of nature to this homely office they design the three last fingers of the left hand and upon this account they call Christians 〈◊〉 which is as much as one defiled and impure for want of this manner of elensing And washing is so usual and frequent amongst them both before and after meat as hath caused a common Proverb amongst them that God hath created meat that men may have occasion often to wash their hands Secondly of their prayers After their washing follow their prayers which 〈◊〉 to recommend to his Disciples the force and virtue of prayer calls it in his Alchoran the Pillar of Religion and the key of Paradise and enjoyned the performance five times in the space of twenty four hours viz. between the day-breaking and Sun-rising called Sabanamasee Secondly at noon called Ulenamasee Thirdly at the middle hour between the noon and the setting of the Sun called Kindinamasee Fourthly at Sun-setting called 〈◊〉 Fifthly at an hour and half in the night called Yachinamasee this action they perform with very much reverence and devotion and hold that they ought to be so intent and fixed in their thoughts on this religious act towards God that no business of the world though the execution of the Sultans decree should in the same moment be commanded or fire should burst forth in the very Chamber where they remain or an armed enemy within their Gates or Camp they ought not yet to be diverted or break abruptly 〈◊〉 their prayers to extinguish or oppose themselves against their inevitable destruction It is much in my opinion that Infidels should be possessed with that awe and sense of the Divine Majesty in the time of their audience with him And yet that Friers and others of the Roman Church obliged to their office as the 〈◊〉 to his Namas should perform it so perfunctorily as to mix the discourse of business with the repetition of their breviary and joyn with their responsals answers and resolutions of questions are made them and so satisfie themselves in the Opus operatum as if it were more important to comply with his command who imposed the office than with his who primarily enjoyned the sacrifice of prayer The form of their prayers is not extracted out of the Alchoran only the collections of sentences as in the Name of God God is great and merciful and the like are 〈◊〉 from thence as Christians do from the fountain of the holy Scriptures 〈◊〉 the rest is compiled by the four Doctors we have before mentioned viz. Ebbubecher Omar Ozman and 〈◊〉 whose names are wrote in golden Characters on the walls of most 〈◊〉 herein they observe divers postures and gestures of their body as placing their hands one on the other before them bending the body kneeling touching the ground with their forehead moving the head to each side and the like in which it is difficult to make distinction of those meerly invented and ordained by 〈◊〉 from those which were primarily in use amongst the ancient Arabians But that the orderly Ceremonies in their prayers may be better described it will be to our purpose to hear what 〈◊〉 uius relates of the whole Turkish Army whom he had seen drawn up orderly in the field at their devotion I saw said he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gre it multitude of heads folded up in Turbants who with 〈◊〉 silence attended to the words of a Priest their Conductor all of them being drawn up in ranks and file and covering with their 〈◊〉 orders the whole plain seemed to have framed a wall or bulwark by the regular disposition of their bodies their cloathings were of light colours and their Turbants comparable to the 〈◊〉 of the snow and the variety of the different colours of their garments fed the eyes with a strange pleasure in this manner so immoveable they stood as if they had grown in the place where their feet were fixed no coughing hemming nor voice was heard nor so much as any motion was perceived of their heads every one at the name of Mahomet pronounced by the Priest bowed his head to his knees and at the name of God reverently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and kissed the Earth and thus the Turks with devout ceremony and profound attention perform their holy duties supposing that prayer to become fruitless which is interrupted by scratching of the head 〈◊〉 the hands or any other gesture not essential to their prayer But of all Nations and Religions that I have known they are the most hypocritical they are those who love to pray in the Market-place and in the Corners of the Streets to have praise of men for it is observable with the Turks that where they find the most spectators especially of Christians to chuse that place how inconvenient soever to spread first their handkerchief and then begin their prayers The substance of their prayers consists for the most part in praises of the divine power and attributes mixing therewith Petitions for the safety of their Prince and his dominions and for dissention and wars amongst Christians which part they conceive God hath greatly gratified them in and rejoycing upon the rumors of wars and disturbances in Christendom as an effect of the divine facility and concession to their prayers they know well by experience what Tacit reports of the Roman Policy That Omne scelus externum cum laetitia habendum semina etiam odiorum incende and as the Romans destined Armenia to be a prize held up and the Stage also on which the Tragedy of the ruin of the Eastern Nations were to be acted Eandem Armeniam specie largitionis turbandis barbarorum animis praebuerint so the Turks forebore for several years the total Conquest of the Provinces of Transilvania Moldavia and Valachia reserving them for the Cadmean fields wherein the Hungarians Germans Polonians and the people of those Countries themselves might destroy one the other and make his entrance to the possession of them the more facile and less bloudy Thirdly Of their Ramazan The third necessary point of their Religion is the observation of the Month of Ramazan or a Fast in that whole Month in which time they can neither eat drink or take any thing in their mouths whilst the Sun is above the Horizon afterwards upon shutting in of the Evening that the Emaum lights the Lamps which in that Month are exposed round the Steeple of every Mosch they have liberty to eat Most part of the night they spend in Feasting reserving commonly their greatest Delicacies and best Provisions for the consolation of that Fast their business and employments they attend most to in the night passing the day as over tedious in sleeping so that their Fast is nothing but a changing of the day into night This Month they call 〈◊〉 and holy and the time when the Gates of Paradise are opened and of Hell are shut and so strict is the Imposition of this Fast that it is no less than Death for a Turk to be accused of
