Mehmed II

“ That same day they went and drove up their cattle, and all the cattle went into the new stable except a helpless old ox that was so blind that it mistook its way and went into the old stable instead. Mehmed said never a word, but took the blind old ox into the fields to graze; every morning early he drove it thither, and late every evening he drove it back again. One day when he was on the road, the wind began to shake a big wayside tree so violently that its vast branches whined and whimpered again. “Hi! whimpering old dad!” said the fool to the tree, “hast thou seen my elder brother?” ”

“ The first of the Turkish sultans to imitate this pious custom was Mehmed I, builder of the beautiful Green Mosque in Broussa. His great-great-grandson Selim I conquered Egypt in 1517, and with Egypt the relics of the Prophet and the insignia of the caliphate, which were removed to Constantinople. Having become by virtue of his conquest Protector and Servitor of the Holy Cities, Selim largely increased the generosity of his fathers. His descendants of to-day are unable to display the same munificence, but the annual sourreh still forms the strongest material bond between Turkey and Arabia. ”

“ The letter went on to say that a certain chieftain named Vlah-Ali, proud, haughty, [121] and independent not only of Mehmed, the Grand Vizir, but of Sultan Amourath himself, had attacked, conquered, and pillaged his castle, captured his servants, and taken his wife away to his tent on a mountain near the field of Kossovo, where she was seemingly quite content to remain. Youg Bogdan, observing Strahinya’s grief, asked him in alarm what was amiss, if he lacked anything in his castle, or if any one of his family had offended him. ”

“ The second army of the Grand Seigneur was annihilated, and the road to Constantinople again open to Ibrahim; and the tottering empire of Mahmoud was saved by the intervention of the Russian Autocrat, who felt that it was his own property that was at stake rather than that of the unfortunate Sultan. Mehemet Ali is now on independent sovereign, and it is to the military genius of Europe that he owes this glory; while the once formidable empire of Mahomet is rapidly sinking under an accumulation of evils, the operation of which European diplomacy will in vain attempt to arrest. ”

“ Mehemet was about of an age with the Captain, and had attended school with him. He was young and handsome, with red cheeks, thin, large nose, and thick lips. He affected European costume, but, being a full-blooded Turk, was a sincere worshiper of the prophet, and an enthusiastic member of that society of youths who believed that Islam was about to be rejuvenated and purified, after which it would rise and overwhelm the unbeliever in a series of victories greater than when it swept Asia and the isles of the sea with the besom of fanaticism and carried its one star to the gates of Vienna. ”

“ England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria undertook to establish peace, and to place things on a permanent footing. They ordered the king of the south to surrender Syria, including Palestine, to the sovereignty of the Little Horn and to restore the Turkish fleet, which had revolted from the Sultan during the war. Mehemet refused to do either; contending that Syria was his as a part of his kingdom for ever by right of conquest; and the fleet, as the spoils of war. These great powers, however, were not to be trifled with. They were willing that the throne of Egypt should be hereditary in his family ”

“ All the Treaties, and all the laws of the Ottoman Empire, shall be applicable to Egypt, and to the Pashalic of Acre, such as it has been above defined, in the same manner as to every, other part of the Ottoman Empire. But the Sultan consents, that on condition of the regular payment of the tribute above-mentioned, Mehemet Ali and his descendants shall collect, in the name of the Sultan, and as the delegate of His Highness, within the Provinces the administration of which shall be confided to them, the taxes and imposts legally established. ”

“ As Mehemet AH refused to give up his conquests, an Anglo-Austrian naval squadron was sent to co-operate with a Turkish force in attacking the coast-towns of Syria. Acre was captured, and Ibrahim, assailed by the mountain tribes of the interior, was forced to retire to Egypt. A convention made between Mehemet and Sir Charles Napier, who had appeared at Alexandria with part of the fleet, formed the basis of the ultimate settlement, by which Mehemet, after formal submission to the sultan, was recognized as hereditary governor of Egypt. ”

