it is not today. *Magiar*, a dissyllable, is called *Ungarus* by the Hungarians; *Magiarok*, the Hungarians.
Ibid. *Romaion archierea*. Concerning Eugenius IV, in whose epitaph this very thing is read: *He presented himself before the sacred thresholds, the one from the East,* *The other from the West, each a Caesar in his own right.* *One so that he might receive the documents of the Latin faith,* *The other so that he might gird his head with golden honor.*
Ibid. D. *Tois Kelton basileusi*. This should definitely be read "to the kings of the Celts," and it should be said "Franks" rather than "Celts" or "Gauls." And this is not so much due to the liberation of Spain from the Saracens (as Laonicus thinks), as it is to the defense of Italy itself and of Rome. For when Luitprand, king of the Lombards, was besieging Rome, Pope Gregory III had already fled, not to the customary aid of the Emperor of Constantinople (whom he had stripped of communion and empire on account of the images cast out at the time), but to the princes of the Franks holding the Gauls, C where, at his request, Luitprand broke off the siege. Pepin, the son of Martel, with Childeric his slothful lord shut up in a monastery in the year 753, took care to have himself elected and sent to Zacharias, the successor of the aforementioned Gregory; who, mindful of the benefit received, soon consented and absolved all who were bound by oath to Childeric. C. Another, sent by Hadrian (ch. *Hortatu*, 23, q. 8), defeated Desiderius, king of the Lombards, in a notable war and destroyed that kingdom in the year 776. Then, after many years, being invoked by Leo III, he restored him to his see; by whom, in return, he was declared emperor and crowned at Rome on the day of the Nativity of Our Lord in the year 801.
Col. 80 D. *Metenechthei e psēphos*. Laonicus received by hearsay from the Latins the account of the translation of the empire and the institution of the electors; which I do not wonder at, since Photius even puts the donation of Constantine in his *Nomocanon*. However, the empire was hereditary in the line of Charlemagne for one hundred and twenty years, up to Conrad I, who, dying in the year 920, voluntarily transferred the empire to Henry the Fowler, Duke of the Saxons, with whom he was waging an unjust war. In the family of this Henry I (concerning whom there is a constitution in dist. ...) [there was] his great-grandson: who, lacking sons, instituted seven electors in the imperial assemblies of the princes, and that the election should take place at Frankfurt: with the approval of Pope Gregory V, who was himself a Saxon by birth. Thus in the year 1300 Henry, Duke of Bavaria, was the first elected according to that constitution, and the second of this name. These [points come from] C. M. in the additional gloss to the chapter *Venerabilem*, *De election.* and clem. 1 *De jurejur.*
Truly now (for it pleases me to add this brief digression to the foregoing), although Charlemagne had become an old and legitimate emperor, if anyone ever was, not only by right of war, which he had waged *amynomenos* (defending himself) against the Lombards, and by the will of the S.P.Q.R. and the coronation of the pontiff, but had furthermore confirmed his right abundantly by a transaction entered into with Irene Augusta and the Emperors Nicephorus and Basil who succeeded her, with a division of the empire made between them on certain terms, and therefore the Byzantine legates had openly saluted him as *basilea*, and it had been completely settled and for a long time observed among them that the Byzantines and our own people should call them Augusti and thus brothers; yet, little by little, that envious and ambitious nation tried to strip that title from our Caesars, and to reserve for themselves alone the titles *basileis* and *autokratores Romaion* in their official documents and coins, and to boast of themselves as masters of the world. Our own people, however, [they called] only Latins and Alemani and Franks, and our Caesar, by a remark no less inept than it is novel, *rēga Alamanias ē Phragkias*. Whence it came about that our people, in turn repaying like with like, called them nothing other than kings of the Greeks and emperors of Constantinople, as we see in Helmoldus, Otto of Freising, Peter de Vineis, and others. And who can read without disgust the Greek...
ANNALS OF THE OTTOMAN SULTANS, WRITTEN IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE BY THE TURKS,
brought to Constantinople by the study and diligence of Hieronymus Beck a Leopoldstorf, son of Marcus, in the year 1551, and by the command of the Divine Ferdinand, Emperor, Most Opt. Max., translated from the Turkish into German by Johannes Gaudier, called Spiegel, the Turkish interpreter. Johannes Leunclavius, a nobleman of Angrivaria, rendered them into Latin, illustrated them, and expanded them up to the year 1598.
PREFACE OF JOHANNES LEUNCLAVIUS TO THE NOBLE AND MAGNIFICENT D. HIERONYMUS BECK A LEOPOLDSTORF, COUNSELOR OF THE AULIC CHAMBER OF HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY, REGARDING THESE ANNALS.
305 I remember having heard from you more than once, most magnificent man, that having undertaken your travels, you went to Rome in the Jubilee year 1550; and having set out from Rome to Venice, you arrived from there on major galleys at Tripoli in Syria; and you visited Aleppo, Damascus, Nazareth, and the Holy Sepulcher of Christ in Jerusalem, and Mount Horeb in Arabia; and having subsequently traveled through Egypt, you crossed the sea from the city of Alexandria, traveled through Attalia in Pamphylia, Cotyaeum in Phrygia, and Prusa in Bithynia, and finally reached Byzantium in Thrace. But at Byzantium, in the most ample royal seat of the Turks, you acquired with great zeal, and not without expense, a book written in the Turkish language, containing the deeds of the princes of the Ottoman family, which you offered as a gift to the most pious Roman Emperor, the Divine Ferdinand, upon your happy return to Austria in the year of Christ 1551, humbly praying the King that he might order it translated into Latin or German for the sake of public utility. After that, having been overwhelmed by public offices and duties, you gave little attention to this matter, though you did not abandon it entirely. When not a little time had elapsed, 306 the nobleman Ulricus Maschwander a Cranigsperg, who served for many years in the bedchamber of the Divine Ferdinand, celebrated the solemn wedding of his daughter, Alphonsa de Games, in Vienna. When you inquired of him more diligently about that book, he replied that he remembered the Emperor had handed over certain Annals to his Turkish interpreter to be translated for the sake of practice, and that he himself possessed a Turkish history, written by hand in the German language. Therefore, when in the year 1586 this was sent to you by him, and you recognized with great pleasure, from the introductory letter of the interpreter Johannes Gaudier, called Spiegel, that it was a translation of your book, you immediately ordered it to be copied. I had returned to Vienna from Constantinople in the preceding year; you not only indicated to me the discovery of those Annals of yours, but, with that singular benevolence you have toward me, you were not unwilling to share them with me. I willingly read them through, and because they pleased me not a little for many reasons, I translated them into Latin at your request, so that, being published, they might be of use also to foreign nations. The Turkish Annals, therefore, now return to you, impressed by copper-plate printing, for they owe their existence to your study; because not only did you bring them back with you from those places, but you also rescued them personally from darkness after they had been almost buried for 37 years, and you saved the German version, which had been hiding elsewhere, from moths and bookworms. For which reason, since you were the first author of the books being brought to us, and likewise the protector and preserver of those which were about to perish, the Annals themselves cannot, without doing you an injustice, carry any name other than your own. As for me, I am confident that you, along with other sincere critics, will approve of my laborious work in polishing them. For since the most illustrious man, Hugo Blotius, J.
PRELIMINARY EPISTLE OF JOANNES GAUDIER, CALLED SPIEGEL, TURKISH INTERPRETER, TO HIS ROYAL MAJESTY, FERDINAND, EMPEROR OF THE ROMANS.
Most serene, most powerful King, most clement Lord.
A 309 Not long ago, your Royal Majesty entrusted to me a Turkish book, in which the rise and deeds of the Turkish emperors are described; a book which the noble, valiant, and most upright Hieronymus Beck von Leopoldstorf of your Royal Majesty offered to me upon returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and his travels in Turkey. It having been graciously ordered by your Royal Majesty that this be translated for me into German, I have humbly performed this, and have rendered it into the German idiom using the method in which it was written by the Turks. Although I would have gladly completed the same with a more rhetorical style, yet, since from an early age I have been but little imbued with the humanities and am quite unversed in matters of this kind, I am nonetheless certain in the hope that this small labor will be pleasing to your Royal Majesty. I would have likewise noted the time at which these deeds occurred according to the years of our salvation; but since the years of the Turks are shorter than ours, and their anniversary days, just as with us Christians, do not coincide in the same time—even though they also have twelve months in a year—this is due solely to the cycle of the moon. Moreover, they themselves write and say that in a space of thirty-two years, according to their own computation, the mobile heaven or firmament completes its course; this would be nearly the same as when we Christians count thirty-one years, while they count and name thirty-two. And, however much it cannot be computed from my translation at what time of the years of Christ these deeds of the Turkish emperors occurred, I still judge that for a governor, a military leader, or a captain who must contend with the enemies of the Christian name, it is worth the effort to read.
For from this one can see what discipline or heroic spirit are worth, and how a magistrate ought to behave and recompense men who are greedy for their own gain and arrogant, and what detriment to the fatherland and the army can arise and occur on account of disobedience, confusion, treachery, pride, and self-interest. Therefore, it is easy to conclude from this that, since modern Turkish emperors have grown from a small and obscure family with a small band into something immense, as I understand from this history, Asia, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia, and Serbia fell into so many calamities and into the hands of the enemies of the Christian name C for no other reason than disobedience, confusion, treachery, pride, and private interest; which (God help us!) we see happening even to this very day. For what other cause is there for Christian devastation than disobedience, treachery, avarice, pride, and the pursuit of private gain? For one man favors the Turks on account of his own benefit; another is a Voivode; a third, obeying no one, considers himself a master. Whence it follows that we conduct all wars instituted against the enemies of the Christian name less prosperously than we should, on account of disobedience, confusion, treachery, avarice, pride, and self-interest.
We think that the enemy can barely hold their ground, and we rashly attack our business, proposing to ourselves great wealth to be acquired from them: at the first encounter we are eager and spirited, but then we immediately slacken. May Almighty God deign to bestow upon us His grace, so that we may direct ourselves against such enemies of the divine name, be obedient to our superiors and magistrates, preserve good order, and assign as much as is fair to avarice, pride, and private interest, lest we too, at last (which God forbid), should arrive at the greatest losses, just as the regions mentioned above, and our posterity be forced to accept a diabolical faith and religion. Which may God deign to grant us forever. Amen.
Your Royal Majesty's most humble, most obedient servant and Turkish interpreter,
JOANNES GAUDIER, alias SPIEGEL.
When Urchanes had first begun his reign, the veteran leaders, as many as had come into those lands from Parthia with his grandfather, namely Cugurelpes, Rachman Gases, and Accecoza, had seized the territory of Gerlen and Bolen for their own jurisdiction. But not long after they died out, Urchan gave those territories to his son Soleiman Bassa to possess, under the name of Sangiakate; and likewise he granted another region, not a small one, which they call Inungen, to his other son, whose name was Murates Chan Gases. For this son he had was the younger. From there, he fortified the recovered Isnica with a garrison, destroyed the churches of the Christians in it, and converted some of them into mosques or Mahumetan temples, with schools and hospices added. The school and the hospice still remain today; indeed, in this hospice—a certain Isnica medressa (so they call the school joined with the hospice)—food is cooked, which was founded by him, and it is A distributed to the needy, especially to those who apply themselves to letters and to those who are traveling. And it is said that Urchan himself used to distribute food in this imaret or hospice. Following these events, he appointed Soleiman Bassa, his son, as prefect of Isnica, who did not cease to be a burden to the neighboring small towns of Genischeheri and Goinuca. But Murates Chan Gases, the younger son, obtained the sangiakate of Prusa from him. Nevertheless, Urchan himself remained as the inspector of the entire empire. Soleiman Bassa, the prefect of Isnica, gained possession of Genischeheri and Goinuca. The Christian inhabitants of those places, having observed his mild and humane character, all became Mulsims: and all the towns situated in those borders surrendered themselves B to his power voluntarily. While Soleiman Bassa was intent upon these matters, many cities, namely Carase, Bale, Cosre, Bargama, and Edremitum, surrendered themselves to his father, Urchan. From there, he moved with his forces towards Ulubadam. For the Teggiur of that town, who had previously negotiated with the Turks, had now violated his faith and departed from their friendship. However, when he noticed that he was being sought by the Turks, he took his own life. While these things were going on there, Soleiman Bassa decided to cross over into Greece: on which occasion Gallipolis was captured by the Turks. For it happened that Soleiman was riding hither and thither in the region which he had not long ago made subject to his own jurisdiction. There survive in those places certain C wonders of buildings, which have remained there from the destruction of Troy down to this day. When he had come there, looking at them with a certain astonishment, he stood still for a space of time, silent and thoughtful, so that he said nothing at all to anyone. Wherefore Ezes Begus, at length turning to Soleiman, said: "My Chan, what is this new thing? What strange thought has come into your mind?" Then Soleiman Bassa said: "I am revolving in my mind, in what way may this sea be crossed by me, so that in the meantime this attempt of mine may remain hidden from the Christians. I ask you, by what path shall we approach the matter? These are my thoughts." To this, Ezes and Fasil Begi soon, D before the empire of the Khans had been removed by the parricides—whom they called Gilderunes, as we shall indicate in our own place—had held power. Urchan Gases also at that time ordered the tax-exempt houses and estates in the regions subject to his empire to be registered, so that, specifically, one man from every estate might be sent, who for the space of one year would undertake whatever labors were enjoined upon him at the palace. It pleased them to call these 'Jaias,' that is, foot soldiers. And because such men are still found at the palace who perform labors of this kind, begun from the institution of Urchan Gases, it is still in use. Furthermore, Urchan Gases, having obtained the quiet possession of the city of Isnica, founded an imaret in it, that is, a Mahumetan temple, with a school and a hospic
[The account begins] A by mastering the prudent Teggiur of Dimotuca, whom he overcame and captured, and in this way led him, now a captive, to the walls of the city. When both the townspeople and the soldiers of the citadel saw Teggiur in the hands of the enemy, they treated with Chazi Eli Beg under certain conditions and surrendered the city and the citadel to him. Nevertheless, once the surrender was made, the Turks permitted Teggiur to depart free and unharmed. Having gained possession of Dimotuca, he proceeded with his army to Ypsala, that he might also take that town by storm and bring it under his yoke. Meanwhile, Gasi Murates was also in arms, intending to invade Hadrianopolis. He had indeed sent ahead Scachines, the steward of his royal house, with a portion of his troops, to pose a threat to the Christians, in case they should go to meet the enemy and prepare to defend themselves. Upon learning of his arrival, the Christians soon marched out against him in battle array. A fierce struggle ensued on both sides, with many falling and being slain on either part. Finally, the Christians slackened somewhat in their ardor and intensity, and withdrew within the walls and ramparts of the city. Scachines, having sent a messenger, informed Murates Gasi of the successful outcome of the affair, and sent him the heads of some of the slain. Meanwhile, both beys, Chazis El and Eurenoses, united their forces with the army of Murates, and taking the vanguard, marched straight upon Hadrianopolis before Murates. At that time, the river Meriza had overflowed, swollen by the influx of other waters. Wherefore the Teggiur of the city, having learned of the arrival of the enemy, boarded a ship and fled to Ygnus. Abandoned by their Teggiur and deprived of all hope of relief, B the citizens, when Murates—who had learned of the situation through scouts—emerged from his camp at dawn with his army and approached the city, opened the gates without delay and surrendered: in the year of the Mahometan calendar 761 (A.D. 1360).
After Hadrianopolis was captured, Murates handed over a portion of his troops to Scachines, permitting him to pillage the entire neighborhood of Zagora and Philiba and destroy it with fire. Thus Scachines’ soldiers, having set out, ravaged the entire region by taking booty and carried off the inhabitants as captives. Likewise, Murates granted Eurenoses Beg the power to harass the lands of Ypsala. In this way, with duties assigned to both sides, the limits of the empire were extended by the efforts of both. These events took place in the year 762, in which very year the light of the sun failed so much that even in the daytime the stars of heaven could be seen.
At that time, there was a certain Turkish talisman named Cara Rustemes, who had come to the army from Caramania. When he saw such a great quantity of plunder stolen from the Christians and such a multitude of captives being brought into camp, he sought out the Cadilescher and asked why he should allow such a great treasure, owed to the supreme magistrate, to be carried off rashly. To these words Zenderlues Cheliles, the Cadilescher, replied: "What, pray, is that treasure," he said, "which you claim pertains to the magistrate but is being lost without profit, and which you claim is being squandered?" "It is the mandate of God," said Cara Rustemes, "that of all things captured and seized from the Christians, whether slaves, or animals, or any other things, the fifth portion should fall to the right of the Pasha. And why do you not exact that?" Therefore, the Cadilescher, being admonished, explained the matter to Gasi Murates Khan, from whom he received the answer that, if indeed this is the mandate of God, they should strictly enforce their right. Therefore, having summoned Cara Rustemes to him, they said, "We wish, O holy man, that you yourself should execute the mandate of God." He, having set out for Gallipolis, established his residence there, and for every Christian slave being transported across the sea, he exacted twenty-five aspers from the Turks. And those two whom we have mentioned were the authors of this exaction: so that, indeed, the fifth part still continues to be exacted at Gallipolis for the Sultan of the Turks, both in the name of the slaves and of the remaining spoils. It was also demanded of Eurenoses Beg that for the use of the supreme magistrate, he should gather every fifth Christian slave from his men and deliver him to the Emperor. If, however, anyone did not possess five, but only four slaves, then for each of them twenty-five aspers were to be exacted, and that money was to be paid into the Emperor’s treasury. By this occasion, naturally, that custom later became rooted, that out of the total number of slaves, boys of more refined appearance were selected for the Sultan; which indeed, once the slaves of tender age were collected in this manner, were then led to the Emperor’s Porte and offered to Murates. He, however, commanded that the boys be transported into Anatolia and distributed among the Turks, so that they might become accustomed to discipline and labor among them, and learn the Turkish language. But after two or three years were spent among them, having now been trained in labor and become skilled in the Turkish language, they were brought back to the Porte to be enrolled in the ranks of the Janissaries. Now the Janissaries are the arquebusiers of the Turkish Sultan, and from those times they have retained this name of Janissaries.
Following these events, Gasi Murates Khan returned to Prusa, having substituted his steward, Lala Scachine, to act in his place during his absence in Romania or Greece; he entrusted the remaining provinces and the frontiers of the Empire to Eurenoses Beg. Not long after, he took himself again to Gallipolis, and there raised Zenderluem Chelilem, who had hitherto performed the office of Cadilescher, to the dignity of Pasha and Vizier. He, having been enriched with this honor, was henceforth called Cheradines Bassa. Murates, however, having left Gallipolis, proceeded by the same route by which he had come to Buga; from thence he returned to Prusa and there went into winter quarters.
On the other side of the strait, the royal steward of Murates, Scachine, subjugated Zagora and Ischebolen in the year 766 (A.D. 1365). When they were occupied, a rumor was brought to Murates, and he was signaled that fifty thousand Christians had gathered in Serbia and were planning to attack Hadrianopolis. Having received news of this, he prepared himself with great speed for the journey and hastened to Gallipolis. He had barely arrived at the shore, intending to cross from Asia into Europe, when the Serbs were already looming near Hadrianopolis, having pitched their camp in that place which to this very day takes its name from the slaughter of the Serbs or Rascians. Meanwhile, Scachi-
Gilderun ordered that they be called together by whatever name they call their own. When all had gathered, he ordered them to be shut into a certain house, and, having surrounded it with a guard so that no one might escape, he ordered it to be set on fire, 319 so that they might all be consumed by the flames. Ali Bassa, the vizier, was greatly disturbed by this command of Gilderun and, due to his mental anguish, did not know by what path he might consult for their safety. Finally, a certain idea occurred to him. There was among the delights of the Khan Gilderun a certain little Ethiopian boy, gifted with a witty disposition, who could obtain anything from his master without any trouble. When this boy had been ordered to come to him, "Whatever," said Ali Bassa, "it may please you to ask of me, I will give: provided you rescue the Talismans and the Cadis from the impending danger." The Ethiopian, having heard this, soon put on elegant clothing and placed upon his head a *uscufia*, which is a golden cap; in this attire he approached the Khan Gilderun and stood before him. The Khan, seeing the Ethiopian, said: "What is the matter, my little Ethiopian? Why are you in this splendid attire?" "There is something I would ask of you," said the Ethiopian, "allow yourself to be entreated." "And what, finally, do you ask?" Bajazites submitted. "I wish," he said, "to be sent as an ambassador to Teggiures, the emperor of Constantinople." "But at Constantinople," replied Gilderun, "what business will you accomplish?" "I shall ask Teggiures," he said, "to grant me forty or fifty Calogeri." "But for what purpose," asks the emperor, "will these Calogeri serve you? You have commanded," he said, "that all your learned Talismans and judges be delivered to be consumed by flames. Therefore, we shall substitute those men as judges in their place." Then Bajazites Khan said: "Are Calogeri therefore necessarily to be chosen as judges for us? Or are my own ministers unable to perform the office of judge?" "Your ministers," replied the Ethiopian, "are not learned." "What do you say?" Gilderun submitted: "Are those judges of ours not learned?" "And can there be any judge," said the other, "who is not learned?" "But indeed," replied the Khan, "if they are learned, why do they not conduct themselves according to the rule of justice and righteousness? Why do they not do to others what they teach?" To these things the Ethiopian, exhausted by questions, now fell silent. Gilderun, however, having called upon Ali Bassa, said: "Are our judges learned?" Then Ali said: "Whom do you think can fulfill the office of judge who is devoid of learning?" And Bajazites: "Why then do they commit such foul crimes and not conduct themselves according to the precept of their learning?" Then Ali, having found a convenient opportunity to respond, said: "Those judges of ours have no stipend, no rations. That, of course, is the only reason why they less than satisfy their office." "What then," replied the Khan, "do you think we should do?" "They would certainly correct themselves," said Ali, "if some stipend were counted out to them." Then Bajazites: "Since the matter is thus arranged, set a certain salary for them." Ali, having received this response from Gilderun and having diligently weighed the matter in his mind, finally discovered what could be assigned to them in the name of a stipend: namely, that whenever anyone entered an inheritance estimated at some thousands of aspers, he should pay twenty aspers to the Cadi, or judge, to whose jurisdiction he himself was subject, for every single thousand aspers; and likewise for individual instruments, marriages for example, or for the sake of other such contracts concluded, he should pay 20 aspers. From this time, therefore, stipends were established for the judges, and Ali, having in this manner placated the spirit of Gilderun, rescued the Talismans and judges from the danger of life currently at hand.
Following these events, the prince of Caramania undertook an expedition and occupied the region of Hemida. Gilderun Khan, having been made certain of this matter, crossed the straits with as much speed as he could, approached Prusa, and, having traversed the province of Tekia, came into Caramania, and there surrounded the city of Conia with a siege. The lord of Caramania yielded to the approaching enemy and retreated into mountainous regions. It was at that time of the year when the inhabitants had their crops on the threshing floors of the fields in order to thresh them; and it happened very inconveniently for them that they were forced to leave the piles of grain, which were then to be threshed and winnowed, in the open air, and confine themselves within the city walls. When Gilderun Khan observed this, he prohibited his men from taking any grain unless the price was paid. The soldiers, that edict of the sultan having been promulgated, advanced closer to the walls and asked the besieged to sell grain to them. The townspeople replied that neither fodder nor grain could be sold by them, as they were besieged and shut within the city walls. If it pleased Gilderun Khan, they would most willingly sell everything they wanted, provided that, with free passage granted, he gave them the power to go out. These things having been immediately reported to Gilderun, he guaranteed safe conduct to the citizens who were about to go out. Therefore, as they went out of the city, the Turkish soldiers began to approach, those who had need of provisions, and to purchase what was necessary, without any loss or injury to anyone, the price having been paid immediately. With their military discipline perceived, the citizens and inhabitants of the region not only allowed themselves to be subject to the power of Gilderun while the city was besieged, but also made a surrender of his castle, which they call Album, and of the cities of Nigdes and Caisaria. But then the prince of Caramania, fearful for his own affairs and ignorant of what he should do, finally having taken counsel with his own mind, and having sent a certain person to Bajazites, settled with him in such a way that he willingly yielded some towns of his province to Gilderun. He, however, these things having been accomplished, returned to Prusa and rested there for two months. Then, a new expedition having been undertaken, he approached Borlen and soon took possession of it. Hence he advanced to the river Kisa. The prince of that region, whose name was Isvendiar, took flight to the city of Sinope. Bajazites having sent a legate to him, for the sake of arranging peace, retained some towns for himself, returned the remainder of the territory to Isvendiar, and returned to Prusa with his army. These things happened in the year 797 (1396).
Following these things he again set out from Prusa toward Amasia. Then he sought Sivaste, which city was soon surrendered to him by Casi Burchan. This his father granted to the son of Emir Soleiman. There was a certain prince whose name was Techrin Begus. To him Bajazites [granted?] Erzinga, of which...
A he took hold, while also holding other cities. But those men who held the region between the mountain of Armenia and the city of Erzinga, and who had been subject to the sultan, now revolted from the obedience of the sultan to the rule of Bajazites. For Bajazites was a man of great energy, and he was esteemed very highly among his own people, and he was considered a mighty man of war. For from the time that he began to rule, he made great expeditions, and he subdued many of the neighboring peoples and brought them under his own power. He conquered the region of the Armenians, and he also added the territory of the region of Iconium to his own rule, and he made all the people of that land subject to himself. And he was held in such high honor that the men who had been rulers of those regions now also became subjects of Bajazites. B And whereas the sultan had previously been a man of some account, Bajazites made himself known to be far more glorious, and he began to seek greater things, until he brought all the regions up to the river Euphrates under his own control, and thus he became the sole ruler over all the lands of the Turks.
DISPUTATION CONCERNING THE COUNCIL OF FLORENCE
CRhac. Concerning the first chapter of the decree, in which it is said that the Spirit is from the Son, we have the greatest doubt: nay, we utterly deny it, and reject it as impious. Aud. O your judgments, Christ King! How do you endure such impudence? Cath. Do you reject that voice, “from the Son,” as impious? Rhac. And in every way, indeed. Cath. I wish to know this impiety. Rhac. We call this heresy an impiety. Cath. Therefore, do you consider those who say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son to be heretics? Rhac. It is so; we detest them as heretics. Dic. May Jesus Christ be propitious to us, who listen to such impieties. D But do you count the saints who openly confess the Holy Spirit [to be] also from the Son as heretics? Let deceitful lips be made mute, and let every mouth that speaks iniquity against the saints be stopped. Rhac. Do not rage so bitterly against us, O Dicaecrita. For we do not call the saints heretics, but those who say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son. Cath. O ignorance! And if holy men are found saying "and from the Son," are they not also counted among the heretics, since you consider all who say "from the Son" to be heretics? Rhac. But there is no one among the Fathers who asserts "and from the Son." Testis. Many of the saints assert this, both Eastern and Western. Cath. What if I myself show you saints of the Church asserting this, what would you say? Rhac. I myself will confess it. Cath. Let the witness take good note of what has been said. Testis. I have written, and I shall write it well, do not doubt, for the memory of those who are to come. Rhac. It has already been said, and it is impossible that the word should be turned backward; therefore, let your promises now appear. Show me a Father of the Eastern Church, and I myself will confess. Cath. What you say pleases me. I will quickly show you. Rhac. Remember well what I said, not by [means of] Westerners, but rather through our own Eastern ones. Cath. Do you doubt the sanctity of the Western Fathers? And who would venture to say this? I am not mentally deranged; I am perfectly well. The Church venerates them as holy and God-bearing Fathers. But if we concede this, we will overturn our entire faith, and neither Church, nor saints, nor priesthood, nor sacrifice, nor any faith of Christians will survive. But since these things are absurd and utterly indecorous, for this reason we call the Church of God infallible, and we cherish and venerate her holy teachers as holy Fathers. Nevertheless,
indeed, hold until this day. Meanwhile, while Muchemetes was intent upon these matters, a certain sedition arose in Anatolia, instigated by Burgluze Mustapha, who had once been the steward of Scheiches Bedredines. And that Scheiches Bedredines, as we have said above, had held the office of the Chief Justice (cadilescher) under Musa, and was subsequently ordered into exile at Isnica. Therefore, this Mustapha, having departed into the region of Aidin, excited a great sedition there, persuading the inhabitants to submit themselves to the power of him, and willingly to accept his rule; meanwhile, he feigned the name of a prophet, that he might the more easily stir up new disturbances. When Scheiches Bedredines of Isnica heard of this movement, that is to say, of his own steward gaining such influence, he immediately abandoned Isnica, took flight, and went to Isvendia. Having stayed with him for some time, he boarded a ship, and sought Valachia by a maritime route. But Sultan Muchemetes, having learned that Burgluze Mustapha now had three thousand picked soldiers, sent his own forces against him, under the leadership of his son, Sultan Murat. A When he, with Bajazite Bassa as a partner in the expedition, had reached the author of the defection with the army, it happened that they attacked each other with a sudden charge, and engaged so spiritedly that a huge multitude of men fell in that battle. Finally, Burgluze Mustapha was cut to pieces and perished. With the victory obtained regarding him and his accomplices, all that territory returned to the former empire, being subsequently distributed among the soldiers of Sultan Muchemetes. Having performed these deeds, Bajazite Bassa led the army with Sultan Murat to Manissa; for in that very place there was a certain seditious man, Torlaces Huggiemal, surrounded by two thousand men who followed him. When Bajazite had overtaken them, he forced them to turn their backs, and having captured Torlaces himself along with some other conspirators, he ordered them to be put to death by hanging on the spot. Meanwhile, Sultan Muchemetes went to Serras and occupied that city; and he determined in his mind to surround Thessalonica also with a cordon of soldiers. But during the siege of the city of Serras, that Scheiches Bedredines, whom we said had fled into Valachia, entered Romania and sent several sophilari ahead of him into the region of Zagoren, with the intention of persuading the common people that the empire was divinely destined for Scheichi Bedredini, or at least that they should wait a few days for his arrival. B Therefore, when Scheiches Bedredines was already approaching them more closely, a great number of the seditious flocked to him, and among them were not a few of those whom, when Musa was in power, he had rendered beholden to himself by favors while he was exercising the office of Chief Justice under him; so much so that he was surrounded by no contemptible force of men. But the same men, having noticed that the outcome of that movement would be by no means favorable, abandoned Bedredine and even laid down the arms they had taken up. Having received news of these disturbances, Sultan Muchemetes dispatched an illustrious army into the region of Zagoren, which captured Scheichem Bedredinem there, and after capturing him, C they brought him to Sultan Muchemetes at Serras. There was at that time at the court of the Sultan a man of great learning, by the name of Meulana Cheider, a native of Parthia, from whence he had betaken himself to Muchemetes, who revered him as a holy man and would not allow him to leave his side. He delivered this opinion, that Scheiches Bedredines should indeed suffer the punishment of death, but that his property should by no means be confiscated to the treasury. Therefore, Sultan Muchemetes, with this verdict passed upon him, inflicted the penalty of hanging upon the man at Serras. But afterwards, when he had expired, his body was taken down from the gallows and committed to the earth. Then Sultan Muchemetes returned to Prusa and stayed there for some time. He oversaw the completion of a temple at Hadrianopolis, which his brother Emir Soleimanes had begun to build. He also founded another sanctuary at Prusa, with a school and an inn. And these things being done, he ended his life. In his place, his son, Sultan Murat, was made emperor in the year 824 (A.D. 1422). He, according to custom, carried the body of his father to the monument at Prusa.
Following these events, there occurred a defection of all in Anatolia, namely of the prince of Ismyra, and of Menthesius, and in sum, of all the nobles from every quarter. For in Romania, a certain man was acting on behalf of the Sultan, whose name was Dusmes Mustaphas. He professed himself the son of Gilderunis Chanis, and was accustomed to live mostly in the town of Vardarius. Some nobles of his family, whom they call the Eurenoses Begs, also passed over to his side. Assisted by their subsidies, he besieged Serras: which city, together with its citadel, soon made a surrender. Having progressed further from there, he continued on to go to Hadrianopolis: when he had arrived there, the inhabitants closed the gates and surrendered themselves to his faith and power. In sum, the whole of Romania conceded to his side. However, there was no other place for the Port than Vardarius. After Sultan Murat, who at this time was residing in leisure at Prusa, had been informed of these movements, he sent Bajazite Bassa, furnished with troops, to drive him from the kingdom. As soon as he arrived in Romania at Hadrianopolis, he defected from his master and surrendered himself to Dusmes Mustaphas, by whom he was in turn decorated with the dignity of Vizier. The prince of Ismyra and Chuseines Beg also joined him. D However, this Dusmes Mustaphas collected a great number of foot soldiers, whom they call Azapos, and granted honorable privileges to those who voluntarily followed his military service. When therefore he had now gathered a huge army, he departed from Hadrianopolis with the intention of contending for Prusa; and when he was already one day's journey distant from that city, he inflicted the penalty of death upon his vizier, Bajazite Bassa. Meanwhile, Murat was also deliberating about the war to be waged with his men. Those who were his advisors, however, suggested that he should recall Mechmetem Beg, the son of Michael, from the prison at Tocat and restore him to liberty. Therefore, having summoned him from custody, Sultan Murat took him along on this expedition, and having left Prusa, he proceeded to the river Ulubata, and near the bridge...
A he embarked upon another journey, heading for Nova: this fortress, together with all the surrounding territory, he annexed to his dominion. Having proceeded still further, the Beglerbeg of Romania, a eunuch named Scachus Abedines Bassa, along with Edzes Beg and Isacus Beg, subjected all that province to the rule of Murat, after it had been exhausted by plunder, in the year 843 (1439).
Sultan Murat, however, having left these places, returned to Hadrianople; where, after staying for some time, he gave the task to Mesiti Beg of penetrating through Wallachia into Hungary, and laying waste to that entire ravaged region. But when Mesiti had entered Hungary, the expedition did not succeed according to his wishes; for he was fallen upon with all his forces and killed, in the year 845 (Chr. 1440).
Having received the news of this disaster, Sultan Murat betook himself to Sophia, and having encamped there, he dispatched the Beglerbeg of Romania, Scachus Abedines Bassa, along with all the forces of Romania, and the Acanzii, and the Janissaries, so that after traversing Wallachia, they might lay waste to Hungary. Jancus invaded them as they were brought into the borders of the Hungarians with a sudden charge, slaughtered and destroyed them, the Beglerbeg himself being killed, having experienced the same fortune in war as Mesiti. These events occurred in the year 846 (Chr. 1441).
The Beg of Caramania, having been informed of these Turkish disasters, entered Anatolia with his forces and besieged the town of Belule. When this had been reported to Sultan Murat, a campaign was undertaken with great speed, and he dealt an attack upon Ibrahimi the Caramanian; who, having fled into mountainous and impassable rocky terrain, the matter was finally settled, and Sultan Murat returned to Hadrianople.
B Meanwhile, Ibrahimi Beg of Caramania stirred up trouble in Anatolia by provoking war; when this had been reported to the Sultan, he crossed into Anatolia, and attended by his Janissary court and the forces of Anatolia, he attacked the Caramanian, who soon provided for his situation by flight. There was in his service a man of great authority, one Sarumes Jacupes, held to be a holy man. He, being sent as an envoy to Sultan Murat, reconciled both of them to each other. Once this peace had been concluded, Murat dismissed his army and set out for Manissa; where, having of his own accord abdicated from the empire, he substituted his son Muchemedes as Sultan, and appointed for him Chelilem Bassa as Vizier, along with Meulana Chusrone, who was to function in the office of dilescheri: having entrusted to the virtue and loyalty of both of them as much the son as the provinces of the empire. This took place in the Mahometan year 847 (Chr. 1442).
The King of Hungary, however, prepared himself with Jancus for a new expedition, having brought along with him Hungarians, Germans, Bohemians, Poles, Italians, and Wallachians: of all of whom there was a huge multitude, namely up to eighty thousand men. Engines of war mounted on wheels were also carried, to the number of four hundred. The soldiers themselves were seen fully armed and covered in iron. And when, having crossed the Danube at Alba Graeca, they had crossed the borders of the Turkish empire: they laid waste to the towns of Matera and Schuliov. Then, having moved camp to Nicopolis, they raged with iron and fire through that entire territory. They also occupied the fortress of Buruvada, and fortified it by placing a garrison there. When they were leading their forces away from Nicopolis, Mechemetes, the Beg of Nicopolis and son of Syrusis Beg, followed them from the rear with his own men, and having attacked the rearguard, he killed many, and sent certain cavalrymen whom he had captured to the Porte. The Viziers soon informed Sultan Murat of these movements. He was staying at that time in Manissa, where he had not long before retired for the pursuit of a quiet life. C Although he received news of these things rather late, yet, preparing himself maturing for the journey, he flew to Gallipoli, where the Italians had already arrived with a great fleet, and were preventing him from crossing into Europe. For this reason, he set out with his army toward Constantinople, and from the region of that place, where the structure of the new fortress is now seen, he crossed over into Romania using merchants' ships. When he had arrived at Hadrianople, the Christian cavalrymen whom Mechemetes Beg had captured and sent there were shown to him. Seeing these, raising his countenance, he said: "Our affairs shall proceed well for us, with God’s favor." And immediately, with the powerful army collected both from Anatolia and Romania, and a great force of infantry freshly enlisted, departing from Hadrianople, he led them straight against the enemy. The armies ran together at the pond or marsh of Varna, where they fought very fiercely against one another, with much shedding of blood. The Hungarian King fought on one side, and on the other that Michael, by surname Ni-
-Acoles, had been routed by the Christians at both wings, the Turks noticed that the Christians were burdened by excessive weight of arms, and deliberately taking to flight, they opened a path for them to pursue. For the Christians, like some flood, soon poured forth with horses spurred on. But the Turks, who had begun the flight, with their horses’ course turned to the side, attacked the unencumbered and unarmed soldiers of the Christians, whom they knew to be exposed; and against them they eagerly drew their scimitars. When they saw this happening, the Christians very quickly followed their own armored cavalry: but when for them it was no longer intact, they turned the battle line back against the Turks: at length they began to destroy one another with mutual wounds, and thus with ranks loosened and dispersed, the whole army threw itself into a shameful flight. But then the Turks, who as we have said had fled before, having gathered from here and there, clung to the Christians from the rear up to the very fortification of the camp: and from then on it was fought on both sides that whole day, until evening, and from evening again until daybreak. Jancus, however, when he saw the matter being carried out in this way, by cunning withdrew himself and fled from the remnants of the Christian army out of the camp. The Christians being at length defeated, the Turks took possession of all things—Jancus’s belongings, along with the artillery and the entire equipment of war: these having been brought to Sultan Murad, one stretched out his hand to the other, and they received one another with mutual congratulations, and resting in that place for three days, they celebrated a festival of sorts with singular joy. Then Sultan Mehmed set off before his father to Adrianople. These events took place on the Kosovo plain in the year 853 (AD 1448).
Murad also followed his son Mehmed to Adrianople, and lived there for some time in leisure, though in such a way that he sent the Beglerbey of Romania with troops to build the fortress of Gergonim: which being completed, Murad betook himself to the mountains of Anatolia for the sake of enjoying a cooler breeze, in the year 853 (AD 1448).
B Returning from the mountains, he undertook an expedition into Albania, so as to occupy the fortress of Belgrade. But that attempt was in vain, and therefore he returned to Adrianople, and from that time on he attended no further expedition or war: he died on a Wednesday, which was the tenth of the month of Muharram, in the year 855 (AD 1450), having reigned for thirty-one years.
Sultan Mehmed his son succeeded his father in the administration of the realm, and immediately on the sixteenth day of the said month led an army into Caramania, and brought war upon the prince of Caramania, Ibrahim Bey. But reconciliation having been made with him not much later, he returned to Adrianople, and there began to build a new fortress, in the same year 855 (AD 1450).
In the very next year, namely 856 (AD 1451), not far from Constantinople, he founded a most secure fortress by the sea in a certain place situated behind the town of Galata. Once the building of this fortress was completed, he dispatched orders with letters to all his provinces, and gathered armies both from Anatolia and from Romania, having also hired twenty thousand foot soldiers. There were up to ten thousand Janissaries. Many others also flocked to him, upon whom the necessity of serving in the military otherwise did not lie. He also ordered artillery to be cast, like dragons. Thus with all the apparatus of siege engines and such great forces, he set out from Adrianople and moved his camp to Constantinople: and having fired his artillery, he shattered the walls and their battlements. The Christians, as many as were guarding the city, defended themselves quite bravely: but they could not protect the city against the might of Mehmed. For he, having granted the soldiery license to plunder Constantinople, provided they occupied it, so fired the spirits of the Turks that with a great assault they invaded it, laid siege to it, and finally took it by force. The Turks took possession of the city on the twentieth day of the month of Rebiülevvel. Sultan Mehmed, having entered the captured city, rode around here and there through it, astonished at the unusual forms of the buildings. When he arrived at the Atmeidan, he saw there a stone column, upon which was placed a triple bronze serpent, which was also three-headed. Having caught sight of it, he asked what sort of idol this might be. At the same time, turning a heavy iron club—which the Turks call a *buzdogan*—against it with great force, he crushed the lower lip of one of those three serpentine heads. This having been done, soon serpents began to be seen in the city in great numbers. On account of which, certain people were his advisers that he should have that serpent sent away; since it had been through that image that it came about that there were no serpents in the city. Hence that column endures to this very day. And although, with the lower lip of one bronze serpent knocked off, serpents have come into the city, they can nevertheless harm no one. There was also an erected bronze horse, upon which a certain equestrian statue sat. Both of these Mehmed demolished. It is reported, however, that the approach of the plague was barred by this statue, so that it could not penetrate into the city and ravage it.
Having occupied Constantinople, Mehmed sought the mountains of Anatolia for the sake of his own recreation; and returning from there, he led forces into Albania: where he brought Siurigen under his power, in the year 858 (AD 1453).
In the following year, he attacked Novam with his forces, and took it. For the Christians had once again taken possession of it. This was done in the year 859 (AD 1454).
Following these things, he led his army to Alba Graeca: but since he could not storm it, he withdrew. There perished Dais Caratzes Pasha, who held the office of Beglerbey. In the same year 860 (AD 1456), two comets were seen, one towards the rising sun, the other towards the west.
Having returned to Constantinople, Mehmed instituted a great celebration while he circumcised his son Bajazet, in the year 861 (AD 1457).
Then, having gathered an army, he went into the Morea, and took the city of Gordum, along with certain small towns, in the year 862 (AD 1458).
His son, Sultan Bajazet, arrived at Constantinople from Amasia; and having occupied the royal seat, he was greeted as emperor in the place of his father. A He had hardly stayed a few days in Constantinople when his brother, Sultan Zemes, having led away the forces of Caramania, approached Prusa and established his home there; but Sultan Bajazet, having summoned Geduce Achmet Bassa with an army from Apulia, and having also collected large forces besides, moved into Anatolia against his brother Zemes. When they had joined battle, Zemes came away the inferior, and soon fled into Caramania: whence, when Sultan Bajazet had expelled him, returning on his route, he sought Constantinople again. From there he sent back Geduce Achmet Bassa into Caramania, who, while he was lingering there, the Italians recovered Apulia: all the Turks who had been left as a garrison at Otranto, having been reduced into captivity, in the year 886 (AD 1482). B But again the Sultan Bajazet departed from Constantinople and came into Caramania with an army. For his brother Zemes had already returned from his pilgrimage to Mecca. And so, a battle having been joined anew in Caramania, Sultan Zemes was defeated again, fled to the sea, and betook himself to Italy. Hence, camp having been moved, Sultan Bajazet went to Constantinople, and from there he set out for Adrianople. On the sixth night of the month of Sheval, he invited all his viziers to himself, together with Geduce Achmet Bassa: and in this banquet he drank wine with them, and gave a garment to each vizier, except for Geduce Achmet Bassa, whom he also ordered to be put to death, in the year 887 (AD 1483). At that same time died the son of the prince of Caramania, Casanes Beg, whom Bajazet was maintaining in his retinue. Hence, an expedition having been undertaken by Bajazet, he stayed for some time at Sophia, where he had a large hand of soldiers collected. He sent the greater part of these to the river Morava, and there ordered two old fortresses to be fortified. These things having been accomplished, he returned from Sophia to Constantinople, in the year 888 (AD 1484). C In the month of Rebjuluta, on a certain Tuesday, the city of Adrianople, with all the buildings constructed for selling merchandise, burned in a conflagration. At that same time also, Bajazet began to build a Xenon near the river there. Then, camp having been moved from Adrianople, he crossed into Moldavia, and occupied the fortress of Chilia. And not much later, on a certain Wednesday, he also brought the fortress of Chermen, situated in the same regions, into his power. And having gained possession of all this territory, having changed his route, he returned to Adrianople, in the year 889 (AD 1485). D Then both the light of the sun failed, and Sultan Bajazet betook himself toward the mountainous regions, for the sake of recuperating. Here three legates approached him, of whom one had been sent from India, another from Cairo, the third from Hungary: whom indeed he heard out in order, and having assented to their requests, he dismissed them generously gifted. Afterward, Alis Beg the eunuch, who was administering the office of beglerbeg, set out with a large army into Walachia: and having won over the Walachian Vaivoda to himself, with his own and the Walachian forces he broke into Moldavia: and with plunder, iron, and flames, he ravaged everything: at length loaded with spoils, he returned to Adrianople, in the year 890 (AD 1486). Meanwhile, Sultan Bajazet, resting at home, sent away his leaders, Ischender Beg and Balim Beg, the son of Malcozi: so that they might enter Walachia again, and persuade the Walachian Vaivoda to make an incursion a second time into Moldavia with arms joined to him. The Walachian consenting, that expedition was soon undertaken: and the whole region having been plundered, they departed with much booty. While these things were being carried out in Romania, the Sultan of Cairo moved himself from one side with his own, among whom was Usunes Usbeg; and he collected his own and his men's forces in the places lying between Adan and Tersus: on the other side of Sultan Bajazet, the Sangiach of Anatolia, and likewise Ferhates Beg, son-in-law of Sultan Bajazet, beglerbeg of Caramania, and Caragosa Beg, were gathered; and, armies having been joined, they set out against the Sultani of Cairo. When it had come to blows, both sides fought very manfully indeed. Finally, the Sultani forced the Bajazitians to turn their backs, with even the son-in-law of Bajazet himself, Ferhate Beg, being slain. 333 Not long after, Bajazet ordered that Muchemetes Beg, son of Cheseris Beg, together with the son of the general who had been created beglerbeg of Romania, should transport the forces of Romania into Anatolia, and, having assumed the Anatolian soldiery, should invade the Sultan of Cairo in war. These, therefore, obeying the command of Bajazet, directly sought the enemy: who, since he also was ready for battle, on both sides a collision occurred in a very fierce engagement, in which the son of the general, Achmet Bassa, having fallen from his horse, came into the hands of the Sultani: and having been led to Usbeg, he was handed over to custody. The Bajazitians received a huge slaughter at that time, which, when it had been signified to Bajazet, he sent his vizier, Daudes Bassa, with a powerful army against the Sultan of Cairo. But the Sultani, not at all terrified, soon advanced to meet him with his men. Daudes, thinking he should not be met by them, having maturely taken the counsel to change his course, led the army backward. In this journey, Daudes approached Aladeules, the leader of Dulgadir, to whom he himself showed great honor. After Daudes had turned himself away from the Sultani, he entered the Varsacian dominion, and he cast the nobles partly into chains, partly killed them, and partly, with a settlement intervening, received them into grace, and restored them to their fortunes. The nobles of the Turguren province consulted for their own safety by flight. At length, however, safety having been obtained, they approached Daudes Bassa, and peace having been sanctioned with him, they rendered an oath. These things having been effected,
understanding that war was to be waged A against the Hungarians, and having therefore gathered all his forces together, he set out from Adrianople for Sophia. He did not, however, dare to enter Hungary, but ordered Achmet Beg with the Anatolian troops to remain at Sophia, and sent Daudes Bassa with a portion of the forces to Uskub; he himself, with Jochia Bassa and the troops of Romania, went to Manastir, and from there he betook himself into Albania and the territory of Duke John. He also dispatched certain ships by sea, so that the routes of the Albanians might be blocked. When the Albanians took note of these things, they withdrew to the mountains, and fortified themselves within them in such a way that they inflicted great damage upon the Turks from there. In the end, however, the Turks, having climbed the higher ground, burst in upon them; and having killed the men, they carried off the women and children as captives, and devastated that whole region with flames.
B These things having been accomplished, Bajazites returned to Manastir and stayed there for several days. As he was departing from Manastir, he encountered on his journey a certain Turkish Dervish, clad in a garment of goat-hair. He wore iron rings hanging from his ears, neck, and arms, and professed the sect of those whom the Turks call Calenders. When he had approached closer to Sultan Bajazites, he drew a sword covered by his garment, intending to attack Bajazites himself. As certain of the more timid among the Zausii gave way before him, he had, clearly, free access to Bajazites. But Ischender Bassa, who was present, twisted the man so violently that he fell to the ground. Then certain ones, having approached the prostrate man, cut him to pieces. Finally, Bajazites arrived at Adrianople. These events occurred in the year 898 (Chr. 1495).
A certain eunuch of that time, whose name was Jacupes Aga, was administering the province of Bosnia, which was committed to his care. Having sent heralds here and there throughout Romania, he ordered it to be proclaimed that he wished to invade Hungary with his men. If anyone wished to set out with him, so that he might perform the deed in that expedition, he should come to him as soon as possible. Having understood this proclamation, some thousands of the Acanzi joined themselves to Jacupes, who, having been increased by such great forces, invaded Hungary. The Hungarian Ban met them with forty thousand men and resisted the Turks with great force. C At length, the Hungarians, dissenting among themselves, turned their backs; and the Ban Direnziles was captured, bound in chains, and sent to Sultan Bajazites. He, being greatly gladdened by the report of this well-managed affair, rested for some time at Constantinople. These things happened in the year 899 (Chr. 1494).
After Bajazites had sufficiently refreshed himself by abstaining from undertakings, he collected his forces again, entered the Morea, and approached Inebechti, having also equipped a fleet, which he ordered to put in at the same place. When the Italian fleet met them, and a naval battle was engaged, eventually the Italians, their ardor for fighting having lessened, withdrew. Thus, the people of Inebechti, seeing themselves besieged by land and by sea, for some time indeed defended themselves bravely; but having observed that no help and support were any longer left to them, when the leading men issued forth A by the command of the notables, they surrendered the keys of the city to Sultan Bajazites through them: and in this way they surrendered the city to his power, in the year 905 (Chr. 1499).
Having taken possession of Inebechti, he placed a garrison in the captured city and returned to Adrianople, where he wintered. When summer had already approached, having assembled the armies of Romania and Anatolia, he invaded the Morea again, having also sent a large fleet by sea, and surrounded Methone with a ring of soldiers. There were in the city 335 Christians, who defended themselves so strenuously that, for the space of a whole month, they fought without intermission, day and night, even though the walls themselves had been thrown down by the impact of siege engines. But Bajazites, seeing that the city was being defended by the Christians, moved by anger, gave his men the prospect of plundering the city, if only they should gain it. When the soldiers heard this voice of the Sultan, on a certain day, as evening was already approaching, they attacked and captured the city with a most violent assault; and they killed all the males who had reached maturity, with the women and children taken as captives. Methone having been reduced to his power in this way, prayers—which are accustomed to be held on Friday—were performed by the Turks in it. From there, Bajazites led his forces to Coron, so that he might besiege and occupy that city as well. But on the very first night, after he had departed from Methone, the people of Coron came into the camp of Bajazites and, offering the keys of the city, made a surrender, in the year 906 (Chr. 1500).
C While Bajazites was intent on the storming of these cities, the Venetians, having obtained the aid of the Spaniards, attacked Mitylene with a great fleet, and by the force of their siege engines, they threw down the walls of the town up to five hundred cubits. The inhabitants of Mitylene, besieged by the enemy, sent messengers to Constantinople to ask for aid. Thus, the naval forces having been suddenly collected, a notable naval army was prepared. Never before this time had the Constantinopolitans been forced to contribute money, soldiers, or naval troops. But then, urged by necessity, not only were these things exacted from them, but it was also received by custom that thereafter, as events required, the same should be rendered by them. Before that fleet, having set out from Constantinople, had arrived at Mitylene, the Christians had already attacked the town ten and eight times, but had not been able to storm it. Thus, when the Venetians understood that such a great fleet was coming against them from Constantinople, they boarded their ships and departed. The Constantinopolitans, however, were carried to Mitylene, repaired the walls demolished by the enemy, and thus returned home. In the end, the affairs of the Venetians were brought to such a state that, having appeased the mind of Sultan Bajazites with gifts, they made peace with him, in the year 907 (Chr. 1501).
Bajazites proceeded from the Morea to Constantinople, and gave himself so entirely to ease that for several years he undertook no expedition at all.
In the year 915 (Chr. 1509), at the second hour of the night of a certain day following Tuesday, the earth began to move at Constantinople to such a degree that several towers of the Turkish temples fell down, and the temples themselves
A and thus they stirred up a very great sedition. At that time, the envoys of Sultan Achmet who had been forced to flee secretly B or consult for their own safety by flight to the city, were compelled to follow what had been said by them; within a short space of time, they returned. Following these events, the Janissaries sent envoys to Sultan Selim, to announce that if he were presently coming to the city, they would indeed both salute him as emperor and acknowledge him as their lord. At that same time, Achmet also moved himself closer to the city, having pitched his camp at Scutari, in the region of Constantinople; and having sent many thousands of gold coins to his father, he departed by the route by which he had come. And because he had claimed for himself the taxes, tributes, and other fruits and revenues of the empire throughout Anatolia, he began to govern those provinces with violence. And although the Sultan had also subjected certain cities of Anatolia to himself, Corcutes was nevertheless unable to retain them, since the forces of Sultan Achmet's prefects were greater. Therefore, departing from those places, Corcutes crossed the sea to Gallipoli, and having taken only two men with him, he sailed to Constantinople. When he had arrived there, he entered a certain small temple, not far from the dwelling of the Janissaries. When this had been announced to Sultan Bajazet, he ordered another house in the city to be assigned to him, which he might inhabit at a distance from the Janissaries. When he had removed into this, he approached his father with good leave, and having kissed his hand, he was led back to his own quarters. At that time, Sultan Selim arrived, whom they call the younger. And as he approached closer to Constantinople, Sultan Corcutes, his brother, went out to meet him; both being mounted on horses, they reached out their hands mutually to one another, and conversed with each other very affectionately. Then Selim, having entered the city, pitched his tents in the Janissary field, C as Corcutes was returning to his own lodgings. Then indeed the assembled Janissaries chose ten from the whole number of their men, whom they sent to the pashas, and ordered them to say: that they acknowledged Sultan Selim, the son of the Emperor Bajazet, as their lord. [They said that] Bajazet, on account of adverse health and the weakness of his strength, was no longer able to go forth to wage wars. For which reason, the pashas were to signify to Sultan Bajazet that he should of his own accord surrender the administration of affairs to his son Selim. If that were not done, they would take measures against them; and furthermore, they would place Selim on the royal throne by force, and declare him their lord and emperor. When those ten Janissaries had explained these things to the pashas, the pashas went with those very ten men to Sultan Bajazet. Having understood their demands, he replied that as long as he himself lived, he would surrender the empire to no one. To this, the supreme vizier, Mustapha Pasha, said: "Farewell, then, most great emperor. For soon, when we have departed from you, these men will take our lives." Then the Sultan said: "Since indeed we have not yet abdicated the empire, do you think it will come to pass that they remove us from our place?" "Not at all," they replied, "they will not take your life; but by casting the hooks of their spears into your garment, they will drag you from the imperial throne." When D these things had been said by them, Sultan Bajazet, after having deliberated with his own mind, raised his head and said: "I do indeed commit the whole sum of affairs to my son, Sultan Selim." When this speech of Bajazet had been announced to the Janissaries, they immediately and unanimously betook themselves to Sultan Selim. These things occurred in the year 1518 (A.D. 1512).
The next day, Sultan Bajazet sent the chests in which the imperial treasures were contained to his son, Sultan Selim; and he ordered the viziers and the other pashas to approach their own lord, Sultan Selim, and to signify to him only this: that he should grant his father a delay of 30 days, upon the expiration of which he would depart for Didymoteichon and spend the remaining space of his life there; in the meantime, Selim might dwell in the Janissary quarters. When they had explained these things to Sultan Selim, he said: "Whatever it shall have seemed right for my father and the pashas to command, let it be ratified. For matters are still in their own power and will." On the day following, Selim approached his father and kissed his hand. Then indeed his father, rising, said: "Approach, son, and sit in this place; since you have become the lord of affairs, I having been abdicated, and [are now] emperor." To this Selim said: "Not at all, my father. For indeed I am the servant of my lord and father: and I have asked for nothing more than that it might be allowed me to look upon your face and kiss your hand. Since I have obtained this, may it now be lawful for your servant to depart with your good peace, while the most prosperous administration of affairs remains with you." But Sultan Bajazet said: "Son, I have resigned the empire to you with all my heart and mind. But I advise this one thing: that you do not shed innocent blood, nor kill anyone without cause." When Selim had promised to his father's counsel that he would obey, he retired to the new garden, or Genibaxen, to his own tents. On the next day, at the first light of dawn, he sat on the tribunal and ordered the Janissary army to be summoned; who soon stood before him with all the forces of the Janissaries. There, having addressed them, Selim inquired whether they wished to acknowledge him as their lord and emperor? When all unanimously shouted that they wished altogether to do so, Selim soon addressed them again: "If anyone among you shall have committed any fault," he said, "will it be permitted to me through you to punish him?" "It will indeed be permitted," they all shouted back. "Therefore, from now on," Selim added, "I shall begin my rule." The next day, when it had dawned, he sat again on the tribunal in the same place, the viziers and all the pashas gathering there to him. On that day, he ordered a certain Janissary, who was wearing a golden *uscufia* or cap upon his head, to be seized and suspended from a tree; a certain man from the number of the *Ulofezii* was also beheaded. That Janissary was removed from the midst by hanging for the reason that he was the son-in-law of Sultan Achmet. After Sultan Selim had established the empire for himself in this way, Corcutes, having boarded a trireme, sought out Manissa, his own domain. Not many days intervening, Bajazet, departing from Constantinople, planned to depart for Didymoteichon. Sultan
A a cold so intense fell, that neither soldiers nor beasts of burden could withstand it. And so, stripped of all hope of capturing Vienna, he was forced to lift the siege; and having returned to Constantinople, he abstained from war for some time. These events took place in the year 935 (Chr. 1529).
While he remained quiet at Constantinople, having invited all the pashas and nobles, as well as the ambassadors of foreign princes, with great solemnity, and having exhibited every kind of spectacle in the Atmeidan of Constantinople, he had his sons, Sultan Mustapha, Sultan Muchemctes, and Sultan Soliman, circumcised in the year 938 (Chr. 1532).
On the twenty-third of the month of Rezeb, they stirred up a sedition, and sacked the houses of Aigasis the pasha and the supreme treasurer, Abduselamis. On the following day, which was Wednesday, they broke open the houses of Ibrahim and Mustapha pashas by force during the night, but did so with such moderation that they carried off no booty therefrom. When at last the tumult of the Janissaries was composed, Soleimanes decided to set out for Hungary; and having collected fifty or sixty thousand armed men, he bridged the rivers Savus, Dravus, and Danubius; and he occupied Varadinum Perri along with other fortified places, intending to head for Buda itself with his army. B Having learned of this expedition of Soleiman, the King of Hungary also prepared himself for war; and with his own soldiers, who were completely armed in iron, he went to meet Sultan Soleiman. On a certain Wednesday, about the time of the Ikindi, the armies clashed from both sides with such force that many thousands of men fell slaughtered and many were wounded on both sides. After they had fought for a long time, the King of Hungary was finally overcome and himself perished. The Hungarians having been put to flight, the Turks pursued the enemy, and thousands of them were slaughtered while fleeing. Soleimanes, having achieved his goal, led his men to Buda, and took the city without bloodshed, having reduced men of every age and sex to slavery, in the year 932 Chr. (1526).
After the occupation of Buda, he returned to Hadrianople and gave himself to rest for some time. There was at that time a certain man in Anatolia, who was called Calender Zelebis, from the family of Chazis Bectasis. Now the Turks worship Chazis Bectasem as a kind of god, and they even invoke him. This Calender Zelebis, therefore, having stirred up a sedition, with a small number of Dervishes, routed some Sangiaks and incited all of Anatolia to arms. Soleimanes, having received word of this uprising, sent Ibrahime the pasha, with a distinguished army, to engage Calender Zelebis in war and to bring him to order. Ibrahimes, having caught up with Calender and his forces, joined battle; in which, though they fought bravely on both sides, the outcome was such that Calender himself was defeated and slain with his faction.
C Having settled the troubles in Anatolia, Soleimanes prepared himself for another expedition, intending to invade Hungary again; and so, after publishing edicts, he ordered his soldiers to gather at Alba Græca, where he also betook himself, intending to proceed from there to Buda. While he was on this journey, the Ban of Erdeli came to him, and having brought his homage, submitted himself to Soleiman's authority, while also bringing very ample gifts and kissing his hand. This matter pleased Soleimanes so much that he soon created him King of Hungary. Following this, he set out for Buda, and having occupied it, he marched for Vienna. When he had arrived there, the Germans, who were holding themselves within the walls, fortified the city; which Sultan Soleimanes besieged with war machines for twenty days, and he also dug tunnels under the walls, until the D wall collapsed. With that accomplished, suddenly, with snow falling, he retreated.
In the same year, on the twenty-eighth day of the month of Remasan, he departed from Constantinople, intending to wage war against the Spaniard. And when he had arrived in Alamannia, he marched his forces here and there over the space of two months, devastating and plundering everything with iron and fire. No army was opposed to him by the Christians, nor were their ranks ever seen; only from both sides did they harass Soleiman's columns, and many who were intercepted were either killed or carried off as captives. Sultan Soleimanes sent twelve thousand soldiers, under the leadership of Casane the Vaivoda, who was the son of Michael the beg, along with the Acanzii attached to him, so that they might further devastate those regions with fire and plunder, and carry off the inhabitants into slavery. And when they did this, they were put to rich plunder. But on the return journey, by chance, they fell upon the Christian forces, with whom, although they fought most fiercely and resisted the enemy bravely, in the end, to the point of extinction—at least for the greater part—they were killed or captured along with Casane the Vaivoda himself. And when winter was already approaching, Soleimanes changed his route and returned to Constantinople; where, after resting for some time, he assigned Manissa to his son, Sultan Mustapha, in the year 958 (Chr. 1532).
Meanwhile, however, while Sultan Soleimanes was abroad, waging war in Alamannia, the supreme commander of the Spanish fleet, Andreas Doria, together with the Megalo Mastor, who had ceded Rhodes in previous years, having gathered the help of other Italian princes as well, led out a great fleet to the sea, which contained fifty large ships and fifty triremes. And there were up to fifty thousand soldiers in them. With this army, they unexpectedly attacked the Morea, capturing first the city of Corona along with its citadel, then the island of Balu, and the town of Badram, along with certain other castles; and having sent foot and horse troops into the region, they plundered the whole, having carried off a huge multitude of men, women, and children into captivity with them.
In previous years, a certain man born on the island of Mitylene, whose name was Chairadines, had become remarkably skilled in naval warfare; and engaging in piracy, he had many times clashed with the Christians at sea. When he had already achieved a reputation, he built some ships; having joined...
to these some others, manned by desperate men who had gathered together from all parts to seek their fortune under his command, he became a source of great terror not only to Christian merchants but also to kings. When he had gained a sufficient number of ships, he sent letters to the Sultan Soleimanes, offering his services and promising to hold for him whatever might be captured at sea, and furthermore, to present him with all the booty. Soleimanes, who was already turning his thoughts toward expansion, and considering that this, if achieved, would be a great success, welcomed the proposal with much favor. He summoned Chairadines to Constantinople, where he treated him with great honor, assigned him the command of the fleet as captain general, and granted him sovereignty over the islands he should conquer. Chairadines, having thus gained the favor of such a great emperor, left nothing undone; he launched a great number of ships, ravaged the coasts of the Christians with fire and sword, and by his constant naval successes became truly formidable. But it is now time to return to the sequence of events. A While the Sultan was thus occupied abroad and waging war in Germany, extreme cold suddenly descended, such that neither the soldiers nor the beasts of burden could withstand it. Thus, bereft of all hope of taking Vienna, he was forced to raise the siege and, having retreated to Constantinople, he abstained from wars for some time. These events took place in the year 935 (A.D. 1529).
While he remained quiet at Constantinople, having invited with great solemnity all the pashas and nobles, as well as the ambassadors of foreign princes, and having provided all kinds of spectacles in the Atmeidan of Constantinople, he had his sons, Sultan Mustapha, Sultan Muchemet, and Sultan Solimen, circumcised in the year 938 (A.D. 1532). B In the same year, on the twenty-eighth day of the month of Remasan, he left Constantinople to make war upon the Spaniard. When he had reached Germany, he marched his forces here and there for the space of two months, ravaging and plundering everything with fire and sword. No army of the Christians stood against him, nor were their ranks ever seen; they merely harassed the columns of Soleimanes from either flank, and many who were intercepted were either killed or carried off as captives. C Sultan Soleimanes, however, sent twelve thousand soldiers, under the command of Casanes the Voivode, who was the son of Michael Beg, attaching to him the Acanzii, so that they might further devastate those regions with fire and plunder and drive away the inhabitants into slavery. While they were doing this, they were taken as rich spoils. But on their return, by some turn of fortune, they fell in with the forces of the Christians, against whom, although they fought most fiercely and resisted the enemy bravely, they were eventually slaughtered and captured, at least in the greater part, along with Casanes the Voivode himself. And when winter was already approaching, Soleimanes changed his route and returned to Constantinople, where, while he rested for some time, he assigned Manissa to his son, Sultan Mustapha, in the year 938 (A.D. 1532).
