Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/466

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HISTORY]
TURKEY
447

for himself and his successors (see Egypt: History; Mahommedan Period). The sultan also acquired from him the sacred banner and other relics of the founder of Islam, which have since been preserved in the Seraglio at Constantinople. Egypt, Syria and the Hejaz, the former empire of the Mamelukes, were added to the Ottoman dominions. Towards the end of Selim's reign the religious revolt of a certain Jellal, who collected 200,000 adherents, was the cause of much trouble; but he was eventually routed and his force dispersed near Tokat. While preparing an expedition against Rhodes to avenge the repulse sustained forty years before by Mahommed II., the sultan died at Orashkeui, near Adrianople, at the spot where he had attacked his father's troops. His reign of eight years had almost doubled the extent of the Turkish dominions.

He was succeeded by his son Suleiman “the Magnificent,” in whose long and eventful reign Turkey attained the highest Suleiman I., 1520–1566. point of her glory. Selim's Asiatic conquests had left his successor free to enter upon a campaign in Europe, after the suppression of a revolt of the governor of Damascus, who had thought to take advantage of the new sultan's accession to restore the independent rule of the Circassian chiefs. In 1521 war was declared against the king of Hungary on the pretext that he had sent no congratulations on Suleiman's accession. Belgrade was besieged and captured, a conquest which Mahommed II. had failed to effect. In the next year an expedition was undertaken against Rhodes, the capture of which had become doubly important since the acquisition of Egypt. The siege, which was finally conducted by the sultan in person, was successful after six months' duration; the forts of Cos and Budrum were also taken. The European war was now renewed; in 1526 the sultan, marching from Belgrade, crossed the Danube and took Peterwardein and Esseg; on the field of Mohács he encountered and defeated the Hungarians under king Louis II., who was killed with the flower of the Hungarian chivalry (see Hungary: History). Budapest hereupon fell to the Turks, who appointed John Zapolya king of Hungary (1528). But the crown of Hungary was claimed by the archduke Ferdinand, brother of the emperor Charles V., as being king Louis's brother-in-law. This brought Turkey into collision with the great emperor. Moreover, Francis I. of France, who had just been defeated by Charles, sent to the sultan ambassadors and messages dwelling on the danger of allowing Charles's power to become too great, and imploring the assistance of Suleiman as the only means of preserving the balance of power in Europe. Meanwhile Ferdinand's troops captured Budapest, driving out Zápolya, who at once appealed to Suleiman for aid. Suleiman decided against Charles, and marched north (1529). Zápolya joined the Turks at Mohács, and a joint attack was made on Budapest. After five days' siege the Austrians were driven out, and Zápolya was reinstated on the throne of Hungary. The Turks then marched on Vienna, which was bombarded and closely invested, but so valiant was the resistance offered that after three weeks the siege was abandoned (Oct. 14, 1529). Suleiman now prepared for a campaign in Germany and sought to measure himself against Charles, who, however, withdrew from his approach, and little was done save to ravage Styria and Slavonia. In 1533 a truce was arranged, Hungary being divided between Zápolya and Ferdinand.

During the Hungarian campaign the Shia sectaries had been encouraged to revolt, and the Persians had overrun Azerbäijän and recaptured Tabriz. Suleiman, therefore, turned his arms against them, reaching Bagdad in 1534, and capturing the whole of Armenia. The naval exploits of Khair-ed-din Pasha (see Barbarossa) are among the glories of the reign, and led to hostilities with Venice. After capturing Algiers, an attack by this famous admiral on Tunis was repulsed with the aid of Spain, but in the Mediterranean he maintained a hotly-contested struggle with Charles's admiral, Andrea Doria. Venice was in alliance with Charles, and her possessions were consequently attacked by Turkey by land and by sea, many islands, including Syra and Tinos, falling before Barbarossa's assaults. Corfu was besieged, but unsuccessfully. At Preveza Barbarossa defeated the papal and Venetian fleets under Doria. In 1540 the fort of Castelnuovo, the strongest point on the Dalmatian coast, was taken by the Venetians and recaptured by Barbarossa. Peace was then made on the terms that Turkey should retain her conquests and Venice should pay an indemnity of 300,000 ducats. Friendly relations had subsisted between Suleiman and Ferdinand during the expedition to Persia; but on the death of Zápolya in 1539 Ferdinand claimed Hungary and besieged Budapest with a large force. Suleiman determined to support the claims of Zápolya's infant son, John Sigismund, and in 1541 set out in person. At the end of August he appeared before Budapest, the siege of which had already been raised by the defeat of the Austrians; the infant John Sigismund was carried into the sultan's camp, and the queen-mother, Isabella, was peremptorily ordered to evacuate the royal palace, though the sultan gave her a diploma in which he swore only to retain Budapest during the minority of her son. On the 2nd of September Suleiman entered the city, and to the ambassadors of Ferdinand, who came to offer a yearly sum if the sultan would recognize his claim to Hungary, he replied that he had taken possession of it by the sword and would negotiate only after the surrender of Gran, Tata, Visegrád and Székesfehérvár. The war now continued vigorously by sea and land. The great expedition of the emperor Charles V. against Algiers ended in failure, his fleet being destroyed by a sudden storm (Oct. 31, 1541); and his diplomatic efforts to wean Barbarossa from his allegiance to the sultan fared no better. In 1542 a formal alliance was concluded between Suleiman and Francis I.; the Ottoman fleet was placed at the disposal of the king of France, and in August 1543, the Turks under Barbarossa, and the French under the duke of Enghien, laid siege to Nice. The town surrendered; but the citadel held out until, on the 8th of September, it was relieved by Andrea Doria. Meanwhile on land Suleiman had taken full advantage of the European situation to tighten his grip on Hungary. The attempt of the imperialists, under Joachim of Brandenburg, to retake Budapest (September 1542), failed ignominiously; and in the following year Suleiman in person conducted a campaign which led to the conquest of Siklós, Gran, Székesfehérvár and Visegrád (1544). Everywhere the churches were turned into mosques; and the greater part of Hungary, divided into twelve sanjaks, became definitively a Turkish province. A truce, on the basis of uti possidetis, signed at Adrianople on the 19th of June 1547 for five years, between the sultan, the emperor and Ferdinand I. king of Hungary, recognized the Turkish conquests in Hungary; while, for the portion left to him, Ferdinand consented to pay an annual tribute of 30,000 ducats. John Sigismund was recognized as independent prince of Transylvania and of sixteen adjacent Hungarian counties, Queen Isabella to act as regent during his minority.

Suleiman was now free to resume operations against Persia. In the spring of 1548 he set out on his eleventh campaign, which ended in the capture of Erzerum (August 16) and the conquest of Armenia and Georgia. But the Persian War dragged on, with varying fortune, for years, till after Suleiman had ravaged Persia it was concluded by the treaty—the first between shah and sultan—signed at Amasia on the 29th of May 1555.

Meanwhile the war in Hungary had been resumed. Neither side had been careful to observe the terms of the treaty of 1547; the Turkish pashas in Hungary had raided Ferdinand's dominions, while Ferdinand had been negotiating with Frater Geörgy (see Martinuzzi) with a view to freeing Transylvania from the Ottoman suzerainty. When the sultan discovered that Martinuzzi, who was all-powerful in Transylvania, had actually arranged to hand over the country to Ferdinand, he threw the Austrian ambassador into prison, and in September 1551 sent an army, 80,000 strong, under Mahommed Sokolli over the Danube. Several forts, and the important town of Lippa on the Marosch, fell at once, and siege was laid to Temesvár. This was raised after two months, and Martinuzzi took