“ Then Achmed took the new sovereign by the right hand, and personally conducted him into the chamber of the Mantle of the Prophet. There, standing in front of the throne, he took from his hand the diamond clasp, the symbol of dominion, and with his own hand fastened it to the turban of the new Sultan, and placing his hand upon his head, solemnly blessed him.
"Rule and prosper! May those thou lovest love thee also, and may those that thou hatest fear thee. Be glorious and powerful while thou livest, and may men bless thy name and magnify thy memory when thou art dead!" ”

“ Sultan Mahmoud, who had come to the throne in 1808, had done his best to destroy the power of his pashas. He hated such powerful and insubordinate nobles, and after the destruction of the Mamelukes in 1811, he placed Egypt under the rule of the bold Macedonian soldier, Mehemet Ali, not as a pasha, but as viceroy. In course of time, as the dominions of Sultan Mahmoud became more and more disorganized by misgovernment and insurrection, Mehemet Ali sent his adopted son, Ibrahim Pasha, with an army into Syria. ”

“ The question, I repeat, appears to me to depend upon the fact of the submission of Mehemet Ali, and the Sultan appears to me to be the sole judge in such a question: he alone has the right to decide. If the Sublime Porte informs us that the Sultan has accepted Mehemet Ali’s submission, that he is satisfied with it, the orders of my Government enjoin me, in such a case, to advise the Porte to grant to Mehemet Ali the hereditary government of Egypt. ”

“ Let Mehemet Ali have his Egypt and the hereditary investiture which he demands, but do not let the two Powers adjoin. If we thought that Mehemet Ali could make himself strong and respected on the Ottoman throne, we should say Amen; but nothing will induce the Turks to regard him as a descendant of the Prophet."
If Syria were thus lopped off, he added, Russia would try to seize the European provinces of Turkey, which she had long coveted, and the Powers would have no title to protest. In a word Russia and France would dominate the Turkish Empire. ”

“ About that time Sultan Mehemet marched with great pomp from Constantinople, with all his court and his principal warriors, and having had tents pitched before the city, rested there several days according to custom, waiting for more soldiers. For several pashas from Egypt, Palestine, Cairo, and other lands beyond sea, were still marching up with their armies, and they were waiting for them. Verily, we might gaze and wonder at the beautiful order which the Turks kept while pitching the tents, the camp being so extensive that no one could see to the end of it. ”

“ The throne of the empire was filled by a young Sultan, who had recently succeeded to his brother Mustafa, whose immediate predecessor, their cousin Selim, had fallen a sacrifice to the mutinous spirit of the Janissaries. Mahmûd, the reigning sovereign, was for some time the last of his race. Young, ignorant, and inexperienced, he had everything to apprehend from the circumstances in which he was placed. Both morally and materially his empire was bordering on decrepitude. The old political system of Turkey had worn itself out. The population was not yet prepared for a new order of things. ”

“ Never was defeat and disaster more richly deserved. Two-thirds of the Christian army were slain in the battle, and even greater numbers, though a less proportion, of the Ottomans shared their fate.
Murad, having won this great victory, again, a second time, abdicated his throne and returned to his retreat at Magnesia, and again the young Mahomet was invested as Sultan. Though history supplies cases of great kings seeking retirement from the cares of office, and of some of them being induced to resume their thrones, it records no other case of a second abdication and a second resumption. ”

“ In a.d. 1469 Mehmúd was succeeded by his son and minister Ghiás-ud-dín, to whose skill as a soldier much of Mehmúd’s success had been due. On his accession Ghiás-ud-dín made his son Abdul Kádir Prime Minister and heir-apparent, and gave him the title of Násir-ud-dín. He called his nobles, and in their presence handed his sword to Násir-ud-dín, saying: “I have passed thirty-four years in ceaseless fighting. ”

“ And Oh, thou Sultan Mahmoud, God cries out for thee!'
The Sultan comforted the man and said,
'Go home, and I will send thee wine and bread.
(For he was poor,) and other comforts. Go;
And should the wretch return let Sultan Mahmoud know.'
In two days' time, with haggard eyes and beard,
And shaken voice, the suitor re-appeared,
And said, 'He's come.'—Mahmoud said not a word,
But rose and took four slaves each with a sword,
And went with the vext man. They reach the place,
And hear a voice and see a female face,
That to the window flutter'd in affright. ”