Meanwhile, while Sultan Soleimanes was away abroad, warring in Germany, the supreme commander of the Spanish fleet, Andreas Doria, together with the Grand Master—who had withdrawn from Rhodes in previous years—having gathered the assistance of other Italian princes as well, brought forth a great fleet to sea, which contained fifty large ships and fifty galleys. D There were in these up to fifty thousand soldiers. With this army they unexpectedly attacked the Morea, first capturing the city and citadel of Corone, then the island of Balu and the town of Badram, along with certain other fortresses; and having sent infantry and cavalry forces into the region itself, they devastated the whole of it, carrying away with them into captivity a vast multitude of men, women, and children. In previous years, a certain man born on the island of Mytilene, named Chairadines, had become exceptionally skilled in naval warfare; and engaging in piracy, he had many times clashed with the Christians at sea. When he had already achieved a reputation, he built some ships; having joined
the forces of those who were in that region, he laid waste to the entire area with destruction, having plundered the property of the miserable inhabitants and consumed all their beasts of burden. After this devastation, Soleiman led his army back to Carahemida. And the *dundar*, as the Turks call it, had been positioned and left in the rear: A because he feared that, during the very departure, the Shah might attack his men with a sudden assault. And indeed, this is precisely what happened. For the Shah, having learned of the departure of Soleiman, took with him five thousand picked Corizzi and followed the Osmanics in the manner of a scout in the rear, intent on this single goal: to inflict some damage upon them.
At length, he fell upon that rearguard which is called the *dundar*, as we have mentioned. Its leader was Ulumas Beg, to whom Soleiman had assigned seventeen thousand valiant soldiers in addition to five *sangiacs*. When the Shah had flown upon them closely, he soon rushed into them, and, hand-to-hand combat ensuing, he himself emerged superior, with the Turks slaughtered. About twelve thousand Turks were killed, and three *sangiacs* were missing. The fourth came into the power of the enemy; the fifth, with Uluman Beg, escaped the danger through the benefit of flight. The Shah, content with this successfully fought battle, thought that nothing further should be risked, since he considered that he had been requited in equal measure for the harm done to him by his enemy; and so he withdrew with his victorious troops to his own side. Soleiman himself had already departed from Carahemida, heading for Aleppo, from whence, having set out, he arrived at Constantinople on the fourteenth day of the month of Regeb, in the year 942 (A.D. 1536).
Because that region had less of the wintry cold and more heat, Soleiman decided to lead his army into it. When he had approached closer to the city, the inhabitants opened the gates and surrendered it to the power of Soleiman. Wherefore, having entered, he rested himself there somewhat. The entire region bordering on Baghdad also submitted itself to the empire of Soleiman. B It came to pass that he appointed a *beglerbeg* in the city and divided the province itself into *sangiacs*. Furthermore, he placed a military garrison in Baghdad and provided for it with artillery and other necessary supplies, and a store of provisions; this was after he had fortified the city and diverted water from the river into the urban moats. At this time the supreme *Dephterdar*, or the chief officer of the treasury, Ischender Zelebis, was denounced before Sultan Soleiman for having wickedly handled the royal treasury; for which reason he ordered him to be hanged outside the city, with all his property confiscated for the fisc.
In the meantime, however, while Soleiman was within the walls of Baghdad and the army remained outside in their winter quarters, the Shah Techmases went out again into the open with his forces and initiated a march toward Tabriz. When those *sangiacs* and janissaries who had been left at Tabriz—of whom mention was made above—heard that he was not far off, they did not know what they ought to do in this case. Yet because they observed that they were not sufficient to resist so powerful an enemy, nor could help be provided to them in time, they left all their baggage C and artillery, together with the things necessary for them and those committed to their guard, in that place, and looked to their own safety by flight. The Shah entered Tabriz and granted all that baggage and those impediments to be plundered by his soldiers; but be ordered the artillery, together with all the equipment appertaining to it, to be burned; and whatever of the war machines could not be consumed by being melted in the flames, he destined to be used as markers for the *mangurs*.
When now the harsher storm of winter had passed, Soleiman moved from Baghdad in the same year 941 (A.D. 1536) and led [his army] to Tabriz again; from which, when he was not at a great distance, Techmases again betook himself to flight with his men; and in order to take away from the Osmanics the opportunity of pursuing him, he devastated his own region, corrupted and burned all the grain, and drove his subjects away in all directions. When the Turks arrived at Tabriz, Soleiman chose the best of his men, especially those equipped with excellent horses, and commanded them to follow the enemy wherever they might be with the utmost speed. When they did this, and saw everything miserably devastated, it occurred to them that it might happen that some harm would befall them in a region reduced entirely to solitude. And so, having turned their course, they returned to Tabriz.
When Soleiman saw that he had been deluded in this way, he was moved by vehement anger and ordered that the royal palaces and the pleasant mansions of Shah Techmases and his ancestors, together with the Sultan's own building of Jacup, which is called Heste Dehiste, and all their gardens D be razed, devastated, and burned. Furthermore, he compelled very many citizens of Tabriz [index: entries preserved] to relocate from there to Constantinople. In short, he laid that entire region to waste, after the property of the miserable inhabitants had been plundered and all their beasts of burden consumed.
While he remained there, abstaining from wars for some time, Ibrahimes Bassa began to be suspect to him, and his perfidy was revealed in part. For it was rumored that he had also secretly made a pact with the Italians to transfer the empire of the Turks to himself. Wherefore, Soleiman invited him to dinner on a certain Wednesday, which was the twenty-second day of the month of Remasan; and when that was finished, after they had discussed certain matters between them and were about to go to bed, Ibrahimes also withdrew to his own chamber and composed himself on his bed. For whenever he was summoned by Soleiman at night, he would sleep in the Emperor's own *saraio*. When he had fallen asleep, the Sultan ordered the man to be killed, and all his faculties and wealth were confiscated for the fisc and carried into his treasuries. This happened in the year 942 (A.D. 1536).
We said before that Chairadin Bassa, having set out for Barbary with a great fleet, had wrested the famous city of Tunis from the Moors and had established his home there. At this time he had brought his ships and triremes onto land, being quite secure in his own affairs, and was indulging only in his own pleasure. The Moorish prince, to whom that domain had previously belonged, having set out for Spain, implored the aid of the Spanish prince. The Spanish [ruler], having recalled the business for counsel, was afraid, because Barbarossa had captured Tunis, that the same man might one day bring harm to the Spanish. He thought that fire could easily be extinguished if it were suppressed before it flared up more widely. And for that reason, having given [orders] to the Italian princes
A and having distributed the dominions of Sultan Selim, he assigned Manissa to one and Caramania to the other. This was done in the year 949 (Christ. 1543).
The nobles, moved by the man's speech, readily agreed with his opinion that the woman should be removed from the administration; and the bishops did not oppose them, saying that in this way the affairs of Hungary would be better managed in the future. Therefore, the nobles, bound together by a mutual pact, gathered great forces and, with a remarkable array of war engines, approached Buda. Seeing this, the woman suddenly gathered a small band of soldiers and fortified the city with this garrison, having also informed Soleimanes about all these matters. Hearing tidings of this movement, he immediately sent Muchemetes Bassa ahead with a portion of the Janissaries and the forces of Romania, while he himself, departing Constantinople on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Sefer, set out toward Buda with the retinue of the Porte and the remaining Janissaries, and immediately followed Muchemetes Bassa. B Meanwhile, Perenius was pressing the siege of the city, but he could not gain possession of it. When Muchemetes had led his army closer to the city, he greatly desired the arrival of Soleimanes, for the Christian forces were so numerous as to strike great fear into Muchemetes. Indeed, disregarding his own arrival, they did not retreat even a finger's breadth from their camp, but continued to strike the walls with their engines and to assault the city itself. But when it was on the point of falling into the power of the Hungarians, Soleimanes, in the nick of time, hastened his march with his retinue, the Janissaries, and the army of Anatolia, so that he was only a two-day journey from the camp of Muchemetes and the enemy. Upon learning this, Perenius, having found a favorable opportunity, slipped away from his camp by stealth and fled. For he had not thought it possible that the Sultan himself would come to break the siege of the city. The Hungarian soldiers, learning of Perenius's clandestine departure, also deserted their posts and soon prepared to take to flight. C Witnessing this from a high point in the city, the woman we spoke of sent a messenger to rebuke Muchemetes Bassa for remaining inactive while the enemy was fleeing. Muchemetes, who was then Beglerbeg of Romania, upon hearing this, immediately advanced his army against the Christians. Seeing this occur, and offering only very slight resistance to the enemy's attack, they threw themselves into flight. Some boarded ships and escaped; others, throwing themselves into the Danube, perished, drowned in the waters, while the rest were either killed or captured. At the very moment of this conflict, Soleimanes also arrived with his men. Having plundered the camp of the Christians, he ordered the war machines and the equipment pertaining to them to be brought into the city. From there, he appointed a Beglerbeg, or Bassa, for Buda and placed Turkish soldiers in the garrison there; he assigned to the woman and her son the region of Erdely, which the boy's father had possessed by the ancient right of his ancestors, and soon sent the mother away there with her son. Thereafter, Soleimanes returned by the path he had come, arriving back in Constantinople on the eighth day of the month of Schaban in the year 948 (Christ. 1542).
While he remained there, his two sons, Sultan Muchemetes... D Soleimanes, having lingered at Constantinople for some time after those events, did not undertake anything worth remembering. Meanwhile, on the fifth day of the month of Zemasiellula, there died a man most illustrious for the glory of his strenuous deeds, Chairadines Bassa; he was buried in a place called Besictas. This occurred in the year 953 (Christ. 1547).
From here, Soleimanes again prepared his forces, intending to lead an army into Parthia; this war came about for the following reason. A brother of Shah Techmas, by the name of Ercases Imirsa, was a prince with supreme authority in Sirvana. For certain reasons, he departed from the friendship of his brother, Shah Techmas, and, to spite his brother, fled to Sultan Soleimanes and entrusted himself to his protection. He arranged this journey in such a way that he sought Cofen through the region of the Circassians by long detours, from whence he arrived at Constantinople. The arrival of this prince was most welcome to Sultan Soleimanes. And for this reason, he received him with great honor and bestowed upon him the most ample gifts. Indeed, for his sake, he gave to the numerous, or rather to all...
the inhabitants of the town of Eger [Agria], which they commonly call Erlau, the opportunity to belong to his own jurisdiction: and, through the efforts of the illustrious Count Nicholas of Salm, he had taken by storm Zabrág, Léva, Zytnó, and Murány. Not long after, by the order of the same king, the Egerians had wrested Szolnok from the 352 Turks. Irritated by these causes, Soleimanes besieged Temesvár through his forces, and took it by surrender, after Stephen Losonci, the defender of that place, had been put to death in violation of a solemn pledge by a wicked crime. He occupied Lipa, Solimos, and Csanád, along with other castles, and defeated Erasmus Teufel, a commander for Ferdinand, along with Sforza Pallavicino and Augustine Sbardellato, the Bishop of Vác, at Palást, under the leadership of Ali, the Pasha of Buda; and having obtained that victory, he brought the castle of Dregel, Gyarmat, Szécsény, and other neighboring places under his yoke. Elated by such prosperous success, Ali, the Pasha of Buda—whom they called Caram, or "Black" Ali—having joined to himself Achmet, the Beylerbey of Rumelia, and Casana, along with many other beys, attacked Szolnok; and, because the garrison troops voluntarily yielded on the 4th of September so that they might defend Eger, which was of greater moment, against the enemy, he took possession of it. Then, having moved his camps to Eger, they attacked and besieged it with a great show of force; but their effort was in vain and to the great disgrace of the pashas, because it was successfully defended by Stephen Dobó of Rusca, Mezökövesd, Zoltay, Gregory Diak, John Figedy, and other brave men. These things took place in the Mohammedan year 958 (A.D. 1552).
B It was said a little earlier that the King of France, Henry, having sent an envoy, had incited Sultan Soleimanes against the Emperor Charles, under the law of mutual alliance, the author of which had been his father, Francis. Moved by Aramontano, Soleimanes—who acceded to his requests regarding the Persian borders—soon ordered a fleet to be readied, which, joined with the French forces, was to harass the maritime dominions of Charles. This, indeed, was carried out according to their wish by the loyal allies, and very grave damage was inflicted upon the Neapolitan and Sicilian shores. Corsica, too, an island of the Genoese, was captured; and the inhabitants, along with the garrison troops, were partly slain and partly treated with cruelty; this truly came to pass in the year 959 (A.D. 1552). Nor was Corsica restored to the Genoese until, six years later, peace had been concluded between Philip and Henry, the kings of Spain and France. Indeed, not long after this peace had been concluded, upon the unfortunate death of his father, Francis II, the son of Henry II, returned it to the Genoese Republic according to the laws of that peace.
C Sultan Soleimanes had a son, Mustapha, the eldest by birth, from a Circassian woman of servile condition; to him the father had initially given Magnesia, and then the province of Amasya, where he was living with his mother; finally, he had assigned to him Carabemida in Mesopotamia, situated at the Persian borders. He had also other children, whom he had fathered with a woman of noble appearance (as is at least reported), of Russian origin, or Roxolana: four males—Muchemet, Selim, Bajazet, and Ziangir—and one female, Chameria, whom others call Camena, the wife of the vizier Rustem. This Roxolana, D having married Soleimanes, concerned for the succession of her sons in the empire, seduced the mind of the Sultan—already fascinated by certain poisons supplied by a Hebrew witch—through the criminal accusations of her son-in-law, Rustem, and had completely alienated him from Mustapha. Letters had also been presented to a certain pasha's father, in which it was written to Rustem that a marriage between Mustapha and the daughter of the Persian shah, Techmas—with whom Soleimanes had been at war for many years—was being plotted. This matter disturbed the mind of the father, already wondrously suspicious, also owing to other delations, because he feared that Mustapha, aided by the auxiliaries of Techmas, might cast the father from the empire. Therefore, in the year 958 (A.D. 1552 and 1553), the vizier Rustem was sent with an army, under the pretext of waging war against the Parthians, but in reality with secret commands from the Sultan that he should remove Mustapha from the scene by any means possible. Rustem, having set out into Asia, fearfully informs Soleimanes—though through calumny—that the situation was in great danger: that the Janissaries and the rest of the soldiers were so devoted to Mustapha that the father’s imperial power appeared to be at an end. There remained no other remedy than for him to fly to Syria himself. Terrified by this news, Soleimanes suddenly hastened to Aleppo with his army, as if he were about to wage war against the Parthians. The son is summoned by letter so that he might betake himself to his father at Aleppo without delay. Mustapha, although he had heard of his father’s treachery and had been secretly warned by Achmet the Pasha that he should take measures for his own safety, nevertheless, relying on his own innocence, obeyed his father’s command. When he had arrived at the camp, he proceeded directly to his father’s tent; where, as his father gave a threatening sign to several robust individuals—whom the Sultans of the Osman dynasty, as Murates III also is wont to have here in his deliria—he was thrown down, and throttled by a bowstring. Then Ziangir, who was a hunchback and the youngest of the sons of Soleimanes, was ordered by his father, as if in jest and play, to go to meet his brother Mustapha, whose murder he was ignorant of. When he had approached more closely to the corpse of his brother, although the horses, property, tents, treasures, and other ornaments of his soon-to-be-slain brother—along with the province of Amasya—were offered to the dismayed boy by his father's command, he despised all these things, and having reproached his father in most bitter words for so impious and dire a crime, he immediately drove a dagger into his own bowels with his own hands, and, sinking onto the body of his brother, he breathed his last. Not long after, by the same evil arts of Roxolana, even the only son of Mustapha, Murat, who was being educated at Bursa with his mother, had his throat crushed by a bowstring by the act of the eunuch Ibrahim, by the command of his own grandfather. For that fury would never cease to keep before her eyes the danger that could threaten from a grandson, whose father the Janissaries had so greatly cherished. These things occurred in the year 959 (A.D. 1553).
After the siege of Eger had been lifted last year, to the great detriment and ignominy of the Turks, now at last envoys are sent to Constantinople by King Ferdinand: Antonius Verantius, Bishop
of Eger, and Stephanus Zarancius. They concluded a truce between the two parties, which lasted as long as Ferdinand lived.
Anno 967 (Chr. 1564) a certain Greek by birth named Jacobus, who usurped the surnames of Heraclides and Basilicus, traced his lineage back to the ancient rulers of Wallachia and styled himself a despot of the islands in the Aegean, and a marchese or marquis of Paros. Among certain Polish nobles to whom he had become known, he was able to effect so much that, having collected aids from many, among whom were the princes Albertus Lascus, Philippovus, and Lassocius, he was led with an armed force into Moldavia. The prince of that region at the time, with the title of despot, was Alexander, infamous for a certain unheard-of cruelty toward his own people. Lascus, though he had fewer troops, nevertheless defeated, put to flight, and expelled this man, who was equipped with a numerous army, from the kingdom of Moldavia, and handed over the entire territory, conquered by arms, to Jacobus to possess. The tyrant Alexander was defeated in battle on the 18th of November. Jacobus, having become the despot of Moldavia, obtained from Sultan Suleiman, by means of profuse largesse at the Porte, confirmation in his occupied principality according to custom.
Anno 969 (Chr. 1563) Jacobus, the despot, was circumvented by the fraud of his own Wallachians, wicked men, and killed on the 5th of November, so that he could not escape. This is memorable: seeing that he had to die, he gave no sign of an abject spirit; rather, clothed in royal attire, with an intrepid countenance and free speech, he reminded them of how well and rightly he had managed the state, and of the many singular benefits he had bestowed upon his Wallachians, invoking God as his avenger to punish the perfidy and ingratitude of a barbarous people. I indeed saw and knew the man as a youth before he set out for Poland. He was endowed with a noble countenance; his stature was not great, yet he possessed a robust and sinewy body, black hair, and a fluent tongue. In all matters he carried about him a certain dignity. He knew, indeed, how to speak elegantly in Greek, Latin, Italian, and French. Other things could be commemorated about him, but these must be omitted as they do not belong to this place. However, because it pertains primarily to this account—since there are no people on earth more fickle than the Wallachians toward their lords, whom they frequently and rashly change—it is fitting to append here how many successors this despot Jacobus had in a few years. For immediately after his death, the Duke Demetrius Visnovecius, having been called by the Wallachians, was sent bound to Constantinople by Suleiman for certain death. In his place, Thomas was hailed as prince by the factious. When he had administered the Wallachian state for a very short time, he was expelled by Alexander, who had already returned, and having fled to Russia, he was executed at Leontopolis in Podolia by the order of Sigismund Augustus, King of Poland. After Alexander, who had returned, was removed from human affairs, his son Bogdanus succeeded him; after Bogdanus came Ivonia, who claimed to be the son of the former Voivode Stephanus by a concubine. Ivonia (as they call John) having refused those who demanded unjust things
had informed the Melitians of what the Turks were plotting against them. Furthermore, they owed a two-years' tribute to Sultan Suleiman. This was caused by the avarice of the legate who managed their affairs at the Porte in Constantinople; he had even converted for his own use the gifts intended for the Vizier Mechemet and others. Besides this, they were charged with the guilt of harboring Christian captives, who were fleeing to them daily from Constantinople and were sent home from Chios. And it was said a little earlier that a certain noble captive of the Vizier Mechemet had taken refuge there, for whom he himself was demanding either restitution or a price from them. Therefore, for these reasons, Pialis, intending to punish them, arrived at the island with his entire fleet during the Easter holidays, which the Chians were then celebrating in the Christian manner; and he immediately B ordered the prefect of the island, along with twelve men who administered the republic, to come to him on his flagship. Meanwhile, while they were being held by him on the flagship, the palace of the city, in which the senate used to be held, was taken into the possession of the Turks along with the citadel, a Turkish magistracy was given to them, and the Christian churches were leveled to the ground. Only that of Saint Dominic was left, which was initiated into the rites of the Turks so that it might serve the Turks as a mosque. The families of the prefect himself and the twelve men, along with other leading citizens, were sent to Constantinople, and from there they were deported to various regions; nor until subsequent years, with the intervention of the French king, the ally of the Turks, were they restored to their homeland, and a certain shadow of their former administration and judgments was C granted to the miserable Chians, though only with the right of appeal to a Turkish judge; which was obtained the more easily so that, if the Christian inhabitants did not move elsewhere, the island would not be deserted and of no use to the Turks.
To return to the deeds done in Hungary: the Pasha of Buda, in order to obey the command of Sultan Suleiman, began at the beginning of the month of June to encircle Palota with a ring of soldiers. Georgius Thuris the Hungarian, a high-minded man famous for many brave deeds, fought back strenuously with his men. For eight whole days the Pasha had so weakened the walls with continuous blows of his artillery that they were falling prostrate to the ground, and the defenders were in extreme danger, when behold, an unexpected relief was divinely offered to them. Georgius, Count of Helfestain, had come to Jaurinum, having brought with him twelve companies of foot soldiers of great valor. On the fourteenth day of June, he sent ninety wagons out to forage, protected by nine hundred infantry. Seeing them, the D Turks who were besieging Palota, thinking that greater forces were present than actually were, suspected that they had been sent to lift the siege of Palota. Immediately the Pasha in panic betook himself and his men to flight, and out of excessive haste left to the enemy his tents, engines of war, a large number of vessels containing either flour or gunpowder, along with other camp baggage, which indeed as it turned out presently served to the advantage of the besieged. Thus, with the siege broken beyond hope, the garrison of the citadel was increased, and the walls, which had been demolished by the enemy, were restored.
With the siege of Palota lifted, they soon moved to rescue the city of Veszprém from the enemy; for once Turkish scouts had been captured, it was learned that the Bey of this place, having gone out with the intention of harming the Christians, had left Veszprém with the better part of his garrison. Wherefore the illustrious Count Egon of Salm, joining his forces with those of Helfestain and Nicolaus Flatestadius, began to besiege Veszprém on the second-to-last day of June, and the following day it was captured with memorable speed, in the year of Mahomet 873 (A.D. 1566). Only five were spared; the rest of the barbarians were slaughtered to a man, because not long before they had cruelly murdered a large number of Christian captives.
At the same time, by the same Count Egon of Salm, Tata was captured in the month of July, with the garrison being slain; likewise the castle of Gester, which had been deserted by its Turkish inhabitants for fear of the arriving Count; those who imitated them—the inhabitants of Vethaimenes, Iscochiani, and other castles—having set fire to their own castles, retreated to Strigonium; the Count of Salm was soon to besiege this for the sake of pursuing the victory, had it not seemed otherwise to Emperor Maximilian for certain reasons.
In the month of August, Suendius, who had been ordered by a certain plan in Upper Hungary and the Cepisiensian territory, while Emperor Maximilian was encamped with a distinguished and very large army at Jaurinum, observing all the movements and advances of Suleiman, to remain with his own troops, had quite a lot to do with the Tatars whom Suleiman had stirred up at the request of the Transylvanian. For as they roamed far and wide through the fields of Upper Hungary, on this side and beyond the Tibiscus, they were driving off booty, ravaging everything with fire and sword, and were partly slaughtering and partly carrying off into slavery people of every age and sex; but Suendius, who had been extended against them, though they were superior in number, attacked them at a time when, through gluttony of early fruits and grapes, they were about to perish—finally languishing from disease and not slightly diminished in number—and he overcame 10,000 barbarians, slew them, and drove them from the borders; of the Turkish beys who had served as their leaders, one was killed and the other lethally wounded. Then he captured several forts of the rebel Georgius Bebec, who had joined himself with the Transylvanian and the Turks: Zabaticam, Pelsozium, Gombazzecum, Crasnahurcam, Gadigen, and other castles and fortifications near them.
Next, two fortified places of ours fell into the hands of the Turks, Giula and Zigetum; Giula, which had begun to be besieged on the second day of the month of July by the Vizier Pasha Pertav, with the joined forces of the Pasha of Temesvár and the Transylvanian and the Tatars, was captured by the wicked betrayal of the prefect Ladislaus Keresinius, Georgius
Sultan Selim proceeded in mournful attire, accompanied by the pashas, the Cadileskers, and the other beys. Next, he gave the customary donative to the people and the janissaries. These things having been accomplished, he ordered his father's body to be transported to Constantinople and buried in the A *Zuna* [mausoleum], which he himself had constructed while he was alive. This task was managed by Achmet Pasha and Ferhat, the Aga of the Capizilar, with the beys and janissaries leading the way, along with the royal standard. At length, on the twenty-second day of November, they arrived at Constantinople. There, the funeral was received with a most frequent concourse of mortals, preceded by the Mufti, who among the Mussulmans is the king of both law and religion and all sacred matters. Following him were Iscender Pasha—the overseer of the Sultan’s palace—the Defterdars, who are the prefects of the chamber or treasury, and all the other beys in black garments, behind whom a vast multitude of the common people walked. The principal beys, in turns, supported the sandapila, or wooden coffin, which had been removed from the carriage, on the palms of their hands raised aloft, and thus they carried it through the city, while in the meantime the *Talismani* [Dervishes] raised a cry and sang, according to the Mahumetan rite, in a lamentable voice all the way to the Zuna. Once the body was deposited in the Zuna, a most excellent camlet cloth was spread over the sandapila, and over this another cloth interwoven with gold. Against the side was placed a scimitar, indexing a life spent profusely in war. At the head was placed a turban of the finest linen, fitted with most white coils, which he had been accustomed to use while alive, with exquisite black heron feathers. Behind the head, on the floor, were placed large, pyramidal, yet round, candles with candelabra, which, however, are never wont to be lit. Soon the *Talismani* and *Hoggie* [teachers] (these are the names for priests among the Mussulmans) were admitted; sitting on the ground with their legs spread in the manner of their race, they kept up a continuous murmuring of certain prayers in his Zuna. We examined all these things in person when we were in Constantinople C many years later. Around his sandapila, there are other sandapilas, both of the Sultana (about whom we have spoken) Roxelana, and of the children of Suleiman. These things occurred in the Mahumetan year 973 (A.D. 1566).
Meanwhile, Selim, because of the severity of the impending winter, left Hungary and ordered Pertav Pasha, with quite large forces of Turks, 360 Wallachians, and Tartars, to assist the Erdelyan D [Transylvanian] bey, who was continuing the war against Maximilian. It grieved the Erdelyan that Suendius [Johannes Sigismund Zápolya] had captured Tocaium the previous year, in which he had found thirty major and minor pieces of siege artillery, in addition to an immense supply of things necessary for war and grain. For which reason he resolved to recover that fortress, as it was a matter of great importance for protecting or delaying his affairs, because it was situated on the borders of Hungary and Erdely; it was surrounded by two rivers, the Tibiscus and the Bodrog. Therefore, he brought forward his soldiers with ten larger machines and began to assault the fortification with all force and impetus. On the other side, Suendius, thinking it should by no means be abandoned, prepared other things suitable for defense, by which he might in time assist Jacob Raminger, to whose faith he had committed Tocaium. But before these auxiliary forces could arrive at Tocaium, a rumor had been spread in the Erdelyan camp that ten thousand Tartars, sent by Selim to defend his cause, were ravaging by sedition all of Erdely with the Turks and Wallachians, and with unheard-of cruelty were falling upon the property and persons of the miserable inhabitants of every age and sex. Wherefore he was compelled to lift the siege, lest, while he stubbornly remained there, he might allow his own men to be destroyed to the point of annihilation. Freed from the hostile assault of Tocaium, Raminger broke out upon the departing [enemy], and many having been killed, he put the rest, who were wandering and terrified, to flight. Nor was there little trouble for the Erdelyan with these Tartaric, Turkish, B and Wallachian forces, when he slaughtered several thousands of them, and Varadin, in turn, was besieged by them. Whence, having slipped away in flight, and having gathered a new force of his men, he again inflicted not a small slaughter on them; by which they were finally terrified and poured themselves into Podolia and Russia, where the huge remnants of the cruel beasts were courageously defeated by the Russian Palatine and perished.
After the departure of the barbarian and Erdelyan forces, Suendius, having brought his own men forward in mid-winter, set out to besiege Zatuarum, a fortress of no light importance, situated on the borders of Erdely, which was under the jurisdiction of Georgius Bebecus, a wicked man who had been the first author of this war between the Caesar and the Erdelyan. Bebecus, having long since perceived the virtue and fortune of Suendius, which were so often victorious, and fearing greatly lest, the castle being captured, he should fall into the hands of Maximilian with present danger to his life, left his wife and family in Zatuarum with a garrison and maturely consulted for his own safety by the benefit of flight. For some time, the men of the garrison persisted in enduring the siege, because the siege engines could do no damage to them or the castle. Suendius, seeking a remedy for this inconvenience, while he himself was surveying and exploring all the places around the fortress, was recognized by the enemy by the remarkable tallness of his body, by which he stood out far above the others, and by the frequency of his retinue; he was very close to facing a danger to his life. For he was targeted by a few cannonballs from no small machines, one of which grazed his shoulder, so that even his garment, having caught fire—because it was lined with skins to repel the winter cold—burned. Nevertheless, having found a more convenient place for the machines, and these soon having been moved there with great labor from the soldiers, whom this commander could certainly restrain in their duty if anyone else could, the men of the garrison were reduced to the ultimate desperation; they bargained for safety and immunity for the commander's wife and family and for themselves, and thus surrendered the castle to Suendius. He, however, not only kept the pacts and agreements with the surrendering party in good faith, but also allowed the wife of Bebecus to depart with all her womanly finery and the other things she held dear, without any injury. Having obtained
A At that time also the Turks took possession of Antibari, through the supreme cowardice of the prefect Alexander Donatus, who surrendered it; and likewise of Budva, which could not be defended because it was poorly fortified toward the sea. Uluzalis and the Rais Caragosa, having landed on the island of Lesina (called Pharus by the Dalmatians, where the episcopal see of Pharus is), depopulated the suburbs, but did not dare to attack the citadel, which we saw was remarkably well fortified. Having left Lesina, they headed for Curzola, which they call Black Corcyra, situated not far from there; to this island, indeed, they caused no other damage than the burning of the village of Ulatim by throwing fire upon it. For when they were assaulting the town of the island, which itself also bears the name of Curzola, it having been deserted by the men, they were driven back by the women, who were spiritedly defending their homeland—a truly memorable event, to the shame of the Curzolan men and the enemy themselves, and to the immortal praise of the female sex.
Famagusta, having been besieged for a whole year, and having bravely withstood all hostile force until now, finally made a surrender in the extreme shortage of all supplies, on these terms: that the safety of their lives would be granted to the Venetians, and that they would be led away to Crete with their arms and possessions; and that the Greeks would remain in their homes, enjoy their properties, and live according to the Christian rite. B These conditions were lauded and approved by Mustapha Pasha at the beginning of the month of August in the year 979 (A.D. 1572), and signed by his own hand. On the fifth day of the said month of August, Marcus Antonius Bragadinus, under whom it had been defended up to that time, emerged from the city and, with an illustrious retinue of noble men, came to Mustapha's camp and offered him the keys to the city, as is customary in surrenders. Having been received courteously by Mustapha Pasha at first, he was soon, by that cruel beast, in the highest wickedness and violation of faith, subjected along with others to exquisite outrages in mockery, and then finally flayed alive. He also ordered Laurentius Teupolus, the prefect of Paphos, who himself had also defended Famagusta with singular courage alongside others, to be killed by hanging, and the rest of the surrendering captives to be inhumanely butchered. It is established that, of the Turks who were counted at the beginning of the siege as totaling two hundred thousand—among whom were 80,000 Azapi, 14,000 Janissaries, and 60,000 Volones (whom they themselves call Acanzii)—over 80,000 perished during the siege.
There existed at the beginning of the Cyprian war, for the sake of the Christian republic, a league struck to defend against the power of the Turks between Pope Pius V, Philip king of Spain, and the Venetian senate. The commander of all the forces of this league was designated as John of Austria, son of the Emperor Charles and brother of the King of Spain. The Pope placed Marcus Antonius Colonna, Duke of Tagliacozzo and prince of the Roman nobility, in command of his own triremes; the Venetians committed the command of the most ample fleet which they had equipped to Sebastian Venier, whom they later also created their Duke. Beside these, other princes and illustrious men were also on this expedition: D the Great Commander of the Kingdom of Castile, Ascanius Cornianus; John Andreas Doria, Prince of Melfi; Augustine Barbarigo, Mark Quirino, Anthony Canalis (all Venetians); also Alexander Farnese, son of Duke Octavius, Prince of Parma; Francis Maria, son of Guido Ubaldus, Rovere, Prince of Urbino; Paul Jordanus Ursinus, Duke of Bracciano; Alvares, Marquess of Santa Cruz, and many others.
When this fleet had set sail from Messina in Sicily in the month of September and news had been brought that the hostile naval forces were stopping at Inebechti (so the Turks call the city which our people name Lepanto, and the ancients called Naupactus), it finally arrived at the port of the island of Cephalonia, which they call the Alexandrine Valley. Not far from our people in the Gulf of Inebechti, which was formerly called the Corinthian, stood the enemy fleet. In command of it were Pertavus Pasha, commander of the land forces, and Ali Pasha, supreme leader of the naval allies. Among them, once the arrival of the Christian fleet was known, a diversity of opinion arose. Pertavus judged that one should refrain from battle, because the now-united Christian fleet was being directed by the command of one leader: he thought one should wait for a short time, since it would happen that, especially at that time of year, it would dissolve. Ali, on the contrary, felt that they must fight by all means. On the side of Pertavus stood the most experienced and veteran naval commanders: Sirocus, Sanjak-bey of Alexandria; Carabuces, Sanjak-bey of Sourisaris in Caramania or maritime Cilicia; Mechemetes Beg, son of Sala Rais, Sanjak-bey of Euboea or Negropont. But with Ali stood Chasanes Beg, son of Chairadinus Barbarossa; Uluzalis, Pro-sultan of Caesarea; and Caias Beg, Sanjak-bey of Smyrna. Their opinion finally won out, with Uluzali ordering that the mandate of Sultan Selim, by which they were enjoined to pursue victory, be brought forth and read in the midst.
Therefore, it was decreed by everyone's opinion that the battle, which our men were also seeking with no less eagerness of spirit, should be joined at three small islands, or rather marine reefs, which both the Greeks and our own, nowadays, call the Curzolari. The Christians won a victory unheard of for many centuries. Ali Pasha was killed. Pertavus, having perceived the current destruction of his men, fled in a small vessel and escaped to land. Uluzalis fled by sea with some thirty triremes more or less. Twenty-five thousand of the enemy were slain, and 4,000 were captured. The entire hostile fleet, along with immense spoils, came into the power of the Christians, only excepting those few triremes and ships with which we said Uluzali had escaped. Over 14,000 Christian captives were liberated. The battle was fought on the seventh day of the month of October, in the Mahometan year 979 (A.D. 1572). Following the defeat inflicted upon the Turks, the Venetians took by surrender, on the twelfth day of November, Margaritino in the region of the Chimeriotae, which is a part of Albania (as some think it is named after the Ceraunian mountains), situated not far from Corcyra, with the barbarians bargaining for their lives and property to be saved; and they soon tore down the fort itself, having razed it with fire.
C arrival had been promised in the month of October of the previous year, with 40 triremes, the naval allies of which were to have demolished the walls of the city of Tunis for the construction of a new fortification: a thing which was not done, however much the Austrian stayed in neighboring Sicily. The number of garrisoned soldiers was also diminished, as some who should have been kept for any future event were rashly discharged. In this way, through sloth and negligence, it came about that the fortifications fell into the hands of the enemy with almost no effort.
The Turks first began to besiege La Goletta, which the Spaniard Petrus Carrera commanded. Although it was a more fortified place, and Serbellonius was not yet finished, 650 foot soldiers—partly Italian, partly Spanish—were sent to him despite his urgent requests for reinforcements. Hence, Serbellonius was also besieged by the Turks, whose army Ramadam, the beglerbeg of Caesar, had increased with newly brought-up forces. Carrera again requested reinforcements. This state of affairs tormented the anxious spirit of Serbellonius not a little. If he had sent no one, he feared that the blame for the loss of La Goletta would be laid upon himself; but if he did, he would be stripping his own garrison. Nevertheless, a subsidiary force was granted to Carrera. Meanwhile, 600 Spanish soldiers arrived on two ships from Spain; they penetrated the very pickets of the Turks by night, using Turkish banners and clothing, and having with them certain men who spoke Turkish, they entered La Goletta. Finally, Carrera requested a third time that soldiers be sent to him from Serbellonius, and he obtained 500, who took advantage of the night, along with excellent officers—among others, Salazar, a man of great virtue and reputation. Nevertheless, the citadel of La Goletta came into the power of the Turks. Nor were there wanting those who accused Carrera of treason. Certainly, before the Turks had arrived, whether out of ignorance or pride, he had refused to admit the 500 veteran Italian soldiers: saying that he would by no means allow Italians to share in the glory that the Spaniards were to obtain in defending La Goletta. Indeed, I have heard from trustworthy men among the Turks themselves that Carrera was a man of total sloth and cowardice, who could not bear the smell of gunpowder nor tolerate the thunder of discharged cannons; for, whenever they were fired upon the enemy, he would hide himself in underground vaults and arched places, plugging his ears with cotton. The Turks claim that they offered him the governorship of the Kingdom of Cyprus as a reward for treason; yet they did not spare the man who surrendered, but used him like an inexpensive slave. Having captured La Goletta, in addition to other booty, Sinan Pasha gained possession of 500 war machines, along with a vast quantity of gunpowder and other things necessary for war, as well as a supply of provisions. A new fortification was then occupied by the Turks, though not without much bloodshed; Serbellonius was also captured, and was treated cruelly by Sinan Pasha. In this way, the Spaniards were ejected from Africa within thirty and six days: and through total sloth, that which D Charles Augustus had brought under his power with the best of judgment, intending to consult for the security of Sicily, the Neapolitan kingdom, and the whole of Italy, as well as Spain, was lost. These things were carried out in the year 981 (Chr. 1544), at the beginning of which the Venetians, because of certain causes—or rather, acting against the laws of the league, and against the wishes of the Pope and the Spaniard—had made peace with Sultan Selim for several reasons.
Then the cruel incursion of Sinan Pasha into that island, upon his return from the African war, offered the Venetians an opportunity to fortify Corcyra. For although the islanders, for the sake of appeasing a man whose insolence they knew especially then from his victories, offered him certain gifts, he nevertheless rejected them and behaved savagely toward them. For this reason, others who were skilled in military affairs were sent to Corcyra, and also Sfortia Palavicinus, Marquis of Cortemaggiore. By their designs, those fortresses, situated on very high crags and truly—as Virgil said—hiding their heads among the clouds, and surrounded by the sea itself, were so protected along with the town that I have truly seen nothing firmer or more impregnable against any enemy force.
The year 982 (Chr. 1575) is memorable for many reasons. For with Sultan Selim II deceased, his son Murates III of that name began his reign at the very beginning of this Christian year. He was at that time 27 years old. Above all, he ordered five of his younger brothers to be strangled according to the barbarian custom in his presence; and while the bowstring was being applied to the necks and throats of the youngest ones, according to custom, it is uncertain whether D there was shed—because of the tenderness of his love for this one, or the conscience of the cruelty perpetrated against all—he himself wept.
Likewise, upon the death of the Parthian Scach Techmas, the son who succeeded him was not the firstborn, Muchemetes Hodabendes; nor was it Ismail—the second of that name in this Sophian family, having been born second—but [the one] nearest to them, Haidar Mirises, who for several years before had acted with supreme power in the kingdom during his father's time. He, however, was barely able to enjoy the kingdom for 15 days, being killed by certain sultans, or nobles of the realm, who hated him. They then brought from prison the second-born son of Scach Techmas, Ismail, the second of that name, and placed him in charge of the kingdom. For he had been cast into prison by his father, on account of the accusations of certain nobles, and he had remained there for several years. Now, having obtained the kingdom, in order to test the minds of his people, and especially to know who those sultans were by whose impulse and counsel he had been committed to custody by his father, he hid himself in a secret place and, through the work of certain men in whom he trusted most, caused his own death to be announced. The rumor of this event aroused different movements in the minds of men, according to how each had been affected toward Ismail: joy in his adversaries and enemies, grief in his friends. In this way, the traitors revealed themselves to him.
A It is evident that among the Turks, more became followers of the religion of the Persians than of Mahomet. Having set forth the causes and beginnings of the war, and that far more fully and accurately than anyone has hitherto done whose labor has been brought to light, let us now come to the military achievements themselves.
It was said above that the war had been begun under Ismail II, Shah of the Persians; and although after he died not long after, his brother and successor in the kingdom, Shah Muchemetes Hodabendes, had determined to carry on the war begun by his brother, yet, wishing to approach it better prepared, he thought it necessary to do one thing and feign another, especially since he had recently entered upon the realm and affairs were not yet sufficiently settled, having been not a little disturbed by the reckless cruelty of Ismail. Therefore, wishing to provide a remedy for the troubles that had recently arisen between the two peoples, he sent ambassadors with letters to Sultan Murat, in which he signified that he had never approved of his brother’s counsel in breaking the peace, but had always desired above all that the peace and mutual friendship—once established between the two families and cultivated for so many years—might be preserved forever.
B On the other side, Murat, who believed the true exposition and declaration of the aforementioned dreams, and was incited without intermission by the aforementioned *scheiche* and *hoggia* to wage war against the heretical Persians, treated the embassies and letters of Shah Muchemetes with disdain; and, scarcely having heard the ambassadors, he ordered a numerous and powerful army to be assembled. Another inciter was added, no less bitter: Ilusreves, the Pasha of Van, who sent couriers daily with letters to Constantinople, through which he certified to Sultan Murat that the Persians were not in reality seeking peace, but had sent letters and ambassadors to the Porte merely for the sake of appearances, so that they might interpose a delay and prepare themselves more fully for all things while waging war.
Those who perished in order, and so at last were succeeded by them. Since, therefore, these three transgressed against the supreme eulogy of the testament and the precept of the prophet Mahomet, the Persians do not accord them any faith, which has been handed down from those three either by word of mouth or handed down in monuments of literature. Indeed, wherever they find their books and writings, they immediately burn them with flames and cruelly take action against those who observe them. C The same Persians adore their Shah or king, and revere him as if he were some earthly god. They are not in the habit of praying five times in a day and night, after the manner of the Osmanics, but only once. In sum, they are followers of a religion handed down to them by a certain doctor whose name was Scheiches Haidar; and who himself insisted upon the footsteps of another doctor, whom they call the Imam Harustis. These two doctors, or Imams, lived in the city of the Persians, Reza, at the time when Erdebil, the son-in-law of Usumchasan, Shah of the Persians, lived, as did Shah Ismail, the first of that name, the son of Erdebil and grandson of Usumchasan by his daughter Martha. And when these doctors had proposed—both by preaching and by writing—those things which we have said, those two princes, Erdebil and Ismail, father and son, approved and embraced their doctrine and sect. And it was the good fortune of the sons of Ismail, nicknamed Sophini, that the fame of the new religion, which they called Sophinan, gathered to him first small, then larger troops of men, and finally—by conquering the kings of the Persians in battle, his uncle Jacup and his son Alvante—he subdued the kingdom for himself, propagating it for his descendants even to this day with royal dignity. Nevertheless, those two Persian Imams or doctors, Haidar and Harustis, are condemned with execration not only by the Osmanics but also by other Mahometans, as much in Barbary or Africa as in the vast empire of the Pasha of the Keziis, who is commonly called the Great Khan of the Tatars, Chitainus. D For all these reasons, therefore, the Osmanics are so hostile to the Persians that their *muftis*—that is, the patriarch or supreme pontiff—has passed this judgment concerning them: that it is surely more pleasing and acceptable to God that one Persian be killed for the cause of the Mahometan religion, even if he be a Mahometan by profession, than if one were to kill 70 Christians, who dissent entirely from the Mahometans in religion. Finally, it is attested that at that time, when the illustrious and generous orator of the Christian Caesar to the Ottoman Porte, Davides Ungnadius, Baron of Sonnegg, was about to depart from Constantinople and take leave of the Sultan of the Mussulmans, the Persian ambassador had also repaired to the Divan for the same cause. The orator of our Caesar, arriving a little later, saw that [the Persian] had occupied the first place, which was rightfully his own, and was about to depart without saluting the Sultan; but Mechemietes Pasha, the *vezirazemes* (vizier) whom we have mentioned, having noticed this, ordered the Persian, even though he was a Mahometan, to sit in a lower place.
In the Mahometan year 984 (A.D. 1577), Shah Muchemetes entered into a pact with those peoples whose emperor is far the most powerful of all in the whole world, Ulu Chan Chitainus, and who is wont to be styled Kezies Pasha, and joined them to himself as allies in waging war against the Turks, although his ancestors had waged continuous wars with them. For although they themselves are Mahometans, they nevertheless differ from the Persians in certain opinions concerning religion. He had, besides these, many auxiliary troops from among the Turks themselves, not of small authority, who in religious opinion dissented from the other Osmanic Turks and inclined toward the Sophini. Finally, he obtained no small forces also from the Georgians, who were anciently called Iberians, and who to this day profess the Christian religion, though dissenting somewhat from the Greeks and us. They obey different princes and are inclined in their spirits toward the Persians, to whom they were of the greatest benefit in this war.
A They say that this was done by Osman for two reasons. First, because he feared that with the passage of time his father-in-law might take him out of the way. Then, in order that, once the fortress of Temircapina had been reduced to his power and the region of his father-in-law had been surrendered to the patronage of his own sultan, the Osmanid, which indeed he also did in actual fact. For upon the death of the Schemhali chane, Osman bassa remained the sole and absolute prince in the territory of his father-in-law, with no one at all to hinder him. Immediately, however, having sent couriers through Capha, which is situated toward the north between Tartary and Muscovy, and has Circassia toward the south, with letters to the sultan, the Osmanid Murates, he surrendered and commended himself entirely to his faith and power: at the same time explaining the things which had been accomplished by him, and asking that if he were thinking of the supreme command, not only of those places and that territory, but also of the whole Caspian Sea, Muscovy, Oriental India, Samarcand, Chorasan, and Chilan, the Persian regions, he should send him an army, money, and grain at the earliest opportunity. Sultan Murates, moved by these glad tidings, not only provided him with other necessary things, but also sent 60,000 Tartars, together with the two brothers of the king of Tartary, who were subsequently strangled by Osman bassa in the year 991 (Chr. 1584). And these things were indeed accomplished in the first year of the war, namely 985 (Chr. 1578), in which it is established that over 70,000 Turks perished both in battles and from lack of supplies.
C Winter having passed, and when the summer of the year 986 (Chr. 1579) had approached, and auxiliary forces with money had reached Temicarpim, the Ottoman forces, by means of their accustomed incursions into the regions of Sirvan, were inflicting damage upon the enemy from the fortress of Temircapina. This matter gave cause for a huge battle with the Persians, in which the Tartars, together with one of the brothers of the Tartar king, were slaughtered and destroyed, while the other brother, still alive, was captured by the enemies. Osman bassa himself barely escaped, safe with a very few of his own men. And since the unfortunate outcome of the battle had left him with, in truth, very small forces, he began, in the manner of Turkish robbers, to infest the neighboring regions daily by conducting raids, taking no account or distinction of friends or foes: from which plunderings he both lived himself and fed his own men, soon retreating with them, if the enemy threatened, to the aforementioned castle. And it is stated that the site of that castle is by nature most strongly fortified; and since he had placed therein a certain detachment of Janissaries using muskets, along with some field engines and falconets, in a place so strengthened by nature, against those naked and unarmed peoples—who in all the days of their lives had neither seen war engines and muskets with their own eyes, nor had heard their thunder with their ears—he rendered himself so secure, and the castle itself so impregnable, that he seemed to himself a certain monarch.
On the other hand, the aforementioned bassa Mustaphas, having observed this turn of events, did nothing at all throughout the winter of the year 985 (Chr. 1578), remaining with his troops at Arzerum, as we indicated above. B At the beginning of the following summer, in the year 986 (Chr. 1579), he led his army toward the Persian borders, and engaging in various battles, now with the Persians, now with the Georgians, he departed always inferior, with a notable slaughter of his own men. In the same year he fortified Carseum, a place distant from Arzerum toward Revan by a journey of four days, and appointed a beglerbeg and a dephterdar over it. Similarly, at Tschildirim, situated on the borders of Georgia, he established another beglerbeg with a dephterdar.
He also sent this year, with a fleet, sultan Murates’ sea commander, Uluzalim bassa, into Mingrelia, a region of the peoples of Colchis, so that he might build a fortress there. A beglerbeg was appointed by him to this place, as well as a dephterdar. The name of that place is Fassa. Sultan Murates had, however, taken care for Fassa to be built, so that he might open a shorter and safer route in those parts, by which forces could more easily be led against the Georgians, and once they were defeated from that side and brought under the yoke, he could the more conveniently proceed beyond Temircapin to wage war upon Sirvan. Not long after, however, the sea commander Uluzalis had departed from there with the soldiers and the fleet, the fortress of Fassa was completely razed and devastated by the enemy.
Because the war was being conducted with little success by Mustapha bassa—with his soldiers suffering miserably from a shortage of grain and a plague raging savagely in the camp—he was ordered by letters from sultan Murates to winter at Amasia. He, however, none the less remained at Arzerum that winter with the remnants of the army, as the greater part of the soldiers had slipped away due to destitution, the force of the contagious pestilence, and the approaching winter cold, and the beglerbegs also having returned home, as they saw that nothing could be done rightly against the enemy.
Meanwhile the Persian, from Casmin—which is the other, more interior capital of his empire—sets out with his forces for Tebrisium. There, when he had been informed about the dispersed and fleeing Turks here and there, he makes a foray into enemy territory and, laden with immense booty, he himself dismisses his soldiers to winter quarters. Having learned of this Persian incursion, Murates, fearing that the enemy might advance further, immediately commanded Mustapha by letter to bring himself again with all his army to the borders of the Persians. But he did nothing of these things, because he had already learned through scouts of the departure of the Persians; and besides, even if he had been very eager to lead his troops against the enemy, he could have accomplished nothing, because of the insubordination of the army, which was absolutely disobedient. Indeed, it is established that at one time there was consultation in the camp about killing Mustapha, the causes of the hatred toward whom in the camp were, first, a certain inexhaustible greed, and sluggish negligence in providing grain and other comforts for the soldiers: whence it had happened that, with the soldiers dead from hunger and the plague, the camps were seen to be all but exhausted. For these reasons, Mustapha was recalled to the Porte by sultan Murate.
A And so that he might place a sort of bridle upon Murate, and that he might close off the methods of doing harm, he sent Ferhat Bassa with a great army, and no small number of craftsmen, to those borders: so that he might build a fortress at Revan, which is the name both of the city and of the region subject to Tocmaces. Ferhat, having set out there, first constructed a certain castle between Kars and Revan: then, progressing with his forces, he built the fortress of Revan. He placed over it Cigaloglis (for so the Turks call the Bassa, who was by nation a Genoese, born of the noble family of Cigala, as if he were Cigala the son of the Turk) with the authority of a beglerbeg and with the title of vizier in those borderlands, having also attached to him a defterdar; he left for him numerous forces of soldiers, janissary musketeers, engines of war, things pertaining to them, supplies, and other necessities. From this, the Osmanici, following their custom, raided the Revan lands several times and exhausted everything with plunder, but to their own detriment rather than their gain. These things, which we have commemorated, were carried out in the year 989 (A.D. 1582).
In the following year, 990 (A.D. 1583), Ferhat Bassa, having led his own forces into the lands of the Georgians several times, built two fortresses in those same borders. Cigaloglis, whom we mentioned, was defeated in battle once and again by Prince Tocmaces; sometimes he was even wounded, and he came within a hair’s breadth of falling into the power of the enemy. But Osman Bassa, who was lingering at Temircapi, as was indicated above, sent his own men to Sultan Murate, for they sought to have janissary musketeers sent to him, along with artisans skilled in casting cannon, architects for building triremes both larger and smaller—whom the Turks call *calaphagilarios* (a hybrid term, clearly, taken from the Greeks who say *calaphatas*), and likewise naval comrades, with their *Raisis*, or commanders of triremes and ships, by whom they might be governed. Furthermore, he requested that money be supplied to him, along with some *sangiacs* from Rumelia, that is, Greece, and Anatolia, that is, Asia Minor, and Sivasta, or Sebastia. Sultan Murate agreed to all his requests. Therefore, when these men had arrived at Temircapi, he took care to have certain vessels built, and sent them to harass the shores of the Caspian Sea. In like manner, he also dispatched land forces, so that they might carry out plundering in a dire manner in the fields of the Sirvanenses as well as of others neighboring to them—no less of friends than of foes—and lay them waste. But they usually returned with great loss and the slaughter of their own men.
We said before that the Persians and Georgians, with united forces, had attacked the Turkish army that was hurrying to aid Tiflis, and had inflicted a huge slaughter upon them. When the news of this received defeat had come to Constantinople, Sultan Murate addressed Sinan Bassa, who was then *vezir-azem*: “What,” he said, “is this state of affairs? What sort of truce, what relaxation of this war is this?” To which Sinan, responding with a certain rash audacity, said: “So that a remedy may be found by encountering these matters, a Shah must be opposed to a Shah.” By these words, he wished to imply
A that he possessed someone to oppose to his brother. For he maintained that he was not lacking in those who could be sent—that is, the ones among the Tatars who were residing at Constantinople. Therefore, the Sultan sent for the Tatar named Mechemet, who was the Kerai Chan, that is, King of the Kerais or the Kerali. Having received the order of Morat through his councilor, Siarse bassa, and with the humiliation of being told he was from B Hungary even with the title of Ottoman Vizier—or in Greek, Kadilescher—he deliberated. They persuaded him that sending such reinforcements was necessary, and that he should order whatever was required for conducting the war. It is reported that one hundred head of pack animals were sent, loaded with silver coins, which the Turks call *aspros*. The sum of these amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand German thalers, and sixty *aspros* for the value of a thaler, at the rate fixed for this currency at that time by the Sultan’s decree, Morat. And the load of each pack animal contained one thousand eight hundred thalers. He sent this money C to the Tatar, besides other gifts, and silk garments, and arms of every kind. But let the reader know that the reason for this was that Morat had bound this Tatar, Mechemet, to educate and send home his forces, since he considered him to be an enemy wherever Morat was, and at whatever time, and that he should receive annually in his name, and for his own, from Morat an amount of roughly two hundred thousand Sultan gold coins, besides daily expenses, which were also to be received in his name, according to the Turkish custom, a thousand *aspros* each day. But when he had received the amount, he left D Crimio, the city, and pretended to go to Temircapim. But having progressed a certain distance from Crimio, he returned home, saying that he was doing this with his own men because of stormy weather, and that he had conceived suspicions against his brothers; or because of the movement of the Cossacks—as they are called in the Moldavian-Wallachian borders, who are called Martelosi, Uscoehi, or Morlachi in Hungarian, Croatian, and Dalmatian lands: unless it is that they are called Cossacks in greater numbers, which they could not contain, since they had long ago occupied the border town of Benderia, subject to Ottoman law, toward the Black Sea, and had ravaged it. But now, at length, bringing forth these causes and excuses, he did not undertake the expedition promised to Morat. Indeed, those who are men of wisdom and ignorant of Turkish treachery remember hearing that it was concluded in Morat’s council that the Tatar Chan must be sent away to remote regions; and in the meantime, while he was away from home, his kingdom—which indeed other men of Sultan Morat were also holding—should be reorganized in the form of a *beglerbegate*. And it could come to pass that, having suggested this to him, Morat could turn aside the Turkish treacheries, and because of this intention to increase and preserve the lands of others, he would despoil his own. Morat, bearing this very poorly, sent an order to Osman bassa, commanding him that he should be the first to offer this to him—that he was already in that place—and A of the supreme leader of the forces in those places; and that he himself should set out with the greatest speed possible to punish the Tatars. There was a Tatar by this name, Mechemet, Kerai chan, that is, Mechemet, King of the Kerais, or of the Kerali. Osman bassa, having received the mandate of Morat, did what had been enjoined upon him. For indeed, Capham, having set out, spent that whole winter there. When B summer had arrived, in the year 991 (A.D. 1584), Sultan Morat sent to the brother of Mechemet the Tatar, whose name was Islan chan. He was until then being kept at the city of Iconium in Asia. But he was planning with this intention, that Osman bassa, having killed King Mechemet, should give the Kerais Tatars to Islan chan in place of Mechemet. When C Islan chan navigated at the command of Morat, Capham, the prefect of the sea, with a few triremes and no small guard of Janissary musketeers of the Porte, landed at Capham. After he had landed, that wretched Mechemet chan, being deserted by his own, and having been betrayed for the most part to Kibaia, or the prefect of his court, came into the hands of the Turks, and with them, along with his two sons, he was strangled, his throat crushed. In his place, immediately by them, with no one D resisting, Islan chan was installed by decree of the Sultan, so that he might be Chan, or King, of the Kerali Tatars. Another son of his in the Nogai Tatar principality, his father-in-law, was a fugitive. Mechemet, indeed, not undeservedly, because of his impiety toward his father, appeared to have brought such a death upon himself. For since he was so weakened by age, being little suited for government, and forced by the help of the Sultan of Turkey to abdicate the kingdom from his father, Mechemet soon transferred it to himself; then, upon the brothers of Islan chan demanding it, whom the father even favored more, Islan, with another brother, younger in birth, fearing the cruelty of the Poles against King Stephen Báthory, took refuge. The Sultan of the Turks, Mechemet, urges the Pole, so that they might be handed over to him. 377 There was among the Turks a certain Transylvanian, commonly called Marchatzi Paul, that is, Paul Marchatzi, who had been a spy on the Transylvanians. He, in turn, having approached the king, offers him the hope of some surrender. Wherefore he sends the brothers to the Sultan, who, however, was cheated by the Pole, and he did not keep his promise. The author was then involved in this, so that he became a Muslim. When he had done this, wishing to show himself sincere in his religion, he handed over the Muslims to the Christian for punishment. Marchatzi himself, the apostate, is still alive, and is prefect of Babotze, not far from Zigeto, and is now called Ibrahim beg by the Turks. The Tatar brothers living in Constantinople, one of the royal line of the Hungarians, fled to the Persians: an example which Islan feared to follow; he was first removed by triremes to Rhodes; thence he was transferred to Iconium, being kept there until finally, having been made a brother of Mechemet, just as we have already indicated, he was substituted.
ANALYTICAL INDEX
Bergas Castaldo is Burgosine, 412. Cadilescher of the Turks, three [of them], 412. Cadilescheri, 414. Cadilescheri are similar to archbishops, ibid. Cadilicatus is the office of a judge, or a judgeship, 412. Bergomum, 157. Bernardinus Canilius, 225. Bessarabia, 417. Bessarion the Cardinal, 228. Bessarion the Cardinal, of Trebizond, 155. Bitezides, confused with the Hussars, 115. Bitez de, whom we call Hussarones, 189. Blachia and the Blachi, for Vlachia and Vlachs, 428. Bladus Dracula, prince of Moldavia, which is also Transalpina, who is also Wladus, 265. The diligence and audacity of Bladus, 270. Bladus is conquered, 272. Bladus follows the Turk, 273. The flight of Bladus into Hungary. Blanca, married to Philip, son of Francesco Sforza, 157. Boemi, 70. Bogdiana, 41. Bogdan signifies "gift of God," 429. Bogdania is named from the Bogdani, that is, from its princes, ibid. Boli is the name of a region as well as a town, 406. Bolina, to the Turks, is the Greek Apollonia of Mount Athos, 417. Bolina, a fortified place, could not be captured by the Turks, 317. Bombard, an invention of the Germans, 193. A bombard penetrates harder objects, succumbs to softer ones, 185. The power of a bombard ball, 259. Bombards taken from the Turks, 223. The goods of Sinanis confiscated, 385. Bonfinius corrected, 443. Bonfinius erroneously called Prusa "Byrsa," 403. Borbatanæ region, 218. Borckuck or Barakok, divided into the words Barac Kuk or Barac Gog, is "blessed Gog," 418. Borle captured by Gilderune, the Turkish Khan, 319. Borle is found double in the description of Natolia, both pertaining to the Pontus province, 424. War brought upon Bosnia, 283. Bossina subjugated by the Turks in 1463, 289. Bossinensis booty, 284. Prodigy of the dissected cadaver of an ox, 300. Brenezis deeds, 115. Occasion of the Bossinensis war, ibid. Description of Britain, its customs, climate, 48. Brixia besieged, 156. Bozina, an entire region exhausted by rapine, 318. Bucowar is a city of Buca, 418. Bucovarum, greater and lesser, two villages, ibid. Buda, metropolis of the Hungarian kingdom, 348. Buda is taken by the Turk without bloodshed, 343. Buga, where it is situated, 415. Bulcogli, as if the sons or descendants of Bulcus, 418. Bulcus, a despot, gave his daughter as a wife to Baiasites, 422. Bulcus, the despot, is called by the Turks "Stephanus Bulcovizius," and is called the despot of Serbia, ibid. Bulcus, the despot, gave his daughter to the Turk as a wife, 318. Buldus is the same as Bracole Weida, 449. Bulgari, 14. Bulgari conquer the Turks, 15. Slaughter of the Bulgarians, ibid. Bulgari, 18. Bulgari defeated, 31. Bulgaroctonium, a place named from the slaughter of the Bulgarians, 415. Burgos, a certain fortress, 315. Burgosine is near Didymolicho, 125. Burgosine, a town abandoned by Christians fleeing, and destroyed by the Turks with fire, 515. Duke of Burgundy, leader of the holy war, 59. Duke of Burgundy, Count of Flanders, 45. Buruvada fortress occupied, 327. Buruze fortress came into the power of Murates, 326. Busquesius confuses Prusiadem with Prusa, ibid. Busdoganum, a certain mass of iron, 462. Byzantium besieged, 94.
[index: entries preserved]
A and the temple of the Holy and Sacred Sophia, or the Wisdom of God, which had been profaned by the Barbarians, he visited: so that he might show to us and to others (for there was a very great gathering of men) that he was not yet dead. His very face was still seen to be deformed by a sallow color.
In this same year 991 (A.D. 1584), on the 24th day of October, some Turkish beys with their forces, in which there were, by their own confession, up to 10,000 men, entered the borders of Carniola and made a most severe incursion: villages and hamlets were plundered here and there, and a great multitude of Christian captives were led away with them into servitude. When our people had received news of the arrival and hostile devastation, they suddenly gathered up to 11,000 men, with Justus Joseph, Count of Torriano, and Thomas Erdendi, Count of Muslovina, Ban of Sclavonia and Croatia, as leaders; and without delay, clinging to the heels of the enemy by forced marches, they finally caught up with them at Slunum in Croatia on the twenty-sixth day of the same month of October, and they invaded and cut them down. The captives were freed, and the booty was captured, with the loss of 4,000 Turks.
We were at Constantinople at the time when Sultan Murates was informed of this slaughter of his men; who, indeed, when he understood it, declared that those who had been killed had rightly perished, as they had been the first to initiate the injury. For he said that he did not wish anything to be attempted by his men, contrary to the laws of the truce, to disturb the peace on the borders of Hungary. He also ordered that an example of his letters to both of the pashas of Hungary—of Buda and of Temesvár—be shown to the illustrious and generous orator of Emperor Rudolph II, Baron Paul Eizinger; in which he severely commanded them to keep their border soldiers in check. He also requested, in turn, that the same be done by our people.