from without being permitted or have their spirits emboldened to declare a truth or are called to give their counsel in matters of greatest importance So that this obedience which brave and wise Emperours have made use of in the advancement of noble exploits and enlargement of their Empire is with effeminate Princes delighted with flattery the snare of their own greatness and occasion of weak counsels and means in the management of great designs If a man seriously consider the whole com psition of the Turkish Court he will find it to be a Prison and Banniard of Slaves differing from that where the Galley-slaves are immured only by the ornaments and glittering outside and appearances here their chains are made of Iron and there of gold and the difference is only in a painted shining servitude from that which is a squalid sordid and a noisome slavery For the youths educated in the Seraglio which we shall have occasion to discourse of in the next Chapter are kept as it were within a prison under a strange severity of discipline some for 20 30 others 40. years others the whole time of the age of man and grow gray under the correction of their Hogiaes or Tutors The two Brothers of this present Grand Signior are also imprisoned here restrained with a faithful and careful guard and perhaps are sometimes permitted out of grace and favour into the presence of their Brother to kiss His Vest and to perform the offices of duty and humility before their Prince The Ladys also of the Seraglio have their faithful keepers of the black guard to attend them and can only have the liberty of enjoying the air which passes through grates and lattices unlesse sometime they obtain license to sport and recreate themselves in the Garden separated from the sight of men by walls higher then those of any Nunnery Nay if a man considers the contexture of the whole Turkish Government he will find it such a Fabrick of slavery that it is a wonder if any amongst them should be born of a free ingenuous spirit The Grand Signior is born of a slave the Mother of the present being a Circhasian taken perhaps by the Tartars in their incursions into that Country The Visiers themselves are not always free born by Father or Mother for the Turks get more children by their slaves then by their wives and the continual supply of slaves sent in by the Tartars taken from different Nations by way of the black sea as hereafter we shall have occasion to speak more fully fills Constantinople with such a strange race mixture and medly of different sorts of blood that it is hard to find many that can derive a clear line from ingenious Parents So that it is no wonder that amongst the Turks a disposition be found fitted and disposed for servitude and that is better governed with a severe and tyrannous hand then with sweetness and lenity unknown to them and their fore-fathers as Grotius takes this Maxime out of Aristotle Quosdam homines naturâ esse servos i. e. ad servitutem aptos ita populi quidem eo sunt ingenio ut regi quam regere norint rectius But since it appears that submission and subjection are so incident to the nature of the Turks and obedience taught and so carefully instilled into them with their first Rudiments it may be a pertinent question how it comes to pass that there are so many mutinies and rebellions as are seen and known amongst the Turks and those commonly the most insolent violent and desperate that we read of in story To let pass the mutinies of former times in the Ottoman Camp and the usual though short rebellions of ancient days I shall instance in the causes and beginnings of two notorious disturbances or rather madnesses of the Souldiery not mentioned in any History which being passages of our age deserve greatly to be recorded This obedience then that is so diligently taught and instilled into the Turkish Militia as to the Spahees in their Seraglios or Seminaries the Janizaries in their chambers sometimes is forgot when the passions and animosities of the Court by which inferiour affections are most commonly regulated corrupt that Discipline which its reason and sobriety instituted For the affections of Princes are indued with a general influence when two powerful parties aspiring both to greatness and authority allure the Souldiers to their respective factions and engage them in a civil war amongst themselves and hence proceed seditions destruction of Empires the overthrow of Common-wealths and the violent death of great Ministers of State And so it hapned when ill government and unprosperous successes of war caused disobedience in the Souldiery which some emulous of the greatness of those that were in power nourished and raised to make place for themselves or their party For in the time of Sultan Mahomet the present Grand Signior when the whole government of the Empire rested in the hands of one Mulki Kadin a young audacious woman by the extraordinary favour and love of the Queen Mother who as it was divulged exercised an unnatural kind of carnality with the said Queen so that nothing was left to the counsel and order of the Visier and grave Seniors but was first to receive approbation and authority from her the black Eunuchs and Negroes gave laws to all and the cabinet councels were held in the secret appartments of the women and there were proscriptions made Officers discharged or ordained as were most proper to advance the interest of this Feminine Government But at length the souldiery not used to the tyranny of women no longer supporting this kind of servitude in a moment resolved on a remedy and in great tumults came to the Seraglio where commanding the Grand Signior himself to the Kiosch or banquetting-house demanded without further prologue the heads of the favourite Eunuchs there was no argument or Rhetorick to be opposed to this unreasonable multitude nor time given for delays or consultation but every one of the accused as he was entred into the souldiers roll or catalogue and required being first strangled was afterwards thrown head-long from the wall of the Garden and committed to the farther satisfaction of their enemies revenge by whom from thence they were dragged to the Hyppodromo and before the new Mosque cut into small pieces and their flesh roasted and eaten by them The day following they apprehended Mulki and her husband Schaban Kalfa both whom they put to death nor ended this tumult here until by means of dissention between the Spahees and Janizaries the principal Ministers found means and opportunity to interpose their power and having executed several of the Spahees and performed other exemplary parts of Justice reduced matters to some kind of quietness and composure and thus order results often from confusion and tumults in corrupted Commonwealths have operated good effects to the redress of several evils But besides this insurrection or mutiny of the
