Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor. Robert Walsh
are recorded of him, from which the ordinary feelings of our nature revolt as altogether incredible. He was particularly fond of melons, and cultivated them with his own hand. He missed one, and in vain attempted to discover who took it. There was a certain number of youths, educated as pages, within the walls of the seraglio, called Ichoglans, and his suspicion fell on them; he ordered fourteen of them to be seized, and their stomachs to be ripped up in his presence, to discover the offender. But his treatment of the woman he loved, has no parallel in the history of human cruelty. He had attached himself to Irené, a Greek, as beautiful and accomplished as she was good and amiable; she softened his rude nature, and controlled his ferocity: and such was the ascendancy she had gained over him, that he desisted from many intended acts of brutal inhumanity, through the gentle influence he suffered her to exercise. His attachment was so strong, that the Janissaries began to murmur. To silence their clamour, he assembled them together, and caused Irené to be brought forth on the steps of the palace; he then unveiled her face. Even those rude and unpitying soldiers could not contain their admiration: the loveliness of her features and the sweetness of their expression at once disarmed their resentment, and they murmured approbation and applause. Mahomet immediately drew his sabre, and severing her head from her body, cast it among them.−He himself died of an attack of cholera in his fifty-third year, having reigned thirty. He it was who changed the name of Sultan, by which the sovereigns of his nation had been hitherto distinguished, into that of Padischah, which is a prouder title, and which the Turks confer on their own sovereign exclusively at this day; the appellation of the city was also altered to that of Stambool, or Istambol, by which the Orientals now distinguish it.3
Selim I. began his reign in 1512, and it was distinguished by some remarkable events. He is represented, by the historian Chalcocondyles, as exhibiting in his countenance a singular display of his predominant passions−a cruelty inexorable, an obstinacy invincible, and an ambition unmeasurable. He had the wrinkled forehead of a Tarquin, the fearful eye of a Nero, and the livid complexion of a Scythian; and, to complete the expression of his countenance, his mustaches were rigid, and drawn up to his ears, so that his head resembled that of a tiger. Yet he had many great qualities, which distinguish him among the sultans. He erected the Tersana, or arsenal, on the Golden Horn, and so was the founder of the Turkish navy. He was an historian, a poet, and, contrary to the law of the Prophet, a painter of human figures, and in this way commemorated his own battles. He added Egypt to the Turkish dominions. The fierce militia who governed it had been originally Christian slaves, like his own, and had established a dynasty which had lasted 200 years; but the Mamelukes now fell before the superior energies of their brethren the Janissaries. Another accession was made to his subjects. His hatred to Christianity was extreme, and his persecution of those who professed it relentless; and on this account he encouraged the Jews to supply their place at Constantinople. This people had increased exceedingly in Spain, under the Moors; but, on the returning power of the Spaniards, they were everywhere expelled by the inquisition. They set out from Spain, to the number of 800,000 persons, and received that protection from Turks which Christians would not afford them. They were invited to establish themselves at Constantinople and the villages on the Bosphorus, where 100,000 were located, and others in different parts of the empire. Several points of their belief and practice recommended them to the Mohammedans−their strict theology, their abhorrence of swine’s flesh, their rite of circumcision, were all points of resemblance between them. They called them Mousaphir, or visitors, and treated them, accordingly, with kindness and hospitality. They are at this day distinguished as a people, still speaking the Spanish language in the Turkish capital, which they brought with them from the country from which they were expelled.
An attempt was made to destroy Selim by a singular poison: Mustapha pasha composed a ball of soap with various aromatic ingredients, but one of so deadly a poison, that, like prussic acid, it was immediately absorbed by the skin, and destroyed the person to whose face it was applied; and this was sent to the sultan’s barber, as a precious invention, to be used when shaving his master. It was accompanied by a packet enclosed in a case of lead; a precaution which excited suspicion, and led to discovery. The pasha, barber, and all connected with them, were strangled, and the sultan escaped. He afterwards died of a foul cancer, in the eleventh year of his reign, having justly acquired the name of Yavuz, “the Ferocious.” He displayed his qualification of poet by writing his own epitaph, which is seen upon his tomb, and describes his “ruling passion, strong in death.”