Toward the end of the same year, a certain Turk arrived at Constantinople, a messenger of the slaughter of his men, from which he alone (as he himself said) had escaped through the agency of a certain Cretan surgeon to whom he had been known previously. The matter itself was not unworthy of report, as it seemed likely to provide a cause for a new war, then imminent, between the Venetians and the Turks. The widow of Ramadan, the Pasha of Tripoli, intending to travel to Constantinople with her son, her household, and captives of both sexes, had caused a trireme to be equipped in the maritime part of Barbary or Africa, in which she might carry her very ample wealth with her. Those effects, I remember, were estimated by the Turks and Hebrews at eight hundred thousand gold coins: whether truly or otherwise, I cannot say. For the sake of her own security, two other ships had joined themselves to this trireme, which for that reason the common sailors are accustomed to call B consorts. When they were sailing past the very mouth of the Adriatic Gulf, not far from the island of Corcyra (which they now call Corphum, a word which in the common language of the Greeks signifies a gulf), a huge storm suddenly arose and drove them, even against their will, into the gulf which we have mentioned, the Adriatic. At that time, responsibility for the gulf, with a certain number of triremes to defend it against any pirates and others (an office which he who holds it is called the Provisor of the Gulf), had been entrusted to Peter Emo, a Venetian patrician, who, when he had learned that the Turks had entered the gulf, soon moved against them; and, being far superior in the number of triremes, soldiers, and other things, he brought them all into his power. Then, with a certain dire and unheard-of fury, they raged against the captives, as many men as women. 250 men having been killed, and the son of Ramadan the pasha C stabbed in the embrace and bosom of his mother, 40 women, previously defiled by nefarious outrages and with their breasts mutilated (who, indeed, were reported to have been thrown into the sea by some with cruelty more than barbaric, while the wretched women were still alive and watching), were finally atrociously dismembered, and all of them thrown into the waters to be devoured by the fish. It is said that the son of the Emir himself had happened upon a certain maiden of outstanding beauty. When she saw that he was about to use force against her chastity, she soon declared herself to be a Christian and a virgin, born in Cyprus to the noble Cornara family, which traced its origin to the Venetian Cornaros; that she had been captured 12 years ago when Cyprus came under the Turkish yoke, and from that time she had served a miserable servitude among the Barbarians. Now that after so many hardships she had fallen into the hands of a Christian man, a defender of virginal modesty, and finally a noble Venetian, she besought him by the immortal God that he not do injury to a Christian, not defile a virgin, and not cast a foul blemish upon Venetian blood, but rather that, D saved by a certain divine providence for this wished-for day on which she might return to a Christian commonwealth, he might restore her to liberty with her modesty intact. Neither the most holy prayers nor her entreaties were of any avail against an unyielding mind, and one prodigiously cruel and lustful, to prevent her being violated and, after being suffocated, thrown into the sea along with the other Turkish captives. People thought that this indignity had been committed against the Venetian name—so pious, so studious of modesty and every virtue, and so alien to cruelty—lest any survivor or the abundance of the booty which they had obtained, or the foulness of the crimes committed, should be revealed.
When rumors of this crime spread through Constantinople, it is incredible to dictate how greatly the minds of the Turks were stirred. You could hear everyone everywhere threatening the most extreme things against the Venetians. They barely refrained—even the Bailo (this is the name of the Venetian magistrate who investigates the affairs of his people there and reports injuries done to his own to the Turkish sultan and his viziers)—from laying hands on the man or at least foully spitting in his face. John Francis, born of the Mauroceno family (commonly called Moresini), was holding this office at the time, who shortly after, upon the death of the most learned Cardinal Delphino, obtained the bishopric of Brescia in his absence. When he had received word that a certain Zausius, by order of Sultan Murates, was to go to Venice on December 27th with commands, he intervened and obtained only this: that Zausius, who was to be sent to Venice, should remain in Constantinople. Nevertheless, those who were to signify the opinion of Murates to the Venetians were sent. He wished that punishments be set for the authors of such a great crime, and that the stolen goods be returned along with the persons, as well the free as
711 the slaves.
In the month of February A of that same year, there was a great flight of birds fighting among themselves in the entire vicinity, and an immense noise was heard as they inflicted wounds upon one another. The following day, the soldiers, citizens, and farmers went out and gathered such an abundance of ducks and geese, left to dry in the smoke and in the air, that they would live quite comfortably for a long time on such rich booty. For some collected one hundred, others two hundred, others more or fewer of the birds killed by one another. Finally, after the survivors lifted their wings from a very spacious meadow, they flew away.
At the end of the year, in the month of December, in the territory of the Croatians, some thousands of Turks were slaughtered by our men, who were far inferior in number. Among others, the brother of the Bosnian Pasha perished: his head was severed from his shoulders and sent with certain captives to Vienna to the most serene Prince of Austria, Ernest. This Bosnian Pasha and his brother, whom we said were killed in this conflict, are reported to have been born of the family of Mechiemet Pasha the Vizier, with whom, as we showed above, the daughter of Sultan Selim II and sister of Murad was married.
In the next following year, namely [the Mahometan] 994 (A.D. 1587), in the month of February, our men unexpectedly attacked and captured Copan, a fortress situated not far from Lake Balaton, which was frozen at that time, and where three Turkish Beys had gathered. There were more or less one thousand Turkish heads in the fortress when our men invaded it. Of these, besides others of lower station, 190 of the more noble sort, along with 70 women, fell into the power of our men; the rest either slipped away in flight or hid themselves underground in caves. One hundred of the more noble horses were brought away, and the booty was valued at 40,000 gold coins. Of the three Beys whom we said were there at that time, the Sanjak-bey of Copan, Cara or "Black" Ali, was captured and sent first to Vienna and then to Prague to the Emperor Rudolph; the second was suffocated in the subterranean vaulted chamber in which he was defending himself, when the fire was ignited by the force of gunpowder; the third was saved at that time by the benefit of flight. However, when he had entered our borders again with others in the month of August, just as we are naturally about to relate, the captivity which he had avoided by fleeing in that place, he could not escape when he fell into our power by some fatal chance in this encounter.
In the same year, on the eighth day of the month of August (the Hungarians keep the ancient calendars), four Turkish Beys—the Pasha of Sasuvar or Zigetvar, the Sanjak-bey of Petsch or Fünfkirchen, and the new governor of Copan who had been placed in the stead of the captive—having collected five thousand of their men, burst into our borders toward Nempthi; and after overwhelming seventeen villages in total in one sudden incursion, including the small towns (Germans call them *Markte*, the Greeks call them emporia) of Morac, both Dobronacs, Resnecc, and Tarnoc, and seizing the wretched inhabitants of both sexes, they pillaged and laid waste to everything. Having been informed of this matter,
388 MACHAN PRINCES IN A CONTINUOUS SERIES OF SUCCESSION, with the genealogy of the Osmanlis, who derive their origin from them.
LECRAC, CYTLYDZEC, CARA CBAN, OGVZ, GJOZELP (or KVAELP), VERSAIOB, TOCTEMVR, CIAC AGA, RAKI AGA, BAISYNGER, OICVLVC, BAINDER, CVSVL BUGA, CABI ELP, SOLEIMAN SCACH.
A A A A 1. ERTVCVL; 2. SVNGVRSENGI; 3. GYNDOGDI. Oyndis, who is also Gundus Elp. SARIGATI, who is also Aidogdi. AGDEMYR. I. Osman Gasi, reigned 29 years. Soleiman bassa, sangiac of Gerle and Bole, died two months before his father. II. Vrchan Gasi, 32 years. III. Sultan MVRAT CHAN Gasi, 52 years. IV. BAIASIT Gilderun Chan, 14 years. SAVS Zelebi, blinded by his father. JACVP Zelebi, strangled by order of his brother Bajasit. DAVT Zelebi, exile among the Hungarians.
V. EMIR SOLEIMAN, 7 years, exiled from the kingdom by his brother Musa. VI. MUSA, reigned 31 ½ years, killed by his brother Muchame. VII. Sultan MYCHEMET Chan, 8 years. VIII. Sultan MYRAT Chan II, 31 years. IX. Sultan MYCHEMET Chan II, 30 years.
(Notes: Orthobyles, of whom the Turkish Annals make no mention, but only the Greeks; Ziches, whom the Turks, just as the father, do not acknowledge—see our Notes with the index.)
ISA Zelebi, killed in battle by his brother. Casan Zelebi, besieged in a place, sent to Constantinople with his brother Soleiman. VRCHAN Zelebi, fled upon his father's death to Constantinople. N. daughter, who herself fled to Constantinople. DYSME MYSTAPHA, claimed to be Bajasit’s son Mustapha, who was killed in the Temirian battle. He fought against the empire along with Murate for three years. Finally captured, he was hanged by order of Murate from the walls of Hadrianopolis. MYSTAPHA Zelebi, later killed by his brother. N. Zelebi, born of the daughter of the beg of Isuendiar, named at baptism Calistus Osmanides.
X. Sultan BAJASIT Chan II, 33 years, taken away by poison from his son Selim. Zemi, who is Gemes in Italian pronunciation, driven out by his brother, dies in exile in Italy. N. daughter, who was made Christian, lived at Rhodes. But when it was captured, he remained steadfast in the Christian religion and was killed by Sultan Soleimane.
Mystapha, beg of Caramania, died before his father. SINAN scach, beg of Caramania, died before his father. ALEM scach, who is also Alama scach: before his father, sent to the Persian borders, dies. VRCHAN Zelebi. MYCHEMET Zelebi, strangled by order of sultan Selim. ALADIN Zelebi, strangled with his brother. MVRAT Zelebi, fled to Ismaile Sophia, whose daughter he took as a wife. ALADIN Zelebi, fled to the Sultan of Egypt, died in exile. N. Zelebi, N. Zelebi, N. Zelebi, killed by his brother.
MYCHEMET, prefect of Amasia, died before his father, to whom he was most dear, in the year of Christ 1544. CONCVT, first of Castamons, afterwards prefect of Magnesia, killed by poison by his father. MYCHEMET, prefect of Magnesia, killed by poison from his father, sent to Selime. N. Zelebi, N. Zelebi, N. Zelebi, killed by his brothers by order of Selimis.
XI. Sultan SELIM Chan, reigned 8 years, 8 months, 8 days. XII. Sultan SOLEIMAN Chan II, 47 years. N. and N., N. and N., children, led to Constantinople.
XIII. Sultan SELIM Chan II, 8 years. BAJASIT, defeated by his brother Selim, fled to the Persians, where he was strangled with four sons. OMER, MURAT, ZIANGIR, SELIM, MYCHEMET. MYSTAPHA, killed in the sight of his father by mutes. MYRAT Zelebi, killed by order of his grandfather after his father.
XIV. Sultan MYRAT Chan III, began to reign at the beginning of the year of Christ 1575. SELIM, long since dead. MYCHEMET, after his circumcision sent to Magnesia, there still living. MYCHEMET, Rustemis's wife (Rustem, husband of the hunchbacked Mah). Mustapha, brother killed, committed suicide. ALADIN, ZIANGIR, ABDALLA, SOLEIMAN. Sultan Murates ordered these five brothers of his to be strangled in his own presence at the very beginning of his reign.
A And we observe the same thing in civil matters: in titles, offices, provincial governorships, laws, and in the establishment of the entire empire.
Now, as regards the sons of Bajazit Gilderun—or Lælapes—there is a great variety among authors in listing them. The Turks make Soleiman the firstborn B *emir*, whom I for my part follow. And this Soleiman was called *emir* for the sake of greater authority. For those called *emires* were governors and propagators of the empire of Mahomet, as if they were superiors (William of Tyre translates them as satraps or major princes), whom the Greeks called *amires* or *amirades*, regarding whom 391 [mistakenly, either as *amires*, or *amerades*, or *admiratos*, or *admirales*, or *admiraldos*] were created by the Beauvaisian, the translator of Cedrenus, and others. Nor do the Turkish Sultans themselves shun this name today.
Laonicus, however, after his *Jesus the elder*—whom the Turks call simply *Isa* (which name Laonicus also imitated more closely in his sixth book, when he writes *Jessen*, son of Brenezis, whom he calls *Jesuin* elsewhere)—places a certain *Mulsuman* in his list. He also makes *Orthobulem* the firstborn, governor of Sebastia from his father, and slain there by the enemy after the city was captured. But the Turkish annals state expressly that Sebastia was given by his father to the *emir* Soleiman, the eldest son, who, however, was not killed when Sebastia was captured by Temir. We shall bring forth more on these matters in due course, at notes 59 and 67.
...ascending, and Gunduselpus or Duzalpus was the father. Osmōn lived thirty-nine years after his father's death, according to the authority of the annals, but it is written that he reigned only twenty-nine: because he acquired and established the principality in the first ten years. The title of Sultan is not attributed to him by the author of the annals, but first to his grandson Murates, and then to his great-grandson Muchemet; about this Muchemet, Theodorus Spanduginus has also made a note. Truly, the surname *Gazi* is given to Osman, just as to the son of Urchan and the grandson of Murates, which signifies a stout and magnanimous soldier. Concerning Urchan (for so it must be spelled), one must note the harmony with his brother, Ali Bassa, since all others whose writings on Turkish affairs exist say that at the beginning of the principality, two brothers were removed from the scene by Urchan—a claim openly contradicted by these Turkish annals, which teach that the first regicide for the sake of the kingdom was committed by Bajazit Gilderune, with the killing of his brother Jacupe Zelebi.
The name *Zelebis*, which means "noble," I believe was usurped C by the Turks in imitation of the Romans and Greeks, whose people called the younger sons of emperors *nobilissimi*, and they called them *novellissimi*, with the word somewhat corrupted, as is evident from histories, inscriptions, ancient coinage, and registers. I am pleased to set forth here only a single inscription, for the sake of credibility, even though the matter is manifest: both because it is ancient in its own right, and now new—that is, recently discovered—and because it notably illustrates the antiquity of the noble Austrian city of Vienna, formerly called either *Vindobona* or *Vindoniane*, which we prefer. We owe this to the scholarly zeal of the magnificent knight, the Lord Hieronymus Beck a Leopoldstorf, Councilor of the Imperial Aulic Chamber, who, when he realized that a fragment of an old column—which in its entirety was a Roman milestone—had been found in a certain vineyard not far from the Saint Mark’s hospital, one mile from Vienna, he took pains to ensure that, having been moved to his own residence, it might be preserved for posterity. The words of this inscription are expressed in characters familiar to us. For we were not able to provide their ductus, such as they appear in the archetype, at this time.
IMP CÆS P LICINIO CORNEL VALERIANO NOB. LISS. CES. PRINCIPI IUV. NIVTIS VA. ET PONTES VETUSTA CONLAPSA RESTI A VIND. MP. 1 1.
It is understood, however, by the name *nobilissimi* and *juventutis princeps*, that it refers to the younger son of Gallienus Augustus. Thus, therefore, the Turks also called their *Zelebes*, although it is permitted to note in these annals that after Muchemet II, the sons of his successors were no longer called *Zelebes* but Sultans. Moreover, that the Turks are, as it were, a sort of ape of the Romans or Greeks, to whom they succeeded, we observe in D matters…
Regarding the third, they make *Cyriscebelim* the successor of his father Bajazit, whose name is found neither in the Turkish commentaries nor in Laonicus, and it seems entirely fictitious. They say he was captured by Temir but escaped from custody. Laonicus, however, wrote that it was *Mosem* who was captured in the Temirian battle, he who seemed more excellent in strength than the rest. Accordingly, Temir led him around and had him in his camp, giving him sustenance. Subsequently, Laonicus adds: Temir made haste for Cheria, carrying Bajazit and his son with him, regarding whom he took little thought. Accordingly, he escaped by flight into his native region. Finally, Laonicus repeats for the third time at the beginning of the fourth book that Mosem was released by King Temir and returned by sea to his native region.
There is a similar confusion in the mention of the younger sons of Bajazit. For Laonicus commemorates *Jesus the younger*, who is nowhere to be found in the Turkish annals, and places him last, looking (as I believe) to that Mustapha to whom the surname Dusmis is given by the Turks, and who pretended he was the son of Bajazit. And yet the Turks state explicitly that the youngest was Casan Zelebim, who at the time of the paternal calamity was still of tender age; and they recount subsequently that this youngest brother, Casan Zelebim, was sent by the *emir* Soleiman to Constantinople so that he might be there as a hostage. Laonicus also in some places makes *Josum the younger* the youngest and says he was baptized in Constantinople: concerning whom it is truthfully made to seem that the *Jesus the younger* of Laonicus is that same youngest...
of the Sari village. Besides these, Spanduginus says nothing of worth to be remembered concerning this Deli: except that the historians of the Turks hand down that he was put to death by poison at the order of Sultan Aladin, and that from that time nothing could be recorded of this family that is worth the effort, until at last the first of the Turkish sultans, Osman, began to establish authority in those regions. A This is the first account of the origin of the Osmanids by Spanduginus, the credibility of which I leave to the author. Next, he adds that Sultan Muchemet, who captured Constantinople, in no way ever wished to admit the accounts of those who would claim that the Osmanid family originated from the shepherd Tartars: since he himself traced its origin to the Comnenus emperors of Constantinople. For he said that in those wars which were waged between Emperor Comnenus and Sultan Aladin, a certain man of great nobility and virtue came from the West to Comnenus, in order to bring him aid in the fighting. And that in a certain battle he fought most bravely against the enemy, and, being pierced by the enemy, lost his horse. Then, that Emperor Comnenus ordered his brother’s son, whose name was Isacius, to dismount his horse and give it to that brave man. By this very deed, Isacius, thinking he had been dealt a notable injury, in desperation betook himself to Sultan Aladin, and having rejected and deserted the Christian faith, embraced the Mahometan religion. Hence, that Aladin gave him his own daughter as a wife, and in the name of a dowry assigned him many estates along with villages: among which was also Otmanzica. And thus Sultan Muchemet maintained that Sultan Osman, who is the father and founder of the Osmanid line, was descended from this Isacius. Thus far have we thought it worth recording what has been handed down by Spanduginus, upon which we leave the entire judgment to the reader. Indeed, it is found among the Greek historians, and especially in Nicetas Choniates, that there is mention of a Comnenus apostate, who however bore not the name Isacius, but John. Indeed, while the Emperor John Comnenus, whom they called Calojoannes not for his beauty, but for his goodness, was lingering for a long time at the siege of Neocaesarea, John, the son of the sebastocrator Isacius, his brother, B being provoked by some such injury from his uncle the Emperor as Spanduginus described, fled villainously to the Iconian Sultan, and at the same time became a Muslim. Perhaps either Spanduginus or Muchemet referred to this for their history. And that the obscure birth of his ancestors should have displeased Muchemet, by far the most ambitious of all mortals, is not surprising: and therefore I would easily believe that he deliberately sought a certain commendation for his own people from a more illustrious origin. This, however, should by no means be skipped in silence: that the Turks, by the consensus of good authors, did not migrate from Tartary, but from Persia, having been driven by the Tartars, into Asia Minor. For this reason, my unpublished Praetor of Greece, who described the history of those approximately sixty years since Constantinople was captured by the Flemings and recovered by Michael Palaeologus, calls the Iconian sultans of the Muslims, the descendants of Aladin, Azatin and Jathatines the two, Persarchae, because they presided with authority over those peoples who had set out from Persia into those regions of Asia Minor. The same may be observed to be done by other Greek historians as well. But whether they migrated from the regions of the Tartars, and at what times, into Persia, it is not necessary to explain here, lest the commentary grow too long.
2. Aiem, Padischach, Sultan.
That the Oguzian family is said to have possessed authority among the Parthians by perpetual succession is read in the Turkish archetype in almost these words: *From stock to stock there were Padischachler in Aiem.* To understand which words, it should be known that by the Turks *Aiem Vilaget*, or *Aiem Memleket*, is called the region or kingdom of the Persians and Parthians: but *Padischachler* is in the plural number, from the singular *Padischach*, and means supreme princes or Scachs, concerning which word mention was made a little earlier. C For you would more rightly interpret *Padischach* as Pantocrator, as one holding universal empire, and king of kings, than if you explain the word *sultan* as it was done by Cedrinus. For he who is a sultan to the Turks, now that the Greeks also render this word into their own language, is called *Aphentis* or *Megas Aphentis*: corrupted somewhat, by reason of pronunciation, from the ancient word *αὐθέντης*, of which the meaning is well known. Laonicus in his ninth book attributes this title to Muchemet the second. And plainly, even for us the prince of the Turks is called, in daily speech, never otherwise than *il grand Signor*; which is indeed done in imitation of the Turks and the Greeks. Not to mention that the Armenian Aithon also hands down that *sultan* signifies the lord of the Hagarenes. But that the *Parthi* and *Perae* are read as *Arzamii* in Chalcocondyles, I consider to have come from a faulty script. For *Azamii* or *Azemii* would be written more correctly, which is the same as *Aiemiis* because of the affinity of the letters I, G, and Z, placed before the letter E, even among the Italians and the French. For Genfraeus, who wishes *Azamia* to be named from *Assambegus* (by which name he calls elsewhere he whom the Turks have called *Usum Chasan*, just as from *Caramanbegus* [they call] *Caramania*), I for my part allow him to think so: since anyone may freely put forward his own opinion. For although one might raise an objection not without point concerning the dissimilarity of the words *Aiem* and *Chasan*, yet more weight should be given to the fact that the same author is inconsistent with himself elsewhere, while he says that Syria was called *Azamia* from Aram, son of Shem, son of Noah, as if [to say] *Aramia*. D For the Syrians do not differ little from the Persians and Parthians: so that not undeservedly one might object to Genfraeus the old Greek proverb: *Separated are the borders of the Lydians and the Phrygians.*
3. Chan, Ulu Chan, Hunggiar, Huncher, Seriphe, Chalife, Chitaia, Chorasan, Belch, Machan, Taturi.
He who is *Zingis Chan* to the Turks is for the Belvacensis...
A Persians also the interior, which is called Chorasan. Chorasan is written as Charassan by Ortelius, and Belch is both a city and a region neighboring Chorasan; Balch is the same, tending toward Tartary; which our annals call Machan, by a name common to city and region. I do not know if it is the same as that which Ortelius calls Macran, situated toward the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. I write "Tatar," not "Tartar," both because they were so named from the Tatar river, the inhabitants of which are called Sumogli or Sumongli—that is, Mogli or Mongli, or "aquatic Tatars"—and also on the authority of our Saxons, and their neighbors, who call them Tatars, and of certain Greek books which I possess in manuscript, in which is that our *Prætor* of Greece, and Pulologus, who everywhere with express voice call them Tatars. In Laonicus, in Bajazite, it is erroneously read as *Lalapetamaca*. See the notes following in chapter 204. However, it pleased me to indicate these things for the reason that Ortelius brings forward various and mutually discordant opinions concerning Sebastia: some placing it not far from the Euphrates, others in Cilicia: whereas it is that city of Armenia that is called Sivas, in Turkish *Sivas scheher*, that is, the city of Sebastia.
Aladin’s origin is referred by the Turks to Selguc, who is called *Sulduch* by William of Tyre, perhaps erroneously through the fault of a scribe. Reineccius, a man most learned and most diligent in explaining historical genealogies, thinks him the same as the Tangrolipix (for *Tragolipix* is not written correctly) of the Greek histories: which is indeed not unlikely, since *Tangrolipix* appears to be a certain cognomen derived from *Tangri*, which signifies "God" to the Turks, with an added word which I, for my part, cannot guess. The son of his brother in my manuscript Cedrenus—in which are contained four unpublished fragments of that author, along with several lives of emperors hitherto desired—is called not *Cullumus*, but *Cutlumuses*: which signifies "fortunate and happy Moses." *Aladin* or *Aledin* signifies "divine." Reineccius thinks it is a common name for all the sultans of Turkey or Iconium, as a cognomen or title of dignity, which I for my part cannot prove, just as I cannot say whether all the Osmanids possessed the name of Aladin, whether by a certain cognomen or by title of dignity; for as the genealogy shows, there are many among the Osmanids B who have had the name. Similarly, another doubt remains regarding that which he adds, that a certain person from the Giazedin children is called Aladin, who is Chalcocondyla the Germian. We shall speak of the Germian beys in their proper place. In the same place we wrote *Sivasta*, which is commonly Sivas, as if *Sivast*, a city of Armenia (I mean the Lesser) according to the constitution of Leo Augustus concerning the order of thrones, which are subject to the Constantinopolitan patriarch, which we possess in manuscript. In this, it is called Sebastia, and Camachus is set down as neighboring it, which the same Leo makes an archbishopric or metropolis of Armenia. It is called Kemach today, even in the Turkish annals. 400 Add the testimony of an old epigram, placed three hundred years ago before King Ottokar of Bohemia, who, having been killed by Emperor Rudolph, had among his auxiliaries the Cuman Tatars this epitaph, composed in Leonine verses according to the custom of their times, discovered in the book of the Austrian Annals, a manuscript which the magnificent lord Hieronymus Beck a Leopoldsdorf granted me to use out of his kindness: *O rex Ollocare quondam pugnasti honeste.* *Nunc stas in pannis depictus cum Tateranis.* Accept *Bagadatim* as the city of modern Babylon, built by the sultan caliphs because of the ruins of ancient Babylon. According to Zonaras, *Bagdas* is said to be of the masculine gender. Laonicus calls it *Pogdatim*, and *Pogdatinam* or *Pagdatinam Babylonem*—in whom note that this last is written corruptly in Latin editions as *Padagtinam Babylonem*. Petrarch in his Italian poems calls it *Baldaccum*.
6. *Erzinga, Romania Asia, Amasia, Chalep in Syria.* Ertzinga, of which mention is made here and which is also written *Erzincan*, is a city of Armenia, whose name is read diversely in the published Laonicus, and is referred to the neighboring Armenian Cappadocia, now as *Artzinga*, now as the city of *Artzinganis*. Hayton calls it *Arzinga*. It is found in Laonicus as *Ertzica*, just as in Leo Augustus it is placed in the same Armenia as *Artzice*, under the metropolis [of] Keltzina. You will understand "Romania," however, not as European Greece in this particular place, but as the provinces of the Romans (for so the Greeks wished to be called) C in Asia, which even more recent Greek historians have included under the name of Romania. Amasia retains its name to this day, a city of Cappadocia, although in the constitution of the Emperor Leo, which we mentioned, it is referred to the province of Helenopontus, about which most things are constituted in the Novels of Justinian Augustus, as its metropolis, under which, besides other bishoprics, Sinope is also listed. Chalep, a city of Syria most well-known even now, and a most celebrated emporium of the Orient, is incorrectly made *Epiphania* by the interpreter of Chalcocondylis along with Geuffroy, *Hierapolis* by Belon, and *Antiochia Magna* in Commagene by Seidlitz, most ineptly: whereas Zonaras, Cedrenus, and Nicetas expressly state that Chalep was formerly called Berrhœa. It is commonly called Halepo now. Ridiculous is the notion of Geuffroy, who wants it called *Aleph*, and derives it from the first letter of the Hebrews, because it is the first city of Syria, whereas even today Damascus far surpasses it.
7. *Mapalia of the Turks and Tatars.* What is said about the *mapalia* of the Ertuculs can be conveniently understood from these words of Marco Polo the Venetian, describing the dwellings of the Tatars, or rather their *mapalia*, which are very similar to these ancient Turkish ones:
[...] CN. P. Lentulus... [they] would have been, when they said... one hundred thousand men... [five lines are missing.]
SERIES OF THE FIRST WALL
The Curia and that which contains it, and the Chalcidicum, and the temple of Apollo on the Palatine with its porticoes, the temple of the Divine Julius, the Lupercal, the portico at the Flaminian Circus, which I allowed to be named for the name of him who had built the former one on the same site, the Pulvinar of Octavian at the Great Circus, the temples on the Capitol—of Jupiter Feretrius and Jupiter Tonans—the temple of Quirinus, the temples of Mundus and Juno—and of Jupiter Libertas—on the Aventine, the temple of the Lares at the top of the Sacred Way, the temple of the Deum Penatium on the Velia, the temple of Juventas, the temple of the Mater Magna on the Palatine, I built. The Sertorium and the Pompeian Theater, both—a work of great expense—I restored and repaired without any inscription of my name. I repaired the water channels in many places, which were falling into ruin through age, and I doubled the water which is called the Marcia by letting in a new spring into its channel. I completed the Julian Forum and the Basilica, which was between the temple of Castor and the temple of Saturn, works begun and brought near completion by my father, and I brought them to completion, having enlarged the site, under the title of the name of my sons... I did not complete, [but] I completed from their heirs—. A ...the Virgin. I built as an example of the gods in the city. The river having been omitted because... of the Avenger, the temple... also the Augustum and the temple of Apollo on the ground... a great part... having been bought, I built... which in his own name M. Marcellus... hands in the Capitol and in the temple of the Divine Julius and in the temple of Apollo and in the temple of Vesta and in the temple of Mars the Avenger, I consecrated, which cost me about thirty-five thousand pounds of crown gold, the municipalities and colonies of Italy contributing, and my triumphs, I sent back as consul for the fifth time, and afterwards, as often as I was acclaimed Imperator, I did not accept crown gold from the municipalities, which... before the time of the deceased African [triumphs?] I had decreed, in my own name or in the name of my sons or grandsons, in the Circus or in the Forum or in the amphitheaters... of the people... by which were dealt with... about three thousand five hundred beasts. A naval spectacle for the people in a place in which now the grove of the Caesars is, having been excavated—one thousand feet in length and eight hundred feet in width, two hundred—in which thirty beaked ships, triremes and many more... conflicted among themselves—besides the rows of rowers, about...In the temples of all the cities of Pontus and Asia, as victor, I replaced the ornaments which, having been plundered from the temples, those who possessed them privately had... Statues—forty silver ones—stood in the city, and about [others] which I myself removed, from which money golden gifts in the temple of Apollo, in my own name and that of my sons, who granted me the honor, I placed.
SECOND SERIES
I pacified the sea from pirates... their own... B of the master... against the state... [the rest is missing.]THIRD SERIES
...of the king of the Parthians... after a few lines. ...by me the nations of the Parthians and Medes... C D ...in the consulship—again after a few other lines... [the rest is entirely destroyed.]A in the Persian language, as they themselves also call it, just as we are accustomed to call the fourth feriam, which is the day of Mercury.
5. Peselhembe, that is, the fifth day, also in the Persian language: just as we call the fifth feriam, which is the day of Jupiter.
6. Dsinma, in two syllables (others write Zuma, and Zuna) or Dsiuma juni, which signifies the day of the church or temple. For on the day of Venus they observe a holiday.
7. Dsiuma Ertesi, that is, the next day, from the Greek word Pindaricus, as if you were saying, after the festival, or *Afterfeiertag* in German. Commonly it is the day of Saturn.
12. The dream of Ertoghrul, Conia, the star of the Turks.
That the Turks are very superstitious in observing dreams, the reader could have perceived from the account in our Supplement, concerning the origins of this ten-year Persian war. This dream, however, of Ertoghrul, the son of Osman, which was compared to a huge tree, with other subsequent signs, is similar to what Astyages, king of the Medes, had regarding Cyrus, his grandson from his daughter, as set forth by Herodotus and others. Conia is in truth for the Turks a city of Caramania or Cilicia, which the Greeks used to call Iconium. The Novels of the Emperor Leo the Wise place this more accurately in Lycaonia. Chalcocondyles makes Laranda and Toconeium cities of Caria, where it should be noted that he has confused the article with the name Toconeium, for Toiconion: just as elsewhere the same translator writes Tosibinium, a city of Ardelia or Transylvania, which with the article detached from the name is Sibinium, or Cibinium, as they write it today. Conia is called Cogna by more recent geographers, with an Italian pronunciation. But that Edebali's daughter was signified by the splendor of the moon, in that there was a certain most fortunate omen, according to the opinion of the Saracens and Turks: who [believed that] the moon, as if propitious and auspicious by some fatal law to their empire, had a wonderful amount of power B in portending and assisting the successes of their endeavors, as even now today they have always so believed. For they are mistaken (and among these is Francis Sansovino the Venetian) who write that the Turks, after the kingdom of Bosnia was first subjugated, while Sultan Mehmed II was reigning, placed the crescent moon on their military standards. For if this were true, they would not have accepted only the moon, excluding the stars which are seen joined with the Moon in the signs of his kingdom. It is also established from the history of Bellovacensis that the Saracens, before this Turkish empire was established, had the same belief concerning the moon, [thinking it] favorable to the efforts and military expeditions of the Mahometans. In the year 1218, he says, immediately after the arrival of the Christians at Damietta, there was an almost general eclipse of the moon: which we have interpreted against the Saracens, as if portending their defeat, whose sibyls attribute to the moon, placing great power for themselves in the waxing and waning of the moon.
13. Concerning the Turkish leaders whose names the regions bear.
These Annals do not express here either the names of the leaders or of the provinces: which we have collected both from Laonicus, and C from other places in the Annals. Laonicus makes the leaders, seven in number, who divided among themselves the region subjugated by arms. He does not recount them all in one place only. He says that the inland parts of Greater Phrygia, with Cilicia, fell to Caraman; from whose name it was then called Caramania, lasting under this appellation to the present day. Sarchani's lot gave him the maritime region of Ionia, up to Smyrna. Whence it derived the name Sarchania, as these Annals attest, and Laonicus, and the secretary of Sigismund Malatesta, who described the events that occurred in Asia and Greece in his presence, some 80 years ago more or less. By Ortelius it is called Sarcum. To Calami, and the son of Carasi, fell Lydia, as far as Mysia: which region was called Carasia. This name is found in these Annals, and in the aforementioned secretary of Malatesta, who places Pergamum in Carasia. By Ortelius this part of Anatolia is named Bithynia-Sangil [Bersangil]. Osman, son of Ertoghrul, obtained Bithynia, along with the regions looking toward Olympus, and with the Tekis. From this it was called Osmania, or Othmania, as others have written hitherto: of which mention is first made in the Annals under Bayezid. And I do not know whether in the geographical Synonymia of Ortelius, where he deals with Asia Minor, Cottomanidia might be more correctly [the name for] this very [territory], or Othmania, or Othmanidia, whose limits, however, seem to be extended there more widely than they ought to be. Laonicus reports that the sons of Amur received Paphlagonia, with those things which lean toward the Euxine. That would be Penderatia, of which mention was made earlier in the genealogy of the Osmanids, or rather Penderachia. This Amur is called Amurius by Pachymeres, with whom Reineccius somewhere, following Gregoras, seems to confuse Alisurius the Caramanian: he is called Omer in the Turkish Annals, whose sons they call Isvendiar-begs, and also lords of Sinope; by Laonicus they are called Sphenderes or Spenderes, whence the name Penderachia, as if Sphenderachia. This same region of Penderachia or Sphenderachia is called Bolli on Ortelius's map of Anatolia, [which was] the ancient Paphlagonia. And I believe the name Bolli was given to the province from the city of Bolli, which is Boli in the Turkish Annals, just as they also make mention of the Bolensian fields. There is also in Asia Minor the region of Mendesia, whose prince Laonicus calls Mendesius and Mendesius [Mendesem], the grandson of Calamis: which name Mendesia I consider not Turkish in origin, but Greek, and [given to] that province which was so named from the city of Mendos, D mention of which is made in the constitution of Leo Augustus concerning the order of sees, as a bishopric pertaining to the metropolis of Stauropolis in Caria. It seems also that this same Mendus is that which is called Myndus by others, and is also referred to Caria. The region of Mendesia is written as Menteso by Ortelius, just as also in our Annals. Finally, the name of the leader Edinis is read in the edition of Laonicus, who possessed the region extending from Colophon to Caicus. This is Aidin-beg for the Turks, whence the name of the leader Aidin should be restored in Chalcocondyles, and in place of Aidinelli in Ortelius, Aidinelli should be restored. There are others also
743 SUPPLEMENT TO THE TURKISH ANNALS 7:4 A if, as well in the battle itself as afterwards, and in the marshes and woods, they were destroyed, many more, even to about two thousand. Four hundred of the slain were reported to the Canisans, according to the military custom of those borders, along with six hundred living prisoners. Furthermore, our men took possession of fifteen hundred or more Turkish horses. There were fifteen hundred of our infantry, and five hundred cavalry, of whom only eleven were missing; some, but few, however, were wounded. The booty together with the Christian captives was recovered. Our men did not cease, with the help also of the farmers, for some days to surround those who had fled in flight with a certain dragnet, just as is accustomed in the hunting of wild beasts: a not inconsiderable number of whom was discovered by the zeal of those searching, or came of their own accord into power, because, seeing every hope of escape cut off from them, they abandoned hiding-places that would be of no profit. And thus far, at this time, we have wished to continue the Turkish Annals, with the addition of an exposition of affairs handled over nearly 37 years. Concerning this labor of ours, whatever it may be like, we do not at all fear the judgment of the humane, candid, and intelligent reader. The others, blind either with the disease of wickedness and malice or of ignorance, we esteem all as one Nangurus. A Many of the garrisons of the Canisan fortress were seriously wounded, and expired afterwards. George, Count Zerinus, son of the late Count Nicholas who died bravely at Szigetvár, assembles with the greatest speed he can a band of soldiers from the nearest castles, with his own subjects from the island of Muraköz, which is situated between the Mura and Drava rivers. Furthermore, he notifies his neighboring nobles, the most vigilant guardians of the Cis-Danubian border—Count Francis Nadasdy, Baron Balthasar Batthyány of Güssing, and also the commander of Koprivnica, John Globitz, and John Frederick Trautmannsdorf, commander of the cavalry—through his own men and through the signals of discharged cannons of the enemy's incursion, and urges them to unite their forces with him without delay. They, having quickly aroused their own, hasten to the designated place in time. Then, having taken pains to anticipate the return of the Turks, they set out to attack them in a place most suitable for this, among certain narrow passages of the marshes which they were obliged to cross. This plan succeeded fortunately for our men. Having returned with the booty and a great number of Christian captives of every age and sex, they manfully attack the Barbarians above Lake Catzerolacus, a mile from Canisa, while the darkness had not yet entirely dispersed, at the first dawn of day; they join battle, strike courageously, wound with every kind of weapon, press upon those who are giving way, and slaughter those who resist: they drive them finally to such a pitch of trepidation and desperation that they would voluntarily offer and present their scimitars to our men; and likewise, having laid aside other weapons, some would beg for their lives and safety with lamentable voice and gesture, others would flee in whatever way they could into the woods and thickets, and submerge themselves in the marshes: where, when they were dying, because exhausted by their strength they could not proceed further, they begged for the help of the enemy, many were seized and saved by our men, moved by the compassion of their great calamity. In this conflict, Machmates, the Sanjak-bey of Pécs, son of Ali Pasha (who, as was said above, was killed in the naval battle at the Curzolari islands, and had been brought captive to Rome after the death of his father), came into the power of our men. Sinan, the Bey of Mohács, hoping to cross a marshy place, had his horse spurred on, and while he was stuck fast in the mire, he was struck by a musket shot through the middle of his forehead and fell. The Pasha of Sasuara, on account of which name of more illustrious dignity the Szigetvarian wishes to be called, together with the Bey of Kopan, Chasane, withdrew himself in flight from the battle against our most valiant and truly victorious men, when he saw his affairs now desperate. The one of Kopan, wandering in a thicket the first night after the battle, was captured with others. The Szigetvarian finally, on the seventh day, escaped on foot to Brezovic, consumed by hunger and mental anguish. About 1300 were captured from the enemy, of whose number C We have certainly striven for the truth, without which history, like its soul, must soon vanish into smoke. I have suitable witnesses and trustworthy authors: both the magnificent and most ample man, Bartholomew Pezzelius, Councillor of the Imperial Majesty, recently sent to the Ottoman Porte with the duty of an ordinary envoy; and also noble and outstanding men, Paul Rosa, a Hungarian, who died not long ago at Constantinople, Nicholas Launold of Wrocław, and Jerome Arconatus Leontorinus: who, when I myself was wandering there, were serving in the inner secret archives at Constantinople. I frankly confess that through their daily and completely sincere acquaintance, such as is the candor of these best of men, I perceived much concerning Turkish affairs. And Matthias Pharensis, Dragoman or interpreter of our Emperor Rudolf to the Ottoman Porte, must not be passed over in silence; from whose narration we have fully learned most of what has been managed regarding the Persian nation in the war over this decade. D 387 But if it shall have seemed good to God to prolong this life for us longer, we shall one day give an absolute history of Constantinople, in which the affairs handled from the very founding of the city, both by the Roman, Greek, and Latin emperors, and by the Sultans of the Muslims, shall be read joined in a perpetual series.
A enjoy food free of charge for three whole days. Afterward, the hospitality must be changed. Indeed, the Turkish nobility strive with the greatest expenditure to construct these seven things: Messitas (mosques), Imarets (hospices), which the Greeks call Maratia, caravanserais, and public baths; to which they also join most beautiful fountains, for the daily needs of men and cattle, besides the others; and in the mosques, for the making of purifications or certain ablutions before they enter their temples or mosques. To these add bridges for rivers, and public roads, paved with stones: which indeed are all just as spectacular among the Turks, and as outstanding, as those things among the English, comprehended in the old verse: *Mind, and fountain, and bridge: church, woman, wool.* And it will be possible to encompass nearly the same in a Turkish couplet: *Messita, maratium: caravansaraia, lavacra. Fontes, et pontes fluviorum, strata viarum.*
I add this also in passing: in Constantinople, where there are more or less four hundred mosques, there are so many Maratia attached to them that if someone were to live in one for three days, and then proceed in order to the others, in the space of a whole year he could neither visit them all nor take advantage of them all. There follows also, a little after this passage explained in the annals, the use of the Imarets, when they narrate that Urchan himself distributed food in the Imaret constructed by him.
The region of Candria is situated at the Euxine Sea, between Bithynia and Pontus, by this name of a province; where the town of Candria is found in Ortelius's Anatolia, situated in the very place where old Dedacana is placed by Nicolaus Sophianus. Different from this town is Cangri, towards Amasia or Cappadocia, which was formerly called Gangra, whence the region is also called Chiangare by the Turks.
Zercola is a head covering made of felt, having a wide golden border, where it is placed on the head: its name is taken from the handle of a garment, just as the Turks themselves say. The head is inserted into the upper part of the zercola, which is a span and a half high; the lower part, from the crown of the head down past the neck to the back, hangs down for three spans, no differently than the garment of French women, which is called *chaperon* by them. From the middle of the forehead there rises an oblong affair, as if it were a pipe or sheath made of brass, partly gilded, partly covered on the outside with silver, into which they insert gems, though not of great value. This zercola of the Janissaries is of a white color, while others are of a red one, of which it must be spoken in another place. The pipe or little tube serves for receiving a cone made of birds' feathers, either in the time of war, or when they attend the Sultan with his retinue.
22. B Muslims, to Muslimize, to *magarissare*, Turks. Laonicus corrected. The Muslims want themselves to be called Mahumetans, as if "right believers"; just as in the Arian times, other Christians, as many as abhorred their frenzies, claimed the name of "orthodox." And although the name of Muslim is very honorable among the Mahumetans, as they call themselves Sultans, just as one may frequently see with our praetor: nevertheless, among the Greeks, because of the similarity, just as among Christians, it was an execrable name, who used the term "to Muslimize" for the most grievous of all outrages among Christians, the betrayal of religion; declaring also the force of which, they used another word, *magarissare*, which signifies to defile the face with dung. Cedrinus and other writers of history, together with those who have treated the canon law of the Eastern Church, use both. The Osmanli, however, affect this appellation, and do not wish to be called Turks.
Regarding which word I cannot help but set forth the opinion of Philippe de Mornay, from his book written in French, on the truth of the Christian religion against pagans, Jews, Mahumetans, and others, to which nothing similar in this class of subject has appeared hitherto. For by the same work we shall also understand something concerning the origin of the Turks, not to be rashly rejected. Mornay says, therefore, that the Israelites were transported, even by the testimony of Herodotus, beyond Media, to regions inhabited at that time, and that from them partly the Colchians drew their origin, who in Herodotus's time were circumcised; and partly the Tartars, who around the year of Christ 1200, under the leadership of Genghis Khan, overwhelmed the whole world like a certain flood, and then established the empire of that Khan of the Cathayans. C They were, he says, circumcised even before they had heard the name of Mahumet: and for this reason they were more inclined to embrace the law of Mahumet, because it partially agreed with their own religion. The word *Tatari* or *Totari* itself, in the Syriac tongue, signifies "remnants" or "residue," he says. Among the hordes of Tartary, towards its more northern part, some have retained the names of Dan, Zabulon, and Naphtali. Whence it is not to be wondered at that there is such a quantity of Hebrews in the regions of Russia, Sarmatia, and Lithuania. He also thinks that the more Hebrews are found there, the closer one approaches to the Tartars.
Truly, that I may add in passing some little contribution of my own to these matters: in my youth, in Livonia, before the college of the Teutonic knights was dispersed, having been sent by my father Cunrad to my uncle Albert, I remember observing other things besides these; then also towards Lithuania, in the vicinity of the metropolis of Riga (which in the printed Laonicus is written erroneously with the letters transposed as *Uera* for *Ryca*: just as in the same place for *Euphlste* one must substitute *Eiflante*. For thus the other Germans call Livonia, our Saxons *Liflandia*. The French translator thinks D *Ucram* is Novgorod, through a childish error, when the author says the city enjoys its own laws and liberty, is ruled by notables, and is situated on the sea; and that Danes, English, and French sail there for the sake of trade; which cannot be understood of Novgorod)—in the vicinity of this Riga, therefore, there is a certain barbarous nation of Letts, which, from the other barbarous inhabitants of Livonia, the Curonians and Estonians, is clearly discrepant in language, who perpetually have in their mouths a kind of lamentation, as it were, which they…
sing in their native tongue as if mourning for the Hellespont, were they to occupy that very fortress. A A guard: not Callipolis, or wine jars, but Pannonia, or Cyprus—we lose entire kingdoms. But restrain me. For my grief forbids many things, and the fear of an evil omen.
25. On the threshing of the Greeks and Asians, Bolair, Asprolimiona.
Of the threshing floors in which, at harvest time, crops are gathered both in Greece and in Asia; and the method of that threshing, and the customs of those regions. For the inhabitants, once the crops have been harvested, do not carry them home from the fields as is our custom, with the grain not yet beaten out, to be stored in barns; but they carry it to a threshing floor in the open. Then, when the sheaves of grain have been scattered across the floor, they send in oxen and buffaloes, which, with their feet, trample and beat out the grains from the ears with no trouble. And this is accustomed to happen under the open sky, outside villages and cities. But this habit of threshing was always with the Orientals, and indeed has been from the most ancient times, just as it is found forbidden in the sacred books: *You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain* (Deut. XXV, 4). According to these things, I mention the expedition of the Turks: by sailing first along the coast of the Chersonese toward the Aegean, and having passed the promontory of Europe, B to the bay called Magarisium (so called from the foul storms and rains which are accustomed to arise in those regions when the north winds blow, since it brings serenity of air when one enters it), where the other side of the Chersonese stretches into the sea: then with horses being sent by land, which, when they have traversed the plain of Edebe [or: the plain of the Chersonese] toward the river Maritza, and have joined themselves to the fleet at the Port, which is called by the Turks in these words, the plain of Bolair, and by our Praetor of Greece it is called Bolerum, which is understood to be the Chersonese itself, with Adrianople left far to the right, along with the town called Enos, and the river Maritza, formerly called the Hebrus, and from there one goes further toward Thessaly. For the Chersonese, or Zemenico, reaching out into the sea, with the fields of the Chersonese and the Maritza river, and that bay of the sea into which the Maritza flows, which Laonicus, on account of the place from which it is poured forth, calls by that name—the straight route is not long. For C the Thracian Chersonese stretches out like a tongue into the Aegean Sea, and with the narrow span of the mainland, it is separated from the Hellespont by only six Greek miles. Hence, a part of the Chersonese is called the Hexamylium [Six-Mile] Chersonese, and it is only six miles from Callipolis: just as the other more famous Hexamylium of the Isthmus of Corinth extends for the width of a mile, and is likewise washed by the sea on both sides. A title which is here bestowed by some Turkish nobleman, the interpretation of which we have already given above. Let the reader observe just this: the plain of Bolairensis, or as the Praetor calls it, [is used] among the Turks afterward.
He founded a town there and sent Nicolaus Covertzen to it, that he might keep watch and stir up trouble for the Latins living within Tzurulum. It was not long after this, however, that the town was taken by the Romans in force. Mention is made of this in the Annals where the Maritza river is spoken of, which the Turks call Meriza. But a little later, the Praetor remarks concerning the Maritza: "Others were establishing their seats toward the lower parts, and that river, which in the common tongue, as has been said before, they call Maritzam." In reality, it is the Hebrus that flows to the Aegean Sea, and because it and others join together and form a larger body, the name is given by those who dwell nearby. But as to the fact that the Praetor records it as being received by the Hebrus or Maritza, there is no need for us to recount what does not serve to illustrate our own subjects. Yet there are two things I cannot pass over in silence: those [rivers] which discharge into the Hebrus at Adrianople. The name of one river is Harda—not formerly, but now celebrated—and the other is Tunsa, of which mention had to be made, which Chalcocondyles frequently calls Tænarum, just as in the life of Muhammad II, whom the royal seat of Adrianople calls B Tænarum, he writes that the Hebrus flows into it. And from those things alleged above, no. 24, it is clear that the Tænarum river is the same as the Tunsa, and it seems that sometimes the name Tænarum remains for the river, while the name Hebrus is abolished, as far as the city of Aenos, where it mingles with the Aegean Sea. Finally, no one calls the Hebrus "Valizam," nor "Mazeram," as Nicolaus Nicolaides and Olivarius supposed.
51. Ypsala, a town of Thrace. After the capture of Didymotichum, they report in the Annals that Chazim Elim Bey marched with his forces to Ypsala. Very similar to this name is Cypsala, which was commemorated by Antoninus in Thrace. Others write "Cypsella," as it is also read in the Novella of Leo Augustus concerning the administrative centers (De Thronis). It is located not far from the city of Aenos, which we shall speak of shortly. It is called by Sophion C Ypsala, and by Chapsilar Bellonio; I do not know whether, by the similarity of the name, he was deceived by "Chapse" or "Chaphise," as one who was traveling from Constantinople to Didymotichum, which will appear below at the end of the second [book] of Bajazet. It is also a short distance from Adrianople, toward Selymbria, and it is a small town to which, in a journey of no great length, the caravan of Mechemetis Bassæ, both very handsome and opulent, brings wealth. We stayed the night in that place. But just as Ypsala is different, so I cannot establish that it is the same as Capsa, with Castaldo.
52. Ygnos, or the mouth of the Maritza river. This city is called Aenos or Oenos, of which the latter is pronounced by posterity as Inos, whence the name Ygnos, which is read here in the Annals, by the mutability of pronunciation D as N for Gn, by Greeks and Turks and Italians, and by the
Panis, whom they write of, familiar [to the others]. It is referred to by the Emperor Leo in his Novella on Thrones as among the metropolises or archbishoprics of Thrace. Virgilius and others say that it was founded after the ruin of Troy, and thus they tell that it was named after him. Because the river Meriza or Hebrus empties itself into the sea there, mentioned a little before in our text. The princes sometimes had Genoese of the Catelusii family, just as Lesbos island (of which we shall speak below in cap. 158), who, when invited by the citizens in the time of the discord of the Greek emperors, undertook the defense of the city, as Laonicus reads. Castaldus Enio wrote, as he thinks, by a syllable of pronunciation. Antonius Ronfinius in his Hungarian histories corrupted it to Eniam, when in the year 1409 Nicolaus Canalem, the Venetian prefect, surrendered the fleet to the Thracian city of Eniam.
55. Zagora, Debeltus, Philibe. Zagora of Thrace was previously called Debeltus, as is in Cedrinus and Zonaras. Of Debeltus, the emperor Leo the Wise wrote in his Novella on Thrones that it was subjected to the metropolis of Adrianople of the Haemus mountain. In the history of Simeon Magister it is read that the Emperor Justinian the Slit-nosed, by the work of Terbelis the prince of the Bulgarians, and when he had given him gifts, then [he] conceded the region that had been lost from the Roman empire—which was later Zagora—to his possession. Debeltus, which the Greeks still call [it], or Zagora, which name the Bulgarians gave it, is sixty miles from Adrianople. But Philibe is Philippopolis of Thrace, near Debeltus or Zagora: those who commonly think that this city was founded by Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander, are mistaken. For the work of Caesar Philip is, as other cities in Thrace also testify by their names, as Trajanopolis of Rhodope, as Adrianopolis of the Haemus mountain, as Arcadiopolis, and as Anastasiopolis. 414 Of Philippopolis we find explicit writing in a Greek history book, whose beginning and the name of the author have perished, but which contains many things worthy of knowledge: the Emperor Philip founded a city in Europe, which he called Philippopolis. In this city we all stayed for three days, while our companions were celebrating the fast of thirty days, from the fifth of October to the seventh. It is still an archbishopric, and at that time it was presided over by the one who was later made patriarch for those of us living in Constantinople, Theoliptus: he was deposed from the Greek synod by Pachomius, a secular man and clearly rude of letters, who had obtained the dignity by bribery and other evil arts.
54. The degrees of the laws learned among the Turks, and those who are called talismans. That [it] may be conveniently understood what a Talisman is: it should be known that there are certain degrees of the Mahumetans of their
sect, and certain Austrian Annals have called them Syrvians, the words of whom you will find in number 54 of the History of the Saxons, calling them Sorabs, which we read incorrectly among Laonicus as Sorabros. They are also called Rascii or Razii, which I think is derived from Ros, or the Russians, with whom they share a common origin and language. Bonfinius called them Ratianos, and better Roxianos, which is from that Ros of the Greeks, without a doubt. In the acts of the Council of Constance they are called Sirû, a name which is given to them today by their neighbors the Carniolians, Carinthians, Styrians, Croats, Dalmatians, and Hungarians. Therefore, that place which our Annals narrate to have taken its name from the slaughter of the Servians, is written in the archetype of the Annals as having been called Serf or Zerf Zunguni. For Gauderius, the Emperor’s interpreter, did not insert this in his version, content to have explained the force of the appellation itself. Cedrinus and others make mention of another B of this kind, who was called Bulgaroctonus [Bulgar-slayer] from the slaughter of the Bulgarians. In imitation of that word, it will be permissible to render this *Serf Zunguni* with a Turkish compound Greek word: Servoctonium [Servian-slayer].
38. *Gilderum*, the surname which was given to Bajazet, or *Gilderun*, has the meaning of a lightning bolt; just as regarding those ancient kings, the successors of Alexander, some had the surname Ceraunus or "of the lightning," for the same reason of swiftness and sudden impetus in the conduct of wars. The appellation *Laelapis*, which some attribute to him from Laonicus, is of a different meaning. For thus the Greeks call a whirlwind. And Bajazet, since he was of a more vehement temperament, was easily likened to a whirlwind, as the same Laonicus says. Concerning the surname *Zelebi*, which is attributed here to Jacup, it was said above that it came from the Roman custom, where they called the most noble younger sons of the Augusti by that name. Jacup (who is *Jagupes* in Laonicus, is *Jacobus* in our language, not *Josephus*, as Laonicus thought. For he is called *Iussuph* by the Turks, which is *Joseph* to us) some have rashly called *Soleimanem*: although greater faith should be placed, in this part at least, in the Turks and Greeks than in them.
39. *Germianum*, a territory of the *Germian* people. The Germian region of Asia Minor is the part that corresponds to ancient Caria, with a part of Lydia and Maronia, insofar as they stretch toward the interior and greater Phrygia. One can collect this even from the fact that Nisa is still placed in Germianum, which to the ancients is the city of inland Caria, toward the river Maeander. The Emperor Leo the Wise in his *Novella on the Thrones* calls Nyssa a city under the Ephesian metropolis. Furthermore, the river Madre flows through the Germian territory, just as the Maeander of old flowed through the indicated regions, which is exactly the same as the Madre. Regarding the name *Germiani* itself, whence it originated, I cannot say for certain: unless we wish to derive it from *Germe*, which is the name of a town and bishopric in the *Novella on the Thrones* of Leo the Wise, which is subject to the Cyzicene metropolis of the Hellespont in Asia. Our Praetor, who wrote his history 200 years or so before Chalcocondyles, appears in the places responding to Germianum D to place the Celbian or Celvian name: he narrates that Theodore Lascaris, having received the empire, occupied all of Celvianum, with the Maandrian region, with Philadelphia, and Neocastris. But these things are to be referred to the Christian year more or less 1206; at which time the Iconian sultans did not yet command Germianum or Celvianum, but that region was still under Greek law and was administered by a Greek duke. But when the Flemings possessed Constantinople, Theodore Lascaris, having gone into Asia Minor, was seeking back 416 the cities pertaining to the empire from the Greek dukes who had made themselves their masters in that perturbation of affairs, as was said above in number 15. And in this way he also brought Celvianum into his power, having ejected the leader Theodore, whom they called *Morotheodorus* [Fool-Theodore] for his stupidity. Yet later, with the strength of the Greeks gradually decreasing, it is agreeable that Celvianum was occupied by the Turks: since Laonicus calls the prince of its field the Turkish Germian. Reineccius hands down that Melec and the brother of Azadin, Aladin, seem to be the same as the Germian of Laonicus, who ruled at Iconium and, having been stripped of this dignity, fled into Ionia, and there lived a private and quiet life. I confess that this can indeed be gathered from the words of Laonicus, and that it does not seem unreasonable that he moved to Germen, and took his surname from the place of his private residence. But I do not see why Murates, the father of Bajazet, should have been so eager to arrange the marriage of his son to the daughter of a private man born of private parents, and to celebrate it with the most magnificent pomp, he who looked especially to the power of his relatives in choosing wives, as will appear hereafter from the marriage entered into with the illustrious Despina of Serbia, daughter of Bulcus. Nor in the same way can I know who these Germian princes were, who originated from the Iconians: since the Iconians, ejected by the Tartars, did not go into Ionia, but lived in exile at the city of Enus in Thrace. I would wish for this also to be explained: in what way could the Germian, from their posterity, be despoiled by Bajazet of that region which he, born himself a private man of private parents (as was said), did not possess? In what way could he also be restored by Temirlanc to that which he had not held in his power? For these things are read stated clearly in these Annals. There are other things too, more than these, which I could bring forward, and specifically teach that the two brothers Lathatin and Aladin, whom Reineccius makes the sons of Caichosroes in the Iconian genealogy, are to be expunged as being fictitious, and who never existed in the nature of things. But these pertain to another matter, and will be manifest to anyone when our Praetor is someday brought to light. What finally Reineccius says, that Chalcocondyles seems to place the Germian region in Thrace: it cannot be understood regarding this Germian, since it is situated in Anatolia, and it is established that the Turks had not yet fixed their foot in Europe under the empire of the Iconians. But if anyone desires to know what Laonicus means by this name, let him know, that in the work of Leo the August—
A princeps: from whom Karlovitzii Dyrrhachini, our posterity [derive]. However, a divergency in pronunciation is the cause why Geufræus and certain others have written Bulchovichios, Cratevichios, Cernovichios, and Karlovichios. Geufræus indeed called them not Bulcovichios, but Vicovichios, in Greek pronunciation, which is not Bulchos, but Vulcos; not Bucos, but Vucos they say. And let it be noted that I have read in the Laonicus "Bulcus," not Bulcus. Thus, in our journey, shortly after leaving Belgrade, when we had entered Serbia, we happened upon towns or rather villages (which even now are two: the former of which is called Bucovarum, the other Bucovarum). Their names are given to these places by the Buci, the despots of Serbia. For Bucowar signifies the city of the Buci. But that this region, which I possess, was once in the hands of Lazarus himself, who waged the first war with Murate, is made manifest from these words of B Laonicus: Crate, being dead, Unglese, [and] Pristinum and Nistram, said region, subduing Eleazarus, proceeded as far as the river Savum. To him, finally, he waged war, because he struggled against the Pannonians, and stirred them up against Murate. In which words what is called Pristinum is not far from Cosobo. 419 I myself mention this by the way, [adding] that, through a mistake of Reineccius, the place Gratis, Unglesis's brother, is not correctly spoken; and no less by others the appellation of the Cratevichiorum is corrupted, when the name is rightly written in Laonicus, since they call them Craiovichios.
47. Campus Cosova; the slaughter of Murate; the years of the Sultans reigned, brought back to numbers.
Whom Chalcocondyles in the description of this battle calls campus Cosobum, we name the plain of Cosovo, from the abundance of blackbirds. Bonfinis describes it in these words: A plain in the borders of Rascia and Bulgaria, broad, which the Rigo men call Ungari, the Rasciani call Cosovam, we call the camp of the Blackbird (Merula). This plain is intersected by a river, which flowing down from the Illyrian mountains, ends in the Istrum. Into this plain, therefore, Murate was led by fraud, his father killed by the enemy, through the wicked deceit of Jacupes, son of Ami, he was strangled by his friends. These annals clear Bajazitem of the guilt of fratricide, but attribute it to the Turkish nobles. Laonicus does not doubt that Murate was the author of the slaughter as to how he invaded the king, with no one forbidding him; and that afterwards, when Bajazites had his battle line already drawn up, in a short space of time he had killed his brother, and immediately returned to the battle. But the circumstances of the deed are described in the Annals, and no doubt remains: especially since it is narrated that the domestic of Lazarus Cabilovitzus did not strike Murate honorably with a spear, [he] who could have withstood the attack of a man, [but] was inhibited by the Janissaries and other guards at the doors; under the pretext of defection and flight, he imposed [the deed] on the Turks, with no one hindering, he approached, and thrust [the spear] into the vitals of Murate as if he were dressed in a garment that would be lethal. Whence, having departed from that time, the custom of the Turks, of leading ambassadors, and other foreigners, to their sultan through chambers, who hold their arms on either side, is of greater moment, which many report, that it was imposed by Murate: Laonicus states 57; while the Turks correctly [assign] 52 years of this reign to Mahumetanus. Also, what others note, that this happened in the plain in the year of Christ 1551, is entirely an error: or in 1573, which [people] are likewise deceived, [a thing] which it is lawful to collect by this argument. We demonstrate above, at the beginning of the declaration, [that] the beginning of the Ottoman reign is most rightly referred to the year of the Christians, 1300. C But Osman presided over affairs for 29 years. Orchan his son for 35, Murate for years in the same way: which, being reduced by the method indicated above to the year of the Christians 1390: at which time Bajazites was. Murate's son was only 14, as the Turks truly wrote. And because there is such a diversity in the notation of years, which they assign to the Turks before: this [is] the place, where those things which have been handed down to us by the Turks, placed in opposition, compare. But I shall follow the considerations of Francis Sansovinus, who diligently collated all the historians (whom he could indeed have) in his writings, as a sheaf into one.
D Year of the Sultans according to Christian writers. Year of the sultans, excerpted from the Turkish Annals. Year of the Turk reduced to the Christian [era].
Othoman, 28; Osman, 29; 28 Orchan, 22; Urchan, 32; 51 Amorat, 25; Murat, 32; 51 Bajazit, 26; Bajazit, 14; 15 1/2 Crisceleb, 6; Soleiman, 7; 7 Mose, 0; Musa, 3 1/2; 5 1/2 Mahomet, 17; Muchemet, 8; 7 1/2 Amorat II, 34; Murat II, 31; 30 Mahomet II, 31; Muchemet II, 29; 29 Bajazit II, 30; Bajazit II, 33; 33 Se lim, 7; Selim, 8, months 8; 8 1/2 Soliman, 48; Soleiman II, 48; 46 1/2 Selim II, 8; Selim II, 8; 7 5/6 Amorat III thus far, 12; Murat III thus far, 12 1/2; 12
Of these years, up to the present 1587 collectors; and in each series the sum was: 292; 296 1/2; 287 1/2
those whom the Turks call Constantine, not John, for the exact same reason as above, in number 46, regarding the despots of Serbia, who likewise are all called Lazar and Bulcos. Although this is also true, it seems the Greek emperors themselves affected the name of Constantine, not that of Caesar or Augustus, as the first of the emperors of Constantinople and the founder of the Eastern Empire. Thus Heraclius Augustus in the Novels, which we have edited A in some places, names his son Heraclius Neon or the "new" one, or the second Constantine. This is in a monastery in Constantinople, which the Greeks commonly call the Peribleptos, or of the most spectacular Mother of God, dedicated now for the sacred use of the Armenians, facing the western part; where Michael Palaeologus, Emperor, is seen painted with the Augusta Theodora, with Constantine placed between both parents, with a triple inscription. The first words are these, which I will offer in Latin, having provided the Greek elsewhere:
MICHAEL IN CHRISTO DEO FIDELIS REX ET IMPERATOR, DVCAS, ANGELVS, COMNENVS, ET NOVVS CONSTANTINVS.
That he more truly deserved that name of Constantine, certainly by having recovered Constantinople after the expulsion of the Flemings, than for other reasons. The city which the Turks call Nigeboli, which in ancient times was called Nicopolis by the victory of Trajan Augustus over the King of the Dacians, Decebalus. It is double, major and minor: which the middle king of rivers, the Danube, flows between. Today it is considered under Rumelia B or the beglerbey of Greece as the Nigebolis. By the name of the King of Hungary, Sigismund is understood, who later became emperor. In the year of Christ 1392 he besieged Nicopolis, as Bonfinius records. Geuffroy, and some others, fought in the year 1396, on the feast of St. Michael. But it is true, which is also transmitted by the Turks, when Nicopolis was being besieged by Sigismund, and the army of Bajazet had moved to relieve the siege of Constantinople: while he was striving to assist his own who were being besieged, the battle was joined in the following year 1395. And the annals say that this Christian Mahumetanus 794, from the time it was fought, replies. The night attack C mentioned by our historians, Froissard, Bonfinius, these attribute the blame for the battle fought so unhappily to the arrogance of the Gauls, as one can know from their own narratives, whoever wishes, whoever can.
52. Peace between Bajazet and the Greeks. Nowhere in our histories is it read that Bajazet made peace with the Greeks whose Constantinople was being besieged for six or eight or ten years: much less so, even as it is expressed in the annals, that there was a condition of receiving the Turks into the city, or that peace was made: but that the city was now about to perish, nor had the expected aid come, moved D against Bajazet with maximum forces by Temire Chane of the Tartars. But when the legate was with Laonicus, the son Andronicus was ungrateful toward his father, while he was wishing to rule in the place of Bajazet, having ejected his father Calojoannes, and using among other words the following to Mannele, the partner in the realm: "I have a judge or prefect in the city, the Turk: it would not be dissimilar, indeed, if Bajazet, impelling the Greeks to extreme desperation, finally at the end of their rule, admits Calojoannes and Mannele, agreeing to this, which Andronicus offered of his own accord to admit the Turks into the city." For why would he promise a Turkish judge to reside there, if there were no Turks to reside in the house, for whom that Cadi would speak as a judge in the controversies that arose?