Janizaries have succeeded divers other but because there hath been no disorder amongst them so notorious and memorable as that which occasioned the death of Kiosem Grand-mother to the present Sultan we have thought fit to record the certain particulars of it to all posterity CHAP. IV. A true relation of the designs managed by the old Queen Wife of Sultan Ahmet and Mother of Sultan Morat and Sultan Ibrahim against her Grand-child Sultan Mahomet who now Reigns and of the death of the said Queen and her Complices AFter the murder of Sultan Ibrahim by conspiracy of the Janizaries Sultan Mahomet eldest son of the late deceased Emperour a child of nine years old succeeded in the throne of his father and the tuition of him and administration of the Government during his minority was committed to the old Queen the Grand-mother called Kiosem a Lady who through her long experience and practice in affairs was able and proper for so considerable an office and so the young Sultan was conducted to the Mosch of Eiub where with the accustomed Ceremonies his sword was girt to his side and he proclaimed Emperour through all the Kingdoms and Provinces of his Dominions For some time this old Queen governed all things according to her pleasure until the Mother of this young Sultan as yet trembling with the thoughts of the horrid death of her Lord and fearing lest the subtle and old Polititian the Grandmother who had compassed the death of her husband should likewise contrive the Murder of her Son grew hourly more jealous of his life and safety which suspition of hers was augmented by the knowledge she had of the ambitious and haughty spirit of the Grand-mother and the private treaties and secret correspondence she held with the Janizaries which compelled her to a resolution of making a faction likewise with the Spahees and Pashaws and Beyes who had received their Education in the Seraglio being a party alwaies opposite to the Janizaries These she Courted by Letters and Messages complaining of the death and Murder of the Sultan her Husband the Pride and Insolence of the Janizaries and small esteem was had of her Son their undoubted Prince adding that if they provided not for their own safety the Old Queen would abolish both the name and order of Spahees The Asiatick Spahees awakened hereat with a considerable Army marched to Scutari under the Conduct of Gurgi Nebi and demanded the heads of those who had been the traytors and conspirators against the sacred Life of their late Soveraign all which were then under the protection of the Janizaries and supported by the powerful Authority of the Queen Regent Upon this Alarum the Grand Visier called Morat Pashaw who had had his Education amongst the Janizaries being adored by them as an Oracle and engaged with them in the late Treason against the Sultan speedily passed over from Constantinople to Scutari with an Army of Janizaries and others of his favourites and followers transporting likewise Artillery and all necessaries for entrenchment some skirmishes passed between the Van-guard of the Spahees and the Deli which are the Visiers Guard and thereby had engaged both the Armies but that the two Chief Justices of Anatolia and Greece interposing with their grave and religious countenances preached to them of the danger and impiety there was in the effusion of Musselmins or believers bloud and that had they any just pretences their plea should be heard and all differences decided by the Law These and such like perswasions made impression on Gurgi Nebi and other Spahees and the posture they found their Adversaries in to give them battel made them inclinable to hearken to proposals for accomodation but especially their courages were abated by what the Justices had declared that in case they repaired not to their own homes the Visier was resolved to burn all the Rolls and proclaim a general Nesiraum through the whole Empire which is an Edict of the King and Mufti commanding all the Turks of his Kingdoms from seven years old and upward to arm and follow him to the war The Spahees hereupon dispersed themselves and from their retreat encreased the Pride of the Janizaries faction and of their chief Commanders viz. Bectas Aga highly favoured by the Queen Regent Kul Kiahia Lieutenant of the Janizaries and Kara Chiaus a follower of Bectas who now esteemed themselves absolute Masters of the Empire These three now governed all matters contriving in their secret Councils the destruction of the Spahees especially those famed for riches and valour and as one of the first rank gave order to the Pasha of Anatolia to take away the life of Gurgi Nebi whom accordingly he one day assaulted in his quarters and being abandoned by his Souldiers shot him with a Pistol and sent his head to Constantinople The Spahees exasperated hereat entred into private Councils and Conspiracies in Anatolia against the Janizaries drawing to their party several Beyes and Pashaws of Asia and particularly one Ipsir a Circasian born but educated in the Seraglio a Person of a couragious spirit and powerful in men and treasure assaulted many quarters of the Janizaries in Asia and cutting off their arms and noses miserably slaughtered as many as fell into their hands On the other party Bectas Aga secure in his condition amassed wealth with both hands by new impositions rapine and other arts causing to be coined at Belgrade 300 thousand Aspers one third silver and two of tinne these Aspers he dispersed amongst the Tradesmen and Artisans forcing others to exchange his false metal for Gold at the value of 160 Aspers for the Hungarian Ducat The people sensible of the cheat begun a mutiny in the quarter of the Sadlers at Constantinople which encreased so fast that the whole City was immediately in a general uproar this tumult was violently carried to the place of the Mufti whom they forced with the Seigh who is the Grand Signiors Preacher and the Nakib Esref or Primate of the Mahometan Race to accompany them to the Seraglio where at the inward gate of the Royal Lodgings with clamours and out-cries they made their complaint In this danger the Grand Signior was advised by the Capi Agasi and Solyman Aga the Kuzlir Aga or chief Eunuch of the Women that this happy conjuncture was to be embraced for the destruction of Bectas and his complices but fear and too much caution hindered that design for the present only it was judged fit for satisfaction of the multitude that Metek Ahmet Pashaw then Prime Visier and yet a slave to the lusts of the Janizaries should be deprived his office which was immediately effected and the Seal taken from him was delivered to Siaus Pashaw a Stout and Valiant person This Visier being jealous of his own honour and jealous for the safety of the Empire cast about all ways to suppress the arrogance of Bectas and his adherents lest the like shame and misfortune should befall him as did to Murad Pasha one
