Annals of the Turkish Empire, from 1591 to 1659. Mustafa Naima
it was taken at an easy rate. He did lay siege to it; but his troops, from what they had endured at the taking of Yanuk, were a good deal dispirited. The enemy made several sorties, went as far as the Moslem trenches, and slew a considerable number of the most heroic soldiers of the Serdár, who now began to be convinced of the difficulty of his undertaking, and resolved, as the day of Kásim was near at hand, to relinquish his object for the present. Accordingly on the 7th of Sefer, after having transported his provisions and heavy baggage to some of the nearest fortresses belonging to the Osmánlís, he raised the siege and returned to Buda.
It is related in the histories of Hasan Beg Zádeh, Alí, and Abdulkádír, secretary to the ordnance, that the governor of Komran cried out from the battlement, “Send us Hasan Páshá, Beglerbeg of Romeili, and we shall deliver up the fortress.” The son of the grand vezír, however, paid no regard to him, and merely remarked, “Let him fire his cannons if he will;” but the Janissaries on his saying this immediately relinquished their trenches and retired. Kátib Chelebí2 in his Fezlikeh denies this story altogether, and declares it to be a foul calumny invented by men who had been neither members of the diván of that day, nor present where the event is said to have taken place.
On the 5th of Sefer, two days before the siege was raised, permission was granted to Ghází Gheráí Khán to return home with his Tátár army, first giving him the robe of honour which in the spring of that year had been sent to him, and showing him the honours due to his rank. He left, however, one of his mirzás with a thousand Tátárs in winter quarters in the vicinity of Alba Julia, or Weissenburg in Siebenbürgen.
The grand vezír himself made his way to Buda, and after the lapse of a week he appointed his son, Mohammed Páshá, to remain in Buda with the Janissaries and the army of Romeili. Lála Mohammed Páshá was sent with the army of Anatolia into winter quarters in Weissenburg. The Beglerbeg of Bosnia was sent with his troops to Usk. The troops of Sivás, of Diárbeker, of Werka, of Haleb, and of Shám, were allowed to return to their respective homes. The artillery and other stores were all deposited in Buda, and after distribution of provision, &c. had been made to the troops, the grand vezír returned to Belgrade.
Before leaving Buda, however, he sent off Rezván Aghá to carry tidings to Constantinople of the fall of Yanuk, which he reached after fourteen days’ travelling. The news of the fall of Yanuk was the cause of great rejoicings in the metropolis, which were demonstrated by the roar of cannon and the firing of musketry. To the Serdár and to the Khán a robe of honour, a sword, and richly ornamented plumes, accompanied by royal letters, were sent to each of these personages; also robes of honour for each of the Beglerbegs and other dignitaries were sent off at the same time.
Concerning the bad management of the Commander-in-chief; his error and failure in some other matters.
There is no evidence from the records of the intendant of the finances what was the actual number of the troops employed in the war in Hungary; he merely states that thirty thousand household troops were sent thither. The army of Romeili was immense. After the death of Soleimán Khán, and before the war commenced in Hungary, the people thirsted for spoil. An army equal to that of Romeili, but destitute of the means of subsistence, was collected in that quarter. A swift, active body of troops, competent for every sort of depredation, and equal to a whole province in number, assembled. The Tátárs alone amounted to more than forty thousand. Such was the vast army the commander-in-chief had under his command: such also was their fitness for contending with the enemy, if properly and wisely directed.
When, however, the pensioned Janissaries entered their trenches, the rest needlessly wasted their time in idleness: when the Khán and other chiefs proposed to commit depredations in the enemy’s territories, they were checked by being asked what advantage would accrue by treading down one province? and yet it is a certain fact, that no power whatever could have stopped the army, especially after the victory gained at Yanuk, from reaching Vienna, had they been properly commanded. When a deputation came from the country about Buda, begging protection against rapine and plunder, they were told, that unless one province fell another could not rise. To this very evident defect and mismanagement in the government of the commander-in-chief is to be attributed chiefly every misfortune which happened to the Moslems. The peasants were made slaves, and villages were ruined. Some of the most powerful of these peasants were roused to seek revenge: five or six hundred of them seized on a palanka, and refused giving it up so long as one of them remained alive. When their villages and hamlets were robbed and plundered, they set fire to them and left them. The mills near Belgrade were taxed. No apology was offered to the Waivodas of Moldavia and Valachia for the heavy injuries done to them, but they were still more oppressed; and when they sent their usual presents they were rejected with disdain, and the bearers of them threatened with death; and this wicked and unreasonable conduct awakened the spirit of rebellion and revolt which afterwards manifested itself in these two provinces, as we shall see.
The Waivoda of Moldavia rebels.
At the time the war broke out in Hungary the Emperor of Austria sent letters to all the Christian chiefs, and even to the Pope, to come and aid him in attacking the followers of Mohammed. The Transylvanians, Valachians, and Moldavians entered with one consent into this confederacy, and commenced hostilities by making inroads on the Mohammedan population dwelling on the banks of the Danube. At this time the Waivoda of Moldavia was one who had been raised to that dignity by Sinán Páshá, but who, when Ferhád was deposed, was also deposed. His office was conferred on a young Moldavian prince who had been educated at Sinán’s expense, and who it was supposed had embraced Mohammedanism. When this young man went to take possession of his new government he was accompanied, according to custom, by a kapújí báshí, whilst a messenger was sent forward to announce his approach. Notwithstanding all this, however, his predecessor inspired him with such terror, that he found himself necessitated to apply for aid to the grand vezír, his patron. This aid was accordingly granted. One Mustafa Páshá, who had been governor of Merœsh, in Asia, was appointed to conduct a body of troops to his assistance: and some military ághás, of whom the grand vezír wished to get rid, were appointed to join this expedition, with two thousand Janissaries also. When this expedition reached the Danube they found it completely frozen, and therefore halted at Rusjuk in order to transport their field-pieces and heavy baggage to Yerkok on the opposite side. Whilst thus employed, and suspecting no danger, they were suddenly fallen upon by an army of infidels, headed by the deposed Waivoda, who slew their leader, a great number of his men, and carried off a number of others prisoners. From this time the rebellion in Moldavia increased day after day.
Concerning the insurrection occasioned by Michael, Waivoda of Valachia.
As the country of Valachia abounded with sheep, cattle, honey, and salt, the merchants and rich men of Constantinople were in the habit of advancing sums of money to every new waivoda on the condition of collecting from the peasantry articles of the above description in return. This practice occasioned frequently great contention. It happened sometimes, when the waivodas did not fulfil their engagements, that those who had advanced them money in the way above described, went and abused and harassed the begs, and created much disturbance. Michael, mentioned at the head of this article, was one of these waivodas who failed to fulfil his promises, and who was therefore one day visited by more than four thousand of this sort of creditors, chiefly Janissaries and principal servants of great men, who profited by this rapacity. They assaulted the waivoda in his own palace, seized upon every thing which fell into their hands, and beat and abused as many of his domestics as chanced to come in their way. This circumstance of violence and mode of assault completely wrought on the mind of the hateful infidel, and led him to the following method of settling with his creditors. He called