53. Melatige, Silistra, Empoli. What the city Melatige is, is understood from these words of Laonicus: "Afterwards Bajazet, having captured the city of Melitene, situated on the Euphrates, accepted its surrender." Hence it appears that the Turks say Melatigen, which was once called Melitene. Note, however, in afterthought that it is recorded that Erzincan was captured by Bajazet before Melitene: although the contrary is written by the Turks. Moreover, Melitene is the second metropolis in the novella of the Frontiers of Armenia. In the geographical description of Anatolia one can find Malatia at the river Euphrates, which the Turks call by that same name Melatige, or Melatie, the Melitene of the Greeks, and Laonicus places this also on the Euphrates river. Silistra is the name today for the Turks, a seat of a city in Macedonia, where the Sandjak of Silistria is, subject to the beglerbey of 422 Rumelia or Greece. Empoli, I do not know if it is Amphipolis, near Serris, of which mention is made in chapter 43. Lembalo is found in Greece as Castali, situated versus Thessalonica, or perhaps the Turkish Emboli, with the Italian article: unless anyone might prefer the place named for Embolo, because of the similarity to our rostrum. But Amphipolis is rather thought to be meant.
54. The dignity of the Despots: Crales, Cralena. Who are the Bulcos Despots in the Genealogies of the Turks? In the empire of the Greeks, the first, following royal or imperial majesty, was the dignity of those who themselves were called despots: as can be seen in the catalog of the officials of the palace, and commonly among the Greeks in the histories. The neighboring princes, imitating the example of the Greeks, also called themselves despots, especially the Bulgarians and Serbians: although we see them in Greek history sometimes also called by the royal title, and the Crales are called despots, and their wives Cralena, for despina. The same we observe in our own records. For Thomas Ebendorfus in his manuscript Austrian annals says: "Elisabeth, he says, daughter of Frederick, King of the Romans, was betrothed to John of Bohemia."
A Mechmetem, and the remaining sons of Bajazit had come into the power of Temir. What could have happened more desirably for Temir, than to have in his power the sons, beyond the father himself, by whose slaughter he might have enjoyed the Osmanid kingdom in Asia perpetually, with no one resisting? But he was so far from doing this that Laonicus expressly admits, at the beginning of his fourth book, that Moses had provisions in the camp from King Temir, and was finally released from captivity and returned by sea to his native region. If he spared the lives of many, or rather all, why should it be believed that he raged against one? Add the testimony of the enemy. Nowhere have the Turks written in their annals that any son of Bajazit was killed by Temir, but rather that Temir had hoped to meet someone of Gilderunus's sons, which they, trembling with unnecessary fear, had omitted. Indeed, they criticize the ferocity and anger of Bajazit himself; they praise the humanity and modesty of Temir. There remains one thing that can be objected, concerning Ziches, the son of Orthobulis, whom Laonicus says waged war against John Comnenus, the Trapezuntian Emperor. But let someone answer me here: from where did that Ziches finally emerge upon the stage in the sixtieth year after the death of his father Orthobulis? And in what way did he escape safe from so many parricides and slaughters of these times in the family of the Osmanids, under Musa, Muchemet the First, Murate the Second, and Muchemet the Second, who were all parricides? Why did that cruel Muchemet the Second spare him for so long, who, scarcely after his father had died, immediately thirsted for fraternal blood? Or did that most suspicious of all tyrants entrust an army to him? Finally, it is clear from the Turkish annals that at that time the governor of the region of Trapezunt, appointed by Muchemet, was the eldest son, Mustapha, who only ten years after those wars with the Trapezuntians, encountered the Parthians who had poured into Armenia and Caramania, and having slaughtered them, took the leader, Jusufzem Beg, alive and sent him to his father: which is evident proof that Mustapha was then of manly age, and that no Osmanid named Ziche had any command or army in those regions. B Since these things are so, it remains that we establish four names in total: Orthobulis and Mulsumanis, which the Greeks handed down; Cyrsicelebis, which our writers record; Soleimanis, which the Turks record; and finally, that Soleiman, the true-born son of Bajazit, the eldest by birth, must be brought into one: if that Ziche was not his son, he is nowhere even by name known to the Turks; with the fictitious father Orthobulis, the supposed son is left to be defended by the Greeks. Learned readers have my arguments, which I give them the free power to either approve or refute. However, I have omitted neither of those two mentioned by Laonicus from the Osmanid family, lest anyone accuse me of excessive temerity: for besides these, not having yet heard the judgments of others, I would not hesitate to raise a controversy regarding the parentage of many more sons of Bajazit: Jesus the Younger, Ali, Dusmi Mustapha. D
733 PANDECTÆ HIST. TURCIC. 734
chosen A for the imperial dignity, because he considered him a rival, who, having had an emperor for a father, was not without reason formidable to himself and his own affairs: Rudolph of Saxony, of the lineage of the Anhaltines, descended from the posterity of Albert the Bear, wished to drive him out of the Brandenburg territory, so that by some means he might at length recover that principality for himself and his own, which he thought belonged to him by right of proximity and of agnation with the extinct princes of Brandenburg. For three whole years Murates could not possess the empire in peace, with Mustapha defending himself there, and throwing the Turkish affairs into confusion: during this three-year period, neither could the Bavarian use and enjoy the Brandenburg region, nor could Voldemarus be conquered. The end for Mustapha was sad there, and here it was more unfortunate for the plotter Voldemarus. There a noose delivered Mustapha to death, and here a funeral pyre consumed Voldemarus. We see in this way that the causes, plans, rationale of the persons, and outcomes of events were similar, with the times themselves also corresponding: and therefore, because two distinguished examples of a single century were so twinsome in all respects, and so illustrious, pleasant to read, and worthy of consideration, we have willingly wished to place them here before the eyes of students of history.Lest any man suspect that the Voldemarus of the plotter was not equal to Dusmi, in terms of power and the empire which he sought A—to say nothing of the shattered powers of the Osmanids after the calamity of Bajazit—at least let us see from the Latin words of other manuals written by hand, how powerful a prince that plotter sought to succeed. In the year 1310, they say, Voldemarus, Margrave of Brandenburg, upon the death of his nephews and uncles, obtained for himself alone the entire principality as it had been divided into many parts: and glorying in the strength and magnitude of his power, he proclaimed a famous and celebrated court for kings and princes placed far and wide: signifying that he would celebrate nuptials with the daughter of his uncle, and inviting everyone to the joy of this solemnity by sending messengers. He held it in the maritime city of Rostock, situated at a harbor of the sea, from whence one sails towards Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and other parts: into which also ships of diverse merchandise from diverse and remote regions put in. In this court was the King of Denmark, with two dukes, his brothers, and an immense multitude of the people of his land: dukes, counts, free barons innumerable from Saxony; margraves and magnates both from those and from foreign parts, the number of whom could scarcely be estimated. The Margrave is knighted by the hands of the King of Denmark with great splendor. One thousand seven hundred nobles are adorned, in this training exercise, with the belt of new knighthood by the margrave with the greatest pomp. There, an innumerable company of beautiful ladies from diverse parts, just as of knights, appeared. Tents erected through the fields, surrounded by scarlet, with coverings, benches, and beddings, seemed to glitter like gold. Wells full of wine, beer, and mead, for drinking; caves replenished with meats, fish, and grain; ships laden with aromatic spices, for satisfying bodily delights, were had. Which glory indeed was shortly after reduced to ashes, because of illicit nuptials and the pride of temporal glory. For Voldemarus the Margrave himself died without an heir, and that whole most ample principality devolved to the empire. Thus far the words of the Annals, for whose reading we are indebted to the Magnificent Lord Hieronymus Beck von Leopoldsdorf, as for many other things. But from these it clearly appears that this Voldemarian affair was of no less moment than that Mustaphaen one. Let us recount also other things which can come into comparison on either side. On the side of Mustapha there stood the Greek emperor there, on the side of Voldemarus stood the German emperor here: and indeed the more powerful, as much as the Greek empire at that time was weaker than the German. In addition to the emperor, princes were joined with Mustapha there, C and here too powerful princes favored Voldemarus. The Greek emperor and the Turkish princes wished to weaken the power of Murates, because they feared for themselves from Murates, and were striving equally to protect their own, and to recover what had previously been snatched from them by the Osmanids by force: likewise the Bavarian wished... D
Vardari, Vardari.
That which is read in theA chronicles, namely "Samobunogli,"—that is, the son of Samobuna—we shall discuss below in the place where the sedition against him is described at length. By the name of stipendiaries they understand the Azapi or Azepes. Laonicus calls them foreigners elsewhere, in the manner of the Greeks, by whom they are called Xeni—that is, strangers who serve for hire, or in other words, mercenaries, just as they also call them. Elsewhere he calls them Turkish infantry, whom they name Azapidas. And they serve entirely as infantry, although in the eighth book of his history, when he is speaking of the siege of Belgrade, he says that the Azapides (whom we call Hussarones) destroyed their fort. B The king shouted that they should remove their girls. Here the reader should first observe that the name Azapidem refers to the infantry of the Hungarians, according to the author—the troops of the king or the Sultan Muhammad—namely, the camp retainers who were plundering. Therefore, the words inserted there, "whom we call Hussarones," are a gloss by the ignorant, who take Azapidas to mean Hussarones, whereas Azapides are infantry and Hussarones are cavalry. Then, by saying "remove the girls," he means, according to the Greek of Laonicus, the pulling out or plucking of the pupils or eyes, which he expresses a little better in the margin with the words, "that he might gouge out the eyes of the enemy." Furthermore, the insignia-bearer of the Turks is the Emir Halem, of whom mention was made above at note 14. Indeed, this work is quite grand and fruitful, proximate in dignity to that of the Janissaries. But a full exposition of the officials of the Porte, both those within the Serai and those ordained outside it, would be out of place here.
73. The cruelty of Musa toward his brother; Lazarus, the Despot of Serbia, son of Lazar.
Concerning Vidina, as stated in note 49, and Butuvada and beyond, this is a more suitable place to discuss the year of our Lord 1444. Laonicus also commemorates the cruelty, wrath, and tyranny of Musa (or Moses) toward his own, partly in the words C that he could not control his anger, but was driven by a violent impulse toward whatever she dictated, and partly elsewhere, in similar words: "Every last man was indignant because of the violence and tyranny of Moses." Indeed, Laonicus explained the reason why he followed the Despot in war: because he had abandoned the Despot and, induced by the persuasions of the Greeks, had joined the ranks of the Muslims, which Moses took very ill. And the chronicles call this Despot Lazarus, though History calls him the one born of Stephen, the son of Lazar, father of George: of whom we treated above in note 54.
74. Geivise, Gebise; Libyssa, Lebusa; Astacus, Sinus Astacenus, Intzu.
Geivise is a town situated in Bithynia, which was formerly called Nicomedia or Astacenus...
and was considered as the place where the tomb of Hannibal was located, a city that was the metropolis of Bithynia, at the edge of the Astacenian Gulf. It is said that there is a tomb there that is attributed to Hannibal, which the Turks call Gebise. 75. Artaki, Artace. Artaki is a city in the Hellespont, which was once named Artace, as the inhabitants and the writers of history confirm. 76. Panormus, Bulimyr, Bandirma. Panormus is a port town in the Hellespont, which is today called by the Turks Bulimyr, or by a shifting of letters, Bandirma. 77. Miletopolis, Mihalits. Miletopolis was once a city in Bithynia, which is now called Mihalits by the inhabitants. 78. Apollonia, Abullion, Apolyont. Apollonia is a city situated on a lake of the same name, which the Turks commonly call Abullion, or Apolyont, after the ancient name. 79. Prusa, Bursa. Prusa is the capital of Bithynia, which the Turks call Bursa, and it was once the seat of the Ottoman sultans, until they transferred their capital to Adrianople and later to Constantinople. 80. Olympum, Keschisch Dag. Mount Olympus, which looms over the city of Prusa, is known to the Turks as Keschisch Dag, or the Mountain of the Monks. 81. Nicea, Isnik. Nicea is a famous city in Bithynia, which is called Isnik by the Turks, where the first and seventh ecumenical councils were held. 82. Nicomedia, Ismid. Nicomedia is a city of Bithynia, which the Turks call Ismid, formerly the residence of the kings of Bithynia and later of the Roman emperors. 83. Voldemarus, Marchese di Brandeburgo. Regarding Voldemarus, the Margrave of Brandenburg, who was a pretender to the imperial dignity of the West, it is said that he caused suspicion and A fear, as if he might be a rival to the Emperor of the West, for he could not be considered formidable by the Emperor or his own people; as he was a man from the house of the Counts of Anhalt and descended from Albert the Bear, he sought in some way to obtain a principality for himself and his kin, believing that it belonged to him by right of kinship and blood after the princes of the House of Brandenburg had died out. For three whole years, Mustapha could not possess the empire in peace, as he was defended by Mustapha and the Turkish turmoil: during this three-year period, the Bavarian prince was not able to enjoy the Brandenburg region, nor could Voldemarus be defeated. B The end of Mustapha was a sad one; a more unhappy one was that of Voldemarus. Mustapha was put to death by the noose, while Voldemarus was consumed by fire. In this way, we see that the causes, plans, reasoning of the persons, and the final outcomes of these matters were similar, and the circumstances of the times themselves also corresponded: wherefore, because it is worthwhile to record two such illustrious examples of one century, which are pleasant to read and worthy of consideration, we have gladly placed them here before the eyes of students of history.
84. Vardarium, the river Vardarius, Vardari, Verdari. What is read in the Annals of Vardarium: it is a city of Thessaly, and the Vardarius river, which the ancients knew, is located about seven miles from Thessalonica: for it is a hundred miles from the pits of Vardaria to Thessalonica, from which others are elsewhere. Leo the Wise, the Emperor, mentions this in the Novella regarding the episcopal throne of Vardariotum, which is subject to the metropolis of Thessalonica. C And the Turks also call these Vardariots by this name, having been transferred here from elsewhere to the Vardari river. But we write Vardarium, in the Greek manner: others prefer Bardarium, contrary to the pronunciation of the inhabitants, who use Vardari and Verdari.
85. Chusein bey, the Greek Zunaites. The Turkish Annals call him Chusein Bey, a prince, while Laonicus calls him Zunaites, a prince of Smyrna, who, when he was a captive of the Greeks held in the fortress of Epidaurus—now Monemvasia or Malvasia—and on the islands of Imbros and Lemnos, lived there while sultan Muhammad was alive, for which he was grateful in this matter. D But after Muhammad had died, Mustapha was freed along with him, and was opposed to Muhammad’s son, as is related in detail regarding the crisis of Greek affairs, as the same author commemorates at length. Incidentally, let it be added that he is called Zunaites by Sansovino, not Zunaites, due to the carelessness of the writer, I believe.
86. Vlabat, Lopaia, Lupadi, Rhyndacus, Michalizi. We indicated above in note 16 that the city of Asia Minor is called Vlabat by the Turks, and Lopadium, while now it is commonly called the name Lupadi. Meliensis Antonius, Podota our scholar, whose...
A proximity to Lazar the Younger is perceived by the reader from the pedigree of these despots which we provided above, at number 54 of the notes.
91. Ibrahim, Praimes and Mpraimes. The one whom the Turks call Ibrahim Bassa, father of Chelilis Bassa, is to Laonicus "Praimes," son of Ali: at which place the interpreter noted in the margin of the book that this is the same person as Chaiambeg, in which he is certainly mistaken. For this Chaiambeg of the interpreter is called in the sixth book of Laonicus "Carambes," son of Priamus, brother of Chelilis. Here note that Priamus is called by a corrupt name, instead of Praimis, whom the Greeks write "Mpraimem," because of the difficult pronunciation for them of our letter B, for which they place MP: as Mpajazites for Bajazites; Rompertus for Robertus; Mpiperius for Biberius, with the surname of Tiberius; Mpajulus for Bajulus; which last two are found in Cedrenus and Gregoras. Laonicus then in the eighth book also said Preimen, or more correctly Mpreimem. And the Greek Praimes, or Preimes, and the Turkish Ibrahim, are derived from the Hebrew Abraham.
435 92. Murates takes Thessalonica. These annals indeed do not indicate from whom Murates took Thessalonica; but the matter stands thus. In the Christian year 1423, the city of Thessalonica in Thessaly was sold to the Republic of Venice by Andronicus Palaeologus, son of the Emperor Manuel of the Greeks, brother of the penultimate John and the last, Constantine: in exchange for which transaction, the annual revenues of the city of Treviso were ceded. But Andronicus died on the journey while he was sailing for Venice. Nevertheless, the Venetians took possession of the city and sent their governors there; the first of whom was Marinus Bondomerius, with the title of Count of Thessalonica. The sale was made for the reason that the Greeks saw that they could in no way defend Thessalonica against the force of the Turks, even though the city itself was distinguished for its magnitude, opulent in supplies, noble for the harbor of the Thermaic Gulf, and inferior to no other Greek city in other ornaments. Then in the year 1431, Sultan Murates besieged it, and after attacking it many times, finally snatched it from the Venetians, once the defenders had been slain and the remnants of the Venetian garrison had boarded the ships which were standing in the harbor, escaping from the hands of the Turks with their assistance.
93. The Mountain Zoga, and Toganum and Tuganum. That which the Turks call the mountain Zoga, the Greeks called either the mountain Toganum, as Laonicus does; or Tuganum, as our Pretor does. This is the passage of Laonicus: "Mustaphas," he says, "at last nowhere safe, betook himself in flight to the mountain which the inhabitants call Toganum." But the words of the Pretor are these: "The Emperor also brought the mountain Tuganum into his power, and founded a small town upon it, to which he sent Nicolaus Cotertzen to keep watch there, and to handle affairs for the Latins dwelling within Tzurulum": which town of Tzurulum, as is understood from the words, is the Thracian mountain Tuganus or Toganum, neighboring to Tzurulum, concerning which it was spoken above, at number 26 of the notes. As for the Turkish Zoga, it has the same relation to Toganum, as far as pronunciation is concerned, as Ozman or Osman has to Othman.
94. Arbania, Albania, Arnautlar. That which the ancient Greeks called Epirus, they now call Arbania and Albania. The name Arbania is found in a book written in common Greek, which is named *Portolanus*. Our Pretor designates this region as Albania. The inhabitants are named by the Turks Arnautlar, by whom now a greater part of the Murea also, or the Peloponnesus, is inhabited.
95. Herzec, Herzegovina: Bozina duplex, region, Duke of Saint Sava. The kingdom of Upper Bozina, extending towards Jadra or Zara and Epidaurus, now Ragusa, is called Herzeca by the Turks, by Castaldo "Chersec"; by others "Orzega," and by the Bozinacians and Croats "Herzegovina": because it was the seat of a duke or prince, whom the Bozinacians and Croatians, with the Hungarians, call by the German word "Herzog." Indeed, there was once a double Bozina, upper and lower: of which the latter had a king, whom Chalcocondyles calls the king of the Illyrians; the former had a prince or duke, whom they also called the Duke of Saint Sava. To Laonicus it is called the region of Sandalis, and the inhabitants are called by the same "Cudvergi," I do not know if these are not corrupt words, one from "Sansaba," as the Italians pronounce it, the other from "Herzecovi." But more on these things below, when we shall treat in the life of Bajazet II of Achmet Bassa Cherseogli or Chersecogli, in chapters 161 and 162 of the notes. In the chorographic maps you might find it written in some places for the city of Herceg as "Sercico," but corruptly.
96. Daughter of Bulci married to Murates. By the name Bulci, understand George Bulcovitz, Despot of Serbia, and see what was noted above, at numbers 46 and 54 of the notes. Most writers call the daughter of his who was married to Murates "Irene," with the surname "Cantacuzena," among whom is Geufraeus, whom Reineccius follows. But these men are indeed mistaken. For Spanduginus rightly wrote that this woman was called Maria, who was born not to Cantacuzinus, but to Jurgo (so the Serbs call George) as her father, the Despot, but to Irene Cantacuzena as her mother, who was the sister of George Cantacuzinus. George, moreover—which Spanduginus did not add—was the grandson of the Emperor John Cantacuzinus, through his son Matthaeus, prince of the Albanians. Wherefore this Maria was also the granddaughter of the same John, Emperor of the Greeks. Bonfinius is also mistaken, who writes that this Despina came into the hands of the Turks upon the capture of Smederevo; since it is evident from these Annals that the city was occupied only in the third year after this marriage was contracted. And it must be noted that she married this Murates in the Christian year 1435, or the Mahometan year 838; but after two years, Muchemetes, the son of Murates, was circumcised. For from this it is understood that he was not born of Maria.
A Niger thinks that Sophia was called Tibiscum by the ancients. Bonfinius says that the city received its name from a temple which Justinian built at magnificent expense. But indeed, no such temple ever existed here, nor can one be recognized today, even from some ruins; and who could believe that this town, situated fourteen or fifteen days' journey from Constantinople, was the temple of Constantinople, which Justinian built most splendidly in the name of Holy Sophia, or the Wisdom of God? He adds the same, that this place was once called Sardacia, from the Sardians and Dacians, that is, from peoples separated by a very great expanse of land and indeed by the sea itself. He then adds that the Sardacian or Sardaicene synod was once celebrated there. From this, however, it is finally understood that Bonfinius is speaking of Sardica, where the Sardaicene synod was held under the reign of the sons of Constantine the Great. But that is not to be sought here, nor is it called Sophia today, but Triaditza: a name which our Glycas wrote it also had in his own time.
105. The unhappy expedition of Scachus Abedines. The defeat of the Turks.
Since he is said here to have been the beglerbeg of Romania—that is, of Europe—the scachus Abedines, with all the forces of Romania, and the acanzii and janissaries, without doubt a great army was given to him by Murates, which Bonfinius writes was estimated at eighty thousand Turks; which, indeed, considering the words of the annals, I think is true, although Bonfinius adds that one should not easily grant it belief. The number of the slain should certainly have given him belief, since he confesses that thirty thousand Turks were killed at that time, and five thousand captured. The calamity of Mesites Bassa, who, with his men, had been destroyed to a man a little before, gave cause for the expedition; as did the defection of both Wallachias, which, under the leadership of John Huniades, had departed from the faith of the Turks. For the annals understand this person by the name "Jancus," by which John is called among those peoples. Laonicus B (as has been indicated) calls him Jangus Choniates, Spanduginus correctly calls him Jancus the Voivode, namely of Erdely or Transylvania, and Geutræus calls him Jancus the Ban: concerning the names of whose offices and dignities in the kingdom of Hungary, we have spoken partly in chapter 71 of the notes, and partly we shall say below.
106. The first expedition of King Vladislaus of Hungary against the Turks.
Before all else, let us declare the names of some of the persons placed here in the annals. The author of this expedition, the King of the Hungarians, was Vladislaus, from the family of the Jagiellon line of the kings of Poland, whom most Hungarians had placed in charge of the administration of the kingdom, having abandoned Ladislaus the Austrian, the posthumous son of Albert the Second Augustus. Jancus who is named is John Huniades, Lazorogli, or the son of Lazarus, George the Despot of Serbia, to the Greeks and to our own people the son of Stephen, the grandson of Lazarus. Casan or Casam Bassa is written by the Turks, whom Geutræus calls Carambegus, and interprets as the black lord or duke; Philippus Callimachus, more correctly, calls him Carambus, Laonicus calls him Chasan, just as the Turks do: which I believe is the name he truly had, and the other a cognomen, from "blackness": just as Bonfinius attributes to him another cognomen, Celepinus, from nobility. The Turks report that this man was the beglerbeg of Romania or Greece, Laonicus calls him the duke of Europe, which is the same thing. But Bonfinius makes him the beglerbeg of Natolia and reports that he brought forces here from Natolia, which, however, does not seem likely. For, to say nothing of the agreement of these annals with Laonicus, it is certainly more credible that he was the beglerbeg of Greece or Europe 439, who, to the Scachus Abedines (the beglerbeg of Romania) slain by Huniades, had succeeded, and had encountered the enemy from nearby with the forces of Europe: since the beglerbeg of Natolia was situated much further away from these regions, C nor could he cross the Hellespont with his army at such an easy moment: not to mention, meanwhile, how much danger the departure of the beglerbeg into Europe would have created for the affairs of Natolia, not yet oppressed by the Osmanid, by the Caramanian, the perpetual enemy, and the power of others. That it is read in the annals that Casanes was slain with his men is not to be understood as if he were killed. For the historians report with great consensus (especially Bonfinius and Callimachus, who lived either then or not long after, and was familiar to the kings of Poland, especially John Albert) that this Bassa was not killed, but captured.
107. Clisura, Istadina, Sladitza, an ancient river. Capi Derbent.
I have said "clisurae," a name known in Greek histories, for ways or very narrow passages, through mountain places, which the Latins once called "furcae" and "fauces" (jaws). So Cedrinus [calls it] for Justinian Rhinotmetus; upon his return, the Bulgarians had beset the ways in the narrow part of the clisura. Cujacius, the most renowned jurist, explained and restored the term in some place, derived from a Greek verb which has the meaning of shutting off. The Turks here understand the Isladine clisurae as those which, for those intending to go from Bulgaria into Thrace, occur in the Haemus mountain at that place where the small river Sladitza flows beneath the clisurae of Haemus. For, as Bonfinius wrote, from Sophia there is a double road for those going to cross the Haemus into Thrace and Macedonia. One approach is thought by most to have been made by Trajan, where a maximum gate of square stone is still seen. The other is at a small river, which the Bulgarians call Sladitza. We were holding to the former road, in which we found that gate, situated at a Bulgarian village. And our companions, the Turks, called this place Capi Derbent, that is, the gate of the jaws or narrow places. The other approach is that of which we speak here, and which the annals call Isladinum, from the small river Sladitza. Cedrinus places the river Osmum here, which I believe is the Sladitza. The passage is in the Life of Constantine Monomachus or the Gladiator. I doubt not that the name Basilitza, in Laonicus's exposition of this slaughter of the Turks, is written erroneously; although I am not unaware that Geutræus wishes, by a new word D
A to Calliopolis, or another place on the Hellespont, to cross? Why does he tacitly shift the blame onto himself? Why does he accuse himself of negligence? For he says that he sent Murat to Calliopolis, from which crossing he had been ordered to keep Murat away. On the contrary, the Turks write that the Italian fleet had arrived at Calliopolis at that time, and had hindered Murat, so that he could not cross there. Let us also hear Laonicus, who relates that Murat crossed at his leisure, while the Italians were hindered for several days by an adverse wind, so that they could not come from the Propontis into the Hellespont against Murat. Meanwhile, Murat had crossed to the sacred tower, which is situated on the Asian shore at the narrowest place in the Propontis. Here, too, he excuses the Cardinal who was in command of the fleet, and, in his own opinion, indicates where Murat crossed, unless the interpreter errs by writing that this was done at the narrowest place in the Propontis: for which he ought to have said, "in the Hellespont." For the Bosphorus has narrows convenient for crossing; but the Propontis has none, except where it breaks into the Aegean Sea through the Hellespont, and from Calliopolis up to the fortresses which they call the Dardanelles, for a space of twenty-seven miles, it is compressed into a narrow, as we noted earlier in chapter 24 of the notes. In this diversity of accounts, therefore, I find nothing more probable than what is recorded in these annals: namely, that Murat, having been hindered by the Italians at Calliopolis, left that place and proceeded upwards (not downwards, where that temple or sanctuary of Diana was situated, which the interpreter mistakenly rendered as "sacred tower") with an army through Bithynia, and from the region of that place, where the structure of the new fortress is now seen, crossed in merchant ships into Romania, or Thrace. For from this it is manifest, since he was not carried across to Calliopolis, nor to the Dardanelles, nor to any other narrows of the Hellespont 441; but crossed above Constantinople, towards the Euxine Sea, in that part of the Bosphorus where it is narrowest between Asia and Europe, and where on that account Mehmed, son of Murat, built a new fortress (the Greeks call it Neocastron, as will be told a little later in chapter 128, at one German mile above Constantinople), so that he could cross with an army from Asia into Europe, or conversely from Europe into Asia, by an easy and short transit, as often as he pleased, with no one to oppose him. Whatever Laonicus may say, and whatever Bonfinius may assert, perhaps poorly instructed by scouts and having written down the Cardinal's account, I think these things are rather the truth.
113. Varna, the Varna Lake, Caliacra.
Varna is a city on the Euxine Sea, which Ortelius records as having been called Odessus or Odyssum in ancient times, while others make it Dionysopolis. It cannot be Anchialus, according to the opinion of Cureus, since that place is still extant and is now called Achelo, a name not altogether recent. For it is called Acheloum by Cedrinus, and in the history of Symeon the Master of the Offices, not yet published, it is read that it is called Anchialum by a more recent term B. Chalcocondylis and the learned Xylander, who while he lived was most friendly to us, write "Barna" and "Barnas" in the plural number. Cedrinus says that the Bulgarians pitched their camp at Varna. Likewise, Catacalo (says Cedrinus), the governor of the cities and places situated along the Ister, when he had encountered the Russians near the shore of Varna—as they call it—and had engaged in battle, put them to flight. Mention is made here of the Varna shore; Callimachus also calls the gulf of the sea a "marsh," and Bonfinius calls it a "swamp." This place was surrendered by compacts to King Vladislaus, as Laonicus wrote: but Caliacra was taken by force, of which there is no mention here in the annals. Bonfinius, however, did not pass it over in silence, and wrote "Callacrium" wrongly; adding that this name was given to the town by the Gauls, who, having returned from Asia after an unhappy outcome, caused it to be called "Callacrium" as if it were "Gallacrium." But "Caliacra" signifies to the Greeks a "good" or "fine promontory." By Mario Nigro, who followed the modern Greek pronunciation, it is called Chaliacra.114. The Battle of Varna, Black Michael.
In this battle, King Vladislaus is said to have fought on one side, or according to Laonicus, on the right wing: Cara or "Black" Michael on the left, of whom I find nothing else recorded in memory besides this. Bonfinius records the same things about Black Michael, and explicitly professes that he repeats these things from the accounts of the Turks, without mentioning even by a word who this Michael was. Laonicus says that the Dacians handled the left wing, over whom perhaps Michael Zilagius presided, whose sister Huniades had in marriage. Indeed, I cannot divine any other Michael who was famous among the Hungarians at that time.115. An emended and explained passage of Laonicus. Chazilar, Vitezi.
In the first conflict, the beglerbeg of Anatolia is reported to have been killed on the side of Murat. This glory of having killed the Anatolian beglerbeg, Laonicus attributes to Huniades, a most brave commander. Now, I hope I shall make it worth the reader's while in this place if I restore and clarify certain words of Laonicus, which are partly corrupted and partly obscure. These words, in both the Latin and the French interpreter, are of this kind: "Joannes Choniates habens Phazen, id est eos qui Bitaxides vocantur, ibat in Asiæ ducem." I think the same happens to other readers of these words as I remember happened to me in the beginning. Truly, it was some monster, to imagine "Phazen," from which alone several "Bitaxides" have sprouted, as if from a Trojan horse. Lest I detain the eager mind of the reader any longer, I say that these things should be read as follows: "Joannes Choniates habens secum Chazes, id est eos qui Vitezides vocantur, ibat in Asiæ ducem." So that the reader may understand these words, he should know that "Chazi" in Turkish signifies a "strenuous soldier," which word, in the plural number, is rendered to them as "Chazilar," and to the Greeks as "Chazes," that is, "strenuous soldiers." LikewiseA formerly, and now Tzaconia, not Sacania, as Ortelius wrongly wrote.
121. Ibanis, or Joannis ditio, Cotziacum, or Getia, Iscodar, Scodra Scutarium, Ischender beg. These Annals call the territory by the name of Joannis, which Laonicus called the region of Ibanis. However, the interpreter should have written Ivanem. For in Serbian, "Iwan"—as today it is also called in Russian—is "Joannes." But the person understood is Joannes Castriotes or Castriotus, a prince of a part of Albania, the father of Georgius Castriotis, who was called by the Turks "Ischender beg," that is, Lord Alexander, from which others have made "Scanderbogum," and have translated "great Alexander" incorrectly. Bonfinius called him even more corruptly "Sandorobechum." Laonicus wrote "Scenderem," who as a boy came into the gates of the king, that is, to the Porte of the Osmanid prince; and he commemorates that at this time Murates made war upon him. The interpreter of Chalcocondyles wrote the name "Calcioli" in the margin of this place, in place of the name "Castrioti." Cotziacum, in the narration of this war in the seventh book of Laonicus, is called Getia: near Crue (our people call it Crojai, of which I shall say more shortly), which Murates, though in vain, attacked after Getia. Iscodarbeg is for the Turks the lord or prince of Scodra, namely this same Georgius Castriotus, of whom I have spoken. But Scodra for the Greeks in its full form is Scutarium. Pliny, however, calls it Scodram in some places, and in the Novel of Leo Augustus concerning episcopal thrones, the bishopric of Scodra is also found under the metropolitan see of Dyrrhachium, which is certainly not different from the bishopric of that city of which mention is made here. Barletius is mistaken when he thinks that the Turks call it Scandria, as if it were Alexandria. For Iscodar is not Scandria, nor is Alexandria called "Scandria" by them, but "Ischendrie."
122. Saxones in the army of Huniades, Sazii, Sassii, Sassia. It might seem strange to someone why the Annals make mention of the Saxons here separately, since immediately they subjoin the name of the Germans, in which the Saxons are also contained. To resolve this doubt, I say that it is not our Germans in Germany that are understood here, but the Saxons of Transylvania, or Erdelii, or the inhabitants of the Seven-Castles region in Hungary, who today still profess themselves to be Sassii or Saxons, and who differ from the Ceculi, the inhabitants of the same region, as much in language as in other things. Hence Bonfinius, on page 612 of the latest Frankfurt edition—which we owe to our most illustrious Sambucus, whose memory, though he is now dead, I cherish with benevolence, and I grieve that after his death he was treated too harshly by a certain man of excellent genius and learning, who was likewise a friend to us—mentions "Saxobania" located in Transylvania. And in the same place, Sambucus wrote the name "Saz" in the margin by Saxobania, by which he meant to signify that it was so called from the Sazi or Saszi. It is well known, however, that the Saxons are so named by the Germans whom they call "superiores," since they themselves call their own country Sassia and themselves Sassios. To these, join the things B I exposed in chapter 71 concerning the Nemetsassii, above. As for whether our C Saxons were conquered by Carolus Magnus Augustus and subsequently transported into these lands of Erdelji—as I see some have been persuaded—it is not the place here for a more prolix discussion. For my part, it seems hardly likely, since I know that for a century before Carolus Magnus, the Saxons were in Pannonia with their fellow citizens the Longobardi; to omit other things, of which very many could certainly be brought forward. The forces of our side, which the Turks say were very great, contained twenty-two thousand men, besides the Wallachians, however, as Bonfinius remembers, who were in the ranks of the deserters.
123. Valachi killed by the Turks, judged by just sentence as deserters. The Annals say that some Wallachian commanders were killed by the Turkish border guards before the battle was joined on the Cosovana plain. But Chalcocondyles hands down that the Wallachians defected from the Hungarians and the other Christians to Murates at the very time of the Cosovana conflict: and that upon the sentence of Murates they were ordered to lay down their arms, and in the sight of both armies, to the ultimate astonishment of all, were slaughtered as perfidious transfuges and deserters. Which example of singular severity and justice in Murates, I am not surprised, is passed over by the Turks in silence.
124. Year of the Cosovana battle, number of dead on both sides. Whether the river Morava is the same as Schitniza. We noted in the margin of the book the Mahometan year 853, in which the fighting occurred on the Cosovana plain, which corresponds to the Christian year 1448: in which year Bonfinius also wrote that the battle was fought. He adds the same, that in these continuous conflicts there perished of the Turks up to thirty-four thousand, but of the Christians only eight thousand, just as Murates himself admitted in his letters to the Corinthians. However, I cannot pass over in silence at this place that I promised above in the number of notes (48) an explanation of the question, whether the river Schitniza is the same as the Morava. For I call it by this name with the inhabitants, while it is written "Morabas" by the interpreter of Chalcocondyles. Cedrinus seems to call the Morava in some place both a river and a fortress placed on its bank, not far from Belgrade. "It arrives," he says, "as far as the Morava and Belegrada, which are strongholds of Pannonia, situated in the Transistrian region, and near the Turkish Crales." By these last words, "Crales Turciae," he signifies the king of Hungary. For Cedrinus repeats more often that the Huns and Hungarians are called Turks. The same person distinguishes these "western Turks" in Pannonia from the "eastern Turks" placed in the vicinity of the Persians. And the Mogores are today still called Turks by the Persians, which name the Hungarians now also attribute to their own race, just as Eginhartus likewise wrote in the time of Carolus Magnus D that the Ugi or Ungri and the Magores are the same. Note the word "Ungarorum" and "Maggior." But let us return to the Morava. Geufræus thinks that the Morava was formerly called "Moachum." But Laonicus mentions that the Turks killed in this battle were buried on the bank of the river Morava. But Bonfinius proceeds...
to say that they were thrown into the river Schitniza. From this, it would seem that the river Schitniza and the Morava are the same. But since I myself seem to recall that our companions in that place called it the Morava, it remains for us to conclude that the Schitniza, having preserved its name up to now, after it mingled with the Morava, lost its former appellation and was thereafter reckoned only by the name of Morava, until, being thus joined together, both rivers flow into the Danube. I recall that we crossed the Morava, its waters being greatly diminished by the drought of several months; but nowhere was it called Schitniza by the inhabitants, but everywhere the Morava, contrary to the opinion of the French interpreter.
125. Feris bey, Gergonium, Anatolian mountains. A
The name of the beglerbeg of Romania, who was to restore the citadel or town of Gergonium by order of Murad, is not expressed in the Annals themselves. But Bonfinius wrote that he was called Frigibech, which in Italian pronunciation is worth as much as Frisibeg. The Turks pronounce it Ferisi beg, or Feris beg. For there is found above the name of another such beg, at the beginning of the life of Bayezid the First, who, having advanced with his forces as far as the Danube, is said to have been the first to occupy Vidin in that place. The town which the Turks call Gergoni, Bonfinius names Chrysonicum. It is situated in the Roxian or Rascian or Servian region, on the river Morava. The Turks call the mountains of Anatolia in this place, as they do elsewhere quite often, Mount Olympus, or of the Calogeri, in Bithynia, near the city of Bursa: concerning which it was spoken before, in chapter 17 of the notes.
126. Beligradum in Albania, Crua, Croa, Crow, Croja, family of the Crojan princes in Belgium. C
This is the same as the one above, having the name stationed at the confluence of the Sava and the Danube in Belgrade of Serbia. This is Belgrade or Albania (as the common people of the Greeks call it), that is, the white citadel. For indeed, the citadel is joined with the town, which is distant by a one-day journey from Valona, now also a most celebrated city of Epirus (Emperor Leo called it Aulonia, the ancients called it Aulon). However, I should not conceal that no mention of Belgrade being besieged by Murad shortly before his death is found, either in Martin Barletius of Shkodër, the writer of the deeds of Scanderbeg, or in Bonfinius, or in Geuffroy: but that only the siege of Croja is described by them, which he had attempted with a vain effort four years before this time, after also taking Cotziacus or Getia; as Laonicus wrote, who names it Crua, the primary city of the Albanians. The Novel of Leo the August, which we cite so often, as if it were a certain second notification of the Constantinopolitan empire, calls them "Croas" by the number of the multitude, and subjects their bishop to Dyrrhachium. It has the same name from our praetor of Greece. Barletius calls it Croja, and he says that this name signifies a spring in the language of the Epirotes: D because there are springs of water within the fortification. Murad besieged these twice, which we are now discussing: and when he was unable to obtain it on the second attack, having fallen into a lethal disease out of indignation, he breathed out his rabid soul. His son, Muhammad the Second, imitating his father in pursuing the Castriota, and in ravaging Croja, although he surrounded it on all sides with continuous fortifications, and closed it in most tightly, was nevertheless unable to capture it; Scanderbeg finally gave it of his own accord to the Venetians before his death, lest, deprived of a garrison, after the death of its defender it should soon fall into the hands of the Turks, to the detriment of such a great republic. B Let this be added in passing, that from this Croja the most noble lords of Belgium took the name Crojanus, who are said to have once possessed Croja: just as in the same places of Albania also the princes of Karlovitz, of Gallic origin, of whom it was spoken in chapter 46, held Dyrrhachium with its territory: and the princes of Achaia in the same vicinity were once masters of affairs, born of the Sabandosaxonica family. Of the Crojan rulers, Hadrian, lord of Chiurium, was of the highest authority under the Emperor Charles V. Of the same stock was born Prince Antonius Portianus in Gallia. Now there survive among the Belgians two brothers, the Duke of Aerschot, and the Marquis of Havré, with the Prince of Chimay, the son of the Aerschot.
127. Galata, Ceras, Sinus Ceratinus, Pera, Sycae, Scala Sycena. C
The city of Galata is also commonly known, situated in the region of Constantinople, across the gulf, which the ancients also called Ceras or the Horn, and Ceratinum or the Horned: because it encompasses the shore on both sides with branches like those of a stag's horn. This whole gulf extends for twenty Greek miles in circumference. Galata today is carried in the masculine gender by the Greeks, as it is also by our praetor of Greece, who calls it a Phrurion or fortress. It is also called Pera and Peraea by the historian Nicetas, because it is situated beyond the gulf. The ancients called it Sycae from the abundance of 445 fig-bearing trees, which word is also read in our Zosimus. Xylander interprets it as "fig-tree" in Cedrenus, and says it is a suburb of Byzantium: although it is separated from the city by the intermediate sea. Where one crosses to Galata from Constantinople, the old description of the city of Constantinople, which was added to the book Notitia of both empires, places the Scala Sycena; and the Greeks even today call that place a "scala," where ships dock and where one disembarks. Cedrenus used this word in the life of Copronymus, when he tells that one fragment of ice, carried with force and struck against the scala of the Acropolis, that is, the citadel of Byzantium—of which in chapter 139—crushed it. The breadth of the gulf between this scala and the town of Galata, or rather between both scalas situated across from each other, extends to 500 paces. Galata is a colony of the Genoese, still inhabited today to a great extent by Christians, especially merchants.
8:5 JOANNIS LEUNCLAVII 816 stellum Lethes, Turres nigræ, Hermaum promon- torium, Læmus, Læmocopia, Bogazi, Bogázi Chi- sar, Bosporus, Brachium S. Georgii: Loca Bo- sporana tam Europæi, quam Asiatici littoris, a Constantinopoli usque ad Euxini maris ostium, Cyanea, Symplegades, Planctæ.
Arcem munitissimam, quam a tergo Galatæ Muchemetes II, ad mare, id est, ad Bosporum e mari Euxino profluentem, condidisse narratur; Græci Neocastron, hoc est, castrum novum voca- runt, ut et Turci Geui Chisar, cujus et supra men- tio facta capite notarum 112. Iidem tamen nobis etiam Rumeli Chisar appellari dicebant, cum hac præterveheremur ad Pontum Euxinum, quod ar- cem Romaniæ vel Europæ significat: sicut alteram huic oppositam in Asiatico littore, nunc ruinosam Anadoli Chisar, id est, arcem Anatoliæ vel Asiæ nuncupabant. Neocastron vulgus occidentalium Christianorum, præsertim Germani, Turres nigras dicunt. Abest a Constantinopoli ad unum milliare majus Germanicum, locus sane munitus, et for- midabilis admodum miseris captivis, præsertim lautioris fortunæ: qui hos intra carceres conclusi, nunquam fere libertatem recipiunt: eaque de causa castellum hoc Lethes vel oblivionis olim quoque vocatum puto, cujus in Bosphoro positi Gregoras meminit, ab eo dicti, quod perpetuos ad carceres damnatorum nulla exstet amplius me- moria. Constat autem, fuisse istic etiam ante Mu- chemetem II illa, quæ diximus, in utroque littore castella: sed imperatorum Græcorum incuria sic neglecta, nulli ut usui servirent alii quam custo- diendis captivis. Causas condendi Neocastri Ma- chemetes habuit, ut transjicere tam in Asiam quam Europam libere posset: ne Christiani navibus suis transvectionem exercitus prohiberent, ut denique Constantinopoli capiendæ serviret. Laonicus arcem ita descripsit, ut hodie conspicitur. Ait eam con- stare tribus turribus magnis, quarum una superior in acclivi colle proeminet: reliquæ duæ consistunt inferius ad ipsum littus Bospori: quo videlicet hinc in naves præterlegentes impetus fieri possit. Harum duarum una maxima est. Tecta sunt plum- bea. Murus ambit arcem crassus pedes 22. Tur- rium crassities ad 50 pedes extenditur. Petrus Gyllius, illustrator urbis et Bospori diligens, an- tiquis Hermæum hoc loco promontorium fuisse statuit. Bosporo datum nomen est a transnatatu bovis, aut buculæ vel juvencæ potius, videlicet Ios, Inachi regis Argivorum filiæ, de qua est in fabulis historicis. Ita nimirum in Originibus Byzantii Græcis manuscriptis legimus. Nullibi Bosporus angustior est, quam inter Neocastrum et Anatoli Chisar. Idem Gyllius auctor est, Bosporum Græ- cis vocari Læmon, Turcis Bogazi, quæ nostris sunt fauces vel augustiæ maris, ut etiam in homine fauces appellantur Læmos. Hinc Læmocopiam Laonicus hoc loco posuit. Nostri Bosporum etiam sancti Georgii brachium nominarunt, velut an- A cedem Sancti Georgii Manganorum dictam Pro- pontidi se miscentis. Id propterea notandum, quia complures in hoc hallucinantur dum sancti Georgii brachium ad Sestum et Abydum collocant: ut Volaterranus, quem citat Ortelius in voce Helles- pontus, ut Geufræus, ut Thomas Forcacchius, ut alii. Saltem rectius hoc vel ex hisce Vincentii Belvacensis verbis didicissent: Hoc est mare ma- gnum (id est, Pontus Euxinus, nunc etiam Italis mare majus) de quo brachium Sancti Georgii exit, (id est, Bosporus) quod in Constantinopolim va- dit. Ergo Sancti Georgii brachium est supra Con- stantinopolim, ad cujus orientalem angulum, sub- ter ipsam sultanorum arcem, in Propontidem Bosporus illabitur. Adeoque a sancti Georgii brachio sive Bosporo, per Propontidem et Helles- pontum, Sestum et Abydum usque 180 milliarium Græcorum est iter. Gallicus interpres Laonici mi- rifice profecto cæcutit, ac sibimetipsi contradicens ait: Mechemetes arcem Læmocopiæ condere cœpit in ora Propontidis, ex parte Europæ, in eo pro- prio loco, qui Bosporus appellatur. Et ascripsit margini, verbis his locum significari, quo Sestus olim sita fuerit: cumque Turcica lingua dici Ba- gazasar, sive præcisionem B faucium. Quid magis absurde dici potuisset, quam conditam ad Bosporum arcem, intelligi debere sitam eodem loco, quo Sestus olim exstiterit? Certe Neocas- trum hoc Muchemetis a Sesti veteris loco prope 200 milliaribus Græcis distat, totumque Proponti- dis et Hellesponti spatium his interjectum est. Quod autem dicit, eum locum lingua Turcica vo- cari Bajazasar, sive præcisionem faucium: in eo quoque fallitur et vocabulum corruptum ponit. Nam scribere debuit Bogazi Chisar, et interpretari arcem faucium. Læmocopiæ quidem Græca vox, qua Laonicus utitur, incisuram faucium significat, hoc est locum, ubi finis est harum Bospori fau- cium, qui deinceps in multo capaciorem Propon- tidis sinum magna cum undarum violentia semet effundit. Cum autem superius capite notarum 26 loca totius Hellesponti et Propontidis, inde usque a Dardanellis vel arcibus, hoc est, a cadaveribus Sesti et Abydi, ad urbem Constantinopolim et ad ipsum adeo sultani saraium, ubi Bosporus in Propontidem præcipiti maxime cursu illabitur, enumeraverimus: libet a saraio sultani rursus in- cipiendo, sursum quasi mentis navigatione qua- dam ad ipsum usque maris Euxini ostium pro- gredi et utrinque sita loca, cum ad dexteram in Asiatico littore, tum ad sinistram in Europæo, no- minibus partim priscis, partim nunc usitatis, or- dine recensere: sic tamen, ut nimis scrupulose, more Gylliano, vetusta, cognitu parum necessaria, non inseramus. Igitur angulo sultanini saraii respondet e re- gione Scutarium in Asia disjunctis a se invicem locis hisce duntaxat uno milliari Græco. Ante
vero, quam transjectus hic superetur, occurrit in A ipsis aquis extructa quædam arx parva, quam Turrim Scutarinam Græci vocant, Turci Kisculam, hoc est, arcem virginis, ex causa quadam alibi exponenda. De hac arce sunt intelligenda Nicetæ verba, libro IV, cum ait: Ab hoc imperatore Manuele turris illa (potuisset arcem vertere) non procul a continente in mari exstructa est, quæ Damalis pridem, nunc Arcula dicitur; et altera turris e regione, juxta Manganium monasterium (scilicet Sancti Georgii) eo consilio, ut ferrea catena utrinque extensa, barbaris navibus aditus in loca urbis arci vicina, et tractum illum omnem usque ad Blacherniam regiam, intercluderetur. Quibus in verbis Arculæ nomen significare puto parvam arcem. Idem post inquit: Imperator in palatio ad Damalim, quod Scutarium dicitur, versabatur. Distat a continenti Asiana Scutarium centum passibus. Nomen oppido vicino dedit, ut Græcis hodie Scutarium, Turcis Iscodar dicatur: olim non Chalcedon, uti Jovius, Peucerus, Bushequius, aliique magni viri putarunt (Chalcedonis enim rudera 10 milliaribus ab Angulo sultanini saraii versus Astacenum sinum, ad promontorium Damalicum, juxta portum Eutropii, sita sunt), sed Chrysopolis. Id autem oppido nomen inditum aliqui putant, ut auri civitas diceretur, ab auro, quod olim antiquissimis temporibus pro Persarum regibus hic tributi nomine congeri ex Asia tota solitum fuerit. Sed origines urbis Byzantinæ aliam C nominis rationem, verbis Græcis, in hanc fere sententiam referunt. Conspecta (inquiunt) confestim aquila, cor victimæ rapit, et in promontorium Bosporii littoris defert, e regione Chrysopoleos, cui Chryses Agamemnonis ex Chryseide filius, post necem patris, Clytæmnestræ fugiens insidias, et ad quærendum Iphigeniam properans, nomen hoc apud incolas reliquit, sepulturæ suæ monumentum cum istic finem vivendi fecisset. Quibus in verbis promontorium Bosporii litoris, illud ipsum intelligitur, in quo nunc saraium sultaninum orientale situm est.
A Chrysopoli sive Scutario, littus Asiaticum legentibus, occurrit primum pagus, qui Stauros Græcis dicitur, ab aurea cruce, quam in templi ab se ibidem conditi vertice Constantinus Magnus insigniter ornatam constituisse perhibetur. Sic enim audire de Theodosio Zygomala, patriarchali protonotario, valde docto viro memini. Et ipsius templi ruinas amplissimas aliquando cum admiratione, comitibus Hieronymo Arconato, et Paulo Rosa, ex eo tempore pie mortuo, viris optimis et amicissimis, inspexi: cum navigio transvecti Chalcedonem, in Eutropii portum, terra deinde promontorium Damalicum pedibus emetiremur, in quo rudera templi sanctæ Euphemiæ concilio Chalcedonensi nobilis, in horto quodam superant: et ad hunc deinde pagum Staurum, aliaque loca progrederemur.
A Stauro locus in Anaplo (sic enim frequenter historici Græci vocant hæc ab utroque latere loca, quæ sursum ad Euxinum mare navigantibus conspiciuntur) proximus est in eodem Asiatico littore, monasterio quondam insigni celebris, qui nunc Akimitos Græcis dicitur. Olim Akimiti vocabantur, hoc est, monachi pervigiles, totasque noctes sine somno precibus et hymnis dicendis exigentes.
Ab Akimito pergitur ad Chrysokerama, locum ab æde sacra dictum, tegulis olim inauratis ornata. Chrysokeramis vicinum est Anatolis Castelli. Sic Græci nunc mutile vocant, quod integre diceretur Anatolis (hoc est, Asiæ) Castellion. Et paulo ante meminimus, idem Turcis eodem significatu vocari Anadoli Chisar.
Ultra Castellion Anatolis est Megalocarya, B magnis a nucibus avellanis dicta: quam rectius Græci volunt ad sanctos angelos nominari.
Supra Megalocaryam conspicitur vetus hieron (sic et Turci cum Græcis vocant), id est, fanum sive templum, a Constantino Magno conditum: quo tempore confecto bello Gothico, reversus fuit, ut Græci nunc aiunt. Constat tamen, hoc olim quoque loco fuisse temporibus antiquissimis templum Argonautorum quod appellatum fuit hieron sive fanum Jovis Urii, hoc est, largientis ventos secundos. Et notum est, solitos imperatores Christianos mutare templa paganorum in nostri ritus ecclesias.
Ulterius castellum Argyron situm est quod Castellus etiam posuit, Algyrum vocans.
Hactenus in Asiatico, sive dextro Anapli latere, sita loca numeravimus. Nunc idem iter C ab imo repetituri, litus Europæum legamus ad lævam, donec itidem ad ostium Ponti Euxini perveniamus.
Itaque Galata Ceratinum ad sinum relicta, transeundum primo promontorium, saraio sultanino, e regione trans sinum cornutum sito, respondens: et mox offeret sese Caravoli, locus omni variorum ædificiorum et hortorum cultura, ne templis quidem Turcicis deficientibus, amoenissimus: ubi diversorium Anglicanæ reginæ legato assignatum erat, cum nos istic essemus. Ibidem Juliæ Pesconia marmor Græcum est elegantissimum, cujus inscriptionem habemus.
Caravoli proximus est locus a S. Phocæ templo Christianis appellatus, Ortachioi Turcis. Archion priscis dictum refert Gyllius.
Ultra S. Phocam Archangelus est, locus sic ab archangelo Michaele dictus. Veteres Catascepen nominasse, patet ex his Nicetæ verbis: Monasterium in Ponti faucibus loco, qui Catascepe dicitur, exstruxit archiducis Michaelis nomine. Vocant nunc etiam Græci Asomaton, propterea quod angeli corporis expertes sint.
Inde pervenitur ad Diplokionion, sic dictum a geminis columnis, quod Turci Besictas, veluti lapidem cunarum vocant. Ibi monumentum est sepul-
sepulturæ Chairadinis Bassæ, cui ab Italis nomen Barbarossæ datum fuit. Meminit hic eum sepultum liber ipse Annalium, ad annum Christianum 1547. Diplokionion priscis dictum erat Jasonium. Ortelius non recte Diplociana scripsit, pro Diplokionio, et Bisitas, pro Besictas. A
Ultra Diplokionion est id, de quo prolixe nunc egimus, Neocastron. Hinc itur ad locum, Stenia nunc dictum, nomine corrupto de Sosthenio, ni fallor. Aut hoc illud est Stenon, Cedrino et aliis frequenter nominatum. Sequitur Neochori, quod sic enuntiatur a Græcis hodie, cum sit Neochorion. Significat autem locum vel agrum prædiumve novum. Supra Neochorion pagus est Pharapia. Sic enim a Græcis effertur, a nostris Therapia. Pervenitur hinc ad Panagian sto mauro molo, id est, ad sanctissimam Deiparam virginem, sitam ad nigram molem portus. Quidam e vulgo nominant, ad sanctissimam Deiparam die xv Augusti.
Ultima Turris est ad ipsum Ponti ostium, cum pago a Græcis inhabitato, sita: sicut et hactenus indicatorum utriusque littoris locorum incolæ fere Græci sunt. Eam turrim Busbequius Pharum vocabulo veteri nominat, sed accolæ Phanarion appellant, a Græco verbo derivata voce, quod lucendi significationem habet. Quippe noctu faces accenduntur in suprema turris parte, quam animi causa conscendimus, ut ad ostium Ponti navigantium incolumitati consulatur. A Constantinopoli distat hoc ostium maris Euxini milliaribus Græcis B plus minus 55. Scopuli saxo vivo siti duo sunt ante Ponti ostium, quo in Bosporum magna vi semet exonerat. Hæ scilicet illæ Cyaneæ sive Symplegades, sive Planctæ sunt, quas ipse Busbequius pene putavit fabulosas, aut invenire se saltim, velut alio devolutas, potuisse negavit. Insulæ priscis hæ dicebantur non quod sint magnæ, sed quod undique mari velut insulillæ vel nisidia, sicut Græci vocant, alluantur: Cyaneæ, quod ex intervallo magno adnavigantibus cæruleum de se colorem præbeant: Symplegades et Planctæ a conquassatione mutua, qua spectantibus ex remoto spatio non tangere se tantum existimantur, verum etiam loco moveri, et ita coire, duntaxat unus ut esse scopulus, unum nisidion, videantur. Hanc opinionem de Cyaneis meam Gregoræ verba hæc, e libro Historiarum iv, confirmant: «Promontorium, inquit, templi Argonautarum, quod Os Ponti appellatur: ubi Cyaneas et Planctas esse Græci quondam dixerunt: nimirum in ipso Ponti ostio.» Hæc omnia sane diligenter inspicere bis memini, præsente Hieronymo Arconato, præstantis ingenii viro: qui rem memoria dignam hic mihi primus suggerebat. Altera Symplegadum, quam simpliciter saxum Busbequius appellavit, habet columnam veterem ex albo marmore, quam vulgus istic Pompeii columnam falso vocat. In hac præter alia, quæ Gyllius diligenter servavit et descripsit, Augusti Sphingem mihi A monstrabat Arconatus, a Gyllio non animadversam. Sphingi respondet inscriptio, quam ab aliis omissam ponere libuit.
DIVO CÆSARI AUGUSTO L. CLANNIDIUS L. F. CLA... PONTO
448 Nec tamen defuerunt hic olim etiam Cn. Pompeii monumenta, relicta in his locis inde ad illis usque temporibus, cum imperator populi Romani contra Mithridatem, Ponti regem, bellum gereret. Exstat unum adhuc liberti cujusdam Pompeiani marmor, quod non procul a Casanis bassæ messita (quondam illustri S. Theodosiæ templo) supra navale Sultaninum sita, conspicitur. Id pulcherrimis exaratum litteris Romanis, hæc B verba continet.
CN. POMPEIUS. PHILINYS. POMPEIÆ PHILOMENÆ FILIÆ ET SIBI
Habet lector uno comprehensa capite non pauca, quibus tam prolixe recensendis, si præter officium et institutum alicui fecisse videbor, excusabit apud æquos me judices infixum animo fervens explicandi res Græcas et Turcicas studium, cum rerum ipsarum varietate tam utili, quam minime tædiosa.
129. Tempus certum captæ Constantinopoleos. Certum est, captam Constantinopolim a Muchemete II die 29 mensis Mai, quem iv Kal. Junias vocamus, anno Christiano 1453, non 1452, quemadmodum apud Æneam Silvium per errorem librarii fortasse scriptum legitur. Potest hoc etiam ex collatione Mahumetanorum annorum ad Christianos colligi. Cætera de urbis tam obsidione, quam occupatione, licet paucis exposita sint verbis, ut in Annalibus fieri solet, iis tamen consentanea sunt, quæ Chalcocondyles prolixius, ut in historia, memoriæ prodidit.
130. Atmindan, columna serpentina, statuarum stichioses. Atmindan significat Turcis eum Constantinopoli locum, quem ab equorum cursu Græci dixerunt Hippodromum. Nam si verbum verbo reddas, At Mindan significant equorum locum capacem et amplum. Columna serpentina nunc etiam superest, ex ære facta, sic ab imo convolutis inter se spiris serpentis triplicis, ut in parte superiori tandem sese tres cervices, triaque serpentina capita, dividant ac separent in formam triquetram: quibus quondam accepimus impositum ab urbis conditore Constantino Magno fuisse plurimum scriptis celebratum illum tripodem Apollinis Delphicum. Quod ait, effectum fuisse per hoc simulacrum, ut eo durante nullus esset in urbe serpens: ex opinionibus Græcorum Muchemeti relatum fuit: quorum in libro manuscripto de urbis ædificiis, quem habemus, Stichioses ejusmodi (sic enim appellant) statuarum variæ leguntur, et quidem ab Apollonio Tya-
-Aneo profectæ, si quidem vera narrant. Certe quod statim sequitur de statua equestri ahenea destructa, qua pestis præclusus fuerit in urbem aditus: superstitiosis videri posset aliquam mereri fidem, cum singulis annis ea nunc fœde mensibus æstivis calidioribus grassetur. Qua nos istuc æstate venimus, absumpsisse credebatur inter quatuor menses hominum ad 150000. Nec anno sequenti pauciores interierunt.
151. Siurige Sphetigradum, Sphetia. Duxit in Albaniam copias Muchemetes adversus Isebenderem begum, sive Georgium Castrioten. Siurige lingua Turcica significat arcem acutam. Græci dicerent Oxypyrgion. Laonicus Sphetiam vocat appellatam a Barletio Sphetigradum, lingua Slavonica, quam idem a Croja distare 58 milliaribus ait.
152. Nove, Nova, Novograd. Novus mons Rascia, Neopyrgium. Nove Croatis et Servianis dicitur, quæ hic Nova nominatur, oppidum Serviæ cujus tunc despota Georgius adhuc superstes erat: sed non multo post moritur, impetrata pace a sultano Muchemete, filioque minimo natu Lazaro, successore post se relicto. Notavimus supra cap. 101, Novogradum nunc vulgo dici, quod arcem novam significat, non novam montem, ut Bonfinius interpretatur, dum novum montem Rasciæ vocat. Apud Laonicum Novopyrgum legimus, pro quo Neopyrgum reponemus, nomen id Græcis sonans, quod Venedis Novograd. Ibidem margini ascriptum Novobardum mutabimus in Novogradum, vel potius Novogradum. Ait hic Laonicus magnum esse metalli proventum, et alluentem oppidum Moravam, Istro misceri. Sangiaci nunc sedes est, Budæ beglerbego subditi.
153. Belgradi vel Albæ Græcæ secunda obsidio. De Belgrado et Muratis obsidione dictum antea numero 100. Nunc iterum obsessa fuit a Muchemete Muratis filio, qui eam repetebat ab Ungaris, ut membrum Serviæ nunc sui juris effectæ. de quo prolixe tractatum indicato capite. De hac obsidione secunda Thomas Ebendorfus, in Austriacis Annalibus suis, hæc retulit: Anno 1455, Turcus Machumet secundis elatus fortunis, despotam Georgium, Ratziæ principem, in suis terris hostiliter invasit, et plura hominum millia crudeliter abduxit. Hinc et despota versus Ungariam, ad Albam Græcam, cum suis secretis se contulit, terramque suam gubernandam Joanni de Huniad, Ungariæ gubernatori, dum Viennam (ad Fridericum IV imperatorem) pergeret, commendavit. Inde Nandoralba, janua et clausura regni Ungariæ, obsidetur a Mahumeto, anno 1456, oppugnatione acerrima facta die 21 Julii, cum prius hoc in itinere castrum S. Andreæ (Nota margini ascriptum nomen Senderoviæ, quod erat Georgii despotæ, aggressus incassum fuisset. Soluta obsidione, mortuus Joannes de HuBniad, comes Bistricensis, XI die Augusti. Eum deploravit Fr. Joannes de Capistrano, Huniadis commilito: Salve, aureola cœli, quæ cecidisti, corona. Regni exstincta es lucerna. Orbis corruptum es speculum, in quo nos diutius inspicere sperabamus, et alii. Nunc tu devicto inimico triumphas coram Deo et angelis, o bone Joannes. Sane quam fortiter, et immortali cum laude sua, hi duo se gesserunt, hoc propugnaculo Christianorum defendendo, Huniales et Capistranus, monachus ordinis Prædicatorum, clarus in historiis Volonum cruce signatorum dux, qui mortuum Huniadem paucos intra dies secutus fuit. Muchemetes in oppugnatione die 21 Julii, cujus Ebendorfus meminit, lethali accepto vulnere, vix incolumis evasit. Obsidio soluta fuit die 6 Augusti, quem Calixtus III pontifex haberi festum ex eo tempore voluit sub nomine Transfigurationis Christi: quod tamen festum illo die multis ante sæculis Græci celebrare consueverant, appellantes id sacram sanctam metamorphosin Domini et Dei, Servatorisque nostri, Jesu Christi.
154. Dai Caratze Bassa, Bonfinius et Chalcocondyles emendati. Hic Bassa Bonfinio Caracia vocatur, Chalcocondyli Caratzies. Europæ ne beglerbus fuerit, an Anatoliæ, non exprimitur in Annalibus. Laonicus tamen diserte ducem Europe nominat, ex quo corrigendus Bonfinius, qui Asiæ ducem fecit; errore consimili cum eo, quem supra numero 106 de Chasane bassa notavimus. Verba Laonici hæc sunt: Europæ dux Caratzies, qui gloria et virtute excellebat omnes qui regiis in januis militabant, ab oppidanis bombarda globo ictus occubuit. Eum rex (Muchemetes) multum lugebat. His verbis etiam mortis genus indicatur, quo periit. In obsidione vero Constantinopolitana corrupte nomen hujus Saratzies legitur, pro quo reponendum Caratzies. Huic etiam pertinet ille Laonici locus de oppugnatione Belgradi, excerptus et emendatus supra, cap. 72.