with the like shout These preparations were not only in the Seraglio but likewise without for the Visier had given order to all the Pashaws and Beglerbegs and other his Friends that without delay they should repair to the Seraglio with all the force they could make bringing with them three days provisions obliging them under pain of Death to this Duty In a short space so great was this concourse that all the Gardens of the Seraglio the outward Courts and all the adjoyning streets were filled with armed men from Galata and Tophana came Boats and Barges loaden with Powder and Ammunition and other necessaries so that in the Morning by Break of day appeared such an Army of Horse and Foot in the Streets and Ships and Gallies on the Sea as administred no small terrour to the Janizaries of which being advised and seeing the concourse of the people run to the assistance of the King they thought it high time to bestir themselves and therefore armed a great Company of Albaneses Greeks and other Christians to whom they offered Money and the Titles and Priviledges of Janizaries promising to free them from Harach or Impositions paid by the Christians which Arguments were so prevalent that most taking Arms you might see the Court and City divided and ready to enter into a most dreadful confusion of a Civil War In the Seraglio all things were in good order the Morning Devotions being finished the Baltagees who are a Guard that carry Poleaxes called to the Pages to joyn with them and accompany them to the Presence Chamber These Baltagees were in number about 200 strong of large stature and of admirable agility at whose beck the Pages ran with all alacrity to the door of the Chamber where they at first received a repulse from the Master of the Chamber who was an Eunuch and one faithful to the Old Queens interest who to yield all possible furtherance towards the protection of her Person reproved the insolence of the Rout in coming so boisterously to the Royal Lodgings to which they unanimously answered that they would speak to His Majesty and that it was their desire to have the Old Queen Enemy to the King and the Mahometane Faith put to Death at which words he being enraged and relying on his Authority reproved them with terms of Rebels and Traitors to their Master What have you to do with the Queen said he Are you worthy to open your mouths against her Serene Name He reiterating these and the like words one of this Rabble said Kill that Cuckold for he also is an Enemy of the Faith and whilst one lifted up his hand to strike him he fled by the way of the Tarras into the Garden whither being pursued by five or six of them he was overtaken and catching him by the coller would have cut his throat but that at his earnest entreaty they gave him so much liberty as first to cast himself at the feet of the Sultan whither being dragged he delivered to the King a Seal and a Key of Secret Treasure and being about to say somthing in his own behalf and defence of his life a bold youth of these Baltagees called Jalch-Leferli struck him on the head with his axe and cleft it into two pieces the others seeing this first blow given him fell on him with their Symitters and cut him to pieces his blood and brains were dashed on the rich Carpets which moved fear in many who were secretly of the Conspiracy with the Old Queen The Young King himself ignorant of the good intentions of his Servants at the sight of blood-shed being yet tender-hearted cryed and closely embraced the Selihtar who then held him in his arms but upon the removal of the Corps out of his sight and some smooth words as that it was a sacrifice of love to him and the like his childish tears were soon wiped away In this interim the new created Mufti and Kenan Pasha one of the Visiers of the Bench and Balyzade Efendi who was formerly Lord Chief Justice and well affected to the Spahees party entring the Hazoda or Presence Chamber perceiving a tumult in His Majesties Presence with different voices and languages for some cryed in Georgian others Albanian Bosnian Mengrelian Turkish and Italian remained in great confusion how to proceed with order and reason in this important affair For the Mufti and others were of opinion that the sentence against the Old Queen was not rashly to be pronounced and so the matter might calmly be debated and if possible an expedient might be found for saving her life and securing the Sultan But the Rabble impatient of delay cryed out defer not the sentence for otherwise we shall esteem thee as one of her adherents By this time news was come to the Young Queen that there had been a fight in the Streets who as yet doubtful of the success and fearing if the Janizaries should gain the advantage Bectas would revenge the blood of the Old Queen by her death came covered with a Vail into the Presence Chamber saying as she passed Is this the Reverence you owe to the King your Lord Do you know the place where you are What would you have of a Woman Why do you busie your selves in the Kings Affairs Some presently apprehended that this was only a Plot of the Young Queen to make the World believe she would rather assist the Grand-Mother than contrive against her which made the Pages the more importunately to persist with the Mufti for the Fetfa or sentence against her But one of the Pages suspecting that this Woman so veiled might be the old Queen her self cryed out This is she you seek for she is in your hands take your Revenge upon her at which some bestirring themselves to seize her she ran to the feet of her Son and laying hold on him cried out No no I am not the GrandMother I am the Mother of this His Majesty and wiping the tears from the eyes of her Son with her handkerchief made signs to keep back which restrained the forwardness of some who pressed to lay violent hands upon her The Mufti who observed the carriage of the Rout and their earnest desires which could not be resisted feared if he gave not his concurrence he himself should be killed and the rather because he overheard the old Kenan Pasha discourse with the Visier to the like effect So that after some pause and Consultation with the other chief Ministers it was resolved to supplicate His Majesty for his consent which was done in these words Sir The will of God is that you consign your Grand-Mother into the hands of Justice if you would have these Mutinies appeased a little mischief is better than a great one there is no other Remedy God willing the end shall be prosperous Pen and Ink being brought the Mufti wrote the sentence and the Grand Signior subscribed it which was that the Old Queen should be strangled but neither cut with
