Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened/Chapter XV
CHAPTER XV.
THE GREATEST EXTENT OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE.
1. Diversions of the Designs of Turkish Ambition. Four centuries ago the powers of Europe were summoned to solemn meetings to take counsel for the expulsion of the Turk from Europe, but they could not come to an agreement before some internal events turned the Turkish ambition from the west to the east, from the shores of the Adriatic to the defiles of Armenia, and from the banks of the Danube to the plains of Egypt.
The reign of Sultan Bayazit, the son and successor of Mohamet the conqueror of Constantinople, was greatly disturbed by the rebellion of his brother, who effectually contended for the throne. After a long civil war, being driven to extremity, the prince placed himself under the protection of the Knights of Rhodes, who sent him to France, from whence he was sent to Italy and kept as a prisoner of State in the Vatican. He there served as a hostage for the good conduct of the Sultan, since, in case the latter should become aggressive toward the Christian nations, the captive might be let loose against him as a competitor.
The janissaries, on the other hand, haughty and powerful, were a constant cause of anxiety to the Sultan, and even bribes failed to keep them in subjection to their unfavored master. They made the revolt of his youngest son Selim a success, not only in forcing Bayazit to abdicate and leave the capital, but hastening his death while yet on the road to his place of exile. The military spirit and ability of the new Sultan made him a favorite with the janissaries, while his religious frenzy and severity rendered him acceptable to the more bigoted Moslems.
2. Possession of the Islamic Caliphate. Soon after getting to the throne Sultan Selim, surnamed Cruel, turned his armies eastward, and after reducing Armenia and Mesopotamia conducted a successful war in Persia against Shah Ismael, another Mohametan ruler in the east. Persians and Turks, both of the same faith, had a severe religious dispute among themselves in regard to the legitimacy of the first three caliphs, the successors of the Prophet Mohamet. The Persian Moslem rejected them as usurpers, and began to count the true succession with the fourth caliph, Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet. On entering upon his eastern campaign Sultan Selim proclaimed it to be a religious war, and the legal decree of the Turkish mufties "that there was more religious merit in killing one Persian than in shedding the blood of seventy Christians," strengthened the Turkish fanaticism against their co-religionists.
The fiery Sultan, at the head of a victorious army, next invaded Syria and Egypt, and added those vast and valuable territories to his possessions. The conqueror showed his bloody disposition the day after the surrender of Cairo by causing the Egyptian governor to be executed at one of its gates and the 30,000 captives slaughtered in his presence and thrown into the Nile. El Mutevekkil, the last Mohametan caliph in Egypt, was deposed from his rank as the spiritual head of Islam and the Turkish Sultan was clothed with the dignity by the sheriff of Mecca, who consigned the keys of the Kabeh to his hand. Sultan Selim consequently added to his other titles that of "the Caliph of Moslems, and the Shadow of Allah Upon the Earth, and the Defender of the Two Holy Cities (Mecca and Medina)." After this victory he returned to Constantinople with the plunder of Egypt, which required a train of a thousand camels to carry. His suceessors have since been regarded as the supreme chief of the Moslem world and the Commander of the Faithful.
3. The Turks at the Gate of Vienna. The reign of Sultan Soliman (1520–1566)was the most memorable in the history of the empire when it reached its climax, which was never afterwards surpassed. Three years after the conquest of Belgrade and Rhodes the first French Ambassador appeared at the Turkish Court. The envoy came apparently to negotiate a general commercial treaty, but really to procure a powerful ally for his master Francis I. against the German Emperor Charles V. The division of Christendom into Romanism and Protestantism had commenced, and the anxiety to gain predominance led the unwise monarchs to avail themselves of the services of this mighty Mohametan State.