“ Mohammed II, the conqueror of Constantinople; Selim I, who annexed Kurdistan, Syria, and Egypt, and Solyman the Magnificent, the victor on the field of Mohacs and the besieger of Vienna. Never did eight such sovereigns succeed one another—save for the feeble Bayazid II—in unbroken succession in any other country; never was an empire founded and extended during two so splendid centuries by such a series of great rulers. In the hour of dismay, as well as in the moment of triumph, the Turkish Sultan was master of the situation. ”

“ Since Turkey had fallen under the influence of Russia at the treaty of Adrianople (1829) , the most promising policy for France was to support the most formidable of the Sultan's rivals. Mehemet Ali, the Albanian adventurer who had won the Viceroyalty of Egypt, was not content with Crete, which had been assigned to him in reward for his services during the Greek War of Independence; and in 1831 he despatched his son Ibrahim at the head of a formidable army, which over-ran Syria, crossed the Taurus, and advanced into the heart of Asia Minor. ”

“ The presence of Hunniades and the ardent zeal of John Capistran had so excited the valour of the Hungarians, that they destroyed the Ottoman fleet, which covered the Danube and the Save, and the army commanded by Mahomet himself. More than twenty thousand Mussulmans lost their lives in the battle; the sultan was wounded amidst his janissaries, and escaped the pursuit of the victors with much difficulty. All Europe returned Heaven thanks for a victory, for the obtaining of which it had only concurred by its prayers, and which it must have considered a miracle. ”

“ I say the Eastern Question, for this was in fact the name given by all the world to the quarrel between the Sultan Mahmoud, and his subject the Pacha of Egypt, Mehemet Ali. Why was this sounding title applied to a local contest? Egypt is not the whole Ottoman empire. The Ottoman empire is not the entire East. The rebellion, even the dismemberment of a province, cannot comprise the fate of a sovereignty. The great states of Western Europe have alternately lost or acquired, either by internal dissension or war, considerable territories ”

“ In 1451 the Ottoman throne became vacant by the death of Amurath II., who was succeeded by a prince destined to be the deadliest enemy whom Christendom had yet beheld. This was Mahomet II., surnamed the Great, who even then, though scarcely twenty-one years of age, had acquired a fame for talent, valour, and ferocity, which made him the terror of Europe and of the world. ”

“ Scarcely had the new Sultan been proclaimed when the Turkish admiral, Achmet Fevzi, who had been sent out to attack the coast of Syria, sailed Turkish fleet betrayed into Alexandria and delivered his fleet over to Mehemet Ali. Turkey, now practically rulerless, was left without defence, on land and on water. Mehemet Ali not only declared Egypt independent of the Porte, but, encouraged by France, prepared to move on Constantinople. In this extremity Anglo-French intervention the foreign Ambassadors at Constantinople addressed a collective note to the Divan, announcing European intervention. ”

“ The Sultans who succeeded him for some generations, all men of vigor, and availing themselves not less of the decrepitude which had by that time begun to palsy the Byzantine sceptre, than of the martial and religious fanaticism which distinguished their own followers, crossed the Hellespont, conquering Thrace and the countries up to the Danube. In 1453, the most eminent of these Sultans, Mahomet II., by storming Constantinople, put an end to the Roman empire; and before his death he placed the Ottoman power in Europe pretty nearly on that basis to which it had again fallen back by 1821. ”

“ At last some viziers, the Sultan’s favorites, who judged of Prince Ahmed’s grandeur and power by the figure he cut, made the Sultan jealous of his son, saying it was to be feared he might inveigle himself into the people’s favor and dethrone him.
The Sultan of the Indies was so far from thinking that Prince Ahmed could be capable of so pernicious a design as his favorites would make him believe that he said to them: “You are mistaken; my son loves me, and I am certain of his tenderness and fidelity, as I have given him no reason to be disgusted.” ”