Allah and carryed by the Ichoglans out of the chief Gate of the Seraglio where it was shown to the people who with wonderful admiration and Devotion beheld their glorious Standard order was also given to proclaim through the whole City the procession of the Heavenly Banner for they say that the Angel Gabriel brought it to Mahomet in the time of a great War made against the Christians as an infallible sign and evidence of Victory The opinion of this superstitious flag so prevailed as it brought not only the young and healthful to fight under it but sick and old and Women judged themselves obliged to run to the defence of this holy Ensign The News hereof and the death of the Old Queen coming to the old Chamber of the Janizaries several of them and those also of the Principal heads began to murmure that it was now necessary to lay aside their private interests and have a respect to their faith and their souls for should they oppose the Heavenly Banner they should run themselves into the State of Gaurs or Infidels and become liable to the same censure or punishment which is inflicted upon unbelievers But in the new Chambers Bectas endeavoured to remove this apprehension from the mind of his Souldiers by large Presents both of Gold and Silver perswading them to uphold their Fame and Reputation for that the Grand Signior and his Mother were Enemies to their name and designs and resolved to abase or destroy the order of that Militia and with assurance of Victory and encouragement against a people unarmed and undisciplined animated them to fight and to make the business more easie advised them to fire the City in several parts that so the people might be diverted and divided for safety of their own goods and dwellings But this proposition took not with the Officers and Souldiers who had many of them Houses and Possessions of their own in Constantinople but put them into great distractions and divisions in their Councels In this pause came an Officer from the Grand Signior who to venture his life had the promise of a good reward with a Command in writing which he threw in amongst them and galloped away as fast as he could crying out as he rode He that comes not under the Banner of the Prophet is a Pagan and his Wife divorced The Writing was taken up and carried to the Presence of the Principal Officers which being opened and read was to this purpose Bectas Aga I have made Pasha of Bosna Kara-chiaus I have made Captain General of the Sea Kul-kahya I have made Pasha of Temiswar and Kara Hassan Ogle I have made Jaâ—zar Agasi and I require at sight of these Presents that every one of you upon pain of death and ruine of his Family repair to his duty and station In this Instant came News that the old Chamber of Janizaries had left their station and were run under the Banner without Arms and had refused Bectas's Money and deserted his Cause and that the Spahees in great Troops and the Jebegees who command the Ordnance approached with Artillery to beat upon their Chambers The Spahees came thundring in upon the Janizaries in remembrance of their past injuries and had certainly cut them off had not the Visier with his Sword in his hand by good and bad words restrained them and appeased their animosity The Janizaries of the new Chamber proclaimed their new Commander and visited him with their usual form of Congratulation running afterwards confusedly under the Banner Kara-Hassan the new elected Aga of the Janizaries went to the Seraglio to thank the Grand Signior for the honour done him and with ten of his Principal Friends was admitted to the Grand Signiors Presence who humbly kissing the ground received the accustomed vests and with some admonitions was fairly dismissed and ordered to reduce his Janizaries to better obedience By this time Bectas Kulkahya and Kara Chiaus with some of their Favourites remained wholly abandoned looking one upon the other full of complaints and railings each at other for the miscarriage of the action But since it was not now time to condole but to save their lives every one made to his house First Bectas fled to his home where having ordered his Affairs he cloathed himself in the Albanian fashion and escaped to the house of a poor man formerly his Friend and Confident but the next day being discovered by a youth was taken and being set on a Mule was with the scorn and derision of the people conducted to the Grand Signiors Seraglio and there strangled This person was held in so much detestation by the common people that after his death the Cooks and inferiour sort of Servants run Spits and Pitch-forks through his body and plucking the hairs out of his beard sent them for Presents to their acquaintance through all Constantinople saying These are the hairs of that Traitor who gloryed that before he would lose his Head there should be raised a Mountain of heads as high as S ta Sophia But Kulkahya being come to his house filled his Portmantles with Gold and Jewels and accompanied with sixty horse resolved to fly to the Mountains of Albania places so inaccessible that they have never yielded to the Turkish yoke but finding himself hotly pursued in his journey and that it was impossible to escape with so great a number freely distributed a great part of his Gold upon his retinue and thanking them for their affection and good intentions dismissed them all excepting one Servant with whom he journyed with four laden horses with Gold Jewels and other riches and perceiving that this also was too great an incumbrance they buryed a Treasure to the value of 600. thousand Dollars in the Country as they travelled which was afterwards found out by certain Shepherds who disagreeing about the division thereof the matter came to be known to the Judge of that Country who seized upon it all and sent it to the Grand Signiors Treasury But Kulkahya travelling still farther with his single Page came to a Town where wanting bread and forced for the payment of it to exchange Gold fell into a suspicion of being one of those Rebels lately escaped from Constantinople which news being brought to a Captain of horse that commanded the place he came immediately with some men to take him but Kulkahya resolving not to fall into their hands alive resisted them until he was killed by a Musket-shot and so his head being severed from his body was sent to the Grand Signior Kara Chiaus in this interim being with 200 men retired into his Garden was assaulted by an Aga of the Spahees called Parmaksis with 500 men but that this enterprise might be acquired with little blood a Person was sent secretly to advise that party that if they opposed the Royal Command they should every one be put to death at which the people fled and dispersed themselves At that instant came in this Aga and took him