De Semendria diximus cap. 99, Bozinacorum origo declarata legitur capite 49. Duplicem esse Bozinam, docuimus capite 95. Qui Bozinæ rex hic memoratur, Stephanus erat, de quo plura non multo post. Is sponte sua deditionem Semendriæ fecisse narratur, quam a morte soceri occupaverat. Erat autem uxor huic Lazari Bulcovitzii filia, Georgii despotæ neptis, quemadmodum in genealogia Bulcovitziorum capite 54 indicavimus. Et apparet hinc Lazarum Serviæ despotam Georgio patri, qui diutissime regnavit, non diu superstitem fuisse.
156. Tarabosanis imperator a Muchemete secundo victus. De Castamone dictum capite 66. Sinopes etiam frequens hactenus facta mentio. Novella Leonis imperatoris, cognomine Sapientis, episcopatum Sinopensem Amasianæ metropoli subjicit in Helenoponto. Pordapam dici tradit Laonicus, novo vocabulo, licet hic in Annalibus parum mutato veteri,
A Sinap. Tarabosan is known to the Turks as Trapezus, as noted at the beginning of the notes, nr. 32. The same Chalcocondyles calls it the seat of the Comnenian princes, who wished to be called emperors. The last of his lineage, conquered by Muchemetes, was David Comnenus.
137. Dracol Weida, Bladus, Vlada, King of Hungary. The Voivode of Wallachia, who is called Dracol by the Turks, is known to Laonicus as Bladus, son of Dracula, famous for his cruelty, regarding whom many things are commemorated that are not relevant here. The name Bladus should have been written as Vladus by the interpreter, based on the pronunciation familiar to the Greeks. Bonfinius calls him Vladus, and later also Dracula, by his father's name. Callimachus wrote his name correctly as Vladislaus Dracula. The one said to have thrown him into prison was the Hungarian king, Matthias Huniades, son of John, the successor to the Hungarian throne after the sudden death of Ladislaus of Austria at Prague. It is narrated that Muchemetes, after capturing him, subjugated Wallachia. But this should be considered to have been done rather by the younger Dracula, brother of Vladislaus, who, however, later submitted himself, along with the region itself, to the empire of Muchemetes, under the condition of paying an annual tribute; and yet he was confirmed in his principality by King Matthias, as Bonfinius testifies, just as if he were direct lord of the Wallachian territory, coming from the King of Hungary. Thus, indeed, it had been previously agreed between Murates II and King Vladislaus in the year of Christ 1441, after the Turks had been defeated at the narrows of Isladina, that while the Wallachians were indeed tributaries of the Turks, they nevertheless belonged, as before, to the Kingdom of Hungary.
450 158. Mitylin, Catalusii, or Catelusii, princes of Lesbos, of Genoese origin. B Mitylin, in the Greek pronunciation which is Mitylene to us, is called the island of Lesbos by the Turks, with the Greeks themselves also naming it so. Cedrinus certainly called Lesbos Mitylene in some places, after the principal city of the whole island. The common folk of the Italian sailors now call it Metellino. At the time the island was besieged by Muchemetes, it had as its prince Dominicus Catalusius or Catelusius, whom the Greeks called Kyriacos. Laonicus's interpreter wrote Nicolaus Catelusius in the margin instead of Dominicus, though I do not know on whose authority from older historians he relied. For Geufraeus, who has the same name, is more recent, and could have been mistaken by following others. The very family of the Catelusii was of Genoese origin. From it descended Franciscus Catelusius, when he had helped John Palaeologus, the emperor commonly called Calojoannes for his goodness—son of Andronicus II, grandson of Michael II, great-grandson of Andronicus I, and great-great-grandson of Michael the First, who wrested Constantinople from the Flemings—in the war against John Cantacuzenus, the guardian, father-in-law, and usurper of the empire: he was gifted the island of Lesbos, and also earned the right to take Calojoannes' sister in marriage. These things happened in the year 1355. From this it is gathered that Lesbos was in their power for not quite 100 years. Mention is made in Laonicus of Lucius Catelusius, who was prince of Aenus in Thrace: just as the princes of Aenus are also mentioned in passing, he makes Lucius a brother, whom I consider to be more correctly named by Sansovinus in the Turkish Annals as a kinsman or agnate of this Dominicus.
139. The buildings of Muchemetes at Constantinople: Genisaraium, Eskisaraium, Jedicula. The Annals do not specify which buildings Muchemetes constructed in Constantinople. Therefore, I am pleased to offer these points from Laonicus and others. Immediately in the winter after Lesbos was captured, Laonicus relates that he remained still, intent upon urban buildings, temples, a naval arsenal, and the Byzantine citadel, which he built near the gate called by the Greeks the Golden [Gate], where he also erected the largest towers, worthy of being seen, and elegantly adorned the royal palace within. So far Chalcocondyles, rendered a little more conveniently, in whose words it is to be noted that what is meant is the structure of temples—concerning the Justinian temple of the Wisdom of Christ of God, which was changed into a Mahometan mosque, and the most ancient destroyed temple of the Christians, which had borne the name of the Holy Apostles, having been built by Constantine the Great—in whose place he himself built his own mosque with an imaret, the first of all Turkish [mosques] in the city, and a magnificent work, as is seen even today. The naval arsenal, neglected by the Christian emperors, he restored, and it was adorned and extended by his successors with such care that it is now most extensive. C Situated above Galata, in the Horned Gulf towards the fresh waters, where indeed those little rivers celebrated by the ancients—the Cydarus, now Machileva, and the Barbyses, now Chartaricon, and one called Pectinachorion from a nearby village—flow into the gulf. The arsenal now contains 187 arched chambers, stretched out in a long range, and it is capable of holding a great number of triremes: although Sansovinus reports another arrangement from some ancient Venetian account, little in accordance with the present state of things. There was also formerly a royal palace at that place, where Laonicus says he had built the Byzantine citadel, near the Golden Gate, which faces the south and the Propontis on the one side, and the west and the sun on the other. Laonicus wrote that Muchemetes built these structures. Menavinus, however, just like others, says there were three citadels built by Muchemetes in Constantinople: Genisaraium, Eskisaraium, and Jedicula. Towards the rising sun, in the region of the Scutarian or Damalician promontory, is situated Genisaraium (so called because it is new), at the extreme corner of the city, which is called after the nearby temple of Saint Demetrius, where the Bosporus, with maximum force, rushes into the Propontis at the very edge of the hill on which the saraium or citadel is placed. Formerly it was called the Byzantine Palace and the Byzantine Acropolis, situated like a citadel on one of the three extreme angles of the city, at which place Byzas began to build Byzantium in the beginning. This is the seat of the Osmanid sultans, the home and court which they call the Capi or the Osmanic Gate. Enclosed by walls (about which more below, chapter 149) and towers, it extends for three Greek miles in circuit. By the name of this new saraium, Muchemetes wished to bind his posterity and successors in the empire D
A that our numbers for the years might refer to the beginnings of the wars. The Turkish annals, however, look to the end of the events, and therefore usually add the year numbers once the matters themselves have been set forth. I would wish the reader to observe this diligently, lest he think I have rashly changed the numbers set down by others in any place. By the Herzegovina brought under the yoke under the name of the Bosnian duchy, a different entity from the kingdom is understood, the destruction of which we shall later explain in note 162.
As for what is said—that Muchemetes killed the captured king of Bosnia—this must be explained a little more fully, so that the fullness of Muchemetes’ barbaric perfidy, as well as the horror of his inhumanity, may be recognized. Stephanus, therefore, the king of Bosnia and, by right of his wife (as mentioned a little earlier), despot of Serbia and Rascia, having been attacked in war by Sultan Muchemetes II and besieged at Jaitza, was enticed from the castle of Jaitza by the flatteries of the tyrant, through certain men suborned for that purpose, and summoned to a conference. Having rashly placed trust in the barbarian, and carrying in his hand the heads of the peace agreement entered into between himself and Muchemetes, he came into the camp, only to be captured; and by the order of Muchemetes, he was flayed alive. Thus, by the just judgment of God, he lost his life and the kingdom, which the wicked son had wrenched from his father by fraud. In this way, Bosnia, Rascia, and a great part of Serbia came into the power of the Turks. Matthias, however, the king of Hungary, recovered Jaitza along with 27 Bosnian towns; Muchemetes then encircled and besieged this again with a ring of soldiers, but his attempt proved fruitless, and he departed from the siege and the borders of Bosnia, frightened by the mere rumor of Matthias’s arrival. Regarding the town of Herzegovina, it was spoken of above in chapter 95. The Turks, along with the Bosnians and Croats, call Covadza what Bonfinius calls Jaitza, and Chalcocondylus calls Gaitia, though it is named a little more correctly as Gaitza.
149. More on the dominions of the princes in Albania: Giolchisar, Egripos.
There were many petty kings in Albania, each of whom had his own dominions. Among these was the region of Ibanis, or Joannes Castriota, of which it was spoken above in chapter 121. The Annals report that this B now has yielded in arms to the empire of Muchemetes, whereas others relate that this happened by surrender. Laonicus enumerates these dominions in a series. First, he says there is a region situated in the vicinity of Epirus, called Sandalis, to which several cities of the Venetians, which are near Albania, are adjacent. Then the territory of Joannes Castriota follows, to which is joined the region of the Comneni. Situated further from this is the dominion of Arianites, son of Comnenus, which is rugged and mountainous. His royal seat, by a name also known now, they called Cannina, in the plural number: which is seen situated on a height above Valona or Aulonia. The citadel of Caramania, Giolchisar, of which mention is made a little later, is written in the chronological map of Anatolia as Culchisar. Egripos is the name the Turks give to the island which they now commonly call Negropont, as they also do the primary city of the island; which is connected to the Achaean mainland by a bridge to which a small castle is attached. The city’s name among the ancients was Chalcis, but the island’s was Euboea.
And because he was not accustomed to be wanting in his duty regarding the observance of law and justice, if it had pleased him, he could have sent after three days one of his own men, who by order of the father could have strangled Mustapha by casting a noose around his throat. This is related by Spandugino. If indeed these things are true, as they seem to be for many reasons, they offer us a memorable example of paternal rigor toward a son—an otherwise outstanding man—within that people: whose sultans deem that they may do whatever they wish with their own subjects, treating them as the vilest of slaves, even if those men are beneath only the princes themselves in merit and high standing.
A ...which the flow of the Euripus ennobled, so that Aristotle, that prince of philosophers, might be the first. For if the things reported about him, while he was investigating the causes of the movement of the Euripus, are true: 452 when at last Aristotle could not capture the Euripus, the Euripus captured Aristotle. Euboea was in the power of the Venetians when it was besieged in war by Muchemet. Defending it against the Turks was Ludovicus Calbus, and Paulus Erizzus, or Ericcius, the praetor of Chalcis, whom the Venetians call the potestas. But because the Venetian fleet did not dare to rescue their own men, the Turks at length took the town by force. Upon the capture of the city, the daughter of the praetor Paul, because of the remarkable beauty of her form, was led away to the sultan Muchemet; but out of a memorable example of modesty, she preferred to die rather than prostitute herself to his lust. Mustapha, son of Muchemet, ordered him to be strangled. B Clauserus, in his translation of Chalcocondyla, omitted the name of the city which Muchemet headed toward and occupied in the region of Chasan, because (I believe) it was not found in his codex. It was, however, written in the margin of the Gundelian book as Corycus, and rightly so. For Muchemet took Corycus, which the Turks accommodated somewhat to their own language and called Charachisar. For we warned above, in chapter 15, that it is the custom of the Turks to change in this way the ancient names of cities, camps, pools, rivers, and regions, so that while retaining an affinity with the ancients, they nonetheless signify something in their own language. Thus it was done with Corycus, becoming Carachisar, which in Turkish signifies "black fortress." In Ortelius’ *Synonymia geographica*, I acknowledge "Curcu of the Niger" and "Corcos" from the itinerary of Benjamin. But I think the "Chutam" of the merchant, along with the "Chuteo" of Josephus Barbarus, has no relation to Corycus. That Murates, the *beglerbeg* of Romania or Europe, whose name is submitted here, was nicknamed Chas—that is, elegant or beautiful.
143. Usun Chasan, Jusufze beg, ordered the son of Muchemet to be strangled.
Concerning the origin of this Chasan, Reineccius discourses exquisitely. He was called *Usun* by the Turks on account of his exceptional physical stature. For *Usun* signifies to them "long" or "tall," which in the Persian language would be called *Diras*. Laonicus also calls Chasan "the Long." Joachim Cureus, the historian of the Silesians, calls him "Hussancanus," either by a corrupted voicing or because it should be changed to *Hassan Chan*, which would be, in the Spanish manner, "Don Hasan" or "Chasan." But I do not recall reading or hearing that the Persian kings themselves used that name; though I do know that it is bestowed upon the noblemen subject to that same king, and I recall noting that before. The name Jusufze or Jusufge is likewise derived from stature, being a diminutive form. For it signifies "little Joseph." Jovius simply calls him Josephus. Concerning Tocata, you have some things above in chapter 75. When it is said that Mustaphas had been appointed by his father to those places, it refers to Amasia, concerning which we spoke at the beginning of the declaration, in chapter 6 of the notes. This Mustapha was extinguished before his father, with some ascribing the cause of his death to hunting, others to excessive Venus. It pleases us to add, by way of interpretation, what Spandugino handed down worthy of memory concerning his demise. He says that Achmet the bassa, by the nickname Bidicem—about whom we shall speak more at once—had a woman of outstanding form, for whose love this Mustapha, son of Muchemet, had been captivated: when he had arrived at the court at one time, for the sake of his duties, to kiss the hand of his father, C as I suspect: whether this can be called *Maxillatus* in Latin, others may judge. It happened that she, having entered the bath (according to the Turkish custom) at a certain time, Mustapha repaired to the same place, and having no regard for modesty, violated her while she was naked (as she was). When Achmet brought notice of this unworthy crime to the sultan Muchemet, having rent his garments and his turban, and complained of so grave an injury, demanding vengeance for the wickedness—he replied, asking why he used such complaints? Did he not know that he was the slave of the sultan? "If my son Mustapha," he said, "did indeed come into your wife's embrace, did he not have relations with my own slave?" Nonetheless, he is said to have secretly rebuked his son for such a committed crime as harshly as possible, and to have ordered him to depart from his sight immediately.
144. Carachisar, Chas Murat.
145. Zeineli, son of Usunchasan, killed in battle against Muchemet.
He who was killed in this battle, the son of Chasan the Long, has no name recorded here in the *Annales*. However, the secretary of Sigismund Malatesta, a petty prince of Rimini, who lived at that time and was present at most of the affairs achieved in those days in Greece and Anatolia with that hero—a leader of great virtue and bright name—calls him *Zenialis*, who by Jovius is called *Zeynal*. To the Turks, he is truly *Zeineli*, a word signifying a man whose teeth or jaws are very large. The Latins called him "the Toothed," and the Greeks "the Gnatho."
453 146. The Vaivoda of Moldavia inflicts a great slaughter on the Turks.
When we say the Vaivoda of Moldavia, we always understand him whom we warned above, in chapter 71, is called by the Turks the prince of Carabogdania. But he who achieved this notable slaughter of the Turks is called by Boninius and Cureus *Stephanus*, a man truly great and fortunate in war: who did not only slay the Turks, but also gained a famous victory over the Tartars. What Iscodara may be to the Turks has been explained before, at number 121.
147. Geduc, Achmet's bassa, his nickname is varied. Achmet’s fortune is no less varied. This Achmet bassa was a man of great name, so...
that he was not less esteemed under Sultan Mohammed the Second’s father than under Bajazet the son; regarding his origin, Geuffroy errs when he relates that he was the son of Stephen, not a king, but a despot of the Bozinenses. For the son of the duke of Rozina was someone else, the Achmet bassa who was nicknamed not Geduc, but Cher-sogles, as our people call him, of whom below in his place. But this Achmet, who was an Albanian by origin, or an Epirote, according to Sigismund Malatesta’s secretary, wrote that he was a man of military excellence for ancient leaders; so much so that by the fame of his name alone, wherever he turned, he struck terror and trepidation into all. He adds that he was colloquially nicknamed Gendich, because one of his teeth was missing. How truly he suddenly arrived at the greatest dignity from a thin fortune, Spandugino explained in almost these words: He was, he says, a satellite of Sultan Mohammed (whom the Turks call *solacos*) who was also named Bidic, because he had lost one tooth in the row of his front teeth. This [man] sometimes, when he was conversing with his prince, as often happens, used to assert among other things: a prince is not truly great if he cannot make something great out of something small and, conversely, make something small out of something great. He had such efficacy in Mohammed’s mind that Achmet, hitherto a satellite, was promoted by him to the highest rank of prime bassa. What happened after this, that he was accused of adultery with the wife of Mustapha, the son of Mohammed, was narrated a little before in chapter 145. The manner of his death, consistent with his sudden B fortune, and indeed [his] flattery, will be commemorated in its place in note 156. Now the diversity of the nickname must be indicated, and the true nickname shown. We have said via Spandugino that he is called Bidic, and others [say] Vidich, and Malatesta’s secretary [calls him] Ghendich: which writing Geuffroy retains. The notion of the name the first two hit upon almost correctly, for they relate that he was called [this] because a tooth was missing: Geuffroy errs in the exposition of the word, for he says it is named from a "great tooth" (magno dente). This writing is to be corrected in this way, so that according to Spandugino, Gidic is read for Bidic and Vidich; according to the others, Ghedic; which is the same as Geduc. Preceding [writers of] the Arabic language pronounce it Gutue in French, which is far from Gidic or Gitic. But if this vocabulary is a truncation of some broken thing, from which it is noted that this was given: namely that he remained with a truncheoned tooth, which still remained in his mouth.
148. *The Black Sea, and the Great Sea, Cofe.* C The Pontus, formerly called Euxine or "hospitable," by contrary meaning, as if *Axenos* or "inhospitable," is now called by the Turks *Caradenizi*, and in Greek *Maura thalassa*, both names signifying the same thing, namely the Black Sea. Usage has this appellation from Damascenus Studites in his treasure [of] homilies, written in the vulgar Greek tongue. Its name, they say, [is given] not because it has black waters, which are truly most limpid, but because of sudden D storms, which wrap in black darkness, in a short moment, what were previously calm and serene. Conversely, the Mediterranean Sea, not [affected] by such great mutations, but far more serene, is called by them *Acdenizi*, that is, the White Sea. The Italians dissent from both, and we ourselves, and even the Germans, who call the following the Black Sea. For they are accustomed to call the sea *mare magnum* (the great sea), which is the same as *marmaro*. And Vincent of Beauvais gives it that name, as noted above [in] chapter 128. It is written to the Turks that what is *Capha* with us, which is situated on the Tauric Chersonese across the Black Sea, was formerly a colony of the Genoese. It is known to have been formerly called Theodosia. As for the Kerimis, Crinis, Keralis (as they are called by these various names), and the Destenis Tartars, [it is] spoken of above, in the number of the notes 45.
149. *Achmet brings aid to the besieged Semendria.* Certain things are said here which are understood thus. Mohammed set out for the Morava river, that is, for the Servian region [called] the Rascians, to liberate the metropolis of that region, Semendria, or Senderoviam, from siege. For Matthias the King of Hungary, as Bonfinius reports, in the winter of the year 1476, at Semendria, surrounded on all sides by soldiers, had caused three castles to be built: so that he might hold the city most tightly in his power. But 454 [he] being weak in these castles, Mohammed abandoned the siege. Here the reader may briefly observe that the Turks even retained the name of the Morava, [and] not Sclavitiam, confounded with the Morava, of which we spoke above, chapter 124. When afterwards it is said [he] surrounded the citadel with a new wall, it is to be understood as the *Getsaraim*, which the Turks built in the eastern corner of the city, of which a little before, number 159. Furthermore, the name Soleimanis Romania’s *beglerbegi*, which is immediately added. Bonfinius is ignorant [of this], calling him *Basseum* instead.
150. *Distinguished slaughter of the Turks in Hungary.* Bonfinius names one of the Turkish expeditions [as] Halibechium, who is called in the annals Ali-beg Michalogli: of the remaining two, Isa-bego Chuseinogli and Bali-bego Malcozogli, he found nothing certain. The Turkish army [is] estimated to be sixty thousand. The Hungarian leaders were Stephen Batory, Voivode of Transylvania, and Paul Kinisius, Count of Temesvar. Bonfinius reports the number of the slain in his letters, [but] only thirty thousand Turks. He also puts the year 1480. Whence it is to be corrected: the year 1477 is to be substituted, under the secretary of Malatesta’s notes 1479.
151. *Rhodes is first besieged by the Turks.* A *Amadeus surnamed Viridis, Count of Savoy.* Although an attempt had been made on Rhodes by the Saracens, and it was besieged even at that time when [it was] possessed by the Knights of Saint John the Baptist (whom Nicetas writes are called *Freres* in French, namely signifying "brothers"): and before this siege, it was liberated...
with immortal praise to his own name by the Count of Savoy, Amadeus, nicknamed the Green. And therefore, because the white cross, fixed upon a red field, which is the insignia of that order of Rhodian knights, FERT, the perpetual symbol of that family, was earned by the virtue of this Amadeus. For those letters, more fully explained, signify: *Fortitudo ejus Rhodum tenuit* (His fortitude held Rhodes). But the Turks had ventured nothing against it up to this time, although they took it very ill that their almost quiet possession of Asia was disturbed by those Rhodian knights. Now at last, Rhodes was attacked by order of Muchemet by Mesites, a vizier-bashaw, born of the Palæologan race. The prince of the order was then one whom the Greeks called the *Megalon Mastora*, our Grand Master, Peter of Aubusson, a Frenchman by nation, who, it is reported, was later created a cardinal of the Roman Church. He conducted himself with his men in this siege so bravely that Mesites was compelled to depart, not only with his mission unaccomplished, but even having sustained very grave losses. Indeed, even without counting the other casualties, thirty thousand Turks perished, as some say, though Geuffroy places the number much lower.
[152. Otranto taken by the Turks, and recovered by the Christians.]
Otranto is called by the Turks and Italians a city situated in the extreme corner of Apulia, and in the region of Albania or Epirus: from which town, Velona or Valona (formerly Aulonia) is separated by only sixty Greek miles of sea. Emperor Leo makes it a metropolis, and calls it Hydrus, whence comes the corrupted name Otranto. Indeed, while Leo was reigning, this part of Italy, along with Calabria, obeyed the Byzantine Emperor: and thus they acknowledged the patriarch of New Rome, the cathedra of Constantinople, not the pope of Old Rome. Among other examples of cruelty perpetrated by the barbarians after the capture of Hydrus, it is reported that they sawed the city’s archbishop in half at the altar. We, setting sail from Corfu, because suitable winds were failing, were compelled to stop here, placed in no small danger on account of the monstrous Turkish pirates; who, because of the recent killing of the wife of Ramadan, the Tripolitan bashaw, together with her family—as we recounted in the supplement to the *Annales*—were raging rabidly against the Venetians. Nor did the Spanish governor of Otranto act with any less barbarity toward us; he, through a shipmaster sent at considerable risk by us, as we requested that he grant us permission to approach the port a little more closely, so that we might be safer from the injuries of pirates near the port and city, not only refused this, but even ordered it to be announced that if we approached any closer, he would receive us with every kind of war machine from the citadel. This happened because we were coming from Constantinople, where in the previous summer, as was said a little earlier, the most serious pestilential disease had raged. Yet it had ceased to rage for more than five months before our departure; and we were already in the fourth month since leaving Constantinople. Thus, indeed, some beasts divest themselves of all humanity, showing but a sense of human nature, solicitous of preserving this life for as long as possible, since they expect no eternal or heavenly one. Hydrus, after the death of Muchemet, when Bajasites, his successor in the empire, was involved in a war against his brother Zem, had recalled Achmet Geduk-basha to him the following year (as follows a little later in the *Annales*); the Neapolitan kings, having obtained auxiliary forces from the Hungarian king Matthias, recovered it, having besieged and stormed it: 455 these, trained in battles against the neighboring Turks, are said to have contributed foremost labor in this war toward overcoming the barbarians.
[153. The death of Sultan Muchemet II. The field of Teggiur Zair, Nymphæum.]
The death of Muchemet conveniently interrupted plans that would have been pernicious to the Christian republic. For, Otranto captured, he would without doubt have pressed on: especially since, having possessed New Rome, he was forever dreaming I know not what of subjecting Old Rome as well. He is said to have crossed into Asia with an army, intending to invade the Sultan of Egypt, partly because he had violated his own envoys returning with gifts from Usumchasan, king of the Persians: and partly also because he was demanding a pedestrian toll from the Turks, *Mechien*, through the borders of his empire, for the sake of religion. Bonfinius records him as having been extinguished in the year of Christ 1481, on the fifth of the Nones of May. The *Annales* add that he died in the field of Teggiurum. This place name is reported by the Turks as *Teggiur Zair*. And the cause has been explained above, in note 56, why the Turks called the Greek emperors *Teggiures*. Malatesta's secretary reports that Muchemet, having crossed the army to Scutari and having set out thence to Chisiviche, whose plain on one side touches the sea, had fallen into illness. In these words, for *Chisiviche* I should for my part think another name ought to be substituted, namely that *Geivisen*, of which we spoke in chapter note 74. Indeed, all historians confess that Muchemet had held this route toward Nicomedia: not far from which he died. It was indeed noted above that *Geivisen* is not said to be separated by a great distance from Nicomedia on a single journey. It was said in the same place that there is a gulf of the sea there which the ancients called the Astacenian. The Malatestan secretary himself also points this out with his finger, as it were. Our Pretor of Greece makes mention of a certain royal or imperial palace, to which he gives the name *Nymphæum*. He describes a place not far removed from it, in all things very similar to such a field of the Teggiurum or of the emperors. Somewhere, Michael says of Nymphæum: Emperor Palæologus had arrived at Nymphæum, the place where emperors were accustomed to refresh themselves after they had been cast into exile from Constantinople (by the Flemings). Elsewhere, however, he describes the plain or field itself in these words: "When for some days [Emperor John, namely, Ducas Vatatzes] had spent time at Phlebia, he set out for Clyzomenes (this is the name of this place) and ordered tents to be pitched there." For there […
all that place is a mere plain that produces a wealth of grass, sufficient for many horses. It is even irrigated by water, and in the vicinity, it has many pastures and cities from which things necessary for sustenance are copiously supplied. Thus far the praetor, who writes that the emperor arrived at this Clyzomenes. But if that was not the meadow of Teggiorum or of the emperors, in which he died, according to the opinion of others, then Muchemetes certainly found another place, which is even today called by this name.
154. *The history of Sultan Zem, the other son of Muchemetes.*
He must be admonished in the beginning that among the Turks the name is Sultan Zem, or Ziem, in Italian pronunciation. Geuffroy and others do not correctly call him Zizimus and Zizimen; I judge this to be a corruption of the word Zelebi, from which word the matter was related at the beginning of this account. The narrative of both, however, by which he was led as a captive by Achmet Gedik Pasha, is that he was surpassed by his brother, as will be clear in the Annales. The rest of his life's fortune after his flight is briefly related by our expositor when the Turks could not record it, for it was little known to them. Therefore, having been defeated in battle and his affairs being desperate, he fled to Rhodes; and he handed himself over to the Master who was then the Frenchman Peter d’Aubusson.
At that time, he was in his twenty-eighth year. C When Bajazet received word of this, he sought, while stroking the Master with the greatest honors and gifts, that he might keep him carefully; at the same time he promised that he would provide forty thousand ducats every year for his food so long as his brother remained alive; finally, he pledged perpetual peace with the Christians. The great Master accepted these conditions, which indeed Bajazet fulfilled in good faith. But Zem, for the sake of greater security, and so that he might be held by Bajazet in perpetual constraints, was taken into Gaul, where he lived for a long time in a certain fortress of the Rhodian knights, named Bourganeuf. He was then brought to Rome to Pope Innocent VIII. There, while he lived under Innocent, and after his death under Alexander VI as pope, he remained until Charles VIII, King of France, having occupied the Neapolitan kingdom, had come to Rome. For Zem was saying—just as Alexander had been saying—that he would use him to recover the empire of Constantinople. But he was given a slow poison by the Pope, as tradition has assigned, and he expired, having been slowly consumed until a certain end. And so, having been brought to Terracina after a few days, he departed from human affairs there.
155. *The history of Mekie, of Medina Alnabi, and their son and grandson.*
He betook himself to Mekie, as if fulfilling a vow, they say. D Our Mecha is there, the Meca of the Achmetites, and for the Saracens, Medina Alnabi, that is, the city of the Prophet. Having gone to the Sultan of Cairo, he confirmed that he had admitted Geuffroy with his forces and money; but this is denied by the secretary of Malatesta, referring only to the son of the Sultan of Cairo. What happened to his son in this case, Spandugino exposed in a few words. For he narrates that when he had arrived in Rhodes, having embraced the Christian religion and been baptized, he remained there; having taken a wife and having four children, two male and the same number of female, he lived in hiding, as it were, until Rhodes was captured and, upon Solomon’s inquiry about him, he persistently asserted that he would desert the Christian religion, and he was killed by the order of Solomon along with his children, and they were taken to Constantinople.
156. *The death of Gedik Achmet Pasha.*
He who had suddenly risen from a most humble condition to supreme dignity and wealth, and had managed great things for his sultans with imperial skills—Muchemetes and Bajazet—with his own notable glory: how unfairly, finally, he suffered that life-ending death, the Annals commemorate in a few words. Yet they add no causes; that he was suddenly killed by the order of Bajazet, as Geuffroy and the secretary of Malatesta wrote with his own hand. Geuffroy says that it was attested that Bajazet feared the excessive power and virtue of his servant to his master. But the secretary of Malatesta himself, in a certain place, explains the matter, which, having changed the words from his own Italian into Latin, we insert here. He says, "The persistence of the character of the Janissaries, whom it is certainly never true to say, when they did not use Bajazet as their master, they would summon Sultan Zem, who would command them. What is more, they sometimes ran with great fury to the very gates of the sultan's palace, armed. But Bajazet would mitigate them with mild words, and would grant all their demands quite indulgently. But when the anger of the raging was quieted, he would remove the leaders of the sedition. And because the Janissaries often went to the house of Achmet Chendis, the vizier, Bajazet finally, in Adrianople, where he was at that time, invited them all to a banquet, and there put Achmet Pasha to death with his own hand." He is the one to whom the man added most correctly this epigraph in Aratean style: that he was the symbol of such love and benevolence.
157. *The extinction of the family of the Prince of Caramania. Pirametus, for Ibrahime, the Caramanian reduced to form.*
The last is Casanes, whose name the Annals betray—who are found in the history of the families of the Princes of Caramania. For we see Geuffroy to be in error, who records this family as having been extinguished under
A the empire of Mohammed twelve or thirteen years before this time; and he gives a different name to the last one, calling him Abraham. He says, moreover, that Mohammed set free Usumchasan—I suppose he means Assambeg—as his adversary, after the death of Pirametes of Caramania, into which [land] he had sent his son Abraham, having compelled him to implore his aid. But Pope Pius II, to whom he had repaired when his mission had been established in Caramania, having arranged for a fleet at Ancona, died there, before he could await the coming of his Venetian allies. Hence it happened that the fleet was dispersed, and the Hungarians having occupied the area in the war, the Caramanian [prince] was by no means sufficient to resist the Turks, and was killed; and thus the Caramanian family failed, the rule of which fell to the Osmanlis. It is true that at these times things are confused; he says that Abraham, the son of Pirametes, was killed, the last of that family, and that the war which pertains to the year of Christ 1474 [was fought] against Usumchasan. But that Pope Pius II wished to bring aid to him a short while before, when he himself was on the point of death, and the other was oppressed by the Turks, is quite certain. Moreover, the Annals report that Caramanian Giolchisarem was taken by Mohammed II in the year of Christ 1469. Yet not even the prince himself, who was then Ibrahimes, is said to have been killed by [the Turks]. Whom he also calls Abraham, the son of Pirametes, having waged war with Mohammed; Bonfinius calls him Pirametes, the Turks call him Ibrahime, who is indeed the same as Abraham. From which I truly conclude that the name Pirametes is that. I judge that through a transposition of letters, Pirametes is the same as Praimeto or Praime, or by the Turkish [name] Ibraime. As we noted above, from that same name Praime, Chalcocondyle made Priammus, by also transposing the letters. Ibraimis, truly the son of Casanes, was educated at the court of Bajazet, and finally in the year of Christ 1483, or the following, he died, bringing an end to the Caramanian family: from which time the Caramanian *beglerbegatus* of the Osmanlis began.
A 158. The building of the *imaret* of Bajazet at the river Adrianople.
There are in Adrianople the confluences of three rivers, the Hebrus, or Mariza, the Tunsas or Tunari, and the Harda, from which, after they met as mentioned in chapter 50, the name Mariza prevails, upon whose bank it is said that Bajazet began to build his *imaret*.
Kili, Cilium, Celium, Chelia, Achillea, Nestoralba, Bessarabia, Kermen, Aherman, Stephen Vaivoda Carabogdanie.
What is read here concerning the capture of the fortress of Kili is exposition almost in the words of the secretary Malatesta, which he was pleased to attribute to the translation. Bajazet, he says, passed three years in leisure after he had overcome (that is, expelled) his brother Zemem: and then having been admitted into the alliance of the Tatars, he equipped [his army] with great land forces: and he prepared for war B to invade Carabogdania, the *vaivode*, and to overturn his strength. Having entered the region, he laid waste all things with fire and sword and took the city of Chilia, even with the governor of the fortress Mamalacco surrendering, a traitor to his country. The Turks and Tatars then proceeded with a great army to the stronghold of Moncastrum. And when they had demanded the city from those within, provided that upon the stipulated agreement of leaving with their lives safe, they were granted their wishes: they delivered nothing of what they had promised. Bajazet also ordered the families of five hundred citizens, or more or less, of those cities to be taken away to Constantinople. Bonfinius, recalling the events in that place at the same time, says that Achilles, now Cheliam, and Nestoralbam, situated at the mouths of the Ister (Danube), were then besieged by the Turks; that Stephen, the prince of lower Mysia (he wishes to say Moldavia), had sought aid from the Hungarian king Matthias and from the society of the treaty, but that the promised reinforcements not having been sent, those cities had come into the power of the enemy. Let us compare these things among ourselves, with the Turkish annals. Primus, he says, that Baja-site had been with the fortresses of the city, Chilia and Moncastrum: another, Cheliam and Nestoralbam: and finally the annals, Kilim and Chermen. They agree, therefore, that all [were] taken from the aforementioned stronghold, except that there is a certain diversity in the names: just as the same is called by Laonicus, Celium, and by Cureau, Cilium. Jovius, by error I think, calls it Lithostomum, on the bank of the Danube or at the mouth of the Danube C. However, they seem to disagree regarding the name of another city, with the first naming Moncastrum, the other Nestoralbam, and the third finally Chermen. The secretaries [call it] Moncastrum, and the Turks Chermen, but I think that both are [different from] Nestoralbam. Indeed Kermen or Chermen is situated on the borders of Moldavia and Tataria, towards the Pontus Euxinus, that is, [where] it flows into the Danube. And the *sanciac* who is today [of] Chermen or Aherman, [is] the *beglerbeg* of Romania or Greece, [and is] subject to [the Sultan]. Bonfinius says [there is] Nestoralba, not Moncastrum, or Chermen, but the city which is today called Bialogrod, which signifies 'white fortress', and [is] outflowing into the Euxinus, not the Ister, just as Bonfinius wrote, but the mouth of the river Nester. Therefore it should have been written not Nestoralba, but Nesteralba. And the Nester river is called the Tyras river. D Recent Greek historians, for years [now], have called it Danastrin, as those nearby have called it Neper, which I think is not [the] Borysthenes, which it receives before the borders of Russia or Rus, to which even the ancient name of the Borysthenes comes closer. Cureau wrote that in this very year of Christ 1485, Stephen Valachum, who was then quarreling between the kings, Matthias the Hungarian and Casimir the Pole, though the client of both, finally, in the words of king Casimir, had sworn in the camps: nevertheless, he was abandoned by the Poles, and he lost Bessarabia. This truly is the extreme region on the coast of Wallachia, situated at the sea, which [contains] Kilim and Chermen.
the towns of Moncastrum, or as it is called by those of Thrace, the Bessae. I once knew at the court of the Emperor Maximilian, who was celebrating the Diet at Speyer, a certain Nicholas, born of a prince of Bessarabia, as was commonly believed; and there were certain documents and testimonies, especially leaden bulls of the Venetians, which confirmed this origin of his. A
159. *On the war between the sultans, the Cairene and the Ottoman, Usun Usbeg, Tersis.*
The causes of this war must be referred to the offenses of earlier times. For we have said that Mahomet II, the father of Bajazet, shortly before his death had sent forces into Asia to wage war against the sultan of Cairo, who had assisted his enemies, especially the Caramanian; and he otherwise bore himself insolently toward the Turks, as was stated in chapter 153. Bajazet, therefore, continues the war begun by his father, being further provoked by new injuries, because the sultan of Cairo had favored the party of Zizim. He is not correctly named Caitheus by Jovius, Geuffroy, and others; he is better called Caitheus—or as if it were Caitbegus—by Peter Martyr of Milan, the father of the sultan Mahomet. See chapter 257. Bajazet demanded that Zizim’s wife and son be handed over to him by this same man. But who among the others was an ally of the Cairene sultan in this war, Usun Usbeg, is not specified. B 458. The name *Usun* signifies "long": *Us* [means] crafty and cunning. My friend Nicholas Haunolt says that a certain Tatar king is called Usbeg Han, who is situated even farther away than the Chitaian. The city of Adana in Cilicia is sufficiently well known, even from the histories of the Greeks, Zonaras, and Cedrenus. C *Tersis* is the homeland of the divine Paul, Tarsus, which Stephanus, the author of the *Etnika*, wishes to have been called Tersus and Tersia by the Greeks as well. By Bellonius it is now thought to be Ilam, and is incorrectly called Hamsa: for that is the Emesa of the Phoenicians. The river is washed by the same, Adana as well as Tarsus, which in ancient times was the Cydnus, and is now called the Carasu, from the very deep, black color of the water.
160. *Not once, but twice, it was fought between the sultanines and the Osmanlis. Diverse names: Cheserogli, Cherseogli, Herceogli, Herzecogli, Cherzecogli.*
What has been known to the Turks from the times of Murad up to the second [Mahomet] we see to contain not a little, when explaining deeds, that is fuller than what is found in our histories. D Evidence of this is the error of most of our writers concerning a battle, which they maintain was the single most serious encounter fought between the sultanines and the Osmanlis, with such a slaughter of Turks as they had never suffered from any other nation in the world. Among these is Geuffroy, who, confusing both the names of the commanders and the double battle, says that the Turkish army was turned to flight and that Cherseolus, son-in-law of Bajazet, was taken and brought to the sultan Caitheus at Cairo. Yet the Turkish annals make the commanders of the first expedition Ferhat beg, son-in-law of Bajazet, and Caragosa, the beglerbeg of Caramania: of which two one was killed, namely Ferhat, son-in-law of Bajazet. Expedition... A ...namely Cheserogli, and Achmet, son of the duke, the beglerbeg of Romania. Therefore, Geuffroy did not know that Ferhat, son-in-law of Bajazet, was killed in the first battle; he did not know that in the second battle there were two commanders, Cheserogli and Herzecogli. And so he not only confuses two battles into one, but he even creates one single *Cherseolus* of his own out of three: Ferhat, son-in-law of Bajazet, Cheserogli, and Herzecogli, who himself was also a son-in-law of Bajazet. But his name is without doubt corrupted from *Cheserogli*, who is the son of Cheser, concerning whom, the *Chesere bego* born of the Elpia family, we treated above in chapter 117. Nevertheless, this Cheserogli was not a son-in-law of Bajazet, nor was he captured in the second battle, but rather Herzecogli, or the son of the duke, Achmet Bassa: whom Geuffroy previously also confused with Achmet Geduc, as was explained above in the number of the notes. B For it was noted above in chapter 95 that many peoples call a leader by a word taken from the Germans, *Hertzog*. From this, the reader understands that Bosnia had two princes: of whom one held the royal title, and the other the ducal title. Of the last Bosnian duke was born this son of the duke, or Herzecogli, whose name is read written in various ways by the authors of history. Spanduginus has the word *Cherzecogli*, which is the same as the word correctly written *Herzecogli*. But the same man errs when he makes him the beglerbeg of Anatolia, who, according to Turkish authorities, was the beglerbeg of Romania. In the secretary of Malatesta he is found as *Herceogle*, and in Jovius as *Cherseogle*. But all these are depraved from that "Turco-German" word which we have mentioned.
161. *The end of the duchy of Bosnia, or Herzegovina, or of the Herceg, or Orzega, or St. Saba, or the Black Mountain. The history of Achmet the Herzecuglis Bassa.*
We have reviewed above, in the chapter of notes 141, the destruction of the kingdom of Bosnia; let us now commemorate what the end of the duchy of Bosnia was, just as our promise and the history of this son of the duke, or Herzecoglis, demand. For the Annales say that Achmet Bassa Herzecoglim, in the second battle against the sultanines, having fallen from his horse, came into the hands of the sultanines and was brought to Vibegum and handed over to custody. But the secretary of Malatesta, narrating the same, says: "Bajazet," he says, "having received news of the slaughter of his men, aroused by an excessive anger, again equipped a very powerful army and set as supreme commander over it Herzecoglim, the son of the former Stephen, Duke of St. Sava; who, having been defeated by some adverse fortune, fell together with his entire force, having even had three fingers of his right hand amputated." Let us see, therefore, what both the origin and the family of this man were; what was the occasion for his defecting to the Turks; and finally, what the destruction was of the whole race from which he was born. But different things are reported by two authors, Spanduginus and Jovius: whom both—and first that Greek one—let us hear. He narrates that, before these times, the sultan Mu-
Muchemet II had decided in his heart to bring the Duchy of Bosnia under his yoke, the prince of which was Duke Stephen of Saint Sava, and was commonly called Herzechas (the reader should note the German word *Hertzog*). That this region is bordering on the Ragusans, between whom and Prince Stephen enmities had intervened for a certain reason of this kind. The Duke had a legitimate wife, from whom he had begotten three male children: Ladislaus, the eldest, to whom Anna Cantacuzena was married; Stephen, the second-born; and the last, Vaticus. It happened, however, that a certain Florentine woman, of excellent beauty but too prodigal of her own body, left her country and betook herself into this region of the Duchy of Bosnia. Duke Stephen, who had often heard from the conversations of others that Florentine women easily took first place among all other Italian women because of the charm of their beauty, their natural disposition, and the elegance of their manners, as soon as he learned of her arrival, eager to see her, sent men to summon the woman to him. Once he saw her, he soon began to love her, so much so that he esteemed his own legitimate wife as naught, of whom he had become satiated. The wife of the prince, however, when she could no longer endure this injury, betook herself in secret flight to Ragusa with her eldest son. The husband, having sent certain envoys to her, begged that she return home, and not by her departure and absence provide a cause by which her own infamy might be divulged. She, in turn, replied that she would return if he would dismiss the Florentine woman. Duke Stephen could not compel his own mind to do this. Nevertheless, he sent his men to the Ragusans and demanded his wife and son back. When they did not comply with the will of the prince, war was waged. The Ragusans, preparing to defend themselves in turn, appointed the son of Stephen, Ladislaus, to command their forces, and helped him in all matters. The son, having engaged in battle with his father, gained the victory and compelled his father to look to his own safety in flight; a great number of the paternal soldiers were killed. Then, indeed, the fugitive Duke Stephen sent to sultan Muchemet, that he might humbly implore his aid and auxiliary forces against his son. At the same time, he offered his second-born son as a hostage to Muchemet. This was Stephen, who subsequently became a Muslim. Muchemet not only agreed to the requests but also promised that he would wage this war under his own banners. D As Muchemet was approaching with his army, however, the father died: Ladislaus, the first-born son, betook himself to Venice with his wife and children; and fleeing thence to Hungary, he departed this life there. Muchemet, having occupied the region, left a certain town with the castle of Novo in Dalmatia and other places to Vaticus, the third son of Duke Stephen, from which he might live; and Vaticus, in turn, acknowledged Muchemet as his lord or patron. But upon the death of Muchemet, Bajazet brought the region of this Vaticus, the son of Duke Stephen of Saint Sava, under his power; A that little town is of an island of the same name in the Adriatic gulf near the Dalmatian coast, second after Veglia—which Ortelius did not correctly write as Vecbia, and interpreted even worse as Vetula, whereas it should be called Vegla or Vigla, and is thought by Bonfinius to have been called Corycia by the ancients. These things Spanduginus recorded regarding the end of the Duchy of Bosnia and the family of the dukes themselves. Jovius, however, reports from the conversations of Janus Lascaris, a man born to an illustrious family among the Greeks, to whom the most well-known Achametes Bassa was related, that Chersenglis had already at a mature and manly age abandoned the Christian religion: in such a way, however, that he did not forget the true faith in the depth of his heart. That he had been the son of Chersecchius, a ruler of the Black Mountain in Slavonia: when he had been given in marriage—and was already being led home for the wedding—a girl born of the despotic Servian line, her wicked father, moved by the daughter-in-law's admirable elegance, having cast his eyes upon her, had been seized with love: and when lust overcame all shame, he had taken her as his wife, against the will of his kinsmen, who reproached the crime, insulting to the son, infamous to the father. The young man, moved by the disgrace of so great an injury, and urged on too much by sudden desperation, betook himself to Constantinople: and when he had sorrowfully explained his father's foul crime to Sultan Bajazet, he handed himself entirely over to his faith and protection. Bajazet, having heard the complaints of Stephen, told him to be of good courage; that his virtue deserved greater things than his paternal fortunes; that he would have, in place of the snatched-away bride—who is a relative of the exiled ruler—the daughter of the great sultan, endowed with rare beauty of form. Following this, when—having abandoned the Christian religion and having put aside the name of Stephen—it is said he was called Achmetes and Cherseoglis, and had obtained the marriage of the daughter of Bajazet; to whom he remained constantly faithful, so much so that he strongly opposed Selim, who was subsequently plotting against his paternal empire. Whether this Jovian account concerning Cherseoglis should be preferred to the Spanduginian one, I, for my part, leave it to others to judge. Only this, which Spanduginus relates concerning the death of Stephen the father—that he died sub-advent (as he says) of Muchemet—casts a certain doubt upon us. The Turkish annals report that Muchemet occupied Herzegovina, or the Duchy of Bosnia, in the Christian year 1464, from which time he himself lived for fourteen more years, and perhaps Duke Stephen remained alive even longer. For it is not read in the Annals that he was removed from the midst by Muchemet with his sons at that time, or entirely spoiled of his dominion, just as we see expressly admitted about the "Buzinensis Pege" in the cited place, but only that Herzegovina—which is Upper Bosnia, or the Duchy of Saint Sava (as that Malatestanus official wrote with Greek pronunciation)—was sent under the yoke by Muchemet. In this way, if Duke Stephen the father remained alive longer, and was subject to the Turks and paying them tribute in 1460, he not only polluted himself with the adultery of the Florentine woman,
but afterwards he also snatched away from his own second-born son, Stephen, his inheritance through wickedness: it is no wonder that, with the pile of crimes grown to its full measure, an angry Divinity brought an end to the Bosnian duchy. For as a rule, the unbridled desires of such princes, more than anything else, summon the ruin of their own kingdoms.
162–3. Dulgadir and Aladeule, Daud Bassa, Turgut region. The province or region of Dulgadir, or Dulcadir, is not correctly termed by our people in part Anadoule and Alalulie, and in part Aladoule. But the Turkish annals attribute the name of Dulgadir to the region, whose prince is called by them Aladeule, a word of four syllables. The limits of this territory, enclosed by the mountains of Cappadocia, which Cedrinus in his *Paralipomena* encompasses with the word Munzari, were at that time the following: towards Syria, bordering the Sultan of Cairo, Berrhoea, now Chalep or Halep to the Turks, and Halepo to our people: towards the empire of the Persian or Sophin king, Armenia Minor: towards the empire of the Osman prince, Amasia: towards Caramania, Adana and Tarsus. Aladeules himself was a Turcoman prince, not a Christian, as even Malatestanus the actuary has left in his testimony. The name Daud to the Turks is the same as David to the Hebrews. Nicolaides writes it corruptly as Daat. He was great and famous among his own people, for he built the mosque in Constantinople that stands intact to this day, and he earned for his son the marriage of the daughter of Sultan Bajazit. Concerning Varsacus of Caramania, we spoke in note 77. At that time indeed, after the death of Casanus Beg, whom we said above in note 159 was the last of the Caramanian family, it had been reduced to the form of a province or beglerbegate, as the Turks call it, who name the first beglerbeg of Caramania Caragosas in this very war: but it still had certain nobles of the lesser nations who, without doubt, were not yet happy with the empire of the Osmans, even though they were of the same nation and the same sect. The Turgut region is called by the Turks Greater Phrygia, which extends towards Cilicia, as is evident from Laonicus: who, describing the life of the first Bajazit, names Turgetus the duke of Phrygia, and afterwards Turgaturius as a prince of the nation. But again in the case of Murad II: Caramanus, he says, is a neighbor of Turgut. Turgut however rules Phrygia, and for his region touches Cappadocia and Armenia. In these words, unless Turgut were distinguished from Dulgadir even by the Turks themselves, almost anyone would swear there was no difference between the name Turgaturius and Dulgadir. But that opinion must be suspended until a more correct manuscript of Laonicus is offered to us. The permutation of the letters R and L is certainly frequent, just as when the Greeks say *phulkizin* for *phurkizin*, that is, to cast into the gallows.
164. Iachoschicius, Inchsogli. Whom we, having followed the interpreter of Caesar Ferdinand, Spiglius, have called Iachoschitius, we have seen being called Iachsogli in the very archetype of the Annals. We have thought it by no means to be passed over. Nowhere, indeed, does this name, nor the deed itself even if it is memorable, appear in the Hungarian historian Bonfinius, nor is there mention of this embassy sent by King Matthias, who at that time ruled his own Hungarians, to Sultan Bajazit. Moreover, *Iachsogli* signifies "son of Iachsi," or "Iachsides." And *Iachs* in the Turkish language signifies a person elegant and refined in all things, a nickname which perhaps was then, after the embassy had been performed with praise, bestowed upon him by the Turks. It is possible, however, that this *Iachschitz* is rather of Hungarian origin.
Isingi, Singani, Zingani, Sultan of the Ethiopians according to Pachymeres. When the Annals say an army was sent by Bajazit toward Arabia, the borders or limits of the Sultanic empire are to be understood, which, bordering Caramania (which had then come under the power of the Osmans) and comprising Egypt and Arabia. Thus in what follows, at the beginning of the reign of Sultan Selim, Achmetes, his brother, is narrated to have fled to the "Arabian borders," that is, to the limits of the Sultanic, Egyptian, and Syrian empire. Again, in the same Selim, it is related that the Arabs, who are also Ethiopians, blocked the paths for the fleeing Sultan Tommambai. In which name of Arabs and Ethiopians or Moors—that is, the black men who were subject to the Sultan of Cairo—the reader should accept no others than the Egyptians themselves, who are also Arabs, and are now even called Ethiopians from their color, and *Issingi* by the Turks, and *Singani* or *Zingani* by our people, a word common as well to the Arabs as to the Egyptians. For they are not to be called Zigeuni, nor Cianiganii Tartars, as Reineccius thought. The same Pachymeres is deservedly accused of error because in the third book he called the Cairene Bendecar a Sultan of the Ethiopians. He adds, indeed, that this was done by him wrongly. But Pachymeres spoke correctly when he called the Egyptians Ethiopians, who in truth are of a colored face. For he took the name of Ethiopians in the broad significance of the ancient Greek language, just as today the Greeks call the Moors—whence come our *Mori*—black in general, whether they be Arabs, or Egyptians, or Africans, or those Ethiopians properly so called. 461 Finally the most learned Eustathius, and earlier than him Stephanus, the author of the *Etnica*, maintain that Egypt was called Ethiopia because of the black men inhabitant therein.
166. Three for the race of Bajazit made at the same time. We said in note 161 of the two branches of the race of Sultan Bajazit, of Ferhates killed by the Mamelukes, and Herzecogli captured by them. Now three others are commemorated, who obtained the marriages of the daughters of the same. The first of these is called the son of Usumchasanus, and shortly after, Jacupes Begus: who perished in the expedition of the following year against the same Mamelukes. The second, Usgurlis, a grandson by a son. But perhaps this Usgurles is the same as Usgure Beg, of whom mention is made above, before the second battle of Cossovo, under the authority of...
the Christian year 1448. The third was the son of Daud Basha, of whom mention was made a little earlier, in chapter 163. Moreover, it should be noted in passing that there must necessarily have been two sons of Uzun Hassan named Jacup; of these, one is said to have been a son-in-law of Bayezid and to have been killed by the Mamluks, while the other succeeded his father in the kingdom, as will appear from those things which will follow in chapter 188.
167. Larende Caramania, or Larenda
The place which was captured by the Mamluks is Larende; by Chalcocondyles it is written Laranda, when he says that Murad II sought in war the Caramanian Alideri, the duke of Caria, whose two cities are Laranda and Toconeium—for which I have taught that Iconium should be substituted. Leo Sapiens Augustus, in the *Novella on Thrones*, does not place the bishopric of the Larandians (for so he calls them in the plural number) in Caria, but in Lycaonia, under the metropolitan of Iconium, which I, for my part, approve more. It is also called Laranda today, and on a map of Natolia it is seen not far from Cogna, in the interior of Caramania, or Cilicia. Concerning Gumulzina, it was spoken of in chapter 43; concerning Ypsala, in chapter 31.
168. Peace between the Sultans and the Osmanlis, the death of the King of Hungary
A That the Sultan of Cairo is said in a transaction with Bayezid to have restored Tarsus and Adana, I judge to be more true than what Malatesta the secretary says, that Bayezid had returned Adana and Tarsus to the Sultan. For these are towns of Cilicia, or Caramania, which Bayezid, as was said before, had claimed for himself after the family of the Caramanids was extinguished. We also read a little earlier that the Sultan's forces had captured Adana. And so it was that the city was rather returned by them to Bayezid, who was demanding it back along with Tarsus, as members of Caramania. By the name of the dead King of Hungary, Matthias is understood, the son of John Hunyadi; his successor, however, was Vladislaus the Pole, the son of Casimir Jagellon, king of the Poles, the father of King Louis, who perished as a very young man at Mohács, slaughtered by Sultan Suleiman.
169. Bayezid does not dare to enter Hungary; Uscopia, Manastir, Monestir
Bonfinius also narrates these things about the vain attempt of Bayezid to invade Hungary, and reports that it happened after the death of King Matthias, the terror of the Turks, at the beginning of the reign of Vladislaus, in the Christian year 1492. Concerning the city of Scopia, we touched upon something above, in the chapter of notes where I rightly advised that the names of the towns, Sophia and Scopia, are different. For the former is called Sophia, the latter, in the manner of the Turks, Uscopia. For it is their custom to place before words beginning with a double consonant an B E or an initial V,—as I have noted elsewhere. Laonicus places Scopia in Macedonia and makes it the royal city of the ancient Bulgarian kingdom, which used to extend far into Macedonia and Epirus; and therefore Cedrinus also calls Scupia (Scopia must be substituted) the metropolis of Bulgaria. Hieronymus Wolfius, the learned interpreter of some recent Greek historians, says elsewhere that the watchtowers were destroyed for the overturning of the Scopians (for so he says). By more recent geographers, it is written Scopi. By the name Manastiri, the place mentioned above in chapter 44, situated on the borders of Thrace and Thessaly, is not understood here, but a monastery in the interior of Macedonia, toward Epirus or Albania, which is called *Monestir* by Castaldo. Bonfinius also mentions this expedition of Bayezid into Albania, who says that he proceeded against the mountainous Albanians, whom Spandugino called Chimariotes, from the town and mountain of Chimara, of which I shall speak more extensively hereafter in the life of Sultan Suleiman.
170. Bayezid is almost killed by a Turkish monk
That which is narrated here concerning the danger to Bayezid, of having been almost killed by a certain dervish or Turkish monk, is read in almost the same words as recorded in the memory by Spandugino, which I wish to interpret, that the consensus of the account may appear. A certain Torlaces, he says, rushed at Bayezid, pretending to seek alms from him. Those who beg in the name of God are accustomed to say *Allahitschi*. When he had drawn a scimitar, which he carried under his cloak, he frightened the horse upon which Bayezid was riding. C And therefore, as the horse of Bayezid retreated, the blow of the man was somewhat avoided: but none the less Bayezid received a wound. Then, truly, a certain Basha, whose name was Schender, brought down an iron club which they call a *busdoganum* upon the head of the man with such force that, with his skull broken, his brain came out. Bayezid, indignant because of this crime, having proposed an edict, proscribed all the Torlaces and cast them out beyond Constantinople and the borders of his empire. The reader should note that the same things are narrated, except that the *Annals* say this dervish was a Calender; Spandugino calls him a Torlace. Concerning which names of men, it must be explained as briefly as possible what certain superstitious orders or institutes of those sectaries are among the Turks.
171. Orders of monks or religious among the Turks; Dervislar, Calenderlar, Huggiemallar, Torlaclar; Muchemetesbassa the Vizier is publicly stabbed by a Dervislar; what the Turkish Divan is
The name of the Dervishes, whom they themselves in the plural number call *Dervislar*, is seen from this very narration of our annals to be as it were a general term, under which it is understood that the other orders and sects of religious are embraced, just as among us they are called monks in general, who nevertheless are distinguished among themselves by different orders. But the *Annals* call this man a Dervish at the beginning, and immediately add that he was a follower of the institute or order of the Calenders, and that he wore iron rings suspended from his ears, neck, and arms. That this is the custom of the order of the Calenders will soon appear. But those who are otherwise called *Dervislar* among the Turks have no hair on their head, have no locks, and are everywhere shaved. Scars are seen upon their foreheads and temples, either from a red-hot iron, or a burning sponge, or a linen band.
A They also note the things that occur to them on their journeys. They wear clothing, a certain tight little tunic that reaches to the knees. They are girded with a broad belt, the edges of which they decorate with gold and silk. To this they attach certain cymbals, of the kind they also wear tied beneath their knees. Over the tunic, they throw the skin of either a lion or a leopard, tied at the chest with the claws remaining as in the ancient style; for the rest, they are naked, except that they also wear shoes tied with cords. Their earrings are of silver, or bronze, or any other metal. They let their hair grow to their shoulders and anoint it with certain oils, such as turpentine or juniper, 463 the better, indeed, for it to grow. In their hand they carry a book. They sing certain love songs, in which the Turks take wondrous delight, composed in their Arabic or Persian language. If some handsome boy happens by, they immediately embrace his waist, singing and dancing while beating their cymbals. B Hence, there is a gathering of people from whom they then ask for some small gift. These same people, moreover, under the pretext of religion, pursue not only female but even more so male loves, for the lewd race is addicted to these things to an excessive degree.
Torlaces dress themselves in sheepskins and goatskins, just like the dervishes. Over these they throw a bearskin, with the hairs turned outward, tied to the chest by the claws; and with this they wrap themselves in place of a cloak. They use a very tall, pointed cap, having many folds, made of white felt; for the rest, they walk about completely naked. They, too, apply cauteries at times. They are entirely illiterate. They are generally seen C at taverns, public squares, and baths, which are places where many people gather, from whom they might ask for something. Sebastian von Haunsperg and John of Salagast, noble men, came to us in Constantinople from Egypt. One of them, Salagast, told us that in Alexandria, while he was living there, a holy man of this kind, in the opinion of the Mahometans, having stood before the entrance of a woman’s bath and having watched a woman coming out of the bath very attentively, fell upon her as if possessed by a sort of frenzy, and immediately threw her to the ground, and there—whether she was not perhaps very resistant—he took her in the eyes of all. The woman’s husband regarded himself as blessed by that act, because a holy man, by divine impulse, D had coupled with his wife before others. See the blindness of the people, and especially of the Egyptians. For I discovered that elsewhere almost nothing of this kind happened while we were living there. They are equally grasping on journeys and public roads, as we have said the dervishes are. They persuade the common people, especially the rural folk, that they are skilled in palmistry. Hence there is a huge gathering of people around these impostors, whom they take for prophets, especially simple women. Hence, all kinds of food, along with other necessary things, are brought to them. Sometimes they lead around one of their number, an old man whom they treat with almost divine honors as they adore him. When they have entered a town or village with this man, they stay at some prominent inn, or caravanserai, or imaretum; and him they [revere] not so much for his years as for his malice.
an old man, with great but feigned humility, watched by the bystanders A. He puts on, I know not what kind of, enthusiasms, and from time to time puts forward certain things as if divinely revealed to him with a most serious countenance: now he lies like a dead man, now he opens his eyes in turn and simulates returning to himself. Then, having turned to his fawning and suborned disciples: "Corrupt me," he says, "most beloved sons, and carry me outside this place. For it has been revealed to me by God what punishments hang over these men." Having heard this, the wretches entreat the impostor, as if he were averting God, not to demand those punishments. He simulates compliance, conceives prayers to God that His wrath may be expiated and that He may be entreated to be placated, and prays. By this threat of divine wrath, the miserable little mob is wonderfully terrified and trembles. B Afterward, however, drawing some consolation in return from his intercession, they run in swarms to the most wicked impostor. Everyone considers this whole affair a miracle and thinks they are being warned by God. At the same time, with devoted minds, and for the sake of the benefit received, they bring so many alms freely to these rogues that, laden with them, they return to their dens, and they laugh at the superstitious and stupidly simple men who allow themselves to be so foully imposed upon. And these men also feed on *maslac* or opium; and, lurking on the ground, they mutually defile one another with abominable lusts. I have decided that these things concerning the practices of these men—who are religious only in outward appearance—among the Turks should be briefly set forth, although they have also been revealed by others, both to illustrate the history of the annals and so that the reader himself may weigh how much more degenerate they necessarily must have become now, when, more than a hundred years ago, one of them dared to attempt the taking of his Sultan’s life, in the eyes of the whole army. In our own time, indeed, in the Christian year 1579, a certain deed similar to this occurred, and it is truly memorable. For a murder conceived in the mind of a certain dervish was attempted with equal daring, and executed with more successful results. Many things have been recorded by us in the Supplement to the annals concerning Mechemet Pasha Vizir-Azem, the son-in-law of Selim, a man of the highest authority among the Turks after the Sultan. As he was about to deliver judgment at his home according to custom, and was providing an opportunity for all to approach him in the synhedrion, or assembly, or council, or public audience (which the Turks call *divan*—a word which Belvacensis in book XXXI, chapter 145, corruptedly wrote as *Dovanain*, and Porsius even more horribly as *typhanum*), a certain dervish known to him was spotted as he was entering with great effort through the midst of the throng of men, and [Mechemet] reached out his hand, intending to give alms to the man. Thus, he was allowed by the others to approach the pasha. As soon as he had come closer to him, he drew a dagger from his bosom, and drove it with such force into Mechemet's chest that he immediately received a mortal wound, from which he expired: the dervish himself was soon after cut to pieces by those standing by in the crowd. See how wicked men have not yet degenerated from their predecessors.
172. Scaramangium, Giamurlikion, Gepenec, Seife, Kilitsch, acinax, copis, Zausii, Pusdigan.
What Spanduginus called a filter, is in the annals a *gepenec*. Thus also the Hungarians call the military garment which is accustomed to be thrown over tunics, cloaks, and other clothes, especially in rainy weather. The common people wear this made of felt, and for that reason Spanduginus gave it a name derived from the material, though I do not see what Latin word I ought to use to express it. It can be called a *Slavina*, less properly a *gausape*, as with Reineccius, because of the diversity of both material and form. The word *Scaramangium* is found in Cedrenus, and Symeon the Magister Officiorum, and Achmet the interpreter of dreams: regarding the meaning of which, when I consulted Theodosius Zygomalas of Nauplia in the Peloponnese, C patriarchal protonotary, he said that it was in use among the Greeks as an Agarenic word, *Giamurlikion*, which signifies that garment which military men wear over other inner garments to ward off rain, snow, frost, and finally other inconveniences of the weather. The Persians, however, were the inventors, and gave it the name *Scaramangium*, which from them then migrated to the Greeks along with the use of the garment itself. This, therefore, is the *gepenec* of which we are now speaking. Regarding the *Scaramangium*, consult also the passage in chapter 199; among the Arabs, *Seife*. The sword that we have rendered *acinaces* is called *Kilitsch* by the Turks. It is slightly curved, and because it does not thrust, but strikes with the edge, it found the name *Copis* among Xenophon and the other Greeks who deal with Persian matters. And it is certain from our same Xenophon that he accepted this type of sword from the Persians, as did other nations as well, especially the Asiatics. *Zausii*, just as we mentioned previously in passing in the Supplement to the Annals, are to be compared with our noble courtiers, and especially those whose services princes use in carrying out various businesses, which we are accustomed to call commissions. These have a prefect, whom they call the *Zausiorum bassa*. We were received by him, as he came out to meet us at the first milestone outside Constantinople with a distinguished retinue of *Zausii*, and we were escorted a very long way through the city to the caravansary assigned to the imperial ambassadors. Among the dignities of the palace of the more recent Greek emperors D is also found the *Megas* or *Great Tzausius*, which office the Greeks either borrowed from the Agarenes, or the Agarenes received from the Greeks, and it is without doubt the same as the *Zausiorum bassa*. The number of *Zausii* has now grown to almost seven hundred among the Osmanli. Finally, I have retained the Agarenic name *Pusdigani*, just as I did earlier in the narrative about the capture of Constantinople, by which a club or iron mace, customary among the Turks, is signified. Recent Greeks have usurped this word and rendered it their own, whereas once they had been accustomed to say *korynē*.
korynē*. A
174. *Concerning the kingdoms among the Hungarians, the Croats, and the Dirensil Ban.*
We promised in the seventy-first chapter above that we would speak more fully of the Bans and Banates in the kingdoms joined to the Hungarian realm. Therefore, in this place, I say that the word "Ban" among the Hungarians means a governor or a lieutenant (in Greek *topotērētēs*, just as the name *exarch* in the Italian Ravennate territory signifies a vicar of the king within Hungary itself, or of someone belonging to the jurisdiction of Hungary).