Sultan Soliman, according to his word with the French king to carry a campaign beyond the Danube and divert the attention and the arms of the Austrian house, crossed the said river at the head of 100,000 men with 300 pieces of artillery. The day after the terrible "Destruction of Mahoc" in Hungary the Sultan received in state the compliments of his officers, when the heads of 2,000 of the slain, including those of seven bishops, were piled up as a trophy before his pavilion. At the approach of winter Soliman returned to Constantinople laden with booty and many captives, leaving an impoverished and depopulated country to be contended for by rival pretenders to the throne.
The next summer the Turkish army, upwards of 200,000 strong, advanced in the direction of Vienna, capturing castles and towns and devasting the country, till from the walls of the Austrian capital the gloomy light of burning villages were seen round half the horizon. The Turks reached Vienna and the siege immediately commenced, but notwithstanding the numerical inferiority of the garrison they were repulsed at every assault and suffered severely from the sallies. Being discouraged, the Turks prepared for an effective and last attack, the walls around the city and all breaches were re-examined by the Sultan and his grand vizier, and immense sums of money were distributed among the soldiers. Enthused by these means a general assault was ordered on the 14th day of October, 1529, but such was the desperate valor of the defenders that the Turks were foiled in every effort. Owing to the advance of the season and the absence of provisions the troops were discontent and it became necessary to raise the siege.
4. Greatest Extent of the Empire. The Ottoman Turks, once a petty tribe of unsettled wanderers, without an acre of soil they could call their own, had now become, in little more than three centuries, great among the European nations, occasionally endangering their independence, civilization and religion. They possessed the most favored climate of the earth and the most fertile soil; a seaboard abounding in convenient roads and harbors; an archipelago offering facilities to commerce; straits the most impassable to him who has not the key or who is not on friendly terms with the owner, and a capital adapted by its geographical position to become the center of a dominion extending to three continents. They were masters of countries the most interesting from their sacred, classic and historical associations; the scenes where patriarchs pitched their tents and prophets delivered their oracles, and the soil on which the Savior of the World was born and where apostles first proclaimed the gospel of salvation.
Their empire included in Europe Roumelia, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Thessalia, Greece and greater part of Hungary; in Asia all Asia Minor, Armenia, Georgia, Daghistan, Kurdistan, Mesopotamia, Syria, Cyprus and the chief part of Arabia; in Africa Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers; while the khanate of Crimea, the principalities of Valachia and Moldavia and Transylvania, with the republic of Raguza, were vassal states. Also diplomatic and commercial relations subsisted between the Porte and the leading powers of Christendom.
5. Decline and Its Causes. Though the Turks benefited by the political disadvantages of the surrounding nations, and encouraged by the mutual jealousy and selfishness of the so-called Christian powers had made themselves a name and built up a colossal power, they were destitute of the qualities which alone give honor to greatness and can secure permanence to success. The discipline of the seraglio (Turkish palace) was fatal to a succession of able rulers. The princes of blood, confined within its walls and separated from general society, deprived of every honorable ambition, with eunuchs for their teachers and slaves for their companions, resigned themselves to guilty pleasures to dissipate the tedium of such an existence, and were only fitted, if raised to the throne, to act the part of timid puppets or unmanly tyrants.
The genius of Mohametanism, by the vain claims of superiority and its stern fatalism, contributed much to retain the Turks in a stationary condition, which necessarily became one of increasing inferiority in comparison with the other nations of Europe. Educated in a creed which confines the intellect to the Koran and inspires sovereign contempt for nations, arts and institutions without the pale of Islam, resigned to the belief that all events happen by inevitable necessity, an arrest was laid upon intellectual cultivation.
The essentially military constitution of the empire also insured its decay. History continually repeats the lesson that power founded by the sword and depending merely upon the sword for its maintenance can never be firm and permanent. The Turks were formidable so long s they could reap a harvest of plunder from the states and countries around them, but when a stop was put to their career of conquest by the increased power of their neighbors and they had to act upon the defensive the deficiency of their own resources was soon apparent, and would ere this have been blotted irreparably from the list of European kingdoms but for the intervention of selfish interests.
