J.C.1336, entered all the places that fell in their way,

to 1360.

to 761.

Orcan's

fons con

reft of

Heg. 736, fhowing every where more cruelty even than valour, maffacring unmercifully all thofe that did not furrender at the firft onfet. This manner of quer the making war, unknown in Europe, terrified the whole country. The European warriors prided themselves on their generofity to the vanquished. The Greeks efpecially made a point of regarding men's lives; they punished crimes only by mutilations. What then must have been their terror, when they were attacked by barbarians, who took pleasure in destroying them, and whofe ferocity feemed to augment with the facility that they found to fatiate it? At first the unhappy inhabitants of the Greek empire fhut themselves up in the ftrong towns, which ferved them but a fhort time for an asylum, after which they fled into Italy, and spread themselves over the other parts of Europe, where they carried with them their taste for the sciences and the fine arts.

Notwithstanding his ferocity, Amurath fought fubjects; he repaffed the sea on the approach of autumn, carrying with him into Afia more flaves than foldiers. He defigned them to repeople the countries which his forefathers had laid waste. But defpotifm, ftill more deftructive than a momentaneous ferocity, has rendered all thefe tranfmigrations useless. The Ottoman provinces always appear like countries defolated: the Arabians overrun with impunity thofe of Afia, fetting

to 1360.

to 761.

fetting a ranfom upon the travellers and caravans. J.C.1336, The opulent cities of Athens, Sparta, Ephefus, Heg. 736, Antioch, and many others, are eclipsed by their paffed fplendor: the rubbish of their sumptuous buildings fills up their ground plot: these are miserable habitations, built on one fide of those ruins which bear their famous names.

Meanwhile, Solyman laid fiege to Adrianople, which he made himself mafter of at the end of nine months, in 1360.

Solyman,

can his

Whilft this young prince was thinking only Death of of increasing his heritage and glory, an accident and of Orcut the thread of his life. As he was exercifing father. his cavalry at the long bow in the plains of Adrianople, an unruly horse ran away with him, and having run against a large tree, Solyman was crushed with the blow, and expired immediately. His father, Orcan, grieved to the very heart at this lofs, furvived him but two months; he died at the age of feventy, after a reign of thirty-five years. This prince owed his greatest fucceffes to his fon Solyman, whom he had taught to vanquifh and to deceive like himself. Fraud and cruelty compofed all his policy, which was fufficient against enemies timid and divided. Under Orcan, the Turkish state took a new force; its future grandeur might easily be foreseen by the progrefs that it had already made. Orcan eftablished in his dominions more order than could be expected from an unjust prince and a barbarous

people;

J.C.1360, people; but the worst hearts are willing to have

to 1389..

Heg. 761, thofe they govern juft; they know that no fociety can fubfift without it. The fultan was interred

to 791.

at Burfa in the year 1360 of Jefus Chrift, 761 of the Hegira.

Amurath 1. marries

cefs of Ser

feveral

princes, &

Timars.

A MURATH I.

THIRD REIGN.

AMURATH was forty one years old when the prin- his father left him the fceptre. In order to via. He impofe on the people, he affected an exterior fubjugates piety, and took a Perfian furname, which figGreek nifies, fent from God. He fixed his refidence founds the at Adrianople as foon as he began his reign; but he was hardly established there, before he was obliged to repafs into Afia to quell a fedition. Hiftory does not name, either the feditious, or the place of their affembly. All that we know is, that some bashaws, believing Amurath too much occupied with his conquefts in Europe to be able to think of maintaining his power in Afia, attempted to shake off the yoke; that the fultan, who had juft concluded a treaty with the Greek emperor, John Paleologus, paffed the ftraits of Gallipoli, marched against the rebels, vanquished and difperfed them in a fingle battle. The ful

tan

to 791.

tan foon returned to Europe, where, according J.C. 1360, to 1389. to Calcondilus, he flew on the wings of love. Heg. 761, The fecond year of his reign he took the town of Phera* from the Triballians,† who had taken it themselves from the Greek emperor; he then attacked the defpot of Servia, but was fo favorable to this feeble enemy, as to fpare his troops, and even his country, on condition of his giving his daughter in marriage to the vanquifher. Amurath certainly had never seen this princefs, for in that age, the Greek women were nearly as much fequeftered as the Mahometan ones. If Amurath purchased the hand of the princess of Servia at the price of a province, it was without doubt on the reputation of her beauty. Moreover, Amurath was certain of conquering Servia the firft moment he should take the pains to enter it. He reduced fome Mifian and Triballian defpots; he impofed even perfonal taxes on those of their subjects who perfifted in Christianity; but those who had borne arms, and would become Muffulmen, were enrolled among the fpahis. The fultan diftributed lands to fome others, on condition of their entertaining during a war a horfe and fome foldiers proportionably to the value of their poffeffion. In this manner he attached them to his fervice by favors, which he could deprive them of at èvery inftant,

E

* Phera was on the frontiers of Macedonia, on the borders of Servia, and ferved as a rampart to that province.

People of Bulgaria and Servia.

J.C.1360, ftant, and that were to pafs to their eldest fon,

to 1389.

to 791.

Heg. 761, only on the fame condition: even at this day, thefe military benefices, called timars, given by Amurath I. or by his fucceffors, are fo in the hands of the prince, that a timarian is as much afraid of losing the inheritance that he poffeffes, whether from his father or the emperor, as if it were a daily pay which the leaft difcontent or caprice could take from him.

/He eftablishes the

Amurath paid ftill more attention to his janiffaries. infantry, which he justly regarded as the principal force of armies. He established the corps of janiffaries as we fee it at this day: and, by the advice of Kara Ali his grand vizier, he ordered, that the fifth part of the slaves that should be made from the enemy, (for the Turks call their prisoners of war by no other name,) fhould belong to the fultan, and that these foreigners, having embraced Iflamifm,* fhould form a new corps, which Amurath fixed at ten thousand men, but it was afterwards considerably augmented. He divided them into odas or chambers, at the head of which he appointed

particular

* The Turkish emperors regard all those that become Muffulmen as fubjects. Submiffion to the Alcoran implies always the privilege of natu ralization. A renegade is fometimes prime minifter of the empire. There is no other rank in Turkey than that of employments, and every Musulman, without distinction, is capable of being appointed. The flaves taken in war, or given by tributary nations, if they are brought up from infancy in the Muffulman religion, or in military discipline, either in the seraglio or in fome oda, are much furer of fuoceeding to high employs, than the inhabitants of towns.