Certain parts of these Hungarian kingdoms have existed since ancient times, and some continue to do so now: Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia (that is, Illyricum), Rama or Vel (by which name in the Hungarian royal titles is understood Bosnia), Servia, Galicia, otherwise Wallachia, Lodomeria, Comania, and Bulgaria. Besides these Bans, history notes the Banate of Machovia and of Zeverinum (which they now commonly call Transalpine Wallachia), named from the river Danube B or from the town built by the Emperor Severus, and also of Erdeli, which the Turks in their histories call the realm of the Transylvanian Voivode—though with us it is called Erdeli or Transylvania. John of Zapolya, the usurper of the kingdom and scourge of his country, was merely called Voivode. The Hungarians themselves say that they call the Ban "Van" because he leads others with a standard. Whence it appears that the difference between these is that one is a governor and the other is a Ban, because one bears the burden of the kingdom in times of peace as well as war; the other is occupied only with military matters. And it is further clear that the word "Bando" is derived from the royal constitutions, as it is called "Banderium"—a word which the Greek calls *Phlamularis* (*phlamoulariēs*) or the Turk calls *Sanzacbeg* with his *Flambur*.
But let us return to the annals, which generally call the Hungarian Ban "Bon-" C as in affairs concerning the command of the Croatians, signifying that there was only a Ban of Croatia, namely, a kingdom joined to the realm of Hungary. Indeed, the name of the Croatians is very well known today. It is a nation stubborn in retaining its Christian religion. Because of this, refusing to be subject to the Turks at the risk of losing their faith, they migrate to their neighbors, and now fill a great part of Austria and Moravia, dedicated to tilling the fields. Cedrinus, in his *Basil Bulgaroctonus*, calls them "Chorvati." "The peoples of the Chorvati," he says, "are neighbors to the Bulgarians," which name "Chorvat" or "Horvat," with a strong aspiration, is still in use among them today. Other Greeks call them *Chrobatas* or *Chrovatas*. And I remember reading in their own writings somewhere that the Servians and Chrovatas are the same, respect being had of course to their same origin and the Venedic language, which we demonstrated in the thirty-fifth chapter regarding the Servians.
Again, from these Annals, the Hungarian Ban is also called *Direnzil Ban*, as if *Drenz Cili Ban*, that is, the Ban of Drenzus of Cilia. For the most famous county of Cilia belonged to the Banate of Croatia in ancient times, and Bonfinius expressly hands down that the Pasha (by which name he understands Jacup Aga) was the first of all to deform the territory of Cilia with ravaging in this war. The proper name of the Ban is read in him as Emericus Drenzenus, a man (as he himself admits) of the highest industry as well as counsel, who had been substituted in the place of Duke John Corvinus by King Vladislaus. The Ban had with him, by the authority of Bonfinius, only seven thousand soldiers: the rest consisted of cohorts of unorganized peasant rabble not accustomed to arms. Another evil also happened, in that Drenzenus fought against the sentiment of his own mind, compelled by Bernardinus Frangepanus—who, however, withdrew himself from the battle by flight. This D was, of course, that discord and flight which the Annals wish to imply when they say that the Hungarians, disagreeing among themselves, fled. Bernardinus was the father of that John Frangepanus whom we said had been besieged at Brevia. The son, a fierce man, previously an enemy or rather a rebel, fell slain in this battle.
*The Venetians in the Peloponnese: Ludovicus Maurus, Duke of Milan, stirs up the Turk against the Venetians; Naupactus besieged by the Turks.*
...and in their own use they hold the given faith of little account, nor do they have any regard for promises made to Christians. Therefore, he schemes for war against them, and for the sake of a pretext, he eagerly seizes a small occasion: that the Venetians had undertaken to protect Count John Cernovichius (we showed above in chapter 46 that he should be called Cernovitzios, and others call this same man Georgius), a petty ruler of the neighboring Calaro domain, from whom Bajazet had taken away most of his territory. But there was another cause in reality, which gave him almost certain hope of ejecting the Venetians from the Morea or Peloponnese, in which they certainly possessed many great and fortified cities and citadels. For the King of France, Louis XII, intending to despoil Ludovicus Sfortia, nicknamed "Maurus" because of the darkness of his countenance, of the Duchy of Milan, which he asserted was his own right, had struck a treaty against Sfortia with the Venetian Republic. Terrified by that union of the Gauls with the Venetians, Sfortia sent an envoy to Bajazet to persuade him, both by gifts and by various arguments, to wage war against the Venetians. For he said it would come to pass that, with the Venetians occupied in the Italian war, he himself would strip them of their Greek cities and camps and islands without any trouble. Lured by this hope, Bajazet departed from the peace sanctioned with the Venetians. And, in truth, that action of Maurus was harmful to Venice, but in the end, it was, as the saying goes, a bean baked for him by the just judgment of God. For he finally paid bitter penalties for his ambition, for his manifold injuries toward John Galeacius his brother's son, and for the fatal counsels for his country by which he moved the Gauls against the Neapolitan kings and the Turks against the Venetians. A subtle and keen-witted envoy of the Florentine Republic had predicted to him that this would happen one day. For when he was arrogantly showing off to this man who had been sent to him, as he was usually accustomed to do, both his wealth and the powers of his intellect, among other things he showed him in a certain room an image painted of a woman dressed in very beautiful attire, in which the whole of Italy was expressed with wonderful artifice. Standing before this woman was an Ethiopian with a brush, by which he wished to signify himself—who was commonly called "Maurus" or an Ethiopian, and was accustomed to use for emblems either a brush with the Latin inscription *et merito et tempore* [both by merit and by time], or a small branch with three complex roses with the German inscription *mit Zett*, that is, *mit Zeit* [with time]. I remember seeing these very emblems and symbols of his here and there on the walls and tapestries in Milan, Ticinum, and Taurinum, at the home of the most learned and illustrious archbishop of that city, Hieronymus Rovereus, and in other places. This Ethiopian was painted in such a way that he was brushing the dust and other filth from the woman's garment with a brush. Shown that painting, the envoy was asked what he thought of it. Then he said: "As it seems to me, this Ethiopian is sweeping all the dust onto himself." Which prophecy of the acute man concerning Ludovicus Maurus was subsequently proven by the event.
Naupactus is a maritime city of Achaea, in the opinion of some, situated in Aetolia, at the gulf formerly called Corinthiacus. It is now commonly called *Lepanto* by sailors, *Inebechti* by the Turks, which does not recede far from the *Nepanto* of Marias Niger: Achaia is Livadia; Aetolia is the Despotate; the Gulf of Corinth is the *Colpo* or *Golfo di Lepanto*. At this time, namely in the Christian year 1498, Naupactus was in the power of the Venetians for plus or minus 70 years; they, having sent Andrea Zantanus, their envoy, to Bajazet, had made peace with him for 25 years, the tablet of which Bajazet had confirmed by the writing of his own hand, according to custom. Nevertheless, the envoy had scarcely been able to return to Venice when Bajazet violated the faith given to the Venetians. For he wished, by his own Mohammedan law, to be permitted...
A to Agareni and the Ottomans to hold faith pledged in matters concerning empire and their own custom of little account, nor to have any regard for promises made to Christians. Therefore, he prepared war against them, and greedily seized upon a pretext for the occasion, because the Venetians had undertaken to protect Count John Cernovich (we indicated above, in chapter 46, that he should be called Cernovitzios; others call him George), a ruler of a neighboring territory of Cattaro, from whom Bajazet had taken away many things. But in reality, there was another cause beneath it, which gave him almost certain hope of ejecting the Venetians from the Morea, or Peloponnese, in which they certainly possessed many great and fortified cities and strongholds. For Louis XII, king of France, intending to despoil Ludovico Sforza, surnamed the Moor, on account of the darkness of his complexion, of the Duchy of Milan, which he asserted was his own by right, had struck a treaty against Sforza with the Venetian republic. Terrified by this union of the French with the Venetians, Sforza sent an envoy to Bajazet, who, both with gifts and various arguments, might persuade him to bring war upon the Venetians. For he said it would come B to pass that, with the Venetians occupied in the Italian war, he would, with no trouble, strip them of their Greek cities and camps and islands. Enticed by this hope, Bajazet departed from the peace established with the Venetians. And indeed, this deed of the Moor was truly harmful to the Venetians, but at length, by a just judgment of God, these things were, as the saying is, a bean threshed back upon the thresher himself. For he paid bitter penalties for his ambition, for his manifold injuries toward John Galeazzo, his brother's son, and for the disastrous councils for his fatherland, by which he stirred up the French against the Neapolitan kings, and the Turks against the Venetians. This, indeed, a legate of the Florentine republic, a man of subtle and sharp wit, had once predicted would happen. For when Sforza was arrogantly showing off to the legate sent to him—as he was accustomed to do—both his wealth and the strength of his intellect, he showed him, among other things, a portrait painted in a certain room of a woman dressed in most beautiful attire, in which all of Italy was depicted with marvelous artifice. Beside this woman stood an Ethiopian with a brush, by which he wished to denote himself, who was commonly called the Moor or Ethiopian, and who was accustomed to use for his own emblem either a brush with the Latin inscription *et merito et tempore* [both by merit and by time], or a small branch with three roses, with the German inscription *mit Zett* [with time]. C I remember seeing these emblems and symbols of his here and there on the walls and tapestries in Milan, Ticino, and Turin, and at the home of the most learned and illustrious archbishop of that city, Jerome Rovere, and in other places. This Ethiopian was painted in the act of cleaning dust and other filth from the woman's clothing with a brush. When this painting was shown to the legate, Sforza asked him what he thought of it. Then he said: "As it seems to me, this Ethiopian is sweeping all the dust onto himself." This prediction of the sharp-witted man concerning Ludovico the Moor was later proved true by the event.
Naupactus is a maritime city of Achaia, in the opinion of some, situated in Aetolia known as *Leoni Augusto*, at the gulf once called Corinthian. To sailors, it is now commonly called Lepanto; to the Turks, Inebechti, because it is located not far from Nepanto of the Black Sea; Achaia, Livadia; Aetolia, the Despotate; the Corinthian Gulf, *Colpo* or *Golfo di Lepanto*. It was at this time, namely in the Christian year 1498, D under the power of the Venetians for plus or minus 70 years: they had made peace with him for 25 years by sending Andrea Zantano, their legate, to Bajazet, the document of which Bajazet had confirmed by a writing of his own hand, according to custom. Nevertheless, the legate had scarcely been able to return to Venice when Bajazet violated the faith given to the Venetians. For he wished, by his own Mohammedan law, to be permitted
to break his treaty and wage war upon infidels. He attributed the success of his conquest over the Venetians to the grace of God, or more precisely to the grace of his own god, as the Turks say: *Taugri Vereris*, or *Verersi*, which signifies God. As for Sinan Bassa, of whom mention is made, who led the expedition to Cairo under Selim, the son of Bajazet, he was slain by the Mamelukes, as will follow in the Annales.
178. Mitylene, by the Venetians and their allies, attempted in vain; the shipwreck of King Philip Ravestanus. The Turkish Annales make mention only of the Spanish auxiliaries, namely those sent by Ferdinand of Aragon, King of Castile, to the grandfather of Charles V, Caesar, which were provided to the Venetians under the command of Consalvo, of whom we have spoken. But it is certain that in this war, the French also provided subsidies to the Venetians under King Louis, and Philip of Ravestanus, born to the family of the princes of Cleves in Germany, whom he brought with him on this expedition as the leader of the Albanians, whom history calls Albignus or Obignus, and the Infant of Navarre (as they call the sons of kings in the Spanish fashion), along with a large number of other nobles and people of France. The whole fleet contained up to 10,000 men fit for war, as Spandugino reports. By them, the city of Mitylene was besieged, and the suburbs, having been captured, were attacked with a wall of terrifying height, though in vain. Ravestanus, having lifted the siege and departed from the island, wishing to avoid the Grand Master of Rhodes, who was approaching with 29 ships, caused a shipwreck near the island of Cerigo, which the ancients called Cythera; thus few of those who were sailing in those ships escaped safely. Concerning the things that the Annales report regarding the peace offered to the Venetians by a mollified Bajazet, we must add that afterwards, under the command of Andrea Grittus, Saint Maura was returned to them, a place today under the power of the Turks and fortified far more extensively. Others want that place to be called by the ancients Neritum. The opinion of the former, told by our Praetor of Greece, is clearly the more certain one. C
179. The second movement of the Sophiani against the Osmanlis; Scaech, Culi, and Scitan Culi, the Bassa. Concerning the region of Tekie, or Teke, mentioned above in chapter 57. The second was this one against the Osmanlis and the sedition of the Osmanic sect, incited by those whom they called Sophiani and Kiseles Bassa. Indeed, as indicated above in chapter 81. Jovius, however, brings in their author, Dreslerus, with others, in no way: the Turkish Annales report that he was named Scach Culi, a voice signifying "servant of the Shah." And by the designation of Scachi, one understands Shah Ismail, recently petitioned by the Persian kingdom, of which we have spoken at length 468 [pages] after. Jovius says that he was a disciple of Arduelis, of whom mention must soon be made: after whose slaughter, having crossed the Euphrates, he arrived in Lesser Armenia, and dwelt in a certain cave at the foot of the Antitaurus. But to a small extent D this is consistent with the truth, both because the region of Teke is not at all
A Lesser Armenia, but Greater Phrygia, as the reader may openly perceive from the very words of the Annals noted at number 57; and also because Bajazet would by no means have sent tribute annually to someone coming from Persia. However that may be, Scah-Culi certainly embraced the party of Ismail, and was therefore called Scah-Culi: whence the Turks, adhering to the party of the Osmanids, made it Scitan-Culi, a name signifying Satan's or the devil's slave or bondman. Geuffroy somewhere wrote "Coullet" instead of Culi. Spandugino relates that 20,000 men were supplied to him by Scah Ismail, which I do not think is true, from those things which follow here in the Annals. It is more consistent with the truth that which Jovius says, that he had been confirmed in his purpose through envoys from Ismail. "Kisel-bassa" signifies "red head." The Osmanli Turks gave this name at that very time to the followers of Scah Ismail of Persia, from the red head-covering: of which there will be more to say a little later.
180. *Antali, a city of Anatolia: how the Greek years from the creation of the world correspond with our own. Certain ancient names compared with those that are modern.*
That which the Turks here call Antali was in ancient times Attaleia, once founded by King Attalus, one of the successors of Alexander the Great. Emperor Leo’s *Novella* concerning the sees places it in the second Pamphylia, under the metropolis of Syllaeum or Perge. Later Greeks note that it was made a metropolis in the year of the world 6592, under the most holy patriarch Eustratius, by the authority of Emperor Alexius Comnenus. That this indeed took place will be evident in the year of Christ 1084, if, according to the opinion of the Greeks, 5508 years are reckoned to have elapsed from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ, according to the edition of the 72 Interpreters. Aython calls it Natalia, having transposed the first letters by the scribe’s error, instead of Antalia: at which place Reineccius notes that one should write Nacolia instead of Natalia. But Nacolia is far distant from Antalia, being an inland city of Greater Phrygia, situated on the Sangarius river: whereas concerning his Antalia, Aython immediately adds that it is situated above the sea of Greece (he speaks in the Gallic manner, for "by the sea"). And by the term "sea of Greece" is understood the Aegean Sea, or the Archipelago. For he adds that this city views the kingdom of Cyprus. Since this is in fact true, and from Attaleia, which they now call Settelia, that whole bay lying opposite Cyprus is now called the Gulf of Settelia. Belvacensis wrote "Sattelia," and that bay of the sea is also called by him the *Gaufre de Sattelia*, using the French word *Goufre*, which today is for the Greeks *Corpho*, for the ancients *Κόλπος*, for the Italians *Golfo*, and for the Latins a *sinus* (bay). But since we have fallen upon this passage of Aython, let us briefly explain other things also placed therein, both the region and the names of the cities. The first province of the kingdom of the sultans of Iconium (or what he understands as Asia Minor), he calls at the beginning Lygonia, and then more correctly Lyquonia (by the pronunciation of the Gauls it is uttered as Lyconia, that is, Lycaonia) which B fame places in Lycaonia, which Laonicus places in Caria; concerning which mention was made above at number 12. He adds that this is the capital of the whole Turkish kingdom, that is, the metropolis. Reineccius interprets Briquia as Lycia, whereas Briquia or Bryquia is Phrygia. Aython makes Zichia the metropolis of Bryquia for Greece. For he wrote thus, understanding by the name of Greece the Asiatic Romia, of which it was spoken in chapter 6. Reineccius interprets this Zichia as Cydna. And yet Cedrenus also made mention of Zichia as a city situated in Asia Minor: just as, in the time of Copronymus, he records an unheard-of cold in memory, whereby the rivers and the sea itself being frozen, he narrates that the sea could be crossed on foot from Zichia all the way to the Danube itself, that is, to the mouths of the Danube, which are in Thrace. The metropolis of Bithynia is written in Aython as Nichor, which I think is Nicaea, for the Turks *Isnic*; not Nicomedia, which for the Turks is *Ismid*: whereas Reineccius makes Nichor into Nicomedia. Nor is Nicaea any less the metropolis of Bithynia under Emperor Leo than Nicomedia. Reineccius interprets Aython’s *Genech* as Pontus, whereas it is more properly so called, which was formerly Colchis, later called the region of the Lazi, or Lazice, whose metropolis for Emperor Leo is Trapezus, which Aython places in Genech. Aython calls the city of Paphlagonia Ginapolis, from which Reineccius made Germanopolis. But the Ginapolis of Aython is otherwise named Ginopolis. Under Emperor Leo it is called Innopolis, and its bishopric is referred to Gangra of Paphlagonia. But I cease to say more.
181. *Garagos bassa, beylerbey of Anatolia, is impaled.*
You have here a notable example of the cruelty in the religious affairs of the Turks, of which we made mention above, chapter 64. The beylerbey of Anatolia was impaled by Scah-Culi, as the Annals report. And the Turks give him the name C Caragos, just as in our own time the famous Caragos Rais was, whom we commemorated in the Supplement to the narrative concerning the Cyprian war; our people commonly called him Caracossa. By Jovius he is named Cargius bassa, and elsewhere Caraius. The history also disagrees somewhat from the Annals, which narrate that Caragos was captured, and brought to Cutahie, and shown to his own people in the town: and when the townsmen were unwilling to surrender, he was impaled in their sight. Jovius, however, says he was nearly captured: but, being snatched away by his own, he escaped to Kütahya: which, being subsequently taken by the rebels, he himself also came into the hands of the enemy. But later, at Cara-Hissar (he should have written Carachisar), in the middle of the road where Ali bassa had to pass while pursuing the rebels with his army, he was impaled alive by them: so that they might strike fear and horror into those following behind at such a foul torture of so great a man. Concerning Kütahya, it was spoken of above, chapter 40.
182. Corcut is taken by the seditious. Divers narrations from our sources. We have placed Corcut in the genealogy of the Osmanids as the fifth son of Bajazet, and as the own brother of Selim, who ruled subsequently. For he had the same mother as Selim. The Annals report that he was overcome by rebels in battle. Jovius, however, says that the battle against them was an adverse one, fought by two of Bajazet’s grandsons, Muchemete Sciemseiai (more correctly called Sinan Schach) and Orcane Alempsaci; he says they were sons—the father, Alem or Allama Schach, is indeed son of Urchan in our genealogy—but he explicitly relates that Corcut did not dare to engage with Techelle. Whether these things are truly so or not, it is not my place to dispute: I have thought it necessary to point them out, as they are suspect on account of the age of the grandsons. Which region is Aidinensis is shown at number 13, and chapter 161 and 162. 183. Another expedition of the Bassa against the rebels. How much the strength of the rebels had grown can be gathered from this: Spanduginus says that Alim Bassa, moving against them, led forty thousand cavalry from Anatolia, to whom Bajazet had joined four thousand Janissaries. Nevertheless, Achmet, also a son of Bajazet, came to his aid with forces gathered from his own province of Amasia. 184. Cheider Bassa was defeated and killed by the seditious, at Zonchium, Navarinum. Cheider Bassa, the *beglerbeg* of Caramania, is called Caidir by Spanduginus, and is said to have had his domicile in the city of Cogno, or Iconium. Zindi Kemal Beg is named Camali to the same man, and is heralded as having been a very military man. For Spanduginus reports that in the war of Bajazet against the Venetians, he captured a maritime fortress of the Morea, or the Peloponnese, which is still most heavily fortified today, situated not far from Methone, namely at a distance of fifteen Greek miles; which is called Zonchium by Italian sailors, Giunchium by Spanduginus, and Navarinum by the Greeks of our time. It is believed to have been the ancient Coryphasium of Messenia: although Jovius calls it Pylos, the kingdom of Nestor. Nor did he capture this fortress of Kemales, or Camales, alone; he also captured, by surprise, four Venetian triremes, together with the soldiers themselves and the naval allies, bringing them under his power there. 185. The plain which the Annals here call Zibuc, Spanduginus calls the plain of Sivac, although it is read corruptly in the edition as *Campagna detta Sivas*. Indeed, Sivas is a city, of which it was spoken in chapter 5, but by this name there is, as far as I know, no noble field or plain in Anatolia. Therefore, one should restore Sivac from the Annals, which is almost the same thing as Zibuc. Jovius referred these things to the plains of Galatia, where he says Caraessar is situated. That, to the Turks, is Carachissar, that is to say, "the black fortress," which is classified among the *beglerbeg* provinces, into Amasia, Tocat, and Cappadocia: where these *sangiacates* are joined: Carachissar (see chapter 144, and the text of the Annals at the same number, reporting that it was captured by Muchemete the Second when he marched against Usumchason), Sasum (known from the books of our Gregorius Nazianzenus as the ancient Sasima), and Tarabosan, or Trapezus. Jovius adds at this place a mention of a mountain which he names Olinga, and records that it is not at a great distance from Ancyra. 186. Kihaia, Protogeros, Primikirios, Vlofedzi, Vlefe, Timarion, Timariote, Ramasan. He who is called the prefect of the Vlofedzi here is referred to by the Turkish term Kihaia. B It properly signifies a deputy, or lieutenant, or legate, and also a prefect of the court. And thus the Kihaia of the Vlofedzi is the deputy or legate of that man whom they call the Bassa of the Vlofedzi. The Greeks now say *Protogerou*, which in the catalog of dignities or offices of the palace is
primikerios
to them, in our ancient nomenclature a *primicerius*. From *Protogeros*, Geufræus sets down the corrupt *Protortz*, and interprets it as a superintendent. The name Vlofedzi signifies "stipendiaries," 470 of whom Vlofe or Vlefe is numbered. For there are two kinds of stipends among the Turks, of which one is called *Vlefe*, the other *Timar*. *Vlefe* is a stipend which, according to our custom, is paid by treasurers or quaestors to soldiers or courtiers: with us monthly or annually, but with the Turks, daily. Those who enjoy this have the name of Vlofedzi. With Geufræus and Sansovinus they are *Olophagi*. *Timar* is a pension, or stipend, or revenue assigned in lands and possessions of fortresses, towns, villages, and fields, or in the collection of tithes or other fruits; the Greeks call it *timarion*, from whom I believe this term has flowed to the Turks. C It is found in Damascenus Studita in the *Martyrdom of Theodore*, the tribune of the soldiers, to whom he recounts that for the sake of his valor and things done bravely, the fortress of Heraclea was given by Licinius Augustus as a *timarium*. And the word seems to be derived from the Greek *timē* (τιμή), which signifies honor: because timaria of this kind used to be granted to honored men, and those who had served the republic well, as honorary rewards, or benefits, or revenues, or pensions. Those gifted with *timaria* are called *Timariotæ* or *Timarati*, even in Chalcocondyles. *Caramuses* signifies "black Moses." *Ramasan* is the same name as *Ramadan*: just as *Otman* or *Odman* is the same as *Osman*. D 187. Tebrisium, Tauris, Caravana. Tebrisium, now Tauris, has become well known in these years, even among the common people, having been ennobled by some slaughters of the Turks since the times of Sultan Soleiman the Second. Those who call it the Ecbatana of Media are mistaken, I think, when Cedrinus, calling it Taurezium, places it in Persarmenia, which they call Greater Armenia to this day. In the center of this, Jovius correctly places Tebrisium, even as Chalcocondyles incorrectly does…call the city of the Assyrians: whose interpreter writes "Tabrezen," just as Cedrinus writes "Tabresium." The words of Aytho confirm this opinion of Jovius. In Greater Armenia, the city of Taurisium is more famous and more opulent than others. See some other things noted about this below, in chapter 204. Caravans, for the Turks and other oriental peoples, are crowds of men who join together because of the dangers of travel—never a small number. Nor is this custom followed only by those who set out elsewhere for the sake of selling or buying merchandise; but also by those who make pilgrimages through the deserts of the Arabs to visit Mecca for the sake of a vow or religion. Because of the magnitude of the danger, these crowds sometimes grow to twenty or thirty thousand men; they seem, especially on account of the multitude of camels and other pack animals, which the Greeks call *sagmara* and *sagmataria*, to be like a proper army.
188. Scach, or king of the Persians, Ismail, surnamed Sophinus, Sophilar, Enasserlar, Kesil bassi. Whether the sect of the Sophilarians first existed at this time.
Although in the Appendix to our Annals we have collected, concerning the dissensions of the Mahometan sects, of the Osmanli and the Sophi, at the beginning of the ten-year war which is waged between them, certain rare things not recorded by others before us: yet in this place, where the Annals first make mention of Ismail Sophini, it is our wish briefly to record those things which we think pertain to the clarification of the origin, the beginnings of the reign, the progress, and the deeds of Ismail himself. The father of Ismail Sophini was Erdebil, whom Jovius and others call Arduelem or Harduellem. They make this surname for him from a certain place in Persia of which he was the master or petty king: but they say his name itself was Secaider. They say, moreover, that he followed a religious life, like our hermits or monks. And for this, Spanduginus interprets "Sec" sometimes as abbot, sometimes as parish priest or curate, as they say in the vernacular, that is, one having the care of souls. But I persist in my own opinion, which I set forth above at the beginning of the Persian war in the Supplement to the Annals, and whose author I have in Matthias de Faro, the Imperial Dragoman, or interpreter, at Constantinople at the Osmanic Porte: namely, that these are different names for different persons, of whom one was Erdebil, the father of Ismail, born of an illustrious Persian family and a ruler of a certain territory; the other was Scheich Haidar, not a prince or ruler, but truly that which he was called: that is, a *Scheich* or *Iman*, of which the former signifies a religious man to those nations, on account of his innocence and the holiness of his life; the latter, a doctor. For indeed, from the opinion of a religious life lived severely, he obtained some authority among the common people; setting aside the three companions of the prophet Mahomet—Ebubekir, Omar, and Osman—he affirmed that one should follow Ali, the fourth companion of the prophet and his kinsman and son-in-law, if they wished to be saved B or a doctor of the Persians, whose name was Reza. The fame of the new teacher, and of the new discipline, spread far and wide, and drew to the Scheich or Imam Haidar a huge multitude of men from Persia and the neighboring regions. Now Erdebil, who was the first among the nobles and rulers to approve not only of this opinion and doctrine of Haidar, but also behaving himself according to his prescription, undertook the patronage of the cause, and by that 471 fact he marvelously won over the minds of the multitude to himself. Thus, indeed, it is established that other clever men have also, under the pretext of a new religion, arrived at remarkable power. Erdebil, otherwise not a ruler of great name or wealth, grew so much by this profession of a new dogma that the king of the Persians, Chasanes—whom we indicated above as being named Usun Chasan from the tallness of his stature—coupled his daughter to him in legitimate marriage. For he had begotten his daughter Martha from Catherine Comnena—whom it is wrongly written in Spanduginus was called "Camit de Cami." For among those nations she was called "Carum de Commini," the first name corrupted from the Greek *Ecaterine*, and the second from the family name. For she was the daughter of Kalojoannes Comnenus, the penultimate emperor of the Trapezuntines; after Kalojoannes had died, his brother David, the last Trapezuntine emperor, gave her as a wife to Usumchasan, so that by his protection he might be a little safer against the excessively near and hostile forces of the sultan Muchemet. From this daughter of Usumchasan, Martha, was born Erdebili’s son, Ismail, of whom we now treat. When Usumchasan was dead, his son Jacup, whom historians commonly call Jacobbeg, and in these Annals is subsequently named sultan Jacup in the Life of Sultan Soleiman, had him as his successor in the kingdom. He, the protector of the new sect, had his brother-in-law Erdebil—of whom he was strangely suspicious because he feared that his royal kinsman, relying on the devotion of such a great multitude, might wrestle the kingdom from him—put to death. Ismail, while still a mere youth, eighteen years old (as most relate) at that time, escaped the hands of his cruel uncle, and accompanied by his mother Martha, betook himself to his father’s friend Pircal, a ruler of a territory and certain castles near the Caspian Sea, now called *Culzum Denizi* by the Turks, and *Beber Culzum* by the Arabs, by which a closed sea is signified. Educated there, Ismail, according to the prescription of his paternal religion, finally, upon the death of his uncle Sultan Jacup (who was poisoned by his wife), decided to return home and demand the inheritance of his paternal territory, along with the towns and estates given to him in the name of his mother's dowry. Having obtained his paternal dominion, he soon proceeded further; and accompanied by only three hundred soldiers, he occupied Somakia in an almost prodigious manner. This city is in Media, which they now call Sirvan, and it stretches towards the borders of Greater Armenia, and is called *Samachia* by Laonicus, and *Sumachies* by Spanduginus: and it is of such importance that in the Christian year 1583, having been captured by him, it D [was given to] the beglerbeg Osman bassa
A having placed them in charge. Hence, with his forces not a little augmented and instructed, he betakes himself to Tabriz, the furthest royal city of the Persians, and, having overcome King Alvantes, the son and successor of Sultan Jacup, he reduces it to his power as a victor. Engaging with Alvantes again, he not only emerges the superior, but also slays him along with the greater part of his army. Then, having pursued Murad Chan (called Morat Chan and Morat beg by others; though our Augustinus Curio calls him Maraberg, which departs further from the origin), the brother of the slain Alvantes, he overcomes him with equal success. He, being defeated by Ismail, flees toward Bagdad—that is to say, modern Babylon, situated near the ruins of ancient Babylon. The victor, with his triumphant forces, approaches and occupies the city of Shiraz, an arsenal of all kinds of weapons, distant a twenty days' journey from Tabriz. There at last he significantly armed his army. Afterward, he had dealings with Ulu Chan, the Scibec of the Tatars, whom he did not hesitate to attack in battle, though he was equipped with an army of three hundred thousand cavalry; he emerged the victor through singular valor and fortune, the enemy being slaughtered, or (as others relate) being pressed and suffocated in the crush. Finally, to so many illustrious victories gained over many, there accrued a culmination of exceptional happiness, in that upon the death of Murad Chan, the son of Jacup and the last heir, in exile, he not only enjoyed peaceful possession of the Persian kingdom with his rivals removed, but also accepted into submission certain neighboring peoples, and especially the Bagdadis.
These things regarding the origin of Ismail Sophini and the prosperous success of his affairs, by which he acquired and established the Persian kingdom for himself and his own, we have deemed sufficient to set forth here. For as for the wars waged thereafter with the Osmanlis, and especially with Selim, the Annals themselves will provide them for us in their own place. From the Osmanlis, the nickname "Sophi" and "Kisel bassa" was given to him by way of insult. We touched upon the notion of the former above in chapter 81. I see that some believe it is derived from the Greek *Sophos*, wishing it to be a name assumed from the most ancient Magi and Sophists of the Persians; but it comes from *Sophi*, an Arabic word which means "wool." For since the Mohammedans, and especially the Osmanlis, according to ancient custom, wrap their heads in linen turbans of the most delicate workmanship, this new religion of the Sophilarians enjoins, among other things, that the head should not be adorned with the vanity of linen twists of this kind, but that head-coverings should be made of wool, costing no great sum. And because this woolen head-covering, which they now use contrary to the custom of other Mohammedans, has twelve folds, and the Arabic word *Enasser* means twelve, they have also attained another name, *Enasserlari*, just as if, to speak in a Greek term, you were to say *Dodecaptychos* (twelve-folded), or in Latin *Duodecimplices*. Finally, since they are accustomed to wearing a head-covering dyed only in red color, they are also called *Kiselbassilarii*, as if "red heads." However, before these times, the Persians were wont to be called *Aiemini* or *Azemini* by the Turks, just as the region of Persia itself is *Aiem* B to them, as noted above in chapter 2. Thus, Shah Ismail was called both *Sophi* and *Kisel bassa* by his Osmanli rivals and other Mohammedans, as if he were their ringleader; and this name has remained among us to this present day for his descendants, so that they are called *Sophini*. Yet I am not of the opinion held by others, that this word *Sophilari* was coined for the first time then. Indeed, it appears from the Turkish Annals that it is older than the time of Ismail; for they record that in the reign of Mohammed I, the great-grandfather of Bajazit, ninety years before the sedition of Scachoculi and the empire of Ismail, the *Sophilarii* were likewise in a state of tumult. Therefore, it is probable that Sheikh Haidar was not the founder of a new dogma, but had rather stirred up again those remaining sparks, as it were, which had hitherto been dormant from an old fire, and that in a completely similar manner Shah Ismail received the name *Sophi* from his enemies—a name common to the plebeians beforehand, but given to no king before him.
189. *Who were the Corizzi or Coridschi, and the Turkish Persians. The punishment of Scachoculi.*
There are among the Persians three types of soldiers. The first are named by them *Turcomani*, whose condition is that of vassals among us, whom we call feudatories. And there are among them perpetual fiefs, which devolve from parents to children and descendants, differently than is the custom among the Turks. Therefore, as often as they are called up by the king's command, they present themselves to the king with a number of cavalry, which they are bound to bring according to the ratio of their fiefs. The second are called *Corizzi* or *Coridschi*, who serve for pay. And there is in reality no other pay among the Persians than what was called *siteresia* by the Greeks and *military rations* by the Romans: namely, things pertaining to provisions, along with horses, clothing, arms, tents, and the rest. The third consist of auxiliary troops of allies and neighboring nations, namely, the Armenians and Georgians: who profess the Christian religion, [though] inclined toward the Persians and hostile to the Turks. The mob of these people, then, who had followed the leader Scachoculi and had hitherto ravaged so cruelly in various places, Shah Ismail distributed among his nobles like slaves—by which name *Sultans*, *Chans*, and *Turcomani* are termed among the Persians. C But he cast the heads of the seditious—that is, the paid soldiers—to be slaughtered. This is memorable, which is read in Spanduginus, that the author of such a foul tragedy, who had called himself *Scachoculi* (as if the slave of the Shah), but had been called by others *Scitan Culi* (the slave of Satan) on account of his inhumanity, was, by the judgment of King Ismail, cast into the flames and burned, as a living example of laudable severity.
190. *Movement of Selim against his father Bajazit. Rebellious Tatars, the Khan of the Precopians surrounds the kingdom of Poland, Beligrad on the river Dniester, Segnan bassa.*
To cast his father from the empire, Selim did not march through Asia Minor to Trebizond, because
he foresaw that he would be impeded on this journey by his brothers, Achmet and Corcut; but he sailed to Cofen, which among our people is called Capha, as stated in chapter 148, across the Black Sea. A In that place, he did not take to wife the daughter of the Khan of the Tatars, as Geuffroy wrote—since at this very time he already had a son, Soleiman, about nineteen years old, by her—but he obtained auxiliary forces from his father-in-law, to whom Mechemet Tatar Chan gave command of the flight of his son, called by historians Chanogli, that is to say, the son of the Chan or King of the Tatars. These Tatars are known by the special name of Precopii, from the word Precop, which signifies a moat; for they have attempted to cut off the Tauric Chersonese as if from the mainland by means of moats dug on the isthmus from sea to sea. The Chan who now rules over the Precopii recently sent his own envoys to the assembly of the Polish estates, which was called for the creation of a king after the death of King Stephen, so that they might solicit the kingdom in his name. In his instructions, he had ordered them, first, that they should show his power to the Poles, as he could lead forth several myriads of horsemen at his own and his allies’ expense for the defense of Poland. Second, he ordered it to be proposed that they would have a frugal king who, having spurned other sumptuous banquets, would reckon a mere horse's grain as a fair and good meal. Finally, as regards religion: "Your Pope," he said, "let him be my Pope; your Luther, let him be my Luther." This embassy was received with great laughter. But to return to Selim: departing from Capha, he went to Chilim, of which we spoke in chapter 159; B thence he came to Beligrad. This, however, is not the Hungarian Nandor Alba, or Beligrad, which had not yet at this time come under the power of the Turks, being occupied by Soleiman, the son of Selim, only nine or ten years later; but it is that Nesteralba—which Goreccius, situated at the mouth of the river Nester, calls Bialogrod in Polish—as has been more lengthily set forth in the indicated chapter 159. Seguan bassa, to the Turks, is the greatest prefect of the pack-animals in the army, of whom mention has already been made several times.
191. Why the father offered the sangiacate of Semendria to Selim, the son of Bajazit.
The reason why the father conceded the sangiacate of Semendria to his son is not expressed in the Annals. Clearly, he wanted to prevent Selim from advancing further, and, by coming to the Porte, from transferring to himself the hearts of the Janissaries, which were wavering and alienated from his father. For the son had astutely used a pretext to cloak this journey of his, which he had publicized here and there: that he was going to his father for the sake of honoring him—which the Turks also call "kissing the hand"—and that from there he would soon turn his arms against the Christians, especially the Hungarians. This was destined to be plausible to the Janissaries and the other soldiers of the Porte, who were soon, no doubt, about to give themselves entirely to Selim as one desirous of extending the empire. Thus, the father offered him Semendria, which is near to the Hungarians, as if to say, "There is no reason to advance to the Porte. Do you wish to fight against the Christians? I give you C Semendria, which is near the Hungarians." Here Rhodes, here the jump. Indeed, the matter of Semendria was mentioned above, in the ninety-ninth chapter. From there Selim proceeded to Zagora, which we said in the thirty-third chapter is sixty Greek miles distant from Adrianople. Here Malcozoglis and certain others came to him, excited by the rumor, spread by him, of waging war against the Christians, and they offered their services to Selim. But he, in order to reveal to them something of the secret thoughts of his mind, replied that their zeal was pleasing to him. For, if he were to arrive at the empire, he would not only enlarge the borders of the Ottoman realm, but would also bless them all with the greatest dignities and riches. By this cunning he won over their spirits, who otherwise, as is the manner of men, would prefer to worship the rising sun than the setting.
192. Why Bajazit hastened to Constantinople.
Spanduginus believes that for this cause Bajazit, having learned of Selim’s arrival, left Adrianople and hastened to Constantinople, lest his son, having seized the royal treasures—which we said in chapter 139 are kept in Constantinople in the castle of Jedicula or Heptapyrgios—should strip his father of the kingdom, having obtained the sinews of war and of state affairs. To this cause is added also the fact that, having lost the seat of empire, Bajazit saw that his own affairs were at an end.
193. The place where Selim fought in battle with his father, Zorli, Saranta Ecclisies, Kirc Clisse, Carabulyc, Selim’s horse.
The Annals and others relate that the forces of the father, who was being carried in a carriage because he was suffering from gout, and the son, clashed not far from Zorli. Zorli, however, to the Turks is an old town, Tzurolloe or Tzurulus, of which we spoke in chapter 26. Jovius says that this village, previously obscure and ignoble, gained some fame and splendor from this memorable battle (which we refuted in the above-mentioned chapter). Spanduginus adds that the same place belongs towards the Forty Churches. It is also a town of D Thrace, now called Saranta Ecclisies by the Greeks (the ancients would have said τεσσαράκοντα ἐκκλησίας), and Kirc Clisse by the Turks, with the same meaning: where today is the seat of the Kirc Clisse sangiac, who is subject to the beglerbeg of Rumelia or Greece. Selim, finally conquered in battle, escaped through the kindness of his horse: whose name, if it matters to know—like that of Alexander’s Bucephalus—it is to be noted from Busbecq that it was called Carabulyc, a word signifying "black cloud."
194. Selim fled defeated to Cofen, village of Midge, Nischanzi bassa.
The Annals alone mention the name of the village of Midge, with others narrating that Selim fled to the Black Sea. But the location of Midge is gathered from the fact that it is a village otherwise unknown, and never identified, because Spanduginus says that Selim, in fleeing through Thrace towards Varna, sought the Euxine. Wherefore Midge will not be far from Varna, of which it was spoken above, in chapter 113. What follows shortly after is Cadilescheri
which signifies as said above, chapter 29. The Nischanzi Bassa is called among the Turks he who seals all the letters and instruments that are dispatched at the Porte; and thus he holds an office similar to the office of the supreme chancellor in our courts.
195. Achmet, seeking to invade the empire, his duty toward the Janissaries, cruelty toward ambassadors. Corcut, a competitor of his brothers.
We have shown in the genealogy of the Osmanlis that Sinan Scach and Allama Scach, the first-born sons of Bayezid, had died before their father; their father mourned the death of one of them, the elder by birth, Sinan, most bitterly and for a long time. The third of the sons was Achmet, governor of Amasia; who, having heard the rumor of Selim, marched with 20,000 of his own men through Asia Minor to Scutari, situated in the region of Constantinople, and, having heard the embassy of the Janissaries, who proclaimed that they would accept his rule if he were willing to promise them greater allowances, he responded rather harshly, saying he did not wish to redeem the empire with money from those to whom he had been designated as successor by his father, and over whom he was to hold power even against their will. With these words, he completely alienated the spirits of the Janissaries from himself, and imprudently attached himself to his rival, Selim. When his father noticed this, he promised to reconcile the same Achmet B to himself for the sum of 30,000 sultanins. This is, in fact, that 474 currency which the annals relate that Achmet sent to his father. Thence Achmet, intending to subdue Asia by force, besieged and captured at Larenda, a town of Caramania, of which it is spoken in chapter 167, Muchemet and Aladin, the sons of his dead elder brother Sinan. Because of this, when he was severely rebuked by his father through envoys, he ordered the head of the embassy to be cut off, and cut off the noses and ears of the others. This deed ignited the hatred of all against Achmet in a wondrous manner. And let us see, I implore you, what confusion of affairs there was at that time in the Ottoman empire. The fifth in order of birth of the sons of Bayezid, and in the rare example in the family of the Osmanlis of a brother by both parents to Selim, was Corcut. For the fourth, Muchemet, before this time, having approached his suspicious father unannounced to see his father and his brothers, was removed from the midst C by poison, moved by the fear of some secret plot. This Corcut, upon the death of his grandfather Muchemet the Second, had been placed on the royal throne by his father's friends while his father was away: so that his brother, Bayezid Zemes, who had been inaugurated earlier, might not preempt the kingdom of Bayezid. When his father subsequently arrived at Constantinople and, the son having abdicated, transferred the empire to himself, Corcut had yielded, moved by a certain tender love and piety: and for this reason the father in turn promised him that he would hold his regard, in constituting a successor, above all other sons. He had assigned to him Castamon, as mentioned in chapter 66, which he obtained after the death of his brother Muchemet, and had also assigned the province of Magnesia, increased by no small part of Lycia and Caria. Therefore this Corcut, otherwise given to the philosophical studies of the Mahometans and to quiet, seeing the seditions of his brothers, D felt also the goads of ambition, and, a stranger to the profession of a philosopher, felt that the empire was justly owed to himself, who had been inaugurated before his father. But what he did is read in the Annals disclosed by them themselves.
196. Zecme the lesser, Rhegium or Rhyton, the greater and lesser, Melantias and Melitias, river Athyras, Glykynero, the vow of Suleiman, the episcopate of the Athyrians.
The name Zecme has no meaning in the Turkish language. Wherefore I believe that it has come from the Greeks to the Turks as if by some prescription, derived from *Zeugma* or *Zeugmin*: that is, from the joinings of bridges, by which two elegant gulfs of the Propontis are spanned there, into one of which the river Athyras pours itself at the lesser Zecme. For Zecme the lesser, or *comepolichnion*, is that small town surrounded by many walls; to which now the Italian name is *Ponto piccolo*, from the lesser bridge. Mention was made of it above, in the twenty-sixth chapter. But Zecme the lesser, just as the lesser bridge, is said so to distinguish it from the greater, which is situated further away from the city towards Siliuria. Theodosius Zygomalas thought that in ancient times it had been called *Phyton*, or *Rhegium*, greater and lesser, and that both were the work of Constantine the Great. But if that is true, as I surely do not doubt, it will be understood by the name of Rhegium as the small town of the Little Bridge, or Zecme the lesser, in a manuscript Greek history, lacking a title, of which we made mention in passing in the tenth chapter, when it narrates that, in the reign of Justinian the First, by a severe earthquake not only was the city deformed, but the very suburbs also together with Rhegium were overturned and abolished. For Constantinople had, or could have, no other suburbs than those which extended toward this double Rhegium, the lesser and greater bridge, as even today the greatest ruins or rubble of the suburban buildings testify. Our Greek writer of history, Agathias, also makes mention of Rhegium in the fifth book in his description of that same earthquake, where he adds that Rhegium is an *epineion* of the city, that is, a suburban town which has a station for ships. Among the prince of cosmographers, Ortelius, from Procopius and Suidas, are found Melantias and Melitia, the name of villages in Thrace, situated one hundred and two stadia from Byzantium, which the river Athyras washes; and this is absolutely to be understood as concerning Zecme or the Lesser Bridge, which is separated from Constantinople by fifteen Greek miles; which are little or nothing removed from one hundred and two stadia. The name of the river Athyras here in *Aqua dolce* is now changed to *kalis*, in Greek to *Glykynero*. Both bridges, both the greater and the lesser, separated by ten miles from each other, Sultan Suleiman, grandfather of this Murad III, rebuilt at supreme cost: and it was indeed his memorable vow, by which he hoped that three things would be granted to him by divine favor to complete before his death. First, the restoration of the greatest aqueduct, which is called by the author Valentens or Valentianus, not Valentinianus, as is commonly read in corrupted books, historians
A said: then, regarding the restoration of these bridges in both bays of the sea, which was truly vast; and the occupation of the Viennese Austrian city, which he used to recall with the deepest indignation, having attempted it in vain twice through the greatest expeditions. Having achieved his desire in both the former cases, B by bringing copious waters into the city from the Danube itself by a truly royal work of approximately twenty miles or more, and by building two bridges, the third goal, the Divinity being propitious to the Christians, did not wish to favor, lest the tyranny penetrate into the inner vitals of Germany. Emperor Leo the Wise 475 also mentions Athyra in his Novella on Thrones, and subjects it to the Metropolitan of Heraclea in Thrace. These Athyra are not different from the two towns we have mentioned. And Zygomalas, calling them *athyra*, as it were *thymura*, wished to derive it from the fact that, as they were then, so too in previous centuries, the towns existed without being enclosed by walls or gates. Finally, what the Greeks commonly call *pontos megas*, they call *pontos mikros*, or, for those slightly more expert, *gephyra megale* and *gephyra mikra*.
Excubita, excubitoria. Fixed places for feeding cats, according to Turkish custom; *Cusluc* and *Ikindi* are the fixed hours for feeding them.
C It is handed down that Selim, undoubtedly with a large retinue, turned aside to a place in the city called in the Annals *Genibaxe* or *Genibacze*, that is, to the "New Garden"; in whose meadow, capable of holding many tents, he was able to pass the time in the open air according to the Turkish custom. Spanduginus also handed down the same name to memory, reporting that Selim had taken lodging in a place whose name is *Janibacza*, not far from the Janissary quarters. It was said a little earlier that Corcutes also, having entered Constantinople, chose for himself a place of lodging not far from the Janissary quarters: which point, to be sure, no one fails to observe with what design it was done. This Janissary quarter is closest to the mosque which Suleiman the Second built to the memory of his most beloved son, Muhammad. He was born of his wife Rossa, as is stated in the Supplement of the Annals, the elder brother of Selim II, who would undoubtedly have succeeded his father if he had survived him. Nor is it far from the first Turkish mosque in Constantinople, which Muhammad II founded in the place of the church of the Holy Apostles after the city was captured. I believe that this very building was erected for the Janissaries in imitation of the station of the Praetorian cohorts, both in the ancient and the new city, which more recent Greek historians called *excubitum* and *excubita*. For just as in the old city, so too in the new Constantinopolitan one, there were stations for the Praetorian cohorts, to which the Janissaries succeeded, as well as for the urban cohorts and the guards. And I do not think, indeed, that the location of the old Praetorian station was changed, because of the convenience of the site; those who have seen Constantinople know it. There are extremely large gardens there, surrounded by walls, to which cats usually leap, whenever they wait for the food at the appointed hours from the passing D Turks. For those superstitious and barbaric men persuade themselves that they earn I know not what grace before God if they bestow alms even upon the brute animals—cats, dogs, fish, and little birds. Therefore, it is a matter of religion for them not to kill captured birds for food, but rather, having redeemed them at their own expense, they restore them to their natural liberty; they throw bits of bread to the fish to be devoured; dogs and cats, gathering together daily in herds in public squares at fixed hours, they feed with bread, meat, and other foods. And I, indeed, have frequently observed, while passing by that way to the patriarchate for the sake of visiting our Zygomalas, that the fixed hours were observed by the cats in these very garden walls of which we speak—both *Cusluc*, which is the time interval between sunrise and midday, and *Ikindi*, which divides the time from midday to sunset into equal parts; and I have seen before me little women of humble stature offering roasted meats, bought from the nearby shops and fixed to long poles, to the cats sitting on these walls, while they murmured I know not what kind of little prayers. To these gardens, therefore, near the Janissary station, Sultan Selim diverted.
198 Concerning Mustapha Bassa, Bajazet's Vizir Azem, the *Bostangi Bassa* Ducagino, and Aigas Aga.
This Mustapha was born in the city of Serres, situated near Amphipolis, about both of which we spoke in chapters 43 and 53. He had a Greek priest of the Christian rite as a father. And that Greek priests live in matrimony, everyone knows. This Mustapha was a man who was astute, malicious, and tenacious of vengeance. Immediately after the death of Bajazet, he was killed by Sultan Selim, as follows not long after in the Annals. Jovius writes that Selim used the help not only of this man in suppressing his father, but also that of the Ducaginoglis [Ducagino], the *Bostangi Bassa*, or prefect of the gardeners, to whom secretly Selim, as a reward for his perfidy, promised and gave his nubile daughter; and of Aigas, the Janissary Aga, which name the Turks pronounce not *Ajax*, but *Aigas*. Concerning the Ducaginogli, it will be spoken of a little later, in chapter 206.
199 Regarding the wish to abdicate after the death of Bajazet. The ceremony of inaugurating a Sultan. The emperor's insignia or symbols. The rite of crowning another emperor among the Greeks, while the former is still alive. *Scaramangium*, *Tzohaduri*, *Ambon*, *Diketerion*. *Tzakia*.
Didymotichum is called a city by the Turks, which is called *Didymotichon* by the Greeks, as indicated above, in chapter 28, with some other things added there which pertain to this. Now, Bajazet wished to betake himself there, having abdicated the empire, because it was his homeland. For he had been born there. And no one is without some secret instinct of nature that enjoys those places in particular in which he had the beginnings of his existence. For that reason also, Bajazet, when three years earlier—namely in the Christian year 1509—the horrible earthquake, about which we read a little earlier in these Annals, had almost completely destroyed Constantinople and Didymotichum.
A He did not merely rebuild Constantinople, but also sent ten thousand *sarchoi*—that is, mercenaries and craftsmen—to Didymotichum to restore the collapsed walls of his native city along with its buildings, as Spanduginus has recorded for posterity. Moreover, the ritual by which the Ottoman sultans are accustomed to inaugurate their reign when their fathers have died is set forth in our Supplement to the Annals, regarding the Christian year 1566. It indicates the ceremonies by which the surviving father substituted his son for himself. For he commanded that the chests containing the imperial treasures be handed over to his son. By that name, they do not mean the items we said were contested in the Jedicula, but what the Greeks called "imperial" items—the *keimēlia*, or the *episēma*, or the *symbola*. Thus the governor of Greece says that, when Constantinople was captured, the imperial symbols of the Greeks fell into the hands of Baldwin II; and these, indeed, were: the *calyptra* (of a form customary to the Latins—for the Greeks called the peoples belonging to the empire of ancient Rome "Latins," as they arrogated to themselves the name of Romans), distinguished by pearls and a reddish-colored stone at the apex of the head; scarlet-dyed footwear; a sword made with a scabbard of scarlet-colored silk; and the vestments. He then approached his father Selim and, as the book of Annals says, kissed his hand, or, as Jovius narrates, his feet. The same author adds that this was done by him with the greatest, albeit feigned, submission, as he asked for pardon for his rashness in passing. Immediately the father arose and girded him by his side with the sword, as Jovius records, or, according to the Annals, ordered him to sit on his throne. He did not place any *calyptra* on his head, because that is not in use among the Turkish sultans, as they only wrap their heads in a turban; just as the sultan’s own consorts do not adorn their heads with the *calyptra* or with the crown used by our kings, but with a true fillet, or band, or diadem—distinguished by various gems of exquisite price—which is fastened at the forehead. Germanus the goldsmith, a Saxon named John born among the Holsteiners, used to fashion such a diadem for this sultan’s consort, the wife of Murad III, when her son Mehmed was about to be circumcised.
It is well to add here the rite of crowning an emperor among the Greeks, while the predecessor is still alive, which we shall transcribe from a hand-written Greek book of history by Symeon Magister Officiorum. Symeon speaks concerning Michael, son of Theophilus, the Augustus—whom historians call the "drunken" or *methysōn*—co-opting Basil the Macedonian into the partnership of the empire after the murder of Caesar Bardas, his uncle. The words are of this sort: "When the Emperor," he says, "went out in procession, Basil followed behind, carrying the emperor's *scaramangion*, as the *parakoimōmenoi* are accustomed to do. But when the emperor had reached the doors of the Augustals, he did not remove the crown according to the custom of the emperors, but Michael entered within the sacred doors wearing it. And having turned his body, he ascended three steps of the *ambo* while crowned, with Basil the Parakoimomenos standing lower down. Below Basil stood Leo Castor, who was in charge of the archives, holding in his hand the written sentence (which the Greeks call a *tomos*), and Michael Anurius, the head B of the site, and the tribune of the people, along with the tribe-members.
The secretary began to read these words from the emperor's decree: 'Caesar Bardas conspired against me to take away my life; and for that reason, he abducted me outside the city. Had Symbatius and Basil not given me evidence of this matter, I would no longer be among the living. And he perished by his own clear fault. But Basil the Parakoimomenos, as one faithful to me and a guardian of my empire, and one who delivered me from the enemy, I embrace with singular affection and wish him to be the guardian and curator of my empire; and let him be saluted with auspicious acclamations, as emperor.' Then Basil was filled with tears. And the emperor took the crown from his own head and handed it to Photius the patriarch, who, having carried it to the holy table, conceived prayers over it. Then the officials brought the *paludamentum*, and they dressed Basil in the footwear. He, having cast off his *chlamys*, fell at the emperor's feet. But soon the patriarch, having gone out, took back the crown previously removed from the emperor's head and returned it to the emperor himself. And when the scepters, according to custom, had fallen to the ground, Michael crowned Basil, with everyone shouting in auspicious voices: 'To Michael and Basil the Augusti, many years.' We have thought it worth the effort to set these things forth so that we might do a kindness to those who are fond of ancient rites.
Let us also add an explanation of certain things that are difficult to understand. What the *scaramangion* is was indicated in chapter 172. The *parakoimōmenoi* are the intimate chamberlains who slept in the Augustal chambers themselves near the emperors, as this our Symeon declares not long after in his description of the slaughter of Michael the Augustus. Such is now the office among the Turkish sultan of his chamberlain, who is called the *Chioladar* or *Tzohadar*. For he keeps watch by night even inside the sultan's chamber and carries the sultan's rain-garment, just like the Parakoimomenos, which is called *scaramangion* here. And everyone knows, who has seen the Ottoman Porte, that not only does the chamberlain accompany the sultan, who also carries his *scaramangion* in clear weather: but all the *bashas* and *beys* also, whenever they ride through the city to the Porte, have one footman who carries a garment 477 of this sort, to be thrown over the others' clothing if the air changes and it happens to rain. The name *ambo* in the churches of the Greeks is derived from "ascending," because it has many steps. And outside the *secreton*, separated from the rest of the temple, is the sanctuary or *thysiastērion*, which contains the holy table and is to be approached only by the priest. The *paludamentum* of which I spoke is called by Symeon the *dikitēsion*. I know that the *paludamentum* is a military garment of emperors, a term which might not suffice to describe the *Dikitēsion*, but as I could not find another name, it pleased me to use this one. The Greeks interpreted the *dikitēsion* to me as meaning the *epimanoukion*, or the supramantel (let us use these barbarian words, so that we may be understood), the kind which is accustomed to be thrown over the patriarchs when they are to be seated on the pontifical throne, as...
A Isidorus has recorded for memory, which I think fits here. We have seen our own emperors also clothed in this kind of garment when they are inaugurated. And there is a notable passage in Zosimus where he relates that this was done among the Romans for this reason, that it might be understood that the emperors were also supreme pontiffs, just as they also used to style themselves on coins. As for shoes or footwear, which Symeon called *Tzankia*, the emperors were accustomed to use those of a crimson color. The *Praepositi* are simply called by this name here, whom we see among the ancients referred to as prefects of the sacred or imperial bedchambers in the Code of Justinian and in books of history. Scepters are staffs, the symbols of magistracy. Nor are the emperor’s own scepters understood here, but those of the officials, which we noted above in chapter 173 were accustomed to be laid down when a new emperor was inaugurated: and the same custom is kept today among the Turks, whose janissaries and other officials, when a new sultan enters the Port of the palace to begin his reign, lay down their staffs for the reason we declared in the chapter mentioned.
200. The twenty-third gate of the city of Constantinople, with many notable things necessary for understanding the histories.
Because mention is not only made here of the Hadrianopolis gate, but also of others in succession in the life of Suleiman 31, it pleases [me] to enumerate all the gates of the city at once in one place and to arrange each one as if before one's eyes: a task which we think worth the effort to set forth here, [as] we remember that we ourselves have been wonderfully tormented when reading histories from ignorance of both their names and their location. Nor, as those who might wish to compare our work with Gyllius’s will acknowledge, did Gyllius himself do enough for the reader in listing all these and naming them correctly. We shall begin, however, from the eastern angle of the city, in which we showed earlier in chapter 139 that the *genisarain*, or sultanic palace and fortress, is situated: and proceeding along the shore of the Ceratinus gulf, B which separates Constantinople from Galata, of which we spoke in chapter 127, past the eastern part of the city, and partly along its northern side, we shall arrive at the angle of the Pentapyrgion, which looks directly toward the north, and from which the walls and the land gates begin, stretching to the third angle, a complex of the structures of the Heptapyrgion or the Seven Towers fortress: from where, turning back toward the first angle on the shore of the Propontis, we shall encompass the whole city, and shall include its gates.
There is therefore the first gate at the foundations of the promontory of the sultanic fortress, which those who wish to appear more learned among the Greeks call the *Horaea* gate (Ὡραία), commonly called *Aurea*. The former name is derived from [its] beauty, the latter from the neighborhoods and buildings of the Hebrews, which are nearest to this gate. Neither name, however, is its true one, as it ought to be called the gate of the Neorion: because there was once a *νεώριον*, or dockyard, in that place, as Gyllius also C relates. Leonardus Chiensis calls it the imperial gate in his history of the final siege, as being closest to the Augustan fortress. Near this gate is the Sycena staircase, and the Sycena crossing, or the *perama* of Galata, as the Greeks call it. In the whole gulf many thousands of small boats are found, and indeed more, in the opinion of some, than the gondolas at Venice: by which a huge multitude of people is carried across the Ceratinus gulf and across the Bosphorus from the city, and brought back into the city. These little boats themselves are commonly called *Perama* by Turks, Greeks, and others, from the use they provide in crossing.
The second is called *Balucbazar* by the Turks, from the fish market. The Greeks, although they commonly use another term and call it *Pazarion* or *Pazari*, which means forum, [a term] familiar to Damascenus Studita: yet they also call it *ὀψωνοπωλεῖον*—a name more suggestive of a Greek origin—from the selling of fish. For they call fish [*ψάρια*].
The third is commonly called *Gemiscle*, and by Gyllius *Gemicapi*, though not correctly. For it should have been called *Gemisi Schele*, as if the fruit-staircase. And we said the place where one disembarks from ships is called a staircase [or pier]. And ships laden with every kind of fruit, as the seasons of the year bring them, land here: namely, with grapes, apples, pears, figs, rice, and others. Gyllius’s *Gemicapi*, changed into *Gemisicapi*, signifies the fruit gate. The Greeks also call it the gate of the *Caravia*, of which [*καράβια*] are ships—a word also used in our epitome of the Basilics, especially regarding the Rhodian law on jettison.
The fourth for the Turks is either *Ontun capisi*, or D *Ontum schele*: of which the former denotes the timber pier. The Greeks call it either *ξύλων πόρταν* (the gate of woods) disjunctively, or *ξυλοπόρταν* (Xyloporta) as a compound word. This gate or pier of woods was indeed so named, not because it itself is made of wood, for we saw that it was stone, like the rest, but because ships laden with timber are accustomed to land there. Wherefore the French interpreter of Laonicus, who dared to imagine not only a wooden gate but even a wooden palace in that formerly marble Constantinople, ought to seem quite inept to us. Which palace of Xyloporta that was, of which Laonicus speaks, we shall declare at the eleventh gate.
The fifth is called *Unkabani* by the Turks, which the Greeks write *Unkampani*, yet with the same pronunciation as the Turks. It is also called *ἀλευροπωλεῖον* (flour market) in their own language by the Greeks, because flour is sold there. It is written *Umcapi* by Gyllius.
The sixth is named *Tzubali Capisi* by the Turks, which is written *Tzumpali capisi* by the Greeks, yet it is not pronounced otherwise than by the Turks, because of the difficulty they have in pronouncing the letter B, of which I spoke in chapter 91. By Gyllius it is called *Jubali Capi*, in the French pronunciation, which corresponds to the Italian *Chiubali* or *Ziubali*, provided it is uttered in three syllables. The word itself signifies the glass gate. For we saw workshops there, in which glasses are manufactured. There was a glassmakers' street in the ancient city of Rome, where, of course, the shops of the glassmakers were.
as is evident from the ancient description of the city. Such a district still exists in Constantinople also, of which mention is made below in that great fire under Soleiman, which occurred in the Christian year 1540. But indeed it is likely that the glass workshops were established outside the city for fear of fires, and especially in this place, which, situated by the Ceratine gulf, abounds with waters to extinguish them, if any fires should happen to break out. A
The seventh is called Hagia capisi, which in hybrid Turco-Greek signifies the holy gate. I am, however, of the opinion that it is more correctly called ἡ ἁγία κανίδα, that is, the gate of the holy one, namely Theodosia, whose temple I saw in the region across the gulf, of ancient and elegant structure, now changed into a mosque, which is called Casanis bassa, as set forth above in chapter 128. For through this gate they enter the city who come from Saint Theodosia, where there are houses with neighborhoods.
The eighth is called the Phanar gate, or simply Phanarion: the notion of which word we showed above in chapter 128, toward the end.
The ninth is called Diplophanarion, and as it has twin towers (from which it received its name), it also has two gates.