the Empire CHAP. XIII Of the Tartars and Tartar Han and in what manner they depend upon the Turks THe Tartars may very well be accounted amongst the other Princes subject to the Ottoman power I mean not the Asiatick Tartars or the Tartar of Eusbeck though so much Mahometan as to wear green Turbants and to deduce their Race from the Line of Mahomet himself for having conquered China and possessing a greater Empire then the Ottoman they are far from acknowledging any subjection or degree of inferiority to the Turk nor are all the European Tartars subjects to the Sultan for the Kalmuk and Citrahan Tatars men of strange barbarity and countenance different from all the other race of mankind though Professors of the Mahometan Religion are yet faithfully and piously obedient to the Duke of Moscovie their lawful Prince But the Precopentian Tartar which inhabits Taurica Cherfonesus now called Crim the principal City of which is Theodosia now Cafa and the Nagaentian Tartar which inhabits by the Palus Meotis between the Rivers of Volga and Tanais are the people which may be accounted amongst the subjects or at least Confederates of this Empire though only the City of Cafa of all those Dominions is immediately in Possession and Government of the Turk which in my opinion appears to be a cautionary Town and Pledge for their obedience and though the Han or Prince of that Country is elective yet he is chosen out of the true Line and confirmed by the Grand Signiors who have always taken upon them a power to depose the Father and in his place constitute the Son or next of that Linage when found remiss in affording their Auxiliary helps to the War or guilty of any dis-respect or want of duty to the Ottoman Port. This present Han which now governs called Mahomet Ghirei for that is the Surname of his Family remained during the life of his Father according to the custom of the Eldest Son of this Prince a hostage to the Turk in Janboli a Town in Thrace four dayes jurney distant from Adrianople situated on the 〈◊〉 or black Sea but from thence upon jealousie of too near a vicinity to his own Country was removed to Rhodes where he passed an obscure and melancholy life until the death of his Father and then being recalled to Constantinople had there his Sword girt on swore fealty to the Grand Signior with all other formalities performed according to their custom of regal inauguration But being setled in his Kingdom and mindful of his sufferings at Rhodes he had ever stomached the Pride of the Ottoman Emperour by which and the disswasion of the Polonians and the other neighbouring Tartars as a thing dishonourable to so ancient and powerful a people to resign the heir of their Kingdom a hostage to their neighbours this present Prince hath refused this part of subjection which the Visier Kupriuli often complained of but not being in a condition to afford a remedy unto thought it prudence to dissemble But yet these people are esteemed as Brothers or near allies with the Turk to whom for want of heirs-male in the Ottoman Line the Empire is by ancient compact to desend the expectation of which though afar off and but almost imaginary doth yet conserve the Tartar in as much observance to the Turk as the hopes of an Estate doth a young 〈◊〉 who is allured to a complaisancy and obsequiousness with the petulant humor of a Father that adopts him who is resolved never to want heirs of his own Family And thus the Tartar is as obedient as other subjects and though the Turk exercises not his power there by commands as in other places of his Dominions but treats all his business by way of Letters yet these Letters serve in the place of Waraents for the signification of the Grand Signiors pleasure and are as available as the Autogra and other formalities of the Imperial Edict are in other places in subjection to the Turk By ancient compact between this Empire and the Kingdom of Tartary it is agreed that whensoever the Grand Signior goes in person to the Wars the Tartar Han is to accompany him in person with an Army of a hundred thousand men but if the Visier or some other General be in the Field then is he only obliged to send forty or fifty thousand under the command of his Son or some principal Officer of his Kingdom who are paid and maintained out of the booty and pillage they acquire In the year 1663 the Tartar called on occasion of the War in Hungary to the assistance of the Turk they made such incursions into that Country Moravia and Silesia sacking and burning all Cities and Towns that they carried away one hundred and sixty thousand captive souls in one year which precise number I am informed from those who had received good information of the Pengik or Certificates that were given upon every head for the Tartar being an absolute free-booter makes prize of all that comes within his power and lest he should prey on the subjects of the Turk they are bound to take out attestations from certain Registers of the Names Countries and Age of their Captives lest they should deceive the Turk with the sale of those who are already their own subjects and slaves The Tartar is to the Turk as the Giacall to the Lion who hunts and finds the prey for the Lion to overcome and feed on And so the Tartar makes incursions into the neighbouring Countries round about and pass in great bodies some times ten or twelve dayes without doing the least dammage or spoil in their journey outward but as soon as they turn their 〈◊〉 home they rob spoil burn and carry all the Inhabitants of what Age or Sex soever like a torrent before them and every one of them leading three or four horses a piece on which they mount their Captives and load their prey make a running march day and night with few hours intermission for natural repose too fast for any orderly Army to overtake and any other that is not so is not able to give them Battel Such of their slaves as in the journey are wounded and infirme and not able to accompany the Camp they kill those which they bring safe into their own Country they sell to the Turks who come thither to Trade for this Merchandize which is the most profitable commodity that Tartary affords Young Boyes and Girls are rated at the highest price the latter of which being beautiful are like Jewels held at an unknown value but few of them escape the lust of the Tartars who deflower them even in the years of their very infancy This sort of people were by the ancients called Sermati and were alwayes famous for their exploits on Horse-back but heavy and ignorant of foot service which Character Tacitus gives of them Lib. 1. Hist. Omnis Sarmatum virtus quasi extra ipsos nihil ad pedestrem pugnam tam
