Annals of the Turkish Empire, from 1591 to 1659. Mustafa Naima

       A. H. 1000–1070. A.D. 1591–1659.

EVENTS which happened in the Year 1000 of the HIJRAH.

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The Grand Vezír Ferhád Páshá deposed, and the Vezírship conferred on Síávush Páshá.

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      The inhabitants of Erzerúm having earnestly requested, by letters, to be delivered from the oppression and tyranny of the Janissaries, who had been sent among them during the winter, Ferhád Páshá, to put a stop to these complaints, assured them in return that the Janissaries would be recalled to their own odás within the empire. The inhabitants, on receiving this intelligence, were elated: their proud and haughty spirits were roused; and without giving any due time to the Janissaries to prepare for their departure, or without exercising the least degree of patience whatever, and in violation of the Páshá’s letter, they commenced expelling the Janissaries, and loading them with every species of reproach. A tumult ensued. Some of the Janissaries fell by the hands of the inhabitants before the former had sufficient time given them to evacuate the place.

      This treatment, which was wholly occasioned by Ferhád’s letter, awakened the wrath of the Janissaries, and led them to write letters to their own odás and commanders complaining of the author of the maltreatment they had met with. Accordingly the grand vezír, Ferhád Páshá, who knew what he had to fear from the malevolence of the Janissaries, rode boldly up to the Diván on the 20th of Jemadi II., and demanded to know whether the emperor (Sultán Murád Khán III.) had given his consent to the orders sent to the Janissaries at Erzerúm to murder him. The members of the council replied to this imperious demand by immediately commencing an assault on the grand vezír; and it was with no small difficulty that the officers of the vezír succeeded in quieting the tumult and uproar which this circumstance had occasioned. The members of the council, on peace being restored, retired to their respective homes: but the affair was not yet ended; for the emperor was no sooner informed of the disturbance which had taken place in the diván, than he issued a royal mandate requiring an explanation of the cause of it from his minister, Ferhád. The minister, however, found himself inadequate to give a satisfactory answer to the imperial demand; and therefore, instead of giving a fair and candid statement of the whole affair, had recourse, from a defect of judgment, to equivocation. Thinking the matter was now hushed, he proceeded to depose and maltreat the ághá of the Janissaries, Satúrjí Aghá; and appointed the armour-bearer, Khalíl Aghá, in his stead. The very next day, however, the emperor, who had become acquainted with his inconsistent and rash conduct, deposed him, and raised Síávush Páshá a third time to the premiership.

The Militia of Tabríz.

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      The militia of Tabríz, malicious, corrupt, oppressive, and obstinate, and ever skilful in stirring up rebellion, have always been disposed to throw off the authority of their governors. The vezír Ja’fer Páshá, who was this year governor of Tabríz and Azerbáíján, contrived and executed a stratagem against them however, which ought to have taught them ever afterwards to conduct themselves with propriety and good order. It was this: Ja’fer Páshá, under the pretext of being obliged to go and take cognizance of some other garrisons, left Tabríz, having secured a sufficient number of troops from the Kúrd chiefs to come and assault Tabríz. The Tabrízians on learning that an army of Kurds was come to attack them rushed forth to give it battle, but were defeated with the loss of 1,500 of their number. Ja’fer Páshá, on learning the success of the Kurds, joined them with the volunteers under his own command, and commenced a general slaughter of the Tabrízians, and thus punished them most severely for their wickedness and insubordination.

The Muftí Effendí, Bostánzádeh, deposed, and Zekeríá Effendí appointed in his stead.

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      Husain Beg Zádeh says (in his history), that several disgraceful complaints had been lodged with the emperor against the acute poet Bákí Effendí, the military judge of Anatolia. As soon as Bákí Effendí was made acquainted with this fact, and conjecturing that the mufti, in order to get his own brother, cazí of Constantinople, appointed in his room, would be excited to raise an accusation against him; he, with great boldness, raised his voice in the diván and demanded what these Bostáns (the mufti and his brother) wanted with him? The elder of them, he said, was forty years of age, and was not yet able either to repeat or read correctly. None of the decrees, continued he, which he (the mufti) has written are in accordance with those already collected and registered. Would it be just or wise, in order to get Jamús, the mufti’s brother, put into his office, and for which he was unfit, he asked, that complaints should be invented against him? This speech was communicated to the mufti, who was so much nettled that he instantly exhibited two hemistiches from Bákí’s poetical works, which he declared evident blasphemy. A man, he said, who did not keep himself free from that corruption ought by no means to hold any office, sacred or profane. If Bákí, continued he, be not deposed, and not only deposed but prosecuted, he (the mufti) would wander away to the utmost bounds of the empire. Bákí Effendí, seeing the mufti had commenced