The tenth is commonly called by the Greeks the gate of Kunyοῦ or Kynigi, but it is more correctly called the gate of Κυνηγίου; and the Greeks in their basilicas have translated Κυνήγιον as that place of the city which in Roman times was called the Arena, where, of course, either men were pitted against wild beasts, or wild beasts against each other. Kynigion is referred to the Blachernae, a place which is, of course, depressed and concave, where the patriarchate was at the time of my pilgrimage, which in this year 1587 the Sultan Murad III bought with money from the Greeks, so that he might build a mosque there, a monument to his own name. This attempt, often tried until now, was prevented by the Mufti of the Turks, who said that Murad ought first to set aside the annual revenues for building the mosque from the lands taken from the enemy. He granted the ruinous palace of Constantine to the Greeks in turn to be built for the use of both the patriarch and the patriarchal church, of which we shall presently indicate something. B
The eleventh is named by the ancients Xylokerkos, the reason for which is to be exposed a little later, but now it is the Hagiobazari gate, through which, of course, the Hagiobazariots, living across the gulf, in the region of this gate, enter the city. The name Hagiobazari signifies either the holy or the sacred emporium. And the word emporium is also used by Symeon Magister with other Greeks for a small town enclosed by no gates or surrounded by no walls. I think it should rather be called the holy emporium, so that the emporium of Saint Mamas may be understood, which once had a distinguished monastery, an imperial palace most famous in histories, and finally a bridge no less noble, called after Saint Mamas. For here the streams known to the ancients as the Cydarus and Barbyses pour themselves into the extreme Ceratine gulf, C as indicated above in chapter 159, which are indeed joined by a bridge at Saint Mamas. The word Hagiobazariotarum denotes the inhabitants of the emporium of Saint Mamas. Moreover, at this Hagiobazari gate is the second corner of the city towards the mainland, where, of course, the terrestrial gates and walls begin, so called because they are washed neither by the Ceratine gulf nor by the Propontis, but are extended towards Thrace. The ancients placed here a second acropolis of the city, as if situated at its extremity, in relation to the first, which contains the fortress of Byzantium, as shown in chapter 139. And this corner once had a fortress, called Pentepyrgion, from its five towers, or Magnaura, or Ξυλοκέρκος, and the palace of the Xylina gate according to Chalcocondyles, whose translators erroneously wrote the Xyllae palace, and interpreted it even worse as wooden. But these names frequently occur in the histories of the Greeks, of Zonaras, Cedrenus, and others. A more lengthy explanation of another place will be found. In the letter of Leonard, Archbishop of Chios, concerning the capture of Constantinople, the Aveniades towers are read of: about which, when questioned by me, Zygomalas answered that they should be called not Aveniadas, but the Anemanis towers, mention of which is in the histories of the Greeks: and he clearly meant that these were the same five towers in the other acropolis of the city, which we said have the name Pentepyrgion. That this is true is understood also from the fact that the Chian adds to the towers the Xyloporta, which is different from the former Xyloporta, and was called by the ancients Ξυλόκερκος, because the craftsmen building it, having found a great quantity of water in the foundation, threw stones onto many beams and piles driven into the water, and thus at last made the foundation of the building firm, as is in the book On the Buildings of the City. Nor would anyone say it without reason that the palace of Xyloporta should rather be written as the Xylokerki palace: because the writer's scribe exchanged this more obscure word with the better-known Xyloporta. D
The twelfth to the Turks is Egri capi, which word signifies an oblique gate. And indeed we saw it so constructed that the approach into it is not directly, but obliquely. The letter of Leonard of Chios, which we mentioned, calls it Caligarea, the Greeks call it that of the Caligarians. But it is thus named from the Caligarians or cobblers, who make footwear, called by the Turks Passumaggia. Between this and the next gate is situated, at the walls themselves, on high ground, the old Blachernae palace, which they now commonly call Constantine's, where elephants used to be fed until now. This, just last year, Murad III granted to the Greeks as a place for the patriarchate, as we said a little before. Moreover, there is found in Greek histories the older name of this gate of the Caligarians, Gate of Kapsa, or the oblique gate: which the Turks seem to have translated as Egri capi. However, the book of the city's buildings wished it to be called the Charsia gate, from the author or founder Charsia, who was of the color of the Venetian faction. For the faction
members were once four in number, contending in the hippodrome with horses—which Pindar called *kēletas*—using variously two-horse, three-horse, and four-horse chariots; they were distinguished by colors, so that the *veneti* were called blue, the *leukoi* white, the *prasinoi* or green, and the *rhousioi* or red.
The thirteenth is that one which is mentioned here in this book of annals, and which gave us the first occasion to enumerate the gates of the city. It is called the Hadrianopolitan gate, because those arriving directly from Hadrianopolis are accustomed to enter the city through it. At this gate perished Constantine Dragases, the last emperor of the Greeks, crushed by the crowd of men.
Next follows the fourteenth, called in the recent Turkish vocabulary *Top capisi*, by which is signified the cannon gate, or [the gate] of war engines. Before the city was captured by the barbarians, the Greeks called it the gate of St. Romanus, as Leonard of Chios and Chalcocondyles both attest; although the Gallic translator of these men dared to make it a Roman gate from the gate of St. Romanus. I believe the Turks named it after the cannons, because during the time of the siege the war engines were primarily stationed opposite this [gate].
Closest to this is the fifteenth, the Turkish *Geni capi*, to the Greeks *nea porta*, which signifies the new gate.
Then one arrives at the sixteenth, namely the gate of Silyvria or Selybria, which was called by the ancients the *chrysē* or golden gate, and the gate of the fountain. For outside this gate there is to this day a fountain, which is called by the Greeks in their ancient tongue *chrysopegē* or the golden fountain, celebrated in their histories, which often mention the palace of the *pegē* or fountain, and the temple of the Mother of God at the *pegē* or fountain. The translator of Cedrenus generally rendered it as *Pege*. The buildings are now destroyed, though the foundations still stand, as does the fountain itself, which the common people of the Greeks to this day call *chrysopegē*, and at a certain time of the year they are accustomed to visit it with a great crowd, as if the temple of the Mother of God were still standing unharmed. The golden gate is now also to be seen, though it is blocked up, and not the one which is called golden; it is, however, elegant enough, containing the labors of Hercules expressed in marble, with no common artistry.
At this point we have arrived from the second corner of the city, skirting along the terrestrial walls of the city, to the third corner of the city opposite it; which, just as the second one is situated at the edge of the Ceratine gulf, so it too looks toward the Propontis: so that thenceforth the remaining side of the city is washed by the sea, up to the promontory of Byzantium, or the first corner of the city. For from this first corner, the first side of the city, namely the northern one, is formed by the sea of the Ceratine gulf, up to the second corner, the Pentapyrgian; then on the other side is the sea of the Propontis, which forms the second side of the city, and indeed the southern one, up to the third corner of the city, the Heptapyrgian; but the third side, the western one, clear of all waters, it closes off with a terrestrial wall A to the city, which begins near the Pentapyrgian [and] the Ceratine gulf, and ends at the Heptapyrgian near the Propontis.
Therefore, when we have navigated by ship to the Heptapyrgian corner, the first gate presents itself to us near the fortress on the southern side, which is otherwise the seventeenth in number; it is called by those in the vicinity of the fortress the gate of the *heptapyrgion* (that is, of the seven towers), in a half-barbarous tongue. We observed a Greek inscription on this, which we shall provide elsewhere.
Next to this follows the eighteenth gate, called by the Turkish name *Narli capi*: by which they doubtless refer to the ships arriving from the islands laden with golden apples or pomegranates (which the Greeks now call *rhodia*).
The nineteenth is called the gate of the Psomati. There exists among the Greeks a manuscript book about the buildings of the city, which we possess. In it is found the name of the gate of Psamati, and the palace of Psamati, and the *gerochomeion* of Psamati, by which is signified a house built for the care and nourishment of the old. We read in the same book, however, that the origin of the name Psamati was that there once stood in this place a certain idol of Psamati, which some worshipper of demons worshipped as a god. But the Christians, frequently dissuading the man from worshipping it, called that idol, which he himself worshipped, a *pseuma* god—that is, a false and fictitious one, and one that belied that name. From this idol of a god, they say the name was given to the place itself, so that it was called [the place] of Psamati, that is, the place of a fictitious god; commonly calling it Psama, from *pseuma*, which is a lie. For the sake of this gate, indeed, there was once both a palace and a *gerochomeion* of Psamati, as we said: both having the name Psamati from the vicinity, and having been built by Helena Augusta, mother of Constantine the Great, the founder of the city. The common people of the Christians now also call this gate St. Matthia, the name being corrupted from Psamatia.
The twentieth is called by the Greeks the gate of Contoscalium. In the book on the city’s buildings this place is called *Contoscalinon* and the cause of the name is added. For the gate itself retreats as if into a certain gulf toward the city, and on the other side it has a port near itself for triremes, stretching into the sea, and surrounded by a wall. They report that when this port was being prepared long ago, the prefect of the work was a certain *ergodiōktēs* (that is, an overseer of the work), the Agallianus Tourmarch (which signifies a leader of a *tourma*, that is, of a legion of six thousand men, as is found in Leo Augustus in his book *On War Apparatus*), who had the surname *Constoscelis* from his short legs; the Italians would call him Gambacurta. They say the gate was named after him *Contoscalinon*, as if *contoscelinon*. I, however, with the leave of the Greeks, would say it was rather called *Contoscalinon* or *Contoscalii* from *conta scala* (small stairs). For *kontos* to the Greeks now [means] small, just as when Cedrenus says that a certain man was once named from the smallness of [his] stature *Kontoleon* (Little Lion), the praetor of Cephallenia, and another *Kontostephanos*...
A ...or Stephanus the younger. The first is called Xylokerxos because its foundation was made with stakes driven into the bottom. We have noted that it is now called Isagiobazari gate. The twenty-first is called the Gatergolimenis gate, from the port of the triremes, which common people in Greek call *katerga*—just as even now the oarsmen are called *katergades*, or naval associates of the triremes.
The twenty-second is commonly called by the Greeks nowadays the *Porta Arkoudes*, that is, the "bear" or "ursine" gate; the Turks call it *Tschatlati capsi*, from the slaughtering of cattle. There are some who call it the new gate of the shore. For my part, I would believe it to be ancient. There is a round building outside the walls, close to the very sea, which is ancient and surrounded on all sides, except where it joins the land; in it, cattle are slaughtered, skinned, and disemboweled; this gate also has marble windows on the side, belonging to some ancient building or palace that rests upon the city walls themselves. I remember once narrowly escaping shipwreck here, when, for the sake of amusement, Wulfius Ungwadius, Baron of Sonnecc, and Hieronymus Arconatus, and I, having set out from the sultan’s palace and the Ceratine gulf—the sky at first clear and the sea calm—were navigating around; but a storm having suddenly risen, not without danger, we were cast back here.
B The twenty-third and final gate is called by the Turkish name *Achur capisi*, which means "Gate of the Stable." For *Achurium* to the Turks is a spacious building having a courtyard in the middle, of the kind that stables for royal horses are wont to be. And I suspect that the word is of Greek origin, adopted by the Turks. For the Greeks call a stable *achurion*, on account of the straw being stored [in it]. Thus the *emir Achur* is the prefect of the stable in the sultan's court, just as we said at chapter 14. Therefore, this name was given to that gate because through it, being contiguous to the sultan's palace, all things necessary for the care and feeding of the sultan's horses and pack animals, whatever are indeed kept within the palace, are brought in. From this last gate, the wall of the sultan's palace begins, three Greek miles in circumference, beside which, on the other side of the palace, we have also placed the first gate of the city. Nor is there found between the Achurian gate and that first wall of the Romans any other gate, except one through which it is permitted to the sultan alone to emerge from the palace grounds toward the angle of St. Demetrius, as often as it seems good to him. C And he is accustomed to do this very often, since he has a small, elegantly decorated house there, adorned with marble, within which, sitting covered with veils, he can gaze with pleasure—himself seen by no one—at both the Ceratine [gulf] and the Bosphorus as it flows favorably into the Propontis.
But indeed, before we finish this enumeration of the gates, it pleases me to list, from the book on the buildings of the city so often cited, the ancient land gates of the city in order, which alone are read of in those works, leaving aside those lying by the Ceratine gulf and the Propontis. Only these five are recited, starting from the Pentepyrgian extremity. The first is called *Xylokerxos* for the reason of its foundation already declared before. The second is *Charsia*, which indeed presided over its construction. To the Turks it is *Egri capi*, or "oblique gate." The third is *Polyandros*, named from the multitude of men. For we read it handed down in the histories, and in this very book on the buildings of the city, that the emperor Theodosius the Younger had the land walls of the city, which had collapsed in an earthquake, restored by Cyrus the urban prefect: D whose diligence in hastening and urging the work was such that it was completed within the sixtieth day. Now regarding this work, when one part of the people had begun to build the walls from the Pentepyrgian angle, and the other from the opposite angle of the Heptapyrgion, both parts met at this gate when their work was finished, and for that reason it was called the *Polyandros* gate, from the multitude of people who then gathered there. We said it is now called the Hadrianopolitan [gate]. And its location is indeed such that it occupies the middle of the land wall, which I have in fact diligently observed. For when traveling from the Pentepyrgian acropolis—on account of the trenches of the land wall—to the angle or acropolis of the Heptapyrgion, it is necessary to spend an hour's space; the same amount of time is required from the Pentepyrgian [acropolis] to the Hadrianopolitan gate, as from the same to the gate nearest the Heptapyrgion. In Leonardus Chiensis, this very place in the city and walls is found [referred to as] the "arduous" (as he calls it) *Miliandros*. Let the reader not seek this anywhere else than at the Hadrianopolitan or *Polyandros* gate, with the error of pronunciation or writing first corrected. For I have no doubt that for *Miliandros* one should replace *Myriandros*, which is the same as *Polyandros*: whether we say it was made *Miliandron* from *Myriandron* through the ignorance of the common people, or whether we believe the name was corrupted by the carelessness of the library scribe. The fourth is *Katoyala*, or "subterranean," for which, however, no reason for the name is given. It now corresponds to the *Topcapisi* or "bombardment gate," formerly [the gate] of St. Romanus. The fifth is narrated to have been called by the Greeks *pempti* ("the fifth"), because it was clearly the fifth in number among the land gates. We have shown that they formerly called it the Golden gate, [and] now it is called the Selymbrian. That *Geni capi* or "new gate" is not mentioned, located between the gates of St. Romanus and the Golden [gate], happens because none existed at that time, having been constructed in later times, as the name itself signifies. You have now, kind reader, a distinguished explanation of not only the gates of the city, but also a declaration of many other things besides, which to me indeed, while reading the Greek and Turkish histories, once seemed difficult to understand and very obscure. To you, certainly, now that not a few obstacles have been removed, about to enter upon the same journey, [it will be] less...
which I trust will bring forth weariness. Even the histories of the siege and capture of Constantinople, whether by the Turks themselves or by Chalcocondyles and Leonard of Chios, will shed a remarkable amount of light on this exposition of ours.
201. The death of the Sultan Bajazit, removed by poison at the hand of his son Selim.
The annals do not mention the poison given by the son Selim to Bajazit, which is constantly asserted by our own sources, although these expositions themselves differ not a little among themselves. We shall recount the narratives of the majority in such a way, however, as to leave the judgment intact for the reader. Spandugino says that Selim had joined to his father Jonuz Bassa, who might take care of him and administer all the affairs of his father. Meanwhile, however, he had acted secretly with Jonuz that poison should be administered to his father. And so Bajazit, before he had reached Dimotica, had been extinguished by the power of the poison administered. Jovius adds that the poison was provided to him by Hamo the Jewish physician. Others recount that Selim, fearing lest his father, while he (Selim) was occupied in war in Anatolia against his brothers Achmet and Corcut, might reclaim the empire for himself, had bribed the father’s physician, Ustarabim, with promises of one thousand aspers per day for his salary, which would be an annual income of 9,000 thalers, calculating 40 aspers to one thaler. And so the physician had accepted that he would administer to Bajazit poison mixed with a drug. And some have reported that this poison had been pulverized like a diamond. Ustarabim, in the town of Tzurulo, had been the instigator for Bajazit to take the medicine, by which a wondrous vigor of body and spirit would return to the old man. With Bajazit agreeing, the physician came the next morning to the Sultan’s bedchamber; and when he found him still sleeping, he remained there awaiting his return until he awoke. After some time had elapsed, when he did not stir, he ordered him to be awakened, and when he was now awake, asked if he wished to use the medicine. As he assented, Ustarabim, having been fortified long before with antidotes, offered the medicine, already tasted by himself, for Bajazit to swallow; at the same time he ordered the chamberlains that they should not administer any drink to him until he had sweated well, with his body covered. From there the physician betook himself to Constantinople to Selim, who, in place of the promised reward, ordered his head to be cut off; since he said that a man who was wicked and perfidious toward the Sultan, his father, would use the same perfidy toward himself as well, if he were indeed tempted by anyone else to do so.
202. The bloody and parricidal empire of Selim.
With his father removed from the midst, Selim proceeded to immense cruelty and foul parricides, so that he alone might be able to possess power over things. His brother, older by birth, is said to have fled to the Arabian borders, that is, into Caramania A, the kingdom adjacent to that of the Sultan of Cairo. Indeed, not long after, it follows that he finally emerged from his hiding places with the Caramanian army against Selim. The Arabs are also called Egyptians and are subjects of the Sultan of the Egyptians, as we indicated in chapter 165. We made mention of Mustapha Bassa a little earlier in chapter 198. He was killed for the reason that it had been discovered that he had warned the sons of Achmet, Murate and Aladin, through swift messengers, of the danger imminent to them from their uncle Selim. He paid the deserved penalty for his perfidy toward Sultan Bajazit, his master, against whom he had favored the son of Selim. The sons of his brothers, whom tradition says Selim ordered to be strangled—per the custom received by the Osmanids, who think it an impiety for the earth to be stained with the blood of the Osmanids—were five in number: Muchemetes and Aladin, sons of Sinanis Scachi; along with the three sons of Sultan Muchemetes, as is to be seen in our genealogy of the Osmanids. Concerning the province of Tekke, it was spoken of in chapter 57. He who is the first among the royal janitors and is called Azem Aga in the Annals, must be correctly called Capizilar Azem Aga. The names have already been explained several times, and we shall speak in their proper place about the Capizilarii, who are the doorkeepers of the Sultan Osmanida. There are usually either four or six of these leaders, according to what seems proper to the Sultan himself. They are called either Capizilar Bassi or Capizilar Aga. Concerning the word Bassa we spoke in chapter 14, and of Aga in 173. He who is the first and supreme among them is called Capizilar Azem Aga. For indeed, Azem signifies supreme. It should be noted here that the name of Casanis Azemis is that of the Capizilarii Aga. For the Frenchman says that Corcut fell into the hands of Bostangi Bassa, who was the son-in-law of Selim. We showed, however, above in chapter 198, that Bostangi Bassa, having obtained the marriage of Selim's daughter as a reward for his perfidy, had the surname Ducaginoglis for a reason to be revealed shortly after; the proper name, however, of this Ducaginoglis was not Casam or Casan, but Achmet, just as it will appear hereafter from the Annals themselves. And altogether the Capizilar Aga is different from the Bostangi Bassa. Wherefore the Frenchman erred in these matters. The town Egrigos, to Bellonius, is Grigos, situated on the sea, toward the Gulf of Aiassus, which in ancient times was the Issicus.
Achmet, and the exile of his sons.
Because the name of the dwarf Selim is attributed to him, it is to be understood, per the opinion of Spandugino, that we realize that the rest of his body was elongated, but that he had short shins. And for that reason he was more stable on a horse than if he were walking on foot. The Naples of Caramania is called in the Turkish language Genischeher. And here the words of the annals are to be noted, which repeat quite often that these things were done in Caramania, into which Achmet had betook himself, so that he might be able to use the aid of the Sultan of Egypt or Cairo C from nearby against Selim. Indeed, the Novel of Leo Augustus D mentions the thrones of the episcopate of Naples, subject to the metropolis of Stauropolis in Caria. Hence it appears that Jovius errs, who says that the battle was fought near Prusa [Bursa] on a most ample plain, which in the Italian tongue is called new land, or new city. And this hallucination of his proceeds from the fact that other
A cities are located not far from Prusa, or rather from Nicaea, called Neapolis or Genischeher, as was said above in chapters 17 and 23. Yet that place is quite far distant from the Neapolis of Caramania. Nor do I see in what neighborhood—whether of Prusa, or Nicaea, or Genischeher (i.e., Neapolis) which is adjacent to these—there could be such a vast plain, capable of holding such great armies, since there exist in those parts either perpetual mountain chains or at least the slopes of Mount Olympus. I pass over the fact that it is found written more than once in these earlier annals that the begs of Caramania, when they saw themselves unequal to their enemies, retreated into the mountainous parts of their own region; these are the very hideouts into which Sultan Achmetes, being unequal in forces to his brother Selim, betook himself—hideouts such as he could not have had in the vicinity of Prusa. And therefore, it is not without reason said that at the beginning of the war, when Selim crossed into Asia with his forces, Achmetes, as the weaker brother, fled to the borders of Arabia, that is, into Caramania; from whence it is not read that he emerged anywhere to this day, much less that he betook himself, with the present danger of his affairs, into Bithynia, which is subject to his brother. Of the two sons he left surviving, Murates and Aladines, no mention exists in these annals, but they are commemorated by others, especially by Menavinus, an eyewitness. Jovius relates that Aladines escaped by flight and, on the journey where he was betaking himself to the sultan of Egypt and Syria—a friend of his father—died of a fever. But all report that Murates betook himself to Ismael Sophinus, the Seach of the Persians, who gave him his own daughter as a wife. And indeed it is certain that the prince favored both the father Achmetes and his sons against Selim, because they saw that the formidable power of the Osmanidae was almost before their own doors, which power they desired to be debilitated by civil wars, lest it should creep further to the detriment of both; just as indeed it soon extinguished the Egyptian sultans with their Mamelukes to the point of destruction after these movements, and greatly afflicted the Sophini, who had then first arisen; albeit that hitherto, by some secret judgment of God, the Osmanidae, though they have used their utmost strength, have been able to achieve nothing against them that might provide a certain hope for them of crushing the Persian kingdom. Therefore, it is the more worthy of admiration that they, having been emboldened by the perpetual and almost infinite victories they have hitherto won against all peoples, boast that there is nothing they cannot both overthrow and destroy by the sole might of their all-powerful empire. Therefore, let the Romans at last learn that the oracle of Pindar is true, to their own destruction: Strength devoid of counsel collapses of its own mass, Tempered strength the gods themselves lead onward To greater things; the same gods hate powers That set in motion every wicked deed entirely.
B Jovius reports that Achmetes’s son had an army of two hundred thousand men; the annals make the number double that size. The same man calls Ismael’s primary commander Ustaoglis, who in our annals is more correctly—beyond doubt—named Ustagelu-ogli, or Ustazelu-ogli. This signifies "son of Ustagelvis." But who this Ustagelves may have been is not expressed in the annals. Immediately after setting forth the battle of Selim against the Persians and the occupation of Taurisium, Jovius appends a narrative of the Turks' war against Costagelvem, the prince of the Aladulians. The Turks also report that the same war was fought soon after, but it was against Aladeules, the leader of the province of Dulgadir. Therefore we seem now to have noticed that the princes of this Dulgadirensian region had the name "Aladeulis" in general, mention of which was made above in chapter 163, but that besides this, each had his own peculiar name; and thus this man, having been defeated by the army of Selim, was called Ustazelves, whose son was Ustazeluogli, the supreme commander of the war under Ismael Sophinus, who fell on the fields of Zalderan. Hence, therefore, Jovius must be corrected, and for Ustaogli should be substituted "Ustazelu-ogli"; and again, for Costagelu, "Ustagelu" ought to be written. The plain "Zalderan" is read in the annals, which to Jovius are the "Calderanian fields." The location of these is perceived from the fact that the same author reports that the battle was fought not far from the city of Choi, which in ancient times was called Artaxata. C The first Malcozoglis or Malcozides is Thur Ali beg to the Turks, but Thurabeus to Jovius, with the name being corrected from this source: the other is Mahomet, whom the annals do not name. The Turks report that the wound was inflicted upon the Schach by Malcozides, while Jovius says he was wounded by a musket shot below the left shoulder, though not seriously, and by an uncertain assailant. D "Orda" to the Turks is *Ordu*. Properly, indeed, they are accustomed to use this word for the camp market of goods for sale, but meanwhile it is also accepted generally for the camp, or rather the ditch, as Leo the Wise Augustus calls it; and likewise for the *tuldum*, which word is found in the histories by the Greeks, and in Leo Augustus’s book *On Military Apparatus* is defined in such a way that it encompasses the baggage and vessels of the soldiers, and all necessary things; that is to say, the servants or boys, and the pack animals or beasts of burden, and the remaining animals, and if, besides these, the soldiers lead or drag along with them anything for the use of a trench. The Germans call it *Tross*. This word, properly speaking, responds to the Turkish *Ordu* in this place. It is known that among the Tatars the court, or the camp, or the retinue of the Khan or kings is called the *Ordam*. Among the Belvacenses, John of Plano Carpini, the legate of the Pope to the Tatars, interprets it as the king’s court, and the station of the emperor and the princes, and likewise the tent of the leader. But here, as we have said, it is understood that the *tuldum* of the Persian king fell to the Turks as booty; as soon also follows, that one of Ismael’s wives was captured in the *orda*. For women, if they follow the camp, are accustomed to be a part of the *tuldum*. Regarding Tebrisium, we set forth something above in chapter 187. Most think it is Ptolemy's Terva, and perhaps with the letters transposed, it shall be written more correctly in Turcic: the Hebrews’ Susam, A...
As Jovius believes. This, indeed, should by no means be passed over in silence in this place: that, as we have said before, the city of Choi, on account of which the battle was fought, is 80 Asiatic or Roman miles distant from Tauris [Tabriz]. It must also be added that the battle was joined on the 26th day of August, in the Christian year 1514. Finally, Jovius thinks the Sultan had built it [the city] from the ruins of Tigranocerta. Mention shall be made of this below also, in the first expedition of Sultan Suleiman against the Persians. Concerning Carabag, it was explained in chapter 83; concerning Amasia, in chapter 6. The city called today Kemach in Armenia was formerly the metropolis of Armenia, Camachus, as the Novella of Leo Augustus calls it regarding the thrones, and as was indicated by us above in chapter 3. Peucerus, using a corrupt term, called it Clamassum. Sansovinus also wrote it vitiatedly as Lamacam instead of Camaca or Camaco, following the error of the interpreter Laonicus.
205. The war of Dulgadir; the death of the leader Ustazelvis, or Aladeulis.
Of the boundaries of the province of Dulgadir, mention was made above in chapter 163. Its leaders, or petty kings, were Turcomans, not Christians: the region itself is entirely mountainous, enclosed by Taurus and Antitaurus. Dreslerus calls it simply Cappadocia, but not correctly. The cause of the war was provided by the fact that the son of the leader of this region, Ustazelvis—as has been stated—had served in the army of the enemy of Selim and the Osmanids, Ismaili Sophinus; and because the father, after the defeat of the Calderani on the plains of Alio, had harassed Selim’s army as it marched toward Amasia, amidst the defiles of the mountains and the narrow and difficult passages of the routes and the crossings of rivers. We mentioned Sinanis Bassa above in chapter 177. Ustazelvis having been captured by Sinan, his head was sent to Selim A to Venice, according to the custom of the Turks. Alis Begus was substituted in his place, named below as the son of the Scachus Suarensis, at the beginning of the reign of Soleiman, in the Christian year 1522, where we shall explain more about this in chapter 219.
206. The cruelty of Selim towards his Bassas; Ducaginogli; a catalog of the parricides and slaughter of Selim.
Piri Bassa is the one whom the history of the Rhodian war wrongly calls Pyrrhus by a Greek name, B just as Jovius also called him by a Greek appellation [Ajacem]—who is Aigas to the Turks. The son of Ducagini among the Turks is Achmet Bassa Ducaginogli, whose deeds were mentioned in passing in chapter 198. He was born into the Ducagina family, which Jovius says was illustrious in the region of Naupactia or Lepantina, as it is now called. I, however, find it to have been famous among the Epirotes or Albanians, in whose region Barletius makes mention of Ducagini, of a certain place or town over which they presided long ago with authority, and from which the name was bestowed upon the family. The Annals of the Venetians record that in the Christian year 1444, the brothers Paulus and Leccam Ducagino, sons of Tamusius, together with their dominions in Albania, gave themselves into the faith of the Venetian Republic. Jovius says this Ducaginogli was infamous for many vices, avarice, ambition, and perfidy. By betraying his father Bajazet, to the son's own ruin, he obtained the marriage of the King himself, as we have said before. The cause of death is more truthfully exposed here than by others, who claim he was killed because of the pillaged provinces over which he had presided. Yet, the office of Vezirazem Bassa, which the annals say Ducaginogli held when he was killed, does not involve the administration of some province, but one sits at the supreme power at the Gate, as at the helm of the entire Osmanid empire, and is not wont to be sent away except for the weightiest of reasons. This we remember to have happened before to Sinan, and subsequently to Osman, who was sent as Vezirazem against the Persians, in whose stead Mesites Bassa, a eunuch of old age—now retired with a pension, which the Turks call Oturasiacum—was then appointed as pro-vezirazem at the Gate. Besides Ducaginogli, the annals report that Ischender Bassa, who was also his own son-in-law, was killed by Selim, as were Tazisadem the Cadilescher, and Seguan Bassa (the term for the office is explained in chapter 190), who had the name Bal Gemes. This signifies a man who does not eat honey. These matters concerning the slaughter of the nobles by Selim are mentioned only in this place. Adamus, and others, were put to death at other times and in other places. We reported the slaughter of Mustapha above, in chapter 202. Jovius reports that Chendenum Bassa was executed before Selim proceeded into Persia against the Sophinus Ismaili, because, as a man possessed of great experience in affairs, he had dissuaded him from this trek for serious reasons. He later ordered his own vezir, Chusein Bassa, to be killed for a similar reason, because he was an advisor to him as he was about to make for Cairo with his forces through the deserts of Arabia, C warning him not to rashly undertake such a perilous journey with so great an army, as we read set forth in the annals. Having gained possession of Egypt, he removed Jonuz Bassa—whom Geufraeus and others wrongly call Janum—from the midst, either because he was denounced by Cheire Begus through calumny or driven by some fury, as it is in the annals. Let us summarize the unheard-of crimes of this now monstrous beast. First, eight, truly enormous, parricides, by which he destroyed his father with poison, and choked the throats of his brothers Achmet and Corcut, and 5 of his nephews with a noose; then, the slaughter of as many of the greatest nobles: Mustapha Bassa, the vezirazem; Cheuden Bassa; Ducaginogli, the vezirazem and his son-in-law; Ischender Bassa, likewise his son-in-law; Tazisadis the Cadilescher; Balis Gemis; Seguan Bassa; Chusein Bassa the vezir; and Jonuz Bassa. Truly, it makes me wonder how the Venetian legate, Aloysius Mocenicus, could possibly minimize all these things so much that he dared to say there was nothing barbaric in this tyrant.
207. The expedition of Selim against the Egyptian Sultan Cansavi Gauri, a Mameluke, Circassian, or Quinquemontanus.
It is said that Selim pretended that he would undertake another expedition against the Sophinus Ismaili, when in reality he was about to invade the Cairo sultan. He did this with cunning, so as not to stir up two mighty enemies against himself at once; who indeed, having been reconciled between themselves...
A observed Selim’s plan, for he was seeking the ruin of the Persians no less than that of the Egyptians. Furthermore, Selim was pricked on by Cheir-beg, the governor of Aleppo (whom Jovius and others incorrectly call Cajarbeius), who, being at enmity with his sultan, promised that he would defect from him if Selim approached Aleppo with his army. Cansavus Gaurius is the name of the Cairo sultan in these Turkish annals, who in our tongue is called by the corrupted name Campson Gaurius. Selim defeated him in battle, in which the sultan himself was slain. Geuffroy also recounted that Cairbeius, or Cheirem-beg, fell in this battle; yet it is expressly read in these annals that Cairo-bey subsequently commended Egypt to Selim when it had been captured. Jovius and others have written abundantly concerning the Mamelukes, which we shall touch upon only briefly. Their society, or order, began under Emperor Frederick II. Their community, or order, lasted with imperial power for more or less 300 years. The name itself signifies a soldier who serves for pay. They served the sultan and were perpetually trained in wars, being highly skilled, especially in equestrian martial affairs. Upon the death of a sultan, they elected another from their own body or college by free vote. B However, usually the opinion of the senior emirs, of whom there were four, who were nearest to the sultan in authority and dignity, was the one that was held. Every Mameluke who was elected gave one hundred seraphs for the auspicious beginning of his empire. All of them were necessarily either Christians or born of Christian parents; nor did they admit into their order either Arabs, or Saracens, or Moors, or Hebrews, or Turks. The greater part of them consisted of Circassians, captured in their youth or bought for a price. For that reason, they are also called Zercas or Cercas by the Turks, due to the large number of Circassians among the Mamelukes: this nation holds the name of the "Five Mountain-dwellers," and is neighboring to the Iberians or Georgians.
208. Tommanbai, last sultan of Egypt, Ulu Duveidar, emir Quibir.
Whom our historians call Tomumbeius, among the Turks he is Tommanbai, with the name not corrupted. What his office was, and what that dignity was of the man who is here called Ulu Duveidar, is understood from the context of these annals themselves. At the beginning of this commentary, in the third chapter, we noted that Ulu signifies "exalted." C Pietro Martire d’Anghiera in his description of the embassy to Babylon calls him not Ulu Duveidar but Emir Chemir, which in Arabic is Emir Quibir, that is, "great emir." That word was explained by us in the first and fourteenth chapters above. Martyr adds that the Emir Quibir is the first magistrate after the sultan, and this is because he presides over the armies. Therefore, Sansovino and others are mistaken, who, in the narratives of this history, made Tommanbai, the Ulu Duveidar—or Emir Quibir—into an admiral of Alexandria. One also finds in Geuffroy "Derdar Quibir," and in Andrea Cambini, the Florentine, and others, "the great Diadartus." Both are mutilated forms of Duveidar. Nor is Geuffroy consistent with himself in this explanation; for at one moment he interprets him as a great marshal, or prefect or admiral, at another as the great count of the stables, which among the Greeks in the courts was D *ho megas konostaulos*. If one must place faith in Pietro Martire, an eyewitness, who says that he (the Ulu Duveidar) was in charge of the armies, he was indeed what among the Egyptians is Ulu Duveidar, who is now the Serasker among the Turks, or what was once called *megas doux* among the Greek emperors. For he cannot be the *megas stratopedarches*, whom our translator of Greece compares with the beglerbeg. His words are written above, in chapter 66.
209. Melicul Umera, Zamberdi Casali, Gazn, Zosimus Gazæus, Remle, Rama, Rammola.
The word "Melicul Umera" denotes the name of his office or dignity in the Arabic language, once common among the Mamelukes, which among the Turks is either *beglerbegi* or (as it is commonly pronounced) *beglerbeg*, that is, "lord of lords," who has under him *sangiacs* and other *begs*. See this explained at greater length in chapter 14. "Zamberdi Casali," to our writers, is the Lamburdus Gazzelles. Indeed, I have hitherto taken pains to ensure that names, especially proper ones, are published as little corrupted as possible in each language. Gaza, of which mention is made a little earlier in these annals, is a well-known city of Palestine, which produced several illustrious men: and among others, Zosimus Gazæus, an eloquent orator, though a pagan, who was killed by the Emperor Zeno, a cruel and malicious man. He is the author of history published by us, Zosimus the Count, *apoxynigoros*, which name signifies one who was once an advocate. Carlo Sigonio, a man of great fame, inserted him into his history of the empire of the West—when it was being published page by page, every week, sent from Basel to Bologna by the labors of Petrus Perna—without a single word of mention of my kindness or benefit. Yet to him, when he was visiting Bologna in the year 1581, when, leaving the court of the Duke of Savoy, I was traveling with the ambassador of the Duke Augustus, the Elector of Saxony, Andrea Paulo, a most distinguished man and singular friend, for the sake of accompanying him, he indeed gave great thanks, admitting ingenuously that he would never have published that work of his with such praise without my communication of Zosimus. Nor did he disguise that, when he was taking me into his "sepulcher" (for so he called his library) and I was intending to depart for Rome, I had requested a copy to read of Zosimus, which was rumored to be in the Vatican: and that he was not able to obtain it from Pope Gregory XIII, though the most illustrious and first-rank cardinals, Farnese and Estensi, were used as intercessors, for certain reasons. The more so in that, with a smooth mouth at that time, he confessed he owed me a debt. But to return to the annals: the place recorded here, Remle, a town of Palestine, has various appellations. For it is named by the Moors, who are Arabs, and the neighbors, as Romle, as it is here, and Ramma, and Rama, and Rammola: which word signifies sandy ground, and by the Turks it is
changed into Remle. It is distant some ten or twelve Asiatic miles more or less from Jaffa, which is Joppa in the Holy Scriptures, so named from Japheth, because it looks toward Europe, which is inhabited by the sons of Japheth, and it is its most celebrated harbor.
210. Cudsimabarec, Ikindi, Messit Axa, Iadsunamasi, Cubei Sahara, Cuba, Trulla, Naos dromicos.
Selim, being about to set out for Egypt with his army, 496 when he was not far distant from Jerusalem, following the custom of tyrants, to whom these prayers are perpetually on their lips, "Grant me to deceive, grant that I may seem just and holy," he wished, even in the estimation of the Muslims, to visit the sacred and holy city. For even today that religion, or rather superstition, clings to the minds of the Turks, that when they have fulfilled a vow, having visited their Mecca, they do not consider themselves to have satisfied that vow legitimately unless they have also approached Bethlehem, noble for the cradle of Christ, and Jerusalem. Now they call Jerusalem or Hierusalema in their own language *Cudsimabarec*, which name signifies a blessed or celebrated place. The evening prayers for the Turks are *Ikindi nemas*, which are indeed performed in the space of time between noon and sunset. He conceived these in the *messit axa*, that is, in the white mosque, or Turkish temple. The nocturnal ones, which are called *Iadsunamasi* by the Turks, and are usually performed in the interval between sunset and midnight, he carried out in the *Cubei Sahara*, or *Sehara*: a word denoting a temple situated in a spacious area, and upon which has been imposed a roof of round form. Such a roof, by Evagrius, a writer of ecclesiastical history, is called a dome; more recent Greeks, such as Zonaras, Cedrenus, and others, name it *trullum* and *trulla*: as when Cedrenus says somewhere that the dome of the great holy church had collapsed: in which words "furnica" denotes that which has the shape of a furnace, that is, round, not elongated, of which kind the covered temples are called *naos dromicos* by the Greeks. The word *Cubei* is not unknown even to the Italians, just as it is read in the annals of the Venetians, that in the year 1416 fire had burned the domes of the temple of Saint Mark, covered with lead. By this place of the annals is understood, by *Cubei Sahara*, the Solomonian temple of present-day Jerusalem, which also has a dome of this kind, familiar to Turkish temples, and embraces a most ample area around itself.
211. Again, Ethiopians or Moors, for the Arabs.
Why the Egyptians and Arabs, formerly subjects of the Sultan of Cairo, are named Ethiopians and Moors, from the black color of their bodies, we have said above, in chapter 165. Sansovinus expressly in this history calls the inhabitants of Cairo or Miszir (as we noted it to be named now in chapter 61) Moors, by vulgar custom. Also shortly after follows here in the annals that Tommanbais, having been intercepted by the Arabs and Ethiopians, had been betrayed to Selim. But for the rest, the Turkish annals mention only those who were turncoats, but our two historians, who were Mamelukes, of the nation of Albanians or Epirotes, report that these had made their flight to their own fellow citizen, Sinan Pasha, and had revealed to him the counsels of the Sultan of Egypt with treachery.
The fact that the soldiers of Selim are said to have entered the city of Cairo, some say that this was done through that gate which our people call Bassuella, and of which we shall speak more fully a little later. The region of Sahid, in Joannes Leo Africanus, is Upper Egypt, which the ancients called the province of Thebais. Aythonus in chapter 54, as also these Turkish annals, calls it not Sahid, but Sait, and makes it the first and greater (that is, the greatest) province of Egypt: at which place it is to be noted in passing that the second province of this same Egypt is written corruptly *Demesor*, for which is undoubtedly to be substituted, with divided words, *De Meser*: which in the French phrase denotes the province of Meserenses, that is, near to the city of Meser, which we have said more correctly in the preceding chapter is named Miszir, or Missir. In the same place, the fifth province with the city of Damiata is not Heliopolis, so called by Aelius Pertinax Augustus, which Reineccius believed, following the authority of Platina: but Heliopolis, as if the city of the sun, as in the same Egypt there was once Hermopolis, the city of Mercury; Panopolis, the city of Pan, and others are found named from other gods, even from those ridiculous gods of the Egyptians, some, as from dogs, Cynopolis: from wolves, Lycopolis: from cats, Aeluropolis. More are recited by our Elias of Crete in a certain place on Nazianzen. This is also to be corrected in that very chapter of Aythonus, when he says that "crastinas" meats are to be had, goat, chicken: so that the reader might prefer "castronias" meats, that is, mutton, rather than "crastinas" (of tomorrow).
The author of this mosque or temple of Cairo they call Chasan, these Turkish annals, more correctly without a doubt than either Joannes Fraxineus, in whom *Hessin* is read, or Helferichus in his itinerary, in which is written *Hessen* for Chasan.
214. Tommanbais is suspended; the end of the Sultanate and Mamelukes, Bab Suweile.
Memorable is this destruction of Tommanbais, and the end of the kingdom of the Sultans of Egypt and Syria. Tommanbais was suspended on the eleventh day of the month of April, in the Christian year 1517, as Sansovinus noted. This punishment was exacted of him at the Bassuella gate, as the same has reported, when having been led around through the city sitting on a mule, with a rope around his neck for the sake of ignominy, he had first been. Peucerus calls it the Basuelain gate of Syria. B But the annals have better indicated the place in the navel of the city, whose name is Bab Subeile or Suweile, of which the former signifies "the gate," the latter "the marketplace."
215. Sickness and death of Selim, at the fatal place, Dephter darlar, Bairam the greater and the lesser.
Concerning the village of Inzua, it was spoken of above, number 74. It is not far distant from Zorlo, or Zurulo, or the Ciurlo of Jovius, of which it was spoken likewise in chapters 26 and 193. Nor
A is that place, which was fatal to Selim due to the impiety twice committed against his father—by joining battle and by offering poison, of which it was spoken in chapter 201—far from Zurulo. And the Turkish annals also confess in this place that Selim met his fateful end. The cause of his death was a pustule or pestilential carbuncle, as the Turks hand down to memory. Sansovinus records from others that it was a corrosive sore, like gangrene; which I, however, do not think, because of the suddenness of Selim’s death, whereas gangrene usually makes slower progress.
Dephterdari, or Dephterdalari, are either accountants, or questors, or (as we now call them) presidents and counselors of the exchequer.
Bairam is the greatest feast for the Turks, like our Easter, which they celebrate in the month of Ramazane, during which they also observe their fast for a full month of thirty days, from the morning twilight until the setting of the sun, consuming nothing in the way of food or drink: and once the fast is completed, they perform this Bairam of theirs in the manner of Easter. But a double Bairam is in use among the Turks. One, in the month of Ramazane, of which we are now speaking, and which they call Bujuc, or the greater, or the big [Bairam]. We mentioned it above in chapters 11 and 33. The other is celebrated sixty days, more or less, after this day, and is called the Bairam of the Chazilarii, that is, of the religious, who undertake a pilgrimage for the sake of a vow to visit the tomb of their prophet Mahomet at Mecca, so that they may obtain therein the indulgences for their sins. For the rest are not bound to the observation of this Bairam. And therefore it is called Cutzug Bairam by them, as the lesser or small feast. Nor do they think that visiting the temple of Mecca alone suffices them for obtaining pardon for committed offenses, unless they also go to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, as we signified a little earlier.
From this, however, the certain time of the death of Sultan Selim is gathered, which is otherwise controversial. For it is read in Jovius that Selim was extinguished in the Christian year 1519, on the fourteenth day of the month of February; while Sansovinus and others report—altogether more truly—that it happened in the month of September, in the year 1520. For Bujuc Bairam was then imminent, which Selim was going to celebrate at Adrianople, if he had survived.
B
216. Soleimanes begins the kingdom, besieges Belgrade, and captures it; Subacz, Sabatia.
The cause why Soleimanes, having begun his reign, soon brought war upon the Hungarians, was in reality no other than the certain hope of occupying Belgrade, along with the rest of the provinces and towns of that kingdom, with King Ludovic, the son of Vladislaus, not yet being fit by age to rule, and being exposed to the contempt of his own nobles, both secular and ecclesiastical: who, having disregarded the dignity of the king and the safety of the state, were striving only for their own advantages, ambition, luxury, and a vanity unheard of in the memory of men. But as for the occasion of breaking the peace, Spanduginus explained it: that the ambassador of Soleimanes, sent to declare war to the Hungarians, if they had not paid tribute to Soleimanes, was not only not received honorably, but was also treated beyond the right of ambassadors: and this for the reason that they wished to take vengeance upon the Turkish sultan, because of their own envoys having been previously treated ignominiously and insolently by Selim.
But Soleimanes thought that Burgurdelen must be anticipated, lest any succor should be able to come via the Sava to those besieged at Belgrade, to whose walls it is joined by the Danube. Indeed, the Turks call that town on the bank of the river Sava Burgurdelen, which is called Sabacz by the Hungarians, surrounded on all sides by the Sava, into which the rivers Drinus and Baconsius flow at that place. Bonfinius reports that in the Christian year 1470 the structure of Sabaz was begun or commenced, to which the Turk gave the name, so that it might be called Sabaz, which in the Turkish language signifies something marvelous. But the Turks understand by this name the sultan Muchemet, father of Bajazit, grandfather of Selim, great-grandfather of Soleimanes. For Muchemet, having been shamefully repulsed from the siege of Belgrade in the Christian year 1456 by the virtue of the invincible leader Huniades, wished to build this fortress fourteen years later at the Sava, in the region of the Sirmium field, so that he could thence invade the Hungarian borders at will. Bonfinius thought that the proud name was given to the new fortification from this. But later, however, he confesses that it was called Sabatia, or rather Savatia, from the river Sava. But King Matthias, son of Huniades, in the Christian year 1475, while Muchemet was still surviving, took Sabatia back by force of arms: from which time it remained in the power of our people up to this Soleimanic war. The Turks noted that they had taken Alba Græca in the year of our Lord 1521, on the twenty-fourth day of June.
C 488 217. Siege of Rhodes, Mermere, Marmora, Portus Physicus.
Concerning the Mentesian territory it was spoken above, in chapter 13. Also to be seen is the map of Anatolia by the prince of geographers, Ortelius. Mermere is called by the Turks a maritime town of Anatolia, from whose port Rhodes is distant by no great interval. The name of the town in Greek is Marmora, but the port is Phisco, for which is read in Ortelius’s Anatolia "Fischio," not correctly, however, when Physcus is also written Sophiano. It is situated in the region of the Rhodian port, which is separated from it by only eighteen Greek miles.
D By the Greek word, the Turks also call the Grand Master of Rhodes [μεγάλον μάστορα], or the prince of the order of the Rhodian knights. He was at that time Philip Villerius Liladamus, by nation a Frenchman: who had succeeded to Fabricio de Caretto, born from the family of the marquises of Finari in Liguria of Saxon lineage, who had died not long before. The surrender of Rhodes was made in the year of Christ 1522, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of December, namely, the birthday of Christ, on which Soleimanes also wished to enter the city. There was also in the power of the Rhodian knights the noble island of Cos, fatherland of the physician Hippocrates, which the Italian sailors name Lango, the Greeks [στὴν Κω], as if [εἰς τὴν κῶν], the Turks Stankoi. These, likewise, having been lost, passed into the hands of Soleimanes.
Rhodus came next. They say the annals of these people also assert that the fortress of Bedrum soon followed. Marius Niger thought it was the Branchidae of Caria according to Strabo, and calls it Peter. The same man thinks that the ancient Halicarnassus corresponds to the Castle of Saint Peter, of which these annals now speak. The gulf of Saint Peter is indeed known, so called from the Castle of Saint Peter: but whether it should be referred to Halicarnassus or to Iasus of Caria, in such a way that it is that gulf of Pliny, I leave for others to determine.
219. The end of the Dulgadir duchy, Shach Suwar, Zuiria, Tzanisas.
Just as previously, in chapter 157, we showed that some had anticipated the end of the dynasty and family of Caramania, so also has it happened in the family of the Aladeuli and in the end of the principality of Dulgadir, as we see. Indeed, our sources hold that it ceased under the empire of Selim, in the Christian year 1514, at which time Ustazeles was captured and slain, as was declared above. But the Turks report that there had been substituted for him by Selim his brother’s son, Alim Beg, who is called here the son of the Shach of Suar. This man, having possessed the empire for seven years after the death of his uncle, is now at last taken out of the way by the treacherous schemes of Soleimane. The title of Shach is familiar to these peoples, of which we spoke at the beginning of this treatise. Thus, in the appendix of Reineccius to the eighth chapter of Aython, Sirvansa must not be accepted as anything other than the Shach of Sirvan, who is the Shach or king in Media: so also is a certain man named Tzanisas by Philippus Bergomas, a word corrupted from Tzani-scach, who is the Shach of the Tzani, a people likewise of Pontus, just as the Suarenses also pertain to the Pontus or Colchis, or are close to them. And these same Suarenses are they whose region Ortelius, following Alphonsus Hadrianus, named Zuiria.
220. Aigas Bassa, Ckasnadar bassi, apocrisiarius Bonfinii. B
Here the reader finds that Aigas Bassa, whom we indicated above is named by Jovius in the Greek tongue as Ajax. He was born in Chimera, not far from Corcyra, situated across the gulf, which Leo Sapiens Augustus calls Chimara in his Novella on thrones, and with Buthrotum, situated there at the fifth mile from the town and fortifications of Corcyra, he subjects him to the metropolitan of Naupactus. The supreme treasurer in the offices of the Ottoman Porte is called Chasnadar Bassa. An explanation of these will soon find its place. And there are treasurers in all realms, whom Bonfinius is mistaken in saying are called Roman quaestors, and whom he thinks are the Greek apocrisiarii. For apocrisiarii are never found among these, but apocrisarii; the name of the office is far different, and some in Latin have called those performing it "those from the answers." The Greeks today call intermediaries and legates this.
221. The aforementioned King Louis of Hungary from a specter. C
That which is called Varadinum Petri, the Hungarians call Petrovar, that is, the city of Peter, or Petropolis. We saw it situated on a free hill by the Danube; the part of the kingdom of Hungary which, from Salankemen, is turned toward the mouths of the Tibiscum (this was spoken of in the hundredth chapter) as far as this Varadinum of Peter, is called Sirmium. The Greeks, because of the slaughter of the Franci, have called it Phrangochorion in recent histories. What the annals say, that the battle was fought between Soleimane and Louis around the time of Ikindi, the reader understands from what was noted in chapter 210. For since it is the time of evening prayer for Christians, the third hour after noon, we have noted that it is called Ikindi by the Turks. Stephanus Broderithus in his history, page 489, regarding this disaster of King Louis of Hungary, reports that the fighting began almost at the third hour after noon, which, clearly, is also remembered by the Turks. But here Louis, the second of that name among the Hungarians, King of Hungary and Bohemia, at the town of Mohacs (others have preferred to name it Mugacium), his troops having been scattered everywhere, snatched himself from the battle, and when he attempted to escape into the neighboring marsh toward a slightly higher bank, the royal horse, bracing itself with its hind legs and struggling in vain to leap onto the opposite bank, fell over backward together with its rider; so that, armed as he was, buried in the muddy swirl of water, he suffocated and perished, in the Christian year 1526, on the twenty-ninth day of the month of August, dedicated to the memory of the beheading of John the Baptist, for which others incorrectly set his birthday, that is, the twenty-fourth of June. He was the son of Vladislaus Jagiello, nephew of Casimir, King of Poland. He had as his mother Anna of Candale, of the royal line of Navarre among the Basques in Gaul; who brought him forth into the world covered by no skin or hide, which he later obtained through the aid of physicians’ arts helping nature. This was taken as a sign of ill omen. The father, in baptizing according to the Christian custom, had decided to bestow the name Julius; but, his mother persuading otherwise, he was called Louis. This likewise seemed ominous to many, because one king by this name had once previously held sway in both Hungary and Poland, the father-in-law of King Sigismund and later of the Emperor, sprung from the French family of the Neapolitan kings, and therefore commonly called Lois, who in dying had left behind no male heir. Other things are also told, which were believed to portend all manner of things most sad to the unfortunate youth (for he was in the twenty-first year of his life when he died). There once reported to me the generous and illustrious Joannes Bairo Kitlizianus, whom I name for the sake of honor, that he had known a most honest matron, of the Boccian family, born noble among the Silesians, and wed to a Suevian knight of the Stalnan family. She had been sent as a young girl into the court of King Louis to be in the women's quarters of Queen Maria, sister of the Augusti Charles V and Ferdinand, consort of Louis; and indeed, when at the king's death all minds were struck with consternation, and because of the fear of the approaching Barbarians the women's quarters in particular were fleeing in panic, she is said to have saved the royal crown, which had been neglected by others out of fear. Our Baron recalled that she was accustomed to recite this not long before the death of the king, when he was in Buda, and by custom of the fortress being closed
A to travelers. Afterward, Sigismund, the King of Poland, gave his own daughter Isabella, born of another marriage, as a wife to John, as we shall relate more prolixly below. The Poles are believed to have favored John’s cause, and to have entrusted it with the greatest zeal to Soleiman the Osmanid and to Francis I, King of the Gauls, through others as well as through Hieronymus Lasco, the father of Albert—those good allies and confederates—to the detriment of the Christian republic, in order that the Austrian princes, once they had obtained quiet possession of the entire Hungarian kingdom, might not become formidable to the Poles themselves. This was indeed a goad of emulation that constantly pricked King Francis’s own spirit and drove him, to the indelible infamy of his memory for all posterity, to nefarious counsels destructive to the republic. Thus, certainly, through this king, who was defrauded and held in contempt by the Hungarian nobles, while they meanwhile wallowed in royal luxury (as the eyewitness Baron Herbestain has recorded for posterity), a certain specter appeared at the gate of the fortress, as the event taught, in the form of a man distorted in a foul manner and limping, who with a loud voice demanded an audience with the king, since he had to indicate to him certain things necessarily pertaining to the safety of the king and the kingdom. And when at first he was neglected, as is wont to happen in courts, he then used a louder clamor and wailings, asking that this be signified to the king as soon as possible. At length, moved by the man’s importunity, some carried the matter to the king—since he said he would disclose this secret to no one except the king himself. The king soon ordered one of the more splendid courtiers to go away and, under the guise of the royal person, ask what secret was there. But then the man, who was lame, addressing the one who was present as if he were the king, denied that this was the king, and then alleged that the king, who was unwilling to listen to him, would perish shortly—and having uttered these things, he vanished before the eyes of everyone. This history is indeed memorable for many reasons, which I for my part have deemed should by no means be bypassed in silence in so suitable a place.
222. A new movement of the Dervislarii. Those who are called Calenderes by the Turks, [and] who are Dervislarii, were explained above in chapter 171. Indeed, Dervislarii is a general name, by which the Calenderes and others enumerated in said chapter are comprehended, which is also perceived from the place itself. Now, the name Calender in Zelebi B signifies a Calender or noble religious man, for the reason explained in the annals themselves, because it derives the origin of the kind [of order], namely, to Chasim Bectasem, whose mention was made in the life of Urchan Gasis, son of Osman, not far from the beginning of the annals, as a man of once supreme authority.
223. The Ban of Erdely creates the King of Hungary for Soleiman. The cause of the progress which the Turks made in Hungary. We have discussed the dignity of the Ban in chapter 174, and Ardelia or Erdely in chapter 103. The annals here call a man the Ban of Erdely, whom our writers have always called not a Ban, but the Voivode of Erdely or Transylvania. At that time, this man was John de Zapolia, C Count of Szepes, the plague of Hungary: who, before the battle, by design led auxiliary troops too slowly to King Louis and is believed to have brought the king and his men into the extreme danger of that crisis, so that, by nefarious ambition, once Louis was slain, he himself, as a genuine Hungarian, might be able to attain the kingdom. For that reason, he had also long ago sought to betroth the sister of Louis, Anna (who had been betrothed to Ferdinand, the grandson of the great Emperor Maximilian, by her father Vladislaus shortly before he departed from the living), although in vain; so that he might have more right to the kingdom, 490 seeing that he would have been the king’s brother-in-law. Sigismund, King of Poland, first united the sister of John Zapoliensis himself to himself in marriage, of whom, however, he had no children. D Moreover, he was drawn into the vitals of our land by ambition and envy, like a savage and sworn enemy. Would that even now the faked liberty of election and the pretext of the alliance of the Osmanids with neighboring Sarmatia, and the detestable ambition of some, might not bring some evil upon Europe; which, however, may God, the best and greatest, avert the omen! The words of the annals indeed ought to be noted, by which this John is named not a king elected by the Hungarians, but the Ban of Transylvania, before he obtained the kingdom, of course, by the favor of Soleiman. This same Ban is said to have offered his obedience to Soleiman. What is this other than having become a client, or rather, a chattel of Soleiman? This appears even more from what follows: that he subjected himself to the command of Soleiman, or became a subject of Soleiman, just as the words of the Turks themselves sound. This is, clearly, that liberty which those who join themselves to the Turks boast of with their mouths. However, the fruits of this good Turkish protection and patronage will appear clearer than the midday light a little later from chapter 250, and from the annals themselves, where the death of John and the relegation of his son and mother into Transylvania are narrated; and likewise from our Supplement to the annals, where we finally see that the son of the ambitious father and the bane of the republic, a patron of the Arian sect, which opens the doors to the Mahometans, was, without children, in the very flower of his age, removed from human affairs by the just judgment of God. Familiar is that ancient and indeed most true oracle: *Εὐσεβέων παίδεσσι τὰ λώϊα, δυσσεβέων δ' οὔ,* *Fausta piorum posteritas, infausta scelestum.*
224. Vienna Austria: Soleiman besieges; Wetsch, Vindoniana, Ostrikion. The author of this siege to Soleiman was John Zapoliensis, an enemy of the Germans, with his Hungarians, who were little equitable to a nation that had deserved well of itself. Nor, in that blindness of theirs, did the demented ones perceive that if it had been permitted to Soleiman to plant his foot in Germany (which indeed, through the sole favor of the benign Divinity preventing that plague from our borders, did not happen through them), the barbarian would have oppressed the liberty of the Hungarians no less than ours: since, clearly, from the front and from the rear, they were already within their own confinements...
A Vienna is called *Wetsch* by the Turks. The old name *Vindomana* is read in the *Notitia utriusque imperii*, which I think is more correct than *Vindobona*: especially if the letter M is divided into N and I, and it is pronounced *Vindoniana*, just as we indicated briefly above in the first chapter of this commentary. The name of the region was not given from the south, because it is often blown upon by southern winds, as Lazius wrote, but from its eastern situation with respect to the rest of Germany, or it obeys our Greek *praetor*, who shows that it was called *oistrion* by the Greeks in his own time. For that name *Ostrich*, or *Ost-Reich*, simply sounds to the Germans like "kingdom of the east," or "situated toward the east." That the Turks narrate that Soleiman was forced to depart from the siege by the power of the cold, they do for the sake of excusing their sultan and their own men. In fact, it is certain that the Turks approached the walls of the city twenty times, were repelled twenty times by the valor of the defenders, and so at length, even though they employed clubs and cudgels, they were able to force their men no further by any strength to renew the assault. Hence despair of capturing the city entered Soleiman's mind, as is apparent from the description of the siege of Vienna itself. Soleiman began to withdraw in the manner of a flight with the remaining forces on the fourteenth day of October, in the year of Christ one thousand five hundred and twenty-nine. The name Atmindan, the mention of which follows, we explained above, in chapter 130.
C 225. Another expedition of Soleiman against the Germans. Casan Michalogli with his men slain by the Palatine Prince Frederick; the merits of the Palatines toward the republic.
Spanish annals understand by the name of Charles V, Augustus, King of Spain: whom Soleiman was accustomed to deny as Emperor of the Romans, because he said that he himself, by right of war, was the successor of Constantine the Great, who had been emperor of the West as well as of the East. The name of Casan Michalogli is not read in Soiter, who elegantly wrote of this war from our side. The appellation of *vaivoda*, which is attributed to Casan, signifies a captain. He was slain with his men in a memorable slaughter by Frederick the Palatine Prince of the Rhine, the supreme leader of the empire's auxiliary forces, who, later shining with the dignity of an elector, 491 closed his life on earth in an honored and grave old age. Truly, the most serene family of the Palatine princes, both in the former war and in this one against Soleiman, rendered very useful service to the Christian republic with its own immortal praise: since, when Vienna was besieged, Philip, born of Frederick’s brother Rupert, devoted his own life for the safety of the fatherland by defending it against the force of a most powerful enemy in a place that was at that time entirely unfortified: while the brothers Frederick and Wolfgang of Crembs, at the tenth milestone from Vienna, stationed themselves with forces, intent upon every occasion for managing the affair well, and now at length, in the third year with Soleiman returning, Frederick the first flew to defend Austria, and, prepared himself, invaded, struck, and routed the Barbarous men, who were unprepared and unwary. Indeed, the eulogy of the enemy, concerning the slaughter of Casan Michalogli by the Alamanis, pertains to the praise of this family.
A 226. Corone, the island of Baln, Badra, captured by our men.
Regarding Corone, it was mentioned in chapter 177. The island of Balu is a place right at Corone itself, closest to the shore, which the Greeks inhabit, with Turks dwelling there. From this it can be understood what we read in Ortelius, that Corone in the Messenia of the Peloponnese is called *Coron* by Sophianus, and *Nisi* by Mario Negro. For the Greek word *nisi* signifies an island, and it ought to have been written entirely as *nisi*. And Niger gave the name to the whole city from his father. *Badra* is asserted by the Turks to be a city of the Peloponnese: the Italians call it *Patrasso*: it was formerly announced by the Greeks as Patrae for the number of its multitude.
227. Chairadin Barbarossa, Caesar.
We gave the definition of the word *Chairadin* in chapter 36. Here there is no mention of Horueccius, because he perished before he had performed any significant deed for the Turks, content with private gains. The older brother of Chairadin was one who attained name and deed from piracy under the arch-pirate Kemali, and he strangled the Arab Selim, heir of the Algerian kingdom, to whom he had been asked to bring auxiliary supplies, by a trap in a bath, and he asserted the city with the kingdom for himself by force. Then, when Horueccius was extinguished, whose death Jovius described, his brother Chairadin, himself a noble pirate, succeeded in the possession of the kingdom, and at length became by far the most beloved to Soleiman, performing those deeds which are subsequently exposed in the annals. By mistake, everything here is referred to him, especially regarding the capture of Cesair, which had been performed by his brother while he lived. *Cesair*, the metropolis of Numidia, is commonly called Algiers. Among the ancients, it was Julia Caesarea. Nicolaus thinks it is called *Gezeir* by the Moors and *Elgezair* by the Arabs, with a name signifying an island, because of the vicinity of the Balearic and other islands, which is truly ridiculous: since both are the same, except that to the one is added *EL* or *AL*, the Arabic article, and both are corrupted from *Caesarea*, as is *Cesair*. We warned at the beginning of our *Supplement to the Annals* that Barbary is called maritime Africa. One hundred times forty hundred thousand *aspers* make one hundred thousand *thalers*, with the price of one *thaler* reduced to forty *aspers*, as was shown in chapter 18.
228. The principal offices of the Ottoman Porte, as they are today.
Before we proceed to the explanation of the office which Chairadin is here recorded to have obtained, namely that of the supreme *beglerbeg* of the sea, we are at length to examine at the final point the principal offices of the whole court, or rather of the Ottoman Porte, necessary for explaining and understanding Turkish affairs.
First, it ought to be known that these are of two types clearly, some ministries being deputed within the *sarai* of the sultan himself, and others again discharging their duties outside the *sarai*.
These serve the sultan within the *sarai*: *Capi Aga*, or *Capi Agasi*. Prefect or Captain of the Porte. *Oda Bassi*, grand chamberlain and prefect of the *Itzoglanis* of the *sarai*. They are youths, who from [their] age
of eight to twenty years are maintained and educated within the *sarai*, and are variously instructed according to their natural aptitude, especially so that they may learn to read and write, and to shoot, and to ride, and may grasp the sum of the Mahometan laws. *Chasnadar bassi*. Grand Treasurer. *Kilertzi bassi*. Grand Steward. *Serai Dar Agasi*, or *Serai bassi*. Supreme prefect of the palace, in the absence of the sultan. And these all are indeed emasculated or castrated, and each has under him several others, likewise castrated or eunuchs. Next to these are three youths, especially serving in the ministries of the sultan himself, whose names are these: *Silichtar*, who carries the bow, arrows, and other arms of the sultan. *Tzohadar*, who manages the care of the sultan’s clothing, and carries his *scaramangium*, made to keep off the rain. Of this, more fully in chapter 199. *Kioptar*, to whom the sultan’s drink is entrusted, and who always on horseback carries water with him for the sultan in a flagon. To this also pertains—that is, is counted among the offices of the *sarai*—the *Bostangi bassi*, prefect of the gardeners: to whom more than four thousand *Atzamoglani* (chosen from the children of Christians) are subject. There are, however, assigned to all these their own deputies as well as other officials, who according to ancient custom gradually ascend to supreme dignities. Those enumerated thus far serve the sultan himself within the *sarai*, and if ever the sultan rides out from the *sarai*, they all accompany him; but if he goes anywhere by sea, the *Bostangi bassa* himself holds and steers the helm of the *caique* or boat in which the sultan is conveyed. To the *sarai* also pertain those whose names follow: *Zeschnegir bassi*, grand taster, and prefect over other tasters, more or less one hundred. *Matpac Emini*, prefect of the kitchen or culinary affairs. *Achsi bassi*, grand cook.