testimony of Turks as never to be admitted nor pleaded in any Court of Turkish Justice against the English interest and nothing to be admitted as evidence in that case but only a Hoget which is in the nature of a Recognisance made before a Judge or a Bill or Writing under the hand of him on whom the demand is made which Article as it was very advisedly and with great Prudence and Wisdom obtained so it hath proved of admirable consequence and security to the Traffick and Merchants Estates which before being lyable to the Forgeries and false pretences of every dissolute Turk have now this point as a defence and fortification by which false pretences and suits for considerable sums of mony and matters of great value have been blown away and decided with great facility and little expence In the time of Bajazet the fourth King of the Turks the Courts of Justice were in like manner corrupted as at present for reformation of which the Prince resolved to execute a great number of the Lawyers until it was pleasantly represented by his Jester to whom between jest and earnest he had given liberty to speak the truth which soberer men durst not that all the cause of bribery and corruption in the Judges proceeded for want of stipends and necessary maintenance whereupon Bajazet growing cooler sensible of the cause of that evil applyed a remedy by granting their pardon and allowing them salaries and stipends with additional Fees of twenty Aspers in all causes exceeding a thousand and twelve Aspers for every writing and instrument out of Court. And in times of the best Emperours when vertue and deserts were considered and the Empire flourished and encreased men had offices conferred for their merits and good services were rewarded freely and with bounty without sums of money and payments to be a foyl to the lustre of their better parts But now it is quite contrary and all matters run out of course a manifest token in my opinion of the declension and decay of the Ottoman Empire as Livy saith Omnia prospera sequentibus Deos adversa autem spernentibus Howsoever in part this serves the great end of the Empire for Pashaws and great men having a kind of a necessity upon them to oppress their subjects the people thereby lose their courages and by continual Taxes and seisures on what they gain poverty subdues their spirits and makes them more patiently suffer all kind of injustice and violence that can be offered them without thoughts or motion to Rebellion and so the Lord Verulam says in his Essayes that it is impossible for a people overladen with Taxes ever to become Martial or Valiant for no Nation can be the Lyons Whelp and the Ass between burthens by which means the Turk preserves so many different sort of people as lie hath conquered in due obedience using no other help then a severe hand joyned to all kind of oppression but such as are Turks and bear any name of office or degree in the service of the Empire feel but part of this oppression and live with all freedom having their spirits raised by a license they attain to insult over others that dare not resist them But the issue and conclusion of the spoils these great men make on subjects is very remarkable for as if God were pleased to evidence his just punishment more evidently and plainly here then in other sins scarce any of all those Pashaws who have made haste to be rich have escaped the Grand Signiors hands but he either wholly devests them of all or will share the best part of the prey with them Amongst which I have observed none passes so hardly as the Pashaws of Grand Cairo because it is the richest and most powerful of all the Governments of this Empire and so either in his journey home or after his return he loses his life by publick command or at least is rifled of his goods as ill-got which are condemned to the Grand Signiors treasury And it is strange to see yet with what heat these men labour to amass riches which they know by often experiences have proved but collections for their Master and only the Odium and Curses which the oppressed wretches have vented against their Rapine remain to themselves rebus secundis avidi adversis autem incauti Tac. And this is like the policy that Caesar Borgia used otherwise called il Duca Valentine who the better to reduce Romagna lately subdued to obedience made one Messer Romiro d'Orco his Deputy a man of a cruel and tyrannical disposition who by rigour and force reduced affairs to the will and order of his Prince and the work now done and the people remaining extraordinary discontented the Duke thought it time to purge the minds of his people of the ill apprehension they had of his Government by demonstrating that the former hard usage proceeded from the bad inclination of his Minister commanded the same Romiro d'Orco at Cesenna to be cut in pieces and exposed to the publick view of the people with a piece of wood and a bloudy knife by his side This saith Machiavel lib. del Principe cap. 7. fece aquelli popoli in un tempo remanere stupidi sodisfatti and the Turk understands well how profitable in the same manner it is for the constitution of his Estate to use evil instruments who may oppress and poll his people intending afterwards for himself the whole harvest of their labours they remaining with the hatred whilst the Prince under colour of performing justice procures both riches and fame together If it be suspected that any great man intends to make combustion or mutiny in his Government or that his wealth or natural abilities render him formidable without farther inquisition or scrutiny all discontent of the Grand Signior is dissembled and perhaps a Horse or Sword or Sables-vest is reported to be presented and all fair treatment is counterfeited until the Executioner gets the bow-string about his neck and then they care not how rudely they deal with him just like the Birds in Plutarch who beat the Cuckow for fear that in time he should become a Hawk And to make more room for the multitude of officers who crowd for Preferments and to act the cruel Edicts of the Empire with the least noise oftentimes when a great Personage is removed from his place of Trust and sent with a new Commission to the charge perhaps of a greater Government and though he depart from the Regal Seat with all fair demonstrations of favour before he hath advanced three days in his journey triumphing in the multitude of his Servants and his late hopes the fatal command overtakes him and without any accusation or cause other then the will of the Sultan he is barbarously put to death and his body thrown into the dirt of a Forreign and unknown Country without solemnity of Funeral or Monument that he is no sooner in the Grave then his Memory