“The earth I conquered while alive;
In death to combat yet I strive.
Here lies my body, seamed with scars;
My spirit thirsts for future wars.”
Soliman I. (or as he is by some classed II.) is represented as the greatest prince that ever sat upon the Turkish throne; and he obtained the name of “the Magnificent,” for the splendour of his achievements. He commenced his reign in 1520, which lasted forty years; and made three vows, which he hoped to accomplish before his death: to complete the hydraulic works of Constantinople−to erect the finest mosque in the world−and to establish the western capital of Islamism at Vienna. The two first he effected, and nearly succeeded in the last. After conquering all the countries between the Euxine, Caspian, and Red seas, he turned his arms to Europe, in order to accomplish his vows, and penetrated to Vienna, to which he laid siege without success; but he established a strong garrison at Buda, the capital of Hungary, and held possession of it, to renew his attempt. In the mean time, his fleets, united with the piratical states of Barbary, under the banner of Barbarossa, or “Red Beard,” ravaged the shores of the Mediterranean; and captive nobles from Spain, the most western country in Europe, were seen in chains among his slaves at Constantinople. Carrying thus his conquering arms from the Caspian to the Atlantic, and from the centre of Europe to the centre of Africa, there was but one little spot which opposed his plan of universal empire: that spot was the island of Malta. The crusaders had left this single remnant behind them, so excellent and noble as to redeem all their other failings. The knights of St. John had retired from Palestine to Rhodes, and from thence to Malta; and there they stood, the last barrier and bulwark of Christianity against the overwhelming torrent of Turkish dominion. These were now to be exterminated, and their island made the stepping-stone to establish the religion of the Prophet in the western world. The siege which Malta sustained on this occasion is the most gallant and interesting to be found in the records of human actions. The knights amounted but to 700 men; they organized a force of 8000, and with this they had to oppose a fleet of 200 sail, carrying an army of 50,000. After incredible acts of heroism and devotedness, they compelled the Turks to withdraw the remnant of their forces; and the first effectual check was given to their hitherto resistless power.
The character of Soliman, as drawn by historians, is more perfect than that of any other sovereign who occupied the throne of the Osmanli. His love of literature, his enlightened mind, his inviolable faith, placed him in strong contrast with his fellow-sultans; yet his private life is stained with more than Oriental barbarity. He had children by two wives, one of whom was the celebrated Roxalana; the elder, Mustapha, was heir to the throne, and a youth of great promise, but Roxalana was determined to prefer her own, and to that end stimulated Soliman to put Mustapha to death. He sent for him to his tent; and as soon as he entered, caused him to be seized by several mutes, who were in waiting with a bowstring to strangle him. The young man made a vigorous resistance, when the father, fearing he might escape, raised his head above the canvass partition of the tent, and with menacing gestures threatened the mutes with his vengeance if they did not despatch him. The unhappy youth caught his father’s eye, and passively submitted to his fate. He was strangled, and his body thrown on a carpet, to be exposed in front of the tent. Mustapha had yet another brother, whom it was necessary to dispose of also. He was a mere boy, and, as his mother kept him carefully secluded within the walls of her apartments, the wily Kislar Aga, who was sent to visit her, was obliged to have recourse to stratagem to separate them. He represented to the mother that Soliman was tortured with remorse for the death of her eldest son, and wished to repair his fault by affection for the younger. He was afraid his health would suffer by confinement, and it was his wish that he and his mother should take air and exercise; and for this purpose a horse, splendidly caparisoned, was sent for the boy, and an arrhuba for herself and her female slaves. The credulous
The origin of this word is a subject of controversy. Some suppose it derived from the Greek εις την πολιν, eis tēn polin, which they used when going to the capitol. It is, with more probability, a simple corruption of the former name. The barbarians who pronounce