Outside the *sarai* these offices are counted: The first place of all is that of the *Muphti*, who is the supreme interpreter of the Koran or Mahometan law, and who holds among the Turks that authority which the Pope or supreme pontiff holds among the Latins, and the Patriarch among the Greeks. Next to him are the *Cadilescheri* or *Cadiascheri*, supreme and ordinary judges of military and civil causes; one for Greece or Europe, called the *Rumeli Cadilescher*; the other for Asia, the *Anatoli Cadilescher*: to these, Selim the First added a third after he had subdued certain Armenians, the Dulcadirians, the Egyptians, the Syrians, and the Arabs; and therefore the duty of this one is greater, on account of the multitude of peoples and the vastness of those regions. We have spoken more of these above in chapter 29. A
There follow the *vezir bassæ*, that is, the heads of the sultanic council. Formerly there were but three or four vezirs, as we shall explain a little later. But now, either more or less are chosen, according as it has seemed good to the sultan. The supreme one, who is called by the Turks *vezir azem*, alone administers the entire empire with maximum power, with the others sitting in the *Divan* (which name is explained toward the end of chapter 171) in such a way that they do not speak out themselves. From these, also, one is chosen by the judgment of the sultan, who is called *Ser Asker* and *Ser Dar*, words to be explained shortly. When we were at Constantinople, the dignity of vizier was bestowed by Sultan Murad—by a novel example, moreover—upon nine *bassis*, whose names I wish to set down: 1. *Osman bassa*, Vizier, and *Ser Dar* against the Persians. 2. *Messich bassa*. 3. *Mechemet bassa*. 4. *Alí Capitan bassa*, *beglerbeg* of the sea; among us *Uluz Ali*, that is, Ali the apostate. 5. *Ibrahim bassa*, *beglerbeg* of Cairo or Egypt. 6. *Ferhat bassa*, commander of the war against the Persians. 7. *Giaffer bassa*. 8. *Ali bassa*, husband of the sultan’s sister. 9. *Cicalogli bassa*, *belgerbeg* of Revan. B
After the viziers, those of greatest authority are the three *beglerbegs*, whose order is this: *Rumeli belgerbeg*, that is, of Romania or Greece. *Anatoli beglerbeg*, that is, of Anatolia or Asia. *Denizi beglerbeg*, that is, of the sea: who in the Turkish tongue, by a now-received term, is also called *Capitan bassa*. C
These three hold a place and honor in sitting equal to the *bassis* and viziers themselves, as often as they come into the public *Divan*. There follows the *Nischanzi* or *Nissanzi bassa*, who seals all letters, all mandates, and instruments, as many as are expedited at the Porte, as supreme chancellor of the Porte. Three *Dephterdars*, of whom the first, speaking in our manner, is president of the treasury or grand prefect of the exchequer; the two remaining, as his colleagues and fiscal councilors. *Rais Kiutap*, in whose hands are all the books, commentaries, and matters pertaining to the archives. Therefore he holds the rank of vice-chancellor, or of first or grand secretary. All, however, who have been enumerated thus far have their own place at the public *Divan*. In the same *Divan* there sit also forty more or less *lasitschi*, that is, secretaries or actuaries, who finish and expedite documents without delay. And indeed all things are carried on with such diligence that the businesses themselves are almost proposed, subjected to consultation, and mandated for execution at the same time. D There follow the *Agæ*, called *Agalari* by the Turks, in number
A of the multitude, or officials, or tribunes, who do not have a seat in the Divan or synhedrion, or the place of public council, and who are nonetheless beholden to appear daily at the *sarai*, and to sit in the places assigned to them elsewhere. We have given the notion of the word *Aga* to the reader in chapter 175. Among these *Agalari*, the *Aga* or tribune of the Janissaries holds the first place; he has his *Kibaia* or vicar, and captains, and commanders of cohorts, and other prefects of offices. And thus, under his standard, some twenty thousand men, both of the Janissaries and the *Solacchi*, serve in the military.
Next to him is the *Emir Alem*, who is the supreme standard-bearer, and on expeditions he carries the sultan's standard; otherwise, he presents the standards of the *beglerbegs* who have been substituted in the places of the deceased, and likewise those of the *sangiacbegs*. Indeed, when one of these has been chosen by the *bassas* to the place of the deceased, the *Emir Alem* at once delivers to him the symbol of his dignity, the standard; at the same time, he sends drummers and pipers to the house or tent of the elect toward evening, and orders them to play drums, pipes, and flutes there. It is a lucrative office, and in name and rank, it is the first after the *Aga* of the Janissaries.
The *Capitzi Bassas*, sometimes four, sometimes six, are created at the sultan's pleasure. They are the prefects of the *capitzilarii*, that is, the porters; each has under him three or four hundred *capitzilarii*, whose duty it is to serve the person of the sultan himself and to surround him whenever he offers the opportunity for public audience—which they call "giving an audience"—and in time of war, when the sultan is in the camp, they keep watch around him like chamberlains.
There are two prefects of the stable, the major and the minor. The first is called *Bujue Emir Ahor* or *Achor* or *Achur*; the second *Cutzog Emir Achur*. Commonly, both are called *Imbrahor Bassi*. Among our Greek praetors, it is called the *apamyrahouris*, formed likewise from *emir* and *achur*. See our explanation in chapter 14, and in chapter 200, at the twenty-third gate of Constantinople. They also have their *Kiahas*, that is, vicars, and other prefects of offices, and about two thousand men are subject to their commands.
The *Tzaus Bassi* is the captain or prefect of the *Tzaus*, who are more or less seven hundred in number, and can be compared to noble courtiers, whose services the princes use for carrying out various commissions and mandates and for conducting the legates of foreign princes.
The *Kibaia* of the *Capitzilarii* is the chief vicar and, as it were, the sub-prefect of all the *Capitzilarii* or janitors. His office requires that he stand on foot in the Divan before the *Bassas* together with the *Bassa* of the *Tzaus*, holding a silver staff in his hand—which we noted in chapter 173 was called by the Greeks a *skeptron* or scepter—so that he may introduce those who ask to be heard, and that he may bring documents from the Divan, when need requires, to the sultan, and in turn refer his sentences (commonly called "resolutions") back to the *Vezir Azem*.
D The *Mutapheraki Bassi* is the captain of the barons and of the principal *begs* of the court, who are not bound to go to war unless the sultan himself proceeds on some expedition. And therefore, after the likeness of our barons, they wish to be considered free. For the greater part, moreover, they are the sons of *bassas*, of nobles, and of men well-merited to the Osmanlis.
Six *Agalari* or tribunes of the *Spachi* follow, that is, of the cavalry immediately assigned to the sultan's guard. The names of these are: 1. *Spahoglan Aga*, or *Agasi*. 2. *Silichtar Agasi*. 3. *Sag Ulefetzi Bassi*. 4. *Sol Ulefetzi Bassi*. 5. *Sag Garib Agasi*. 6. *Sol Garib Agasi*. Of these tribunes, each one is in command of two or three thousand horsemen.
There follow not a few whose appellations we shall place here simply, intending to provide a more prolix explanation of these, as well as of many others now passed over in silence, in a more convenient location.
*Topzi Bassi*, prefect of the artillery or of matters pertaining to engines of war. *Tzegebetzi Bassi*, prefect of arms or armor. *Tzader Mecter Bassi*, prefect of the tents. *Tzalitzi Mecter Bassi*, prefect of the pipers and of the sultan's camp music. *Autzi Bassi*, supreme prefect of the hunt. *Doganzi Bassi*, prefect of the falconers or of those with hawks. *Tzagerschi Bassi*, prefect of the hawks which we call sparrow-hawks. *Samsontzi Bassi*, prefect of the hunting dogs. This office is numbered among the principal ones. And they were accustomed to choose as *Aga* of the Janissaries or as tribune one of those who were in charge of them. *Seguam Bassi*, prefect of the pack-animals in the army, or in the sultan's retinue. The Greeks, however, are accustomed to call pack-animals—whether *sagmaria* or *samaria* (for *summaria* is not correctly written by the Beauvaisian in chapter 20)—"clitellaria." These consist of horses, mules, and camels; among the Turks, however, horses are rare for this use, with many more mules and camels. Therefore they come to be counted under the *Seguane*. *Devetzi Bassi*, prefect of those who lead camels. *Catertzi Bassi*, prefect of the muleteers, or those who lead mules. *Harpa Emini*, prefect of horse fodder. Besides these, there are those of not insignificant name at the Porte: *Dephter Emini*, prefect of the books in which the *timaria* are contained. And it was said above at length in chapter 186 regarding *timaria* and *timarioti*, or *timareti*. *Emini* generally signifies one who receives and administers some revenues or returns. *Kibat Emini*, superintendent of the chancery, just as
A a certain tax-collector, in our manner; he who extracts the royal chancery dues, as they are called, and performs the necessary oversight of them. This office is usually bought for a price of ten or even fifteen thousand ducats a year; whoever can obtain it gathers great wealth. *Tersane Emini*, superintendent of the Arsenal, that is, he who is [Greek: νεωρίου φροντιστής] (custodian of the shipyards), or [Greek: προνοητής] (provident overseer), as the Greeks say, or he who governs the naval administration. There are also other offices, as well as officials of the Ottoman Porte, though they are of the minor sort (as is often said) of peoples: and indeed these are some 494 in number, as they demand a more suitable place for themselves, where they may be explained more fully. Meanwhile, however, while we prepare more luminous accounts, and indeed bring these collections together with the dignities of the palace and of the Greek empire, may benevolent readers take these in good part.
229. The first *Denizi beglerbegus* (Lord of the Seas) was Chairadines; B Sangiac of Gallipoli: the justice of Sultan Mutatis; [Greek: στρατηγός], or Praetor of Gallipoli, and [Greek: τῆς δωδεκανήσου]; the corrected version of Cedrinus.
In times before that, the greatest and ordinary commander of the Sultan’s fleet was the one who was Sangiac of Gallipoli. This may be understood from Laonicus also in many places, just as when he makes mention in the life of Muhammad II of Jonuz, commander (he interprets this as Sangiac) of Gallipoli, and likewise of Zogan, commander of Gallipoli, and yet afterwards makes the same man governor of the royal fleet along with being commander of Gallipoli, or rather, as the greater office, to which the commander of the sea, or *Denizi beglerbego*, was subordinate: and in that same place is the ordinary seat of this *beglerbegus*, which they commonly call a residency. It was, therefore, a new dignity brought in by Suleiman, so that the praetor of the sea was no longer merely a Sangiac, but a *beglerbegus*. To this office he then appointed Chairadin with the title of Vizier; just as now Ulutzalis also is *beglerbegus* of the sea and Vizier Bassa. At the time we were lingering in Gallipoli for a month or so, a certain Subassa (a Genoese by birth, a humane man, and—which is surprising in an apostate—most kind and useful to us in a certain matter of ours) was in command there. Indeed, since Henry, Baron of Lichtestain, had died at Gallipoli, as we have recounted in our Supplement to the Annals, the Cadi, or Potestat of the city of Gallipoli, was demanding from us the property left behind by him as "escheated goods," and as something that had devolved to him, who had purchased the *cadilicatum* (the office of Cadi) from the Sultan for a price, according to Turkish custom, and had already devoured it in his mind. We, however, appealing from him to the Subassa, replied that the deceased Baron had been an ambassador of the Emperor, and thus a public person; whose goods could neither be considered as escheated, nor applied to the treasury, unless the law of nations were violated. When the avaricious Cadi would not be moved from his opinion, not even by the production and inspection of the most ample safe-conduct letters, the Subassa, addressing us in the Italian language in the presence of the Cadi and his assessors, gave this advice: that we should report the whole matter to our Emperor's orator in Constantinople. The matter having thus been known in Constantinople and brought to the Divan, a certain Tzausius named Murates, a Circassian by nation, was immediately sent by the order of Sultan Mutatis; he was to free us from this litigation in Gallipoli, and also guide us past the fortresses located 27 Greek miles from Gallipoli, outside the Dardanelles, where ships are accustomed to be searched, so that neither captives nor forbidden merchandise might be exported. At the same time, the punishment for the Cadi, an injury done to us, was left to the judgment of the Imperial orator, Paul, Baron of Eitzing, and the prudence of the Subassa was highly praised for having stood against the Cadi on our behalf. A new diploma of safe-conduct was also sent, far more severe than the former: by which it was forbidden that any molestation should be shown to us by any of his subjects, but that rather, in all things, all men in all places throughout his empire should assist us. Tzausius himself reported that he had spoken with the Sultan and heard from his own mouth when he said that he would in no way permit the truce signed with the Emperor of the Christians to be violated, in any matter, even the slightest. And for this reason, when at some time a certain Hebraic tax-collector (for all the customs duties throughout the Turkish empire are in the hands of the Hebrews, which they purchase for money from the Sultan) was wishing to show us, in his presence, some trouble over a small boat in which we were being transported to the Asiatic fortress, or to search it, he struck him on the head with such force with a *pusdiganum*—or iron club—that he collapsed to the ground as if dead, and was carried home by his own people while in a dying state.
But to return to the matter: the Turks received this office of the Gallipolitan Sangiac, or maritime praetorship, from the Greeks, whom I have said so many times they emulated in many things. In Cedrinus it is sometimes handed down that he who was [Greek: στρατηγός], or praetor of Gallipoli, had also held the praetorship [Greek: τῆς δωδεκανήσου], by which term not so much the twelve islands as the command of the sea is signified. For even today the *sangiacatus* of the islands of Mitylene, Chios, Naxos, Negropont or Euboea, Rhodes, Leucas or S. Maura, and others pertains to the command of him who is the *beglerbegus* of the sea. Elsewhere Xylander, an otherwise learned man and very skilled in Greek, translating "the islands of the Dodecanese" in Cedrinus, adds that it is so named for the twelve islands, by a manifest error. For who has ever heard in the Aegean or Archipelago, as he calls it, of a "city of the twelve islands"? The place is in his life of Nicephorus, who deposed Irene from the empire, a woman who was perverse and overly cruel toward Constantine, whose eyes he put out. The interpreter should have said "inhabitants in the twelve islands." And Cedrinus understands the islands outside the Dardanelles or the fortresses of the Hellespont, or located in the Aegean Sea outside Sestos and Abydos: of which, if you ask, you can have the names: just as they were once accustomed to be called by the Greeks, and are now pronounced by the same, by the common folk of the sailors, and by the Latins. From the Hellespont to the right, to those sailing toward the sunset, there occur:
9 Lesbos, Mytilene, Metellino, Lesbus. 10 Chios, Sio, Chius. 11 Samos, Samo, Samus. 12 Rhodes, Rodi, Rhodus.
But as for other smaller islands among these twelve which were not counted in the Dodecanese, just as those which then had no prefects, as they now have no sanjaks: so neither were the two largest ones, Cyprus and Crete, now Candia, since as large provinces they each had their own governors. Nor after Cyprus was captured did he make a sanjak of it, like Selim II, but a beylerbeylik, as if from old it possessed the right of a kingdom of the island.
230. *Soleiman's first expedition against the Persians, from the histories of Theodore Spandugino.*
He who is named Ulama Bey in the annals is read as Zilama in Spandugino, and Ulamanus in Jovius—both names corrupted. The reader will also discover, if he desires to compare Jovius with the Turkish records, that the deeds done in the Persian war are handed down by Jovius in a confused, mutilated, and superficial manner; here, however, all things are related not only in order, but more integrally and fully. The accounts of Spandugino are somewhat better; these, for the sake of the reader, we shall describe by translating them, so that they may be compared with the Turkish records. A He says that at that time the petty king of Bitlis was Serefes Bey, by the favor, however, of the Ottoman Sultan, to whose empire he was subject. But it happened that a certain man whose name was Ulama (read "Zilama" in the corruption), a man of very great war experience, having performed distinguished deeds for the Shah Sophino, and for this reason having obtained Van (Ziam is not written correctly in the published Spandugino edition), a most beautiful territory, in place of a favor (what we commonly call a fief—and the granting of fiefs is also customary among the Persians), finally arrived at the decision that he must defect from the Sophino and resolve to follow the Turkish side. There was a truce at that time between the Ottoman and the Sophino. The Turk, having understood the man's intent, immediately gave a letter to Serefes Bey, ordering him to attach some band of his men to Ulama, so that, fortified by their protection against the obstacles of the Sophino, he might arrive more securely at the Porte. Ulama left Van and betook himself to Bitlis. Those places are distant from each other by a journey of four days. Serefes ordered the approaching Ulama to be seized, and sent him in chains to Soleiman. The Sophino, having learned of Ulama’s departure, reduced Van, with the wife and children of Ulama, into his power, and conducted the affairs concerning the Shah Tamas. The Turk freed Ulama from his chains and gave him an annual income of one hundred thousand sultani, and sent him back whence he had come; Serefes Bey, accused of treason, was proscribed. At the same time, he ordered Ulama to keep the captured Bitlis for himself in place of a *timar*. In this way, the war between them was begun. Serefes Bey campaigned under the Shah’s banners, Ulama under the Ottomans. With several battles and skirmishes joined, at length Ulama killed Serefes Bey, and sent the head of the slain man to Soleiman. He then sent a certain one of his own men to Shah Tamas, who might demand from him the wife and children of Ulama. Tamas sent back the woman together with one son. B And these things happened in the Christian year 1533. Ulama, with his wife and son, soon betook himself within Soleiman’s borders, and accomplished so much that Soleiman, made bolder by his exhortation, sent Ibrahim Pasha with an army to Aleppo. There Ibrahim stayed in winter quarters and built a castle at Aleppo. Thither to Ibrahim Pasha came the wife and children of the slain Serefes Bey, wearing ropes around their necks and begging for pardon for their transgressions. Having received them kindly, he sent a letter to Soleiman, asking what he ordered to be done with them. Soleiman replied that 400 janissaries should be added to the son of Serefes Bey, who would accompany him and his mother to Bitlis, so that they could carry away their treasures from there and travel wherever they pleased. If, however, they wished to stand on their side and remain with him, he would give them Aleppo by the name of a *timar*. From this answer of the Sultan, when the son of Serefes perceived sufficiently that he would not recover his patrimony, he set out for Bitlis with his mother, brought away his treasures from there, and betook himself to Shah Sophino. Ibrahim Pasha, however, advanced to Amid, and sent Ulama with 30,000 Turks to Tauris, within which city Sultan Musa, a brother of Shah Tamas, was holding himself. When he had given himself to flight, the city, deserted and stripped of its guards, gave itself up to the faith of the Turks. Immediately, by letter, Ulama signifies to Ibrahim with what most rapid speed he was betaking himself to Tauris. Ibrahim left Amid and, hastening to Tauris, urges Soleiman by letter to hasten towards the Persian borders. When he himself arrived at Tauris, he found there a certain ancient building, and, intending to fortify it, he found convenient Georgian architects who constructed an excellent fortification; upon which Ibrahim placed 350 pieces of heavy artillery. C 496 At this time the Turks were in possession of Tauris for six months, and the neighboring cities accepted their rule. Soleiman also, as soon as he had arrived at Amid, departed soon from there and, having set out for Tauris, stayed there for twenty days. Then, having left Tauris, he began to seek the Sophino. But he, continually avoiding battle, delayed Soleiman for so long that winter began to set in. For that reason, Soleiman was forced to retreat to Baghdad. But this cold was so vehement that he could neither advance, nor
A retreat, that the army might return. The Scach, whose sister had married that illustrious man, had blocked off every supply of provisions for them on every side. Hence it came about that, partly from famine and partly from cold, half of the Turkish army perished. Had it not been for the aid of certain Armenians, highly skilled in that region, who sold provisions to the Turks at a very high price, things would have gone even worse for them. The Scach Tamases, having observed that the Osmanli was placed in such difficulties, set out from Corasan with fewer than ten thousand of his own men and came to Tauris, where thirty thousand Turks were stationed under three leaders: Ulama, Sirvanogli, and Jadigiar beg, each of whom was in command of ten thousand cavalry. When they learned that the Sophinus had entered the boundaries of Tauris, they marched out of the city and, asserting that they would fight the enemy, fled deserting Tauris. The Sophinus, having entered the city, demolished the fortifications built by the Turks, broke up the bronze cannons, and minted coin from the copper. After Soleiman had spent the entire winter at Bagadat, he marched out with his forces and moved toward Tauris; entering the city, he remained there for fifteen days, and ordered that Jadigiar beg be hanged by a noose, for whose fault it occurred that no battle had been waged by the Turks against the Persians. For by this name had Ulama, together with Sirvanogli, accused him. The Sophinus, having learned that Soleiman, having moved his forces from Bagadat, was heading toward Tauris, withdrew into the region of Corasan. At length Soleiman returned to Constantinople, having placed a strong garrison in Bagadat against the Sophinus, over which he placed a man named Soleiman bassam, with the title of beglerbeg, an Albanian or Epirote by nationality, having added thirty-two thousand Turks to him. But Tauris, because it had been left by him without a garrison, the Sophinus returned and recovered with no exertion. And thus far these things from Spanduginus, whose passage we wished to interpret and transcribe so that it might be compared with the narrative of the annals. Yet fair readers will willingly concede that most things handed down by the Turks are more correctly and fully stated.
We are accustomed, following the Thucydidean example, to distinguish the causes of wars from the occasions and pretexts—which he himself calls *prophaseis* and *aphormai*, and which he calls the *proschēmata* of wars—which, for great princes who are otherwise eager to wage wars against their neighbors, are offered; they are never lacking in pretexts which they may hold out against their affections and their unjust greed. Thus, the true cause of the war to be undertaken against the Persians was indeed in the mind of Soleiman: his emulation of his predecessors, his great-grandfather Muchemet II, his grandfather Bajazit, and his father Selim, who had waged the most bitter enmities against the kings of the Persians and who, having clashed with them several times with nearly equal success, promised himself more favorable fortune in suppressing the Persians and joining them to his empire. Having established this in his mind, B neither was the occasion lacking; for Ulama beg, having left Soleiman because of his failure toward the Scach, and promising [that victory] would follow under his leadership, [provided the occasion]. Nor was a pretext far to seek, when at hand was the new superstition of the Persians, dissident from the other Mahumetans, which had begun from Erdebil, was defended and propagated by Ismaile Sophinus, the father of Techmasis, and was supported by the patronage of Techmasis. We have discoursed at length regarding this and the appendix of the annals at the beginning of the Persian war, and added other things in chapter 188 of this *Pandect*. From the same place, the reader can understand what Soleiman is said here to have held against Techmasis and the rest of the Persians: namely, that they did not accord the four prophets of Mahumet the honor due to them. For these four, who were both companions and successors of Mahumet, were Ebubekir, Omer, Osman, and Ali; the Persians reject the first three in order, and approve and venerate the fourth, Ali, who was a kinsman and son-in-law of Mahumet.
232. Curdistan, Curdi, Keldan, Cordyna, Curti. Reineccius, in the appendix to the eighth chapter of Aythonus, claimed that the Cordi and Cordinos were the Turkish race too broadly, based on Johannes Leo Africanus. And he added other things concerning the Cordueni and Carduchi, which need not be repeated here. Nor, for my part, would I admit that Curdistan is Media, which is more truly called Sirvan today. The word "Curdistan" signifies the kingdom of the Kurds. And the Kurds dwell there today, just as it is manifest from these C annals, in the region of Bagadat, which in antiquity was Babylonia, and in the vicinity of Carabemida, which was once the Amida of Mesopotamia, now called Diarbekir. Since the seats of the Chaldeans were once in those places, I have concluded above in the supplement to the annals that the Kurds are the Chaldeans, especially since that region is called Curdistan by the neighboring Persians and Turks, which the Arabs 497 also call Keldan, that is, Chaldea. The book *aképhalos* on Greek history, of which I have made mention several times, relates that the descendants of Sem, son of Noah, were allotted these regions: Persia, Bactriana, Hyrcania, Babylonia, Cordyna, Syria, Mesopotamia, along with others that follow. Who here does not notice that Cordyna, positioned between Babylonia and Syria and Mesopotamia, is named by a more recent term in place of Chaldea? The same position, the same boundaries are today those of Curdistan, of which we are speaking. Add the passage from Cedrinus concerning Basil the Macedonian, when he says that Basil received messengers of victory from Mesopotamia, with whom were also brought to him many spoils and many captives of the Curti and Saracens. These Curti are clearly none other than the modern Kurds, and the inhabitants of the region of Curdistania. D 233. *Asker sultanum*: *Serdar*, a great title. This office or dignity among the Turks is not civil, but military, by which is signified the supreme commander of the sultan's army, or captain general (as we speak now) over all the other captains of the army. *Asker* in Arabic signifies "supreme," for which the Turkish common folk are accustomed to use *Lesker*.
Thus, when one says *Cadi Lesker*, it refers to the highest judge, who is to the Arabs *Cadi Asker*. The occasion for the Sultan to be created is among the Turks. In Persia, he is called *Serdar*, not *Ser Asker*, a name which the Turks also have seized for themselves. Finally, the Greeks used to call *megas doux* the man who held this office among them, which signifies a great commander and is the primary title of dignity among the other offices of the great palace.
B 234. *Ketzie bassa*, *Caceba Chorasan*. In the annals, *Ketzien bassam* (a name familiar to the Turks) is what they call the Great Khan of the Cathayans; who, as we said in the third chapter, is called *Ulu Chan* for the sake of distinction, that is, the excellent or supreme Khan or king of the Tartars. *Ketzie bassa*, if you render word for word, signifies "felt head." Thus, both in general the Tartars of Cathay are called this, from their head coverings made of felt; and specifically their Khan, or prince supreme: just as in general we say the Persians are *Kizilbash* (Red-heads), from their red head coverings, and we assign the name *Kizilbassa* specifically to their Shah. In Jovius and others, the name is found corrupted as *Caceba*, for the uncorrupted *Kezie bassa*. These Tartar head-coverings are green in general, a color which they claim all of them have the right or privilege to use for the reason that they pride themselves on the entire race having arisen from the Prophet. Indeed, among the Turks and the rest of the Mahometans, they do not wear green clothing unless they trace their lineage back to Mahomet; and especially for others, outside of these, to wear a green head-covering would be a huge sin. Concerning Chorasan, or Chorasane, we spoke at the end of chapter 3. Cedrenus rightly named it inner Persia. Certainly, if it were waging war in Chorasan while the Turks were occupying Tauris, it was at the very least a twenty days' journey away from them.
235. *Sultania*, once *Tigranocerta*: Origin of the name *Sultani* among the Persians, from Cedrenus. We noted from Jovius above, in chapter 204, that the city of Sultania seems to have once been Tigranocerta, famous in the histories of the Greeks and Romans: or at least that Sultania was built from the ruins of Tigranocerta. This name followed from the sultans, because it was once a royal city of Persia and the residence and home of the Sultan. And for more or less 500 years, after the Turks, having oppressed the Persians and Saracens, took possession of Persia, it is clear from these words of Cedrenus that the princes of the religion began to be called sultans: "The Turks after the death of Mahomet," he says, "having overthrown the Persians and Saracens from their empire, became masters of Persia and called their prince Sultan, that is, the commander of the universal empire and king of kings." Finally, it is said that Sultania was torn down and devastated by Tamerlane.
This name received from the number nine by Jovius. Indeed, *Docus* signifies nine. The reason for the name is that travelers in this part of the region must cross or traverse this river nine times in all.
D 237. *Bagadatina* region returned to the form of a *beglerbeglik*; Bagadatin Caliph: Soliman sought to be inaugurated by the Caliph; the Cairene Caliph. The ceremony of inauguration.
Concerning the city of Bagdat, or Bagdet, we spoke at the beginning of our *Pandects*, chapter 4. We must note here that the region and the city are designated by the same name: just as we mentioned the region of Babylonia a little earlier, in chapter 232. We must add in passing that today too there is a certain Caliph or Cheliph left in Bagdat, who, however, guards the ancient dignity in name only. For once he was a very powerful prince, as is evident from the history of our praetor, however recent it may be. For he recounts that in his own time the Tanchari, a bellicose Tartar nation, having omitted their enmities and wars against the Iconian Sultan, brought arms against the Babylonian, whom the nations have been accustomed to call the Caliph of the Mussulmans for 498 years. We gave the notion of the vocabulary in the third chapter above. He is still of great authority among the Mussulmans, the name by which Mahometans desire to be greeted. Jovius also admits that in Bagdat is the seat of the Caliph or prince of sacred things, who, he says, is honored by all Mahometan kings: and he retains the ancient prerogative of adopting and confirming the king of the Assyrians by a certain ceremony of co-option. Soleiman, following the institutions of the ancient superstition, received insignias and ornaments from this man. Jovius did not set forth the ceremony of the inauguration. Therefore, we will repeat it from the commentaries of Peter Martyr of Milan, yet in such a way that we first warn the reader that the Caliph did not rule over the Asiatic Babylon, or Bagdat—whose cause, as we say, is still preserved—but also over the Egyptian Babylon, which is Memphis, and Cairo, as we have often noted. For the Egyptian or Cairene Sultans, having cast off the yoke of the Bagdat Caliph, lest by seeking confirmation or at least inauguration from him they should appear to recognize his rule and authority, chose a Caliph for themselves, bearing that name in title only, who, by a certain rite of imaginary sale, would hand over the supreme rule to the Sultan for a not great sum of money. Now, therefore, let us hear the words of Martyr himself. "They have," he says, "also the Egyptians have a supreme pontiff (that is, a Caliph) to whom the kingdom, if they were men, would pertain. He sells his right to the one holding the royal power for the price of three thousand gold drachmas. From the tribunal, to the standing Sultan, he gives free power of life and death. He himself descends, strips himself, and puts on the one about to rule as Sultan, and goes away a private citizen. Mahomet, the son and successor of Caitbei, remains in the empire." He brought forth these last words about the sultan of his time, then inaugurated by that rite. He says that the one holding the royal house received his right from the Caliph, understanding the Cairene royal house of the sultans, which the annals call the *saray* or Sultanic palace in Selim. This Sultan *Iacup*, the Shah of the Persians,
as the son of Usumchasan, noted above in [chapter] 166, and further on in 188 sections. A building, to which the name Heste Beliste was given, A thus in the Persian language after the eight Paradises, was there cultivated by Sultan Iacub for the sake of pleasure. It is known from Herodotus, Xenophon, and others how much the Persians, even in ancient centuries, made of royal pleasure gardens and paradises.
239. Regarding the Dundar among the Turks. Turks departing into enemy territory for the sake of plunder are accustomed to establish a certain number of their soldiers, with a standard, at a most convenient spot, where, to be sure, the loot may be collected, and the other soldiers scattered through enemy territory may congregate if by chance they learn that some enemy forces are in the vicinity. For this group of their men delegated to this use, the name Dundar is usually given. Such therefore was the band of picked soldiers Soleiman left in the rear, to observe every movement of the enemies, lest they make an unexpected assault upon his own men, as in fact happened. Concerning the Corrizis, it was spoken of in chapter 189.
240. Chairadines loses Tunis: Bais, Tulipantum:—φάκιολον, a symbol of fortitude. By Mauribegi, who had been driven out by Chairadines, Mule Assan is understood, whom our people call Muleassem, the history of whom we set forth in the Supplement to the Annals, to the Christian year 1573. The Spanish Beg is to the Turks the Emperor Karolus V, so named for the reason explained above in chapter 225, or Raisi, as follows: there are triremes and ships of the line. Tulipantum is that linen head-covering with which the Turks are wont to wrap their heads in white coils. Greeks now call it φάκιολον, which word I believe to exist in our Achmet’s Oneirocritica. Zygomalas was saying that among the Agarenes it is held as a symbol of fortitude, by which those about to go into war are admonished not to think of returning, but rather of virile death to be met, since the corpses of the dead are accustomed to be wrapped in linen sheets.
241. The Indian war at Diu; the king of Aden is betrayed by the Turks, contrary to faith. In this place, before we proceed to the events of the Christian year 1538, let us set forth in few words the war of the Indians concerning the city of Diu (called Deu by the barbarians, Dio by the Lusitanians) between the Lusitanians and the Turks, since no mention of it is made in these Annals, B nor are the accounts of Joviana, or Suriana, or others complete, and we must have regard for the Pandects. The reader will admit it is indeed memorable, especially on account of the nefarious perfidy and inhumanity of the Turks toward the king of Aden, who was nevertheless a Musulman, and addicted to their own superstition. The author of the exposition, Georgius Illustris of Ragusa, from Illyria, now Slavonia, was present at the events themselves when they were being transacted, and offered the consignments to the magnificent Lord Hieronymus Beck at Leopoldstorf, who exhibited them for us to read. Therefore, in the year 1538, Nuguas Acugnanus, the viceroy of the East Indies, whom John, king of Lusitania, had placed over those provinces, C had brought the city of Diu, which our people call Cambaia, into his power. But the king of Zambri was a pagan, a worshiper of idols, and a most inveterate enemy of the Lusitanians. Seeing himself unequal in strength to the Lusitanians, he sent envoys to Soleiman Bassa, the beglerbeg of Cairo, who, having been first approached and conciliated with gifts, might then approach Sultan Soleiman himself; and having offered a great sum of money, they might implore his aid against the Lusitanians, and at the same time promise that their master, along with many other Indian kings, would submit to his empire, provided he obtained aid against the Lusitanian enemies. This embassy pleased Soleiman, who hoped by this opportunity the empire of the Osmanids would be propagated far and wide into the very Indies, and that the kingdoms most rich in gold and gems would be brought under his own jurisdiction. Therefore, he promises the envoys everything profusely, and pledges that a fleet will soon be present for aid. *Not long after, Soleiman Bassa, the beglerbeg of Egypt, was sent with war machines and a regular army, in the same year 1538, near the end of the month of June, to finish this war. Indeed, this opportunity tickled the Turks; whom not so much compassion for the oppressed, or duty toward allies, as greed for spoils and plunder usually draws to wars. With the fleet giving sails to the winds, they went first to Thoron, which is, it is believed, a town of the land of Madian in the deserts of Arabia, not far from the mountains of Horeb and Sinai: a place which is, for both unloading and transporting by land through camel service, a most convenient emporium for goods from Egypt, Arabia Felix, and the Indies. After a few days from there, they put in at the city of Gida in Arabia Petraea (others call it Ziden), which itself also is maritime, subject to the empire of the Turks, and an emporium no less noble than Thoron. Finally, they arrived in Arabia Felix, and at the port of the city of Aden, around the month of October. Aden is the primary city of Arabia Felix, fortified not only by situation, but also by work. For it lacks neither bulwarks, and the place itself is very safe by its nature. D To the rising sun, steep and high mountains lie adjacent to it; on the west, it has a closed sea-port: on the side of the south, a mighty bulwark stands out on a nearby high crag: on which at night the Arabs, before Aden was captured by the Turks, would light fires, which, seen from a great distance, indicated the arrival of the Turkish fleet to the neighboring Arabs, so that they might flock to the defense of the city. The fleet halted there, with the Turks hesitating and shifting their councils. The king, having sent some of his own number to them, signified that he wished to know why they had come armed. Then the Bassa, with a very benign response given to the royal messengers, and with his own envoys sent in turn to the king with gifts, so that he might not seem to be plotting anything hostile, persuades him with pleasantries and art, under the pretext of procuring provisions for a price, that the fleet of the Osmanic Sultan, with the soldiery, might [enter] the inner harbor.
remit that he would allow him to enter. He promised to restrain his own men, so that they would refrain from any misdeed, especially against those committed to him by the consensus of religion. For the King of Aden, with his whole people, worshipped the sacred rites of Muhammad. Having understood these demands, they are admitted into the port of the Ottomans. By the same craft and guile, the king is lured by the A beglerbeg to talks and feasts. And when, after a few days, he came onto the flagship, accompanied by only three of his own men, he is greeted most lovingly, received blandly, and given a seat at the table and provided with food. But after the banquet, some occasion or other having been seized, he is arrested: and only then did the wretch begin to feel that the gifts of the wicked, painted over with feigned kindness, were full of fraud and should have been altogether rejected by the circumspect.
Without delay, while the king is detained on the flagship, many soldiers, under the pretext of procuring provisions, enter the city. For the Turks are accustomed to achieving by guile and perfidy what they cannot achieve by force, or without a great shedding of blood. Soon, by secret messengers, they inform the Bassa of Suleiman that the Arabs are resisting, and that the city can be defended, even though those troops—which rumor already reported were arriving—had also arrived. Then the Bassa decided that he must hasten, and anticipate the plans of the Arabs. The gates having been occupied during the king's absence, the soldiers are sent in; and the citizens having been overwhelmed by the number of Turks, Aden is brought into subjection. Shortly after, the king himself is brought out and, on the mainmast of the flagship, at a height, is hanged along with those three companions; and for the sake of terror, he is shown to his citizens as a foul spectacle. The townspeople, seeing that their king and themselves had been so indignantly mocked, trembled as if in a sudden crisis: deprived of their leader, unequal to the enemy in number, and finally destitute of counsel, they could do nothing at all. Thus, a secure garrison is imposed upon the city, now reduced to servitude, by the provident counsel of the Bassa, namely, that if some case should befall him in the Indian war, a nearby refuge would not be lacking. For the Turks are not accustomed to leaving behind them anyone, whether suspicious or an adversary, who could be an impediment to them in any event. For this race of Barbarians is by far the craftiest of all, and the most skillful at observing and weighing as much the present as the future. Furthermore, having taken Aden, the Bassa—if even the rest of the expedition should not succeed according to his wishes—could nevertheless be considered to have done something worthwhile, and to have opened a path for greater things to be attempted among the Indians one day. Having entered the captured city, Suleiman, giving the signal, ordered it to be proclaimed that the goods and merchandise of the citizens should not be plundered: and he ordered one of his own men, a person of lower condition, to be beheaded at the very gate of the city to terrify the rest. B 500 For a great quantity of spices is wont to be brought here from India. Moreover, the Arabian or Persian Gulf begins here, and the mountains and boundaries of the Abyssinians or Ethiopians, whose king is commonly called Prester John, are seen there. The Ottomans, having left Aden, when they had laden their ships with a copious supply of grain, committed themselves to the Ocean, and consumed nineteen days and nights in their maritime journey.
A Finally, when they had arrived at the places they were seeking, the Bassa began to attack the Lusitanians, and ordered the city of Dion, or Devon—which had been snatched from the Lusitanians by King Zambri—to be besieged. And so, with siege engines brought to the land from the ships, the city was attacked for forty days continuously, both by land and by sea: but clearly with vain effort. Only a certain tower, built like a castle or fortification, which was a distance of one and a half stadia from the city, and in which 80 Lusitanian soldiers had been placed for the sake of a garrison, came into the power of the Turks: the garrison men having surrendered themselves, and soon being led away to the ships. Two months having passed, news was heard of a Lusitanian fleet that was coming to the aid of its own men. And so the Bassa, terrified, ordered the siege engines to be placed on the ships, and setting sail at night, he fled. For with as much spirit as they establish and order their expeditions in appearance, the Turks, terrified at a light moment when things do not proceed according to the desire of their hearts, forgetting all respect for honor, flee like timid does. And when the Bassa was already not far from the town of Zebethus, he ordered the captives to be killed on the shore. This expedition lasted for a full year, and Zebethus also, a town of Arabia Felix, was captured by the Turks on the return. Both in Aden and in Zebethus, beglerbegs with defterdars were placed in charge, one for each, of whom, not long after, in the catalogue of beglerbegs.
242. War against the Chimeriote: Ceraunia, Chimara, Avelona, Lutsi bassa.
The Chimeriote are the Arnautlari, or Albanians, or Epirotes, situated across the gulf opposite Corcyra: in which region there is a continuous series of mountains, which sailors now call Chimera by a single name. Jovius C and others desire that these were once the Ceraunian or Gpy [sic] Ceraunian mountains, and likewise the Acroceraunia, for which I would prefer to say myself Acra Ceraunia. Leo Augustus, however, in his novel concerning the thrones, as we touched upon briefly before, lists bishoprics under the metropolitan see of Aetolia, Naupactus, both Buthrotum and Chimera: which places, near to each other—Butintro and Chimera, when we stay there—were called by our sailors. To the same, Avelona, of which mention is made here, was enunciated with the addition of the Italian article, Lavelona, or separately, La Velona, although those skilled in the vulgar Greek language would add that by this name the βλώνη is meant, a needle. But men rude in both antiquity and literature were ignorant that this more recent name was made from the ancient Aulone. It is situated in Albania or Epirus, opposite that extreme coast of Italy which now has the promontory of St. Mary in Apulia, formerly called Iapygia: where the city of Hydrus is placed, separated from Aulone by the intermediate gulf of the Adriatic Sea, 60 miles by Greek measure, as we noted in chapter 152. Leo Augustus's Novel concerning the thrones lists Aulonia among the bishoprics subject to Dyrrhachium, and mentions it in the place next after the bishopric of Glavinitza or Acroceraunia. Furthermore, he who is called Lutsi D in the Annals here
A bassa, a name corrupted among our historians, Jovius and others, is Luftibeus or Luphtibeus. Concerning this, Spandugino has a notable passage, which, in interpreting it, I am pleased to insert. “Sultan Suleiman,” he says, “gave as a wife to Lutsi, a man born in a very humble condition, one of his own sisters, and first made him a *bassa*; yet he has now been deposed from that office. For when his wife could scarcely bear her husband’s intercourse with males, and on that account expostulating with him, said that she had been joined in marriage to him by her brother, Sultan Suleiman, that he might sleep with her, Lutsi Bassa, becoming inflamed with anger, dealt the woman a blow. When this became known to Suleiman, he immediately took his sister away from him, and having recovered the Sultan’s seal, deprived the man of the dignity of supreme vizier.” For it is the custom among the Osmanlis that he who holds the highest authority among the four *bassas* is called *vezirazem*, or supreme counselor, and has in his hand the Sultan’s seal. Such is Spandugino; and indeed if these things are true, as they seem to be, the name given to the man was appropriate to his foul and dissolute morals. For in the Turkish language *Lutsi* signifies one who thinks of nothing but venery, such as some Greek might call *erotikon* or *erotomanē*. B
243. Besictasi, a place situated on the Thracian Bosphorus in Europe, where one tends upwards toward Constantinople, against the flow of the Bosphorus, toward the mouth of the Euxine Sea. It is more or less four Greek miles from Galata, or one German mile. The name in the Turkish language signifies the stone or rock of cradles, I suppose on account of the separation of Christian captives, and especially mothers, having even tender children in cradles. Chairadines is buried here, who also wished to ennoble and cultivate the place by building a new mosque there at his own expense. That you will find it called *Diaplokion* [an error in source for *Diplokionion*] by the Greeks today, and *Jasonium* by the ancients, was noted above in chapter 128. At this time, of which the Annals now speak, 501 Christian heads were added, taken into slavery from Corfu alone, of every sex and age, numbering up to sixteen thousand, just as Jovius has handed down to memory. Concerning the sultanic [coins] and their price, it was spoken of in chapter 18.
244. Regarding the Carabogdania consul, see chapter 71. It is the river which these Annals name Berut. The Hungarians, however, and the Wallachians, or Moldavians, pronounce it partly more contracted and harshly *Prut*, and partly somewhat more softly *Brut*. C The Turks pronounce Doria in the Italian manner; whom Jovius called Auria, the word corresponding more to Latin custom, as he himself indeed believed. He was so successful in the use of things to be carried out at sea, and in singular good fortune, that he was commonly called Neptune, as if some greatest god of the sea. Yet that he had been overcome by Chairadine in a naval battle and by imperatorial arts, the Annals record in language that is not insolent, but modest. For which reason they ought to be the more commendable to us, as being written not for the sake of favoring our own people, nor for the detraction of others, but for the sake of truth, which is the soul of history. But the epiphoneme of Jovius, with which he closed this narrative, what sharp stings it has! “Auria,” he says, “of such use, of such skill, of such reputation as a leader at sea, on that day no emperor existed.” Yet Jovius ought to have thought of that ancient saying, by which Demosthenes, also fleeing, is said to have excused himself: ᾿Ανὴρ δὲ φεύγων καὶ πάλιν μαχήσεται. “The man who flees will fight again.” Nor less elegantly does the Emperor Alexius Angelus, as it is read recorded in our praetor of Greece, when he perceived that with ruined affairs he would not only in vain, but also with danger, remain longer in Constantinople, having bade all farewell, and having chosen flight of his own will, though unwilling, say that David also provided for his own safety and integrity by the benefit of flight. It is surely the mark of no less a great and wise emperor not to rashly commit the sum of affairs to the uncertain hazard of Mars, than, with all things turning out prosperously, to use victory prudently.
246. Public houses of detention in Constantinople. The Sultan of the Osmanlis sells all the toll-houses throughout his empire at a very high price, for either a few or many years; and therefore if any larger sums of money are promised to him in the name of taxes than they can actually pay afterward, they are thrown into prison, as if they were those who are unable to pay and wished to commit fraud against the Sultan. This prison of the publicans is called so at Constantinople. And there are publicans in the whole kingdom of the Osmanlis who are almost entirely Jews, a race addicted to extortions and usury to a degree far beyond other mortals: since even the Turks or Muslims themselves, men of a slightly more sincere conscience, do not wish to be called publicans; not otherwise than as if, with the name conjoined with infamy on account of the wickedness of others, it were a sin to be called a good man, even if he himself does nothing contrary to his duty. D
247. Ontum Capisi, Xyloporta, Wooden Gate, Caravanserai. We showed above, in chapter 200, which gate this Wooden Gate is, namely that to which ships laden with wood are wont to dock: and that it is called by the Greeks *Xyloporta* from those same woods which are carried there, not because it is itself wooden, as both of the Chalcocondylas interpreters believed. Concerning the word Caravanserai, it was spoken of in chapter 14, namely that by this are signified buildings constructed for caravans. Caravans, however, are the companies that join together in the Turkish manner when places less safe from robberies are to be traveled through.
These caravanserais, which for the most part are very spacious, are the places where these caravans are accustomed to lodge with their horses, pack-animals, mules, and camels. These are vast buildings, as Busbecq has described, somewhat longer than they are wide, though for the rest they approach a square shape; in the middle of these lies an open space for placing baggage, and for stabling camels, mules, and wagons. This area is usually surrounded on the inside by a wall approximately three feet high, joined to those four walls which enclose the whole building. The top surface of this wall is level, and extends to a width of four feet. Here are the sleeping quarters of the Turks, here their dining rooms, and here they prepare their food. For against the walls by which the whole building is contained, many hearths with chimneys or smoke-vents are built. B The guests themselves are separated from the camels, mules, and horses by nothing other than the space of this wall. Indeed, they keep their horses tied to the foot of the wall in such a way that they rise up with their heads and entire necks above the wall, and stand there while their masters are warming themselves or even eating, just like attendants; and at times they take bread, or an apple, or something else from their masters' hands. On the same wall they spread their beds for themselves. First they lay out a carpet, which for this reason they almost always carry about, adapted for saddles. Over this they commonly throw a heavy cloak, or, the wealthier ones, a "Valentina," as they call it; and this, woven from soft hair and white, served me in place of linen sheets, after their own fashion. An equestrian saddle provides a bolster. C They wear long robes lined with furs, in which they dress by day and with which they cover themselves at night. Thus they take their sleep, undisturbed by anything except the natural noise of the animals chewing, and their endearments. The roofs of these caravanserais, built for the caravans, are for the most part leaden.
248. The area or forum "Tachtal Cala," [and] "Tampezim": the locus of Chalcocondyla corrected and explained. The Brass market, the Paper market, and the Glass-blowers' quarter.
The area which is named Tachtal Cala, Laonicus called in the eighth [book] a forum, and added that it is called "Tactalem." In the actuary Malatesta’s [manuscript] it is written "Pectalaca." For that "Tactale," and this "Tectalaca," substitute "Tachtal cala"; these are Turkish words, and signify an area having wooden stalls. Indeed, "Cala" denotes a small stall or little tent, and "Tachtal" are boards: so that they are understood to be stalls made of boards. This area is almost in the middle of the city, not far from the Eski Saray, or from the old palace of the women of the Sultan, about which [I spoke] in chapter 139. It is the same as the area of Sultan Bayezid II, which the annals mentioned above in their description of that Sultan’s funeral. However, in this place, theatrical performances of every kind are exhibited daily, whatever one could possibly conceive. Boys, horses, donkeys, dogs, cats, deer, lions, bears, leopards, foxes, and every other animal, especially exotic ones, are brought. There are those there who profess palmistry; there are D various types of contortionists, rope-dancers, wrestlers, tumblers, and others, who are practically numberless. For this reason Laonicus says: "Who might see these spectacles daily in the forum which they call Tactalem." There follows in the same place the word "Tampezim," by which he says some are called. I do not think anyone has explained this until now, as it is barbaric and unknown, and I might add, corrupt. For the Turks do not say "Tampezim," but "Ziampas," which is a word pronounced in two syllables. It signifies *schoinobatai*, as the Greeks call them, who are known to the Latins as rope-dancers. On one side of this area begin the stalls of those who sell Persian papers of excellent workmanship, and likewise colored Turkish ones, [and] Greek [ones] and others, snow-white and smoothed. And for this reason, they are called by the Greeks *chartoprateia*. Behind these is the nearby quarter of the coppersmiths, who fashion various vessels from copper, which is mentioned in this place in the Annals. This quarter is very famous in the later histories of the Greeks, [such as those of] Cedrenus and others, and is called *Chalkoprateia*, naturally from the trading of vessels made of copper. The place for the *Chalkoprateia* is noted in Cedrenus in the "Theodosius Major," I believe. Mention is also made here of the glass-blowers' quarters, [which are] near the *Chalkoprateia*, where the glass-blowers' shops, just as they were once in the city of Constantinople—in imitation of the old Rome—are seen even today. However, this quarter is different from that gate of the glass-blowers, about which it was spoken above, in chapter 200. Concerning the gate of the fish market, which is "Balikpazar kapisi" for the Turks, it was explained in the same chapter 200; just as also concerning the Hebrew gate, for the Turks "Yahudiler kapisi." But the buildings situated outside the city walls by the fish market, on the seashore, are understood to be those which, excluded from the city by the urban walls, are built along the bank of the Cerasinus gulf, toward the north, that is, in the region of the Galata shore.
249. "Nova" for the Turks, which our people call "Castel Novo," is situated in the territory of Dalmatia. It had been recovered under the auspices of the Emperor Charles V. Take note that the annals report that the *sanjaks* of that province were summoned to this siege, [namely] from the province of Bosnia, and those governors over it: the prince of whom at that time was that Persian, Ulumas, about whom I spoke in chapter 231. For he had been transferred from the Persians to these borders, in the manner of the Turks, who do not place too much trust in those who have crossed over: and subsequently, mention is made of him also in the siege of Eger in the year of Christ 1552, which was attempted by the Turks in vain. He was in command of the Bosnian province, like a *beglerbeg*, and for the siege of Castel Novo he brought with him his seven *sanjaks*. The garrison soldiers of exceptional bravery, whom the enemies themselves praise, were Spaniards and Germans, in number about four thousand.
250. Remitting the Transylvanian Ban, they despoil the mother along with the pupil of Hungary. Concerning John Zápolya, the Transylvanian Ban, it was spoken [of in] chapter 225. He, dying, left the pupil as heir.
A Likewise, he commended [the youth] to the guardianship of Suleiman, [that is,] John Sigismund, whom he had fathered by Isabella of Poland, who is mentioned here, though her name is not expressed, as if unknown to the Turks. Sigismund the Elder, King of Poland, had had as his wife in his first marriage, if I am not mistaken, Barbara, sister of John; upon her death, he married Bona, daughter of John Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, by Isabella of Aragon of Naples. Bona in her first childbirth produced this Isabella, the wife of John Zápolya and mother of John Sigismund. But there is no mention here in the Turkish records of Emperor Ferdinand, King of Hungary and Bohemia, who nevertheless waged this war with the commanders Perényi and Roggendorf. I would indeed believe this to be the case because Suleiman did not recognize Ferdinand, his enemy, as King of Hungary. But one should note the speech of Isabella, whom the Turks do not deign to call by the title of queen, when they assert that Buda is not her city, but the city of the Ottoman sultan. In this, the wild beast proved herself a true prophetess a little while later, when Suleiman, having ejected her and her son through the utmost perfidy, appointed a beglerbeg for Buda and the rest of Hungary, which had been reduced to a province—that good tutor, forsooth!—while the mother, thus addicted to the Turks, was banished along with her pupil son into Transylvania or Erdely. Such, indeed, are wont to be the rewards of barbarian society and friendship, as Aratus said when he was about to die at the hands of his tyrant: τοιαῦτα B τὰ ἐπίχειρα τῆς τυραννικῆς φιλίας.
251.
Valpou, Strigonium, Granus river.
Valpou is a fortress to the Turks, called Walpo by the Hungarians, and Valponium by Jovius. It is situated beyond the river Drava. After the third month of the siege, it was surrendered by the garrison, the commander having been captured by them and betrayed to the enemy. Strigonium is now commonly called Gran, from the river Gran, which, flowing down from the Carpathian mountains, where there are now famous mountain cities, joins the Danube at the foot of the Strigonian or Gran fortress. Whence it is thought that the name Strigonium was also given to the city, as if Istrigranium, from the confluence of the Ister and the Gran. Alba Regalis was not so called so much from the burials of the kings of Hungary, which the Annals mention, as from the inauguration of kings, which was wont to happen there in ancient times. There also King Ferdinand, with his wife Anne, daughter of King Vladislaus and sister of Louis, was inaugurated with the true crown of St. Stephen on the fourteenth day of February in the year 1527.252.
Schiruvan, Sirvan, error of Jovius.
If the reader reads what has been recorded by others concerning this war, he will find it described nowhere in this way. As Techmas, Spandugino Tamas, and even Sansovino Tolcas; so Ercas is named Algas by the same Spandugino, with the names miraculously corrupted. The region Schiruvan or Sirvan is, without doubt, the one which the ancients called Media, and later ones Vaaspracan, as I have read in Cedrinus regarding Constantine Monomachus. Jovius is mistaken when he says that Albania is today called Serban, and is situated near Media and the Caspian Sea. For the region of the Georgians is Albania, which until now has obeyed neither the King of the Persians nor the regional brother, but they are Christians and free, and have their own princes; they are only confederated with the Persians, as was explained in chapter 181. But Sirvan, or Media, is a limb of the Persian kingdom: although Mustafa Basha the vizier subjected it to the Ottoman empire in the year of our Lord 1578 and reduced it into the form of a beglerbegate, it was soon recovered by the Persians and is held by them to this day.253.
Uban, Uvastan, Ibanum of Cedrinus.
This city with its fortress so pertains to the borders of the Persian kingdom that it is also adjacent to greater Armenia. Cedrinus in the same [account of] Monomachus Augustus calls it Ἰβάν πόλιν τοῦ Βαασπρακάν. The interpreter, rendering this into Latin, wrote Ibanum and Baaspraçan. I would express it simply, so that it might be understood all the better: Iwan, or Ivan, a city of the region of Vaaspracan. And because in the preceding chapter we taught, on the authority of the same Cedrinus, that Vaaspracan is Media, it is now permitted to understand that Wanum must be referred to the same Media—or if it is not contained by it, it at least appears to be adjacent. Wastanum signifies the region situated around Wanum, or the territory of Wani: for Istan, or Stan, signifies a kingdom or region to the Turks.254.
Information of the beglerbegates of the whole Ottoman empire, which they possess today.
Since this beglerbegate of Wani, on the Persian frontiers, was established by Suleiman at that time, it is fitting at this point to present to the readers some sort of information on the Ottoman kingdom, with its provinces or beglerbegates described in order, which now, in Asia, Africa, and Europe, Murad the Third, the only son of Muhammad the Ottoman, possesses, so that in this way we may finally close our Pandects of Turkish history, to see thereafter whether they are to propagate their borders further by the permission of God, or whether God Almighty is, for the sake of declaring His own majesty and glory according to their own oracles, to overthrow that vast mass of empire, formidable to all peoples until now, or to reduce it to order and under the yoke of His son, such that under heaven there might no longer be any name of Gog and Magog. For He has denounced to us that He will do this in the last days through the prophets of His undoubted faith. Let us begin, however, from the rising sun.255.
Asia Beglerbegate.
1. The Anatoli beglerbeg. His residence is in the city of Kütahya of greater Phrygia, which the Greeks once named Cotyaeum, as was explained in chapter 40. He has twelve sanjaks under him.II. Caraman beglerbeg. He has his residence A at Caesarea of Cilicia, concerning which mention is made in its own place. Seven sanjaks are under him. III. Sivas beglerbeg, at Sebastia, concerning which consult the fifth chapter of these Pandects. IV. Tocatun beglerbeg. He resides at the city of Amasia. Under him are five sanjaks. V. Dulgadir beglerbeg. Concerning this province, consult chapter 163 of these Pandects. He has four sanjaks under him. VI. Aleppo beglerbeg, at Aleppo, or Beroea of Syria, concerning which see chapter 6. VII. Scham beglerbeg, at Damascus of Syria. VIII. Tripoli or Trapolos beglerbeg, at Tripoli of Syria. IX. Maras beglerbeg, at Marash, situated near the Euphrates, between Aleppo and Mesopotamia. X. Diarbekir beglerbeg, in Mesopotamia, at the city of Amida, which the Turks now call Kara-Amid. Twelve sanjaks are subject to him. XI. Bagdat beglerbeg, at Baghdad, or the new Babylon, concerning which see chapter 4. XII. Balsara beglerbeg, at the Persian Gulf, not far from Baghdad or Babylon. XIII. Laxa beglerbeg. In ancient times, Caramania extended to the borders of Ormuz, and it is adjacent to Persia. XIV. Gemen, Aden beglerbeg, in Arabia Felix, on the shore of the Red Sea. See chapter 241. They are diverse places, yet comprised under one beglerbegate. XV. Chebetz, Hustio Zebet beglerbeg, as stated in the same chapter. The place is located on the shore of the Arabian Gulf, and is adjacent to the empire of the king of the Ethiopians, Prester John. XVI. Missir beglerbeg. He presides over Cairo and the whole of Egypt. Sixteen sanjaks are under him. XVII. Cypri beglerbeg. He resides at Nicosia or Famagusta. XVIII. Scheherezul beglerbeg, in Assyria, adjacent to Persia. XIX. Wan beglerbeg, faces the borders of the Persians, towards Shirvan or Media, and greater Armenia, as was stated in the previous chapter. XX. Arzerum or Erzum beglerbeg, in greater Armenia, at the borders of Shirvan or Media, and the Georgians. It is distant from Trabzon by a six-day journey. XXI. Tiphlis beglerbeg, adjacent to the Georgians or "Curgginis," as it is now called. It was instituted by Mustafa Pasha Serdar in the Christian year 1578, in the month of September. The place is also known to the ancients; it is found in Cedrenus under Constantine Monomachus in words such as these: "Asam (who was born from the brother of Tangrolipix) was sent by the sultan Tangrolipix against the Romans, when he had passed by Tauris and the town named Tephlis; he had entered Vaspurakan, that is, Media." XXII. Sirvan beglerbeg. By this name Media is now called, from the metropolis of Shirvan, which the same Mustafa took in the same year, and he first B established an Osman Pasha as beglerbeg there: but not long after he was ejected by the Persians. Nevertheless, this beglerbegate is inscribed in the book of the Osmanids, for they profess that, unless it is restored, they will never make peace with the Persians. XXIII. Temircapi beglerbeg. The place is on the Caspian Sea, called the Iron Gate, and Capi Derbent, the gate of the straits or narrow passes. Osman Pasha took this in the same year, 1578, and reduced it to the form of a beglerbegate, after having killed Shemhali Khan, his father-in-law. XXIV. Cars beglerbeg. Cedrenus names it Carse, and places it in Persarmenia, which is now greater Armenia. Cars is distant from Arzerum by a four-day journey. The beglerbegate began in the Christian year 1579, under the leadership of Mustafa Pasha. XXV. Tschildir or Tzildir beglerbeg, at the borders of the Georgians, established by the same Mustafa Pasha in the Christian year 1579. Porsius wrongly wrote "Tschaldung." XXVI. Fassa beglerbeg, in Mingrelia. A fortress was built by Uluj Ali Capudan Pasha in the Christian year 1579, and a beglerbegate was instituted there. But shortly after his departure, the Georgians took it in turn and destroyed it. The novella of Leo Augustus regarding the thrones mentions the city of Phasia, and refers its bishop to the metropolis of Trabzon. This may be the same as today's Phassa. XXVII. Sochum beglerbeg, in the territories of the Georgians, instituted by Sinan Pasha Vezir-Azem in the Christian year 1580. XXVIII. Batin beglerbeg, instituted there at that time by Sinan. XXIX. Revan beglerbeg. Ferhat Pasha took and fortified this place in the Christian year 1582, having wrested it from Tokmak Sultan, leader of the Persian factions. The first beglerbeg there was Cigaloglis Pasha, a Genoese. XXX. Somakic beglerbeg. Concerning Somakia, which Chalcocondylus names Samachia, mention was made above D in chapter 188. The author of the beglerbegate in 1583 was Osman Pasha. These later beglerbegates, however, were instituted during the ten-year Persian war, which is still being waged; just as they are recent, so they come to be called by that name rather in name only, and are not to be compared with the ancient ones. Now, following the order of nature, let us proceed from the east toward the south throughout the provinces of Asia.
256. Africa Beglerbegatus. I. Cesair beglerbeg. He has his seat at Algiers, which to us is Algiers, just as noticed in chapter 227. II. Tunisi beglerbeg resides there.
A III. Tripoli beglerbeg. He has his residence there. There are, moreover, two other kingdoms in Africa, inscribed in the book of the Turks or Osmanlis (as they themselves say), which nevertheless are not yet reckoned among the beglerbegates, but rather come under the name of tributary or feudal states; namely, Fez and Morocco. Now let us see what provinces remain to the west and north.
The European Beglerbegate
I. Rumeli beglerbeg, whom they call [beglerbeg] of Greece. His seat is at Sofia. Under his standard the following sangiacates are contained: 1. Sofia, Serbia. 2. Nigeboli or Nicopolis, see chapter 51. 3. Kirklisse, see chapter 193. 4. Vyza, Thrace. 5. Kirmen, Macedonia. 6. Silistra, ibid. 7. Giustandil, ibid. 8. Bender, towards the Euxine and the Tatars. 9. Acherman, see chapter 159. 10. Uscopia, see chapter 169. 11. Prisren, Thessaly. 12. Saloniki, Thessaly. 13. Trichala, ibid. 14. Misitra, formerly Sparta in the Morea. 15. Palaeopatra, ibid. 16. Jagnia, Joannina in Aetolia. 17. Delvuina, Achaia. 18. Elbassan, Achaia. 19. Avelona, see chapter 242. 20. Ducaggin, see chapter 206. 21. Iscodar in Albania, see chapter 121.
II. Denizi beglerbeg, who is also commonly called Captain Bassa, for the Captain or Praetor of the sea. His seat is at Gallipoli. The sangiacates subject to him are: 1. Gallipoli, see chapter 23. 2. Galata, chapter 127. 3. Nicomedia, chapter 74. 4. Limnos, chapter 229. 5. Mityline, chapter 138. 6. Chios, chapter 229. 7. Nexia, ibid. 8. Negroponto, chapter 142. 9. Rhodi, chapter 229. 10. Cavala, chapter 44. 11. Napoli di Romania. 12. Lepanto, chapter 175. 13. S. Maura, chapter 178. 14. Alexandria.
III. Budun beglerbeg. His seat is there. The following sangiacates are generally subject to his jurisdiction: 1. Novigrad. 2. Filek. 3. Zetschen, or Zetzen. 4. Zolnok. 5. Gran. 6. Segedin. 7. Alba Regalis. 8. Sexard. 9. Simontornar. 10. Copan. 11. Muhatz. 12. Ziget, or Saswar. 13. Petscheu, or Five Churches. 14. Sirmium. 15. Semendria.
IV. Temeswar beglerbeg. He resides there. B Subject to his administration are these sangiacates: 1. Temeswar. 2. Mudava. 3. Vilaoswar. 4. Tschianad. 5. Wischitirni. 6. Giula. 7. Vidin. 8. Lipa.
V. Bozna beglerbeg. His seat is at Banja Luka. The following sangiacates are subject to him: 1. Banja Luka. 2. Poscheg. 3. Clissa. C 4. Herzegovina. 5. Lika. 6. Sazeschna. 7. Iswornik. 8. Brisrem. 9. Allatschlar chissar.
VI. Coffe beglerbeg. His seat is at the city of Kaffa in the Tauric Chersonese. At first it was only a sangiacate subject to the beglerbeg of Greece. Besides Kaffa and the places neighboring it, he embraces in his dominion all the sangiacates situated by the Tanais and the Maeotic marsh. But if we wish to confess the truth, he maintains the name of beglerbeg more as a title than by the magnitude of his power.
D 506 Let this be the limit of the barbarian kingdom and of our labor, which we have happily reached by the propitious will of God; and we pray him suppliantly that he may at length deign to abolish this bloody and impious tyranny, and to confirm the truth of the ancient oracle by the event; it having been believed for many centuries that the Quran, or the law of Mahomet, begun by the sword, must also be finished by the sword: so that, struck with amazement at the magnitude of the divine work, the whole world, poured forth in hymns, may sing together:
TO THE IMMORTAL AND HIGHEST AND GREATEST GOD ALONE BE ALL HONOR AND ALL GLORY FOR INFINITE AGES.