the breath thereof In this Month to drink Wine is esteemed an inexpiable Crime and such who give themselves that liberty at other times do yet not to give scandal abstain from it fourteen days before the beginning of this Month and Women and other of the more superstitious sort begin fifteen days their Fast before it is enjoyned by the Precept of their Prophet Put such as are sick or have any infirmity or are travellers in their journey have a permission to eat but with that condition as to remain obliged at other times of their health and convenience to make good those days of the Ramazan of which they remain indebted to the performance of their Law The institution of this Month of Ramazan proceeded from Mahomet himself in the second year of his Prophetick office which he did not assume until he had fully compleated forty years having before in imitation of the Jews Fast of Ashura Levit. 16. ver 29. in Memory of the overthrow of Pharaoh and his Host in the Red-sea enjoyned to the Arabians the same time of abstinence but afterwards apprehending it dishonourable to be beholding to the Jews for the invention of a Fast instituted the Ramazan the time of which is governed by the course of the Moon and falls out commonly ten dayes sooner then in the preceding year so that this Fast with time comes to run through all the months and is more easie to the 〈◊〉 when it happens in the 〈◊〉 dayes of the Winter rather then in the Summer when the dayes are long and hot which become tedious to the ordinary sort of people who for necessity are forced to labour and yet for the quenching thirst dare not refresh their mouths with a drop of water Fourthly Of their Zacat Which is another necessary point to the constitution of a 〈◊〉 which is the bestowing alms according to certain rules prescribed by four principal Doctors of their Law the word Zacat signifies as much as increase because that alms procure the blessing of God and multiply the store of the merciful According to this command every man is obliged to give one in the hundred of all their Estate to relief of the poor and though this Precept is enjoyned as an essential ingredient to constitute a true Mahometan yet Covetousness and Policy so much prevail with the Turks that the Rich are both unwilling to part with so much of their Estate and fearful to evidence their Wealth by a true calculate according to the Zacat so that the Poor are the best observers of this injunction the Rich conceiving it superfluous and never intended by God to make the performance of Religion a snare to their Estates Fifthly Of their Pilgrimage to Mecha Which is enjoyned to every one who hath riches and freedom from great offices and charges of Government to perform it being a Type or signification of their passage out of this world into the next The number of those who yearly undertake this Pilgrimage is uncertain though most commonly are registred from divers parts where the Mahometan Religion is professed above fifty thousand souls these Pilgrims depart about the latter end of May from Constantinople and meet with those from Anatolia Caramania and others of that quarter of the world at Damascus those from Persia assemble at Babylon those of the parts of Egypt at Grand Cario and all unite upon the Mount Ararat where they observe divers Ceremonies as making Corban or Sacrifice which they do by killing Sheep and sending part thereof as Presents to their Friends and distribution thereof amongst the Poor in remembrance that upon the same Mount Abraham designed to sacrifice his Son Isaac they also here strip themselves of their Garments and being covered only with a Blanket go in procession through the Mountain in signification that they must now leave all their sins and affections of the world behind them The chief Commander over these Pilgrims for amongst so considerable a number of people there must be rule and government is appointed by the Grand Signior and is called Sur-Emini by whom he sends 500 Zechins an 〈◊〉 Embossed with Gold carryed on a Camel and as much black Cloth as serves for hangings for the Moschs at Mecha and this is yearly presented from the Sultan to that place when the new hanging is set up that of the former year is pulled down and is by the Pilgrims torn in pieces some getting more and some less carry any rag of it home as a relique and token of their Pilgrimage which serves them in place of the Caabe to which they turn their faces at the time of their prayers The Camel which carryed the Alchoran at his return home is decked with flowers and other ornaments and having performed this holy journey is ever after exempted from all labour and service CHAP. XXIV Of the Bairam and Ceremonies used at that time by the Chief Officers to the Grand Signior THe Bairam is the Feast of the Turks of which there are two in the year one immediately following the Fast of Ramazan as our Easter doth the Lent which is called the great Bairam the other is the little Bairam which happens about seventy dayes after the former at which time the people for three days cease from their labour present one the other rejoyce and take a greater liberty then at other times which no question but was invented by Mahomet for relaxation of the bodies and minds of his followers as well as in imitation of the Christian Feasts The Bairam is then conceived to begin at the first appearance of the new Moon after the Ramazan which is sometime deferred a days time if the weather prove Cloudy that the Moon is not visible if longer the Sky be obscured according to the course of nature it is presumed that the Moon is begun and so their Feast begins also which is published at Constantinople by the discharge of great Guns at the point of the Seraglio upon the Sea-shoare at which time the Lights or Lamps on the Steeples of the Moschs are extinguished or omitted to be lighted and Drums and Trumpets are sounded in all publick places of the City and Courts of great Persons so that every one betakes himself to Mirth and Pastime as his own inclination or convenience leads him But that which will be most curious to the observation of the judicious Reader is the relation of the Ceremonies used in the Seraglio at this Feast by the several officers of State to the Grand Signior and to one and other which are so formal precise and constant to the least motion of every Member of the body as will clear the 〈◊〉 from that opinion which passes of them in the world of being rude uncivil and void of all Ceremony or Courtship in their comportment and behaviour which according to the best information I could procure is for the most part in this manner The Antiport leading to the Lodgings of the Kapa Agasi or